Artistry With Words

More naps these days

MEMOIR UPDATE

A slight delay.  My buddy, who does all of my book covers, Mike Friedman on HubPages, will have the cover done around January 10^th, give or take, so the end of January is my target date for the book’s release. Thank you for being patient.

WHY A WRITING COACH?

A writing coach is someone who understands the struggles that accompany a writer, and they are someone who can help you to overcome the challenges you face.  A good writing coach will not pull any punches. They will be honest with you in their appraisals, and they will be encouraging every step of the way.

DO YOU NEED A WRITING COACH?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Are you consistently missing your goals?
• Do you need help with grammar, spelling, sentence structure or story formation?
• Do you need help in developing a stronger writing voice?
• Are your characters or plots weak?
• Could you benefit from constructive feedback?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then a writing coach just might be the answer.

WHAT I WILL DO FOR YOU

Here are a few of the things I can do for you as your writing coach:

• Help you to identify your writing goals
• Keep you focused on those goals and projects
• Help you to overcome whatever challenges you face
• Improve your writing through helpful suggestions.
• Give you an honest critique of your writing
• Help you to tighten your writing and make it lean and mean.
• Help you to find your voice

Yes, you can afford me.  $50 per month, unlimited contacts each month, no minimum.  Seriously, you can’t find a better deal.  For fifty dollars, in one month, we can iron out the kinks in your writing and open up possibilities you didn’t even know were available to you.

It comes down to this: how important is your writing to you, and do you have the disposable income?

I’m only taking on six students per month, so let me know soon if you want a cheerleader in your corner.

Happy New Year!

Bill

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”

Tags: writing tips

THANK YOU!

Thanks to all of you who passed on kind words and love following the death of my best friend.  I am fine, truly, sad but fine.  I had time to prepare for this. I was able to visit Frank and say goodbye in person.  So today I am filled with sweet melancholy, and I am celebrating a beautiful friendship of fifty-seven years. What a gift he was for me!

What a gift you all are.  It is still amazing to me that I have caring, loving friends from around the world, friends I have met, many I have not met, all connected to me through writing, but also connected to me through our common humanness.  Quite remarkable!

WRITING COACH

I will be announcing a January special for my writing coach services.  If you have ever wanted your own, private, one-on-one writing coach, a great opportunity is heading your way. Stay tuned!

MY PROBLEM

Do you want to know what my problem is?

Well, one of my problems . . .

There is too much I want to do, and I fear not enough time to do it all.

I really, really want to start a podcast.

I really, really want to finish my memoir, then write another Shadow book, then write a retro 60’s book, then re-write the 12/59 Shuttle, then write the sequel to that novel, then . . .

And I have another blog I want to start, and then there’s this whole social-consciousness thing, where I feel I should get out in society and make a difference for some cause.

I’m exhausted just thinking about it all, and frustrated to the max.

Welcome to my life!

In truth, this is nothing new for me. I’ve always felt like I don’t do enough, that I fall short of my potential, and that I should be arrested for wasting time.  I’ve always had an aversion to just sitting and doing nothing during the day.  I’m like a shark. I must keep moving in order to survive and yes, you can toss in my addictive, compulsive tendencies and, well, that’s where I find myself today as Christmas rapidly approaches.

ELIZABETH GILBERT

I was watching, for like the 10^th time,  a TedTalks program featuring writer Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the bestseller “Eat, Pray, Love,” or I may have those three words in the title mixed up.  Obviously I’ve never read it, but it did spend a ridiculous amount of time on the NY Times Bestseller list in 2006 and 2007.  Anyway, during this TedTalk, Gilbert talks about the fame of that book, and how some people have asked her if she’s worried that the best is now behind her, if at forty she reached the pinnacle and it would all be downhill from there.  Should she keep writing, knowing she will never again reach that kind of success, or should she, like Harper Lee, just quit while she’s on top?

Gilbert’s response was two words:  writers write!

That’s what we do . . . we write!  If there is a passion for writing, it makes no difference whether fame is found, or whether the best is behind you . . . writers write!

Brilliant!

FROM MY UPCOMING MEMOIR, “AND THE BLIND SHALL SEE”

No talent there . . . or is there?

I look back now and I’m blown away.  I beat some rather considerable odds.  Lady Luck has been in the passenger seat of my vehicle for the entire trip.  As I navigated through a blizzard of rather questionable decisions, I still managed to get a couple of them absolutely right at the absolute perfect time, and maybe that wasn’t luck at all.

I’m a big believer in the Butterfly Effect.  You know, a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil and two months later a blizzard occurs in Sioux Falls, that sort of thing.  I extend it to cause and effect within an individual as well.  I fart when I’m ten and thirty-two years later I sign divorce papers, that sort of thing, nothing occurs in a vacuum, it is all related and it is all crucial as our life’s mural is painted.  What I did at ten directly affected what I did at twenty, at thirty, at forty, and still today, at seventy-one. It can all be traced, gone over with a magnifying glass, seen for what it was and what it would become, connective tissues holding the host together.

It would be incredible if we could see the entire chess board as we lived our lives, like looking down from a thousand feet, perfect vision from above, able to see what each action will lead to, and what that will lead to, and that . . . but what I’m suggesting would literally require an extra-sense, or an intellect so well-tuned as to represent the equivalent of perfect pitch in music.  The best we can hope for . . . the absolute best . . . is that we are aware and that we eventually understand our role in the greater picture.

Most of us have pretty good hindsight.  It’s our foresight that sucks, but for years I chastised myself for not seeing it all approaching, for not preparing for it, for not being aware, and for not making better choices, when in fact I was just doing what humans do.

Have a great week!

Bill

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”

Tags: writing tips

JUST A WRITING EXERCISE

A cold fog has settled over us this morning, damp, chilly, and unforgiving, the bane of drivers, the bane of anyone who dreams of Florida vacations in the winter, a reminder that I’m just a bit off-center, for I love fog.

I have always loved the fog, like a favorite comforter lovingly sewed by a loving grandmother, it wraps itself around me, shrouds me, and provides nourishment for my muse.

The fog delivers fodder for the imagination.  Colors are muted.  Sight is veiled, the obvious becoming mystical, the safe becoming foreboding, each step during walks more measured, each curve in a path providing doubt where once there was assuredness.  It is a primal thing, this fog, snatching us from our comfort zone and delivering us to the unknown, to the inexperienced, and to the unexpected.  Confidence is scrubbed clean of its luster, replaced by rusty coats of indecision, and thoughts of Freddie Kruger and Michael Myers flash through our minds, uninvited and unwanted.

Scraggly pines tower above us, monoliths from ancient times, or prehistoric monsters, or reminders of twin towers which once stood back east, now stripped of their leaves, stripped of their skin, stripped of their gleaming glass.   Scrub maple six feet in height could be anything, awaiting vivid imaginations or the not-so-vivid practicality, danger lurking, mystery shivering as a breeze picks up, the fog swirling now, dispersing, transporting, confusing, and yet oddly comforting.

THAT’S ENOUGH OF THAT FOR NOW

Do you do little exercises like the one above?  What do you do to improve your writing? I’m curious…asking….maybe I can incorporate something you do, learn from you…so if you feel like sharing, please do.

I have so much I want to write. I actually have another blog idea I might do.  I also want to get into podcasting.  And of course the next two novels once I finish my memoirs….sheez, does anyone have some extra time to loan me?

Anyway, thanks for being here. I’m toying with the idea of writing a poem.  Maybe I’ll write the first line today, and then the second line in a month or so.  No need to rush into it, right?  LOL

Bill

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”

Tags: writing tips