As a Writer, What If I Am Just Average?

On WordPress, I continue to be amazed by the collection of talent. Sometimes an author’s writing floors me with its power, cleverness, raw emotion or beautiful use of language.

I am none of those things. I am a nerd who can correctly string together a series of words. As a writer–as a word artist–I am average.

How then do I expect to compete in the commercial marketplace? The same way an average employee competes in the workplace. By showing up. By giving my best effort. And like a tidal wave, by sheer volume. A dose of self-promotion is important, too. If I don’t market, I won’t sell. (Please don’t stop reading here. The best of this post is yet to come.)

I’ve said this before and I will say it again: throw enough at a wall and something will stick.

Part of succeeding as an average writer is finding my audience. I do that by writing in all the ways that appeal to me–short stories, haiku, flash fiction and novels. (In 2013, I hope to add internet content to the list.) Then I analyze. Of those things I like to write, what are people reading?

I need to look at my statistics. What do statistics tell me about what readers like in my work? Is it my true confessions? Is it self-improvement or how-to articles? Pop culture? Or factual pieces? Humorous stories? The off-the-wall?

Success is finding the match of my abilities with a need in the marketplace.

Ask the reader.

So I am asking you right now. What do you like best about this blog? Why do you stop by? Is there something which you’d like to see more often? Any answer is a helpful one. Silence hurts. So tell me something, anything, that will make this blog a better experience for you. Even if it is what you don’t like. Say, “Fay, dump this. Keep that.” Bring it on. Help me get better.

For me, that’s what it is all about. The best part is serving, helping, pleasing you, the reader.

The next best part is getting good enough to earn a paycheck! But that’s another post for another day.  🙂

Will Creative Humans Be Replaced by Machines in the Future?

The intelligence and military agencies of the United States are working on automated systems to replace human  analysts in intelligence work. The human brain is a masterful “sensemaking” device, but it is subject to the human weaknesses of fatigue, bias or stress. Therefore, the government is going all in to find a machine that can do the work as well as an human, and maybe better.

Until now, the agency points out, the human brain has remained “the only known  example of a general-purpose sensemaking system.” Not for long:  Iarpa wants a  computer that would mimic human strengths, like analytic reasoning or learning  from mistakes, but do it without the accompanying weaknesses. The ideal Iarpa  system would first process and explain human sensemaking: why an analyst opted  for one hypothesis over another. Then, the computer would improve upon it, by  determining whether a decision-maker was affected by ambiguous data, deception,  or even denial. Finally, the system would offer its own sensemaking hypothesis – without any extenuating influence – instead.

Iarpa suggests that the  system would help out “overburdened analysts with routine, low-level analytic  tasks.” But a 2001 report from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense  points out that sensemaking is most often compromised in high-stress situations,  and, for that reason, humans are usually the weakest link.

Read more: http://www.disclose.tv/forum/spytech-agency-wants-software-brains-to-connect-the-dots-t13503.html#ixzz27ISZRsVk

All this gets me wondering, will there come a day when machines are used to write books, create poetry, works of art and music? Will a computer frame a photograph as well as Ansel Adams? Will 3-D copiers create art to rival Michelangelo’s masterpieces using flesh and blood models or mere mathematical formulas derived from analysis of 2-D items? And, if that day comes, who will the audience be?

Positioning Yourself in Your Market

A few days ago I read a great quote from a financial web site that has great relevance for writers who intend to sell their work in the open market. If you plan to be commercial, then spend a few minutes thinking how these words apply to you.

Rick Rule, founder and CEO of Global Resource Investments said:

The trick is not to be right all the time; it’s to be right more often than you’re wrong. And to position yourself ahead of trends that are unstoppable, then to wait for the market to come to you.

To me the perfect example of positioning is the Harry Potter series. The interest in things supernatural or fantastic started snowballing with author Anne Rice’s series about the vampire Lestat. The stories of Harry Potter and the associated witches and warlocks populating his adventures were positioned to surf the trend.

Positioning doesn’t discount the need for writing a good tale. Rather it suggests ways to determine which tales to tell to achieve commercial success.

Microfiction: The Sins of the Father

Thought I’d share a noir/ science fiction/ flash-, sudden-, micro-fiction creation of 33 words that I jotted a few days ago after listening to a trends analyst speak. His projections took my mind in a dark direction regarding our future as a species. No pretty picture here.

The Sins of the Father

by F. Moore (c) 2012

Father works secretly on his biological weapon. The plan goes awry. He doesn’t consider the unintended consequences; the creation’s malevolence is greater than supposed. The creation consumes Father’s family, then stalks the world.