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Righters' Club
Free Republic discussion ^

Posted on 03/23/2007 11:44:31 AM PDT by Eleutheria5

Squarebarb:

There were some of us including GOPpoet who were thinking of starting a writer's thread here on FR. There's a horse thread, a football thread, a Hobbit Hole thread, so why not a thread for us writers?

And mainly sticking to fiction otherwise the discussion tends toward politicsa iinstead of the craft of writing.

Okay Eleutheria5, YOU start the thread."

Eleutheria5:

On it. Could use some help from someone who knows how to do HTTP and other techy stuff, though. Tried to learn, but drat that right hemisphere dominance we creative folks have. I've actually been running a board on the aol writers' club since 1996 called Conservative Writers' Club. Mostly it simply fights flame wars with liberal writers, though, and all the conservative contributors, including me, burn out. It'd be great to get away from that and just swap ideas with people who DON'T wish every one of us a flaming death.

(Excerpt) Read more at freerepublic.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature
KEYWORDS: conservativewriters; creativecommunity; righters
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To: carton253
Is that from Sherlock Holmes?

It's a riff on Indiana Jones. The concept of Dr. Scones borrows some from Indy, but he's more academic and far less swashbuckling than Indiana Jones.

One day, Dr. Scones makes his entry looking considerably puzzled and ill at ease. He's peering under chairs and looking behind things...as it turns out, he's missing a flash drive full of photographs of the Elgin Marbles.

Teacher: Doctor Scones, are you all right?
Scones: I've lost my marbles!

341 posted on 04/13/2007 4:53:44 AM PDT by Oberon (What does it take to make government shrink?)
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To: Oberon
Yeah! Raiders.

It is just good clever writing.

342 posted on 04/13/2007 5:23:20 AM PDT by carton253 (Not enough space to express how I truly feel.)
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To: carton253

You’re very gracious. You’re also up late! Or is it early?


343 posted on 04/13/2007 5:37:17 AM PDT by Oberon (What does it take to make government shrink?)
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To: Oberon

It was early afternoon when I posted.


344 posted on 04/13/2007 7:22:37 AM PDT by carton253 (Not enough space to express how I truly feel.)
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To: carton253
Ah, all right. My mistake.

Was my post on chapter writing helpful at all? Did you find reason to disagree with it?

345 posted on 04/13/2007 7:26:32 AM PDT by Oberon (What does it take to make government shrink?)
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To: Oberon
No, it was very helpful. All your tips are. I have learned so much.

When the club started my 1500 page manuscript (not finished) needed help. I was trying to please too many audiences and ended up not pleasing anyone.

I got my focus back.

I have taken the editing razor to it and even though I am adding more descriptive elements, I have taken about 50 pages out of the first 400.

I am also using my descriptive narratives to introduce "little dialogues" which bring my characters in focus.

I have stripped whole scenes out that make the book read much better.

Two weeks ago, I was despairing, ready to quit because my new opening "with histories and biographies added" was trashed by a friend because it was "rote." Now, I have a manuscrip that I am very happy with.

That is why this club is important to me. And meeting such accomplished writers like you have really made a difference.

346 posted on 04/13/2007 7:50:32 AM PDT by carton253 (Not enough space to express how I truly feel.)
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To: carton253
And meeting such accomplished writers like you have really made a difference.

Don't be impressed by me. My writing accomplishments are minor indeed.

347 posted on 04/13/2007 8:13:11 AM PDT by Oberon (What does it take to make government shrink?)
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To: Oberon; squarebarb
Oh, but you helped me in my despair (even though you did not know it).

And you chat me up on this thread and answer questions and give good advice.

So, yes, I will be impressed! :>)

When I view my manuscript before this thread - I see a piece of work that would have never gotten an agent interested.

When I view it now - I see all the work that still has to be done - but there is hope for it now.

I pinged squarebarb to the post for all the help and advice she so freely gave.

348 posted on 04/13/2007 8:31:56 AM PDT by carton253 (Not enough space to express how I truly feel.)
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To: carton253

“PS - have you ever seen the Jordan River? It really doesn’t flow rapidly anywhere. In America, we would call it a creek.”

Drat. I suppose it isn’t “wide and deep,” either. So why did Joshua split it, I wonder.


349 posted on 04/15/2007 5:56:07 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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To: Oberon

Don’t be impressed by me. My writing accomplishments are minor indeed.

Mine, too. I have so very much to be humble about (plagiarized from Churchill).


350 posted on 04/15/2007 5:59:32 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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To: carton253
“PS - have you ever seen the Jordan River? It really doesn’t flow rapidly anywhere. In America, we would call it a creek.”

So what can I say about the Jordan. Must be two syllable word with accent on the first. Flaccid? Tepid? Constant? Frigid bed? Placid? Sluggish?

351 posted on 04/15/2007 6:04:44 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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To: Eleutheria5
Drat. I suppose it isn’t “wide and deep,” either. So why did Joshua split it, I wonder.

Because they needed to cross it during the yearly flood stage. From Joshua chapter 3:

"Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho." - Joshua 3:15,16 (NIV)

352 posted on 04/15/2007 6:54:57 PM PDT by Oberon (What does it take to make government shrink?)
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To: Eleutheria5

No, it isn’t wide and deep either. It has probably changed since Joshua.


353 posted on 04/15/2007 8:58:16 PM PDT by carton253 (I've cried tears and stayed the same.)
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To: Eleutheria5; Oberon
Placid works. So does constant.

Oberon is correct. It was at flood stage. But even it was a creek - to go across on dry ground... wow!

But again... I think it has probably undergone some changes...

I need to run right now, but let me tell you about Caeseara Phillipi and one of the sources of the Jordan when I return from university. It is quite fascinating.

354 posted on 04/15/2007 9:02:25 PM PDT by carton253 (I've cried tears and stayed the same.)
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To: carton253

My book is now selling in Japan, UK, France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Canada. Seems abroad people like the idea of another American civil war so much, they’re even willing to read the English prose of an unknown yankee.

Of course, here in America itself, I’m not even a blip on the screen. Amazon ranks me at about 1,288,000 in sales, and B&N at 693,000. Borders doesn’t even list my book, and I luv their herbal teas. My, my, my. How getting published changes one’s perspectives. Two months ago, I wouldn’t have been worried about such things. Waah. Self pity. Self pity. Wallow. Self pity. Self pity.

Buy it now, folks! United America: 2014 by Ben Maxwell! Stop the author’s whining! Pleaaaaaase.


355 posted on 04/17/2007 2:23:27 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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To: Eleutheria5

Now that I’ve said that, expect Righters’ Club to show up on google searches of my title. Really. It happens.


356 posted on 04/17/2007 2:25:19 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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To: Eleutheria5
When I return to the States, I will buy it. That should bump you to 1,287,999 at Amazon and 692,999 at Barnes and Nobles.

And for Christmas, I will give copies of your book as presents.

Hope that helps.

357 posted on 04/17/2007 8:59:20 PM PDT by carton253 (I've cried tears and stayed the same.)
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To: carton253

Oh, thank you, Carton253. Thank you! Another reason why I
/
love Israel(:-|)E (bad attempt at Chassidic smily)
\


358 posted on 04/18/2007 6:27:39 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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To: Eleutheria5

Payos (sidelocks) were a total failure


359 posted on 04/18/2007 6:28:47 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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To: Eleutheria5

Fortunately, not all writing is literature. Besides journalism and legal writing, there are the highly lucrative fields of business and promotional writing.

I’m presently working on a grant application for a dairy company. Potentially, if successful, it could solve all my money problems forever. Of course, I’ve had more than a hundred grand in the bank before, and presently am flat broke. So “forever” is used advisedly here. Still, it’d be great to be loaded again, and this time I’d know better how to make it last, even if I do truncate “would” too often.

Promotional, direct mail writing is allegedly where lots of money can be made, mainly because results are so clearly measurable. Direct mail, for those of you in Rio Linda, means those vile snail and e-spams that everyone (except about 4% of recipients) discards. I’ve been taking a course in it (Michael Masterson, courtesy of AWAI [American Writers and Artists Institute]) but have yet to try actually soliciting clients. On the one hand, money is my favorite. It’s fungible and has a universally agreed-upon purchasing power. On the other, direct mail letters require a lot of research into subject matter in order to write them. Right now, I don’t have the luxury of time to do that kind of research.


360 posted on 04/18/2007 7:21:59 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
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