As writers, the freedom of speech is very important to us—and if we live in America, it is guaranteed. I feel that it’s important to take note of the bad examples set by others who soil that wonderful concept we call freedom. Thus this post.
As you some of you may be aware, Auburn University (in Alabama) recently suffered a terrible tragedy—a student, Lauren Burk, was murdered. Her body was found on a road, and roughly half an hour later, her car was set on fire.
Auburn is in Alabama, the state next to mine, which is Georgia (the state where Lauren’s family lives). I feel compelled to talk about this issue because I have family and friends there—in fact, some attend Auburn University. This event has spread out its tendrils and pierced the chest of everyone connected to the school, and even the town—even myself. Since leaving “The Loveliest Village on the Plains” shortly after the event (I was visiting my recently-hospitalized father [just a bicycling accident, broken collarbone but nothing life-threatening]), I have kept up with this issue because I feel like I have to know. Since this murder, it’s felt unnatural, like someone strange is running a rotting finger down your back.
When death enters a life, through whatever small connection, it always lingers for a while.
But to connect this back to the writing theme of this blog, and my opening paragraph, a group known as the Westboro Baptist Church decided to picket the memorial services—both the college’s and the family’s—because Lauren Burk was a “Christ-rejecting Jew”, among other irreligious reasons.
This is a PDF, downloaded from their website (I’m asking you to view it here because I don’t want their site to get whatever traffic—no matter how minuscule—I have, just on general principles). This is a Wikipedia page about them.
Their website, which is not going to be linked to here, is www (dot) godhatesfags (dot) com. It is NSFW, but not in the exciting sense.
This is the Auburn University page about Lauren.
This is the YouTube video of her memorial service.
You will notice that there are no protesters in it, which is where this post has a slightly happy ending: the memorial service was “moved” (I believe it was planned the moment word got way of a protest, because everything was impromptu) to the Beard-Eaves Coliseum, and you had to have an ID to get inside the building.
From things I have heard (granted, they may not be true) one of the counter-protesters who showed up punched a WBC protester in the face.
I needed to write this post to share these things with you—I’m not sure why. Perhaps each of my readers (the three of you) will divine your own meaning from it.
Me, I think I just needed to tell someone.
But I also wanted to be fair to my blog—which is, after all, about my readers and fellow writers, and not myself, hence the (admittedly flimsy) connection to writing.
To return to that issue, it is important to consider the obviously murky line between things that are merely offensive to some and works that, say, disrupt a family’s period of mourning. I feel that one is justified in making this distinction because a family at a funeral doesn’t have to bring a copy of that damn flyer. Someone offended by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (aside from not understanding the work) can always stop reading. But protesting a funeral or memorial service? You can’t shut that off.
In my opinion, that is the crucial difference. I am anti-censorship—with one caveat. You should not have the right to trap people into feeling uncomfortable or offended. If I went to someone’s house, strapped them down, and played the most violent movies imaginable, then I’m pretty sure my actions are not covered by free speech, but instead fall under the category of harassment, among other crimes.
So the YouTube videos of Phelps that preach hate? To me, those shouldn't be deleted from YouTube's servers. You can always not watch them. But you can’t avoid people at your daughter’s funeral shouting things roughly equivalent to “Thank God that man killed your daughter”, “God hates Jews like you”, and other assorted phrases probably floating around constantly in WBC protests.
Should we imprison them because we don’t like what they say? No. If that’s our reason, then we’re not standing on very moral ground, which makes us hypocrites. But if we want to protect an emotionally hurting family and these people are harassing them—that’s a different matter.
There is legal precedent: the case of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire. Chaplinsky was arrested for the use of “fighting words”, that is, words that are intended to provoke a listener—because he was causing a breach of the peace. The Court upheld the legality of the arrest, finding that it did not violate the First Amendment.
So the question we all must ask ourselves is this: what is an abuse of freedom of speech?*
The Catcher in the Rye?
Huckleberry Finn?
Or a bunch of people at the Minnesota Bridge collapsing holding signs that says "God Hates Minnesota"?**
=======
*Note: opinions on this may differ; it is worth mentioning that perhaps the answer is none of the above.
**Because God hates fags. And, um... bridges?
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
About Resources
[Before you read this post, I feel compelled to point out that I wrote it in the dead of night when insomnia grabbed hold of me. Thus it has several bits that magnify the weirder, stupider side of my sense of humor, which usually you can't tell is there.]
What’s very important to an author?
That’s right, kiddos: chocolate.
=D
…But also important are resources. Stephen King, an author who I have only recently begun reading, does a lot of research before he writes his stories, and it shows: his prose is confident and absorbing.
Dan Brown, on the other hand? Not so much. I mean, you can judge the results for yourself if you want. Or you could just trust me when I say that Dan Brown is not someone you want to go to for writing advice, unless that advice is “how not to ever, ever, ever write anything approaching a work of literature”.
So, without further asides, here’s a discussion of some things that every author needs.
One: a dictionary. Note that I did not say thesaurus. As Stephen King, whose quote I was planning to use even before I ever read anything by him and wrote him into the above paragraph, says: “Any word you have to look up in a thesaurus is wrong. There are no exceptions to this rule.”
I would like to add to this my interpretation of it, and I’d like to think that my interpretation is a pretty good one. If it’s not what he meant, screw it, because he’s used some above-average vocabulary words too.
What’s he’s saying is not “don’t use big words.” He’s saying “don’t use a word that you don’t really know how to use.” Thesauruses (also thesauri) and dictionaries rarely provide good examples of usage, and they’ve never been much for nuance. It is dictionaries that are responsible for rigid definitions—no language can be held to boundaries like that.
I’m not knocking dictionaries (I have this huge, beautiful, two-volume giant set of the OED), but I am recommending that you use them for exactly what they are: a reference. Not a source. Not a generator of prose. Merely a reference. They are what you use to check to make sure, once again, that the word you are using means what you already think it does.
Two: Some kind of nice place.
I obviously need to explain that in more detail. I mean a place where you can retreat, hide away from the world at large, and then write. Once you get used to this concept, I believe, or if you’re already extra-introverted, then you can write anywhere, because you’ll be able to conjure up that feeling of seclusion and solitude.
This is one of the rules that may not apply to a few people, but I’ve tried to word it so that it’s helpful to everyone. Let me know how I did.
Three: Books, books, books, books, books, books, literary works of magnificence, books, books, books, books, and, finally, books. And don’t forget ...Boggle. Boggle is an interesting game and it’s fun to say.* Boggle. Boggle.
That's right, you thought I was going to say "And don't forget books", didn't you? I try to avoid the obvious joke when I can. ^_^
Anyway… to get back to the dispensing of advice, books are the "drive" for a writer. You’re trying to write a book. Or, at least, something vaguely resembling one. And, of course, you want your book to be good. So it makes sense to immerse yourself in the language.** Personally, I live and breathe English. I’d try to describe to you how that happened and what exactly goes through me when I pick up a book that makes me want to cry tears of happiness, but I can’t. I can only say that it’s a mixture of excitement, awe, jubilation, reverence, and… some other stuff I don’t know the names for.
Boggle.
And don’t worry if you’re afraid of getting too inspired by a work of literature and writing something exactly like it by mistake—if you read to much Steinbeck, for instance, balance him out with something bad like Dan Brown, or James Joyce. Either one is the literary equivalent of tapir shit.
OMG HE SAID A BAD WORD. That’s right, kids… and don’t do that. If you say that word God will kill a kitten. Or maybe your mother.
Back to my point: James Joyce pretty much sucks—wait, that wasn’t my point. Whoops.
My point was that you shouldn’t be afraid to just sit back and bathe in words once in a while. Just make sure to always be listening for that little voice that says "a-ha! that's it!".
Four: A Good Ear.
Have you ever heard it said of a writer that they “have a good ear for dialogue”? No? Yes? Are you being indecisive? Splunge?
Anyway, you need to learn to write dialogue like real people talk—it’s as simple as that. Or, if you can’t write like real people talk, at least write like how people expect them to talk. ;)
Five: A Method.
Self-explanatory. Well, it’s not, really, but we’ll be covering it more sometime in the distant later.
Six: Couldn’t come up with one here if my life depended on it. Boggle.
So, yes, these turned out to perhaps not be so orderly and direct but still, I hope, helpful nonetheless. I apologize for the rambling—but then again, if my posts were straightforward, dry, and formal, then what’s stopping anyone from just ignoring me entirely?? =(
Anyway, have fun, my little literatis!
Did I make that word up? I believe I did. I hope I spelled it right.
------------------
Notes:
* This is a perfect example of what I was talking about. In this sentence, Word suggested changing “it’s” to “its”. That would have been very, very wrong. More on that in the next post, cheerfully entitled “The Wonderful World of the Apostrophe: Now Use it Right or I’ll Blow Your F---ing Head Off” =D
**Yet another example of Word being stupid. It recommended changing “yourself” to “you”. Because that totally fits.
What’s very important to an author?
That’s right, kiddos: chocolate.
=D
…But also important are resources. Stephen King, an author who I have only recently begun reading, does a lot of research before he writes his stories, and it shows: his prose is confident and absorbing.
Dan Brown, on the other hand? Not so much. I mean, you can judge the results for yourself if you want. Or you could just trust me when I say that Dan Brown is not someone you want to go to for writing advice, unless that advice is “how not to ever, ever, ever write anything approaching a work of literature”.
So, without further asides, here’s a discussion of some things that every author needs.
One: a dictionary. Note that I did not say thesaurus. As Stephen King, whose quote I was planning to use even before I ever read anything by him and wrote him into the above paragraph, says: “Any word you have to look up in a thesaurus is wrong. There are no exceptions to this rule.”
I would like to add to this my interpretation of it, and I’d like to think that my interpretation is a pretty good one. If it’s not what he meant, screw it, because he’s used some above-average vocabulary words too.
What’s he’s saying is not “don’t use big words.” He’s saying “don’t use a word that you don’t really know how to use.” Thesauruses (also thesauri) and dictionaries rarely provide good examples of usage, and they’ve never been much for nuance. It is dictionaries that are responsible for rigid definitions—no language can be held to boundaries like that.
I’m not knocking dictionaries (I have this huge, beautiful, two-volume giant set of the OED), but I am recommending that you use them for exactly what they are: a reference. Not a source. Not a generator of prose. Merely a reference. They are what you use to check to make sure, once again, that the word you are using means what you already think it does.
Two: Some kind of nice place.
I obviously need to explain that in more detail. I mean a place where you can retreat, hide away from the world at large, and then write. Once you get used to this concept, I believe, or if you’re already extra-introverted, then you can write anywhere, because you’ll be able to conjure up that feeling of seclusion and solitude.
This is one of the rules that may not apply to a few people, but I’ve tried to word it so that it’s helpful to everyone. Let me know how I did.
Three: Books, books, books, books, books, books, literary works of magnificence, books, books, books, books, and, finally, books. And don’t forget ...Boggle. Boggle is an interesting game and it’s fun to say.* Boggle. Boggle.
That's right, you thought I was going to say "And don't forget books", didn't you? I try to avoid the obvious joke when I can. ^_^
Anyway… to get back to the dispensing of advice, books are the "drive" for a writer. You’re trying to write a book. Or, at least, something vaguely resembling one. And, of course, you want your book to be good. So it makes sense to immerse yourself in the language.** Personally, I live and breathe English. I’d try to describe to you how that happened and what exactly goes through me when I pick up a book that makes me want to cry tears of happiness, but I can’t. I can only say that it’s a mixture of excitement, awe, jubilation, reverence, and… some other stuff I don’t know the names for.
Boggle.
And don’t worry if you’re afraid of getting too inspired by a work of literature and writing something exactly like it by mistake—if you read to much Steinbeck, for instance, balance him out with something bad like Dan Brown, or James Joyce. Either one is the literary equivalent of tapir shit.
OMG HE SAID A BAD WORD. That’s right, kids… and don’t do that. If you say that word God will kill a kitten. Or maybe your mother.
Back to my point: James Joyce pretty much sucks—wait, that wasn’t my point. Whoops.
My point was that you shouldn’t be afraid to just sit back and bathe in words once in a while. Just make sure to always be listening for that little voice that says "a-ha! that's it!".
Four: A Good Ear.
Have you ever heard it said of a writer that they “have a good ear for dialogue”? No? Yes? Are you being indecisive? Splunge?
Anyway, you need to learn to write dialogue like real people talk—it’s as simple as that. Or, if you can’t write like real people talk, at least write like how people expect them to talk. ;)
Five: A Method.
Self-explanatory. Well, it’s not, really, but we’ll be covering it more sometime in the distant later.
Six: Couldn’t come up with one here if my life depended on it. Boggle.
So, yes, these turned out to perhaps not be so orderly and direct but still, I hope, helpful nonetheless. I apologize for the rambling—but then again, if my posts were straightforward, dry, and formal, then what’s stopping anyone from just ignoring me entirely?? =(
Anyway, have fun, my little literatis!
Did I make that word up? I believe I did. I hope I spelled it right.
------------------
Notes:
* This is a perfect example of what I was talking about. In this sentence, Word suggested changing “it’s” to “its”. That would have been very, very wrong. More on that in the next post, cheerfully entitled “The Wonderful World of the Apostrophe: Now Use it Right or I’ll Blow Your F---ing Head Off” =D
**Yet another example of Word being stupid. It recommended changing “yourself” to “you”. Because that totally fits.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Brief Generic "Rules"
These are pretty much the most important things, roughly in order, that you need to have if you want a successful fanfic.
Obviously, the most important of these is the actual story: make it good. Make it interesting. If it's (randomly scanning mind for example) a Mario fanfic, don't have Peach get kidnapped again unless you can make up for it somehow with really good, crisp writing.
(Remember, there are exceptions to all of these "rules".)
The second most important thing is to have your sentences flow. If your story is like this:
The almost-second most important thing (meaning these two are really practically close enough for them to be considered a tie) is good characterization. This is something that non-fanfic writers rarely have to worry about as much. If they mess up, it's unlikely anyone will call them on it. But the people reading fanfics know about as much (maybe even more) about the "universe" the story's being written in as you do.
Here's the thing, though: Look at that as a blessing. So there's a bunch of nitpicky fans? Great! Send 'em in! Even though some of them may go about it the wrong way (if they're annoying, you can always not read their remarks), they're helping you, and most of them really do have your best interests at heart when they review.
The third thing is grammar, which is, again, connected to "flow"--bad grammar is painful to read, as you can see here (I had to almost literally kick myself in order to write this):
Man, now I feel like a failure because that is definitely not a good example--there are instances of grammar foul-ups so astonishing out there in the universe that they even make Chinglish look tame. I guess the problem with mine is that I tried.
Now, grammar is (somewhat) subjective. For example, if you write in a conversational style, it is perfectly all right to begin sentences with "and" sometimes, because that's how people talk. (More on the flexibility of certain rules in a future post.)
Obviously not all characters have to have good grammar, but choosing those kinds of things is a discussion for another time.. ^_^
The fourth most important thing is punctuation. I cannot tell you how important those little marks are. To paraphrase someone who came before me, punctuation is like a series of traffic signals: they are provided so that readers know when to stop, slow down, and keep driving. They are meant to give a bit of order, pacing, and style to the act of reading.
Using punctuation shows that you care about the reader: in today's high-paced society, to stop and use those little tiny marks shows that your readers mean a lot to you.
And then of course we have spelling. Never fall victim to the delusion that Microsoft Word has got your back: it fails to look at things like context. For example, Word may not see anything wrong with this sentence:
But there is something wrong with the sentence: the author meant to use the word "bare", meaning without a covering, but ended up (maybe even through a typo) with "bear"--which, technically, is spelled correctly.
Even if Word was better at sensing context, an author would be screwed with a sentence like the one above. It could be read as meaning "the [skin of a bear] was devoid of marks..." and still be a perfectly legitimate sentence--to a computer.
So, in summary: you can't get anywhere if your idea's not good. But you won't do justice to a good idea if you don't bother to execute it properly.
Obviously, the most important of these is the actual story: make it good. Make it interesting. If it's (randomly scanning mind for example) a Mario fanfic, don't have Peach get kidnapped again unless you can make up for it somehow with really good, crisp writing.
(Remember, there are exceptions to all of these "rules".)
The second most important thing is to have your sentences flow. If your story is like this:
--then you need to go back and do some exercises to get your talent to express itself better.no phoenix said. jack daniel must have been the killer because
all of the evidence points to it what do you think edgeworth he asked
edgeworth?. edgeworth just said you're stupid wright.
Here's the thing, though: Look at that as a blessing. So there's a bunch of nitpicky fans? Great! Send 'em in! Even though some of them may go about it the wrong way (if they're annoying, you can always not read their remarks), they're helping you, and most of them really do have your best interests at heart when they review.
The third thing is grammar, which is, again, connected to "flow"--bad grammar is painful to read, as you can see here (I had to almost literally kick myself in order to write this):
There said man, who wasn't of course the guy they'd ben searched for. "Maybe one day hel'l be come back here" the texan rangers said, messing with his tall and brown and stiff hat that his head was perched on by.
Man, now I feel like a failure because that is definitely not a good example--there are instances of grammar foul-ups so astonishing out there in the universe that they even make Chinglish look tame. I guess the problem with mine is that I tried.
Now, grammar is (somewhat) subjective. For example, if you write in a conversational style, it is perfectly all right to begin sentences with "and" sometimes, because that's how people talk. (More on the flexibility of certain rules in a future post.)
Obviously not all characters have to have good grammar, but choosing those kinds of things is a discussion for another time.. ^_^
The fourth most important thing is punctuation. I cannot tell you how important those little marks are. To paraphrase someone who came before me, punctuation is like a series of traffic signals: they are provided so that readers know when to stop, slow down, and keep driving. They are meant to give a bit of order, pacing, and style to the act of reading.
Using punctuation shows that you care about the reader: in today's high-paced society, to stop and use those little tiny marks shows that your readers mean a lot to you.
And then of course we have spelling. Never fall victim to the delusion that Microsoft Word has got your back: it fails to look at things like context. For example, Word may not see anything wrong with this sentence:
The body lay on the ground, the bear skin devoid of marks.
But there is something wrong with the sentence: the author meant to use the word "bare", meaning without a covering, but ended up (maybe even through a typo) with "bear"--which, technically, is spelled correctly.
Even if Word was better at sensing context, an author would be screwed with a sentence like the one above. It could be read as meaning "the [skin of a bear] was devoid of marks..." and still be a perfectly legitimate sentence--to a computer.
So, in summary: you can't get anywhere if your idea's not good. But you won't do justice to a good idea if you don't bother to execute it properly.
It's a blog!
Here's your cigar.
Anyway, basically what I'm going to do is replace this post with something that has, y'know, actual content. I've already got a few essays planned out--this is, hopefully, going to be a labor of love and therefore easy. But I wouldn't count on it.
See you once this all gets sorted out. Deadline: 7 PM Eastern Time.
~Nick Wright
Anyway, basically what I'm going to do is replace this post with something that has, y'know, actual content. I've already got a few essays planned out--this is, hopefully, going to be a labor of love and therefore easy. But I wouldn't count on it.
See you once this all gets sorted out. Deadline: 7 PM Eastern Time.
~Nick Wright
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