The idea for this question arose from a conversation I had with Chuck Litka, about typos.
I find typos very distracting when I’m reading as they seem to leap off the page at me. And I can’t ‘not see them’.
I hypothesized that the reason might be because I do digital graphics where I’m used to working at the pixel level. The more I thought about those typos though, the more I saw a pattern emerging. And it had nothing to do with typos.
See what you think:
Chuck Litka is a writer and painter.
I love words and digital graphics.
Diana Peach loves digital graphics too.
So does Audrey Driscoll.
Chris James is a writer and photographer.
Frank Prem is a poet and photographer.
Yorgos writes and draws.
Candy Korman is a writer, lover of art, and dances the tango.
Robbie Cheadle is a writer and creator of art with fondant.
And my crafty friend Anne is a botanical artist who paints and embroiders whilst also writing interesting posts on her blog…
And those are just the creatives I can think of off the top of my head. Apart from Anne and Candy, I believe we all create our own book covers, so there is an element of functionality about our art, but I suspect we’d want to be involved even if we weren’t DIY Indies.
So I’m throwing the question out there:
Is it possible that wordsmiths need to create some form of visual beauty in order to recreate it with words?
Or is there something even more fundamental going on?
Is it possible that wordsmiths are also into music? Or dance? Or food?
Food is such an elemental part of life. Do you have to be a good cook in order to write convincingly about food?
Lots of questions and not a single answer, so I’d really like you to share your thoughts in comments. And by ‘you’ I mean Indies, traditionally published writers, photographers, painters, graphic artists, musicians and cooks. If I’ve missed anyone please share that too.
-hugs-
Meeks
July 3rd, 2022 at 1:48 am
Reblogged this on Yorgos KC.
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July 3rd, 2022 at 8:07 am
-grin- Thank you! You’re definitely one of those who cross creative boundaries. 😀
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July 4th, 2022 at 3:29 am
Thank you! 😘💖💖
Not taking into consideration what I’m good at and what not, I engage in writing, photography, drawing/painting and, also, used to play the violin 😇
I don’t know whether one should be a good cook to write convincingly about food, but I think it would help. And also know that there are more details in my stories about drinking coffee, or tea, than eating. Coincidently (not really 😏) I’m an awful cook don’t really like eating. It’s just a necessary evil. Coffee and tea I enjoy drinking. So, maybe, if an author doesn’t like something avoids writing about it?
As for making my own covers, yes, I do. Mostly because I have a particular idea of what I want the cover to be.
There is an exception, for now. “The House in the Lake” cover is (still) a digital editing of the image that inspired the story, and “The Demon of the Three Rivers” is a badly made cover, as it’s not an individual story, but it will be at the end of “The House in the Lake” book. Anyway, I’ve tried to employ a few professionals to remake it and didn’t like the result. Technique wise they were good, but the feeling was off. Then tried to make it myself. The feeling was not really right, but not off, but I didn’t like the aesthetic, so, it’s still in progress.
The copyright matter is an issue, but very secondary for me. As said, I have very particular ideas about my covers, so if I couldn’t make them, I’d hire someone to make them for me, and wouldn’t use a free image from the internet, which might not really be in public domain.
About listening to music while writing, which was discussed here, no! Neither while writing, nor while reading. I can’t concentrate with music playing. I like music. I like listening to it, but not while working (housework doesn’t count).
On whether other arts help writing and vice versa, I think they all help workout creativity in different ways, so, yes, I believe they do. And yes, as mentioned elsewhere, I think by you, the more one exercises creativity the stronger it becomes, or so I believe.
For the typos, I’ve commented elsewhere, so won’t be repeating myself here.
Think I covered everything, haven’t I? If not, don’t mention what I missed, for I may end up writing another huge reply 😇
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July 4th, 2022 at 7:44 am
lmao – you can write as many huge replies as you wish!
My Dad played the violin. 🙂 I played the piano, so there’s another connection.
Re food and stuff the writer does and does not like… I think that everything we write is autobiographical, at least to some extent, even if its the reverse of what we actually feel. In a way, how can it be otherwise? We can research as much as we want, but the ‘feel’ can only come from things we’ve experienced, both good and bad.
If you ever need to create a character who’s a foodie, you may have to collaborate with someone! 😀 😀
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July 4th, 2022 at 7:40 pm
💖💖💖
Have you played any concert for violin and piano with your father?
And, yes, you are absolutely right, about the autobiographical and the feeling. Absolutely right!
It’s the reason I never write school boys in England, although I’d love to. I know to an extend how schools work there, and I could research it to any extend I’d like, but the actual feeling of being a student there? That’s not something I can research.
And also, yes, for the collaboration. It’s not an easy thing. Them being a good author doesn’t mean we can collaborate well. The reader should not be able to say who wrote which part, after all. But compared to writing something that feels unreal, or 2D, it worth the effort finding one. 🤓
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July 5th, 2022 at 6:57 am
Dad and I used to play Lara’s Theme from Doctor Zhivago, but mostly we played different kinds of music. I was very much into classical as that’s what I love. Dad loved Hungarian Gypsy style music coz that’s who had taught /him/. lol
This: “The reader should not be able to say who wrote which part”. 100% I think that would have to be the hardest part. I’ve read some brilliant collaborations in the past, but I have no idea /how/ they did it, not just once but consistently.
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July 5th, 2022 at 4:36 pm
That’s sweet! 😍
I’m more with you in music taste, but I can also understand your father’s preferences. It’s a beautiful music and some of the pieces can be ba as challenging as some of Paganini’s, so it must be fulfilling for the violin player to master those 🤓
Re brilliant collaborations, haven’t done it myself, so this is just an assumption, I think the first time is the most difficult. Once they succeed, they now how to do it the next time. But how they succeeded it the first time? Like you, I have no idea.
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July 6th, 2022 at 9:44 am
Yes, playing the violin like that is a virtuoso thing. Whatever Dad did he did to the max. Like you though, I prefer a different style of music.
I tried a collaboration, just for fun, back when I first started writing. It was fun for a while but then we wanted to take the story in different directions so it fizzled. I have huge respect for those who can make it work though.
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December 5th, 2021 at 9:19 am
I do photography as well as write, it’s a long-standing hobby. My pix have been regularly published and used as book covers etc, mostly in my own books and largely because it means I am confident about the copyrights of what I’m using (it’s also cheaper 🙂 ). I did all the colour photography on my website: http://matthewwright.net/ – and there are some downloadable wallpapers of my pix under ‘free stuff’. I like it – I cannot draw to save myself, but I do like the challenge of photography. Weirdly, my main interest (and the field I spent longest studying) is music, but I haven’t had the time to do anything about that for a while.
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December 5th, 2021 at 10:00 pm
Ka ching! I knew you were into music, but I had no idea you’d done your own covers or that you were into photography. That said, I am not surprised.
Not one of the writers in our little community is ‘just’ a writer. And I don’t mean that in any derogatory sense. Rather, it seems as if every one of us has been freed up to become Renaissance Men and Women. 😀
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December 4th, 2021 at 8:39 am
Thanks for the mention, Meeks. All I can say for certain is that I approach both painting and writing as art. I really do feel like I’m “painting” with words when I write. In both cases I put paint and words down, see how they look, and then mess with them. I don’t have a visual mind, so I mostly work with what I see. And my painting and writing styles are probably very similar as well — impressionistic. As for my attention to details, let’s just say that, luckily for all, I wasn’t an engineer like my dad.
There is no doubt some correlation between my method of writing and my blindness to typos. Even though I’m now well aware of it, my wife still finds hundreds of various types of typos in my ms, and my half dozen beta readers find another hundred. Proofreading is a skill, and you have it, and I suspect it comes from your analytic talent and not from your creative talents.
Though in my defense I think Gerald Nolst Trenite’s “The Chaos” says it all when it comes to the logic, or lack thereof, of the English language:)
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December 4th, 2021 at 9:25 am
You started this conversation, Chuck, of course I had to give you a mention. 😀 😀
As for your painting…that’s how I create digital graphics as well! I get a ‘feel’ for what I want to see, but the picture, if any, is incredibly vague. It’s not until I start playing with shapes that the whatever-it-is starts to become clear.
Curiously, my writing is kind of the same. I call myself a pantster hybrid because the start of every story, and the end, is always by feel. The middle I have to plot.
If you read through some of the other comments you may be surprised by how different the specific details may be, and yet how similar the overall picture of what /is/ creativity.
Maybe it’s like cooking with a set of base ingredients, but each ‘dish’ has a different combination.
Thanks for starting all this!
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December 4th, 2021 at 4:01 am
Great questions, Andrea. I’m highly impacted by visuals and use them a lot to get a glimpse of characters and settings. Maps are essential. I gather all the visual materials before I even start to write.
And music is over the top – too stimulating! I can’t write to it. It completely sweeps me away from the plot! Lol.
I think writers are probably stirred by anything that impacts the imagination – especially sensory inputs because they’re so evocative. So food could fall in there, though that’s not a big one for me.
A fun ponder.
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December 4th, 2021 at 6:41 am
-grin- Yes! I have a half of a big filing cabinet full of ‘research’, a great deal of it visual.
I remember you saying you couldn’t write to music. I can’t write without it.
I love how our similarities and /differences/ are part and parcel of what makes us who we are.
Fascinating stuff. I wonder if others will read about how we approach creativity and realise that they have the capacity as well?
Self perception can hobble everyone.
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December 5th, 2021 at 2:06 am
🙂 I think we’re naturally creative creatures, and there are a lot of ways to express that. It makes me happy to think that way.
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December 4th, 2021 at 2:01 am
I think creative people are simply creative and most of them have a number of media. When I started pottery on a whim (just a few years ago) I rediscovered drawing—something I ditched as a teen and now do every day. Many of the dancers I know sing, play an instrument, compose, act, paint, write, or make photos & films. The different outlets feed each other. I think it’s all wrapped up together.
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December 4th, 2021 at 6:50 am
My Dad saw himself as an engineer, yet he played the violin his whole life. Maybe you’re right, maybe creatives are like a pot boiling over, stuff goes in all directions. -grin- apologies for that. It’s very early and I haven’t had enough coffee yet.
I do think that self perception plays a part in what we do as well.
I drew as a kid. Mostly horses. I was fascinated by horses. And then, like you, I stopped.
Why did you stop drawing?
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December 3rd, 2021 at 11:45 pm
Thank you for the shout out, Meeka. Doing my own covers happened because I saw how many people were getting prosecuted for using images on their book covers that they thought they could use for free, so I decided I had to use my own images to be sure I had the copyright to them. I think there was a phase a few years ago when indies especially were being targeted by unscrupulous law firms to scare skint writers for a few hundred easy bucks…
But apart from that, I maintain it is impossible to have good story ideas when one is immobile. All of my writing ideas only come to me when I’m moving. It might be just walking the dogs or cycling; more often the really good ideas (and they don’t come along often, TBH) only pop up when I’m doing something properly physical, e.g. house maintenance, light construction work, working with wood, doing something in the garden.
I’m a great believer in the link between physical movement and imaginative creativity. *hugs*
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December 4th, 2021 at 7:10 am
lol – you make it sound so practical, but I’ve seen your photographs, and they’re beautiful.
Oddly enough, I suspect that physical movement relaxes you, allowing left field thoughts to percolate through to the conscious brain. Building dry stone walls does that for me. And music.
Speaking of, do you listen to music when you write? I know you love music, but does it help or hinder?
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December 4th, 2021 at 9:02 pm
Haha, thank you! But the photos are just for fun so I don’t really try (because I don’t try to sell them). Writing, on the other hand, is something I try very hard at because I ask peeps for money 🙂
Yes, I always listen to music when I write, but usually only music I’ve known for most of my life because its familiarity calms me and lets me concentrate.
Dry stone walls? Any chance of some pics in a post please? Pretty please? 🙂
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December 3rd, 2021 at 8:32 pm
I honestly believe there are artists of every kind inside all of us…
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December 4th, 2021 at 7:12 am
For most of my life I assumed that some ‘special people’ were born wildly artistic and the rest of us just had…hobbies. I’m starting to think I was quite wrong. 😀
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July 1st, 2022 at 8:16 pm
I agree! You were wrong! 😘
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July 2nd, 2022 at 8:51 am
-giggles- I’m kind of glad. 😀
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December 3rd, 2021 at 6:22 pm
Hi Meeks, thank you for the shoutout here. There are a few new blogs to me which I will be checking out. I think that most writers do additional artistic activities. Jacqui Murray designs maps [a bit like you do] and writes, Smitha, is an artist and a poet, Dave is a writer and a cartoonist. The list could go on and on and that’s a fact. I don’t think it is necessarily a need, in order to write better, I think it is just an outward manifestation of artistic abilities which exist within us in more than one way. Writers of fiction are artistic and we have more than one artistic ability.
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December 3rd, 2021 at 7:47 pm
More than welcome, Robbie. I kind of agree with you except that I never saw myself as artistic. That’s not to put myself down. I’ve always known I could /think/, but somehow art was this whole other thing. -hugs-
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December 4th, 2021 at 6:11 am
Funnily enough, Meeks, that is how I felt about writing, I never saw myself as an author, that was something for amazingly intellectual and clever people way out of my league.
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December 4th, 2021 at 6:34 am
Hah…you know where my creativity came out? I built dollshouses. Sounds as if both of us were hobbled. But hobbled no longer, right! -hugs-
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December 5th, 2021 at 4:19 am
Building dollhouses sounds wonderful. OF course that is very creative and something I would enjoy doing too.
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December 5th, 2021 at 7:17 am
I have to say, it was fun, a /lot/ of fun. I’d love to build more but I don’t have a workshop/space any more.
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December 5th, 2021 at 5:14 pm
That is a pity.
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December 5th, 2021 at 9:50 pm
lol – I’ve promised myself that one day I’ll get a shed!
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July 1st, 2022 at 8:29 pm
There wasn’t a “Reply” at the end, so I use the last one I found.
Literature is an art. And expressing the feeling of a book in a visual image – the cover – is also an art. Robbie’s art sounds delicious, too. So, let it sink in your minds, you are artists! 💖
And also get the shed!
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July 2nd, 2022 at 8:53 am
lmao! Working on the shed and yes, Robbie’s art is scrumptious. So is her writing. Maybe one of the great things about social media is that we’ve created a kind of digital artist colony. 🙂
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December 3rd, 2021 at 4:37 pm
Interesting context of multiple considerations… Imo right-brained people are rewarding to hang out with and many I know are multi-talented-focussed… Anne introduced me to the term silo… I don’t have many… any maybe… left-brained people in my silo. But I presume there might be wordsmiths that are also left brained and multi-focussed. I think typos happen when people are wordcrafting at a macro level, conveying ideas/inspiration/story rather than left-brained analytics and micro-management of spelling-grammar. The former also have presumably written-read-rewritten-reread the text and are typo-blind whereas for the latter, particularly as a first time reader, the typos are obvious.
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December 3rd, 2021 at 7:32 pm
Maybe both sides of the brain are like a muscle – the more you exercise both of them, the more creative you get.
I know I find ‘left brain’ tasks easier, but that could be because I was 48 before I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, I /could/ be creative as well as analytical.
Maybe allowing ourselves to be multifunction brings about the best results.
I totally agree with you about the ‘first time reader, the typos are obvious’.
The way I edit/proof my writing is to put it into a different medium so it ‘looks’ different. When I do that, things I used to skim over suddenly jump out at me.
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July 1st, 2022 at 8:59 pm
That’s a good idea. Very good actually. Helps more times than I imagined the first time I heard of it.
An other thing that helped me when I was preparing for Uni’s entrance exams was to read my assays and everything from end to start, so that I could focus on the words rather than on what I was writing. I was correcting 100+ misspellings in a 3 page assay (and the number is not an exaggeration). It doesn’t help with correctly written words that are not the right word, which I also do more than often enough.
For example, “hopping” and “hoping” 😋 But, I’m a bunny, and as a well known bunny said, “while I’m hopping, I’m hoping”
Regarding left and right brain, and which one sees the typos, I’m not sure. A science teacher was insisting I should go for maths, in Uni, because he was certain I have a too mathematical mind exactly because I was making so many spelling mistakes (and I was good at maths, too, of course).
I can see typos in another person’s writing easily. But when I’m not beta reading/editing I don’t really mind them. They will only annoy me if I don’t like what I’m reading, but that’s just the icing on the cake.
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July 2nd, 2022 at 9:02 am
Yes!!!!! Reading my work aloud helps me too. I think part of it is that it’s in a different medium so we pay more attention to the words but…I listen for rhythm too, if that makes sense. I know we don’t read the same way that we speak, so we don’t need to ‘take a breath’ but when I hear when I do need to take a breath, it seems to help make the sentence easier to read in silence too.
If I really, really, really like the story I’m reading, I can kind of gloss over the typos, but a part of my brain still recognizes them. It’s just that they don’t annoy me as much as usual. 😀
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July 2nd, 2022 at 5:49 pm
Yeap! Reading out loud helps a lot. Especially with dialogues and, even more so, when the character has a unique way of speaking. Hadn’t noticed that it makes reading easier, too 🤓
And yes, rhythm makes perfect sense to me. 😁
(Note to self: be extra careful with your typos when messaging Meeka.)
(Reality seeing the note: 😏😏😏)
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July 3rd, 2022 at 8:16 am
-evil giggle- I’ll forgive a few typos :p
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December 3rd, 2021 at 4:10 pm
It’s not going to be considered art, but I had been looking for a reason to learn Pixelmator, and it came along with designing a cover. I had so much fun doing that, with J.M. Ney-Grimm as a wonderful mentor.
I plan on doing two more – one in the near future. Me, all me. Every speck of these books.
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December 3rd, 2021 at 7:22 pm
Hah! Define ‘art’. 😉 I just looked up Pixelmator because I’d never heard of it before. It sounds similar to the Corel suite of graphics tools [what I use]. You may think you’re only making a few covers, but I guarantee you’ll be hooked. 😀
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December 4th, 2021 at 10:55 am
It’s a mini-Photoshop, Mac native, which gave me plenty to work with when I did my fist cover.
To maintain the ‘look’ I will do the two other covers, and the one for the prequel short story the same way.
Later, if I need a pro version, I’ll have something to work from.
I haven’t had time to use it since 2015 when I did that cover and my logo for Trilka Press – but if I can finish the other stuff I need to do, including writing the end of NETHERWORLD, I can play with the graphics for a while.
I’m not really drawn (hehe) to spend much time with graphics, digital or real world, because I don’t have much visionary success in that direction. I’m a copyist at best – but no pull to make more of it. Never had any instruction, and will take classes here when I have time – we have everything I might need, space, teachers, time (unless I’m writing).
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December 4th, 2021 at 11:51 am
-grin- I’ll pay that one, but I do wonder what made you decide to DIY the cover in the first place? I’ll bet you could have gone onto Fiverr and commissioned one for less than the cost of the software.
I /suspect/ that like me, you had/have a very strong feel for what you want the cover to convey. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?
I also wonder how much our expectations of ourselves colour what we allow ourselves to do?
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December 4th, 2021 at 12:06 pm
So MANY reasons.
I interact badly with people.
There is no nuance in emails.
I got a cover for the prequel short story on Wattpad – and, after an enormous amount of back and forth, got something I have never really gotten behind.
I figured by the time I knew what I really wanted, I’d be finished creating it.
J.M. Ney-Grimm agreed to mentor me – I love her covers, and she was fabulous and strict and imaginative.
I LIKE having total control – I even ended up doing the proofreading because the very nice fan who had offered had a new baby and a divorce in her life when it came time.
I don’t have to explain things to myself!
I don’t write in an obvious niche with covers you can copy.
I got, via a friend, a gorgeous photo of the sunset that I glommed onto – so I had to stick with it.
I wanted the permissions and licenses for photos and fonts to be done properly.
I couldn’t describe the photo I wanted – nor afford to have it taken when I knew.
I wanted an excuse to play with graphics, as I mentioned.
I figured if I did everything myself the first time, I would know what I wanted for later books, and they wouldn’t be able to snow me.
I didn’t know what I wanted until I made it.
The idea of some random person on a site I wasn’t sure of holding some of my work hostage didn’t appeal.
I wanted to be able to change things when I want, and not have to locate the original creator. For example, my name is too small on the original cover – it works with the cover, but should be bigger for the thumbnails on Amazon. I was fine with that then, but may not be in the future. Then, the name I wanted to stick was Pride’s Children.
I had complete control of timing.
I’m stubborn? Wanted to prove to myself whether I could or not. Sort of like riding Maggie, my Airwheel S8, if I hadn’t tried, I would have regretted it the rest of my life.
I liked the way it was turning out.
I could take my own photos – and did – to supply the parts I couldn’t find or didn’t want to pay for.
The software was $39.
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December 4th, 2021 at 2:14 pm
LMAO and ROFL too. Oh you so belong in this conversation. Every single damn thing you said rang a bell with me, especially this:
‘I didn’t know what I wanted until I made it.’
I tried to explain what I wanted for my very first book, and it was a nice photo and a nice cover but…it wasn’t scifi and it didn’t have an air of brooding menace and…I don’t think I need to say more. Oh except perhaps for one thing…I’m a control freak too. High Five. 🙂
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December 4th, 2021 at 4:24 pm
Right back atcha! Writers who submit to traditional publishing have to give up control. Of practically everything. To the ‘pros’ – who don’t work for them, make decisions by the catalogue, don’t stick around. They get stuck with covers that have nothing to do with the book.
Etc.
If Amazon weren’t around, I’d have to try.
But I wish the marketing side were a bit easier – I still have zero energy.
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December 4th, 2021 at 5:33 pm
-sigh- the marketing side…yes. That. I have more energy but I still find it hard. It’s the price we pay for daring to publish. The only bright side is that all but the Stephen Kings of publishing also have to do most of their own marketing.
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December 4th, 2021 at 5:52 pm
I’ve been watching this side with my original writing partner, who is finally traditionally published – on the second book – and seemed to be getting endorsements, etc.
I was envious – even knowing what it’s really like. She’s a very positive person, and had a long road to being published (her original publisher decided it was going to get out of publishing thrillers, and wouldn’t take on the second one – before the first was published! She bought her rights back, tried again).
But I could have told her that six weeks on the shelf of a bookstore – during a PANDEMIC – was the best she was going to get. I hope it gets better for her, as she writes well, but she has zero control.
I keep telling her I will be able to say, “I knew her when,” when she becomes famous. We’ll see how it goes. At least she is not ill or mobility-impaired, and won’t take forever to write the next one!
I said my piece at the beginning, and have kept my mouth shut (she’s a dear friend), but I see that getting what she wanted isn’t yet working well. Not much else I can do.
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December 4th, 2021 at 8:47 pm
😦 The dream is validation, and it takes a heck of a lot to make it go away. I hope your friend does succeed, but according to Kristine Rusch, the traditional publishers are not doing well. And can’t, or won’t, pivot.
The great thing about being an Indie is that win or lose, we have no one to blame but ourselves. There’s comfort in that. 🙂
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December 3rd, 2021 at 2:40 pm
I knit, embroider, and make miniatures.
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December 3rd, 2021 at 3:55 pm
Hah! I knew it. Thanks for sharing Yvonne. -hugs-
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December 3rd, 2021 at 2:20 pm
Thank you for the honour of including me in this illustrious group.
I think the answer lies in the creative mind, in two ways.
Firstly, creative, active minds are also very curious abut all sorts of things. we may wonder how seeds grow or be fascinated by astronomy
Secondly, and I think more importantly, creativity is about the collision of ideas, the putting this with that. And your work, Meeks, shows that really strongly. Let’s put terminal illness with a digital world like Innerscape and see what happens. As our creative ideas fire up they are going to go beyond our ‘discipline’ to find other ways to express ourselves. It doesn’t surprise me that Frank is a poet and photographer or that Candy dances tango, or that you love to play with and learn about animation.
And I agree with Audrey…the link to typos needs further research!
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December 3rd, 2021 at 3:59 pm
Hey! I’m the proud owner of one of your garlics…the 2D ones. 😀 Of course you were going to be included.
I have to say I’m blown away by both of your ideas. The curiosity makes sense, but ‘the collision of ideas’ made me feel as if a door was opening in my mind.
-grin- who’d a thunk the much-hated typo could lead to such interesting discussions!
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December 4th, 2021 at 1:34 pm
This idea came from Oliver Sacks, as many wonderful ideas do! His words were that a creative unconscious is a place “where innumerable fragments, ideas, impressions, feelings which are lying together dancing, colliding, meeting separating”. Beautiful!
Allied with that is the concept of “loose construing” which is letting the unconscious mind mull, to let ideas dance and collide, meet and separate. Not forcing, waiting to see what emerges. I think Chris James’ house maintenance is a great example of doing something to let the unconscious get to work. Day dreaming is vital!
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December 4th, 2021 at 2:09 pm
I hadn’t heard of Oliver Sacks but those words resonate with me too. I too believe that most of the work happens in the subconscious, that’s one reason I need music, but only when I write. When I’m doing graphics I get completely lost in the image. And yes, oh yes, to day dreaming!!!
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December 3rd, 2021 at 1:36 pm
I think you’re onto something here, Meeks! Yes, I like to mess around with images, if only with Canva. And I’ve created a bunch of cover images for my novels and stories, some of which are on the published works. Image creation complements working with words, and maybe each activity enhances the other somehow.
Whether there’s a link to typos needs further research. 🙂
Thanks for linking to my blog, too!
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December 3rd, 2021 at 4:02 pm
No thanks needed, Audrey. I’ve seen your covers and been wowed by them so the connection to your writing is long standing. 🙂
I’m fascinated by the fact that Anne talks about a collision of ideas whereas you talk about words and images complementing each other in the creative process.
Forgive me if I go off into a biological rabbit hole, but competition is only one part of evolution. Co-operation is just as important. Perhaps that dichotomy is hardwired into our DNA as well.
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December 3rd, 2021 at 1:21 pm
Dear Meeka,
My latest post, entitled 🦅 SoundEagle Guided Imagery ⋆*ࣰ☀̤̣̈̇, is a very good example of cross-disciplinary fertilization and experimentation involving the following domains: Animation, Art, Creative Writing, Graphics, Meditation, Music, Music Animation, Musical Composition, Poetry, Psychology, Spirituality and Video.
https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2021/11/08/soundeagle-guided-imagery/
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 3rd, 2021 at 4:07 pm
Yes! I love the idea of ‘cross disciplinary fertilization’. Bravo. 🙂
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December 3rd, 2021 at 1:15 pm
Dear Meeka,
Thank you for posting the questions. Engaging in multidisplinarity and interdisplinarity, I deal with “Prose Poetry Art Science Graphics Cartoons Animations Games Puzzles Music Video” on my blog, where the “About” page can provide you with my answers:
https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/about/
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 3rd, 2021 at 4:09 pm
Do they all balance? I need all of my outlets, but only rarely do they all gel at the same time.
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December 3rd, 2021 at 4:35 pm
Dear Meeka,
I believe and feel that they do balance, as can be seen, demonstrated and explicated in great detail philosophically, symbolically, intellectually, aesthetically and spiritually in my aforementioned “About” page, meaning that I achieve this balance even in the “About” page itself.
Here are a couple of examples involving posts, not pages. The two posts cannot be more different from each other, and yet they both have this fine balance in spite of their extreme multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. The first one is my extensive and analytical post entitled “💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠“, which you can easily locate at the Home page of my website.
The other post has been composed as something very significant for posterity in the form of a special multimedia eulogy-cum-memoir-cum-biography entitled “Khai & Khim: For Always and Beyond Goodbye“:
https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2019/08/31/khai-khim-for-always-and-beyond-goodbye/
Happy December and Happy Summer to you!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 3rd, 2021 at 4:38 pm
Dear Meeka,
This is my second attempt at submitting this comment.
I believe and feel that they do balance, as can be seen, demonstrated and explicated in great detail philosophically, symbolically, intellectually, aesthetically and spiritually in my aforementioned “About” page, meaning that I achieve this balance even in the “About” page itself.
Here are a couple of examples involving posts, not pages. The two posts cannot be more different from each other, and yet they both have this fine balance in spite of their extreme multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. The first one is my extensive and analytical post entitled “Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity“, which you can easily locate at the Home page of my website.
The other post has been composed as something very significant for posterity in the form of a special multimedia eulogy-cum-memoir-cum-biography entitled “Khai & Khim: For Always and Beyond Goodbye“:
https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2019/08/31/khai-khim-for-always-and-beyond-goodbye/
Happy December and Happy Summer to you!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 3rd, 2021 at 4:41 pm
Dear Meeka,
Hello! I have just submitted two comments a few minutes ago and they have disappeared, probably mistakenly identified as spams. Please kindly unspam it from
https://acflory.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=spam
The comments need to be unspammed and also require your approval before they will show up properly. Thank you.
The comments start with “I believe and feel that they do balance, as can be seen, demonstrated and explicated in great detail….”
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 4th, 2021 at 5:55 am
Dear Meeka,
Hello! I have just visited your post here and discovered that the said comments are still missing. To show up properly in the post, after being unspammed, the comments also require your approval at https://acflory.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=all
In addition, I look forward to your visiting and commenting on my said posts, as I am certainly very keen and curious about what you will make of them, especially given your interests and expertise.
Wishing you a productive weekend doing or enjoying whatever that satisfies you the most!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 4th, 2021 at 6:36 am
Gah…sorry SoundEagle. I unspammed them both but where are they now? And how do I approve them.
I’ve not done this before. I’ll look for them.
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December 4th, 2021 at 6:56 am
Dear Meeka,
First, visit https://acflory.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=all
Then look for the two comments. Hover your mouse cursor on one of the comments and the following line will appear below the comment:
Approve | Reply | Quick Edit | Edit | History | Spam | Trash
Click the first word “Approve” to approve the comment.
Now do the same for the other comment by hovering your mouse cursor over it and click “Approve”.
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 4th, 2021 at 6:58 am
Dear Meeka,
From time to time, I examine whether there are legitimate comments misidentified as spams. It is prudent to check your spam comment folder in your WordPress account from time to time. From memory, the default setting is that spam comments (whether rightly or wrongly identified as such by WordPress) will be permanently deleted in two weeks. So, if you don’t check your spam comment folder at least weekly then you might indeed lose legitimate comments that are falsely flagged as spams and consigned to be deleted from your spam comment folder in a week or two. This situation has happened to me and other bloggers too.
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 4th, 2021 at 7:17 am
Thank you! I just found 6 other comments that should have been approved. I have no idea why WP put them into limbo, but from now on I’ll try and keep an eye out for comments that get lost.
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December 4th, 2021 at 7:27 am
Dear Meeka,
You are very welcome! Yes, the repeated misidentifications of legitimate comments as spams are quite frustrating indeed.
Remember that it is a multistep process to recover those legitimate comments, involving the visit of two backend administrative pages in the following order, as explained in my previous comments:
https://acflory.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=spam
https://acflory.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=all
I hope that this very comment will get through and not be mistakenly consigned as a spam by WordPress. 😉
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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December 4th, 2021 at 9:59 am
lol – no, WordPress left this one alone, thank goodness. Sadly WordPress relies on algorithms just like all the other social media platforms, and who knows what kind of instruction set those algorithms contain.
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