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Sunoasis X 2006 V3 Issue 3
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David Eide
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Mar 31, 2006 21:44 PST
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S U N O A S I S X 2 0 0 6
Volume 3 Issue 3
March 2006
"The flood of print has turned reading into a process of
gulping rather than savoring."
-- Warren Chappell
_____________________T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
1) [Editor Notes- The Habit of Art]
2) [Resources]
3) [Job Leads]
4) [Community]
http://www.sunoasis.com/sunoasisblog.html
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Enjoy this issue! Forward any comments to:
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__________________E D I T O R N O T E S
There are two habits to cultivate as a writer. One is the
necessity to get a productive routine down to start and
complete projects. The other is described by Flannery O'Connor
as "the habit of art."
She was continually pestered by her students to tell them
when they should write, for how long, and how to fit the
writing into a normal, busy schedule. She wrote her response
in an essay called, "The Nature and Aim of Fiction."
The habit of art, she explained in her essay, concerns a
"certain quality or virtue of the mind," which combined with
a writer's talent, could heighten writing to a point nearing
perfection.
Habit is devotion, then, combined with the desire to work
hard at the highest level of intelligence and imagination
the writer is capable of.
The habit of art, to use her phrase, is something difficult
to teach.
It is my experience that the habit of art should be learned
first. Study and test yourself. Read the masters and try to
emulate them. When you have legs, kick them away and go on
your own. Fight for your best self. Don't let society, parents,
peers, or other bad habits interfere.
Training the mind in this habit is like training for Zen
Buddhism or yoga. If you do it enough it's fairly simple to
slide right into position at any time, any where. It's the
pain getting to that point that holds a lot of writers back.
The habit of art could be defined as the best thoughts
generated by the writing mind. The art, then, is the act of
leaching out the best from the rest and getting the best
down in hard copy each day. As the old Greek tragedian put
it, "drop by drop wisdom is distilled from pain."
Out of the thousands of thoughts a writer has any one day,
which ones will be saved and used? At the beginning of a
writer's career the thousands of thoughts are used. Then
experience kicks in and the writer tries to escape most of
the thoughts. Then he learns to discipline the thoughts into
useful activity. He exhalts if there is one gem, one jewel
left in the stinkpot of the thousands of thoughts.
* * * * *
Then there are the habits that make a writer more productive.
When the writer is inspired it's unlikely she will learn
these habits. But when things go bad the lack of them are
the likely source of her failure.
Samuel Johnson noticed that the grip of habit is too weak
to be noticed, but soon becomes too tight to be broken.
Choose the good habit over the bad one.
The first good habit to learn is to, in fact, write. At the
beginning of the writer's life there is a wild passion to
get all the words out and the writer never believes the
infinite supply will run out. But it does, so you need to have
a structure of habit in place to face the infamous blank page.
Here are some sound tips:
* Write something, anything the moment you sit down to write.
* Don't try to write a novel in one session. Find out the
best time for you to be productive and use that time very
well.
* Adhere strictly to a realistic writing schedule.
* Work first on the parts of the project that seem easiest
to do.
* Start by writing the title in order to focus in on key
concepts. Titles are important psychologically.
* Polish the first paragraph to provide focus.
Why is it that when a writer cleans up her copy she feels
not simply better but more productive? It must be that it
feels like something is getting done when there is a
meaningful re-arrangement of the words. The habit that
liberates the writing self is one fully convinced that
whatever you write can be eliminated or changed.
I am a wonderful procrastinator and cultivate it at every
opportunity. I try to wrestle the bad habit to the ground and
always fool myself with the thought that the act of writing
is very pleasurable. "I can write standing on my head in a
railroad car," I convince myself while I watch some trashy
TV program. But it isn't the writing that is the problem,
it's the aftermath.
It's the revision, the polishing, and the editing that send
me down to chop wood or go online and read gossip from
Court TV.
To counteract the art of procrastination try the following:
* Set due dates for each part of the writing project.
* Schedule a personal reward for meeting each due date.
* Talk with supportive others about weekly writing plans.
Well, I tell the cat that I am going to write a good deal this
week so stay out of my way.
The reward part is often overlooked. We don't want to believe
we are cats or dogs, leaping around our master's feet for a
snack on doing a good deed. But, it often works as long as
the reward is something you ordinarily wouldn't give
yourself. A good glass of wine, for instance, is not a good
reward for myself. But a CD with either great information
or music is a reward I covet and will work for.
[ T h e L i s t I s A H a b i t T o L e a r n ]
Lists are often the most meaningful poetry one can write. They
can also be a waste of time. A list is an effective habit
only if you act positively on each item on the list. It's a
very effective way to break down a large project and get it
under control so you feel you have a fighting chance of
succeeding with your grand vision.
It can also be a way to provoke a new project and build it
up until it magically fleshes out on paper or screen. Don't
give yourself orders, give yourself some guidance that will
take you to a successful conclusion to the project.
Making a list is a basic use of the technology of writing.
And what it does is free up creative energy that would be
spent trying to figure out what to do when you have
something in front of you. Trust the list. Make friends with
the lists you make.
I have made lists that I became very enthusiastic about only
to see them slip away for fifteen years. The list has to be
accompanied by a reasonable commitment to do the deed.
And yet some of those lists have been very useful a few
years after I wrote them out because I was not ready to
execute the list when I made it. It's easy to fall into the
trap of loving the list but hating the deed. I've done that
plenty of times, always to my regret. The list is a pump of
adrenaline but has to be accompanied by physical and mental
acts.
[ T h e F i v e H a b i t s O f P u b l i s h i n g ]
1) Conception of the Piece: This is a constant battle that a
writer must wage by habituating him or herself in being
"always on." Ideas are the life-blood of the writer's
craft. Anything you perceive needs to be turned into an
idea of one kind or the other. It is only the world in
front of you and your ability to deal with it through
experience and/or knowledge.
2) Laying Down the Tracks: Get the idea out and running on
paper or the screen. Note down all the resources you will
need to flesh the piece out to its full. Without this
habit ideas are useless.
3) Looking into the Marketplace: At the moment a writer
identifies what the piece is about she should be
consulting the marketplace and finding editors who might
be interested. This is a habit that must be learned
as soon as possible. Ignore the negative signals that
come by way of rejection. We all feel the sting of
rejection. It initiates us into the cruel world.
4) Stroking the Piece: Lick the writing into a form that is
comforting and rewarding for a reader. Never get into the
habit of believing what you write, off the top of your
head, is the finished piece. That bad habit comes from
egotism.
5) Prepare to Present the Piece: Offer the editor a piece of
writing that can't be rejected. Make sure the presentation
is done correctly. Have someone proofread what you write
before sending it along to an editor.
In my earlier days it was the easiest thing in the world to
conceive of a writing idea and then start to throw words
down on a piece of paper. That was no problem and I did it
consistently for a long time. But then came searching for
possible markets and the polishing; here is where the
non-habits I had tripped me up. By not searching markets I
had no real incentive to finish the piece of writing. The
chain of habit was broken and a lot of material ended up in
flat, yellowing folders that went no where.
[ CODA ]
Make writing a consistent series of habits that gives you a
sense of where you are at any moment during the process.
Make it a habit to focus on a small group of basic themes.
Make it a habit to continually rewrite what you've written.
The physical and mental habits of writers are as diverse as
the number of writers that exist. Understand yourself as
well as you can and make it a positive force in your writing
life.
Habits are simply an admission that we are animals after
all. Perhaps that is one reason we resist admitting we have
them. We are shrewd animals and try to turn habits to our
advantage. That is the key. We are going to have habits. The
more conscious we are of habits the greater the possibility we
convert them from bad to good one's. Those, in other words,
that help us realize our dreams.
_________________________________R E S O U R C E N O T E S
http://www.journalistid.com/journalistid_resources.html#jobs
Resource site for journalism.
http://www.worldwidefreelance.com/articles/healthyhabits.htm
Building Healthy Writing Habits: The Five A's by Diana
Barnum
http://www.steampunk.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/#1
Developing Efficient Work Habits.
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Is blogging simply a new way to get freelance assignments?
http://tinyurl.com/lypar
Tax answers for Freelance writers.
http://www.businessinfoguide.com/freelance.htm
Resources to start a freelance business.
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_________________B U S I N E S S O F W R I T I N G
http://tinyurl.com/fx2kf
This is an extensive article from Newsweek on the state of
book and digital publishing. It is about the new literary
system and it should not frighten writers at all.
http://tinyurl.com/gt2od
Writers should seek out the best copy editors they can find.
Here's an article about a novelist who tells of his
experience, lists some of the best copy editors in the
business and interviews them.
http://www.hackman-adams.com/articles/taxes.htm
Writer's Guide to Taxes.
http://www.pw.org/mag/0603/firger.htm
Read how publicists hawk books.
______________W R I T I N G O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
http://www.asbpe.org/
American Society of Business Publication Editors
http://www.cbpa.org/
Catholic Book Publishers Association
http://www.dpfn.com/
Directory Forum Publishers of North America
http://www.naww.org/
National Association of Women Writers
http://tinyurl.com/hrhrs
National Writers Association
http://www.sistersincrime.org/
Sisters in Crime.
http://www.sabew.org/sabewweb.nsf
Society of American Business Writers and Editors
There are many more links to writing organizations here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/newmanna.html
_________________________J O B L E A D S
Writer
Valley Forge, PA
Vanguard, one of the world's leading investment
management companies, needs a creative, talented writer
to research and write human resource communications. Your
work should be engaging and accurate, educate your readers,
meet business objectives, and be delivered on time. This
position is available part-time (25 hours per week) or
full-time.
You'll regularly brainstorm with clients, colleagues, and
senior management to develop creative concepts for Web,
e-mail, and print delivery. You'll be expected to plan and
carry out communication projects for a variety of audiences,
internal and external to Vanguard, and will need to exhibit
excellent client relationship skills and the ability to work
well in a collaborative, team-oriented environment.
For Full Ad go here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/vanguard8.html
___________________________________________________________
Writer-Editor
Location: Los Angeles, CA
TELACU is a non-profit community development corporation
founded in 1968. It is self-sustained by TELACU Industries,
a for-profit family of companies which provides the economic
means to fulfill TELACU's mission. Through its businesses,
services and partnerships, TELACU creates dynamic
opportunities to rebuild and enhance the communities it
serves.
TELACU has an excellent opportunity for a full time
Writer-Editor to write and edit internal and external
materials, including printed and web materials, speeches,
opinion pieces, essays, issue papers, background documents,
conference materials, mini-grant proposals, and other
publications.
In addition, the Writer-Editor will edit existing written
materials and develop content for new materials through
research, reading, data gathering, interviews, etc.
For Full Ad go here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/telacu.html
___________________________________________________________
Editor
Vanguard
Valley Forge, PA
Vanguard, one of the world's leading investment
management companies, has an opening for an experienced copy
editor to edit print and electronic communications generated
by the Participant Education department within Vanguard.
You'll evaluate copy for Vanguard's ''voice'' and style,
accuracy, flow, organization and format, and mark
corrections using standard editing/proofreading symbols.
You'll review the history of each project by reviewing
the appropriate reference materials and check to make sure
that all appropriate regulatory hedge clauses, copyrights,
and trademarks appear on each piece.
You'll compare companion pieces, if any, for consistency and
apply style preferences of individual clients. You'll also
suggest ways to improve copy via written and verbal
communication with writers.
For Full Ad:
http://www.sunoasis.com/edvanguard.html
_________________________________________C O M M U N I T Y
http://www.blue-met-bleu.com/en
Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival
Montreal, Canada
5-9 April 2006
* * * * *
http://webapps.calvin.edu/academic/english/festival
Festival of Faith and Writing
Calvin College
Grand Rapids, MI
20-22 April 2006
* * * * *
http://aipf.org/
Austin International Poetry Festival
Austin, TX
20-23 April 2006
_______________________________________E T C/ E T C/ E T C
Editor/Publisher: David Eide
E-Mail: <mailto:eide-@earthlink.net>
Sunoasis X 2006 is fully protected by copyright.
Please ask permission if you are going to use any or
all of this publication.
Reprint rights belong to the authors.
Contact them if you wish to use their material.
Unauthorized use of any material is strictly
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Our hope is that we can help and enhance the world
of writing, publishing, and editing.
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