What were you like during your early 'serious' writing days, when you discovered your fondness for writing was going beyond journaling and school assignments?
Some of you, many of you, will say you've always known you were a writer. Hearing this always makes me feel 'less than' because I didn't seriously write anything other than a newsletter for Homeshcoolers, until the 1990s.
How has your writing changed?
How has it changed who you are as a writer and a person?
How has your writing influenced your interpretation of your world?
I was using my cellphone to look for different Memoir Categories. I muddled around for a bit, because I was not using the best search terms. I’ve noticed during my Google Wonderings, the topic I am looking for often changes.
This article looks at three main genres for personalized and published nonfiction writing: autobiographies, memoirs, and collections of essays.
Out of the three genres, autobiographies and memoirs are the most difficult in which to decipher the difference, seeing as they both may reference childhood memories or organize chapters chronologically.
These are works that are grounded in factual events, rather than emotional reflections or messages.
In comparison, a collection of essays is not organized by chapters to build upon a theme. It is an assemblage of 20-40 essays, each essay standing alone in memory or perspective. They do not have to be organized chronologically or even feature the same content, although it is helpful to categorize them under an umbrella for creative unification.
Join us during Memoir Month at the Writer’s Chatroom.
Read the entire article Writing About Yourself and Understanding Genre and if you have some time on Wednesday or Sunday Evening during Memoir Month, drop by the Chatroom.
Did Your Family Read to You?
I remember my dad reading to me at least once from a book of bedtime stories.
Mom? I knew she could read, but she didn't share. We had Little Golden Books and we made up the words to match the pictures.
I think the absence of being read to gave me a mission. If I wanted the words I was going to have to learn to read at school.
I loved reading. I am proof that a child not read to is missing something she may never overcome.
Just in case I was an exception, I read to my kids day and night long after they had outgrown bedtime stories and could easily read for themselves.
Let's chat about how being read to, or not, influenced your life. Did childhood experience lead you onto the path of becoming a writer?
Chat, Sunday at 7PM EST at the Writer’s Chatroom
BYOT a relaxed topic Sunday
Bring your own topic month at the Writer’s Chatroom
February is traditionally Romance Month but this year we are going to fling our doors open, turn up the music and mingle at the snack table at the back of the room.
Bring any topic or writing related question about anything from formatting to marketing, to neighborhood muse searches and we will try to address it. We don’t know everything and we aren’t afraid to say so. Maybe together, we can find an answer to your topic or writerly issue.
This Little Piggy Went to Market
This is the last Sunday Chat of Marketing Month.
It was only recently that I learned this little piggy was going to "MARKET." It changed a whole layer of my childhood and parenthood as well. The Piggy rhyme was visited on me and later I passed it to my children and their children. Not having a clue about the tragic event about to unfold when this little piggy arrived at his destination.
I am amusing myself by imagining you Submission Packet being sent to market. Will it meet the same fate? Will it be rejected and sent back to live another day? Will it be accepted? Either way, thank goodness I will see my manuscript again.
Come on in at 8PM ET to celebrate the end of marketing month at The Writer's Chatroom.
(Entry 1 of 3) 1a : the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues : duration. b : a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future. c : leisure time for reading.
Mirriam-Webster
Time is a word or concept with very broad aspects. We could get lost in the various ways to explore time and what we think of as time. But, I think I am on the first few days of a Covid bug and leading a discussion on full fledged time is just too much.
The aspect of Time I want to explore is an author’s handling of time.
For example, in chapter one, scene two, the lion has broken free from the zoo. At the same time in scene four, Mandy’s house is on fire. In scene six, Thomas is looking around the empty lion enclosure and making a cellphone call to Animal Control.
Although these events are happening at the same time, they cannot be presented in writing or even by spoken word simultaneously. An author or story teller has to decide which of the three scenes to present first.
I’d like to discuss how we work with various elements of time. How do we decide the Zoo Escape should be given before Mandy runs out of her flaming abode?
Drop by the Writer’s Chatroom on Sunday, 23 January at 7PM ET and I will continue my plan to be socially distant.
The Art of Assembling the Parts of a Book
Craft & Marketing - Parts of a Book
If you are self-published or traditionally published, you should know the Parts of a Book.
My Orange Bible, CMoS, Chicago Manual of Style, has the best definition of the parts of a book, fiction or non-fiction. Because the book is HUGE and a bit expensive I found 2 websites.
If you are a DIY Author, the contents of these parts of a book are pretty much on you to write and format. If you have a traditional publisher, you are still going to be responsible for supplying this content.
I am pretty sure I read the following statement in one of the 33 books I read after 10PM in 2021.
"A Promise is a Prison you Build for Yourself."
From a Google Dictionary, well...
plural noun: resolutions
1.
a firm decision to do or not to do something.
"she kept her resolution not to see Anne any more"
For the past few decades I have honed my resolution and distilled it simply; to meet people where they are, on their path without complaint or expecting accommodation.
You are welcome to adopt this if you wish.
This will be our last Sunday Topic Chat until after the New Year. Drop by and tell us about some of your resolutions for writing or life in general. There will be a Dessert Potluck at the table in the back of the Chatroom. You probably want to bring your own drinks.
7PM EST 19 December 2021
Goal Planning and Holiday Break
Notice
My December Goal is to spend a few days away from the Chatroom. We will be Closed to Moderation from December 23rd to January 4th.
Closed to Moderation means I won't there to watch out for creepy people trying to catfish you with offers for Editing or Publication. I will not be there to stop anyone from going totally off bubble and being jerks.
But I am at the end of my email and can pop in and check previous chat activity 24/7
Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so.
When I am seriously thinking about putting my fingers to the keyboard...
Am I going to be here a long time? Maybe, I need to collect a snack. I guess I should have something to drink with that snack. Oh, I guess I should go pee before I settle in. (Yes, your Chatroom Moderator goes pee.) Okay, where did I save the file I was going to use. Wow, there sure are a lot of usb sticks, maybe I should see what is on each of them. Why do I have so many of
them? You know, now that I am thinking about it, didn't I put my project notes in one of my College Ruled Notebooks. Four of them, why do I need four. Well at least the covers are different colors. You know, I should keep out the red one and title it Writing Hot. Good Idea, let me write that down. Is that a deer outside my window? I definitely need to capture an image and put it up on Facebook. Facebook, hmmm, I should check the Writer's Chatroom Group to see if there are any new messages there.
Kim Richards posted recently and Mel posts like clockwork on Tuesdays. I image both of them could spot the difference between planning and procrastination in a heartbeat. I hope they make it to chat, tomorrow, they can help me through the topic. What was I doing? Oh, right. Writing. Writing something serious, like my most recent contact with a dead person and why it took me fourteen months to make the connection. Sigh. You know, I should really be working on the Chatroom Newsletter and a
blogpost.
Sally Switches to the Aweber App and writes this article.
Chat begins, Sunday at 7PM ET
Setting Goals, Setting Writerly Goals, Planning a Road Trip
What is the first thing you think of when setting a goal?
Do you open a word app and start making a list?
Do you consider what has to happen in the Universe to see this Goal through?
Steps, even baby steps will take you closer to the final goal. Sketch out these little steps on the same page as your list. Observe and Celebrate even the smallest step because it is moving you forward.
These some decent tips but if you have set the Big Goal out of reach, you are not going to get there. It just won't happen and like me, you will hesitate the next time an urge to organize strikes you.
Very few writers had a Best Seller right out of the gate. They needed to learn the Art and Craft. They needed to get some small stuff published and build up that beloved wall of rejection. This Wall is the Physical Manifestation of a Great Writer about to be born.
Join us for a Sunday Topic Chat at 7PM ET at the Writer's Chatroom.
Congratulations to those who Completed the NaNoWriMo Challenge
We are coming up on the Writer's Chatroom Traditional Month of Planning.
This Sunday, we will have a relaxed topic chat.
Maybe, we can chat about how we feel when we are writing hot, in the zone, the magical lake of words.
