My view

From my back patio the view is the golf course. If you are imagining lush lawns, think desert. The only green I see is the tee (look by the cactus outside the fence). However, it has provided insightful entertainment. I'll put a writer's spin on it, if I can.

Some people love golf so much that they play in the rain, yes, they swing metal rods around while it is lightening. Real writers have passion and will do whatever it takes to get time to write.

Some people wear brightly colored knickers and matching golf shirt. Real writers know it isn't the laptop that is going to make a story good.

Some people have a horrendous swing, but the ball gets to the green. Some people have a knack for writing.

Some people swing like they practice a lot and have had lessons from the pro shop. Some people work at their craft to produce the best written work possible, including taking lessons.

There isn't any way to tell before the ball is hit who is going to drive it into a nearby house, sometimes a window. (Always be ready to take cover.) Most writers know that there is always someone looking to make money on writers, rather than on writing and you can't always tell how good their info is until it flies into a wall. Don't be a dope.

Some people drive quickly past the tee and eventually circle back through the desert. Beginning writers often think they are done when the first draft is finished. There is no excaping rewrites. Everyone does them, and lots of them.

Once in a while someone walks the course. (You write this one.)

Almost everyone looks like Fred Flinstone in their golf cart. Don't be full of yourself. So, you're a writer? Prove it!

Mid-list

What is a mid-list book? In fiction, according to me, the list works like this: Best selling authors on one end of the list (top) and classics (old and new) on the other end. The stuff in the middle is mid-list.

Everyone starts mid-list. Everyone.

The book and the author [each] have to prove themselves from there. No one knows for certain if a book will take off. Adapting a screenplay from a book doesn't guarantee that either the movie or book will be a success. A celebrity or political figure can be photographed reading a particular. Still it is the regular people who read a mid-list book and love it, tell their friends and they love it. Suddenly sales rise and the book gets noticed - and other good things happen.

Sometimes a well known author will have a really bad book. (Well they can't all be best sellers!). What do they do? They grin or laugh about it and write another book.

There comes a time in the writing process when the story gets old (it has been through a dozen rewrites and read-throughs) and confidence lags. I've spent one weekend cutting 5,000 words from Kathryn's Beach because it all looked bad to me.

The giddiness and self-indulgence of the early draft writing days turns to a seasoned writer, an author. Like any artist, then they can see the true beauty of their work.

Salt of the Earth

When my grandfather said someone was the "Salt of the Earth" it was a sincere compliment. I'm pretty sure saying something is the "Meat and Potatoes" of it, is also from that era.

Glynis Smy is one of my favorite bloggers. There are tons of blogs by aspiring writers. Many of them I find boring. But Glynis' blog is unpretentious thoughts and questions of an aspiring writer. I love reading her blog.

While there are many people near and dear to me, I have to say that Glynis is one who is always supportive of my antics - and loves me anyway.

I think it is wonderful that Glynis has opened the door to the experience of writing in first person. I often speak of first person writing as an actor getting into character, for it is just that, experiential. It is on a level that I find hard to describe to someone who hasn't written in first person. It is sensual. I think it is a risk [worth taken] to examine the character from such a personal level.

While readers take a bit to adjust to the style, I think the writer/reader connection is greater. There is less emotional distance, less safety in being so exposed. But I think the experience for the writer and the reader is well worth the risk. Why the industry clings so tight fisted to third person, I cannot understand. Go for it, Glynis. I believe in you!

The meat and potatoes award is posted on the side bar. Please visit (and follow) Glynis' blog. http://www.glynissmy.com/2010/06/meat-and-potatoes.html

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

I can see the headlines now, writer haunted by unfinished manuscript goes crazy on I-17! I don't know what it is with me and Red Planet Revolt. No matter what I'm doing, something about that book comes up.

I was driving down I-17 the other day, windows open (significant because it is usually too hot for that at this time of year), just watching the madness that occurs near the Durango Curve, minding my own business, trying not to be run over by someone in a vehicle larger than mine (which is almost everyone), and there is that story going around in my mind - relentless.

If you're a fan of personification, that ms could have been sitting in the passenger seat just talking itself blue in the face. If I had a tape recorder handy, I could have dictated the whole manuscript right then and there.

The thing is, that is not the ms I'm working on, nor is it the one I'm supposed to be working on.

Today I went online to check my email, which I do about four times a day. There it is on the opening screen of AOL (America On Line), yep as big as life - a science article that fits perfectly with the gum drop shaped aliens from the red planet.

http://news.aol.com/article/humans-glow/584160?icid=main

I think I'll go to Prescott next week to hide from this Red Planet Revolt ms and write on Act Like You Mean It, like I'm suppose to be doing.

All that Jazz!

There are some movies that I think should be viewed again and again, they are just that good. Chicago is one of them. Great dancing. You can't beat the gangster years in Shy Town for a setting. Costume makers have a field day. And -- all that jazz!

Most writers are diehard readers. I do a lot of reading, but mostly business related. Movies, that's my thing. Everyone craves stories and since I was a functional illiterate for a long time, I turned to movies to satisfy that need.

Back to the movie, Chicago. Have you ever noticed how Renee Zellweger purses her mouth, squints her eyes, and her nose turns pink like she is about to cry? And they don't switch the camera shot, so it seems to me that somehow she does that pink nose thing for real.

I study film. I look at props, how long prior to the realization of their importance was the prop introduced by a simple gesture or even a camera shot. I run the film slow (sometimes a frame at a time) forward and backward during key scenes, scenes with emotions I want to learn to capture in words. I freeze the screen at the precise moment the emotion is launched and there is no option for the viewer, other than being hooked.

I study certain actors, watch the flick of their eyes or the turn of the corner of their mouth with the sound off and the closed captions on. I pull another film with the same emotion and watch how another actor (and director) capture it. Then I close my eyes and imagine a scene and begin to type, just like Jamal did with Mr. Forrester in Finding Forrester, straight through, no rewrites, no edits - eyes closed, typing as the scene plays out in my mind.

I don't know if that is normal or just my dyslexic way of doing things. As in the Hunt for Red October, "There is no going back," move the story forward -edit when the draft is finished.

Goodness, I just put myself in a writing mood. See ya later - and all. that. Jaaaaaaaazz!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRVeOuJSIpo

DemYStifying dyslexia [DYS-ing my dyslexia]

Let's make this easy, so we can sit back and enjoy our time together. There are tons of 'types' of dyslexia. The easiest (and unscientific) way to explain mine to 'normal' people is to say that written English is my second language. Keep in mind, American English is the only language I've ever spoken.

The person who tanked in foreign language class likely did so because they thought in their primary language, then translated into the language they were learning. Of course, the trick is to think in the second language.

With me, I think in my first language (dyslexia) and translate into WRITTEN English when I write. To read, I translate written English into my first language, then into spoken English. As you can see, it is a bit easier for me to write than to read, because there is one less translation in the process.

The reason I titled this blog FIRST DRAFT is because it is what it is. I'll do my best. If my errors are annoying, this isn't the blog for you. If they are laughable, then come get some stress relief at my expense.

Next: a word about writing fiction. Fiction is lies, all lies. Fiction writers hope they are believable lies, but fiction isn't true. (And neither is anything I write about people in this blog.) As a writer, I tend to exaggerate and go for the dramatic punch line to make my point. Other times, I will 'sincerely' propose the opposite of what I believe or something outrageously stupid to make my reader think.

I've written three [very popular] novels, so 'handicapped' is a relative term. Let's don't let 'handicaps' define people.

Look what I saw after I wrote this blog: http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20090403/ts_usnews/how1autisticyoungmanrunsabusiness