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Scott Belsky studies and writes about productive people and his 5 Ways to Reduce Social Media Distractions and Be More Productive is, I think, required reading. Put it on your To-Do Urgent list.
Don't misunderstand, I think the new social media (web sites, blogs, FaceBook and Twitter and more to come) can be a valuable tool to a writer seeking to get the word out about what she or he has written. But it is a tool, not the thing itself. I'm reminded of Plato's "Cave" allegory in his Republic:
Socrates begins by describing a scenario in which what people take to be real would in fact be an illusion. He asks Glaucon to imagine a cave inhabited by prisoners who have been chained and held immobile since childhood: not only are their arms and legs held in place, but their heads are also fixed, compelled to gaze at a wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway, along which people walk carrying things on their heads "including figures of men and animals made of wood, stone and other materials". The prisoners watch the shadows cast by the men, not knowing they are shadows. There are also echoes off the wall from the noise produced from the walkway.
Socrates asks if it is not reasonable that the prisoners would take the shadows to be real things and the echoes to be real sounds, not just reflections of reality, since they are all they had ever seen or heard. Wouldn't they praise as clever whoever could best guess which shadow would come next, as someone who understood the nature of the world? And wouldn't the whole of their society depend on the shadows on the wall?
Social media is not reality. Reality is what we discuss using social media. We need to be wary that the discussion does not take up more time than the creation of the thing we are to discuss. Get out of the cave and stop focusing upon the shadows.
Learn the basics of writing promotional materials for businesses and professionals including press releases, flyers, slogans/mottos, sales letters, brochures, three piece mailer, layout/graphics, marketing, and pricing.
This course offers a series of progressive one-page Teaching Guides of the crafts of writing and submitting, leading up to the specific goals of submitting works for publication. The course should help determine whether the student has both the talent and drive necessary to become a published author.
No, we’re not talking about boring school tests or those nasty “pop quizzes” we all hated. These are the quizzes in magazines and in the Sunday section of your newspaper most of us can’t resist taking. They are fast to write—and fun to take. The two main types of quizzes – lifestyle and “fast factual” will be covered.
Learn to to find information, locate and interview experts, learn how to apply the rules of rigorous scholarship to your findings, and learn how to stay out of legal trouble while doing all this.
Learn everything from coming up with a story idea to preparing a completed manuscript for sale in this popular genre.
SCHOOL
NEWS: Last week I wrote that we had to put John Paxton Sheriff's course on Crime Novels and Short Stories, as well as his course in Novel Writing, on hold for the present. I'm delighted to report that John is back and rarin' to go. His two new courses (new to us, he's been teaching them for years) are at:
Crime Novels and Short Stories: Crime fiction is by far the most popular genre you will see on library shelves (romance runs it a close second). This course is designed to guide you, the aspiring writer, through all the stages of writing a crime novel. ...At the end of six weeks, you will be well into your novel. More importantly, you will have the confidence that comes from knowing you are writing well.
Novel Writing: Some sage once said that everyone has a novel inside them. We all know that, but the problem is in getting it out, down on paper via the friendly computer, and then accepted by a publisher. ...And at the end of the course,...when your finished novel lands on your chosen publisher's desk they will know at once that they are reading work by a competent writer.
WHO's
DOING WHAT: Former poetry student of Paul Haenel, Melanie Reitzel has been busy. She was published in ZYZZYVA the journal of west coast writers & artists. "It's a sharply edited publication and looks classy as hell. Howard Junker's a tough (and feisty) editor and it's taken as long as elephants take to gestate to get this piece in to print. There's a riotous story in this issue by a writer named Jackson Bliss. Fabulous writer. Check it out. Recently had a long prose poem "Gauloises," accepted by The Black Boot. Will finish up my MFA at SFSU next Spring. Working on a CNF piece on the experience of a Wyoming/Montana cult member. So far - so good."
ESSAY: Benevolent
Dictator:
The editor-writer
relationship
by Kelly
Boyer Sagert
You
must be:
* Wildly creative, while following the precise rules of grammar, spelling
and punctuation
* Assertive with editors, while sticking to their exact guidelines
And you must be willing to:
* Keep an editor up to date with your progress, without bothering her
* Work hard on a project, with no guarantee of another assignment
