Of books, and blogs, and media; of compasses, and things

[rolanni]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer yesterday's Idle Question.

From the Idle Question came two Rebound Questions, one having to do with the importance of blogging to a writer's career (this was more of an assumption than a question, but I'm making it a question because I want to Say Something About That), and one asking what the blogger gets from blogging.

So, the assumption that one must blog or do some other sort of social media in order to be a writer is...a perception born of the frenetic age we live in, and the lack of willingness to accept that, in O So Very Many Ways, success as a writer is a crap shoot.

The Number One Thing that you need to do if you want to be in future, or are now, a writer is -- WRITE.  Write, send out what you write, pay attention to your craft, write, study the markets sufficiently to insure that you don't get cheated, write, and, ohbytheway, WRITE.

Everything else -- everything else -- is an extra.  You do not have to have -- what was the magic number? -- 1500? Facebook friends before you start in writing your novel.  You don't need to set up Whatever or Boing-Boing and tend it for a decade before you write your novel.  All you  have to do is open up your word processor, turn to a clean sheet in your notebook, go outside with a nice thick chunk of tailor's chalk in hand,  find a clean place on the sidewalk, or whatever else rings your bell -- and start writing.

That's it.  Personally, I think that starting a writing career by writing seriously (by which I mean with serious purpose and a goal) every day is hard enough without putting the burden of an active blog on the list, too.

Now, if you're a sociable sort of person and you like to blog -- then by all means go for it.  In fact, if you're the sort of person who likes to blog, you're probably doing it already.

Pro Tip: People can tell if you like doing something.  If you like to blog -- if it's fun for you, regardless of any other input -- then folks will read your blog and they'll comment and feel comfy with you, and cheer you on in your endeavors.

Conversely, if you hate blogging and only force yourself to do in order to Build Your Brand?  People will pick up on that, too.

The same principle applies to doing book signings and going to conventions; tweeting and facebooking.  Do what you like, and what makes you happy; don't do what you don't like.  And for ghod's sake, don't just do things in order to Sell Books; that's lame.  And pretty often it doesn't work.

Second question!  Why do I blog; aka What's In It For Me?

That's easy; I'm a writer, and I like to tell stories.  I'm an introvert, but I like to interact with people.  Blogging lets me do both things -- tell stories, and benefit from human interactions -- without exhausting myself by having to physically be in a roomful of people, read all that body language, and protect myself.  Blogging lets me limit interaction, when I need to focus elsewhere; I can read and answer comments in my own good time.  For me, blogging is dern near the perfect medium of communication.

* * *

In other news -- this is a long blog because you're going to have to do without for a couple days; we have a buncha stuff on this week's schedule -- a while ago, I got interested in Doc Holliday, and ordered in a well-regarded biography (Doc Holliday, by Gary L. Roberts).  Now, I like biographies -- they're my Reading Matter of Choice when I'm actively writing fiction -- and I've read a bunch of them, but I've gotta tell you -- I'm going to give up on Doc's book, here.

See, the primary reason I read biographies is to learn about people; their motivations; their movements; how they conformed to, or failed to conform to, the mores of their time -- and I'm getting none of that with this book.  What I'm getting is the author's speculation, a bunch of facts supported by newspaper reports and filed legal papers, and a review of the Civil War, as seen from Georgia and the Deep South.

Now, the author does say in his introduction that Doc left virtually no papers.  He had a lifelong correspondence with his first cousin, who had entered a convent, apparently because her religion had led her to refuse Doc's hand in marriage (they were first cousins).  The cousin had saved the letters, but upon her death, a family member took it upon himself (I assume the masculine pronoun here) to burn them (pause for a group banging of heads on desks).  I can understand that it would therefore be difficult to piece together much about Doc's private life.

While I applaud the author for getting a 400-plus-page book out of such flimsy stuff, that isn't what I read biography for; if I want speculation, I read fiction.  So, Doc's book goes back on the shelf.  Maybe I'll find more patience with it, later.

* * *

Frequent readers of this blog will recall that I have some. . .Interesting Cognitive Quirks apparently brought into my life when the Good Sisters switched my primary hand from Left to Right.  In order, so my grandmother told me, to make my life easier.

I've been living with the effects of this for quite a number of years, naturally, and I thought I knew all the Funny Places, but yesterday I discovered another one.

Compass.

Have you ever seen one of these things?  A dial marked N-E-S-W with degrees between, and a needle in the middle, the red end magnetized so it will always point more-or-less North, no matter how you turn the dial?  Yes?  Holy bananas, what a brain-bender!

No, seriously.  You hold the thing in your hand so that the red pointer points North, and then, if you want to go, say, East, you squint along the dial and pick out a tree or a mailbox or something along that line and you walk to it?  This is how its supposed to work?  Phew.  Steve spent an hour, maybe more, but it's not looking like a skill I'll be -- forget mastering -- understanding any time soon.  I hope to Ghu I'm never lost on a mountain in Maine.

Or anywhere else where there aren't street signs.

* * *

Y'all have a good Beginning Of A New Week.

* * *

Progress on One of Five
8,062/100,000 OR .81% complete

"Have I finally reached the captain of the pirate vessel Dutiful Passage?" The voice was high-pitched and clealy angry. Priscilla felt a jolt of her own anger.

"This is Captain Mendoza of the trade ship Dutiful Passage out of Surebleak," she said coolly. "To whom am I speaking?"

"Retribution Officer Blix," the angry voice snapped; "Law and Decency. In accordance with Chesselport Regulations 928A through 977M, pertaining to known pirates on-port, your vessel and its cargo are forfeit to this office; your officers and crew will be interrogated by this office, and those who are found guilty of piracy and related crimes will be placed in appropriate labor programs."

#SFWAPro

Comments

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

Love the snippet. Have already started salivating for the book!

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Don Fendler has made a career out of being lost on a mountain in Maine . . .

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Indeed, he did. See "crapshoot," above.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Do not talk to me about crapshooting . . .

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

I used to blog, and was moderately good at it. I was even invited to be in two group blogs, one of which had a pretty good reputation.
Unfortunately, my interest was government. Now that I work for the government, the Hatch Act forbids my blogging.

If you are ever on a mountain, DOWN is more important than east or west.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

In other compass follies, you can use one to find out exactly where you are on the map : )
For best results it ought to be a Silva (http://www.silvacompass.com/) or other similar compass that you can take a sight with to obtain accurate bearings.

Take the bearing of at least two (better three) prominent features of the landscape and transfer them to your map. If the top of that big hill bears 045 degrees from you, then draw a pencil line at 045 degrees on the map crossing through the top of that hill. If that church over there is at 135 degrees, then draw a line at 135 degrees coming from the church. Where those two lines cross is where you are (after correcting for the local difference between true and magnetic North and a few other minor little errors, anyway).

For the most entertainment, try this on the bridge of a warship with a training officer breathing down your neck and marginal visibility. Oh, and make sure that the only chart available was printed in the worst possible scale so you can barely make out the landmarks you need to navigate by.

Snippet: Retribution Officer Blix earns the Wrath of Priscilla in 3...2...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

And, given that I don't Get maps, either...My commanding officer would have best served his men by enlisting me into the enemy's army.

Yeah, I'm thinking Retribution Officer Blix is pretty much toast...

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm thinking Retribution Officer Blix is pretty much toast...

The wonderful part of reading these snippets is the gleeful anticipation of exactly how you're going to make that happen. I have no idea what it's going to be and I don't care because I know that I'm going to enjoy the heck out of it when I get the opportunity to read it :)

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Why bother with toast? It would be so much easier to mince the fellow and then feed said mince to any interested 'port cats ....

[thewol.livejournal.com]

Yes, I blog, because I like blogging. Whether anybody else besides me reads it is immaterial -- nice, but not essential to the exercise.

In re: compasses, silly me, I thought you turned it so the N points straight ahead of you and whatever the needle points to is the direction you're facing/walking/whatever. However, I'm directionally impaired, typically have to hunt for my car in a parking lot, and don't do "guy directions" (You go east on Street Name for 7.2 miles, turn north on Avenue Name, then East on Street Name, it's on the south side of the street, 2325. etc.) (versus "girl" directions -- Go down Street Name and turn left at the light just past the Whataburger. When you come to the pink house on the corner, turn right, then take the next right and it's the green house on the left with the catalpa trees along the curb.)

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I do that same kind of directions -- by landmark. And the only way a map ever makes any sense to me is if I've walked the area first so I know what it looks like....

[thewol.livejournal.com]

My dad is a southpaw. When he started school in 1928, his teacher tried to make him write right handed. When his mother found out, she was fit to be tied, as the expression goes. She stormed down to the school and told his teacher in no uncertain terms that God had made her son left handed, and she wasn't going to change him. The teacher conceded the point, but said he's not going to twist his hand around like lefties do (right handers pull the pen, left handers would have to push it unless they turn their hand inward to compensate -- when you write with a pen nib as he learned to, this makes a difference). He compensated by turning the paper at an angle, and always had the most beautiful, palmerian handwriting. Says a lot about my grandmother that she was willing to go to bat for her child and fight for his right to be himself. They say that George VI (Queen Elizabeth's dad, "The Kings Speech" one) was born left-handed, but was forced to be right-handed, and that that was what made him stutter so dreadfully. -- so at least you're in good company.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I got interested in Doc Holliday,

I would suggest "Doc A IONlkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ...oops cat on keyboard... anywhos.. Doc A Novel" by Mary Doria Russell

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I have Doc: A Novel on my tablet, for reading on the road. I thought I'd wanted to read the biography before I went to fiction, for the depth, you know. But if the source material is that thin, then Ms Russell's probably done the same research as Mr. Roberts, and, being as its her job, the speculation's probably better.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

she does a lot of research in her books.. and she is very readable.

[drammar.livejournal.com]

I find myself concerned for Retribution Officer Bix's continued good health.

I share your compass follies. A while ago Steve had a post about maps -- I've gone back over a year and can't find it -- where I confessed my inability to grok direction. I could get lost in a paper bag without a flashlight.

[ellenru.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the recent snippets. It's interesting to me that in what I think of the main timeline - meaning the novels which are set in Val Con's "present" - the action in the new novel seems to be wide-ranging, after the constricted area that Necessity's Child occurred in. I enjoy the fact that your universe (and writing) can contain both.

In the direction game - I seen to be "bi-directional" - I tend to give "girl directions" if I'm describing how to get somewhere to someone else, but if I'm navigating myself I do the "guy" ones. What this says about me is ...?

[elbales]

So long, Officer Blix. Not-nice knowing you. Have fun in your new padded room.

(I assume, of course, that Priscilla will shortly Open The Can.)

[ext-1743106.livejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

I might feel sorry for Officer Blix...if he weren't up against Priscilla, whom I like infinitely better than him already.

I'm left-handed, but my kindergarten teachers tried to force me to be right-handed. I never got the hang of it, and I quickly learned that using my left hand would Not make me blow up (as my four-year-old brain had imagined would happen). I'm terribly happy I did, but my handwriting is still atrocious. I was their first leftie. (My sister was their second, a year later.) I am, however, hopelessly directionally challenged. Period. End of Discussion.

A GPS for everyone!

[redpimpernel.livejournal.com]

If you have to use a compass, get one that sits in a clear plastic square


There is an outline of an arrow on the inside of the compass ring (the "shed"), and an arrow on the outer part of the plastic square. You put the red part of the compass needle in the shed and then rotate plastic square so the outer arrow is leading from the direction you want to go (i.e. from the W of West). Then all you have to do is keep "Red in the Shed" and follow the outer arrow.

A plain compass alone, can be challenging for right brainers or left brainers who think outside of the box. Or should I say, shed?

Ditto on the GPS

[psw456.livejournal.com]

Speaking of directions and the “north-south” (or “east-west”) choice, I am reminded of the time before GPS units when driving directions were worded like “take exit 123, to north state route 6”, but when one got to said exit, the signs named two towns you had never heard of and had no idea where they were situated , instead of a helpful direction, like “north”. And with clover leafs and such, even the sun’s position wasn’t always a good guide.

So I’m with redpimpernel – “a GPS for everyone”.

I have directional problems, getting very confused about what direction I’m headed after making a few turns, but my Dad (bless his memory) taught me to find myself on a map, so I never felt completely lost. And I DEFINITELY prefer a few landmarks to be included in my directions. Any directions that say to travel a fractional number of miles doesn’t drive a new car where the odometer only displays whole numbers!

[lornastutz.livejournal.com]

Loved the snippet.

Ah yes, the right hand rule. I didn't have the good sisters, I had a teacher who tied my left hand behind my back. It didn't work!

Compass vs GPS

[ext-1762728.livejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

This may sound funny coming from someone who actually did command and control for GPS (ret AF officer here) but during my career, I actively discouraged pilots and others from being dependent on GPS - after all, batteries go dead and electronics break! If you want to learn to use a compass, find your local orienteering club - I'm willing to bet there's one near you.

I really like reading author's blogs - it gives me more insight into why they write the way they do, and in your case, I get to see stuff from the other side of the country from a personal POV (or, for someone like CE Murphy, Ireland) without going there myself.

Directionality...

[cinquefoildor.livejournal.com]

For day to day navigation I rely on visual cues to places I've been before. However, the weak point in the method is the seeing of the landmarks. While living in Fairbanks AK some years ago, I was unable to make it to the grocery store because I couldn't find it in the ice fog. Really. Couldn't see more than five feet in front of the car and definitely couldn't see street signs.

[implume.livejournal.com]

I was ambidextrous as a kid. In school I wrote with right hand or left, depending on the orientation of the classroom. (No, I don’t remember how I judged which hand to use.) Eventually I broke my left arm. By the time the cast came off I was a habitual northpaw.

They make electronic compasses. Stupid idea. Think about blundering through the mountains muttering, “If only the batteries on my compass hadn’t died…”

A base plate compass is good. One with a sighting mirror is better. Set the mirror so you can see the face of your compass. Orient your compass so you are sighting on your chosen direction of travel. (Even if you’re traveling west, you still orient the compass.) The compass will have gun sight things so you can look in your chosen direction. Is the red in the shed? Forward march!

I recommend a Suunto global compass. It can help you get lost on both sides of the equator.

[wmdix509.livejournal.com]

I'd add in one issue with electronic compasses that is at least the ones built into smart phones.

Very high sensitivity to local magnetic fields. I have one which has one and it can make using certain apps a nightmare (DerManDar panorama). Typical error message is compass interference and to wave hand in figure 8 pattern which is not at all effective if magnetic sensor is overly sensitive. Which really makes me wish Motorola had included a gyroscope in my Droid Razr Maxx in addition to the compass.

Great snippet

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Yes. Ole Retribution Office Blix should have picked on another ship. But I don't feel sorry for him because the Dutiful Passage is known everywhere so Blix should have known what/who he is dealing with.

[vythe.livejournal.com]

The question of blogging may make more sense, if we reverse the cause and effect here. To write is, in essence, to put down your thoughts, your impressions and to believe that some unknown people will value them. And blogging is pretty much the same thing.

If you are shy, if you don't think your ideas worthy of everybody's time - you won't be able write books or write a blog, whatever. So, a good writer would necessarily have the qualities of a good blogger. And if a blog is dull and unsuccessful - perhaps it's a sign that it's author is not a good writer.

Personally, I read your blog, because it is well written - the smallest things of your life look interesting and memorable when you record them.

... well, and for the snippets, too. This snippet is underhanded, being too explicit. Now we'll have to wait for a year or more to find what happened to poor officer Blix in the end.
:-)