Weeks of July 28 and August4, 2013 Sorry No Blog This Week

On major clean up detail this week. Be back soon.

Week of July 21,2013 - Blurbs

By Joan Whetzel

“Blurb” is such a funny, funky little word. Most people have heard the word “blurb” before. Those who don’t write may have an idea of what it means. Those who write for a living, have probably written a few blurbs of their own. 

Definition

A blurb is a short description of a product or a written piece. It is generally used as a promotional technique. You see them in mail order and online store catalogs all the time. For writers, blogs are found on the back of a book or the inside cover to give a brief summary of the books contents or fiction story line.

Blurb History

“Blurb” was first used at the American Booksellers Association meeting (1907). Illustrator Gelett Burgess is generally credited with having invented the word. He presented his recent book to Association members, with a bookplate featuring a woman by the name of Belinda Blurb. Ms. Blurb was praising Burgess’s book. Booksellers and publishers loved the idea, and attached the “blurb” in dust jackets from then on. Blurbs are now a standard part of the publishing industry.

Writing Blurbs

Blurbs are a lot like a summary. They consist of 1 to 3 very short paragraphs, running about 2 to 3 sentences each. The idea is to entice the reader into buying and reading the book, without giving away the whole fictional plot or details of the nonfiction material. In other words, spoiler alerts are strictly prohibited.

Online and catalog product blurbs are quite different. The may be a complete sentence or two, depending on the catalog. However, they generally tend to be briefer - 10 words or less – and don’t read as complete sentences. If they were submitted to your English teacher, he or she would throw a hissy fit over the bad grammar.  Gotta love English teachers.

So next time someone asks you what your story or idea is about, just give them the “blurb.”

Week of July 14 ,2013 - Writer’s Research Tools

By: Joan Whetzel

Writing - whether fiction, nonfiction or business – requires research. Using many of the same tools, writers use research to provide background information and textual clues to the fictional subplots and sub currents, to related ideas in nonfiction, and to reference other topics and projects in business. These clues are meant to provide context for readers and improve their understanding of the written material as well as providing deeper meaning. Writers have a number of places to perform that research.

The Internet

Provides you research information at your fingertips. You can find just about any subject specific or industry specific resources on your choice of websites. But care must be taken, as some sites and some information may not be reliable. All information must be backed up by at least 2 or more  reliable sources. That’s not to say, though, that unreliable or questionable information can’t be used, as long as you have a reason for using it in your writing, and make it evident to your readers why you’re using it.

The Library

Libraries have a number of resources, not the least of which is the books and magazines. But there are also now digital media, CDs, DVDs, and the internet and online library. Probably the best resource, though, is the librarian.

Bibliographies and Indexes

Most books, articles, and some online resources have bibliographies and/or indexes. Bibliographies, when they’re provided, give a list of the resources that the writer used. Check into those resources. They may well provide you with the details and additional information you’re looking for.

Indexes help locate specific information within the book or magazine. So, instead of reading an entire book or article, you can go directly to the piece of information you need. Makes it easier to locate specific details

Databases

Online databases list journal articles, symposium events, research papers, reviews and the like. All separated by subject matter. They’re like an online card catalog  for an online reference library.

Primary Sources

Locate letters and diaries, recordings of events (i.e. news footage), and doing interviews are great ways of getting those personal details that  bring a story to life. For business and some nonfiction writing, the interviews offer the opportunity to gain a better understanding from subject matter experts.

Archival Collections

Overtime, information becomes outdated or obsolete. But sometimes the historical information and viewpoints make for great details and can provide background for a particular argument. You may not be able to find that information because the resources are no longer in print. Archives and archival collections may be the only place these resources exist.

Biographical Resources

These resource include biographies, biographical dictionaries, and profiles like “Who’s Who.” Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to find out everything they could about the subject’s life and record it. They also provide context with the time period.

Reference Materials

Reference materials include dictionaries, thesaurus’s, encyclopedias, and almanacs, the kinds of books that libraries don’t let you check out. They’re great for details, for gaining a better understanding or a deeper meaning, and for locating specific facts (e.g. weather, money, language, religion, culture).

 

These resources can be added to any personal library. Better yet, if you can find them online, and have easy access to a computer, you can find just about any information you need to bring your writing to life.

Week of July 7, 2013 – Stages of Grief for Writers

Psychologists and therapists who deal with grief all the time make use of a field of study known as thanatology. Thanatology is defined as "the study of death and the psychological mechanisms for coping with death." Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a pioneer in helping people deal with their imminent death and the dying process, developed the system that describes the 5 stages of grief for people diagnosed with terminal illnesses. The stages of grief for those who have lost a loved one are similar. Fiction writers should have a good understanding of the stages of grief in order to write more realistic grieving characters.

 

Mourning and grief varies with the individual as does the way we each progress through the stages. Following my husband’s recent death, I found my progression through the stages has not been linear. I’ve been moving in and out of the stages. Every time I work through the stages dealing one issue, another issue crops up and I start the process all over again. Many times I have found that I have the stages overlapping because I am dealing with more than one issue at a time. Though the stages of grief are listed in a specific order, I have found, that I haven’t been going through each stage in the listed order, but rather experiencing them in random order, sometimes experiencing the stages of anger, denial, bargaining repeatedly for some of the issues.

 

Denial

Denial works differently for terminal patients than for those grieving the loss of a loved one. For the terminally ill, denial is more about shock and disbelief. They don’t want to believe this is happening to them. For the bereaved, it’s more about pain and guilt. They want to think they could have prevented the death, and they feel guilty - not only for failing to save their loved one but for all the problems in the relationship that may have contributed to the death. Denial is the stage where the grieving survivors deny their own part in everything that may have been wrong, and blaming the dead person because they can’t deal with the pain and guilt of their own shortcomings

Anger

If you’re character is following the stages in a linear fashion, the denial will give way to anger. This is where the denial lights anger’s fire. Anger allows the terminally ill to blame someone for their current state of affairs.

It works the same for the grieving family members. Usually, the person they are angry with is the person who died and left them to deal with their death and any problems that they left in their wake. Sometimes though, family members will be angry with the surviving spouse or each other because of each person's shortcomings or because they feel that others should have done something to save the dead person or to prevent any problems that have crept up since the person died. Guilt is a part of anger as well, because we feel guilty for being angry with each other and especially for being angry with the person who died. Though at this state, the guilt is more of an undercurrent.

Bargaining

Bargaining works in different manners for the terminally ill as for the grieving loved ones. The terminally ill try to bargain with their Higher Power by declaring they’ll do anything if God will just make them better.

For the grieving family, it’s a bit different. Their loved one is not coming back. So instead, they ask for all their problems to be instantly solved and their life to be made whole again – or as whole as possible – and they’ll do anything to get it set straight. Alternatively, they may also ask for their own death, because they don’t feel like they can make it, and they’ll do whatever they need to do to keep make their families’ lives better in exchange.

Depression

For both the terminally ill and the grieving family, depression is the moment when your character realizes that there’s nothing they can do to change their situation. There’s nothing they can do to fix it. And no amount of bargaining, begging, pleading, or fixing will change the circumstances you’re facing. A deep sense of sadness, emptiness, and loneliness set in.

The terminally ill will make use of this stage to quietly separate themselves from their loved ones as a way of saying goodbye. In both terminal illness and grieving over a loved one, characters may realize they’ve neglected their other relationships and use this time as an excuse to reconnect with those relationships. Either way, the full magnitude of tje loss finally sets in, and your characters will feel the full weight of the loss.

Acceptance

Acceptance of one's impending death is the stage when your character is finally okay with his/her death. The character is ready for it when it comes. For the mourning, this stage may be harder to get to. Some, in fact, may never reach this stage. They simply can’t get out of the anger, denial, or depression. For me, it’s been a matter of peeling back the layers and coming to a state of acceptance, one layer at a time. It’s easier than trying to deal with everything all at once.

Dealing with all the problems at one time can be overwhelming. So your character may need to start with the things that can be fixed and dealt with up front. Then work through the other, harder and more involved problems, the parts of their grief one step at a time. Some things will get better sooner than others.

Maybe that’s why they say you should take at least one year to get through the grief process. It just takes a lot of time to deal, not only with the death, but with all the problems and fallout following the death. Step-by-step, layer-by-layer, the burdens and problems, and all the aspects of your character's life with the other person will be dealt with. Little by little, your character should start seeing an upward turn. It doesn’t happen all at once, though everyone wishes it would be just that quick. But when you stop to think how long it takes to build that relationship, your character realizes that it’s going to take awhile to get over it. As your characters start working through each layer, they will start seeing life as a new opportunity and begin looking forward to a brand new future that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.