The Freelance Writer

Of the options available to me, I’ll go with “medieval mercenary warrior;” it’s certainly cooler than “wannabe writer begging for employment.” As a former college football player, I find it funny that the freelancers went from dragon-slayers-for-hire to the guys writing about the dragon slayers, and here I am potentially writing about football players.

I’m striving to write as my full-time vocation and I feel like the Hollywood waiter looking for his big break. Where’s the employer looking to pay me a salary to stay at home and just be creative? Why hasn’t anyone called and hired me write about whatever I want, on my own schedule?

I’m picturing a comfortable office overlooking a serene pond, the ideal dog resting at my feet, and the creative freedom to create multiple works of literary genius. Am I asking too much?

Chevy Chase, as Andy Farmer, in Funny Farm. He played a writer in the Fletch series too.

Well, in the meantime, I’m starting small and focusing on diligence, trusting that the farm will come. I opened an account on elance.com, created my profile, and submitted proposals for six or seven jobs. Maybe I’ll be writing movie reviews, editorials for a new men’s magazine, sports columns, articles for a Christian teen magazine, or helping a preacher convert his sermons into a book… or maybe none of the above.

I reached out to two of the magazines who published me before to gauge their interest in me writing for them again. I’m still producing copy on my next book, but the most exciting mercenary news came from a magazine called The Old Schoolhouse. About a month ago, I submitted three proposals for articles, and last night they emailed to accept two of them. My articles will run in their August and September issues, starting with a rewrite of Nobody’s Normal. They’re only paying me $40 per article; however, I’m writing, I’m writing about topics that are important to me, and I’m getting paid to do it. I can see the Mallards floating on the pond now…

(If you’re interested in getting signed up with elance.com, I’d appreciate you using the link in this article; it helps me out somehow.)

There’s no proper point of view

I’ve written a memoir and started a couple works of fiction, but I’ve yet to attempt a novel. A few ideas have made it to paper and more are bouncing around in my head, but I’m not sure if you, the reader, gets to know about those yet. Am I blogging in the first person or is Ryan blogging in the third person?

As I’m discovering writing, the POV question is one I’ve frequented. I read a quote from an author who said (and I’m roughly paraphrasing to the point of completely making this up), “all decent novels should be written in the third person.” I think my theoretical source has a book-worm chewing a hole in his brain. I do enjoy third person novels (The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy come to mind), I just disagree with the idea that third person is the only way to go.

I read a Nicholas Sparks book (only to research POV! I swear I didn’t like it. Okay, maybe I liked it a little, but don’t tell anyone) and I liked how he used the first person POV. But I began reading a novel yesterday that has my POV spinning.

I have a Recommended Reading page on one of my other blogs, Nobody’s Normal. The books on the list deal with special needs from a non-fiction perspective or are fiction that feature a character with special needs. A reader recommended House Rules by Jodi Picoult because it stars a teenager with Asperger’s, but little did they know they were broadening my writing horizons.

Not only is House Rules a first person novel, but so far it’s being told from the perspective of four different people. Chapter one is titled “Emma” and is written from the mother’s POV. Chapter two is “Theo,” the protagonist’s younger brother, and it’s in his voice, accented by a new font (I’ve never see a font switch in a novel before). Jacob (he’s the one with Asperger’s) tells the story in chapter three, and chapter for comes from Rich, a local cop. Four different first person narrators (so far) with four different fonts, and I LOVE it. (As it turns out, my POV might be off. This novel might actually be considered “Close” third person POV. As you can see, I’m still discovering writing.)

The story is compelling, but it’s the different voices that have me so  intrigued. I’m only fifty pages in, but I’ve already learned that a novel can be told from any POV, as long as it’s a good story and the narrator is good at telling it.

By the way, Nathan Bransford wrote a helpful article on the strategic comparison of First Person vs. Third Person.

Which POV do you prefer to read, and from which do you prefer to write?

Created

God did it: Jupiter, butterflies, sand dollars, koala bears, everything. Beautiful.

 

To participate, go to this week’s Eleven Word Devotion.

Eleven Word Devotion #2

Inspired by the 100 Word Challenge, I wanted a challenge that blended my desire to write with the Word of God, the Bible. John 1:1 (hence the eleven) says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God created with words, and He let’s us do the same; I think that’s awesome.

This is the challenge. Every Saturday morning, I’ll provide a word, a name, a phrase, a verse, or a couple of verses as a focus for your creative thinking. You have exactly eleven words to write a response. Meditate on the prompt and craft an eleven word act of writing that points us towards God – an Eleven Word Devotion.

To enter, publish your Eleven Word Devotion to your blog, and then type the link into a comment beneath that week’s prompt. Be sure to include a link back to the EWD for the week, so others can participate. You can use the EWD graphic too. (You can see an example, here)

Part of the experience is to read one another’s Eleven Word Devotions and comment – consider it a form of blogosphere fellowship.

The prompt for the week of February 4, 2012 is:

 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
(Genesis 1:1)

Poetic Prose: Helen Keller

The Story of My Life

“Is it not true, then, that my life with all its limitations touches at many points the life of the World Beautiful? Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life’s shut gate. Beyond there is light, and music, and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way. Fain would I question his imperious decree; for my heart is still undisciplined and passionate; but my tongue will not utter the bitter, futile words that rise to my lips, and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘There is joy in self-forgetfulness.’ So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.”

Helen’s words inspired me to write a post at Nobody’s Normal. Read The Sun in Your Smile.

100 word Challenge: Wednesday on the Couch

In a continuing effort to improve as a writer, I’ve added this exercise to my weekly drills. Writers from all over are prompted and must write a response in 100 words. It demands efficiency, encourages creativity, and I think it’s fun. Let me know what you think, and click on the image above if you’d like to participate.

This week’s prompt was: …Wednesday…

Without further adieu…

This couch is my solace, and my prison; like being flogged on a massage table.

“How have you been?” Doctor Weaver’s nice, but she’s just like everybody else.

“Ignored.” I wasn’t in the mood.

“Would you prefer taking a break for today?” She tried to conceal a grin, but I noticed.

“I would actually.”

“Okay.” Another smirk, not hidden so well this time. “I have some stuff to finish from yesterday, and some to prepare for tomorrow, so don’t worry about it.”

“Figures. I’ll see you next week, Doctor.”

“See you, Wednesday.”

Colorful Language or White Noise

LOL has joined love in the lexicon of the lazy. When is the last time you typed L-O-L after literally laughing out loud. As long as the comment or video didn’t make us weep like a Hallmark commercial, we tag it LOL and go about our day – LOL is white noise.

In the middle of a conversation about a terrible domestic situation, a friend surprised me with his colorful description. Noticing my disapproval, he said “sometimes it’s the appropriate phrase.” While I still disagree with his premise, I can’t deny that he said it, which brings me to my question: “Where does a writer’s voice merge with a character’s language?”

In “On Writing Well,” William Zinsser said, “Never say anything in writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation.” I almost never cuss, and when I do it’s a careless, or extremely emotional moment. Writing is never careless or extremely emotional for me. It is emotional, but it’s controlled and careful – I wouldn’t write the words I might accidentally say in a careless moment. Am I limiting mt character’s personalities with my voice? I don’t think so. But even if it did, I still wouldn’t select those phrases.

Hearing profanity and reading profanity are different experiences for me. I can’t control the words coming out of another person’s mouth, and they rarely bother me. But I can control what I read, and I guess I feel guilty when I read certain words. This happened while reading the language of Little Bee.

I don’t want my character’s language placing any reader in a similar place. I don’t want their words to undercut the story’s message.  And I think it’s possible to communicate extreme emotion, surprise, or fear without colorful euphemisms. I wonder if we all could? Instead of thinking of profanity as immoral, what would happen if we thought of it as cliché, as white noise?

In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please, will you do my job for me.” – C.S. Lewis [source]

What if we wrote our prose in such a way that the reader imagined a response, without the character doing it for them? What if, instead of simply saying, “bleepity, bleepy, bleep,” we wound the tension so tight the reader felt what we imagined our character saying. Is it possible? Am I aiming too high?

Zinsser again, “the race in writing is not to the swift but to the original.” Could we be more original? I think we can.

Why don’t we reduce the white noise of colorful language, and instead fill our prose with more colorful writing.

Keep discovering writing.