Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Will be mostly delayed but I'll just put the title Smoke and Ashes here to remind me of what I wanted to talk about but after making exams all day (and a metric shit ton of grading still to do) I no longer have the ability to form cogent thoughts.

Instead I'll give you some links, talk about yesterday which I plain forgot about yesterday and there was another topic I was going to talk about but it's gone just that fast.

So how about a reminder as an author, as human being, be nice to each other. Help each other. We are not in competition. Do not pull a pin and toss the grenade and screw over your fellow authors. People will see you doing that and you might be surprised how some readers don't want to support a douche.

I've also just gone back in time. I'm watching A Discovery of Witches and there was an honest to god pay-for-services phone ad. Remember Miss Clio psychic hotlines in the 90s? This was California Psychics and it was a 1$/min call. Not even a text. I'm like WTH?

So yesterday I did the Out of Darkness suicide prevention walk. No one funded me locally so I put in my own donation. THe night before my mom left me with this: don't fall down. She has such faith. I was representing the Wellness committee. It was nice to see SO many walkers but emotional too because the two speakers were local mothers who have lost their children to suicide. We were given paper lanterns to send up as a more eco friendly option than balloons (hint, no it's not). I can not believe they let me hold paper I was setting on fire given my track record. I had picked up a blue one but it was a big heart shaped one that didn't heat up to get aloft easily.

My heart flew sideways because of course it did. I expected these things to burn up. (and yes they DID look beautiful with dozens of them rising into the air) They didn't. They didn't go far but they crashed all over the neighborhood (I bet the school gets flak for that). Mine hit the cafeteria. The walk itself was good, just a mile around the campus.


Okay now for those links

from around the web: The Copyright Lawsuit. What was THAT about?! This one is important. It's to do with PICTURE copyright (and why I never do moodboards) It's one thing to steal a picture online and use it as a book cover (Yes this just happened AGAIN to Michael Stokes who takes amazing photos, often of veterans with battle scars) Most of us know that's illegal but we never think of the pictures we post from shows or pintrest or wherever as being a violation but fair use might not cover you on that one.

15 Book Publicity Commandments

How to Relax During A Book Sales Presentation

Get Organized: The Art Of A Flow Board

How to Crowdfund Your Book with Kickstarter Not my thing but I have friends on here who do this often and with success.

“The Lady of Shalott” and the Writer vs. the Author

The Paradox of Inspiration

Who’s Your “Writing Bestie?” For years it's been evil_little_dog but several of you have been a huge help especially wildrider, katimac9, tinhutlady, and so mnay other cheerleading me on.

Against Catharsis: Writing is Not Therapy

How to Fall in Love with the Writing Process: 6 Questions to Hone Your Creative Workflow


When Slow Writing Leads to Great Writing


APODS – Analysis: The Three Ps, Part Two by Amanda Cabot

8 Mundane Elements You Should Cut From Your Story

Five Setting Details With Horrifying Implications

How to Write a Travel Story

Ace and Aro Representation

Comments

[thenewbuzwuzz]

The copyright link: so important. I don't think a lot of people on Facebook or tumblr have even as much clue as the article author did before getting sued.

"and why I never do moodboards"
yeaah. I use Creative Commons images now, so the 'boards I've made starting last year are fine. The earlier ones are not.

Pinterest is an abomination as far as intellectual property goes.

[all_choseny]

Okay, so this article has me sweating! I don't do mood boards or a tumblr. But I do a lot of art for my fanfic and I've used music lyrics and ugh! There's a space in the back of my head that knew this information just out of common sense, but somehow this article really hit it home for me.

[edit: as I use an icon of a character lol]

[cornerofmadness]

Right? I've used snippets of music as quotes at the beginning of chapters (which might actually BE fair use) but I'm thinking I should have gone with my gut when I reposted Just Lost where Lindsey is singing for Lorne. There's too much of the song in there to qualify as fair use. I might go back and strip that out.

And right? I'm betting 75% of all icons on social media are of some fandom

[cornerofmadness]

No I'm sure a lot of people don't.

I thought it was interesting in that article that places like Creative Commons and others with free images can go under and to have whatever proof they give that you got the pictures there.

I started putting up all the old awards on my Buffy fic as I put up the stories on AO3. Maybe I shouldn't.

Yeah Pintrest is. They suddenly stopped emailing me. Might be a good thing (but mostly I just get gardening tips)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

I think I unsubscribed from Pinterest emails, like, 10 times before they finally left me alone. :D

[cornerofmadness]

I can believe that. I didn't unsubscribe but suddenly they did. I have others I unsubscribe from every week but there they are

Get Organized: The Art Of A Flow Board

[all_choseny]

I didn't even realize that I do this with the sticky notes on my laptop. I had no idea it had a name or anything lol.

Also, a little off topic but that smoke and ashes title triggered an old memory of mine. For some reason when I read that it reminded me of a book that I read when I was a little girl at my aunt's recommendation. I couldn't for the life of me remember the title, so I was on google looking for anything related and I finally found it. It was a series of books I read a million years ago. The first book was titled Ruby in the smoke and the second book in the series had a fire in it. It's so weird how that one line triggered such a vivid memory for me. Anyway, if you're curious about the series it was titled Ruby in the Smoke by Phillip Pullman. The series is the Sally Lockhart series. I know so off topic, but this rarely happens to me lol.

Re: Get Organized: The Art Of A Flow Board

[cornerofmadness]

There you go. You're working the flow board.

That's fine. It's interesting to see how memory works. For me the author of this book triggered mine which I'll write up next week. I've not read that Pullman series