My #Writing Process, Revealed (Article) - 11/21/2015 9:12:18 AM
My, you certainly have a multitasking way of gathering information! You use many sources that I do not. In fact, I'm afraid if I used all of those you mention, I would never have time to write. Your detailed description of how you put together all you've learned into a writing process is very useful for other writers to use. I applaud you for that.
While I do collect information eclectically, I am a very logical oriented person and seem to categorize things quite easily. While I do store away potential information that I might use in my writing, I tend to find that I come upon an idea while writing and then have to find information to verify it. Now found easily on the Internet without having to do old-fashioned research.
I agree with Steven Johnson's quote. I certainly do have a connected mind. I'm rather left brained and rely heavily on reality-based information rather than delving into creative fantasy that often is trap because it can have no basis in reality except becoming a parody of reality… A soap opera like Star Wars or Harry Potter.
Thanks for the ideas you conjured up with your article.
Ron
My #Writing Process, Revealed (Article) - 11/21/2015 12:25:36 AM
I can identify with many of the processes you employ to craft your writing. You organized and detailed it so well. I will now think of myself as "percolating" as I meditate while doing housework.
#Writing as Excavation of the Soul (Article) - 11/20/2015 6:44:20 AM
All writers write from experience. Two notable ones that come to mind are Mark Twain writing about his childhood adventures in Huckleberry Finn and Ernest Hemingway writing about his experience in Spain and in the Caribbean. When my twin brother read my first novels you told me, "Ron, you're writing about yourself."
Some writers spend a lot of time and effort trying to disguise they are and distance themselves from what they write, usually to no avail. I find that quite amusing. I really like autobiographies of people who have led interesting lives. Unfortunately, there are people with rather uninteresting lives who move into fantasy to try to put a little spice in their lives. Those stories aren't as enriching as the ones from adventurous writers.
For example, Fifty Shades of Grey, is just that… gray, bland, and boring.
Ron
How I use Science Research in my Sci-Fi Writing for The Spanners Series (Article) - 11/19/2015 9:01:54 AM
I must commend you on a very thorough and informative article about what it means to be a writer today with all of the technological advances that have come our way. From what I read, you are extremely organized and dedicated to researching detail that you use in your expanded series of books creating science fiction from real-world information that you are continually gathering.
While I am well-organized as well, I take a much more relaxed approach to writing, partly because I no longer have to depend upon writing for a livelihood, but can write whatever I like however I like to write it. I try to only publish the good stuff. I, too, am indebted to the Internet and to word processing for my research and writing. Without these two fabulous tools I would no longer be writing, since I lost my ability to hand write about 1998.
I recall the long hours I spent in a huge library searching for notes for my dissertation, sometimes returning to my lonely efficiency apartment with nothing after a day's futile effort looking at library cards and scanning books taken from shelves with nothing pertaining to my work. And then reading whole volumes only to pull a paragraph or two of cogent information.
But I did learn how not to plagiarize, be as original as possible, and always, always give credit to others whose information shoulders I was standing on. That's the greatest gift that kind of study affords a writer.
Fortunately, I have never suffered the keyboard and eyestrain that so many have spent their lives typing away with all fingers, furiously. Paralyzed at 20, I was fortunate to find out that I could type, on an electric typewriter, with one thumb. I forgoed a personal library, the use of dictionary and thesaurus, and many other conventions, except 3 x 5 cards, for my work and relied heavily on my memory and my growing vocabulary from reading great books. As a result I was both helped and hurt. Helped, because I could be original and freethinking as I wrote, but hurt because I made many mistakes that often got into my published works in spite of white out, correction tape and, cutting and pasting, to my dismay.
Before my paralysis I was keenly interested in the latest technology. After my paralysis, it became a necessity. I was an advocate for word processing before PCs were invented and 100 pages of my dissertation were done on a mainframe computer using word processing with a program called, WYLBUR. I was fortunate enough to use the very first versions of MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint created for the Macintosh SE by Microsoft. They have been my faithful companions for the past 30 years. I found Voice Navigator II in 1995 and have used several voice dictation systems like the one I'm using here to be able to increase my high school typing speed of 35 words per minute, to sometimes over 100 words per minute as I try to collect my thoughts and make sure that I correct my word errors as I dictate.
Just as you have, as a writer, I welcome this brave new world of writing, publishing, and sharing. If only I had enough time to read.
Ron, Ed.D.
The Spanners Series now in Paperback! (Article) - 11/18/2015 7:37:44 AM
I did find some good advice buried in this promotion of your books. I would much prefer and advice article without promotion being its objective. We all get too much spam as it is.
Ron
