We live in an age where new words keep popping up faster than microwave popped corn. A lot of this has to do with the internet. Words such as blog, webinar, branding, social media were either not known, little used or meant something entirely different before the turn of the century. Now I’ve come across another one: blovel. This means a blog that has been turned into a novel or vice versa, I’m not sure which. However, some people think that writing a blovel can help an author build a platform, leading to a book deal with a major publisher. After all, that’s the reason many of us write, isn’t it?

One advocate of book blogging says it’s very easy to turn your blog into a book. Simply write a short blog post every day starting from the beginning of your book and at the end of a year you should have a book, er, blook. I’m sure you can figure what that is. While she admits that blogging your book lends itself best to non-fiction, she thinks it is also possible to turn out a good blovel. She advises that you
a) plan your story arc well,
b) divide your chapter into mini-scenes,
c)decide how you will weave your posts into a manuscript that flows.

These all sound plausible, however Jane Friedman, professor, media professional and former publisher of Writer’s Digest pleads, “Please don’t blog your book.” While Jane agrees that some blogs may make for excellent books, these are the ones that fall in the information category or are memoirs, like Julia and Julia. Jane’s reasons for not blogging your book are also straightforward and plausible. They are:
a) Blog writing is not like book writing. Think SEO, keyword etc.
b) Blogs can make for very bad books – unless it’s an e-book or an illustrated book.
c)If a book sounds like a series of blog posts, she considers it a failure.

In some of the forums I visited on the subject, one author brought up the very important of original work. Publishers tend to shy away from anything that’s considered already published, and if it appeared on your blog then it qualifies as published work. Another person said he has been blogging scenes from his book, but he has yet to acquire a readership.

I’ll continue this discussion in another post. Meanwhile, drop me a line and let me know if you think blogging your book is a good idea, or if you have done it what kind of results have you had.

The A – Z blog challenge taught me one thing about myself: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. When I signed up for the challenge, I didn’t seriously think I could do it. I thought I might begin and drop out half-way or even a quarter way through. After all, I’m not a daily blogger, and don’t intend to be. But as I began working my way through the letters, I found myself coming up with ideas for my writing theme that I’d never thought of before. I was amazed that I could find so many different subtopics on writing.

Also, there’s nothing more inspiring than to know that people are actually reading what you write. As my fellow bloggers dropped by and left comments, my determination to stick with the challenge grew. I’m proud to say that I completed the challenge just one day late, and that was because I didn’t publish the post as soon as I finished writing it, and when I went back to my blog half of the post had disappeared!

So, what did I learn from the A – Z blog challenge?

1. That with a little determination, I can accomplish a lot.
2. That I can post more regularly to my blog, if I put my mind to it.
3. That, according to the comments, people do enjoy my writing.
4. That there is a lot to learn about being a writer and the business of writing.
5. That there are many talented and wonderful bloggers out there.

What do I regret about the A – Z blog challenge? Just one thing: That I didn’t have enough time to visit and comment on more blogs. Those that I visited were delightful and enlightening and I hope to visit them again. And participate in another challenge. Did I say that?

If I could offer a suggestion it would be that we post only Monday to Friday and leave the weekend for blog hopping and commenting. I would love to hear your thoughts on this year’s A – Z blog challenge. And if you follow this blog, I’ll follow you back.

Zora Neale Hurston may best be remembered for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), which was produced by Oprah and aired on television a few years ago. Other works by Ms. Hurston include Tell My Horse (1938) a travelogue and study of Caribbean voodoo, Moses, Man of The Mountains (1939) her autobiography Dust Tracks On The Road (1942) and Seraph On The Suwanee (1948). Of these, Their Eyes Were Watching God received the greatest recognition.

Zora’s early upbringing is shrouded in mystery. Some accounts state that she was born in 1901, but this has not been verified. Zora was the daughter of a Baptist preacher, but she received very little formal education until she reached the age of 26. Zora studied voodoo practices in Haiti and Jamaica and this most likely influenced her interest in folklore. She became an author, folklorist and anthropologist.

In 1925 at the peak of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora traveled to New York where she published stories in literary magazines. This brought her to the attention of such literary giants as Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman. They produced a magazine together called Fire, which featured a lot of young, black Renaissance writers.

Despite her association with these prominent African American writers, Zora provoked the ire of African Americans by her refusal to address racism in her writings and in her public denouncement of desegregation in schools. She is quoted as saying that black children didn’t have to attend white schools in order to learn. Later, when she campaigned in support of a GOP presidential candidate, the outcry against her increased.

Financial difficulties confronted Zora later in life and she went back to working as a domestic, a job she had done before becoming a writer. She died of a stroke in a welfare home in St. Lucie County, Florida. In 1975 there was a resurgence of Zora’s work largely due to the efforts of new writers like Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. In 2001, Every Tongue Got To Confess, a collection of folktales from the Gulf States was published posthumously.

Despite all the controversy that surrounded Zora’s personal and public life, she left behind a cultural legacy of which lovers of African American literature can be justifiably proud.

Well, we are down to the second-to-last letter. I never thought I would be able to get this far. It just shows what a little challenge plus determination can accomplish. I can’t wait to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with for the letter Y. For this post I decided to feature the blog of my friend and critique partner, Yvonne Anderson. Yvonne’s blog is called Ys Words, and as you will see from the entry below, she does give some Ys words on writing in particular and on life in general. Yvonne is the author of Story In The Stars, the first in a series of speculative fiction about life on the planet Gannah. In this entry, Yvonne’s main characters, Dassa – protagonist – and Pik, Dassa’s husband argue about who should be the protagonist. Let’s listen in:

Author: All right, then, ladies first. Dassa, why do you believe the term protagonist applies to you?

Dassa: Since the book opens with a scene in my point of view, it stands to reason that my character is the one upon whom the whole book hinges. Isn’t that some sort of a writing rule? That the protagonist is introduced first?

Author: I don’t know if it’s a rule, but—

Pik: There is no such rule. I’ve checked with a number of industry professionals, and they tell me—

Dassa: Industry professionals? Name one. Probably a guy who drives a forklift in the Book Bargains warehouse. No—more likely, some agent’s dermatologist.

Pik: Not true! I—

Author: We needn’t name names and draw innocents into this. But I’ve raised this question at conferences and such, and from what I’ve been told, there is no hard-and-fast rule. Generally speaking, the reader meets the protagonist first, but there are legitimate exceptions. So I’ll give a point to Dassa for this while conceding that her argument isn’t definitive. And now, let’s move on. Dr. Pik, why do you think you’re really the protagonist?

Pik: First, and most obviously, readers love me best. You said yourself, when you were submitting your chapters to critiquers for feedback, everyone commented on how much they loved my character. And if you hadn’t submitted anything for a while, it was me they asked about. “What’s Pik doing these days?” No one inquired about Dassa.

Author: Well, that’s true, but—

Pik: But more objectively, I think everyone here will agree that my character is the one that shows the most growth. Don’t several reviewers comment on the impressive character development in this book? Which character are they’re talking about? Certainly not Dassa, who remains a cold fish throughout the entire story. My character gives the story its depth and adds a lively humor. It’s my words in the last line that put a smile on the reader’s face as she closes the book with satisfaction. Dassa is merely the straight man, so to speak, around which my character revolves.

Author: “Cold fish” hardly describes Dassa. It’s true that she never gets carried away by her emotions, but she does clearly feel them. And her role is far more vital than that of a mere straight man. Nevertheless, you raise a good point about the character development. Your character shows amazing growth between his introduction in chapter 2 and that last line of the book that you mention.

So what do you have to say about this, Dassa? Pik seems to have scored two points to your one so far. Can you offer another reason why you should keep your protagonist status?

Dassa: Absolutely. It’s true that the doctor shows the most character growth, but plainly, the reason for that is because he had more growing to do. I may be younger than he, but I was more mature at the beginning of the book than he is by the end. No, don’t argue, Pik, it’s true and you know it. However, all that aside, I believe the biggest reason why I should remain the protag is because it’s my character who has the most to gain or lose. You had a life—a career, a family, and a future—before I came on the scene, and if I had never made an appearance, you’d have gone along your merry way without a care in the galaxy. I, on the other hand, lost everything. The story is more about my struggle than it is about your character growth. Clearly, that gives me every right and reason to be the protagonist.

Author: This is quite the dilemma. All your arguments are valid. I think we should put it to the vote. Readers? Who do you consider the protagonist of The Story in the Stars? I’m asking that question on my own blog today, too, so if you don’t mind, would you go to YsWords.com and cast your vote?

Intriguing, isn’t she? To learn more about Yvonne and her writing, you may visit her blog at www.YsWords.com.

After racking my brain to come up with an X word for this third-to-last post in the A – Z challenge, I came up with Xanax. To some, it may be an ugly word, to others it may be better than Open Sesame. Xanax (Alprazolam), in case you didn’t know, is a drug used to treat depression and anxiety. It belongs to the class of drugs known as benzodiazepines and it can be habit-forming.

Xanax, like most medications, carries with it a host of side effects including: drowsiness, light-headedness, headache, tiredness, dizziness, irritability, talkativeness, difficulty concentrating, changes in sex drive or ability, nausea, constipation, seizures and weight changes among other things.

But why am I writing about Xanax on a blog for writers? Maybe because of their lifestyle, writers are prone to anxiety and depression. You may have heard of Sylvia Plath, author of The Bell Jar, who committed suicide. Eleven years after Sylvia’s death, her close friend Anne Sexton, poet, also committed suicide. Other famous authors have also suffered from the “Sylvia Plath effect” including, Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse (1927), Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man And The Sea (1952), David Foster Wallace, The Pale King. This is just a short list. Wikipedia has over 200 names of writers who killed themselves.

These writers all left behind a legacy of their genius for the world to enjoy, but that genius came with a price. Some researchers believe that creativity and mental illness go together. That may be true, but as a creative individual you don’t have to succumb to depression, anxiety or any of the mental illnesses. Notice, I said succumb. That doesn’t mean you don’t have it; all it means is, you learn to control it, in the same way you learn to control your weight, blood pressure or diabetes.

From the research I have done, and from what I have seen as an occupational therapist in a behavioral health unit, Xanax may help some people in the short term, but long-term use can lead to addiction and other side effects. If you must take Xanax, do so under your doctor’s supervision. Don’t take your cousin’s Xanax because it worked for her. In addition, if you take Xanax, you should be careful to follow the instructions to the letter. Do not take more or less than the prescribed dosage, and do not stop the medication without consulting your doctor. Also, before taking Xanax, be sure and tell your doctor if you are taking any other medications, or if you are allergic to any.

The writer’s life can be an unhealthy one. Long hours staring at the computer can take a toll on your eyesight, weight, posture, circulation and mental health. Trying to get your plot and characters to work the way you want them to can lead to anxiety and depression. The same goes for struggling to market yourself, find assignments and meet deadlines, if you are a freelancer. Counteract the stress with regular breaks and exercise (preferably outdoors). See my post on Fitness for Writers(http://angelasfreelancewriting.com/fitness-tips-for-writers). Resist the urge to snack on cola drinks, potato chips and -dare I say it- chocolate. Spend quality time with family and friends, and if you can, cultivate another interest besides writing. It will do wonders for your mind.

Related articles

• Book Review: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Whose Life is This?
• Xanax, Adderall, Vicodin — We’re Gonna SUE Over Kitson Druggie T-Shirts

I couldn’t think of a better topic for the W in the A – Z challenge than to tell you about the Working Writer’s Club. This is a writers’ networking site that provides you with resources and opportunities to grow and succeed as a writer.

As a member of the club, you can:

• Participate in live teleclasses each week. Writing coach, Suzanne Lieurance conducts this class which features tips to help you hone your writing skills and increase your earnings as a freelance writer.

• Network with other club members. One of the things that Suzanne stresses is the importance of having a weekly marketing plan for your writing. You can receive feedback for this in The Working Writer’s Club Forums. You can also post your query letters here and have them reviewed BEFORE you send them off to editors.

• Access the Working Writer’s Club Resource Center. Here you will find helpful articles, templates, forms, and other great resources to help you in your work as a freelance writer.

• Take your book on a 5-Day Virtual Book Tour. This month several of our members are getting exposure for themselves and their books through virtual book tours hosted by other members.

• Receive Discounts and Special Offers. Suzanne offers lots of products and resources to members of the club that are not available to anyone else.

• Get Exposure for yourself and your writing. As a member of the club you get to post your articles on the site with a link back to your site, which gets you noticed by the search engines. Our Facebook Friday chats and tweets are other ways you gain exposure through the club.

Basic charter membership in The Working Writer’s Club is now available for only $9.99 per month (or save 20% when you pay a year in advance – just $99.99 per year). That’s less than what you pay for a cup of coffee a day. As a charter member of the club your membership fee will never increase while you remain a member.

If you are serious about becoming a successful writer, do what I did. Join the Working Writer’s Club today.

My V is for verses. A verse is a single line of poetry, or it can represent a group of lines formerly known as stanzas. Poetry is sometimes referred to as “verse”, which may be rhymed or “free” without meter or rhyme. The opposite of this is prose which can be a sentence or paragraph. Prose can also be poetic, depending on the type of language used.

Who can resist the allure of beautiful poetry? Verses have long been used to convey the writer’s sentiments in beautifully-couched language, guaranteed to transport the reader into another dimension. Love is usually the subject of most poetry, but it has been used to express mundane matters and sometimes even downright morbid ones. In this post, I bring you some of the more memorable verses I have come across in literature. The first two are anonymous, the third is by William Wordsworth, 19th century English poet and the last is from the Bible. So, turn off the ringer on your phone, get your favorite cup of tea, curl up in your comfiest chair and enjoy!

The rose speaks of love
silently, in a language
known only to the heart.

You’ve got to dance
like nobody’s looking,
and love like
it’s never going to hurt.

I wandered lonely as a cloud:
That floats on high o’er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
-William Wordsworth

Love is patient; love is kind.
Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way: it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
And now faith, hope, and love abide,
and the greatest of these is love.
( 1 Corinthians 13)

Today I take a break from my writing blogs to bring you something different for my letter U.

One of the many fascinating objects I came across when I visited Alaska in 2010 is the ulu knife. My friend, who is a scrabble freak, was delighted she had a new word to add to her scrabble vocabulary. As you can see from the picture, the knife is curved so you cut with a rocking motion, instead of sawing as you would with an ordinary knife. This also helps to secure the item being cut so you don’t need to hold it down with a fork. Some of the ulus we saw ranged from $9. 95 for the small, souvenir type to over $65.00 for the larger and more ornate ones.

My T in the A – Z challenge is for Theme. I remember when my literature teacher in high school asked us to find the theme of a story we were studying, a collective sigh went up in the room like if a gas line had burst. Ask us to summarize the plot, we could do that, describe the characters, that was easy, but find the theme? We could sooner find the Holy Grail.

Nowadays, we hear the word “theme” used a lot. There are theme parks, theme parties, theme restaurants. What the designers have done is to build the setting or occasion around a central point that no one can miss. The theme of your novel is not much different. It is that common thread that runs through your plot, and impacts your characterization and sometimes even your setting. It is a necessary element of the literary novel.

As an aspiring novelist, you may not consciously set out to create a theme, but if your story flows logically, you will have a theme. Sometimes a theme could be a place, a time period or a metaphor that adds depth to the story. Some common themes used in novels are: loss of innocence, coming of age, losing hope, pride, danges of materialism, good versus evil, lost love and many others. The next time you read a novel, try to identify the theme. If you have written a novel, what is its theme?

We are on to S in the A – Z blog challenge and my word for today is Synopsis.

Many writers who have no difficulty churning out a 500-page novel cower in fear at the thought of writing the synopsis. However, if you are trying to find an agent or publisher, the synopsis is a necessary evil you have to deal with. A synopsis, quite simply, is a summary of your plot. What happens in the beginning, middle and end – without extraneous details. Some authors write a synopsis before they begin the novel, then modify it after the book is complete. The most common method is to write it after your novel as part of your query package. (more…)