POV~ Point of View ~ Take II

The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt it didn't matter.
Edward Albee

*** 

We’ll try this form of POV. It is the writer’s tool that is going to make or break your story.

The point of view in a story is the narrator’s voice that is telling the story. It is whose eyes the reader will be seeing through. Like Alice looking through the looking glass? Mad Hatter couldn’t tell you what Alice saw now could he?

In first person POV we will see through Jane’s eyes. What Jane sees, smells, hears, and especially what Jane thinks. (I think of Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill house.) This is an excellent portrayal of first person POV. But with first person POV, you have limited yourself to only Jane's thoughts. The other character’s being introduced to the story will only be a mirror of what JANE portrays them to be. Again read the above novel by Shirley Jackson and you’ll get the idea of how paranoid her main character sounds.

Now trouble arrives when you try saying that John heard a noise that sounded like glass shattering. You have now shifted POV’s and this can be a dangerous line to cross when making it clear to the reader that this is Jane’s story and not John’s.

When you’re a beginning writer it is fundamentally important to learn the craft of POV.

  

Third person POV is the point of view that most authors use. It is much like the first person, except you’ll use he saw the road crack before them instead of I saw the road crack. It is essentially using ‘he’ instead of ‘I’.

Now the tricky third person pov is the ever-elusive third person omniscient. Though omniscient is on occasion used in the beginning of the story, the writer switches to third person to get a tight grip on the main characters view.

The pov is tricky in writing so if you plan on mastering the craft of writing this would be a helpful tool to practice, read others work, and implement into your own writing. By reading what others have written before you, you’ll get the idea of POV and you’ll also recognize WHEN the shifts occur and how to masterfully shift pov yourself.

The exercise I like to practice with most? Say we have a prompt of 500 words (excellent exercises from Pumping Your Muse.) Write the exercise in first person. Try the same story only switch to third person. Write it again in third person omniscient. 

(I NEVER tackle 2^nd person and that is why I won’t touch the subject!)

Show your writing group your different pov’s of your stories. You ARE in a workshop right? After all my blogging about how important it is to surround yourself with other writers? SHAME ON YOU!

Your writing group will be able to help you see the difference, feel the difference and master the different ways to serve the POV to your reader. There isn’t enough room in a 500-word-blog to give you ALL of the details of POV, but trust me on this one. This is one tricky part of the craft to master. But once you have it licked, your writing will shine like the morning sunrise!

POV~ Point of View

"What a writer brings to any story is an attitude…" John Gregory Dunne
***

So you want to be a writer? Well you need to know how to write first. I see so many say that they are writers but have they reached into their reader, turned their innards into putty and made them feel as if they were in the very scene. Well depending on which point of view you’re writing from, you’ll need to learn this technique if you were ever to call yourself a writer.

My target audience is writers, as such, you should be able to read and be touched by what I’m saying, carry away with you some new insight of your arsenal of writing, and know, I am a writer myself, so not everything on here is targeted at anyone, my pent up anger lashing out at you, this is MY WRITING. A friend said to me yesterday, it was “scarily creative and descriptive.”

You know what? That is what I go for. I want you to react. Not to think I am targeting you or anyone else but to react to my style AS A WRITER. I tried a second person POV for the first time last week. I have never done that and as I wrote it, after I wrote it, I thought WOW! That was good! Empowering too because I felt it was some good writing!

I got no comments on it, but I hear the rumors seeping through the muddy waters of the so-called writers. They think they can write and are often times put off by my arrogance, knowledge, skill, and style. I figured why they are so envious of me; they wish they could write like that and after years of trying and studying, they still can’t write.

I apologize. I’ve written all of my life and I KNOW what words are going to prick your nerves. I studied psychology and I know what is going to get you hell-bent on liking me or not liking me. Maybe I do seem unstable, I’m a writer! Are writers ever stable? If you say yes, then YOU my friend are not a writer in the least.

Some say I wear my heart on my sleeve, some say I have an angry tone, some will even go as far as to say I am unstable. You know what I say? I am honest to a fault, my blog is not for me to wear a mask and hide behind; good honest truth and love is what you’ll get from me, and some good writing! And you know what else? I don’t remember any of you walking a mile in my shoes, so who are YOU to judge ME?

I also say take a look in the mirror right now, go on I’ll wait. ....  ....  .... Okay, Did you like what you saw? Are you honest, loving, caring, giving, willing to die for another person? Do you look in the mirror and see shame, torment, guilt? From MY point of view, I see me for all I am and all I will accomplish. I see you? Well I don’t. You’re behind  mask, and that my friends is MY point of view!

1st person: I am moving on.
2nd person: *You have decided to move on from all the childish behavior.
3rd person: They tried to take her down, but she was bigger than them, Joni has moved on. 

*edited

Unhinged

Job 6: 15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

***

It is with great regret I have to bore you yet again with personal matters. I am being harassed and slandered and I just want you, my reading public to know, I am neither unbalanced or sick, or on any kind of medication. I am struggling with some health issues but by the grace of God everything is being taken care of and I’m blessed with supportive friends who believe in me.

It may have taken them (my friends in the know and out of the know) a bit to find out that it was I who was being slandered, and that they were being fed lies because to all, she (the attacker) was a poor pitiful friend, and I, became the enemy. The slanderous person who recruited, in her own mischievous way, to attack me and try to ruin my name, it seems it is now all backfiring in her face.

Think like this, someone steals your identity. They purchase all kinds of horrid porn and gaudy clothing. All under your name. The credit card company says, “We can’t help. You purchased it, you’re paying!”  You go on to say, “But someone stole my card, someone else is the sick fiend.” And you try in earnest to clear your name but no one is believing YOU and are beginning to believe the LIES about you.

I know for years, many doctors claimed, that postpartum depression was all in the head. Until finally a doctor clarified it as a serious illness after the birth of a child. Just as the creditors are believing, in most cases, the victims of identity theft. So as my friends will see clearly that I am not the unbalanced one, and that the malicious person used them for her own agenda, and they were just gullible victims as well and fell for it all. No they won’t admit it, won’t apologize for thinking me the bad person. I believe the guilt will play in their minds for some time to come.

But know, as I write, the wicked person has been found out, and is being called on her actions because the proof was stacked miles against her. In this instance she may lose. I say may, because some might still believe and support her with her malicious intentions, but I am getting my name cleared, once and for all!

As a writer I work very hard to make my words clear. I aim them at no one in particular but some feel that they are aimed directly at them. And that is good and bad in many ways. As a writer, I struck a nerve with my reader. But also, as writers, they all assume I’m pointing the arrow at them. I am a writer and a teacher and will remain so for many years to come!

Poetry Sunday ~ Layers

Jer. 4:25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
***
~ Layers ~
Blankets of snow peeled away
uncovering the grass beneath;
wherefore moss and worms cavort
under the last seasons leaf.

Robins bounce back into life
the cardinal’s song is heard.
Blue jays gather twigs and things
our days no longer blurred.

Cranes are flying overhead
heron gather together.
Geese are moving to and fro
to announce this glorious weather.

The sky it quivers full of sound
birds are making their way;
abundance of life hovers over me
as song sings out this day.

The sun stretches out its arms
a baby calf is born.
Spring has sprung back into life
this late February morn.

Quotation Saturday

HEALTH

The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they'll ease
Your will they'll mend
And charge you not a shilling.
~Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
~Mark Twain

Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.
~Cicero

In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else.
~Alison Rose Levy, "An Ancient Cure for Modern Life,"
 
Men that look no further than their outsides, think health an appurtenance unto life, and quarrel with their constitutions for being sick; but I that have examined the parts of man, and know upon what tender filaments that fabric hangs, do wonder that we are not always so; and considering the thousand doors that lead to death, do thank my God that we can die but once.
~Thomas Browne

HONESTY

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
~Mark Twain

A half truth is a whole lie.
~Yiddish Proverb

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
~Aristotle

Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess, and yet all the honesty in the world ain't lawful tender for a loaf of bread. ~Josh Billings

A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.
~Edgar J. Mohn

We tell lies when we are afraid... afraid of what we don't know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.
~Tad Williams

“A lie is just the easy way out of things, but it hurts when TRUTH comes back and smacks you in the face!”
~ Joni

SELF-RESPECT

In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned.
~Jane Haddam

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.
~Joan Didion

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
~Frederick Douglass

Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect.
~Theodore Parker

The Theme of it All

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go." E.L. Doctorow

***

Theme ~~ what is it and why do writer’s need the haunting lure of it to reign in the reader?

It is good practice to carry a theme throughout your story. The theme of your story is usually implied through other elements, such as point of view, setting, imagery and the tone set throughout your piece of work. The theme becomes illuminated through these elements of style.

The theme is the underlying consciousness of your work. It is a central idea running like a stream throughout your work making it come together like cogs on a machine. Your theme will be the bonding of you and the reader, where he/she has a lightbulb moment, grasping what you have conveyed. If you have no theme, more than likely, you have no story that will glue the reader to your words and pages.

Sometimes the theme is not planned and often it changes in mid-writing. You had planned on your theme to be about the acceptance of death on humanity, but something happened along the typing path that had you (unconsciously) shifting to the beauty of mortality.

An idea is of the broader spectrum of the rainbow, where as the theme becomes subjective without limitations to you or your reader; over the rainbow so-to-speak. It is like feeding to your reader what he was thinking to be a lighthearted comedy, instead he received a thought-provoking piece of art that touched him profoundly.

If you’ve written 2500 words and haven’t a clue as to what your theme is, maybe go back and re-read, seeing if you missed something. It is possible that even you, the writer, missed the boat.

The theme is the underlying canvas to which you place the paint. You pick up a paintbrush (that looks an awful lot like a pen) and in a whimsical spin you begin creating art with words. As you feel the artistic flow being created subconsciously you will be spilling part of your sight and wisdom onto the canvas creating …a theme.

1.Don’t force a theme ~ It can’t be done and will come off as preachy or forced.
 
2.Write what you know ~ Writing what you have experienced in life and the hardships is perfect for the theme setting to begin. In fiction embellish your heart out.
 
3.Use a psychological approach ~ Think depth when you write. Is there a deeper meaning than what you had anticipated?
 
4.Try subtlety ~ Being subtle makes the reader do the thinking on many levels.
 
5.Do NOT struggle ~ Struggling to find a theme or to make your theme work will also assist you in losing the personality of your characters. Writing should come naturally, the theme will surface without your realization. Accept the theme you have and don’t try to change it. Natural flow is best.

KNOW your English!

Today we’re moving on from all the dramatics and going to tackle, learning how to write. First off, it is wise to know the English language. I will stand by you in this journey and thank you, if you are one of my true followers.

Malapropisms abound -- Use and Misuse of the English Language

In writing, using the proper word from the English language is essential. (I’m assuming my readers are using the English version.) Understanding the meanings, pronunciations, and the proper spelling of words and phrases becomes a no-brainer to the avid writer.

awoken        wary        bored
awaken        weary       board
fined             who        decadence
find               whom     decadent's
wander         soared      inane
wonder         sword      insane
advise           advice      too many to name...

including words like, accept and except, allusion and illusion, council, counsel, affect, effect.

You get the picture? Words can be confusing not only to the eye but also to the ear AND on the Microsoft word page. You would think our spellcheckers pick up all of these little words we toss at it? Well it doesn’t. It is not THAT smart. It is not here to do our thinking, only to assist us along the way in getting our work correct.

There are many other words that I find my fellow writers seem to get confused with. It is my nature to be a spell freak. I mean it, if I spell a word wrong I am kicking myself in the butt then I sit with my dictionary and a cup of tea reviewing the English language yet again. (note: a typo is NOT a word spelled wrong!)

We as writers need to do the research in finding the correct and proper spelling before we click the send button. I see so many clicking send without even reviewing what they wrote and some are allowed to let slide without ever having someone point out the incorrect word. Don’t want to offend a writer, might get your head bit off and spit out if you do. But the REAL writers who embrace the page will take any insight to the matter, learn and grow from the subtle or harsh critique.

We can never fully comprehend all the meanings of every word in the English language but it is reasonable to understand and expect that writer’s will know of the words in which they write. So be insistent on learning new words. Be incessant, persistent, and exigent in learning and only then will your writing take off to new heights.

Vocab quiz?

malapropism ~ mal-a-prop-izm
1. Ludicrous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound.
2. An example of such misuse?  “Lead the way and we'll precede.”

verbiage ~
1. An excess of words for the purpose; wordiness.
2. The manner in which something is expressed in words: software verbiage.

altruistic ~ al-tru-is-tic
1. unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others.
2. Animal Behavior. of or pertaining to behavior by an animal that may be to its disadvantage but that benefits others of its kind, often its close relatives.

Poetry Sunday ~ A Beacon of Hope

Job 8:13 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:
Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

A Beacon of Hope
*  *  * 
A beacon of strength she rose,
above the ashes of their deeds.
A light to all who knew,
her glorious wondrous deeds.

To think they clawed and gnashed
dug and bled her dry.
She can’t be swayed by sorrow
with your somber woeful cry.

Above her rides commotion
in the parting of the seas.
Hypocrites will falter
and drop down to their knees.

Why are they so jealous
of a streaming brilliant light?
The answer calls out to them
at the headstones of the night.

You’re weak all you heathens
who taint and destroy her name
The message heard in heaven
is you lost your lifeless game.

A beacon of strength she rises
above the burning of their deeds.
He alone can judge her
through all her planted seeds.

Pss.43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Pss. 71:5 For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth.

Quotation Saturday

ANGER

The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough.
 ~Bede Jarrett

Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath.
~Eckhart Tolle

Get angry, get furious but never crumble to resentment.
~Dodinsky
 
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. 
~Buddha

WAR

The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.
~Albert Einstein

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. 
~David Friedman

Sometimes I think it should be a rule of war that you have to see somebody up close and get to know him before you can shoot him.
 ~M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter

If we do not end war - war will end us. Everybody says that, millions of people believe it, and nobody does anything.
~H.G. Wells

VIRTUE
 
We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.
~Henry David Thoreau

He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
 ~Charles Caleb Colton

Virtues are dangerous as vices insofar as they are allowed to rule over one as authorities and not as qualities one develops oneself.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

It is hardly respectable to be good nowadays.
~Edith Sitwell


TRUTH
 
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please - you can never have both.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.
~Aldous Huxley

I never dreamed of being Shakespeare or Goethe, and I never expected to hold the great mirror of truth up before the world; I dreamed only of being a little pocket mirror, the sort that a woman can carry in her purse; one that reflects small blemishes, and some great beauties, when held close enough to the heart.
~Peter Altenberg

The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. ~Rebecca West

The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter.
~ SOPHOCLES, Philoctetes
 
It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.
~Oscar Wilde

Watch What You Say

Rom. 16:20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Did you know that anything you say can and WILL be used against you in a court of peers? Yup, the good ol days are gone and we’ve become a nation of gossipers who hang on peoples words, who thought that they had the right to Freedom of Speech, but let me tell you writers, watch what you say, it can and will be used against you.

I say things on my blog and on facebook, that have been used against me. Sure I deactivated facebook and the slithering asps thought they had won and pushed me far enough away that I can’t touch them. But let me tell you, this is MY blog and no one (except the people who own blogger) can remove or condemn my words.

I decided to reactivate my facebook account, because that is sometime the only communication I have with my family. Sad, I know. I decided to delete all the evil zombies who lurk on my wall and self-righteously attack me, picking me apart and using my words against me so they can feel good about themselves. These very people hide behind a mask called Jesus Christ. Yup, you read it here first people, they USE Jesus and the scripture as a front of who they want to be seen as being, a Christian. But are they? I'm not buying it!

Mark 4: 15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

I have a trustworthy sister in Christ, (many actually) but she said, “Those people are targeting you for your stance in Christ.” I thought about it, and scratched my head and said, “YOU’RE RIGHT!” They see this powerful LIGHT emanating from me, they want it and want it bad, try to grab it and they figure putting out my light will make THEM look better. They post their scripture, claim to support America and the Soldiers, they try and form a being where people will see the light shining from them, but I’m telling you, when you’re a serious devout Christian, you can see nothing but FALSITY reigning from their veins.

If you support your America, then you support MY right to free speech, no? If you ARE a Christian, you won’t use my words against me, because Jesus is all about LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. You’ll support the mentally challenged demon possessed , but banish the righteous?

John 1: 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

I SEE now where those so-called peers are coming from. They DON’T comprehend the LIGHT!! Guess what? There’s a difference in spewing and doing!

Yes writers! Watch what you say, because everyone will assume you are referring to them, their site, their life and their walk. They will use your Freedom to Speak, against you!

Banished

Num. 11: 33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.

Job 5:2 For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.

It has swept over her doorway in a tiptoe of silence. Hatred pounded on her door and as she stood looking, unsure if she should open it, a loud crashing sound left her no choice. In an explosion of sound, slivers of wood spread everywhere. She stood with jaw hanging open. A deluge of rain smacked her in the face cutting with its fingers, bleeding, she was knocked to the floor.

They circled round about her with their steel toe boots eagerly waiting to pounce, looking angry with gnarled lips and squinting eyes, judging, sizing up her small frail frame. As she reached to shield the light from piercing her eyes, they began kicking ceaselessly in the face, in the back and anywhere they could get their foot. A boot reached in with fierceness into her mouth and blood dripped as teeth fell to the floor.

Imagine if you will a person who is down on the floor, suffering in pain, being kicked and beaten so that they never stand again. Also look at the faces as they surround the victim as she bleeds. They all look familiar, they...were all once... people she called friend.

“What did I do? What gives you the right to treat me this way?” she says.

“Look at you. You’re pitiful. You think you can do what you want and be crowned the big thang? Not on our watch! We will not allow it.” they taunt.

She wipes the blood from her mouth and begins to try and stand and then one wobbles over, her fat little face all full of smiles, and knocks her down again. A bellow of laughter rings out and tears begin streaming from the eyes of this once pivotal person in each of their lives.

Her mind is wracked with memories, of training these very people, befriending them, praying for them, comforting them, being strong when they were weak, feeling as if she had respect from them but in one swift kick in the stomach, it all ended for her. She began ascending, lights flickering in her head, brilliant radiant streams of light took her, floating to new heights, carried away by the dawns brightness. Nothing to hold her down, she drifted farther and farther away until the stars became a welcome home.

But wait...one last breath caught in her throat. The will to live, to stay, to be part of the magnificent earth was hers once again. As she was tugged back she looked down and saw that her perpetrators had descended into a lowly abyss. Every fiber of their being was rendered useless and God’s wrath set them to slither on their bellies for all of eternity, because heaven was no place for these kind of people. Shattered they were, a compensation for damaging an already ill child of God. They wriggle and squirm as all they held true falls. They are not blameless; they have a scar across their soul that has stained them, never to be removed.

Ps. 79:Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

She stands tall, she walks with ease; a smile has replaced the bloody lips. Her eyes shine with a light that will never be put out. Because what they didn’t know, no one can take away the Light of God shining within her. Yes, she has changed, she is a beacon of hope to all that seek; a light at the end of a tunnel, a promise of beauty...she is your...Angel...Always!

John 1: 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

I Did It...

Romans 12:1 says, " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

Well I went and did it. As you all know, I am in a health crisis at this time and the only thing I look forward to is writing, and coming here to share what I wrote with all of you. I started the new year with a full steam ahead mode, and was enjoying the days of writing until... it happened again. I was let down by the very people I trusted. I was again the victim of bullying by mere acquaintance, and I felt that the leaders (that follow) have no control, or they allow it to happen because they see nothing wrong with the inane behavior, and I’m left standing in the rain with sopping hair and drips of water cascading down my face.


As I always do, I took it to God and asked Him what I need to do to get focused on my writing and helping writers (you my followers), to get these vicious people out of my way. You won’t believe what he said! Well ,He told me to do away with facebook for awhile and the writing sites where I assist, and move on. If those people are really my friends, they know where I am, they know how to contact me. If they care at all, they’ll support me in my task.


Well wouldn’t you know, I deactivated my account on Saturday. And it is now Wednesday and not one person has wrote to me to see if I’m okay or to see what happened. Well my dear friends Sue and June sent me Valentine’s Day cards and made me feel special, as they always do, and Jess wrote me last night asking if I was okay, but the rest of my friends, silence. Friends?


I’ve abandoned the writing sites and figure I’ll leave it to the bullies who manipulate and think they own the site, can do what they want on the site, and are welcomed with open arms into the fold of some sort of deviant behavior. I watch as what I thought were dear friends get sucked into their grasp and support the bullies in every way, shape and form, looking at me as if I have cockroaches for brains.


You see, I’m not easily mislead, and I have no need to appear to be the most popular and friendly person in the world. When I sense EVIL, I don’t play with it, toy around with it, enjoy the company of it; I DELETE it from my life. And if this is what it takes for all the GOOD and promising things to continue to happen in my life, good riddance to the negative that is trying to take me down. I’ll leave them to play and wallow in the bad things happening in their own lives and hopefully they will one day take the blinders off and see it for what it is. But for now, they’re enjoying the ego boost and enjoying the wolves in sheep clothing.


Here it is, Wednesday and already I feel a sense of promise washing over me and lifting me to new heights. I have the innate ability, unlike many, to actually hear God, and I have the strength to listen to Him even if it means giving up many things in my life. He died for me, it is the very least I can do for Him.


I apologize to all those who wanted me to play in the playground, just so you can beat me up. God won’t allow it. Too much has happened in my life to think that life is all about fun and games. I’ll remain Happy-Go-Lucky, chin-up, but it will be with friends whom God himself has chosen to be in my life.


now...onto my WRITING blog...

" and if I had the chance, I'd ask the world to dance. And I'd be dancing with myself." ~ Billy Idol

Bullied Again

Job 24:13 They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

On Friday, my son came home from school not so happy. This year, getting off the bus, he’s usually walking up to the house singing, but Friday he wasn’t. I knew something was wrong. He went on, in pain, to tell me how he was bullied. He was grabbed by his private parts from behind and the kid went on to lift him (hands still on his privates) and throw him to the floor.  My son cringed in pain, until someone came over to see if he was okay. If you’ve got male parts, then you know how sensitive those parts are when even tapped lightly.

My son leaned over holding himself in pain. I called the school immediately, and was assured the matter would be handled. I hope they do because what I’ve experienced is that bullies are the ones lifted up and praised while the ones cringing get left out in the cold. And it’s okay.

 The bullies cry, “Woe woe, poor me. I was abused and now I’m being abused! Woe! Woe! Woe is me! Come to my rescue!” And I have to laugh at the over eager, attention getters who actually get people to feel sorry for themselves and are only liked for the sympathy they garner? THAT is not what life is about, but it is an accepted form of brutal behavior in the writing world and the academic world! They make me sick and not ever want to become a writer, because they have been built up so high by all of their dedicated followers and sympathizers, that they can BULLY people and do what they want, and guess what, the LEADERS allow it and do nothing but add to the sympathy? A sad sad state!

Cowards! When someone is so lonely in life that they feel a desire to put on the false face of , “Look at me! I’m great! I stand for bullies and protect them!” then go on their merry day supporting the demons and praise them for it and not STOP the behavior? It is the losers who support them, that give them their power. “I’ll see what I can do.” Is what they say.  A leader? A leader who follows along and doesn’t LEAD? 

I’m pretty saddened this week because of bullying! I was bullied last year and no one came to my defense, they all surrounded the bullies with support and accolades! And as subtle as the bullies think they are being, they continue their joyride of greatness. It’s a pretty sad day when the bully --negative demons -- finds  acceptance in this world. And you all surround them, and befriend them and become part of all that they stand for? Hail Bullies? NOT!!!

Go ahead, let me hear how you justify a bullies behavior? Go on, call me a bully for being honest and following after the true path of righteousness while you all follow demons and pretend to know the path of light. Go on, tear me down. It can’t get any worse. You’ve taken away an awful lot from me this year, but you will NOT take away my light or my life.

I will not support a leader, the principal, who is a coward. I will follow the only Man who is known to show them their place. As will my son. PRAISE JESUS!

I love you all and will pray for you!

Job 8: 13 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:

You get what you pay for...

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.   

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Well I’ve just about seen it all. I’ll ask you a question. What would YOU, as a writer, expect from a FREE online writing course, that gives you 7 weeks of the basics in writing. Well I feel that some people join the free course to gain something from all the knowledgeable people there, but there is one problem. The majority of students are just that, student beginners who came to learn a few techniques to see if writing is for them.

Some people come expecting professional critique of their work. Or very high standard lessons where you might be able to nail this writing craft down, for free. Now you all know I am no longer a mentor with the course, but I have continued to be an assistant for Bob (the creator, owner, and administrator), sitting back and watching all the folks scramble from room to room, laugh and chat, make friends and enjoy the free-spirited, gung-ho atmosphere. But I scratch my head when someone comes in expecting more than what they paid for. Oh wait, they PAID nothing because it is a FREE course!

The lessons are basically character introduction, senses, point of view, dialogue, conflict and characterization, then a complete short story as your finale. It was bad enough when you have eager writers NOT wanting their work published. The site is pretty proud of the new writers and wants to highlight their lessons by publishing them in a smalltime ezine, but some students fought the powers that be on that one, not wanting to be highlighted. They’d rather turn their first lesson into a best seller and find a publisher who wants their lessons. ???

Then there are students who don’t want to dissect another authors writing, to see just where they might better themselves in their own writing skills.

Then there is the students who expect a professional critique, from a free online writing course for beginners. What I don’t understand is this. You join, its free, you gain knowledge of different writing techniques that you might not have known. You’re asked to READ, follow guidelines, use the tips that the mentors give, but you want more? Bullying is not what they sign up for, and if you’re not in the clique, bullying is what you get and soon, a great writer decides, writing isn’t for them.

In the long line of writing, you get what you paid for. You paid nothing and a you get nothing; you will only get out of the course what you, as a new writer, puts into the course. So why all the hullabaloo over whether you’re getting a professional critique, from beginning writers? I don’t get it. I’d be happy to get ANYone to read my work, good feedback, juicy tidbits and I’ll be on my way, thanks for your time.

Now the mother site has writers who can really kick some butt with all their knowledge. People from the beginning stages to the very advanced stages of writing. Not a baby site at all for the people of the playground mentality. To some it’s a serious, dig your heels in and write site, but...it is a paid for site.

One tip for you that covers many a ground: You get what you pay for! And while your at it, if the playground mentality isn’t for you, flee the site! All that was built up will come crashing down...eventually.

Poetry Sunday ~ Destiny

Pss. 17: 5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

***

Destiny

***

The stars they tiptoe across the sky

emitting light for you and I

A twinkle here, a shimmer there

a pirouette without a care.

A bold ballet in the expanse

friction of light; nothing to chance.

How we met and came to be

was nothing short of destiny.

Our souls collided with light fair ease

a wayward laugh lost in the breeze.

Never knowing where we’d be led,

with years behind and many ahead.

Our love will dance just like the stars

within the cosmos across to Mars.

On the horizon and into the plains

springtime showers, the summers rains.

From here on out our love will grow

display a gorgeous wondrous show.

No need for eyes to dearly impart

all the warmth lain in my heart.

All the years we’ve shared together

through the wind and stormy weather.

For years to come our love will soar

Eternity lasts forever more.

On this day I duly declare

all my love beyond compare.

As rays of light have no end,

My Valentine, to you I send!

Poetry Sunday ~ Bloody Valentine

Job 8: 13 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:

***

Bloody Valentine 

The sunset does not glisten

like the stars soon to follow.

The night sits calm and quiet

as pain has left me hollow.

Night creeps in to peek its head

the crimson seared my mind

The barricades have been built up

across the sands we’d bind.

Often times a glimmer of hope

will shoot across the sky.

But morning claws toward me

I lay here left to die.

Tears they stream silently

upon my bloodstained heart

where has all the love gone;

my pain soon to depart.

The moonlight shadow dances

across this soul not mine.

I hunger for him evermore

my bloody Valentine.

 

Quotation Saturday

TEAM WORK

One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up, add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends; needless to say that individuality counts but team work dynamites.
~Jin Kwon

Teamwork is the ability to work as a group toward a common vision, even if that vision becomes extremely blurry.
~Author Unknown
 
Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. ~Vince Lombardi
A single leaf working alone provides no shade. ~Chuck Page

RELATIONSHIPS

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.
~Swedish Proverb

For lack of an occasional expression of love, a relationship strong at the seams can wear thin in the middle.
~Robert Brault
 
Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
~Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, 1859
 
Sticks and stones are hard on bones
Aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything
But silence breaks the heart.
~Phyllis McGinley, "Ballade of Lost Objects," 1954

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
~Marcel Proust
 
To know when to go away and when to come closer is the key to any lasting relationship.
~Doménico Cieri Estrada

VALENTINE’S DAY

I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon.
~Author Unknown

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
~William Shakespeare

When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks. 
~Natalie Clifford Barney


A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.
~Latin Proverb
 
Tell me how many beads there are
In a silver chain
Of evening rain,
Unravelled from the tumbling main,
And threading the eye of a yellow star: -
So many times do I love again.
~Thomas Lovell Beddoes

“To the love of my life, I will be a priority, not a footnote. I will be his morning breath and his last thought. I will come first, and not as a second thought. The love of my life will see me as rain in a drought, food when hungry, sunshine through clouds and I will be his passion. One day I will be that to someone, and they will be all that and more, to me” Joni

Learn from the Past!

If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.
Natalie Goldberg

I know as a child, had it not been for the mistakes that my parents made, would I have ever learned right from wrong. We learn from other people on the road of life, and it is through them that we decide what we’re going to do or where we’re going. Right or wrong, we’re going to step into the unknown, make a choice, and stand firm in our decision.

I read something that was quite funny yesterday from a student. “What can we learn from the ancients. Times have changed. Move on.” After I readjusted my jaw after it dropped and hung there for a spell, I replied gently, but firmly. This person wants to be a writer, but doesn’t want to learn from writers that have gone on before him/her??? How logical is that?

This person’s exact words were this and I quote: “You know what? I thought this class was to help us become better writers. Not, to learn how to intrepert writers from hundreds of years ago. Hello, times have changed. Our understanding of ancient writers is NOT going to help us attract the interest of that potential agent. Are you REALLY here to help us??? We're not here to be impressed by the accomplishments or knowlege of your experience.”

After you get over the grammatical errors, learn something quite pivotal from this statement. This person is in writing for the money. Not the knowledge they can gain from writers and accomplished writers who came before them who achieved greatness because of their skills in the writing world. How does this young student EXPECT to attract that potential agent, if that person has not gained one bit of insight from from those ancients such as James Joyce, Shakespeare, and Sorry Mr. Bradbury, but you’re thought of as an ancient tool in the writing world.

I cannot imagine a world of learning not being shaped by the thoughts and techniques of men and women who have gone on before me. I learned to write poetry, not by some new aged rapper, but from the elders in the field. First Shakespeare, Frost, Tennyson, Byron, Dickenson; just to name a few. They didn’t teach me, but reading them and dissecting their work, I gained knowledge of the flow, the artistic stance in their words, the paint they used to place a portrait in my mind. Had I not read them, where would I get my information? Knowledge? Know-how?

Are we expected to learn from the new age and times? Sure times have changed, and I haven’t seen much in the way of, for-the-better, either. So what am I to take away from the statement, “What can we learn from the ancients?” You will learn this my friend, just what your FUTURE holds!

Google: Your Friend

"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go." 

E.L. Doctorow

Are you a writer? Do you call yourself a writer? Then you, my friend, need GOOGLE as a friend. I read so many times people asking simple questions to something that they themselves, had they asked google first, would already know the answer to.
 
Often when I’m looking for a blog topic for the day all I have to do is google anything about writing. It hands me over to numerous pages and that is when I click something and lo and behold, something clicks for me. Then I go on to write for about an hour and sometimes it often leads to yet another possibility for a blog post.

I’m often surprised when someone, say a journalist, who sits and writes and gets paid for their work, often times doesn’t even do ample research in bringing you a story. They just write what they gather as information and thats that, no fact finding mission involved. The bad thing in delivering non-factual evidence to the public, we as readers believe it to be truth and judge a person as such.  Lives get tarnished because of misinformation, but often as is the case, the newspaper never retracts the false data, and if they do, it is found buried underneath where no one is bound to read. Me, I like to go on a fact finding mission so I can bring you as close to the truth that you need to be without second guessing what I’m writing.

I read a funny quote. I’m sure you seen this one going around the social scene a gazillion times:

“ Don’t believe every thing you read on the internet.” Abraham Lincoln

Why is that funny? Because you’re reading it from the internet, and the author is Abe Lincoln, whom you know was not around when the internet surfaced. So you are to surmise, that this is either truth or fiction. In writing, even fiction needs to hold some truth to it, or your readers will scratch their heads and wonder what nail your driving into plastic. I say plastic because it is easy to drive home a nail in wood, but not so easy into plastic. Meaning, the reader is not buying what you’re selling.

There are many search engines if you just do the research. Go ahead, google search engines. Google is nice enough to give you them too! So on your journey as a budding writer, do not hesitate in having google as your friend. Get to know it intimately and use the settings, a lot of times they work but don’t get all the gunk that you really don’t need. Anything after page one, you’re chancing what comes up on the screen when you click the offering.

With google as my witness, the things I speak of are true to the best of my knowledge. But please, don’t just trust me on that, google what you’re not understanding. Research and dig, until you come upon the truth. It’s out there, just waiting for you.
 
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet” ~ Joni ~  Now THAT is a name you can trust!

Built Over night?

There are three difficulties in authorship: to write anything worth publishing, to find honest men to publish it - and to get sensible men to read it.
~Charles Caleb Cotton

I see so many folk jump on the bandwagon of writing only to want to get it done, right here and right now. This career choice isn’t one where you go to college, come out with a degree and then become a rich and famous published author. It’s all about a snails pace mentality. You write every day, you blog possibly, you move forward step by step in hopes to achieve something of a positive result.

Many want a lesson to know about show and tell, they look for answers and feedback, get swayed by being the most popular in a class and are quick to help, and aid in any way they can. But I’m telling you once more, writing is not a popularity contest. Writing is long hard work. Dedication to knowledge in the field.

Don’t walk into a class, with an arrogance of , “My work is so great, I’m saving it for ‘proper’ publication.” You’re in a private classroom, locked out from the public, you’re creatively learning by doing writing lessons, and when someone wants to honor you on a good job, it gets published in a private ezine. And you, as a writer say, “No, I don’t want my work published, I’m saving it for the big leagues.”

We writers are an arrogant bunch. To think for one moment, that a lesson, in a class, where you are learning the ropes, is publishable in the ‘big leagues’?  Let me tell you now, arrogant writers, your writing is protected in a classroom. Even if published by your classroom ezine, does not make it, already published when it comes submitting time to the big leagues of the industry. The Big Guys are looking for polished work. They strive to find perfection in an imperfect world, they want knowledgeable and profitable work that is going to not only make them money, but bring you a few dollars too.

It’s a long hard road to publication, and no, you as a beginning writer are not going to become this great publishable writer over night. The road is bumpy and sometimes unpleasant. There are hurdles to leap over and hoops to jump through. There are hours upon hours of learning techniques and knowledge to form and shape a story into a money-making sold story.

Some steps to take to get where you’re going:

1) To learn about show vs. tell, Point of View, Character building, etc. , don’t wait for an online course to teach you what THEY know, go out and grab information for yourself!!! You can google simple words, ie. Show and Tell in Writing, to give you tons of knowledge.

2) Put all the information into a file and use it as you write and shape your story. If you feel that a sentence isn’t working, it probably isn’t. Dig into the knowledge pool and find out why!

3) Learn what publishers are looking for. You may think your story is the best on earth, but will any publishers want the same old, same old, tried and true crud that is already out there, or are they seeking something new and different in your work?

4) Set aside the popularity contest. Being popular is not what writing is about and will not get you one iota closer to being a published writer. If you need your ego stroked, you’re in the wrong line of business here.

5) Write! Write! Write! -- Being a writer means that you are going to spend hours upon hours writing and learning. A writing career is not built over night. It takes years of patience, blood, sweat, and tears.