iGoogle for Ideas & Reference

One tool that I use everyday has proven invaluable to my writing. It also has value in other areas, but for the purpose of this post, I will address iGoogle for writers. If you are not aware of iGoogle, it would behoove you to change that.

iGoogle allows you to personalize your information searches. You can gather, track and monitor all areas of interest, and all in one place, on one page. You add widgets or modules to a certain tab, which you can also create. I have a writing tab where I place all modules concerning writing. This saves a great deal of time if you surf the net searching for certain information needed to complete your writing project. If there are certain sites you visit frequently, check to see if they have a widget you can place on your iGoogle page.

You also have the power to rearrange, by clicking and dragging, all the widgets under any given tab, and also drop it to another tab, and by clicking a plus or minus, you may choose whether you want their content opened on the page, or closed as a title bar.

My only complaint is that they made a recent change in the location of the tabs--to vertically on the left, which doesn't work for me, so i use the Canada version of iGoogle, which works like the old one. I have heard from different sources that iGoogle is working on making all those formatting choices available so the user can have the layout however desired.

I currently have 9 different tabs in my iGoogle page, and I use them all everyday.

One word of warning: once you see how iGoogle will streamline your writing day, you run the risk of developing an addiction to it.

iGoogle for Ideas & Reference

Mapping your Settings

I have always been a stickler about authentic detail in my writing. This trait has forced me to find innovative ways to make that happen. Google Maps is one of those tools I use.

Novelists have to deal with many details while composing their books. One of the most challenging, if you are concerned about verisimilitude--an air of authenticity--is setting. Many times i have set my story in a place I've never been. Then, as the story evolves, i find that the logistics of moving characters around becomes problematic, because I'm not sure where one location is, in relation to another. Nor if that type of location, business, landscape even exists. With today's constantly improving technology, you can now provide the credible details in your settings by using Google Maps. A personalized Google Map solves the writer's problem.

Google Maps is often used by travelers to get driving directions, but it can also be used in the virtual reality of the novel you are writing. Google has a "my maps" feature, where you can save a certain map, and then add your own icons and flags. I use this to keep track of the places my characters go, live, work and interact in any way. If you type in a street address, it will place a marker on that spot. You can then save that marker to your own map, and then you can re-label it, and change the icon if you want.

For instance, i use the house icon to indicate where my characters live, the food icon for restaurants they go to, and so on. The satellite feature allows you to see real terrain. Recently this came in handy when I had a character parked by tennis courts and needed to know where the hedges and bushes were in relation to the story. The zooming feature, whether in satellite mode or map mode, is also handy in seeing detail and putting your setting together in your mind. With the added features of zooming and using the satellite feature, you have at your fingertips a window into the world in which you have placed your characters. It also seems to help create flow, in that writer's block has a hard time getting a foothold when you have all this information that provides inspiration where it might not have appeared otherwise. And you also decrease the likelihood of losing credibility when you have your characters do things the reader knows is impossible.

Mapping your Settings

Writer's Block UNblocked.

Most writers eventually ask the question: "I'm really stuck with the plot/storyline of my novel. Do you know of something that will help me?"

Here's a list of things you can do to get unstuck.

1. Research. One thing that has always worked for me is new information. Do some reading about elements of your story. I'm not talking about style--I'm talking about research. For instance, read information about the city in which you've placed the story. Location can often become somewhat of a character in its own right. Read about any of the other elements in the story--like the professions of the characters, the interests of the characters, etc. Google is extraordinary help in this. If you actually live in the same area as your setting, go on an excursion to new places, or to the places your characters go to. Take your notebook, laptop or Alphasmart (love my Alphasmart!) and take notes about what's around you; eavesdrop on conversations. Strike up a conversation with a stranger. Inspiration is likely to hit.

2. Also, check your notes collection. (I'm sure you have one) and something you jotted down before might come in handy. It could be a simple character sketch, a certain dog or cat, a memory, a dream, a snippet of dialogue....the point is, you need to feed that well in your mind. If the thing you're trying to bake is not coming together, it's usually the ingredients. Add something, take something away. Utilize your store of ideas that are just gathering electronic dust.

3. Get out of the way. The concept of putting it aside is really about getting out of the way long enough for things to percolate in your mind. Often, I work on 3 or more books at a time, because when i hit a snag, I can work on something else. I usually know each morning which book to work on by which one is niggling at me while i make coffee.

4. Try mind-mapping.
I have a large blank-paper desk pad on my desk. I use it to connect ideas and concepts in various ways. This method takes advantage of how our brains really think, and so it often opens up other ideas.

You simply put down your main elements, whether character, plot, location, etc, and then branch off from those central ideas. You can color code these circles and squares according to any criteria you need. Doing this will often reveal connections you didn't see before because this method basically takes the machinations of your brain and spills them onto paper so you can make sense of it. You might have to use several sheets to get it all figured out, but each time you do that, you come closer to figuring out the elements of your story and finding the place where it got stuck.

5. A Think-Through before sleep. I always give my story a complete think-through before going to sleep, and keep my AlphaSmart (or your chosen writing instrument) by the bed. Often, I will dream something to help me, or I will wake up with a whole new idea.

6. Merging Ideas. Another trick I've used to great success is to take a piece from other story you started and didn't finish--even if it's just an idea of a few pages, and MERGE that idea with the one you're stuck on. It can create some interesting plot and character dynamics and open the story up for you. I did this with my book Plethora, and it solved all the problems and got the story to flow all the way to the finish line.

7. Introduce a new character. If you have a minor character you've mentioned or not developed fully, think of ways you can do that, and often the introduction of a fuller character will provide the conflict, personalities, challenges needed to move your story forward.

8. Talk to other writers. I need more of this myself, but it's often hard to find other writers. You'll probably have to rely on the Internet again for that one. There are many writing sites and clubs. I even had one I'm thinking of resurrecting. I was going to wait until I relocated, and do it as a local thing, but i might do an online version as well and merge the two. My writer's club is Kindred Ink Writer's Initiative. (KIWI). ** Watch my sites for announcements. mmm. Now I'm inspired. I think i will resurrect KIWI. Anyway, good luck and let me know if my tips have helped you.

Hopefully these tips will help those with Writers Block, get unblocked.
I encourage responses and additions to these tips. Just post a comment below.

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**and here is the writing site: Kindred Ink Writers Initiative

Writer's Block UNblocked.

What literary Character am I? (test)

Your result for The Literary Character Test...

Sherlock Holmes

Good, Epic, Side Thinker

Sherlock Holmes is the brilliant mastermind whose undoubted prowess in the feild of forensics have entertained the world for decades. He is decidedly good in his actions, and his methodical thinking accents his ability, making him all the better at what he does. His ability to overcome any foe, and understand any crime is what makes him so well known, and it appears he will never fail.

Take The Literary Character Test at HelloQuizzy

What literary Character am I? (test)

The Benefits of Well-Feeding

Though i have had moments--and those moments often stretched into days and weeks and sometimes months--of a Dry Writing Well...I should never allow myself to worry about it too actively. I always reach a point where my well is filled again, to overflowing, and i feel that handling the burgeoning water of writing would require me to clone myself. Complete with an inflatable raft.

Like now. After finishing my 13th book, I fell into one of those dry wells, and even worried about it. Yet, here i am with 8 or 9 new books yanking at my head, and I can't seem to focus on any one long enough to finish it because they all have a voice and they are all talking at the same time. Here's a list of those books clamoring for my attention:

1. Supernatural Hypocrisy: The Cognitive Dissonance of God Cosmology
My very personal, yet timely examination of what i believe, how that's changed, and why. This one is already about 500 pages, and that's after i removed half of the content. Now there are at least two more books stemming from that cut material.

2. Somewhere Else- A novel about a walk-in, which explores some esoteric spiritual themes, with generous servings of humor.

3. Another Justice (novel version)-based on my screenplay of the same name, about the violation of a gay woman, and her flirtation with vigilantism and the ethical questions it inspires.

4. Random Act of Blindness (novel version)-an erotic lesbian tale that seeks to eloquently offer multidimensional meat to the this often superficial genre; characters a reader can truly invest in and care about.

5. Quintessence -this began as a short story, then became a novella, and now I am expanding it to novel-length. It entails the adventure of a young synesthete, as he finds himself in an alternate reality, but one of his own. Explores many of our new cosmological and Quantum physics and mechanics-based ideas.

6. The Misadventures of No One Famous (memoir)-this was originally written during a time in my past when i became homeless and crippled and I lived in my van, and typed this manuscript to keep myself from going crazy.

7. Be Your Own Best Editor: Proofing, Revision and Formatting in MS Word- I have learned quite a lot about the craft of writing in the last 10 years, to include the skills of formatting, editing, and typography, using Word. In this, i share those tips and insights.

8. Alliteration of Idiots: The Triumvirate of Ruin is Religion, Greed, and Ignorance
--an offshoot of the above mentioned "Supernatural Hypocrisy."

9. Cosmology leftovers--people, human nature relationships etc., that i couldn't' fit into SH

10. ISO, part 2-as yet unnamed. Dating, relationships and sex in the lesbian culture.

11. Super Futuristic: Changing the Future, One Idea at a Time- a collection i hope will develop from one of my website/blogs in which regular people think-tank their way through this society's problems.

I have been reading voraciously, and my well is overflowing. It's hard to choose each morning, which project i will work on. This is usually determined by what is on my mind when i wake up, and what I am jotting notes about before i even get out of bed.

So, i would say to any of you who suffer from writer's block--the solution is probably about inundating your consciousness with outside materials and research, talking about it with other thoughtful people as often as you can.

The Benefits of Well-Feeding

BIG NEWS!!!

I was just offered a publishing contract for my novel, Plethora.

I'm excited. All that hard work paid off!

Details pending.

(I still await word from another publisher about a different book.)

BIG NEWS!!!

My Beginnings

In my readings about writing, I came across several good points about how the beginning of your book is often the most important part--at least, if you intend to grab the attention of an editor, publisher or agent. I wondered what all my beginnings really looked like...and so I gathered them here for kicks. Would these beginnings make you, as a reader, want to keep reading? I welcome all comments.

My beginnings....
The openings (first sentences/paragraphs) of my books.




"Sully's, on South Prospect, was the quintessential biker-bar, complete with hefty, leather-clad Harley worshippers, and stringy-haired heroin-addicted women who made the rounds among the bikers. Its décor was decidedly Medieval Garage Sale, with a dose of Americana thrown in. An old motorcycle carcass dangled from the vaulted section of the beamed ceiling, and the wood plank floors were littered with butts, scarred by bottle caps and splattered with homogenized bodily fluids. The only light to be had was from neon, dying sconces, and lit cigarettes. Various medieval swords perched on each wall, reminiscent of the times of Beowulf and Fire Dragons on the Barrow." ~Achilles Forjan

~

"Early September rain slanted onto his shoulders as he stepped off the bus in Colorado Springs. Today, he would be returning to the house his mother left him. His lawyer had arranged the house to be rented until his release, so unlike most ex-cons, he wouldn't be checking into the YMCA. To-morrow, he'd go visit his cousin, who had promised him a job on his construction crew. The next day, he'd begin his surveillance on the cop. He believed the adage that revenge was a dish best served cold. He'd had five long years to think about it, and now that he was here, he wanted to focus on ways to serve that dish." ~Another Justice

~

"While throwing the paper in the paved, pristine driveway, I glanced up and saw the ghostly vestige moving away from the tiny garden. The vision circled the wrought-iron bench and moved fluidly across the lawn toward my Falcon. The filmy fabric of her white peignoir billowed along behind her. She bent to retrieve yesterday's newspaper, and I was immediately taken with her beauty, though shadows and shy moonlight hid the woman's features; that kind of beauty needed no illumination to be obvious." ~ Armchair Detective

~

"Blue Spruce shouldered clumps of unsullied snow along the icy driveway leading to the secluded brick and cedar house atop Red Mountain. The dream faded, as the dreamer began the process of lifting heavy lids. Eyes focusing, she saw the blond woman standing over her in an apron blotted with a myriad of colors, liberated from the twisted tubes onto her palette. She reached out with the camel hair brush and dotted her lover's nose with Cadmium red." ~As You Were

~

"Ignorance really is bliss, sometimes. She had been blissful these last few months, enjoying the company of a man who reminded her how lonely she'd been. It didn't hurt that he was also handsome, charming and stinking rich." ~ Baggage

~

"I have always been a seeker. I am forever trying to find where I fit in the world, and though I've made great strides in that regard, I have come to a crossroads (pardon the cliché). My beliefs about religion, spirituality and all things related have been sorely tested and now I have embarked on a quest for answers. I spend a good deal of time studying about it, and this book is about that personal journey." ~Supernatural Hypocrisy: The Cognitive Dissonance of a God Cosmology

~

"Any Lesbian who is currently single knows that it's often a great deal less romantic to be unattached than the media would have us believe. Many of us would love to hang out with the kinds of women we see on the L-Word, yet in the Lesbian Community, this is often not an option. Sophisticated, feminine lesbians are simply not the norm, overall. Most of the actresses who play those roles are in fact, heterosexual. I have frequently been chagrined by this. In all of Hollywood, they could not find a cast of feminine, sophisticated lesbians to play those roles? In this case, it seems that art does not imitate life. It warrants consideration." ~ISO (In Search Of): The Art of Dating, Relationships, & Sex for the Discerning Lesbian

~

"Micah believed wholeheartedly in the law of Karma, which, when you peel away the spiritual dogma, is merely the scientific law of cause and effect. This was why she could not make sense of the insipid morass of misfortune that her life had become. The degree of bad luck seemed to suggest that she had perpetrated some atrocity against humanity. Yet she felt wholly victimized. All she had done was try to kick her life into gear. She had become lazy and without direction. She had become fat. She was drifting on a sea of whateverness." ~ Plethora

~

"If you push your luck, expect it to push back. That's what my Grandma Beasley used to say. And she was right. I had it illustrated to me ten days ago, and again on this frigid October night in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas." ~Quintessence









"If I still like dick, does that mean I cannot be a lesbian? Rachel struggled with that question. She shifted the Jaguar, relishing the feel of the gear knob in her hand, and imagined how it would feel inside her. Was the only discerning element strictly about who the dick was attached to? To WHOM the dick was attached, she corrected herself. Damn. Even in her erotic musings, she could not deny the academic portions of her identity. " ~ A Random Act of Blindness

~

"Cornelius paused with vermilion loaded up on his brush, about to make a bold swath across the canvas, when he noticed Daelah. Placing the loaded brush in his teeth, he reached down and readjusted the position of his wheelchair so he could see her better. At the end of the long corridor leading to the kitchen, she stood at the foot of the stairs, looking up at the ceiling, and down at her hands, and touching her own face." ~ Somewhere Else

My Beginnings

Random Act of Fiction

The book I am working on now is an expansion project. Random Act of Blindness began as a short story for an erotic publication, grew into a novella, and now, I am expanding it to a full-length novel. This project is dear to me because I am trying to do something that I don't think happens very much in the genre: making a truly erotic story rich with all the elements of any other good novel.

I have always wondered why erotica seems to be sequestered in a dark corner, like a misbehaving red-headed step-child. Why can't we have stories that are interesting, filled with three-dimensional characters, and a plot that keeps you turning pages? Why are erotica and quality fiction so often mutually exclusive? I mean, we all know that we all have sex (unless we don't, and that's another subject). So why do we pretend that sexual activity is not a part of our existence? It is at once one of the most motivating factors in our every day lives. It melts hearts, it wrecks marriages, it defines us, moves us, reveals us, and keeps us in touch with both our humanity and our spiritual selves. So why do we pretend, in our fiction, it is only an afterthought?

Perhaps the crux of the issue revolves around the degree to which we describe our sexual encounters in novels. But then, I have to wonder if this is some atavistic mentality that smacks of our historical shame regarding the sex act itself. I contend that sex is not dirty, unless you haven't bathed.

Another challenge I have found with Random Act is that in expanding a story like this, one can only show the characters having sex so many times before it becomes tedious. It has to become, to a degree, less about the sex, and more about the characters and the story. This precarious balance I seek will no doubt make me a better writer, if I manage to pull it off. It remains to be seen if any publisher finds it a viable and respectable offering in the fiction milieu.

Random Act of Fiction

Retarded Houdini

Where do my ideas come from?
Often, I get them while sleeping and dreaming.
For example, this morning, this opening "voice" was given to me just before I woke up.

I'm hanging upside down, wrapped in tarp, like some retarded Houdini.

How did this happen, you ask? (I heard you ask). Well, it all started with me, walking along the sidewalk, minding my own business. I always mind my own business because I know there are plenty of other people out there who will mind it for me, if I let them, and I don't feel they're more qualified to fuck up my life than I am.

Retarded Houdini

Veteran Aspiring Author

I won't apologize for letting this blog sit and gather a few cob webs. I've been engaged in the work this blog espouses. Writing. Reading. Editing. Learning. Oh, and periodically, living my life, too, outside of the literary pursuits--such as it is. Blogging is a spurt-sport for me. I do it in spurts. Not so with the writing of my books.

Currently, I am pitching my books to agents and publishers, and while this is a fresh endeavor, it's not due to any greenness on my part. I have said many times that I spent 20 years falling in love with my craft, rather than with my words. The tide has shifted so that I finally feel I can offer my work for public consumption in a more professional and acceptable way. So I'm doing that now.

In the midst of sending two different queries for two different commercial novels, and receiving my first two rejections (yeah! Two down, an unknown number to go!), I am also in the middle of three queries for three different books to three different small publishers. And I am also writing five other books. (I don't work on them at once, really, but sometimes I get stuck on one, or inspired about another and I switch off. Different writers have different modus operandi. ).

The issue that has reared its mottled head, is that because I have been at this writing endeavor so long, I find myself in a strange netherworld of "Veteran Aspiring Author." I do not feel like I "aspire" to be an author. I already am one. But then you have to get into the quagmire of definition. What is the difference between an "Aspiring Author" and "An Author"? An author, in its simplest definition, and the one to which I refer, is a person who writes a book. Not "tries" to write it. But writes it. Completes it. When you begin your first book, you are a writer. When you have finished it, you then become an author. That is to me the most concise way of framing what an author is.

So, having said all that, I am an author. I have written 13 books. I am currently writing 5 others. Imagine my discomfort when I try to find my peers. I join writing groups and the discussion is "How do i get ideas to write about?" or "do i need to start a new paragraph when each character speaks?" or "Why dont publashers except my writeing?"

Okay, not on that level anymore... But having peer reviews from other "unpublished" writers can be equally frustrating, when I've read their work and know that they are still making horrendous stylistic, grammatical and plotting errors in their own material, while seeking to help me "improve" mine. That's a risky thing to say, as it can easily come off arrogant. I assure you, there's a difference between arrogance and substantiated confidence.

Anyway. That's where I am. Veteran Aspiring Author.

Veteran Aspiring Author