Southern Writing

How September's been treating me

September's almost over, and it's been a pretty good month. The Jewish New Year was a week ago, and since that day, my life has been a whirlwind.

I've registered for the Praxis exam, which is the subject test for New Orleans teachers. I'll have my transcripts sent to the teaching program next month, and I plan to have my ACT scores sent to them as well.

My family is going to drive me to New Orleans, and it will be a mini family vacation. My friends Moira and Josiah will take over Friday night, and Saturday Moira is going to drive me to take the test. Once I have all of the paperwork and testing completed, I get to wait to interview with the program people.

I've also decided to buy Scrivener. It organizes my work too well not to use it. I don't use any of the flashy features (think corkboard and outlining) but what I do use is worth $30.

My future looks pretty bright right now.

The woman with the plan

The most I make in a single month during the year is around $2,000, because every October I work at Howl O Scream. Usually, the amount I make is closer to $1,000.

Now, I have a plan. I'm going to apply to a program at the University of New Orleans that would allow me to earn a teaching certificate while I teach. In the fall, I will hopefully be teaching science classes to middle school or high school students.

I've wanted to teach for a while. That's one of the reasons I'm working part time now as a principal's assistant for the religious school at my synagogue. I've also loved New Orleans for a good long while, and I've wanted to be a bigger part of the recovery effort. Now, I just have to figure out how to spell this out in 500- 1,000 words without seeming like a creep or a weirdo. Fun times.

Because, for me, there is no life that isn't the writing life, I will probably update this blog on my progress on getting into the teaching program. I expect this summer this blog will be filled with posts about fast-track teaching classes, and this fall it will be filled with posts about transitioning into teaching. Life is exciting again.

My beef with the news

I have a former professor who gives a "Why newspapers are important" speech every year, around this time. His argument isn't that the news is important (although he would never argue news isn't important), it's that newspapers are important. Newspaper websites don't fit into this equation; only the physical act of reading a newspaper will do.

My problem with this mindset is it is one of stagnation. It's a "This is the way I know, so this is the right way," way of thinking. The media industry is struggling, and it's because the industry isn't evolving in time with customer demand.

The need for the industry's evolution is being thwarted by the struggles of the industry. Less people are trying to do more work. Newspaper reporters and editors are taking more unpaid vacation and working less hours while trying to put together a quality product, and the newspapers are suffering. Some reporters go out into the field as reporters, photographers, and multimedia experts, yet stories are still being dumped from the paper onto the website. And, newspapers are missing out on breaking news to Twitter and sites willing to print stories as they happen.

For example- I've been known to freelance deadline stories for papers. At one such paper, my deadline was 7:45, or a worst case scenario time of 8:30. These deadline times were given to me the first day I wrote a story on deadline.. With editor turnover, my deadline moved to an unknown time, but at 7:45 stories were deemed too late to make the next day's morning edition. And, by 8 p.m., the editor becomes unreachable by their office extension. So, suddenly, news happening in the field has to be concluded by 7:30, or it won't make the next day's newspaper at all. The news that happened yesterday will be in tomorrow's edition and possibly on the web some time tonight. So, the people who read the newspaper will get the news on Wednesday, after they've probably already consumed it from the television and web.

Another good example is Patrick Swayze's death. I learned via text message last night that he was dead. Then, I logged into Facebook and had tons of status updates from my friends, and an updated note from the New York Times about the death. The Times isn't above covering breaking news. It isn't above reaching out to people through text messages, emails, or social networking sites. In fact, I usually go to the Times site, because they update breaking news stories as they happen and is a reliable source of news. Other newspaper sites I read didn't post the story until well after I went to bed.

Something has to happen, and it has to happen fast, because most local papers are being left in the dust during this media revolution.

Also, if there are glaring errors in this post, please let me know. I've been cutting back on coffee and sugar, so right now I'm in the midst of a mind haze of exhaustion.

New writing blog!

Kathy Cano-Murillo, probably my favorite crafter of all time, has started her own writing blog. In addition to being the mind behind the Crafty Chica craft line and crafting books, she is also working on launching her fiction debut.

I'm hoping I love her writing blog (which will be filled with wonderful writing tidbits and information, I'm sure) as much as I love Diary of a Crafty Chica.

The need to read

There is at least one piece of writing advice that is universal: if you want to be a writer, read.

Different schools of thought prescribe different genres to read. Some say you should read the best in your genre. Some say you should read the best literary masterpieces the world has to offer. And, some say you should read everything you can get your hands on. I lean towards the last piece of advice, because everyone has their own opinions on what the "best" is. Also, if you want to make money on writing, chances are you're going to be writing commercial fiction. Bad commercial fiction can be a good example of what not to do.

The other night, I was reading Jack Ketchum's The Offspring. Once I started, I couldn't put the book down. I read all 200+ pages in three hours. And, the reason for the need to read was suddenly clear.

I've written manuscripts before. I've even finished them. But, I've never been so involved with a WiP as I am with my current one. And, while I was reading the novel, a ton of things in my own novel became clear. Like, I need more blood. My villains need to be more ominous and creepy. There need to be more scenes that describe what's going on with the main character's thoughts and feelings.

Some of these were suggestions I received from beta readers, but it took a horror novel to make everything click into place.

In the world of horror fiction, Ketchum is a god. Stephen King has pretty much bowed before the mind that creates mazes of psychological and gory horror. But, in the world of literary fiction, he isn't even a blip on the screen.

So, read often. Read as much material as you can. And, don't be a snob about it. You never know what will inspire you to be better until you've taken a chance.

Life, life, life

Today has been a very busy and productive day. Not in the writing sense, but in the life sense.

I am currently getting ready for some sort of double blind date thing, so that is awesome. But, earlier, I was thinking about how as a writer I will have to work five times harder than everyone else. I'm going to have to have at least one day job and write in my spare time. This worked fine for the last novel, but it's important to consider that, at all times, I will have at least two jobs.

I'm up for the challenge. I'm not sure I could live without writing. Although, I do have to say it would be more difficult to live without reading.

 I was reading Chip MacGregor's blog today, and he had a great post on making a writing career plan. Any writers out there, whether you're a freelance journalist or a novelist, should read it. Not enough blogs/ sites/ books focus on the business aspect of writing, probably because it's the least romantic.