Far Out Son of Lung...

A nice Monday

Today, Monday, has been rather nice to me. I'm walking well despite the boot and this morning I sent my little article about Last Man Standing (revised & corrected from what you see) to numerous publications in an effort to get some feedback. I don't expect any. Now, though, my creative brain is beginning to wake up again and I feel the need to plug out some more work and get it sent off. To do this, of course I need a laptop. Sadly, I am no closer to making a decision about one than I was several days ago. My present conundrum involves going for a base-level unit from Circuit City or a custom job from Dell or HP. For the extra money I can get some good features custom, but it'll be quite some time before I have it in my hands. And, of course, is it then worth the extra $300-$400 I'll spend on the extra bits? Probably so. I need to wait.

So far I have contacted and/or sent my little feature article to the following publications:
www.Motorsport.com
www.dirtrider.com
RacerX (www.racerxill.com)
www.2wf.com
Dirt Bike Magazine
www.Motorcycle.com

Most are print and web publications, several are web only. I figure all I need right now are press hits and some feedback if I can get it, but I don't actually expect anything to happen. I'll be quite pleasantly surprised if any of these pick me up, to be honest. Instead, I need to write more. I need to write a lot more. And I need to be sending this stuff out constantly if I am to get any kind of responses.

The effort doesn't bother me, but the lack of good topics does. I like to write about things that affect me on an emotional level because I stand a better chance of conveying my feelings than simply telling someone who did what and where. But, to get that sort of "connection" to an event I need to experience it, and I generally need to do so with someone else so that I know I'm not the only one being wraought be X or Y emotion. Creativity on demand is rough, and I have a lot of respect for anyone who has the ability.

Sigh.

My other thought is that I'm much better at talking about one particular event or instance as opposed to talking about an entire shindig. I read a book last year called The Best American Travel Stories 2000 (thank you Nancy) that was edited by Bill Bryson and clearly illustrated (in words) a point he made in the foreward. Essentially, Bryson tells us that to write memorable and effective non-fiction we need not talk about every mundane detail concerning a particular place or time. Instead, we need to talk about a specific event. So, if you take a 3 day or 3 week vacation in Belize, don't talk about the entire trip...

"Then we packed and the plane was 2 hours late and we landed and it was warm and the bugs were biting and we found this old lady and we ate and we swam..."
Instead, pick on anecdote and talk about one particular instance on the trip that stands out in your mind because it was touching, halting, inspirational or simply weird...

"...we found this 7 inch long bug in our bed that looks like a dinosaur..."
In this manner we can captivate the reader's interest and hold them on a topic, as opposed to drowning them in senseless detail. Technical writing is, of course, another monster entirely.

This, of course, is what I try to do normally on this Blog but somedays I'm on, and somedays I'm not. Then again, this is nothing more than mish-mash from my brain and I don't expect anyone (except Jon, Rogge and Tony) to really see it... but that's beside the point.

I also don't typically start my stories at the beginning. I like starting from the middle or the end, and then conjuring up some mangle of paragraphs that lead into the fun thing I opened with at the start of the whole story. It is a bit like watching a Tarrantino film, I suppose. Only not as cool.

Keep your fingers crossed for more good news (creative life or otherwise) this week.

posted by GreSam @ 15:02