Morrill's Monday Morning Mashup - 3/19/12

MASH-UP

A creative combination

or mixing of content

from different sources.

Writers are often bombarded with information on what we should and shouldn't be doing in our writerly lives, especially with all of the turmoil in the publishing industry today. The posts I've listed this week reminded me that right and wrong is not black and white. It's a big, foggy gray area, and it varies for each individual.

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Jenna Blum writes "The Tortured Soul: Do You Need To Be One To Be A Writer?" in a post on Grub Street Daily. In this post, she muses about the caricature of the tortured soul, but the best part of the article is where she lists qualities you actually DO need to be a writer. http://grubdaily.org/?p=4944&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GrubStreetDaily+%28Grub+Street+Daily%29

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The post "How to Write Readable -- And Retweetable -- Tweets" by Dave Copeland on ReadWriteWeb.com includes some of the best advice I've seen on tweeting, including where to place your links within your tweet. Did you know it should not be placed at the end of your tweet? Read on! http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_write_readable_-_and_retweetable_-_tweets.php

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I love the New York Times article, "My Life's Sentences," by Jhumpa Lahiri. In this post, Lahiri discusses her love of sentences, both in reading and writing them, saying, "The urge to convert experience into a group of words that are in a grammatical relation to one another is the most basic, ongoing impulse of my life." And though we're often taught that only after we complete our "shitty first draft" (Anne Lamott) should we then go through and perfect our sentences, Ms. Lahiri admits compulsion to analyze and perfect each sentence as she goes along. "All the revision I do — and this process begins immediately, accompanying the gestation — occurs on a sentence level." I felt better reading this article, because I admit, it's my natural way to write, also. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/my-lifes-sentences/?emc=eta1

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Your assumptions are

your windows on the world.

Scrub them off every

once in a while,

or the light won't come in.

                            

                                         ~ Alan Alda 

Morrill's Monday Morning Mashup - 2/27/12

MASH-UP

A creative combination

or mixing of content

from different sources.

I'm back with the Mashup after a couple of weeks of Internet challenges and being out of town. I hope this week's blogs of Twitterly information will help you over the hump of Twitterphobia. After you read these articles, my best advice is "just do it." Stop twittering your thumbs over Twitter and get started. Little by little, you'll learn this very foreign language.

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This post titled "44 Essential Twitter Hashtags" by Caitlin Muir on the blog, www.AuthorMedia.Com, explains what a hashtag is, and describes how to use them effectively. Says Ms. Muir:  "Used correctly, Twitter hashtags are one of the best ways to connect with industry experts, readers, and other authors. Used incorrectly, it’s just another way to waste your precious time."

http://www.authormedia.com/2012/01/24/44-essential-twitter-hashtags-every-author-should-know/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AuthorTechTips+%28Author+Tech+Tips%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

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When it comes to effectively using social media, Madison Woods is one of the best I know. She has begun an excellent and comprehensive series on the Writerly Business Plan on her blog. One of the components of that series is "Twitter as a Tool." Madison says:  "Networking is way different from selling. Marketing is not directly selling. It’s the art of making someone want whatever you are offering."

http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/writerly-business-plan-using-twitter-as-a-tool/

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Insatiable Booksluts. With a name like that you know you want to visit this website. And it gives you some idea that these bloggers (Susie, Rob and Amy) post information in an entertaining and informative manner, for both writers and readers. Their post on "Using Twitter to Market the Books You Wrote" provides great information on what to do, and more importantly, what NOT to do when using Twitter for marketing:  "Even super famous people with a zillion followers don’t spend all their time sitting around saying 'buy my book/watch my show/etc!' They wouldn’t have a zillion followers if they did that."

http://insatiablebooksluts.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/hey-you-should-read-this-using-twitter-to-market-the-books-you-wrote/

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

A man should not
enter a house suddenly
without knocking.

               --- The Talmud

Morrill's Monday Morning Mashup - 1/9/12

MASH-UP

A creative combination

or mixing of content

from different sources.

We are into the second week of 2012. How's it going with the goals you set for 2012? Or, are you like me -- still in holiday mode, with an elusive cloud of possible goals floating around in your head?

This post on Bob Mayer's blog, Write It Forward gives a broad overview of goal-setting, though it's primarily an introduction to his book:

https://writeitforward.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/goal-setting-for-writers-for-2012/

A detailed "how-to" on setting goals appears on the blog, Writing-World.com:

http://www.writing-world.com/basics/goals.shtml

So, here is my strategic goal:
I would like to have Broken Dolls published by a major, traditional press by 2013.

Here is a long-term goal:
I will have edits completed by June 30, 2012.

Here are a couple of short-term goals to work toward my long-term goal:
1) I will work at least two hours per day, five days per week, in my Internet-free zone.
2) I will send 15-25 edited pages to my editor each week.

What are your goals for 2012? Did they change after reading these posts?

This New York Times post, "Why Authors Tweet," discusses why many authors tweet and why some don't. It's a subject many of my writer friends and I have debated. Author Jennifer Gilmore states: "On Twitter, I have a sense that people -- those you know and those you don't -- read your work in a way I have not always felt in the world."

However, Jeffrey Eugenides says that tweeting and other social media is "toxic to the kind of concentration fiction writing requires."

And therein lies our dilemma, fellow writers. Do you tweet? If so, leave your tweet handle in a comment and I'll follow you. I can always use a new challenge in balancing my social media time with my writing time. (Refer back to my short-term goal #1.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/books/review/why-authors-tweet.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1

There are certain words which by their nature, arise often in my writing. A few that I can think of off the top of  my head are talk, walk, smile and look. DailyWritingTips.com posted 75 synonyms for "talk." That's right, 75!

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-synonyms-for-talk/

And of course, thesaurus.com is always an excellent source of finding alternatives for oft-used words. Here's the link for "look":

http://thesaurus.com/browse/look

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:


When I'm writing, I'm listening. -- Madeleine L'Engle





Now that I've completed my Mashup, I'm off to "listen" in my Internet-free zone. See you next week!