Giveaway Complete

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway for my annuities book! We had over 300 people request a free copy, but unfortunately I was limited to only 2 copies. I can assure you that I appreciate your interest in my work and that there will be many more opportunities in the future to get free pieces of my writing. If you simply cannot wait, you can always go to the Atlantic website and purchase a direct copy from here:

http://roia.biz/ts/n/.DLivq1BAALtB2M3ODgAQgAAX9dmMQA-A/

The annuity book is not yet on Kindle, but the selling short book is. If you want a copy at the reduced Kindle price, please visit the Amazon site.

With that said, I am officially switching gears. While I will still continue writing financial pieces for various clients, I will no longer be seeking publication of my financial writing (unless someone makes me a REALLY good offer). Instead, I will be focusing on my fiction. This is my true passion and I want to spend more time pursuing it.

Contest

The only writing contest I have ever entered was for a chapbook of poetry I put together several years ago. I didn't hear anything from the people who organized the contest, so I assume that my chapbook did not win. But I came across a short story contest a few days ago that intrigued me. It's a science fiction/fantasy contest that must include an element of a new real-life scientific development. Without giving out too much information, I revolved my story around new information concerning the visualization of black holes. It took me only 2 days to write the rough draft; I have yet to begin editing.

You can find info on the contest here: I Like a Little Science in My Fiction

Writers are Not Alone

Writing is not a solitary act. True, it might begin as a need for one individual, but when you are done your finished product is cast out into the world. It is no longer yours to control. A piece of writing becomes open to interpretation; it is no longer in the original writer’s power to change the message that it portrays. Good writing will more closely mirror the author’s intent, but a story is only as good as the words behind it, and words are severely limited. 

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the legendary Lord of the Rings trilogy was a linguistics professor before he became a household name. His ability to use language to conjure up the images that he wanted to is perhaps one of the best examples of how language can be used to its most effective level. Mordor, for example, is a dark word; its similarity to the word “murder” cannot be taken as accidental. As you can see, mastery over words will give your readers an experience as closely correlated to the one intended as possible. 

But each individual will ultimately need to interpret a piece of writing for themselves. What Jung called arch-types will provide a basic framework of understanding, but the specifics come down to individual experiences. For example, a murder scene in a book will be widely viewed as a deviant act, but if a serial killer reads your work, he will necessarily have a different interpretation and visualization of the scene than someone whose family member was murdered in front of them will. These are extreme examples, of course, but the point is still the same: different people will see things differently. Your story no longer truly belongs to you once it is published—it becomes your readers’ and is completely open to their interpretations.

Finding Value in the Life of Characters

I am currently reading a book by the modern philosopher Colin Wilson entitled Super Consciousness. This book is an explanation and how-to manual for achieving a more positive view of the world, and with it, an elevated sense of awareness. In his review on literature concerning this topic, he emphasizes the fact that surviving near-death experiences will often result in a euphoric feeling, which in writers can lead to a greater appreciation of the world around us. However, I was instantly reminded of a few of my own experiences.

Disregarding the fact that I have had more than one near-death experience (which is a very scary fact), I have been trying to determine the effect of these experiences upon my own writing. For example, when I was in Boy Scouts, we had an overnight visit to a World War II battleship that had been converted to a museum. Being the "explorer" that I am, I took it upon myself to sneak into a restricted area and climb up the five or six levels to the top of the battleship. It was winter and this part of the ship had not been maintained, so there was ice all along the walkways. Of course I slipped on the ice and fell partially under the single chain that acted as a barrier between the walkway and a 100 foot-plus drop. I am glad to report that I did not fall to my death, but managed to stay on the walkway as my feet dangled over the edge.

Some of my writing is violent. Some of it is compassionate. Whatever I am writing though, the fact that life can be fleeting remains a strong fact. I am not claiming that my near-experiences have brought me to a higher level of thinking as Wilson suggests they ultimately will. But I have grown to appreciate the fact that life is not something that we can take for granted. I try to use this heavy metric when determining which of my characters live and which ones die. Characters will always remain a tool for me with which to express myself, but that will not stop me from weighing the pros and cons of killing them off.

Writer's Block

I don't believe in writer's block. I think it is an excuse for laziness. I do believe, however, in the fact that a writer can come to a roadblock for a given story/idea/essay/etc. This is not the same thing as writer's block. This is only a minor problem. Unless you are on a deadline, of course. I will get to that in a bit.

"Writer's block" can easily be avoided if you have a number of projects going at one time. For example, I have two clients that I freelance for right now, plus I am working on a novel and I am also starting to blog and review books more frequently. When I get stuck with one of these projects, I just move on to another one. I know this doesn't work for all writers, but it certainly helps me to stay productive.

Writing for someone else brings up an interesting challenge. When you have a deadline that you must meet, your writing will take on a tone of urgency. In order to complete the work on time, you need a clear idea of exactly what you need to write and at what pace. By listing your tasks ahead of time, this becomes much easier. I try and plan out all of my freelancing at the beginning of the week. This allows me to track my progress on my clients' behalf so that I can know ahead of time if/when I fall behind schedule. If I fall too far off pace, I force myself to sit down at the computer and write until it is done. Just by knowing that I must write something, I am able to get started. Once I start, no matter stuck I am, I can always keep going. The hard part is just writing that first sentence. Remember, you can always revise if the first few thoughts you get down are no good.

My Novel Writing Tip

Hi,

I wanted to share some of my shortcuts that I have discovered while writing my first novel. I should mention first that they are not really "short cuts" per se; they are more helpful hints that ease the process of coming up with a 400 page manuscript. As you might have guessed, this is a lot of writing and there is no easy way around it. Most novelists require a year or more to put together a full-length novel that is ready to be submitted. Unless you can devote eight-plus hours a day to writing, you need to be looking at the completion of a novel as a long-term goal. Do not be intimidated by taking on a project of such a large size.

The secret of finishing a novel is to write--a lot. You don't need to write everyday, but you do need to be disciplined and strive to consistently devote a few solid hours to your project each week. If you are scatterbrained like I am, this is much more difficult than it sounds. My secret is to just write whatever I am thinking about. Even if it is seemingly not related to the novel I am working on, I write it down.

This is important for two reasons. One: it allows me to focus my energy and get back to the novel with a fully recharged mental battery. And two: it is often material that I can use for later chapters. I am a big fan of tying in multiple plot lines into a single story. Getting these "independent" ideas down on paper sometimes gives me a clear look of where I want my story to go. Of course, this is only true for a small portion of the ideas I scribbled down when I should have been working on the novel, but for the couple ideas that do work, I am able to put in twists and turns that nobody--including myself--expected. This keeps my writing fresh and exciting for me, and hopefully for my readers.