Lies

Never believe anything a writer tells you!

Pants on Fire

Recently, I’ve run into some old pals from grade school and a couple from high school.  Ah, the miracles of the Web.  After talking with them, I’ve slowly begun to realize that I’ve always been a storyteller and, apparently, a pretty good one, because they still believe.  One girl even asked me if I ever graduated from Witchbrew Academy.  Was she joking?  Did she ever actually believe that?  Maybe, she did.  I can still see the awe on her twelve-year-old face, but I can’t remember what I was telling her at the time.  (I do remember the thrill it gave me to see her reactions.)  But surely, at some point down-the-road and years later she realized it was BS.

ePublishing Ponzi

Say What?

Occasionally, I come across an article that I don’t want to believe.  As I read, I’m resistant to the ideas proposed, until I come across a certain section that is undeniably true.

Lately, I’ve been offering links to other sites.  I know you might click away to read them and forget about me, as you get caught up in the article, but I’m really, really interested in what you think about this one.  Here’s a short clip of the article:

Every Writer’s Nightmare

“Better Him Than Me”

Want to read about every writer’s worse nightmare?  Check-out the reviews on Huff Post for The Worst Book Ever.  Self-published, of course.  This guy must be hiding under his bed, changing his name and closing all his accounts by now.   In a way, I feel sorry for him.  In a way, I don’t.   BTW:  Haven’t I seen his name on Smashwords?

Who Knew?

See the Light

 

…and I thought an edit was just an edit.  But no, the experts break it down into logical and productive steps.

 

 

1.  Rewrites, revisions and substantive edit:  I guess, you’ call this the Big Picture.

(I’m particularly talented at this stage, IMHO.)

2.  Line Edit:  An engine check.  Does it work?  Does it flow?  Is it logical?  Is every action followed by a reaction?  Is the POV consistent?

(I get a passable grade on this one, too.)

FYI

As if you don’t have enough to read, check out this eye-opener:  Confessions of a Publisher.

The first paragraph almost caused me to fall out of my chair.  I mean, I knew that, but I didn’t know anyone else knew that.

Sequence

Read these two excerpts and tell me which one you like better…

This one, a mishmash of sentences as they occurred to the writer (me):

Early morning light crept across the dirt floor.  When would they come for him? What monstrous hour would be his time? Steve watched a spider build its web between the two metal bars of his cot. He noted the beads of dew on the web without really seeing them, without seeing the spider or its red belly, without caring about a potential bite from its venomous fangs.  Down the hall, keys rattled on a heavy chain, a door clanked and a prisoner whined something unintelligible.  Somewhere, within the compound but farther away, two other men laughed.  It was not the sound of two men sharing a joke.  Steve squatted on the ground, pulling his legs up until even his toes were covered by the darkness.

Wiki

So, Wikipedia is down for the day.  That’s kind of scary, isn’t it?  Even if it is only for 24 hours.

Makes me want to run down to the store and buy a set of encyclopedias.  Of course, encyclopedias are like automobiles.  As soon as you cross over the curb, they’re not worth as much as you paid for them.

It also makes me  think about government control.  For all the officials bemoaning of short funds and national debt, there seems to be no shortage or end-in-sight to the government’s ability to set-up new agencies and lockdowns on information.  (You don’t think they can monitor these new rules without spending a zillion dollars, do you?)

Are we approaching a time when what we KNOW is only what ‘they’ want us to KNOW???  Is the Internet the last vestige of secret knowledge for those who can ferret it out?   Are they putting a public relations spin on what they’re doing?  Is a copyright more important that 4th Amendment?

The government has its nose in too many things.  Don’t you agree?  Instead of the government stepping on us, we should be stepping on them.  Of course, this is the historical path of all governments.  Eliminating more and more freedoms, until the whole system is torn down.

Am I making too much out of a little thing???  Maybe.  But it looks like a bad omen to me.  And what’s up with the lack of coverage on the news?  It almost like the word has gone out:  Don’t mention it and maybe no one will notice.  Excuse me, but in my world, Wikipedia is more important than O.J.

Writing often calls for research.  All you writers out there should be paying attention.

Arguing with Word

Have you ever had an argument with a word processor?  Did you win?  Did you lose?  Never mind who was right and what inanimate object was wrong.  Being right doesn’t make you a winner.

The greatest mistake writers make with a computer’s dictionary and grammar check is assuming the machine is always right and they are always wrong–including me.  Most often this involves the spellchecker. The greatest mistake that I ever made was typing the word ‘nipple’ when I meant ‘nibble.’  Whop-Do-Whop!  The computer did not disagree.   Boy, was my face red.

Living in the 21st Century, Part Two

Pinging off the Smile Every Day blog by Imrod. 

You know you’re living in the 21st Century when:   

16.  You don’t worry about Date Night; you worry about hooking-up after your get to the club.

17.  You have no idea who’s living next door, until the state sends you a Sex Pervert Alert.

18.  You haven’t written a check since the last time you paid property tax.

19.  You have 3 trashcans:  one for garbage and two for recyclables.

20.  You’re online server sent you a warning about exceeding 150 megabytes.  Watching Netflix has caused your online server to penalize you for exceeding 150 GBs.  You will be charged and extra $10 for ever 50 GBs after.  You are now in the top 2% of online hogs.

21.  You suddenly realize YouTube is more entertaining than TV.

22.  You think anyone who is under 75 and still can’t operate a computer is an illiterate dumb wad.

23.  You’ve got more friends–that you don’t know–on Facebook than you do in real life.

24.  Your cat has an automatic litter box, and your dog’s name is a password.

25.  Gasoline is higher than your car payments.

I challenge everyone to write 5 more.  :)  Sideways smile/ Number 11. 

Let’s Do It Again

 

There’s an old southern saying.  ’Whatever you find yourself doing on New Year’s Day, you’re bound to repeat all year long.’  So find yourself something fun to do today………cm