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Sunoasis X 2006 V3 Issue 4
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David Eide
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Apr 30, 2006 19:04 PDT
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S U N O A S I S X 2 0 0 6
Volume 3 Issue 4
April 2006
"This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the
individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.
And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take
any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight
against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or
destroys the individual."
- John Steinbeck
_____________________T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
1) [Editor Notes- What Writers Write About]
2) [Resources]
3) [Job Leads]
4) [Community]
http://www.sunoasis.com/sunoasisblog.html
Switch to the online version right now!
http://www.sunoasis.com/honor.html
I'm not charging for subscriptions but if the spirit
moves you please use the Amazon Honor System. Thanks.
Enjoy this issue! Forward any comments to:
eide-@earthlink.net
__________________E D I T O R N O T E S
Of all the roles a writer plays, one remains a complete
privilege. She stretches the possibility for any person
who may read her. The writer is a teacher for the real
world of men and women. They are unappreciated and underpaid.
But, the privilege is a real one and can never be taken for
granted.
Writing is connection. I love cars, you love cars.
My role as a writer is to research new models, accessories,
cost of gasoline, insurance issues, new places to drive,
among other things and then get that information into
your hands.
My love of cars takes me to more resource than you
can acquire since you're tied up in a career or family.
The more resource I bring to you, the more you will read
my stuff and the more the publication carrying my stuff
will prosper.
Everybody is happy.
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At a certain point the writer asks himself, "What to write
about?" This is a quandary writers are often faced
with at the beginning of their career. "Write what you
know," the old pro will tell you.
Well, I know a lot of things so how do I pick and choose?
One way is to listen to the market. It speaks with a
loud voice. It will tell you what the people want.
The machinery of publication is set up to link interests
together so it's relatively easy to find those readers who
your writing might appeal to. The writer can not control the
will, desire, or actions of free people.
The truth is if you have a major interest chances are many
other people will share it.
* * * * *
There is loneliness to the profession of writing but it is
offset by the magic of connecting to a large audience and
falling in love with new subjects.
And when the writer falls in love with a new subject he
patiently waits out its resistance. He seduces the subject
until it plays deep in his mind. "I have the passionate
desire to know this!" That's how it starts. And then a list
of resources to bring him up to speed. And then come the
inevitable questions that rise up because the subject is
complex and travels along many horizons. The dutiful
writer traces those horizons and before long he has created
the deep circles he can begin to connect together.
There is, then, a still point at which time the writer is
ready to communicate with a community of interest.
Ideally everything is open for curiosity. There is not an
activity or subject under the sun that is alienated from
the writer. The writer is here to be a witness and to
communicate to those who want to know.
* * * * *
The writer learns quickly that she must pick and choose what
subjects to focus on but keeps any number of other areas on
the periphery where they often provide examples, context, or
metaphor.
Sometimes the fascination for a new subject comes into play
through tragedy. You lose a loved one to a disease and become
obsessed with the nature of the disease, its cure, and write
stories about people whose lives have been altered by it.
Sometimes it's a profound experience. I knew a guy who
turned completely against modern technology. He thought that
it would be the death of the planet. It radically changed
his life since he lived in the city, built up out of modern
technology. He was in a painful dilemma. He had read about
the migration of peoples over the Bering Strait down into
North and South America and it stimulated him to think that
human beings had lived and adventured without machines. The
fact had been there all the time he was living but the fact
did not come alive until he was curious enough to find it.
So, he and a few of his fellow Luddites walked from Tierra
del Fuego back up to California, tracing the migration from
the back-end. While he made his peace with modern technology,
the experience changed him.
He wrote about his experiences and cultivated his fascination
in the migration of peoples, their tools, their survival
techniques as well as with some of the towns he walked through
in South and Central America. All of this resulted in a
productive stream of ideas for his writing life.
There are two approaches I like to refer to as the "belly-up"
and the "head-down." From the belly-up the writer is simply
following his interests, through his talent, to the final
destination of publication. The writer may have an interest
before she discovers she wants to be a writer. Or, a writer
allows the interest to take her into the heart of the
community of interest where all kinds of stories wait patiently
to be discovered.
From the head down the writer defines himself as a writer
first. He looks over everything in front of him and decides
what is going to bring him closer to his goal. If he is driven
to make money and be a professional writer, then he will
discover what the market wants more than anything else and open
his curiosity to that interest-.
M a k i n g A S u b j e c t Y o u r O w n
Carla Kimbrough-Robinson wrote recently that, "Curiosity
allows journalists to ponder the reality of the world around
them. By putting aside assumptions of knowing how life is,
great journalists can spark their desires to learn or know
more about people and their circumstances."
Sometimes it is simply asking, "What if....?" Any situation
that involves more than a few amoeba has the elements to
spur that quality of curiosity. Line up all the elements and
query each one with stimulating questions.
Every group, organization, or event has a variety of elements
that can be a fount for story ideas.
Think of the event, Katrina: Many elements are still untold
from that event. Already we've heard stories about race, global
warming, corruption of city and state politics, incompetence
at federal level, levee construction, innumerable sacrifices
on the part of people, horrendous tales of deprivation, heroic
acts on the part of anonymous souls and on it goes.
Look at every fear and avoidance you possess and then head
straight to the core of them with the intention of finding
story ideas.
A writer should not let fear take the upper hand. It doesn't
matter whether that fear is of a place, a person, an issue,
or a possible confrontation with authority. The more fearless
a writer is, the better she will serve her community.
The better able she will make a subject her own.
C u r i o s i t y
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity
Wikipedia has some things to say about the subject. Curiosity
has the effect of "impelling beings to seek information and
interaction with their natural environment and with other
beings in their vicinity."
Curiosity may have killed a few cats but if the writer kills
his own curiosity it will doom his writing career.
This is why cynicism is a killer of the writing tribe. You
can never learn enough. You can never fully exhaust any one
subject. In fact, the process humbles you so much you feel
like giving up sometimes. But don't! Be resourceful for an
audience that will use your fascinations well.
Curiosity can bring you to many subjects but then how do you
make the subject your own? In my experience it is the act
of commitment that makes the difference. Commit to the subject,
immerse yourself in it, find your limits, then go in and
out of the subject as you need to.
http://www.sunoasis.com/digitalwriter.html
As I note in this month's The Digital Writer, journalism is
all about "taking care of the community. While living in
cities I always thought if a writer could not extract
dozens of stories out of the one square block he lived
in, he was not doing a good job of it.
Remember, too, that any subject has assembled around it a
community that is as real as the one you physically live in.
In that community are experts, old-timers, new comers,
anecdotes, legacies, and a multitude of horizons to develop
stories. The internet is filled with these. And I need not
tell writers to use the internet at every opportunity to
deepen the resource of your subject.
A writer is different than a mere aficionado however. The
writer must look at the subject critically and discover the
facts, if not truth. Readers are dependent on this. And as
we know facts can be elusive and hard to pin down. Any
community has its self-interest and will protect it with
soft lies. It will deny any wrong doing. It will always
plead the victim.
While the writer may get ostracized from the community when
she digs into its shadow more than likely members of the
community will come forward and encourage the writer and give
her information that is needed.
This intrigue happens in even the most innocuous community.
If it has an organization, with dues paying members, and
maintains a publication it can be very secretive and hard
to penetrate.
Know your interests and know the market where those
interests find an audience. If a writer does this she won't
be worrying about sales of articles as long as she writes
well and with an interesting slant. Nearly all journalists I
have known have been "of a community," and shared many of
the problems and interests of that community.
We will leave off the psychological components on what makes
a person interested in one thing but not another. In this
day and age we celebrate diversity. "Let a thousand flowers
bloom!" It is a wonderful attribute.
Curiosity will lead to resource. Combine the two and the
writer has a number of rich possibilities to cover one, two,
or three subjects.
* * * * *
It comes down to trusting yourself to move around the large
world and absorb it while sifting out what is meaningful for
yourself and what is not. If you get a lot of good "sift"
you will have a lot of writing energy ready to convert to
work.
[ CODA ]
"What to write down." That was the title of a note I came across
in my folder and it gave me a theme for this month's Sunoasis X.
"You want all the freedom in the world in this notebook."
"Take some politician to task. Take some floating idea to task.
Record relations."
1- Record any large pattern that appears in reflection
having to do with politics or society. This certainly ranges
from the absurd to the sublime.
2- Book readings. If you take the time to read something,
at least write out what the book expresses to you.
3- Anything in the culture that inspires the best nature in
yourself.
4- Record instances of story. Don't even question why you
write them down. They are everywhere.
5- Record conversations, including strange word usage.
6- Write down words you come across that are exotic but
pleasing: heteroclite; aretalogi; exiguous; phanopoeia, for
instance.
7- Odd facts and statistics
8- In the nooks and crannies of a newspaper are several
stories a day to shake out.
Write by producing acts of creative intelligence out of the
massive database of any interest you may have.
The marketplace always follows the people's fascination.
_________________________________R E S O U R C E N O T E S
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/advice.html
Advice about web writing, written in 2000 but still
relevant. Has some excellent links.
http://tinyurl.com/mbxhx
Electronic literature as envisioned by Robert Coover.
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/060316moor/
A few issues ago we outlined new prospects for online
writing careers. This is a great assessment by the editor of
the OrlandoSentinel.com. Especially read the comments at the
bottom of the story. We are at the beginning of something
new and real, not the end.
http://archives.cjr.org/year/00/1/loeb.asp
Do you want to be a great editor? Of course you do. Read
this article by Marshall Loeb on the qualities it takes to
be one.
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http://www.slate.com/id/2140095/nav/tap1/
A freelance writer shuts down her blog. She wants to
return to her writing!
http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/internet/experts.html
Are you looking for sources or experts? Kitty Bennett
has compiled a good list at the St. Petersburg Times.
http://tinyurl.com/h39a5
"There is no more gullible, self-delusional, fog-headed
being on the planet than an aspiring writer." Caustic advice
to the beginning writer. It is wise to watch out. But, he
emphasizes a fairly inefficient, if not corrupt literary
marketplace as the measure of success. Moby Dick sold in the
low hundreds during Melville's life. Was it a failure? Should
Melville never have written it?
http://tinyurl.com/64hnz
How to approach magazines without clips? It's the conundrum
of how to break-in to magazine writing. This article by Kelly
James-Enger has some good ideas. After all, there is more to
a magazine than long, feature articles.
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manuscript for consideration and I happen to have TWO
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_________________B U S I N E S S O F W R I T I N G
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060404/ap_en_bu/books_sony_reader
Are e-book readers back? Sony is coming out with a new reader
that will sell for about $300. Why not?
http://tinyurl.com/3q6pd
Neil Gaiman has a blog and answers questions about agents.
It's not the most reliable report on agents but worth the links.
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004772.html
This is a more effective link about agents. In my young days
I ran into perhaps the strangest agent in the history of the
world. He looked like a fat-man from outer space and always
wore black clothing. He was actually from New York City and
claimed he had access to all the big houses in that
publishing capital. No.
http://tinyurl.com/pbdan
Gaiman mentions Victoria Strauss for advice about agents.
The best advice, if you have a book, is to search the libraries
and bookstores for books like the one you propose to publish,
find out the publisher, find out the agent and deal with
those people. Don't go into the writing business a naive
idiot.
One of the key elements in the business of writing is to
avoid the scams and con games out there. Due diligence!
Patience. Think through. And understand the complex
publishing system you are trying to push your
material through.
______________W R I T I N G O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
http://www.amlainfo.org
The American Media Literacy Association
http://www.pnwa.org/
Pacific Northwest Writers' Association
http://internationalsciencewriters.org/
International Science Writers' Association
http://www.gcwriters.org/
Gulf Coast Writers' Association
http://www.midwestwriters.com/
Midwest Writers' Association
http://www.dwaa.org/competition.html
Dog Writers Association of America
http://www.itwa.org/
International Tennis Writers' Association
There are many more links to writing organizations here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/newmanna.html
_________________________J O B L E A D S
Writer
Sheboygan, WI
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, located in Sheboygan,
WI is seeking a talented writer to join our audience
development/marketing team.
Responsibilities include writing, proofreading, and editing
the Arts Center's marketing materials including newsletters,
press releases, media pitch letters, feature stories,
advertising copy, invitations, flyers, posters, brochures,
etc., coordinating the development of marketing projects and
ensuring that the copy incorporated into all program materials
and promotions is clear, accurate, intelligent, and reflects
the voice of the Arts Center.
Full Ad here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/kohlerarts.html
___________________________________________________________
Editors
Taichung, Taiwan
All People Publishing Looking For Skilled Editors
All People Publishing is located in beautiful central Taiwan,
in a city called Taichung. We focus on the production of
English educational books and magazines and their studio
broadcast and filming.
We are looking for candidates for FULL-TIME positions as
Editors. Writing and broadcasting/filming work also available
for suitable candidates. North American accent preferred.
Full Ad here:
http://www.sunoasis.com/peoplepub.html
____________________________________________________________
Communications Strategist
Middlesex County, NJ
Our Middlesex County, NJ Company is looking for a
detail-oriented professional with strong writing and editing
skills to compile and create responses to prospective
customers¡ inquiries as well as reports/presentations for
current clients. The ability to work in a team environment
and meet time sensitive deadlines is a must.
For Full Ad:
http://www.sunoasis.com/brandjob.html
_____________________________________________________________
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
_________________________________________C O M M U N I T Y
www.pmc.edu/solstice
Solstice Summer Writers' Conference
Pine Manor College
Chestnut Hill, MA
June 16 - June 24, 2006
www.nswc.org
Nebraska Summer Writer's Conference
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
June 17 -June 23, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/rb6lv
New York State Summer Writers' Institute
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY
July 3 - July 28, 2006
www.middlebury.edu/blwc
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT
August 16 - August 27, 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
forbidden.
Our hope is that we can help and enhance the world
of writing, publishing, and editing.
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