The First Line.

Too often I hear bad, and I mean really bad advice that leaves writers plundering and pillaging their brains for something they do not need. This mainly involves the first line of a story.

Charge!

We hear these lies, “The first line is the most important” and thus we quest off after some lost ideal of the perfect opening line. I say thee NAY! Do not run off on this fools errand, for it will end in naught but a hearty disappointment! Creative writing, wonderful stories, and epic tales do not depend on opening lines!

Never one in my life have I ever heard the line “The story was poor but the opening line saved it”

and I never will…. we all know this true. The opening line serves no other purpose then to get them to read the next line, and then the next. Each line leads to the next, so the first one is no more important then the last, or the one that follows it.

Why is this you ask?

Because my brother in arms against the hordes of misguided advice, there is only one thing that matters, and that is the story itself, with that put out, write it the way you feel it come to life for you. Your world, your tale, your story! Pen it down and bring it life,by your hand.

I have heard the highest praise of “From the first line to the last, it was a great story” and that is what matters.

With that said, my only advice to you is be consistent in what you do.

Write Fearlessly!

Ok.. this has to stop…

I was at books-a-million today and I was looking at the books I want to buy and read, and the books I want to read and not buy, and the books I want to buy and not read, but pretty much I was looking at the prices of the books and comparing them to other places, like Wal*Mart and Target for example.

So I see this sign 20% off Twilight.

Yes I have not read the book, I have waited for the movie to come out and my budget to allow me to watch the movie before I decided to read the book. Why you might ask? Let me tell you.

Because this is the rule of how things work, if you read the book before the move and it is a good book, the movie will suck, if you read a book based on the movie before the movie, the book will suck, if you watch the movie and then read the book that the movie was based on, you have a good shot of enjoying both.

So that is what I do.

Anyway, back to Twilight, so I see that it is 20% off WITH a membership discount card. So I walk up to the front desk and ask for the card, because my Pet Smart, my Food Town, Food World, PAW’s and all my other “We want to track your purchasing habits” cards were free, I expected this to be no different.

Now, I have to give the guy at the counter gold marks for really being a great salesman, but when I heard that I needed to pay 20 bucks for a discount card, I almost spit the over priced cup of black with two sugars coffee on his counter.

Now, every time I turn around I see brick and mortar book stores having “it hard” thanks to Amazon, but apparently they don’t have it “Hard enough” to give a discount card away for free to people that.. I don’t know.. want to buy books from them.

because lets be real, if I am going to fill out the forum for a discount card, I am going to buy a book with it, perhaps, a few, and “In the long run” does not mean squat when I only have 10 – 20 bucks to spend on books per pay check (if I am lucky), going home with a “Discount card” for next time, just does not cut it.

see more Fail Blog

So, now I am at home, no book, no discount card, and wondering who’s brilliant idea it was to charge people to be your customer.

I mean, Ok if you offred me something I could not get someplace else, sure, membership and all that jazz, specialy books, hard to find out of print stuff and I need to pay to be a member, ok, you got me.. but seriously… when you sell books… along with everyone else… I have no idea what they are thinking.

Anyway. That is my bit… and why I have not read Twilight yet.

When I get around to buying the book, I’ll give a review of it.

Thanks for reading.

Marley & Me

Now I got to me honest, I enjoyed this movie, not because it was such an amazing movie, or because of who the actors were, their skill however was top notch which I feel did help the movie a lot.

What amazed me however was that on a writing forum I was on, I was watching people give this movie a very bad review, saying things like “2 hours of crap” and the like.

I will say this now, if you ever  plan to write, go watch this movie, it will show you first hand what a chairacre  driven story is. Marely and Me is a story about the people, their lives and done in truly an amazing tale of love, growth and just some chaos in our everyday lives.

So sure, there was no Death Star to blow up, or some ring of power, but it was still none the less a very enjoyable story about people.

And if you plan to write, if you plan to develop people, watching this movie will be a great boon to you.

and it is an enjoyable movie to boot!

Go For It!

Every time I turn around I see people getting stuck in a rut of what “to do” and what “Not to Do” and this can appy to anything.

Nevermore however this affects writing and world building, as we constantly face everyone and anyone shouting, whining and complaing about what not to do.

so I am not going to tell you what not to do, I am going to say “Try this”

And here is my “Try this” idea: Tell “Them” to shove it, and do what you wanted to do to begin with.

Truly I tell you.

Write Fearlessly!

Keep at it!

What is the defining line between writing and failing at writing?

When I asked this question to many other writers I got vast array of answers but one seemed to be reoccurring, and was the mantra of published writers, both self and traditional.

Paraphrased, they said – “Endurance”

While each tried to explain it their own way, this is what I gleaned from their bits of wisdom and plan to pass it along to you.

Writing is like a sport, a race even, something you do with a goal at the end, it is not job, a job is something you do to make money to buy the stuff you want so you now have to go out and make more money, there is no goal in a job beyond remain the cycle of earn and spend.

But writing, that is like swimming the English Channel, or climbing Everest, you have a goal, and the difference between those that do and those that don’t is, well assuming they both have the same skills, talents and intelligence, is Endurance.

So yah, it is hard, like anything where you have a goal, you bolt out the starting gate and think you are going to finsih that marathon like it was nothing,and about 2 miles in, it hits you, this is a long run, then it begins to set in that this is work, now you are hitting an uphil climb and your mind is screaming this is hard.

Well, at this point, in the end, like a Maraton, or a any goal, there are those that push though that wall, and those that don’t.

Push Fearlessly!

But Wait!

Some people are just amazing at what they do…

Billy Mayes was one of them.

But I wonder if he told his parents he was going to become a legend from selling Oxy Clean (or countless other products he pitched for), would they all have laughed at him.

Sure he might become rich?

But Famous! Never!

A Legend has Passed.

And yet… Here is he.

The pitchman is a name that we all know better then the products he sold.

And I have to admit I have bought products only because Billy Mayes told me to, and I’ll be if I would accept anything but the fact they were the best things I ever used because Billy Mays told me they were the best things I’ll ever use. He was just that good.

So… if his passing and his life has taught me anything, it is that following your dreams no matter how you start or what you do, the limit to where you go with them, is entirely up to you.

Billy Mayes: July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009

Legendary Fearlessly!

Girl! You were an Inspiration!

Born Ferrah Leni Fawcett
February 2, 1947(1947-02-02)
Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S.

Died June 25, 2009 (aged 62)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.

May she rest in piece, and be loved and remembered as the inspiration she was to many.

Life is how you live it, and don’t let anyone put you down or make you feel less then the wonderful person that you are.

She had her critics and her fans.

Both have lost something precious at her passing.

Live Fearlessly!

RIP – To a Legend

What do you say about the passing of a man like Michael Jackson.

He was the epitome of the eccentric artist, that much I will give him. He was famous, rich, and strange in every way a man could be. He invented dance moves, images and all in all he seemed to escape any attachment of race, or even profession, beyond the title “The King of Pop”, like he was just…for lack of a better way to put this, Michael Jackson, an entity in his own right.

Like anyone famous he had his critics, who not surprisingly even on the day of his death, feel a need a kick the man. However we all know that as long as he remains an icon of our society, and name we will remember he will have his critics.

His death will not change that.

But let us learn a lesson from this. When the day comes, if we attract fame and fortune to our name and selves, we will invariable attract critics, and no matter what we may or may not do with our lives they will be an incessant buzzing that we won’t be able to silence, at every angle, every chance and every turn they will be there to try and rip us down, even to our dying day and beyond.

But let us learn from Michal Jackson that fame does not promise life, neither does anonymity, so let us live, enjoy our days in spite of what the critic’s might say.

One thing I have learned from Michael Jackson is that no matter what you do, someone will say it is wrong, so do not strive to please the masses, be yourself, even if others think it is strange, let them gossip and whine, life is too short to abide the pandering of modern day ‘old wives’ and ‘widow’ gossip.

Write and Live fearlessly.

What is “Good” writing?

Now we ask ourselves the ultimate question of all time.

“What is good writing?”

This of course, like “What is good art” is purely subject to the opinion of what ‘other people‘ (AKA: The Notorious They) think is good writing.

I say ignore them all!

Here is the way it works, it won’t matter if you never see your name in print, if you are e-writer, or have sold a bazzilion books all over the world, translated into languages that only six people can read because not only did everyone read your book, these people have heard of you, and now want to buy your book along with everyone else… yes you could be just THAT AMAZING and yet there will always be people that say your writing sucks!

Living Proof is that Rowling Has her Critics and she is the first and currently only writer to become a billionaire from her literary works alone.

So don’t be frazzled by when people say things like, your book is worthless crap, and that a computer program could pump out a good as what you wrote.

So, in the end, Good Writing is purely a matter of personal opinion and in truth you will NOT please everyone, no matter how grand and wonderful your work might be (or how good you think it is).

So, Just because I don’t have much else to say, I tossed in a Geek Flow Chart in case I plan to re-visit this discussion later, I hope that the charts will distract you enough so you would forget what I wrote.

Write Fearlessly!

Some Days you have to Laugh.

I was reading the Blog of Stephenie Meyer, the Author of Twilight, and one of the funniest things she had to say was: “The meanest rejection I got came after Little, Brown had picked me up for a three-book deal”

Now this is something important to realize in life, just because someone says “I am an editor” or “I worked in publishing” or “I have my masters degree in being a pompous snot” does not mean they know what they are doing.

Ponder this, All the editors that sent Meyer rejection letters, did not see what a great book this was.

But lo and behold, it has made quite a stir has it not?

I have seen this book compared to the Legendary Harry Potter series, which Rowling I bet has her list of rejection letters before she got accepted as well. (not to mention the actors in the move based on her book are always on one tabloid cover or another)

Yes, it just that famous.

So remember as you go to publish, What works, what fails, what makes millions and what finds it’s way to gutter can not be predicted, so write what you wanted to write to begin with.

Write Fearlessly!