One of the hot new terms in our lexicon these days is the concept of a thought leader.  Those of us who have a specialty can now share creative thoughts, views and opinions with the rest of the world through social media sites.

If you happen to specialize in romance writing, for example, you can visit any number of writing sites to post your expertise.  Recognition for your contribution comes in the form of e-networking opportunities, which may parlay into meeting an editor or a literary agent.

So be bold.  Share your thoughts.  Just a note though.  Remember that your information has a far reach and therefore, you need to always remember what the image you are trying to create for yourself and make sure that publication of your thoughts are aligned with your desired image.

I truly don’t know how anyone gets anything done, if they spend time with all these social media windows open on their computer.  While I see the merits of staying connected, I also know someone’s every move, sharing every feeling with not just one or two seems like too much information. 

And pardon me for being so cynical, but what if some not-so-honest person decides to use the online exchange to help himself to the twit’s belongings because the twit announced that he is driving 40 miles away to  be in a wedding party.  Bingo, the twit just opened his home to thieves.

With Google, you can pop the person’s name and do a search.  You can learn how old the person is, where he works and what’s his position, his college information, how many places the twit has lived.  You can Google his present address and see quite clearly all the locations the individual has lived, how many living there complete with full names.  Google maps can show you the front door, the topography.  Yes, there is very little left for the thieves’ imagination.  And if the person has joined and added a profile on any one of the social media websites, the thief knows much more about his victim than he ever needs to know—thus making his job all the more easy.

Oh and let’s have some computer nerd genius decide that it would be great to develop a software that will track a person’s personal daily time line with behaviors and preferences based on the information in cyberspace.  This would be a thief’s HOW TO book.

The not so nice people could also include rapists, pedaphiles, and scam artists.  There is no telling what other occupations may burgeon from gathering personal information.

While we benefit tremendously from news around the world and personal enrichment from these sites, will the downside outweigh the good?

As social media becomes one of the primary sources for news, will we suffer inaccuracies and purposefully placed lies?

Will politics gain another outlet to galvanize public opinion and perhaps, not in a good way, because there will be no fair and balanced reporting?

Will our children who grew up with technology have another vice that will keep them tethered to hardware and not to people in person?

Will the new generation find themselves even more sedentary because the social media connection is addictive?  Will their health suffer for all the hours on line?

It will be interesting to see how people will use this media.  I doubt this will be a fad, but like everything else human beings need to find a balance.

If you are new to writing fiction, one of the foundations of writing good fiction is understanding the relationship of how plots are set up.  Many new writers spend hours sifting through books to have this mystery unraveled.  I remember looking for the answer in the 70’s, and I came away more confused as ever.  (I hate to date myself, but there were no Internet resources at the time.) 

Today I read Randy Ingermanson’s blog on Scenes, Sequels and Chapters.  His breakdown and definition were so clear that it was hard not to get an Oprah “lightbulb moment.”   

 This topic generated lots of comments.  Most of them concur that renaming scene/sequel would make the concept easier to understand.  One popular suggestion is action/reaction.

If you are struggling with how to generate the optimum powerful emotional experience (Randy’s term for playing the scene for everything its worth without getting too melodramatic), then as a writer you have to master scene/sequel or whatever you choose to call it.

This is a must read for both the new writer and the seasoned writer: http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/blog/2009/05/25/scenes-sequels-and-chapters/

Be sure to also check out Randy’s free lesson on How to Create the Perfect Scene.  You won’t regret taking the time to do this, even if you already know how innately. Bringing someone back to the fundamentals enhances powerful writing rather than detracts.

Half- written stories, rejected submissions, and possible story lines found their way to my desk drawer graveyard through not understanding a couple of rules of the road in this craft.

The first rule is not to take a sabbatical while working on a project.  It is the kiss of death for many a project.  The obits of my characters read:  Died before I lived.  Everytime  I start writing a story and put it down for a few weeks, inertia takes over and I cannot resume. 

If I drop writing, even for as little as six weeks, I see more subtle changes in my characters as they adopt the influences or viewpoints that came into my life during that short time span.  The differences may be subtle, but nevertheless there.   Once changes are made, they, no doubt, alter other parts of the story line, and sometimes it means starting from scratch.

Consistency is the key.  It may take only a three day break to lose interest.  If you write everyday, even if it is for a short period, your interest will not wane, your momentum will not sag.  It takes a tremendous amount of discipline and perseverence to dust off an older piece of work and rework it.

Another observation I made about my writing is that if I don’t know my characters well enough at the onset, I lose interest.  I have to be emotionally engaged to keep the writing from being dull.   If I am not familiar with my characters, they never materialize on the page.  They aren’t bigger than life. Since they never seem involved in their own lives, they all appear to have self-esteem issues.  How boring is that! 

These characters maybe a stereotype without depth, without uniqueness.  They move through their lives aloof, controlling their space without connecting with anyone on or off the page.  Just like a marriage license doesn’t make a marriage, a character even though connected to another character may still have the reader  screaming into the page:  What about passion?  What about love?  What about sacrifice and honor?  Damn it.  Say something.  Do something.  This is exactly what results when your characters are not well established in your head.

So, if you find your characters a little lackluster, do your homework.  Etch out everything about this character.  Create a backstory to establish a reason for his/her behavior.  Add a quirk or two for interest and make it points of challenge in the character’s goal.

I posted a question on a www.LinkedIn.com  group asking whether established writers prefer to develop character over plot or vice versa when beginning a novel.  One respondent likened it to playing the piano.  You can play the melody with your right hand, the harmony and chords with your left, but eventually, you will want to play them together. Together the music is whole, rich and filled with texture.

If I was happy with the status quo, my writing could never get better.  Writing is one craft that you can be learning something new every day of your life.  This is why writers keep writing.

What did you learn last?  Care to share it?

We spend so much time blogging and looking for good, consistent blogs on writing that when you find a great list already compiled, you feel like you hit the mother lode.  You feel like sharing it with the world.

And so I hit the mother lode yesterday.  Christina Laun obviously has good taste and spends a lot of time online.  She has compiled one of the most comprehensive list of writing blogs I’ve ever come across.  She categorized and wrote a short summary of each contribution. 

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2009/02/05/top-100-creative-writing-blogs/

I encourage you to rummage through the 100 she has targeted as the BEST.  Pick out a couple to follow.  One of my favorites is Randy Ingermanson’s Advanced Fiction.  I just started looking at Laun’s selections, so I may have more that are worth following.

Let me know what you think of her list.

This holiday season, my husband gave me “Embracing Your Inner Critic” by Hal and Sidra Stone.  I’d be insulted, but I found this book a wonderful journey into personal discovery. 

The Stones describe how our inner thoughts can be either a painful saboteur or the motivation to achieve what appears impossible.

They point out the irony of how our inner critic outwardly is our protector from being hurt or abused by others, but in actuality, the inner voice can cause much psychological damage, which exhibit symptoms of shame, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.  

Targeting writers, this self-help book strives to assist all writers to turn self-criticism into a creative outlet.

We can extrapolate the observations and behavior descriptions to other areas of our lives as well.  We are all wounded souls in one sense or another.  It only seems fair to say that our inner critic has words to say about all sectors of our life…

It is an easy read…and if you ever wondered why you always run late or why you keep dating the same type of guy/girl that makes you insane, the Stones may help shed some light and give you control over your idiosyncrasies.

This is not a particularly difficult book to read.  It could have been more succinct, but the content is sound.  It echoed many things that I’ve heard or read before and connected the dots for me.  For those who might deem this as psycho babble, you  might be right.  Some won’t ever see what the Stones are writing about.  Is it denial or just a lack of introspection?

And of course, what psychological cook book doesn’t come with recipes?Yes, this book comes with exercises to get you out of your psychological rut. 

Will I do the exercises?  Probably.  But maybe not all.

 Do I expect results?  Hope so.

My last post was weeks ago.  I could tell you about abandoning my car on the Pennsylvania turnpike because the head gaskets leaked coolant into the engine.  I could tell you about how the sucky economy has ramped up my workload at my day job (financial planning).  I could tell you that kids and house need attention.  But I have decided to bite the bullet and make no more excuses.  Life is testing me.  How much do I want to write? 

Like a yo-yo dieter, I have tried every time management tool out there.  I have tried MBO (management by objective), reward systems, and numerous strategies used by other writers and writing gurus.  I have been trying for years and something inside me won’t let me quit.  Why can’t I let myself off the hook?  What is the deep dark place that holds me back from living to my potential?

I write.  I write everyday, but it is not fiction.  My husband thinks I should write non-fiction, because I gravitate toward reading non-fiction material.  Maybe he is right.  I often think of going on a writer’s retreat to get that flow started.  I feel like an engine that needs an oil change.  The oil, viscous and dark, is like sludge gumming up the works. 

Here’s a site about writer’s retreats. If you ever thought about going, this is a good place to start.  http://www.writersretreat.com     (This is a hot link, even though it appears like plain text).

Hey, November is National Novel Writing Month and celebrating its tenth year.  Perhaps, you have already heard of it.  This is the opening content on the home page.  http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  “It is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing.  Participants begin writing November 1.  The goal is to write a 175 page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

No doubt a writer out there sees Alaska’s governor Sarah Palin’s story as the core of a wonderful novel.  You can’t dream up stuff better than this.  Through in some humor, some twists and voila — America’s next bestseller. 

Tonight is the VP debate: Palin vs. Biden.  So novelists, join your political journalist counterparts and take notes.  I swear this is fertile territory for a good movie to boot. 

Creative, but can’t draw?  Technology has certainly made those who have trouble replicating real life into an artform. 

www.moonjee.com is a fun website to visit.  If you have some photos of faces on your computer, you can upload them and dabble with all the tools to give the subject a new look. 

You can add features, change shape, coloring, age, or even blend two portraits.

Their is also a portrait analysis based on the points on your face.  If you are brave enough, you can subject yourself to the computer’s attractiveness scale to see if you are considered one of the beautiful people. (Don’t take too much stock in this.)  However, there is a commentary on the portrait’s personality that you might find interesting.  I found it to have strong threads of truth, but then there were threads that were a bit off.  You be the judge.

Anyway, have fun giving yourself a makeover…or venting the frustrations of work by giving your boss a new look (it is convenient that there are a selection of scars from which to choose.  Try not to be too cruel. LOL)

You get to email it to the person as well.  I just spent about an hour messing with the site, but it has definite creative outlet possibilities.

How does this link to writing?  Create the faces of the characters in your novel.  Really get to know them.

About 20 years ago, I was searching for a writing group.  I attended one after another, endured endless hours of self aggrandizing, poorly conceived material, and sometimes even worse readings.  Then, for awhile I hooked up with wonderful person, who was travelling down the same path.  We met monthly for about two years.  During that time, we should have, could have produced at least one marketable piece.  Neither one of us met with success. 

I have been keeping a journal.  In my journal amongst all my wishes for my family, I also dreamed  about starting a writing center.  My writing center will have a large fireplace, large leather chairs, the smell of coffee.  In the foyer will be mail cubbies.  The dining room will have a large round table with comfortable high back chairs.  There will be plenty of natural light.  People talking in small clusters.  A workshop is being held in one room upstairs.  Another room has a poetry reading.  In another I hear a writer sharing her life story with others.  There is a small reading room.  And there is a computer room for writing, although the house has wifi. 

The furniture is solid and attractive.  They all have been donated.  The center is open 7 days a week.  A friend has helped me with the interior decoration, which reminds me of Bloomingdale eclectic. I don’t know how I would ever get enough money to start a project this large.

Then, last week I learn that the Frederick Community College will open a new writing center in Fall 2009.  The location is in an old Victorian house.  I’m sure it will not be quite what I envisioned, but I was excited to hear that my vision was materializing.  But wait.  Is that my vision?  How could it  be if it is managed by an institution?

Am I supposed to get involved in the new writing center so that I know what to do to create my own?  Or is this my dream being realized?   Is this synchronicity?