Reach Out and Touch...

Ps. 45: 1 My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

***

Boy I’ve got songs on the brain this week.

Reach out and touch somebody’s hand, make this world a better place, if you can.

This is the beginning of the song and it makes me wonder why everyone doesn’t reach out, in some way, if only to make this world a better place.

In our writing this is exactly what we’re doing. We’re reaching out to someone, anyone, that will take what we have to share through our experience, and in some small way we are changing the world. Imagine a world without To Kill a Mockingbird or The Lord of the Rings. Just imagine how unchanged we would be.

I’m sure you can name a book, (the Holy Bible?) or author that not only made a difference in your life, but altered your way of thinking. Whether it was a fictional tale of hope, or a non- fiction on truth, you read the book, you walked away changed.

Now a lot of people read for the fantasy. They don’t want to be touched or changed, they just like reading and want to lose themselves in the fantastical world of werewolves, vampires, and grisly gore so that they have thus buried the reality into which they live. Maybe they’re hiding from something? Maybe they just want a release from the here and now?

Whatever the case may be, the person will come back to reality, read another book that will actually change them again. It’s a vicious cycle, but true no less. Writer’s change the world one word at a time. And who says a good blood sucking tale can’t change your world?

Now you might say, the song says, “to touch somebody’s hand.” In my world a book whether on your MP3 player or ‘in your hand’, will touch someone at some point in time.

the song goes on...

 

Take a little time out of your busy day
To give encouragement
To someone who's lost the way
(Just try)
Or would I be talking to a stone
If I asked you
To share a problem that's not your own
We can change things if we start giving
Why don't you
reach out and touch somebody’s hand.

Amazing words Miss Ross!
 
I, in my own way, reach out on a daily basis. I wish everyone could just try to give encouragement to someone who’s lost their way. Whether words touch you, my voice touches you, or what you read touches you...I reach out, it is up to you to take hold of my hand and learn and grow. In this way, we make the world a little bit better place to live.

Perspective

Psalm 51: 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
***

From my perspective, life is moving along at a snails pace, the mundane becomes boring and a shake up is in order for it to move along swiftly. Oh, wait, I already had a shake-up a few weeks ago. Still reeling from the aftermath too.

Perspective is where we can sit on a cloud and look down at people and their lives, swooping down to get a closer view or just sitting and observing. I gain perspective the longer I observe and in writing that is just what you need to do sometimes, observe.

I observe other writers as they link words together to form sentences. I watch as the sentences take the shape of paragraphs, and the paragraphs form a story. What better way to learn than to witness the classics in action?

I’ve read some newer authors and I’m not impressed with their storytelling. What I get from the library shelves is that this new author writes the book, feeds it to the editor and sometimes the publishing house needs new blood so bad they accept, not so good work.

I see typos throughout, misspellings weaved in, atrocious punctuation and this all slipped by? Wasn’t anyone watching the creation of this tale? This is the very reason I prefer classics. The story didn’t depend on a computer program. It depended on a writer sitting at his/her desk tapping on the keys of a typewriter. Yeah, a typewriter, remember those ancient things?

I’m not knocking new author’s, by no means. After all, I can learn a lot from them too. I see what NOT to do in a story.

I read differently being a writer. I try to get into a story, but I’m always picking it apart, word for word, sentence for sentence. It can become quite annoying so I rely on the classics to take me to an imaginary world, where I soar in the reading of the text, without picking and needling every aspect of the writer’s skills.

Maybe I should start listening to audio books. You can’t find typos if you’re listening now can you? And you can hear the words forming sentences, but you can’t nit pick the structure.

As far as perspective goes, this is my view, from my world, my perspective. Others may have a different take and that is okay because being a human being with free will, you my friend, have a perspective too.

Enjoy being unique. Cherish the life you were given and always have, give and share your perspective. You’ll be glad you did. :)

Free Writing Course!

F2K is a six-week online FREE writing course.

A free writing workshop will be coming to the Internet near you very soon. Writers Village University and the honorable R.J. Hembree are bringing the six-week course to you. I say honorable because he has given to the writing community more than they can ever imagine.
Through his University I have seen people come and go, stay and never want to leave. If you are committed to the writing craft, you’ll stay and eventually find yourself down a winding path to publishing.

Writer’s Village has spawned a lot of writer’s who have had their stories worked on in a workshop and the stories went on to become published novels. Short Stories have found their way into the magazines and other online venues making the Village a hidden success story.

To the left where you’ll see my "My Friends" links, click on these to see some of the success stories coming out of WVU. Many of these authors who are currently in WVU have gone onto become a published author but they remain dedicated members so they can help new budding writers find success in the craft of writing.

Don’t be intimidated because they are ‘published’. Remember they were where you are now. They too were undecided where the writing life was going to take them and here they are ready to aid and assist the newcomer.

You do not need to be a member of Writer’s Village University to take this FREE course. It is FREE! No strings attached!

You WILL learn:
Week 1 Character introduction
Week 2 Activating the senses
Week 3 POV (point of view)
Week 4 conflict
Week 5 characterization
Week 6 plot/theme

Watch my blog closely as I announce its arrival. If you’re interested in writing, not sure if you want to be a writer, or if you just want to have some FUN writing, you might want to give this course a try. Experienced mentors are on hand to guide you along the way and the best thing is, it’s FREE!

Are you game?

Making Money

Are you making money from your writing? And why is that?

In today’s world of fast paced cutthroats, writers need diligence to get them to make money from their writing. A good writer makes little money from all of their hard work whereas a great writer makes an income. Now an excellent writer is, well, you know, sitting around his pool drinking Mai Tai’s basking in the glory of all his/her published works.

No, I don’t really believe that is what the excellent writers are doing. I believe they are writing. They continue to write their hearts out no matter how much money they have garnered from a previous published book. It’s a tried and true method for them to keep on writing.

Now before you can start writing for money, you are going to need material that is publishable. And it must be good enough for somebody to WANT to pay for it. Ask yourself a question. "Would a publisher be interested in spending money on MY work?"

A publisher is taking a risk in spending thousands of dollars on you, the unknown, so make your work worth a large amount of money. It has to have some value before you can expect someone else to want to publish your work.

It will help if you have a story that a reader can’t take his/her hands off of and easily put it down. A story that the reader can't put down is one that could inspire a publisher to see the potential in book sales. The same is true for a script. Sometimes the writer must pitch the idea to get the publisher, agent or producer excited about the potential of their work.

The Internet is full of markets where you can sell your work. Whether it is a short story to a magazine or an agent for your novel, or a publisher that you can query. Writers are not only writers they are small-time archeologist! They need to dig, dig, dig to find the precious gem that will give their work life and an abundant glory of profit.

And whatever you do fellow writer, DON’T GIVE UP! Did Indiana Jones? NO! Stephen King? NEVER! Now get to writing and selling, marketing and publishing! You can do it!