WRITER’S BLOCK

By Sharon May

Either humorously or seriously, we all have claimed to have writer’s block. It’s a scary feeling, and the words sound deeply engrained and overwhelming.

Determining what causes one’s writer’s block is difficult for those of us who think we need a reason before we can fix it. Recently, I have felt blocked. Losing both my only brother and my youngest uncle in the last three months has depressed me. That’s to be expected.

My ability to write after a death has always varied. My maternal grandfather died while I was in college, and it made me feel blocked. A year later, a twelve-year-old cousin was killed in a car wreck, and I was extremely motivated and focused, writing, in a week, a draft of a 50-page story that did not focus on death.   

After my brother died in July, I was motivated. I guess I figured I have little time to screw around. With my uncle’s death earlier this month, I have no motivation to write though I get ideas all day long. You may say that drafting a short poem, a three-page scene for the novel, and this blog proves I’m not blocked at all. Not technically, but I feel a wall separating me from my words.

So, writing this blog has been interesting. I do remember when I volunteered some weeks ago, I had an idea, which I cannot remember for the life of me. It’s somewhere on a piece of paper whose location also escapes me. Not much can get through the fog in my shocked and angry mind. In fact, I had forgotten I volunteered for this week’s blog. Ginny’s reminder was quite a surprise. Believe me, I thought about begging off. But I usually try to fulfill commitments, and I figured the task might be good for me.

After thinking on it for a few days, I tried Friday night to come up with ideas. Told myself I had permanently run out of them, brainstormed with a friend, tried writing on one idea, while toying with another in my head. Got nowhere. No coherence or cohesion. Just words on a page. On Saturday, the task crossed my mind several times. No writing though. Come Sunday morning, I tried to avoid it by sleeping late and running errands. Finally, I decided I had to give it some attention.

I laid down on the bed, and a couple of our cats promptly joined me, my favorite scenario for thinking about a writing task. I asked myself what was on my mind, and of course, death was the answer. Write what you know, right? I didn’t jump up immediately. Instead, I tried to find the point I wanted to make. No luck with that. It was time to put words on paper.

The words came. Must be why writers recommend writing through the block, pretending it doesn’t exist. Denial is a great place to live.  

WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AGAIN

By Raegan Teller

Increasingly at book signings, I am asked if my books are available in audio format. I’ve said, “No, I’m sorry” so many times that I’ve been thinking about the recent resurgence in audiobooks. While this format still sells less than print or ebooks, audiobooks are the fastest growing segment of book sales according to multiple reader surveys.

Marketing experts will tell you this rise is due to one thing: multitasking. A reader can listen to a book while driving, doing the laundry, cooking, or just relaxing. Smart phones and tablets are all the equipment needed to listen anywhere. Audiobooks are especially popular with readers ages 25 to 34, a group known for its short attention span and proclivity to perform simultaneous tasks. While it’s hard to argue with market results, I’d like to respectfully challenge the notion that it’s all about multitasking.

As I’ve said in previous blog posts, storytelling is in our DNA. That assertion is backed by science and historians. And it all began with oral storytelling around 15,000 BCE. Stories were a way to entertain and to pass information along to others. For brevity, let’s fast forward from there to the 1930’s golden age of radio in the US. Listeners tuned in to hear soap operas, like The Guiding Light, crime dramas, like The Shadow, and science fiction, like The War of the Worlds, which was so realistic a panic was set off because listeners thought Martians had actually invaded earth.

Fast forward again to 2014: the podcast Serial was an investigative journalism story told over multiple episodes. Suddenly, everyone was talking about Adnan Syed. Was he guilty—or not? Serial podcasts helped rekindle the pleasure of having someone tell us a story. About a year later, audiobook sales began to surge. Coincidence?

Which brings me to another point: oral storytelling creates more of an emotional impact than reading. Research by the esteemed University College London summarized it this way: “The statistical evidence was very strong that audiobooks produced a stronger emotional and physiological response than visual storytelling mediums. This finding is consistent across different stories, and different participant ages and demographics.” Audible’s CEO and Founder, Don Katz proclaimed, “Audible was founded because we believe deeply in the impact that powerful listening experiences can have on hearts and minds.” In other words, the oldest storytelling format is new again.

But what does all this mean for writers? Some authors are now writing specifically for audio format, skipping print and ebooks altogether. Audiobook publishers like ACX and Findaway Voices are making entry into this field more accessible. However, hiring a good voice actor is not cheap. Acting a story, with different character voices and effective voice inflection, is an art unto itself. While most experts argue against authors reading their own material, I remember a few years back when they said, “don’t self-publish.” Since then there has been an explosion of successful, independently published books, so stay tuned and watch the audiobook trend. I know I will.

WHY THE WORLD NEEDS STORYTELLERS

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By El Ochiis

Recently, some influential economists have made a case for why we still need English Majors.  Now that seems an odd request since English majors are down almost 26% since the Great Recession of 2008, according to data compiled by the National Center of Education Statistics.

So, why would there be more students studying code than Chaucer?  Well, the answer lies in a three-letter word: J-O-B, prospects, maybe?  Of course, the more important reason would be parents who have to foot the bill for four years of college at an average cost of about $55,000 per year.  The exception would be me; as a parent, I encouraged my offspring to major in whatever fueled his or her passion.  The fact that one of my English major/writing offspring is now in tech valley is no fault of mine, so stop judging me Misters Tolstoy and Baldwin.

“Don’t you want your children to earn a decent paycheck?” grilled a woman at high school graduation with two sons headed to MIT.  “I want them to wander the world like I did, with no direction home, completely alone, on their own.”  I resounded, feeling guiltily giddy.  “Oh, stop quoting Bob Dylan and get real,” repudiated their dad. 

But, I was serious; the world needs the humanities, and, most specifically, English/Journalism/Writing majors who use figures of speech to:

Teach a history of a culture/to entertain/educate

Endow morals and principles on young people

Distract or divert our attention from the tough realities of life

Intellectually stimulate/Inspire (as in innovation, social change, etc.)

Predict/shape the future/Shape and change social prejudices (end bigotry, promote tolerance, etc.)

Give our lives meaning; and, express beauty

One can learn and remember far more about the judicial system and legal proceedings from Bleak House, Twelve Angry Men, Inherit the Wind and To Kill a Mocking Bird than any law school. In fact, it is Nobel Prize winner, Robert Shiller, who states, in his new book: Narrative Economics, that a history class he took on the Great Depression, as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, was far more useful in understanding the period of economic and financial turmoil than anything he learned in his economic courses.  When asked if he’s essentially arguing for more English and history majors, Shiller said, “I think so,” adding: “Compartmentalization of intellectual life is bad.” Philip Lowe, head of Australia’s central bank, urged his colleagues to spend a little less time on numbers and more time on being good storytellers. The whole point is, stories matter.

  

Sinclair Lewis’ The Jungle chronicled the plight of Jurgis and Ona, Lithuanian immigrants in Chicago and the conditions of the workers in the meatpacking yards of Chicago.  After reading it, President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned an investigation into Chicago’s meatpacking industry. Within a year, the Meat Inspection Act was passed, along with the Pure Food and Drug Act, which later paved the way for the Food and Drug Administration.

When Jacob Riis wanted to expose, to the upper class, who might not have known that a large group of people were living in squalid conditions in the slums of New York City, in 1890, he did so with photographs rather than words, in How the Other Half Lives – it was beautiful, heartbreaking, disturbing and groundbreaking.

Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of a Life of Frederick Douglass became one of the best-selling slave narratives of the period and continues to be probably the most widely read, first hand account of the brutality, depravity and injustice of American slavery. He became an orator whose influence played a big hand in helping to end it.

“So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War.” Was how, reportedly, Abraham Lincoln greeted its author, Harriet Beecher Stowe on:  Uncle Tom’s cabin, the second-best selling book of the 19th century and the first to sell a million copies.

Storytelling is what connects us to our humanity. It is what links us to our past, and provides a glimpse into our future. Since humans first walked the earth, they have told stories, before even the written word or oral language.

It provides a shape, so that our own lives have a beginning, middle, and an end, and we can feel like we've meant something, and left our mark on the world. If just one person can tell just one iota of our life story, then we have a narrative, and are the protagonists in our own life story. This is why we create stories, and this is why we NEED storytellers. Off you go, writers in dark, silent rooms - write on – tell us a really good story.

WRITE WHAT PEOPLE WILL PAY TO READ

AY, NOVEMBER 9, 2014

This is a previous post from November 8, 2014, by a dear, departed member. Fred, you're never forgotten.

 By Fred Fields

To my mind, there are two types of writers, those who write for their own pleasure, and those who want to be read and to sell books.

This blog post is for the latter group.

When we were in school, our teachers had to read whatever we wrote. God bless them. That was probably true suffering, considering many of the essays they were forced to grade.

Nobody has to read what we write today. In fact, for us to be successful, our readers must find us, be spurred to interest, and be inspired to buy. That's right, they must be induced to pay for the privilege of reading what we have written.

For us to motivate a reader's investment, we should consider what people would like to read. What kind of fiction is selling? In whose biography might they be interested? What would they like to learn?

More than that, we must encourage the potential reader to believe that he or she will enjoy what we have written. This can be difficult. A book written by Stephen King offers some idea of its quality. A book written by Regina Farina, not so much. Nobody ever heard of Ms. Farina nor have they read any of her output.

My suggestions for getting people to buy your books:

          A. Pick a subject or a genre of interest to a large segment of the population.

          B. Title your epic with an attention grabbing-name.

         C. Write with a style that is easy to enjoy with good dialog, real movement of the story, and clever, intelligent, even funny stories and observations.

          D. Learn how to market your efforts to be found by the largest possible segment of the population.

Most important of all, know the specific audience you are targeting.

It's fine to write for your own enjoyment, but not necessarily profitable.