Taking a step back

It has been quite a while since I posted here at 2 Drops. I love this blog. It has a small, steady following. It gets a comment or two here and there, but it`s a blog that was designed to discuss, share, and reveal intimate, realistic, and passionate experiences about literature, poetry, and writing.

Recently I was struggling to write my new book. The book was inspired by a dear friend of mine that read one of my short stories and said, “You didn`t do this character justice…he is worthy of a novel.” I have to say, this statement coming from a published writer of over 30 years’ experience humbled me. He has been a “guru” in my life…a mentor…and a dear friend, and so, I began my journey writing “Twisted Ride.”

I came to a place that wasn`t quite “writers block” but nevertheless I was unable to write. I know…you’d say—“that`s writers block”; however, it wasn`t writers block as we all know and have experienced, instead—I was in need of perspective…a step back.

I decided I needed to read. Just plain old grab a book and read. I needed to read as a writer not a reader. I needed to once again expose myself to other writers, their style, the way they put a sentence together, their voice, and their experience. I read some old stuff, like `For whom the bell tolls’ by Ernest Hemingway (1940), and some new stuff—Frank Peretti. I also read some indie authors, some good some bad, and gained some perspective there as well.

I remembered some of my college courses and some of the books I had read by authors about writing that told me to read like a writer not a reader. I found some answers. I feel invigorated once again. I realized that as a Christian I was struggling with the narrative, themes, and language in my book. The story in my book is fiction based on true experiences. It is about the “Outlaw Biker” subculture and without the truth of the violence, strong language, and testosterone of that world—the story would fall flat. I found my answers in prayer and in reading other authors.

Not sure if any of you will relate, but that is the purpose of 2 Drops of Ink—to share experience, strength, and hope in the world of the writer. God bless. WP 

Advice on writing great fiction

Hello dear friends and fellow wielders of the pen, it has been a while since I last posted here at Two Drops of Ink. I have been busy trying to finish my book “Twisted Ride.” Along this journey of writing I often find nuggets of truth—either by painful experience or by the experience of someone else—that I like to share with you all.

I have studied my craft as well as anyone can. I read books by successful writers that teach the skills of writing. I study grammar books, sentence structure, and anything I can get my hands on to become the best writer I can; however, I still make mistakes, bore my readers at times, and suffer horrid editorial reviews. This is just all part of the world of a writer—none are exempt.

Along those lines of thought, I wanted to share a book here on the blog that I recently read. It`s a quick read and it gets to the real meat and potatoes of writing fiction successfully. The book is entitled: “The 38 most common fiction writing mistakes” by Jack M. Bickham.

The book is only 113 pages long and is fashioned in an almost bullet point style of facts and examples on how to write good fiction. There is always a positive aspect to every problem in life. In my case, most of the painful mistakes I have made as a writer have only made me better; however, some mistakes can make you or break you as the author of a successful fiction novel. As I read this book I was delighted to see that I was already following some of his advice or techniques quite naturally; on the other hand, I was also guilty of some of the worst mistakes he mentions.

One of the things I loved was his way of explaining the essentials of good fiction in a very concise and coherent manor—in laymen`s terms, if you will. The number one lesson I took from the reading of this book was to keep fiction moving forward at all times; meaning, learning how to use dialog, narrative, descriptiveness, and other literary techniques in just the proper way or in the proper amounts to keep the story moving rather than static.

I thought of one of the chapters in my draft manuscript that goes into deep detail of the protagonists past history. I remember when I let my wife read it for the first time. I had this gut feeling it sucked, but I needed to be sure. I watched her eyes (the ever-present window of the soul) and I could see the moments of interest and excitement…then, suddenly, her eyes glazed over like the walking dead. Yep, you guessed it; she was reading the portion of my book that included a history lesson on my main character. I was reminded of my favorite chapter in Anne Lamott`s book “Bird by Bird” called “Shitty first drafts.” I learned that I can tell this history in bits and pieces along the way in the story—rather than—in an entire chapter which makes my reader want to use my book as a torture mechanism for enemy combatants.

As always, I write here because I love to write, to share thoughts about prose and poetry, and also, because I hope that some other writer will benefit from my personal experience. God Bless—WP

Photo credit: writingslices.wordpress.com  

Thank you to my readers!

Yesterday was the end of the FREE promo for the Kindle Edition of "Voices from the Heart" on amazon.com. I want to thank all the readers who took advantage of the promo--over 56 copies were downloaded in two days. I hope you all enjoy the book. God bless. WP

FREE eBook promotion

Get a copy of my book "Voices from the Heart" (Kindle Edition) for FREE--that`s right--FREE. Just click on the photo above for your free copy! Thanks to all my readers for your awesome support! WP 

A look in the mirror on self-publishing

I found this article yesterday while surfing the internet. I`m not sure if this is pure satire, a mixer of satire and brutal truth, or just a guy who is pouring out his heart as a “failed” self-published author; either way, it is a great piece and I wanted to share it.

I related so much to the piece (I also laughed my butt off as I read it) because I have done many of the same things he has done as a self-published author. If you are a writer aspiring to be published, or a “self-published failure” as he calls himself in the article—you will love this piece. I will admit that it may leave you with a sense of discouragement; however, I`m a self-motivated, self-starting, tenacious character who refuses to give up, so, I store his words away for experience sake.

I too have had very little success with both of my books. One sold about 1200 copies; the other has been in the hundreds. I do get many complimentary posts, tweets, and emails on portions of my books, poetry, and short stories; however, I have failed to find my audience as of yet. I did choose a genre that is a bit specific with a very small audience (poetry/short stories), but that is where my heart took me as a writer. As I have said many times before—I refuse to sell out and write a Vampire novel.

John Winters rather makes lite of the work involved in self-publishing—I disagree with him on this point. It`s a lot of work and I—for one—am very proud of the work I did to self-publish. I think the biggest mistake I made when I published “Voices from the Heart” was in the cover design—it`s too masculine. Also, I self-edited the book which is a mistake. A writer cannot see his/her own bad habits and grammatical errors—we just can`t (remember that). You can pay someone to edit your work and it`s not that expensive. Anyway, I chose the picture of chains on the front cover of my book because many of my poems and short stories have a moral to them. Many of the experiences I share in both the poems and the short stories are about making changes in our lives, breaking chains, moving on from something painful. I refer to these types of stories and poems as (and I stole this of course—I`m not brilliant enough to come up with this on my own), “The language of the heart.”

Anyway, here is the article by John Winters—I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/02/im_a_self_publishing_failure/

                                      Photo credit: www.salon.com

Poetry Break!

Where did our love go?

Like the slow brown coloring of a rose
That once sat in a beautiful vase,
Is the love that once shown its bright red color,
Where did that love go?

Like the cold-silent breeze in the
Field of a lonely mountain valley,
Is the feeling of a love that`s lost—
 Where did our love go?

Like a fog filled night where sounds
Are only heard in the distance, is the lonely
Feeling of a heart who`s lover is lost—
Where did you go my love?

William Power © 2012

Photo credit: mashable.com

The Devils of `Academia’

                                             Cartoon credit: www.markstivers.com

I was thinking about things I have personally experienced as a writer in terms of fighting the battles of motivating myself to continue to pursue my dream. I`ve learned the mechanics of grammar (although I still make mistakes as any human does). Actually, I`m a bit of a grammar nerd, I study grammar books like some people read vampire novels; however, that won`t make me a great creative writer.

That is to say that a writer has to have some ability to imagine a story and convey that story. A good writer has to have a good imagination, I believe. Even though good grammar makes for good credibility and a better read, it is possible for a great writer to display poor grammar. Let me explain before my grammar Nazi friends—or worse yet—the academic demons attack me.

I have a dear friend who secretly aspires to become a great writer. He has an incredible memory for detail on history and is walking history encyclopedia. He was asked to be a teaching assistant by a professor in his freshman year of college—which is unheard of—normally a professor will ask an upper class-man to do such a job. If I remember correctly, he did write a period piece once—a fiction—and it was published in a college journal or something. The story was not only incredibly creative in terms of the plot and other literary values, but also, he wrote it in the historically correct vernacular and it was awesome.

He began to work on another fiction story that soon developed a character that is good enough for a novel. It started out as a short story, or series of short stories, but this character deserves a novel—it`s that good. When he read the stories to me and explained the overall plot, theme, and direction this story would take—let alone the subject matter the story would cover—I was in awe of his brilliant idea.

I began to tell him, “You have to write this!” In fact, I would almost demand it every time I saw him to the point of becoming a bother, I`m afraid. When I finally nailed him down about why he hadn`t advanced this story or written anything further he said he didn`t believe he had the talent to write—meaning grammar.

I sat him down and said to him quite simply, “You have a talent to create fantastic stories—you can hire an editor.”

I have been torn to shreds over the years by academics and book worms for grammar. I kept writing. I remember once I wrote a political piece and a guy from the opposing side of the political aisle called me, and I quote, “An affront to the Liberal Arts.” At the time, that one hurt. He hit my article with “red ink” and made it bleed; however, as I look back today—these experiences made me a better writer in terms of grammar.

I wrote this post today to reach out to the struggling writer, or the aspiring writer who is quietly wasting time and talent because of fear. As I said, if you have creative talent, you can hire an editor. Editors edit, academics know literature and grammar rules, and creative people write,—which one are you?