Writers Unbound

I must send out a massive THANK YOU to PGARDAPEE- a super sweet woman I know from the Work At Home Moms forum for this great tool.

Read Me Please is a free download trial software that will provide a (computerized) voice to read any text you paste into its screen. I used it this morning for a final proofread before I sent a project to a client, and I did find one mistake that I had missed from multiple other read-throughs!

Bonuses:

• Reads numerals out loud
• Reading speed is adjustable
• Cost is VERY affordable after the free trial

Some issues:

• Won’t help you with word confusions such as are/our
• Doesn’t get some newer words (example: geocache)
• When you write “and/or” it says “and slash or” (a little distracting)

Overall, I’d say this is a great investment to add to your arsenal of proofreading/editing tools. It’s very important to always send your best work on to the client!

software, proofreading

So you wanna be a travel writer? (Me too!)

While updating my bookmarks, I’ve dug up some some potential markets for your latest travel copy. All of the following sites are currently accepting submissions or queries. I wish you the BEST OF LUCK!

The Cultured Traveler is currently accepting reprints of any travelogues to which you have full reprint rights. Although this won’t work for new writers looking to break into the market, those with previosuly published articles, or perhaps even old blog posts will benefit.

Adventure Journey is looking for the “soul” of your trip. Only features are paid, though.

The Matador Bounty Board is consistently updated, and I can personally vouch for David, one of Matador’s editors- a great guy with a great little addition to his workload ;). The Bounty Board includes postings from Matador and from other travel sites looking for writers. I check it weekly, you should too!

Literary Traveler wants to know if you’ve ever taken a journey inspired by literature. As usual, it’s recommended that you read their current articles to get a feel for tone.

Brave New Traveler isn’t interested in reading your travelogues, but instead seeks current news, travel related reflection and tips. Since they are specifically blog-based, be sure to follow their length and style guidelines.

Looking for a little writing inspiration before you tackle all those queries? Be sure to check out Write Anyway.

writing markets, writing, travel, travel writing

Aspiring writers often ask me about writing workshops. Are they worth the time and money? Can they really help you take your writing (and maybe your publishing) to the next level? And if so, what workshops are the best?

Early in my career, when I left a wonderful job to freelance and all my loved ones thought I was crazy, I did attend writing workshops. One of the most significant to me was the SC Writers Workshop. I had just started freelancing, and I wanted a network. In later years, I’d find myself on the other side of the podium because I conducted workshops for this annual conference. At those workshops, I met people who would be influential in my career, and I won my first significant award for poetry.

I had a déjà vu moment last summer as I conducted the poetry workshop for the Southeastern Writers Association conference. It was the first day of the conference, and I gave a small introduction describing my ideas and attitudes about poetry. One of the workshop attendees raised her hand.

“So you mean it’s okay to rhyme poetry?” she asked.

I told her of course it is. It’s okay to do anything you want. It’s your poem. Form only comes into the picture when you’re marketing your poetry. So you’d want to market poetry that rhymes to a magazine that publishes formal work like sonnets.

Then the participant told me something that blew my mind. She said a poet at a workshop told her to never ever rhyme poems.

By the end of the conference, I was very glad I met the woman who asked me about rhyming poems. She was a very gifted formal poet. Only someone who appreciated diversity in poetry would really appreciate the talent this woman had.

This has happened more times than I can tell you, not just with poetry, but with other genres as well. For some reason—and I’ll never fully understand it—some writers who teach workshops want the participants to write in a single-minded narrow fashion.

I’d say if you run into someone like this, don’t bother with the class.

Constructive criticism is important—it helps us to see our work as others see it. But when a writer critiques the work of another, that work should be judged on its own merit on its own terms. When you offer your work to another for feedback, bear in mind the type of outlook the other writer has. If there’s a narrow-minded aesthetic at work, you’re better off buying a book on writing. In my humble opinion.

If you find a writer who inspires you and who offers positive constructive feedback that helps you to improve your work, then your money is well spent. Conferences also offer great networking opportunities during downtime like receptions and meet-and-greet sessions.

It’s important to view publishing as a different goal than writing. Publishing is about the business; writing is about the art.

Publishing has very little to do with talent. Otherwise, Emily Dickinson wouldn’t have been dead before her poems were appreciated and she was recognized as a cornerstone in modern American poetry.

Links to selected writers’ conferences

http://www.myscww.org/
SC Writers Workshop; annual conference is in October, usually at Myrtle Beach. S.C.

http://www.southeasternwriters.com/
Southeastern Writers Association; annual conference is in June, usually at St. Simons Island, Ga.

http://www.asja.org
American Society of Journalists and Authors; annual conference is in April, in New York City.

http://www.wcupa.edu/_ACADEMICS/sch_cas/poetry/conference/index.html
West Chester Poetry Conference usually held in June, in West Chester, Pa. Application and submission of poems required.

http://journalists.org/2007conference/
Online News Association; this year’s October conference is in Toronto, Ontario.

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, Writers Workshops, Writers Conferences, Writing Seminars, Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, Contests, Authors, Workshop Leaders

This video features one of the only live interviews with author Philip K. Dick who achieved well-deserved fame too late. Dick died in 1982, but his remarks are still timely.

Over the years I’ve accumulated hundreds of links to useful writing sites. I’ve learned about everything from digital cameras to building my own Web site. I got a great education in college, but most of what enabled me to work in the writing biz occurred after college. Here are five of my top writing Web site picks. (more…)

After finishing the book ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran,’ I remarked to a friend who’s an English professor that writers working in English as a second language are often more eloquent than those of us who speak it as a primary language. Azar Nafisi managed to write long sentences uncharacteristic of American writers, with layers and layers of meaning. It’s a beautiful book.

I felt the same way after reading Ishmael Beah’s ‘A Long Way Gone.’ Beah brings the oral history of his native Sierra Leone to the forefront. Starbucks Coffee Company helped bring this book to the marketplace. I have to say Starbucks really supports authors and literacy here in my hometown as well. I’ve done quite a few author events at different locations here. And even if you’re not a best-selling author, staffers treat you exceedingly well. The company donated $2 from sales of each copy of Beah’s book to support UNICEF programs for children affected by armed conflict.

Beah’s story for me is a page turner. It’s hard to imagine a young boy being converted into a child soldier, being fed drugs to keep him awake and aggressive, and losing his whole immediate family in a bloody war.

There’s a passage towards the end of the book—I’ve read and re-read it. I think it’s a well-nigh perfect piece of nonfiction writing. I learned a lot simply by reading and studying it. Beah is addressing the UN Economic and Social Council chamber about his experiences in a war-torn country:

“I am from Sierra Leone, and the problem that is affecting us children is the war that forces us to run away from our homes, lose our families, and aimlessly roam the forests. As a result, we get involved in the conflict as soldiers, carriers of loads, and in many other difficult tasks. All this is because of starvation, the loss of our families, and the need to feel safe and be part of something when all else has broken down. I joined the army really because of the loss of my family and starvation. I wanted to avenge the deaths of my family. I also had to get some food to survive, and the only way to do that was to be part of the army. It was not easy being a soldier, but we just had to do it. I have been rehabilitated now, so don’t be afraid of me. I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child. We are all brothers and sisters. What I have learned from my experiences is that revenge is not good. I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end…”

Beah wrote his memoir as an adult, but the syntax and tone in this passage are those of a child. There is so much in this single passage, especially in the genuine feeling back-lighting his words, “…don’t be afraid of me.”

English might not be Beah’s primary language, but he’s certainly mastered it well enough to move a reader, to shape his words as a revelation of universal truths.

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, Child Soldier, Beah, book, memoir, armed conflict, Sierra Leone, Starbucks, UNICEF, Civil War

For some writers, reading is just as natural as writing. And studying a publication prior to pitching the editor is a must.

The first thing I do every morning after I find a cup of coffee and pry my eyes open is read the metro section of our daily newspaper The Florida Times Union. I do visit the paper’s Web site during the day for breaking news, but I value the feel of the day’s news in my hands. I’d read the paper even if I didn’t write for it.

I read a lot of different magazines and newspapers, in part because I write for some of them. The Christian Science Monitor is a favorite. This Pulitzer-winning newspaper, is in my opinion, one of the most level-headed publications about world affairs. I’ve published there several times.

I also read The Writer. I’ve read that magazine since I was 17 years old. As an aspiring writer, I determined one day I’d be published there. It took some years and hard work, but I met that goal. And if I had to pick one publication that influenced my career beyond all others, it would be this magazine.

Other magazines that get my subscription bucks include Time, National Geographic, The Atlantic, Reader’s Digest and Inc. Still others come in the mail by way of my daughter and husband’s subscriptions.

I spot surf Web sites like The Drudge Report and Google® News throughout the day.

The latest books I’ve read are George Tenet’s “At the Center of the Storm” and I’m working my way through a bio of Hillary Clinton at the moment. For poetry, I just ordered Shoshauna Shy’s new poetry book “What the Postcard Didn’t Say,” and I’ll write about her poetry in an upcoming column.

Sometimes I have writers tell me they don’t like to read. That’s hard for me to understand. Courtesy of print and Web, I not only learn about what’s happening in the news but also how other people write. I wish sometimes I could read without paying attention to the way writers structure their work. I guess that would be like a car enthusiast looking at a ’57 Chevrolet, without thinking about the engine.

So many of the articles, essays and poems I write are inspired by words written by others.

And naturally, if I want to write for a publication or Web site, I read it diligently. That’s the best method for market study I’ve found yet.

So what’s on your reading agenda?

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Writing style, Creative Writing, Read, Literacy, Biography

The St. John’s River has inspired my pen many times–resulting in poems, articles and essays.

Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner and Edith Wharton are three of my favorite classic authors who have become well-known standard bearers when it comes to writing place. Wharton with her renderings of society and the class system of her day, recreates a place that grows far beyond geography.

Today authors like Khaled Hosseini, Rick Bragg and Tim Dorsey grow characters and plot from the places where they have lived and the cultures that arise in those places.

Novelist Carol Goodman does this with her intriguing mysteries. She may not have lived everywhere she’s written about, but she weaves the mythology of places into her plots.

Florida is a great opportunity for writerly exploitation—the state where I live is politically conflicted, green year-round and quirky. Where else do cops dress up like Uncle Sam and pull speeding motorists?

The poetry collection I’m finishing now—“Notes from a Florida Village”—delves my own experience with Florida. Poems about the St. John’s River, a favorite restaurant nestled beneath great oaks and the small green lizards that line up like soldiers on my front walk all grew from observing and experiencing place.

If there isn’t a place you want to tackle directly in writing, you can always do what J. K. Rowling does—make one up while you’re sitting in a café.

The world has never been so accessible—even if you can’t go somewhere in person, the Internet offers so many options for learning about a culture or locale.

But in my opinion, starting at home is one of the best options for a writer to explore his or her craft. My backyard has probably inspired more poems than any exotic place I’ve traveled. All around us are common objects and familiar faces. I think reshaping the familiar into something uncommon is a great challenge, but it’s also a comfort.

I don’t necessarily think you always have to write what you know. After all, a different journey begins when you set pen to paper, one you perhaps didn’t envision when the crystallization for a piece of writing formed in your brain.

But in writing about the familiar, you may discover things you never knew about—true epiphanies—sitting right under your nose.

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, novel, place, history, mythology, writing, style, technique, Wolfe, Faulkner, Wharton, contemporary novelists