Odilia Rivera Santos
Last night, I watched part I of Ken Burns's Prohibition and part of a PBS mystery with an actor whose name escapes me but he is incredibly talented. It was a mystery that remains a mystery, because I fell asleep before the end to wonder who the killer was. It was early when I awoke, too early for anything but undocumented workers headed for construction sites, restaurant kitchens, hotels and illegal factories.
Despite this earlyness, I had my cup of coffee and began my visualization exercises accompanied by Samba Triste performed by Baden Powell and slipped into the train station at 5:45 a.m. to watch NYC from another angle. We have trees and silence and people who greet you with smiles not wanting or lacking anything.
I discovered another all-night diner; the Mexican busboy wears a crisply ironed white shirt and burgundy apron, his slicked back hair makes him look like a country boy who's making first trip to the big city and I expect him to start dancing and singing of the virtues of his village in Mexico and his love for our gritty little cityworld. I am sitting in a big booth by myself, but it doesn't matter because it's too early for booth people -- it's counter people time. Everyone is congregated around the counter with the TV blaring some morning news and tips on how to become more utilitarian.
The coffee tastes like instant with ground up cardboard. I am writing some new poems for reading on October 29th with Charlie Vázquez and sending out writing to different journals. Writing and editing and submitting and overusing the gerund.
I am working on a collection of essays about work entitled Work Chronicles to be published as an e-book on Smashwords in November; in the meantime, you can check out my creative nonfiction essays Latinalogue Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I and Latinalogue Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part II: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69697
Writers, be careful not to die of exposure.
http://twitter.com/#!/UrbanBrainiac
http://twitter.com/#!/bezotes
http://twitter.com/#!/latinaauthor
Showing posts with label Latinalogue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latinalogue. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Rituals for Writing a New Novel
©2011 Odilia Rivera Santos
I have been toying with the idea of writing the definitive codependent relationship novel for a couple of years, and finally, the time seems perfect to dive into the abyss. The main characters will chase crazy down a crazy rabbit hole and undergo a transmogrification to put Mary Shelly to shame. I am writing the character dossiers tonight and unpacking their brains in the morning: the neurosis of past events, childhoods, relationships and betrayals will be lain across a cloth on a table like the remains of a crime scene. The tone for this novel will be very conversational, unlike the novel I completed in June of 2011 -- which was very formal and contained an epistolary section. This novel will be imagery punctuated with the words of two people who are seeking salvation in the wrong place, in the wrong ways, and with the wrong person. Their conversations will delve into what I call the suffering olympics. The suffering olympics is a special competition in which people don't listen to each because they are too busy telling their story over and over again. It is a comedy, even though it sounds a little heavy duty. I think there is comedy in the search for a love approximating one's first love, which I believe romance really is all about. How do you, as an adult, recreate the feeling of being safe, fed, protected and wearing a dry diaper?
I enjoy creating deadlines for myself and hope you will keep me company during the writing of this novel. The novel will be completed on July 31st, and I will do a public reading. Please stay tuned and feel free to ask questions about where my characters are and what they're doing.
My rituals for writing a new novel include lots of bottles of water in the fridge, long walks or runs to sort out the thousands of details flooding in, meditation, a daily word count goal, and lots of dancing. I need music and movement as a balance to sitting still for hours per day.
I will keep you posted on what happens with the two novels currently floating in the ether.
I have been toying with the idea of writing the definitive codependent relationship novel for a couple of years, and finally, the time seems perfect to dive into the abyss. The main characters will chase crazy down a crazy rabbit hole and undergo a transmogrification to put Mary Shelly to shame. I am writing the character dossiers tonight and unpacking their brains in the morning: the neurosis of past events, childhoods, relationships and betrayals will be lain across a cloth on a table like the remains of a crime scene. The tone for this novel will be very conversational, unlike the novel I completed in June of 2011 -- which was very formal and contained an epistolary section. This novel will be imagery punctuated with the words of two people who are seeking salvation in the wrong place, in the wrong ways, and with the wrong person. Their conversations will delve into what I call the suffering olympics. The suffering olympics is a special competition in which people don't listen to each because they are too busy telling their story over and over again. It is a comedy, even though it sounds a little heavy duty. I think there is comedy in the search for a love approximating one's first love, which I believe romance really is all about. How do you, as an adult, recreate the feeling of being safe, fed, protected and wearing a dry diaper?
I enjoy creating deadlines for myself and hope you will keep me company during the writing of this novel. The novel will be completed on July 31st, and I will do a public reading. Please stay tuned and feel free to ask questions about where my characters are and what they're doing.
My rituals for writing a new novel include lots of bottles of water in the fridge, long walks or runs to sort out the thousands of details flooding in, meditation, a daily word count goal, and lots of dancing. I need music and movement as a balance to sitting still for hours per day.
I will keep you posted on what happens with the two novels currently floating in the ether.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Blogging -- Subject Matters
©2011 Odilia Rivera Santos
When I ventured to blog, there was the clear idea of having an audience. Instead of keeping a journal with story sketches or the happenings of my day, I could now obsessively post in the middle of the night during a bout of insomnia or instead of running down the subway stairs to go hobnob with other nerdy artsy types. This is not to say blogging replaces socializing with humans, because I love the humans, but it is nice to have a medium through which people can see what I do. I am a writer, and this fact shapes my approach to most things in life. Thoughts of fame and fortune are never far behind in American culture, but for me, fame is irrelevant -- just the fortune will do. We write because we love writing, and I suspect most of us, bloggers, consider the possibility of hitting the blogger lottery: getting paid to blog. The new American dream for those of us comfortable with the idea of a screen in front of our faces all day is the ability to earn a living in a strange outfit while sitting in a French coffee shop, eating croissants and drinking a capuchino.
Before I began this blogging journey in 2008, I thought about topics that might gain a following, so I surfed the net with an eye on numbers; it seemed sites devoted to porn and beauty tips were very popular. This was just what I gleaned from a cursory glance. I wasn't particularly qualified to write on either subject. I did, however, start to wonder what the two subjects might have in common. Lip gloss and coitus infinitus were inextricably bound. I wondered if the attraction to these sites could be a need for self-improvement, a need to cover all the bases as dating becomes a permanent fixture in people's lives; if one could both apply makeup and learn all the latest techniques for having sex, ...
An advertisement popped up the other day for a dating site for older people. The people in the pictures looked to be in their early eighties, and I wondered what people were hoping to find in this dating from junior high school to grave culture. It is okay to settle down with one person and watch him or her lose the sparkling appeal and then, perhaps, the ability to think rationally. There should be phases of a relationship in which two people are partners and then, one needs more help than the other. I wondered if people let go of each other too easily in a relationship. Of course, I am not speaking of cases in which there is possessive, jealous or otherwise unacceptable behavior. But I did wonder about the kind of baggage people drag around from one relationship to another.
It is still odd for me to hear of someone's parents being divorced. My parents got married and their marriage was dissolved as they'd promised it would be: through death. My father died after he and my mother had been together for over sixty years. They settled in and settled for that on which they'd agreed. Their agreement including sickness, as my father became ill at a relatively young age and never quite recovered. It is an old-fashioned idea to be with one person and allow him or her to annoy without even considering walking away. The love is decided and the love question is never again brought up. It just is.
Thinking about porn and makeup, I came to the conclusion -- no pun intended, that people just don't know how to settle anymore or settle down. And perhaps, there are areas in life in which being complacent would be a good thing or at least preferable to the alternative. I have settled down with writing and we are definitely staying together through sickness, health, rich, poor and all the other issues that may come up. I will write and observe, feeling a sense of satisfied complacence. Yes, I have settled and have no problem with it.
Writing on Writing
My slim volume of nonfiction essays is published!
Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I
https://twitter.com/#!/latinaauthor
https://twitter.com/#!/urbanbrainiac
https://twitter.com/#!/bezotes
When I ventured to blog, there was the clear idea of having an audience. Instead of keeping a journal with story sketches or the happenings of my day, I could now obsessively post in the middle of the night during a bout of insomnia or instead of running down the subway stairs to go hobnob with other nerdy artsy types. This is not to say blogging replaces socializing with humans, because I love the humans, but it is nice to have a medium through which people can see what I do. I am a writer, and this fact shapes my approach to most things in life. Thoughts of fame and fortune are never far behind in American culture, but for me, fame is irrelevant -- just the fortune will do. We write because we love writing, and I suspect most of us, bloggers, consider the possibility of hitting the blogger lottery: getting paid to blog. The new American dream for those of us comfortable with the idea of a screen in front of our faces all day is the ability to earn a living in a strange outfit while sitting in a French coffee shop, eating croissants and drinking a capuchino.
Before I began this blogging journey in 2008, I thought about topics that might gain a following, so I surfed the net with an eye on numbers; it seemed sites devoted to porn and beauty tips were very popular. This was just what I gleaned from a cursory glance. I wasn't particularly qualified to write on either subject. I did, however, start to wonder what the two subjects might have in common. Lip gloss and coitus infinitus were inextricably bound. I wondered if the attraction to these sites could be a need for self-improvement, a need to cover all the bases as dating becomes a permanent fixture in people's lives; if one could both apply makeup and learn all the latest techniques for having sex, ...
An advertisement popped up the other day for a dating site for older people. The people in the pictures looked to be in their early eighties, and I wondered what people were hoping to find in this dating from junior high school to grave culture. It is okay to settle down with one person and watch him or her lose the sparkling appeal and then, perhaps, the ability to think rationally. There should be phases of a relationship in which two people are partners and then, one needs more help than the other. I wondered if people let go of each other too easily in a relationship. Of course, I am not speaking of cases in which there is possessive, jealous or otherwise unacceptable behavior. But I did wonder about the kind of baggage people drag around from one relationship to another.
It is still odd for me to hear of someone's parents being divorced. My parents got married and their marriage was dissolved as they'd promised it would be: through death. My father died after he and my mother had been together for over sixty years. They settled in and settled for that on which they'd agreed. Their agreement including sickness, as my father became ill at a relatively young age and never quite recovered. It is an old-fashioned idea to be with one person and allow him or her to annoy without even considering walking away. The love is decided and the love question is never again brought up. It just is.
Thinking about porn and makeup, I came to the conclusion -- no pun intended, that people just don't know how to settle anymore or settle down. And perhaps, there are areas in life in which being complacent would be a good thing or at least preferable to the alternative. I have settled down with writing and we are definitely staying together through sickness, health, rich, poor and all the other issues that may come up. I will write and observe, feeling a sense of satisfied complacence. Yes, I have settled and have no problem with it.
Writing on Writing
My slim volume of nonfiction essays is published!
Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I
https://twitter.com/#!/latinaauthor
https://twitter.com/#!/urbanbrainiac
https://twitter.com/#!/bezotes
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The Art of the Dodge or Procrastination with Purpose
©2011 Odilia Rivera Santos
I create writing deadlines for myself and very rarely break them. The beautiful thing about writing is all I need is a writing instrument of some kind and whatever noise I crave on a particular day -- sometimes, I listen to music, talk, or films. I rarely write in silence.
With writing, there is no need to wait for confirmation from anyone to do anything, unlike organizing an event or getting a play with actors together and all that entails.
I have sent novels out only two times because the process is slow, tedious, and I still rebel at the idea of waiting for someone else's judgement of my work.
I decided to self-publish after a very long ponder. My Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction, a collection of essays was slated for upload in May 2011. However, as I was editing and rearranging essays, I felt emotionally exhausted; it isn't easy writing about people in your life, because even with those who could be seen as villainous, I have to create a balanced portrait.
One of the most fascinating things I have noticed about people is the many ways in which they interact with others. We reserve certain parts of ourselves for certain individuals. It is often the case that a person who is extremely abusive at home is a beloved co-worker, as if he or she considered 'home' a place to express anger and rage and the workplace a place to develop close relationships. We all develop relationship frameworks in childhood, and, without retrospection, and regardless of how they may work against our best interests, we recreate them.
These are more functions of emotional training than intellect.
When I was a child, one of my closest friends told me her father was physically abusive, and I didn't believe her right away. I didn't know him as a father; I knew him as a charming, kind, well-dressed man who left for work on time every morning. He was the vice president of a bank and appeared like a nice family man. One Saturday, I went to her house, and I noticed my friend, her little brother and mother were all tense and seemed afraid to speak. It was as if something had just happened prior to my arrival.
I saw her father's private persona for the first time. He was in the middle of teasing my friend about her acne and looks. He did this until she cried. Everyone stood around, looking uncomfortable, and her mother looked scared. I found out later that having a couple of drinks and verbal abuse served as a warmup to his beating his wife and kids. I quickly grabbed my friend's arm and convinced him to let us go outside.
At the time, I was disappointed to see how deceiving a public persona could be. But, now, it seems not to be a form of deception. In truth, we are always choosing which aspects of our personality to display in different settings. We restrain ourselves from expressing happiness or telling jokes in a setting in which there is great suffering, such as, a homeless shelter or terminal illness ward. And we restrain ourselves from angry outbursts at job interviews for example. People tend to avoid imprecations while answering the question, "Where do you see yourself five years from now?"
The Art of the Dodge
This meander into human consciousness or motivation, even on a cursory level, served to slow down my editing process. It is important to write carefully and with compassion about others.
I honestly believe people who hurt loved ones usually have no idea of how their behavior will impact others. I also had the opportunity to think about how childhood experiences formed my world view; my world view is a pie with many slivers and continues to evolve.
Persons who continually hurt the most vulnerable may suffer from a cognitive deficit for which there is no cure or pill, or perhaps, it is a behavior remedied through an appeal to the functional part of his or her intellect.
Procrastination with a Purpose
Procrastination has long been considered negative and something requiring one to take a workshop to be freed of some kind of blocks in one's life preventing the attainment of riches and glory.
Today, I procrastinated long enough to think about the person at the other side of the belt.
We hear so much about the victims of something or other in this culture and not enough about what makes people crave such control over others. I felt much more at ease about uploading this book after my writing slowdown.
To be a great writer, you must be audacious, courageous, confident, and, at times, hesitant.
If you'd like to take a writing class with me, sign up here: http://skl.sh/kaBqvs
Buy my e-book!Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I
I create writing deadlines for myself and very rarely break them. The beautiful thing about writing is all I need is a writing instrument of some kind and whatever noise I crave on a particular day -- sometimes, I listen to music, talk, or films. I rarely write in silence.
With writing, there is no need to wait for confirmation from anyone to do anything, unlike organizing an event or getting a play with actors together and all that entails.
I have sent novels out only two times because the process is slow, tedious, and I still rebel at the idea of waiting for someone else's judgement of my work.
I decided to self-publish after a very long ponder. My Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction, a collection of essays was slated for upload in May 2011. However, as I was editing and rearranging essays, I felt emotionally exhausted; it isn't easy writing about people in your life, because even with those who could be seen as villainous, I have to create a balanced portrait.
One of the most fascinating things I have noticed about people is the many ways in which they interact with others. We reserve certain parts of ourselves for certain individuals. It is often the case that a person who is extremely abusive at home is a beloved co-worker, as if he or she considered 'home' a place to express anger and rage and the workplace a place to develop close relationships. We all develop relationship frameworks in childhood, and, without retrospection, and regardless of how they may work against our best interests, we recreate them.
These are more functions of emotional training than intellect.
When I was a child, one of my closest friends told me her father was physically abusive, and I didn't believe her right away. I didn't know him as a father; I knew him as a charming, kind, well-dressed man who left for work on time every morning. He was the vice president of a bank and appeared like a nice family man. One Saturday, I went to her house, and I noticed my friend, her little brother and mother were all tense and seemed afraid to speak. It was as if something had just happened prior to my arrival.
I saw her father's private persona for the first time. He was in the middle of teasing my friend about her acne and looks. He did this until she cried. Everyone stood around, looking uncomfortable, and her mother looked scared. I found out later that having a couple of drinks and verbal abuse served as a warmup to his beating his wife and kids. I quickly grabbed my friend's arm and convinced him to let us go outside.
At the time, I was disappointed to see how deceiving a public persona could be. But, now, it seems not to be a form of deception. In truth, we are always choosing which aspects of our personality to display in different settings. We restrain ourselves from expressing happiness or telling jokes in a setting in which there is great suffering, such as, a homeless shelter or terminal illness ward. And we restrain ourselves from angry outbursts at job interviews for example. People tend to avoid imprecations while answering the question, "Where do you see yourself five years from now?"
The Art of the Dodge
This meander into human consciousness or motivation, even on a cursory level, served to slow down my editing process. It is important to write carefully and with compassion about others.
I honestly believe people who hurt loved ones usually have no idea of how their behavior will impact others. I also had the opportunity to think about how childhood experiences formed my world view; my world view is a pie with many slivers and continues to evolve.
Persons who continually hurt the most vulnerable may suffer from a cognitive deficit for which there is no cure or pill, or perhaps, it is a behavior remedied through an appeal to the functional part of his or her intellect.
Procrastination with a Purpose
Procrastination has long been considered negative and something requiring one to take a workshop to be freed of some kind of blocks in one's life preventing the attainment of riches and glory.
Today, I procrastinated long enough to think about the person at the other side of the belt.
We hear so much about the victims of something or other in this culture and not enough about what makes people crave such control over others. I felt much more at ease about uploading this book after my writing slowdown.
To be a great writer, you must be audacious, courageous, confident, and, at times, hesitant.
If you'd like to take a writing class with me, sign up here: http://skl.sh/kaBqvs
Buy my e-book!Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Writing Tips
©2011 Odilia Rivera Santos
HERE ARE MY TIPS FOR BEING A WRITER
1. Be audacious enough to call yourself a writer. And don't complain about the books being published and the kind of books you'd like to see published.
""If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." — Toni Morrison
2. Turn off the TV and create a reading and writing schedule. In order to have something to write about, you must read. This is one of the most fulfilling aspects of being a writer.
You must remain a student for the rest of your life; otherwise, you fall into the trap of writing only of your own individual experience through a narrow prism.
If you have always been interested in philosophy, check out the reading list of an undergraduate intro to philosophy course and get the books from the library.
Exercise: Keep a Book Book in which you jot down important quotes from your readings or questions that arise.
3. Learn to view an event from perspectives very different from your own. This will improve your ability to write three dimensional characters and dialogue. No individual/character is one-dimensional; this is one of the telltale signs of bad writing. Even a villain was once a cute kid with dreams.
Exercise: Write the autobiography, in the first person, of a lover, relative or close friend who has hurt you -- it will help you have compassion for this person, gain a deeper understanding of their character and learn to write a three-dimensional villain.
4. Go to a museum or café and listen to a conversation. Jot down some lines from the conversation, not to eavesdrop, but to make note of the cadence, vocabulary, rhythm and pauses of different personalities. This will improve your ability to write dialogue because writing a short story differs greatly from writing a conversation with its starts and stops.
5. Always make connections with individuals who are talented writers or avid readers, so you can get feedback. This does not require money or that you take a writing course.
You can use Facebook to create a community of writers. Regardless of your topic or niche, you can always get important insights from strangers and friends who are interested in the written word.
6. Write everyday. Writing is what you think it is: pleasure or torture.
Ideas come easily if you program your mind to produce, which is a matter of setting up a writing time.
When I used to go running every morning at 6 am, my heart rate would actually go up at about 5:30 am because the body has a memory. My body knew I would be running up and down hills at 6am regardless of the weather. The human brain works in the same way to produce creative work as your body does to get adrenaline going for physical labor.
Write a list of assignments on Sunday night for the coming week and stick to your schedule.
Exercise: do a 20-minute free-write for each word.
love, work, money, music, sex, wilderness, magic
Post the free-writes on a blog and send me the link, so I can insert your stream-of-consciousness here for other writers to peep.
7. Be supportive of writers you admire. Remember to congratulate writers who are doing well and to encourage those who are struggling. Building a community requires compassion and engagement.
8. Submit your work on a weekly basis. Keep a chart with name of piece, name of publication to which you submitted work, and date piece was submitted. If you want to improve your editing skills and ability to produce writing more quickly, take a writing course. A writing course is the most expedient way to become a great editor of your own work.
9. Organize writing salons to share work once a month. There are many community centers, churches and art spaces renting space at a very reasonable rate. You can charge a monthly fee for each group member to cover cost of space or find a location where a group can gather free-of-charge. Writing can be very solitary and it is good to interact with humans. Keep yourself engaged with other writers through taking a course, salons and public readings.
10. I am not a fan of competitive artists or competitive artist events, so I won't attend any at which people are assigned numbers after reading their work; it makes me think of ice skating.
Go to readings in which people are dedicated to the art of writing, not competition. This is where you will meet people who are encouraging and want to discuss literature and artistic aspirations. I attended The Asian American Arts Alliance performance and open mic night in New York City; it was a great crowd of talented, dedicated unpretentious artists
http://aaartsalliance.org/
11. Promote yourself as a writer everywhere you go and on every post. Oh, here are links to my other blogs.
Buy my e-book! Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I
Take a writing class with me! http://skl.sh/lGWoDn
Get this blog for your Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/6yjk637
12. J.K. Rowling is self-publishing her next book. Consider self-publishing a short e-book; it's free, it's relatively simple and the real challenge is marketing.
If you do not feel ready to be your own editor, hire a writer to edit your tome. But just get it out there. E-books are great for many reasons. They will not clutter your apartment, the profit margin is excellent, you can upload a book a day if you wanted to, and you control the process.
Imagine, create, release!
Parts of this post originally appeared on my other blog: People for the Ethical Treatment of Puerto Ricans. http://peopleforpuertorico.blogspot.com/
HERE ARE MY TIPS FOR BEING A WRITER
1. Be audacious enough to call yourself a writer. And don't complain about the books being published and the kind of books you'd like to see published.
""If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." — Toni Morrison
2. Turn off the TV and create a reading and writing schedule. In order to have something to write about, you must read. This is one of the most fulfilling aspects of being a writer.
You must remain a student for the rest of your life; otherwise, you fall into the trap of writing only of your own individual experience through a narrow prism.
If you have always been interested in philosophy, check out the reading list of an undergraduate intro to philosophy course and get the books from the library.
Exercise: Keep a Book Book in which you jot down important quotes from your readings or questions that arise.
3. Learn to view an event from perspectives very different from your own. This will improve your ability to write three dimensional characters and dialogue. No individual/character is one-dimensional; this is one of the telltale signs of bad writing. Even a villain was once a cute kid with dreams.
Exercise: Write the autobiography, in the first person, of a lover, relative or close friend who has hurt you -- it will help you have compassion for this person, gain a deeper understanding of their character and learn to write a three-dimensional villain.
4. Go to a museum or café and listen to a conversation. Jot down some lines from the conversation, not to eavesdrop, but to make note of the cadence, vocabulary, rhythm and pauses of different personalities. This will improve your ability to write dialogue because writing a short story differs greatly from writing a conversation with its starts and stops.
5. Always make connections with individuals who are talented writers or avid readers, so you can get feedback. This does not require money or that you take a writing course.
You can use Facebook to create a community of writers. Regardless of your topic or niche, you can always get important insights from strangers and friends who are interested in the written word.
6. Write everyday. Writing is what you think it is: pleasure or torture.
Ideas come easily if you program your mind to produce, which is a matter of setting up a writing time.
When I used to go running every morning at 6 am, my heart rate would actually go up at about 5:30 am because the body has a memory. My body knew I would be running up and down hills at 6am regardless of the weather. The human brain works in the same way to produce creative work as your body does to get adrenaline going for physical labor.
Write a list of assignments on Sunday night for the coming week and stick to your schedule.
Exercise: do a 20-minute free-write for each word.
love, work, money, music, sex, wilderness, magic
Post the free-writes on a blog and send me the link, so I can insert your stream-of-consciousness here for other writers to peep.
7. Be supportive of writers you admire. Remember to congratulate writers who are doing well and to encourage those who are struggling. Building a community requires compassion and engagement.
8. Submit your work on a weekly basis. Keep a chart with name of piece, name of publication to which you submitted work, and date piece was submitted. If you want to improve your editing skills and ability to produce writing more quickly, take a writing course. A writing course is the most expedient way to become a great editor of your own work.
9. Organize writing salons to share work once a month. There are many community centers, churches and art spaces renting space at a very reasonable rate. You can charge a monthly fee for each group member to cover cost of space or find a location where a group can gather free-of-charge. Writing can be very solitary and it is good to interact with humans. Keep yourself engaged with other writers through taking a course, salons and public readings.
10. I am not a fan of competitive artists or competitive artist events, so I won't attend any at which people are assigned numbers after reading their work; it makes me think of ice skating.
Go to readings in which people are dedicated to the art of writing, not competition. This is where you will meet people who are encouraging and want to discuss literature and artistic aspirations. I attended The Asian American Arts Alliance performance and open mic night in New York City; it was a great crowd of talented, dedicated unpretentious artists
http://aaartsalliance.org/
11. Promote yourself as a writer everywhere you go and on every post. Oh, here are links to my other blogs.
Buy my e-book! Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I
Take a writing class with me! http://skl.sh/lGWoDn
Get this blog for your Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/6yjk637
12. J.K. Rowling is self-publishing her next book. Consider self-publishing a short e-book; it's free, it's relatively simple and the real challenge is marketing.
If you do not feel ready to be your own editor, hire a writer to edit your tome. But just get it out there. E-books are great for many reasons. They will not clutter your apartment, the profit margin is excellent, you can upload a book a day if you wanted to, and you control the process.
Imagine, create, release!
Parts of this post originally appeared on my other blog: People for the Ethical Treatment of Puerto Ricans. http://peopleforpuertorico.blogspot.com/
Friday, June 10, 2011
Being and Being Productive as a Writer
Odilia Rivera Santos
One of the complaints I hear a lot from other writers is that they don’t have time to write.
It isn’t a question of time, but motivation. Some of my favorite writers have written books in between chopping rocks in a gulag and a meal of gruel. Every productive writer has his or her own method for remaining constant as far as a writing schedule is concerned.
When I was teaching in an adult education program full-time, nine to five, and teaching part-time in the evenings, six to nine, I still managed to write for hours every day. I would write in the morning, during my lunch break, and during my commute to and from the day job to the night job. By the end of the day, I had completed poems, outlines for stories or novels or some essays to post on my blogs.
Sometimes, writers are looking for an ideal situation -- some Hemingway-esque cabin in Cuba with a hammock on the porch. But what really matters for an artist is to stay productive and to always seek ways of challenging ourselves to avoid getting in a rut. And the definition of ‘productive’ can vary; there can be flexibility in one’s view of productivity. I occasionally abandon the written word and spend time observing people or go to museums to visit art. Switching from the literary to visual has a way of dislodging me from any feeling of routine when I need to abandon routines, as useful as they are.
I took a break from submitting my work to journals in 2006 and just wrote.
Prior to this self-imposed submission break, I had done well getting my work in journals I respected, but I wanted time to develop long-term ideas and concepts without the interruption of an arbitrary deadline. In 2008, I decided to start a blog with the idea its subject matter would be intentionally unclear. I allowed myself to think on this site with very few visits until my aim came into focus. In the last five years, I have written plays, screenplays, short stories, hundreds of poems, hundreds of blog posts, and a novel of which I am proud. I began to submit work to journals again last year, but my relationship with faceless editors who choose whether to publish my work has changed. I always had an independent streak and realized both teaching and writing offered a modicum of autonomy, which I found very satisfying.
I give myself assignments in order to keep my productivity flowing.
Recently, I decided to organize some poetry readings; one reading was erotic poetry and prose and the other was on Puerto Rican identity, history and place, so I gave myself an assignment: write thirty pages of new material for each reading. I met my goal and now have a twenty-five-page manuscript, covering our migration from an island to the South Bronx, taking a trip to Cuba -- which was important because the culture was so similar to that of Puerto Rico when I was a child, and class issues. I am submitting the manuscript to a Latino journal today. The erotica collection will find a home as well.
There is something to be said for structure for any kind of goal one may have.
WRITERLY PRACTICES
I give myself assignments and find this is the most efficient way to get ideas to flow. It appears the brain is quite adept at organizing information once there is a clear purpose. I wrote 365 poems on the subject of love for my poetry blog, 150 pages of autobiographical essays and even did some artist interviews as a means of keeping my writing interesting.
Socializing is important because we humans are social animals, but writing is a solitary practice, unless your plan is to write for a television show in which case, you would be sitting in a room with a bunch of people. Together, as you eat bear claws and drink designer coffee, you would build a show line by line, joke by joke, etc.
Regular non-collaborative writing can be very challenging for very social people.
Some people need applause and constant attention. I don’t. I love solitude.
Even though I love being alone, sometimes, I crave solitude with company and go to a coffee shop in order to be surrounded by people. I may be completely absorbed in my work and looking only at the computer screen but part of my brain enjoys a little ambient noise. I rarely write in silence. There is either music or someone talking while I write.
I go online and download podcasts on a variety of subjects. Podcasts allow me to ‘read’ while I write. I listen to programs in Spanish, French and English and also download lectures on subjects I wish to study. The life of a writer requires constant intellectual challenge so as to be able to write for a variety of audiences and to create multi-dimensional characters. Linguistic pliability doesn’t come in a pill or through osmosis. As I am writing this, I am downloading podcasts in French and some London Business School of Entrepreneurship lectures. After all, to write about something, you have to know something.
Take a writing course with me! http://skl.sh/lGWoDn
Get this blog for your Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/6yjk637
My slim volume of nonfiction essays is published!
Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69697
One of the complaints I hear a lot from other writers is that they don’t have time to write.
It isn’t a question of time, but motivation. Some of my favorite writers have written books in between chopping rocks in a gulag and a meal of gruel. Every productive writer has his or her own method for remaining constant as far as a writing schedule is concerned.
When I was teaching in an adult education program full-time, nine to five, and teaching part-time in the evenings, six to nine, I still managed to write for hours every day. I would write in the morning, during my lunch break, and during my commute to and from the day job to the night job. By the end of the day, I had completed poems, outlines for stories or novels or some essays to post on my blogs.
Sometimes, writers are looking for an ideal situation -- some Hemingway-esque cabin in Cuba with a hammock on the porch. But what really matters for an artist is to stay productive and to always seek ways of challenging ourselves to avoid getting in a rut. And the definition of ‘productive’ can vary; there can be flexibility in one’s view of productivity. I occasionally abandon the written word and spend time observing people or go to museums to visit art. Switching from the literary to visual has a way of dislodging me from any feeling of routine when I need to abandon routines, as useful as they are.
I took a break from submitting my work to journals in 2006 and just wrote.
Prior to this self-imposed submission break, I had done well getting my work in journals I respected, but I wanted time to develop long-term ideas and concepts without the interruption of an arbitrary deadline. In 2008, I decided to start a blog with the idea its subject matter would be intentionally unclear. I allowed myself to think on this site with very few visits until my aim came into focus. In the last five years, I have written plays, screenplays, short stories, hundreds of poems, hundreds of blog posts, and a novel of which I am proud. I began to submit work to journals again last year, but my relationship with faceless editors who choose whether to publish my work has changed. I always had an independent streak and realized both teaching and writing offered a modicum of autonomy, which I found very satisfying.
I give myself assignments in order to keep my productivity flowing.
Recently, I decided to organize some poetry readings; one reading was erotic poetry and prose and the other was on Puerto Rican identity, history and place, so I gave myself an assignment: write thirty pages of new material for each reading. I met my goal and now have a twenty-five-page manuscript, covering our migration from an island to the South Bronx, taking a trip to Cuba -- which was important because the culture was so similar to that of Puerto Rico when I was a child, and class issues. I am submitting the manuscript to a Latino journal today. The erotica collection will find a home as well.
There is something to be said for structure for any kind of goal one may have.
WRITERLY PRACTICES
I give myself assignments and find this is the most efficient way to get ideas to flow. It appears the brain is quite adept at organizing information once there is a clear purpose. I wrote 365 poems on the subject of love for my poetry blog, 150 pages of autobiographical essays and even did some artist interviews as a means of keeping my writing interesting.
Socializing is important because we humans are social animals, but writing is a solitary practice, unless your plan is to write for a television show in which case, you would be sitting in a room with a bunch of people. Together, as you eat bear claws and drink designer coffee, you would build a show line by line, joke by joke, etc.
Regular non-collaborative writing can be very challenging for very social people.
Some people need applause and constant attention. I don’t. I love solitude.
Even though I love being alone, sometimes, I crave solitude with company and go to a coffee shop in order to be surrounded by people. I may be completely absorbed in my work and looking only at the computer screen but part of my brain enjoys a little ambient noise. I rarely write in silence. There is either music or someone talking while I write.
I go online and download podcasts on a variety of subjects. Podcasts allow me to ‘read’ while I write. I listen to programs in Spanish, French and English and also download lectures on subjects I wish to study. The life of a writer requires constant intellectual challenge so as to be able to write for a variety of audiences and to create multi-dimensional characters. Linguistic pliability doesn’t come in a pill or through osmosis. As I am writing this, I am downloading podcasts in French and some London Business School of Entrepreneurship lectures. After all, to write about something, you have to know something.
Take a writing course with me! http://skl.sh/lGWoDn
Get this blog for your Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/6yjk637
My slim volume of nonfiction essays is published!
Latinalogue, Puerto Rican Nonfiction Part I http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69697
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Why do you need a blog? By Odilia Rivera-Santos
©2011 by Odilia Rivera-Santos
One of the best reasons to have a blog is to connect with people and you must pick a topic you live and breathe, otherwise, your posts will be too infrequent to matter. I have chosen to focus only on writing on this blog, as being an author is my primary source of spiritual, intellectual and creative joy.
For those who would like to be writers, one of the simplest pieces of advice I can give is to create a reading and writing schedule. Sometimes, people say they are too busy to read; President Obama reads. I think he's really busy.
Nothing can replace a breadth of knowledge in topics that really matter to you.
If you are a poet, studying poets will enhance your poetic skills even if you spell skills with a "z." Variety makes your personal statement as an artist more interesting and universal. Most of us seek to connect with people outside our immediate circle.
As a writer, I don't only want Afro-Puerto-Rican-born-in-Puerto Rico-raised-in-the-Bronx-educated-at-a-fancy-college-with-a-degree-in-comparative-literature-and-a minor-in-creative writing-published-in-fancy-journals-only-fancy-professors-read-whose-father-worked-in-the-sugarcane-fields-with-parents-who-had-an-elementary-school-education-translating-researching-poets-novelists-reading my work. That would be boring.
I love variety in my reading and in my readers; it's nice to know people in Australia and Spain read my work and one woman who sent me an email didn't know what Puerto Rico was.
AUTODIDACT OR FORMAL EDUCATION?
I am an autodidact with a formal education and feel both are equally important. One thing we've lost in our strive for individualism, in the U.S., is respect for mentorship. I had wonderful literature and poetry professors who were very talented writers as well. Having a person who has studied Cervantes for thirty years to facilitate a discussion of his work is valuable and the professor learns from students. The neophyte presents a fresh perspective to add to the professor's primary source file. I am a proponent of taking writing and literature classes or being part of an organized group in which there is structure, assignments, regular attendance, etc.
The Informalities
Observing daily life is wonderful but there is no background story to fill in the blanks; we can observe certain habits of ethnic groups with whom we are unfamiliar but not know the roots of certain patterns. As a writer, I always research anything I find interesting without thinking of a specific way to apply new knowledge. I do research on a new topic and the information finds itself into my writing. Characters have more depth if the writer does not just write details in a perfunctory manner and the character's thought processes, speech patterns and trajectory will be more authentic with some background knowledge.
Who are you in the writer spectrum?
Loner - unarmed -- I hope, joiner, tangential participant
There are certain aspects of writing that are negotiable; for example, some people love writing groups and choose to write in groups for years and some people, find an occasional writing workshop to be very useful.
I could not be a lifer in a writing group but have found writing workshops very useful.
I consider writing workshops to be akin to therapy.
The first couple of therapy sessions are intense and frequent until you cough up the emotional hairballs. After those initial sessions or months of sessions, depending on your situation, the therapy customer reaches emotional stasis and returns to therapy sessions for the occasional tuneup.
This is how workshops work for me; I like writing workshops for the occasional creativity tuneup -- to see my ideas connecting with others and to enjoy the spontaneity of writing exercises in front of strangers.
I did hard time in creative writing workshops for two years in college and found it extremely useful for internalizing my editor.
What is the role of an editor?
In my humble opinion, a great editor reads and asks questions and a terrible editor makes changes.
One of the best reasons to have a blog is to connect with people and you must pick a topic you live and breathe, otherwise, your posts will be too infrequent to matter. I have chosen to focus only on writing on this blog, as being an author is my primary source of spiritual, intellectual and creative joy.
For those who would like to be writers, one of the simplest pieces of advice I can give is to create a reading and writing schedule. Sometimes, people say they are too busy to read; President Obama reads. I think he's really busy.
Nothing can replace a breadth of knowledge in topics that really matter to you.
If you are a poet, studying poets will enhance your poetic skills even if you spell skills with a "z." Variety makes your personal statement as an artist more interesting and universal. Most of us seek to connect with people outside our immediate circle.
As a writer, I don't only want Afro-Puerto-Rican-born-in-Puerto Rico-raised-in-the-Bronx-educated-at-a-fancy-college-with-a-degree-in-comparative-literature-and-a minor-in-creative writing-published-in-fancy-journals-only-fancy-professors-read-whose-father-worked-in-the-sugarcane-fields-with-parents-who-had-an-elementary-school-education-translating-researching-poets-novelists-reading my work. That would be boring.
I love variety in my reading and in my readers; it's nice to know people in Australia and Spain read my work and one woman who sent me an email didn't know what Puerto Rico was.
AUTODIDACT OR FORMAL EDUCATION?
I am an autodidact with a formal education and feel both are equally important. One thing we've lost in our strive for individualism, in the U.S., is respect for mentorship. I had wonderful literature and poetry professors who were very talented writers as well. Having a person who has studied Cervantes for thirty years to facilitate a discussion of his work is valuable and the professor learns from students. The neophyte presents a fresh perspective to add to the professor's primary source file. I am a proponent of taking writing and literature classes or being part of an organized group in which there is structure, assignments, regular attendance, etc.
The Informalities
Observing daily life is wonderful but there is no background story to fill in the blanks; we can observe certain habits of ethnic groups with whom we are unfamiliar but not know the roots of certain patterns. As a writer, I always research anything I find interesting without thinking of a specific way to apply new knowledge. I do research on a new topic and the information finds itself into my writing. Characters have more depth if the writer does not just write details in a perfunctory manner and the character's thought processes, speech patterns and trajectory will be more authentic with some background knowledge.
Who are you in the writer spectrum?
Loner - unarmed -- I hope, joiner, tangential participant
There are certain aspects of writing that are negotiable; for example, some people love writing groups and choose to write in groups for years and some people, find an occasional writing workshop to be very useful.
I could not be a lifer in a writing group but have found writing workshops very useful.
I consider writing workshops to be akin to therapy.
The first couple of therapy sessions are intense and frequent until you cough up the emotional hairballs. After those initial sessions or months of sessions, depending on your situation, the therapy customer reaches emotional stasis and returns to therapy sessions for the occasional tuneup.
This is how workshops work for me; I like writing workshops for the occasional creativity tuneup -- to see my ideas connecting with others and to enjoy the spontaneity of writing exercises in front of strangers.
I did hard time in creative writing workshops for two years in college and found it extremely useful for internalizing my editor.
What is the role of an editor?
In my humble opinion, a great editor reads and asks questions and a terrible editor makes changes.
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