Comments on Wired For Story · 16 November 2024
I do not write that much about books, but a friend loaned me a book that I need to make a few comments about because it is a book that makes me think about my own writing.
Wired for Story by Lisa Cron has been a good book so far. (I am just over halfway through.) I would recommend it for anybody who is serious about writing. Even the introduction and first chapter are worth the time to read. Which is part of the point of the first chapter anyway. You must hook the reader. Get him or her to want to keep reading.
Now, I have said this before, but I am not much of a raconteur. I cannot tell a story orally to save my life. Well, maybe I can, but it either needs to be one I have told over and over and over again or… I guess there is no or. If I am going to tell a story orally, I must have practiced it many times. I must have told it over and over and over again.
Which is an interesting thought. I do not take that long to think about and write my blog. I know… If you have been reading my work for very long, you probably already guessed it. In fact, I have said that I just throw stuff out there. I do not even check to see if anything sticks. I know… It is the internet, so everything sticks. We just do not know if anybody reads it.
But back to the book. Cron weaves a masterful tale. She tells stories to get her points across. And she makes me realize that I might need to change some things in my own story telling. Oh sure. I have gotten some things right. But if you want to get better at anything, you hone your craft. You study it. You practice it. You get better at it. Hopefully.
Which is the point of the book. Keep writing. Keep telling stories. But do it in a way that the reader wants to keep reading. Actually tell the story that you want to tell. Cron gets into the details on how to do just that. She writes about hooking the reader. She asks questions that the writer should ask as he or she is writing. She tells the writer what to focus on. She tells about the conflict between internal and external goals. But perhaps the biggest thing that I have gleaned from the book so far is that story is about change.
Now if you know much about story arc, you probably realize that story is about change. The main character, the protagonist, is trying to accomplish something. That something might not be the real thing that the protagonist thinks he or she wants to accomplish, but that is the point of conflict. But regardless of what else happens, the protagonist must change. If life goes on with nothing changing, what is the point of the story? Everybody starts out fine and lives happily ever after!? That is not much of a story.
Which is the point of the book. At least so far. Change happens. And story is about change.
I am looking forward to seeing what else is in the book. I have enjoyed it even though the author has pointed out many flaws to my writing process. I will, of course, not take all the advice she gives, but I will take to heart much of what she says. After all, I want to write something that anybody would want to read. Just one book that one person might want to maybe read. Is that too much to ask?
Sorry. I got carried away there.
Like I said in the beginning, I do not write too much about other people’s books. But I have commented on a few. Mostly, the ones that I refer to when thinking about writing. And if the rest of the book is as good as the first part, Wired for Story might be a new one of those few. Partly because it is a good story. And partly because it makes me think about my own writing.
© 2024 Michael T. Miyoshi
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Meeting Other Writers · 9 November 2024
Meeting other writers is a fun thing, especially in real life.
It is always fun to meet another writer. You can chat about things that those who think writing is crazy would never think about.
How much do you write?
When do you write?
Do you write every day?
How many books have you written?
Who is your publisher?
Questions like these can turn into long conversations. Or at least significant conversations. When I think about it, I know that there are times when I talk to people and give just one word answers to many of these questions. But when I meet another writer, I usually answer, then ask, “What about you?” It is the natural question and the conversation can continue.
I am glad that I have a colleague who is also a writer. We chat about work and we chat about writing when we get a chance. We talk about projects we are working on. We talk about writing techniques. We talk about writing tools. And of course, we talk about not being able to write as much as we want. That seems to be the case with every author who does not write as a full-time gig.
I recently met another author at a school workshop about Professional Learning Communities. Specifically, about being a teacher who is the only teacher of that particular subject. The workshop was called Singletons in a PLC: Navigating On-Ramps to Meaningful Collaboration (which is also the name of his book). Quite the mouthful, but it was a great workshop. Worth the price of admission in the first couple hours.
The presenter, Brig Leane, was the co-author of the book we used, which we got to keep (also worth the price of admission). Brig regaled us with stories from his own teaching career. He told us stories of other people having success too. Not necessarily just because of his work with them, but it could be inferred that his assistance certainly helped them. After all, he was an expert practitioner of what he was teaching us. And his presentation and teaching style gave us all hope. But more than that, Brig gave us concrete things to do when we were done with the workshop.
(By the way, you cannot just teach a lesson and hope the kids will learn. Brig even said that hope is not a teaching technique.)
Our group of educators invited Brig to dinner after the first night and he accepted. We had a great time chatting about the food and life and work. Then, Brig and I started talking about writing. We talked about publishing and self-publishing mostly. And he even asked me to point out my Amazon page. It was a great conversation.
I am thankful that I had even a short conversation about writing with Brig Leane. We are both passionate about teaching and writing, so we had much to talk about. We also talked about weightier issues like the condition of the heart and soul. I am so glad that he took us up on our offer to share a meal. And I am glad I had such a great opportunity to meet another author in real life. It is always such fun.
© 2024 Michael T. Miyoshi
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Sometimes Writing Is a Chore · 2 November 2024
I do not often feel so, but sometimes writing is a chore.
I love to write.
I love to rhyme.
But writing is a chore.
At least some of the time.
Like any job or career or lifestyle, writing is full of joy and pain. It is a job and it is a joy. And like any job, there are good and bad things about it. Even if you love it.
One of the things I hate about writing is preparing to publish. Getting things ready for the world is not always an easy task. Sure, blogging is easy. Just throw stuff out there and see what sticks. Anybody can do that. At least that is what I think sometimes. Then, there are other times when I know I am throwing poop out there, but do not have anything better. Ah, the joy of a publishing deadline. (Even self-imposed.)
As much as I sometimes dread the deadline of publishing my blog, publishing a book is even worse. At least if you want anybody to know about it.
I published my first works of fiction on Amazon as digital books only. I might have sold ten books in the several years since I first published. The worst part about that is that I have more than ten different titles out there for sale. And being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided that I ought to publish the books in print. I got the first of my books ready.
(When I first started writing this blog post a bunch of years ago, I did not have as many tools as I do now. Some of them were not even in existence yet. And I did not know about some of the nuances of publishing with Amazon. So in reality, I am glad that I did not post the original form of this post way back when.)
At any rate.
Nowadays, Amazon has made it simple to publish print-on-demand books. You just choose what size of book you want, choose the paper you want, upload the cover, upload a pdf of your book, and voilà! You have a book ready for people to order and have in their hot little hands.
That is all well and good, but what about getting those books ready for Amazon?
I already posted a piece about my preferred software called Atticus. Atticus is actually really a service on a website where you format your books. At least that is what I do. I write my book in Word, edit it, then format it in Atticus. When I am satisfied, I save a PDF and upload it to Amazon. As long as I have the cover done, I have a book ready to go. Woo hoo! Another piece of drivel is out there on Amazon ready to be read by… Well. I have another book ready to sit on my digital shelf on Amazon. Still, even if nobody reads those books, they are out there ready to go.
My process is pretty streamlined now. I write my book. I edit my book. I format my book for both print and digital. I create a cover. I upload all the material. I use the Amazon ISBN. I set my price and do all the other stuff that Amazon requires. Then I wait. Usually, just for a day or two. Then, my book is ready. Ready to fly off the digital shelf into people’s e-readers or into people’s hands. Maybe publishing is not much of a chore after all.
I know I started out saying that sometimes writing is a chore, and sometimes it is, but mostly it is not.
I love to write.
I love to rhyme.
Writing is not a chore.
At least most of the time.
© 2024 Michael T. Miyoshi
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