When the Joy Is Gone

This morning I was encouraged that I may, indeed, have the stuff of the writer within. How so? I’ll tell you a story.

The local writers group finished its anthology. The planning, writing, collating, editing and formatting for publication ate up six months. No sooner had the group finished the work than one member started us writing again on a story circle. My task was to wrap the story up and bring it home. I finished that earlier this morning. Two hours later I was sending a message to the best editors in our group, suggesting a polishing of the circle story so it could be submitted to Glimmer Train Press, Inc.’s Open Fiction contest.

And, I thought to myself, they have an open theme contest every three months. What can we do for the next one?

My point is I congratulated myself for looking for opportunities to write. I patted myself on the back and thought,  I am writer; hear me roar.

THEN I came upon an essay by Micah Nathan, a real writer, called “A Fatalist’s Manifesto.” He burst my writer’s bubble — at least he yanked me from an undeserved Cloud Nine. He pointed out how much is drained from a writer–ground from his bones, twisted from his sinews–in the writing process. And it gets worse as the writer gets better.

In it he says:

A Fatalist’s Manifesto
A student recently asked me if writing ever gets easier. It’s just so difficult, she said, then she sat back, folded her arms, and waited. I suspect she wanted to hear some good news, how the young writer continues to read and write and eventually finds the creative process no longer akin to tweezing out portions of one’s brain and smearing them onto a blank page. But what a lousy lie that would be. “It” doesn’t get easier and may actually get harder (a Clintonian parsing of what “it” means could take up an entire essay), and if “it” doesn’t get harder, then the writer has become lazy, and eventually even the hardest-working writer either runs out of endurance, money, or time.. . .

Reading the essay, I recognized I am still delirious in the delight of the dilettante when writing. I have nothing to lose because I have no professional recognition or status. I have no expectant fans. If that ever happens, I will understand what it means to work under the pressure to keep producing and to have every book be better than the last one.

For a reality check about the life of a professional author, read this.  And have a bottle of Tums close by.

http://www.glimmertrain.com/b71nathan.html

The Anthology Is Going to Press

Within the week, the Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe Anthology will be in the hands of Acorn Book Services for formatting. Within the month, the e-book will be available for sale on Amazon.com.

The anthology integrates the varied writing interests of the authors into a fast and easy read.  There’s something for everyone: young adult to inspirational to fantasy to adult fiction to poetry to ultra-short story (such as 33- or 55-word stories). Whatever your tastes in reading, the anthology offers enough variety to satisfy.

Sound like an advertisement? It is.

Naturally, I hope you will read the anthology and share feedback with me. Your feedback helps the writers of Desert Rose Cafe to improve and grow. Criticism is welcomed when it is meant to help.

The project itself drove several of the authors out of a comfort zone. Writing within a group setting is very different from writing alone. For a couple of the writers, the process of publication is a first experience. Others have years of creative expertise. One of our own developed the book cover with group input. Members assumed varying responsibilities such as editing, content organization, setting timelines and the like. The satisfaction of bringing the projection to completion is almost at hand.

As an aside, one of our authors has Asperger’s Syndrome, a developmental disability that affects one’s ability to socialize and communicate effectively with others. Can you imagine the huge satisfaction that writer is feeling right now?

Now the marketing begins, along with the next learning curve for some of us. When the e-book is available to purchase, I’ll share where to buy it.

As I learn what works and what doesn’t on the marketing side of the venture, I’ll share those lessons, too.

Later, ‘gator.

Writing Non-fiction with the Punch of Fiction

For today’s post, I borrowed a piece of writing that I thought did a good job of adding a bit of punch to a news item. The original article in its entirety can be seen at http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-07-12/preparing-inevitable. I’ve excerpted a section for educational purposes.

Hope you find this helpful when you write something like a magazine article. If you can add a bit of spice to your writing style, it may make your submission stand out to an editor. Be a good chef: know when to draw the line on the seasonings. Too much can spoil the dish.

Nuff said:

One thing we haven’t had to contend with much in the past is the impact of a computer glitch on our lives. My favorite example occurred right here in San Diego on July 4^th.

The long awaited, highly anticipated, state-of-the-art fireworks tribute to American independence is an event so spectacular that people drove hundreds of miles just for the “oohing” and the “aahing”, and the gut punching of dozens of thunderous explosions spread out over forty-five minutes.

Billed as the Big Bay Boom it is a fireworks lover’s heaven. The show itself was produced by the venerable century old firm, Garden City Fireworks, all the way from Millington, New Jersey.

No amateurs flickin’ bics in a trench somewhere. Four separate locations, including three barges brought into the bay itself, would serve as launch pads.

Because of the uniqueness of the site, this would be one of company’s biggest shows of the year and they do hundreds of them from coast to coast.

As darkness set in, people positioned themselves for what was to come.

And, then it began.

Oh, and it was magnificent! No one could recall ever seeing anything bigger or hearing anything louder. One observer described it as looking “as though a flaming planet were roaring right at us.”

It was an apt description. It had that Steppenwolf song “Born to Be Wild” lyric quality to it, “Fire all of our guns at once, explode into space.”

And then…. it was over. Done, fine, the end.

They had indeed fired all of their guns at once and the show was done in 15 seconds, pretty much guaranteeing some kind of Guinness record I would imagine.

Officials referred to the event as “premature ignition.”

But hey, it happens to all of us at one time or another, right?

The Big Bay Boom was just that, one big boom. Only a computer could do that.