Category: Writing

Do you ever wonder?

Why are there 40 phonemes in English and only 26 letters? Also, of those 26 letters, some of them duplicate sounds. No wonder everyone is confused about how to spell.

I’m not sure adding letters would have simplified the rules. There’s probably some history behind why we have fewer letters than phonemes.

When we teach children to speak and read, we focus on the letters many times. I see alphabet books with all kinds of themes to check out the letters – just the 26 letters. As I learn more about phonics, I wonder why we can’t stretch those phonics into picture books.

I’ve never written a picture book. I think about it from time to time. (Regular readers might remember that.) Perhaps part of the drawback is that children’s picture books go up to 32 pages? But I’m not sure we need to have only one phoneme per page. On the other hand, maybe that would be best.

It might be a fun summer project for me. Like I need another project! My daughter might appreciate it. It’s definitely something that would be fun to have around here, even if it doesn’t get published.

All it means is I could put lots of large, fun words in there to enrich her vocabulary. Might even throw in pulchritudinous, just for kicks.

She’ll be ready for the SAT before she starts Kindergarten. Ha!

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What’s so funny?

Last night a group of my friends went to the Funny Bone to see D. L. Hughley. There was an emcee, whose name I do not remember, and an opening local comic named Danny T.

After the show, we discussed the humor – what we found funny and who, of the three, was the ‘funniest’. Oh, funny’s a difficult term to pin down. I know I don’t write humor. My husband doesn’t think I’m funny (something about my joke timing is off), though several of my friends laugh at my jokes. Well, they laugh when I’m not joking, too, but that’s probably another story.

I hadn’t seen enough of D. L. Hughley’s humor to know what was repeated and what was new from his act. Danny T I have heard once before, and I recognized a couple of his lines. Both the comics have different styles, and one of my friends thought Hughley seemed more practiced.

Is that bad?

Most jokes are definitely funnier the first time around, but some of them are funny every time. It must be hard to be a comedian.

It must be harder if you’re afraid to offend someone. Most of the jokes were at least a little off-color. It reminds me of a quote from the book Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, “I had thought — I had been told — that a ‘funny’ thing is a thing of a goodness. It isn’t. Not ever is it funny to the person it happens to. Like that sheriff without his pants. The goodness is in the laughing itself. I grok it is a bravery… and a sharing… against pain and sorrow and defeat.”

What do you think of jokes?

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A Title Is Only a Few Words

But, at least for a blog post, that may mean the difference between clicking a link and ignoring it.

A title or headline must grab interest in a few words, make the reader or listener pay attention for what comes afterward, and be descriptive of what comes afterward. So, no, we can’t just type in all caps “REALLY COOL STUFF AHEAD” and expect anyone to read it. Bummer.

Some words might incite interest, like “free.” If you use that method you’d better provide something free, though. And some clickers are getting wise to the oh-i-have-to-buy-something-else-to-get-it kind of free.

It’s enough to make people question the cost of free.

What else out there gets attention?

Another method of titles – which may not work in fiction – is to focus the writer for the article. It makes me think of novels titled “Frodo and His Epic Journey to Destroy the Ring.” Probably better not to do that.

Titles either seem to come to me or be elusive prey. I haven’t found a good method to hunt down a fiction title for an ornery story except to get help from someone else. Give it a working title and ignore the snickers of “Title Here” until something else fills the void.

In some ways, it would be nice to write more non-fiction. At least the focus is there to make something like “Five Tricks to Beat the Evil Overlord that Anyone Can Do” work.

Now that my brain has kicked into high gear to think of random tricks to beat evil overlords and stories I could work that into, I think I’ll be off to fantasy-land.

What do titles mean to you and how do you come up with them?

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A Blog Grader?

I saw my friend Sarah Holroyd posted about Twitter and how to find potential markets with it. Her link at the bottom was for Blog Grader.

So of course I ran over to check my blog. A lot of it is numbers that aren’t explained in detail – like what does it mean to get 85 for a blog grade? Does that mean I passed something?

I love the links at the bottom of things that give you more information. The best time of day to post, how often to post, and a blogging kit. Do they normalize that for time zone? Oh, now I’m just being silly.

That happens now and then.

So I’ll probably spend part of my morning finding the cool links, then dig into that chapter rewrite – if I get a chance with the baby running around the house. Nap, baby! – at least until the chapter is done!

I know, I know. It doesn’t work that way.

Neither does asking for all the teeth to come in at once.

Then we’ll be back to doing more reading. We have library books we haven’t cracked open yet. Yesterday we went to the University Club Writer’s Group in Iowa City. It was great that she slept both ways in the car, but then she decided to be loud during the writers.

Still learning about indoor voices. She understands what she wants to understand – and at this age it’s difficult to know when she’s just ignoring it.

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Don’t Forget the Science

Read the article here.

Oh, I love science and the opportunity to learn for free. The heart of science fiction is always in the science where it begins. The writer can take as many liberties as can be believed by the reader, but it has to start with known science and end where the imagination can logically take the story.

“What if?” is the best question to answer. It isn’t always something from another world based on science to make the fiction. It’s the driver for every story ever told.

Where have the questions taken you recently?

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Magazines for Perusal

Check out my Day 2 at Novelspot: Click here.

I have magazines floating around the house. I mean to read them, but somehow I usually pick up a book instead. Not always.

With the new e-reader, I was checking out Google Books (imagine that!) and I found several magazines ready to read. They weren’t the newest editions – I think the latest was about a year old.

Another thing about Google Books is the abundance of books – but most of them are previews only. This is cool that you get to read a few pages before you purchase, but also a bit disappointing when you find a book you really want to see more of and you can’t.

I know, you’re supposed to buy it, but we can’t all buy as many books as we’d want to read. I’m sure I’d go broke if I tried.

Back to the magazines, I find I can link them and email them, but I can’t download them to the e-reader. It’s not in the proper file type for mine, anyway. Perhaps because of the high picture content?

I’m still glad I can look at them online. Maybe soon they’ll let us subscribe to them that way and read them on readers. Oooh…

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A Good Intention

I had everything out from the critique: the partial manuscript, the comments, and my file for that segment. I even had the notes I made this week close at hand. Still didn’t manage to get it rewritten, or even started.

Time management has been an issue lately. Been focused on other things – though not by choice – and there is never enough time to do everything.

So the house is better, I tutor students, and the writing is slowly slipping. Maybe tonight. Maybe today in the car. Definitely not waiting until I get enough sleep.

The critique’s been brewing in my head for nearly two weeks and it’s helping. On the other hand, I’ve just had a ton of little ideas for this and that crop up.

Focus. I will manage somehow. Any ideas?

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Growing a Reader From Birth

It was difficult to process the information in this book, simply because there was a lot of it.

Diane McGuiness explains a lot in this book about children 0-5 years and makes her cases with scientific studies. It makes sense that when infants like something, they use their sucking reflex to share that.

Most of the book was dedicated to speaking to babies, what they understand, and how they learn to speak. The author explains each stage and what the parent is likely to see, not just based on age, but also on ability. For example, there’s a language explosion around 18 months, but it is less about the age of the child and more when he hits 50 words in his spoken vocabulary.

Toward the end of the book the Author first mentions the child reading. She asserts children may be distracted by pictures in  books and not understand the essence of the story. Also, she talks about the importance of telling stories to the child along with having him tell stories to the parent.

The last chapter dealt with a whole world, whole language and phonics dissertation. I’ve never been a fan of whole world teachings, and she gave concrete reasons why it doesn’t work to learn to read: basically, the mind can only memorize so many words if they are treated as random strings of letters. She used history to show that the languages that have a ‘whole word’ concept maxed out around 2000 words, compared to the approximately 50,000 words needed to carry on an adult conversation.

Every language that survived has used a method of breaking down the words into a “Basic Code” to decipher written material. English has 40 sounds, and only 26 letters – which she says could have been used more effectively. I don’t know anyone who could argue that.

I think the most out-there argument was at the very end, talking about how dyslexia is not a real disability. The author stated her reasons for believing this, but I do not know enough about dyslexia to know.

Don’t jump all over me – but here is her argument:
She states dyslexia does not exist except in English-speaking countries who have used whole word or whole language strategies to teach reading. It must not be a brain disability if it doesn’t exist in nearly the same percentages around the world. Therefore, dyslexia is a created problem that can be fixed, in her argument, with phonics.

It definitely gives something to think about. My one-year-old makes me understand her, and I know she gets more of what I say than she can say back to me. How much? That is always the question.

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If you write it, who will read it?

At the most basic level, this question is directed to the writer. Who are you going to share your work with? I’m guessing you’re going to share it with the people you know. This probably includes your friends and family, as well as a critique group and online reviewers if you belong to those communities. Some writers don’t.

Others aim for larger audiences. I hesitate to say higher, because if you’re happy with your audience you shouldn’t worry about it. It’s not a higher goal if you’re not attempting to do something bigger.

These larger audiences are often reached through publication. There are several options, including traditional publication, POD, self-publication, and others. What do I mean by others? Blogging is a form of published work. I’d say the blog itself is self-published, but I have an audience. [If you’d like to disagree with that statement, please leave a comment below.]

When you’re reaching for that larger audience, marketing and promotion are required. Word of mouth with friends and family will only get you so far. Social networking might go farther, but you’ll have to be careful not to get sucked into the time wasting activities also associated with them. Repeat: I will not play Facebook games!

One of the hardest parts about writing for young adults is I know so few of them. How are we supposed to spread by word of mouth without knowing our audience? Well, I do know people who know my targets. I have friends with kids the right age. It’s just going to be a constant struggle to stay in the age as I get older. And yes, I have come to terms with the fact that I will continue getting older.

One of the most fun parts about writing for young adults is that the stories are so amazing to tell. I know, that’s just my opinion – but why else would you be here if not to read that? Thanks for being part of my audience.

Posted on by ransomnoble 7

Workshops

What are you looking for in a writer’s workshop?

I see these advertised online and off, and I wonder what it means to everyone out there. I should also mention I teach a class about speculative fiction writing, but it’s not online – or it isn’t yet.

Partly what I like about teaching is the discussion aspect, but I can’t speak for my students. I like to touch on basic things like plot, character, and point of view, as well as more genre-specific things like background and world-building.

Each time I teach the class (I’m almost done with the third section) it changes. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, it just is part of the evolutionary process.

I just hope I teach them something. And that they continue to write.

My copyeditor friend Sarah Holroyd is starting up her own. We will definitely have to keep an eye on her! You may want to keep an eye on me, too…

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