Just Write: July 2008

Monday, July 28, 2008

Tree-Free E-Books

Kindle
Now, if we could only teach it to make Fair Trade Coffee

I’m an E-book foot dragger. My friend Connie has been writing and publishing E-Books for years. But to me, Kindle has made the technology simple, easy to read and convenient.

Here's what's in the box

Kindle is a wireless, portable reading device with instant access to more books and newspapers than our local library. The Kindle is like electronic-paper. It’s easy to read with sharp clear printing that allows you to adjust the text size. Kindle has the look and feel of a trade paperback with a light weight, high-resolution screen that is much easier for me to read than the typical paperback.

I read everywhere I go. One feature I like about Kindle is that you will never lose your place or have to go searching for a bookmark. I take a book to bed and read until I’m sleepy. If I fall asleep, so does the kindle. When I’m ready t read again, I “wake up” the Kindle and it pops right back to where I stopped reading.

The Kindle is wireless and advertises a long battery life. When you are not using it, plug it in to recharge. Or, continue reading while it is recharging. It weighs 10.3 ounces, and has an ergonomic design making convenient for right or left handed readers.

I like using the built in dictionary, The New Oxford American Dictionary, which allows for easy look up and practically uninterrupted reading.

Another feature I like, Kindle lets you download and read the beginning of a book for free. That’s as comforting as flipping through a book before buying it at the book store. Only buy what you like. Connect to Amazon's online bookstore, click buy, download with 1-Click and continue reading.

It is simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing. Even for the technologically challenged, Kindle is ready to use right out of the box. Whether you're in bed or on a bus, it’s easy to browse for another book and buy it almost instantly.

If New York Times® Best Sellers are you favorite reads, 140,000 books are available, including more than 98 of 112 current NYT best sellers. With so many newspapers, magazines and books to choose, it surprised me that two of the books I hoped to purchase on Kindle were not available.

As I become more familiar with the Kindle, I’ll report about more features. Amazon says Kindle has about two days battery life with wireless turned on, about a week without. I’ve never used another electronic book reader, such as Sony's Reader, so I can’t make any comparisons.
More later.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

1,000 Words

please click on mwgcontests.org to enter
Click on this link for more information mwgcontests.org

Missouri Writers Guide Presents

The Hottest Flash Fiction Contest

The Hottest Flash Fiction Contest
$100 1st Prize

Deadline - September 15, 2008

Entry fee: $10

Word Limit 1,000 words.

First Place: $100.

Second Place Winner: $50.

Third Place $25.

What is Flash Fiction? It's fun. It's challenging. For writers, it is an exercise in rewriting and editing. It is a short short story.

All flash fiction includes the classic story elements: protagonist, conflict, obstacles or complications, and resolution. The brevity of this genre often forces some of the story elements to be implied or unwritten in the storyline.

This 6-word flash by Ernest Hemingway is an example of extreme flash fiction:

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

please link to mwgcontests.org to enter
Click on this link for more information mwgcontests.org

Good Luck!

Questions? contact Contest Chairman, Judith Stock at
FlashFiction@missouriwritersguild.org

John Hemingway: Charles Guenther, an American poet

John Hemingway: Charles Guenther, an American poet

We have lost a friend and fellow writer. John Hemingway says good bye in his blog to Charles Guenther.

A Complaint Free World

A Complaint Free World
IMAGINE THIS!
Over 6 million people in more than 80 countries have taken the Complaint Free challenge and their lives are a testament to the positive effects of this simple idea. Find out how forming the simple habit of not complaining can transform your health, relationships, career and life.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Public Speaking For Writers

3 tips to help boost your confidence as a writer
by Patsy Bell Hobson

Improve Your Skills

There is no better place to develop public speaking skills than Toastmasters. Find a small and supportive group near your home at http://www.toastmasters.org. What a painless and proven way to build confidence, practice communication skills and overcome the fear of public speaking.
No one can see your knees shaking, hear you heart pounding, knows your armpits are sweating. Toastmasters is a safe place and friendly place. No one has ever been eaten alive at a Toastmasters meeting.

Be A Host

Next time you attend a conference, or any meeting, look around for some one who appears nervous or uncomfortable being there. Introduce yourself and assume a helpful role. Try to help reduce their nervousness. Helping others, who are obviously feeling the same anxiety you are, will instantly reduce your own fears and feelings of isolation.

Support A Publisher

Editors and agents are always looking for good writers. Let them know you the best writer for the job. Publishers need writers. Introduce yourself, pitch you writing, keep as many editors and publishers employed as you possibly can. It’s good for the economy.

A Not So Solitary Life

Speaking of Writing

You may think writing is the life for you if you are shy and prefer to work alone. Many speakers will tell you that writing is a solitary profession. Plus, you get to wear your house shoes while at work. Writing, if you intend to actually make money, is not the solitary life you might imagine.

As your writing success increases, the time you spend alone will shrink.

Some writers are drawn to the profession because they are shy. Public speaking terrifies most people. Writers must build the skills to over come the fear of public speaking if they intend to make a career of writing.

At this point in your career, networking, cultivating contacts, finding support and knowledge from fellow writers in a writers group will help build your confidence and keep you away from the refrigerator and the television. Attend regular Missouri Writers Guild chapter meetings. Or, start a new chapter. Your writing will benefit from any of these important networking opportunities offered by Missouri Writers Guild. The more you contribute, the more you benefit.

While you are writing, you must also set aside time for reading. Learn from other writers.
Once I became a writer I began to read differently. Every book became a lesson. Writers learn about writing by reading great writing. If I pick up a book by Joyce Carol Oates or Tennessee Williams, I’m going to enjoy the prose, but I’ll also learn something about style and technique.

John le Carre said, “A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world”.

It is important to have contact with the world away from you computer. Stay in contact with the readers who will buy your work. Go to a bookstore; see what’s on the self. Learn what’s selling, who’s buying books, find out if your story, book, article has just been published. Get out of the house, look around. Story ideas aren’t delivered to your desk with a neat outline, marketing plan and a contract.

Your reputation as an authority will grow along with the your list of publications. Not only do you have to ask someone to publish your work, now that you are “in print”, novice writers will ask you how to jump the hurdle from writer wanna be to published writer. The more you write the more people will seek your advice and opinion.

Fear will end your career as a writer before you are published. If you remain a solitary writer, you are journaling. Keeping a diary is a lot easier than being a writer. Being a writer requires putting yourself in the public eye. Here are some of the most effective ways to get your writing in print.

Writers’ conferences are good places to meet agents, publishers and experienced authors who can offer advice. Sign up for a pitch session and introduce yourself. Consider a pitch session as a job interview. “We met at the Missouri Writers Guild Conference” will grab an agent’s attention and save your email query from the slush pile.

You cannot return to that solitary life once you are published. Marketing yourself and your publications demands visibility. There are loads of web sites and books to help you with marketing. Networking, writers groups and professional organizations like Missouri Writers’ Guild are a resource pool of the latest and most effective marketing techniques.

Writing, I think, is the easy part. Putting your work before the public requires help from agents, editors, buyers, readers, reviewers and friends. Writing may be a solitary job. Making a living as writer requires that you step out of that isolated life and into the public. Marketing your writing is a very hard thing for a reclusive writer.

Statistics show that people fear speaking in public more than they do death. Jerry Seinfeld joked about our fear of public speaking. He said that if we were at a funeral, most of us would prefer to be in the casket rather than delivering the eulogy.

Today we have instant access to many professional tools simply as a benefit of membership in Missouri Writers’ Guild. Very few writers can get published without online access. We have, email, instant messaging, social networks, chat rooms, e-zines and Internet writers support groups. While computer access may be convenient, it can consume a great deal of your writing time.

Writing and being published is not easy. You may have heard about the writer who is greeted by St Peter at heaven’s gate.

“First, let’s take a tour of heaven and hell,” St Peter says to the writer. In hell they see thousand of writers starring at keyboards, mumbling to themselves, writing furiously, completely oblivious, sweating, swearing and exhausted. St Peter and the writer return to heaven.

The writer is ready to enter the gates of paradise until he sees the same scene. All the writers are bent over their keyboards, mumbling to themselves, writing furiously, completely oblivious, sweating, swearing, and exhausted.

Confused, the writer asks, “What’s the difference between heaven and hell?” St. Peter says, “In heaven you get published!”

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Journalist's Creed

Journalist's Creed

I believe in the profession of journalism.

I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust.

I believe that clear thinking and clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.

I believe that a journalist should write only what he holds in his heart to be true.

I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible.

I believe that no one should write as a journalist what he would not say a gentleman; that bribery by one's own pocketbook is as much to be avoided as bribery by the pocketbook of another; that individual responsibility may not be escaped by pleading another's instructions or another's dividends.

I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best interests of readers; that a single standard of helpful truth and cleanness should prevail for all; that the supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public service.

I believe that the journalism which succeeds best -- and best deserves success -- fears God and honors Man; is stoutly independent, unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power, constructive, tolerant but never careless, self-controlled, patient, always respectful of its readers but always unafraid, is quickly indignant at injustice; is unswayed by the appeal of privilege or the clamor of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance and, as far as law and honest wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance; is profoundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international good will and cementing world-comradeship; is a journalism of humanity, of and for today's world.

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