The Twitter Hashtags Authors Need To Know

Most Creative Writers have a heavy online footprint. Not only do many of us have a blog, but we keep several social media accounts working in order to network with other writers, as well as agents, publishers, markets, and even readers. We use Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, GoodReads, RedRoom, and many others.

Twits can use what is called a Hashtag (#) to make it easier for certain folk to read their tweets. Hashtags are a way of grouping tweets into themes or subjects. Hashtags are always one word and are not case sensitive.

Also, people who are not your Followers can read your Tweets if they follow a certain Hashtag you use. It gets your name out there, and can even get you new Tweeps.

And while there as many available Hashtags as Johnson’s got pills, we are only going to consider how a Creative Writer can use Hashtags to his best advantage.

Hashtags for Writers

Certain Hashtags help you find other Authors. I will only mention a few, but there many more than what I am listing.

• #AmWriting – by far the most used by Creative Writers for other Authors
• #WW – Writer’s Wednesday, a good chat to follow
• #LitChat – chat on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
• #IndieAuthors – I like this one
• #WriteChat – a bit broader than the other two I mentioned

Hashtags for Business

There are plenty of Hashtags for those in the publishing industry. Here are a few common ones, although I have not used these much and cannot comment or recommend anything. As always, friends, do your own research.

• #GetPublished
• #Publishing
• #AskAgent
• #AskEditor
• #BookMarketing
• #PromoTips

Hashtags for Readers

This may be the boon for Creative Writers. You can find book fans here, the very people who may want to buy your book. The temptation would be to Tweet your book to all these Hashtags. The problem is that many bookies check out more than one of these Hashtags. So if they see your same Tweet with different Hashtags, you’ll look spammy, because you are. Also it’ll bore your Tweeps stupid. Follow these Hashtags before you select one, two at the most, to add to your Tweets to help you find readers. Even then, most of your Tweets to these Hashtags should be something other than hocking your wares, especially at first.

• #MustRead
• #LitChat
• #StoryFriday
• #FridayReads

Knowing the various social media shortcuts will keep your use of these from becoming a time suck. It’ll give you more time to read great books and write great ones.

These are just a few Hashtags. If there are some you like, tell me about it in the Comment section below.

What Made Daisy Faye Buchanan & Jay Gatsby So Attractive And Attracted To Each Other?

This material is available in my book, The Gatsby Reader. It is available on Amazon and Kindle.

One of the most cherished couples in all of American literature is Daisy Faye Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, the doomed lovers from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby. Of all the beautiful people one might read, they seem the most adorable.

Fitzgerald uses a powerful device to show what makes these people attractive and attracted to each other. Instead of describing many indelible aspects of each, he selects one thing to accentuate and makes that beyond spectacular. For daisy it is her voice, and for Gatsby it is his smile.

Gatsby’s Smile

There are fewer references to Gatsby’s smile than to Daisy’s voice, but those few are powerful. The first and last stands out. We first see the Gatsby grin when he meets Nick at one of the Summer Bacchanals. It was a smile of eternal reassurance, one that was for everyone before it focused on you and made you feel every good thing about yourself you ever wanted felt. I would like someone to smile at me like that.

The other took place as Nick leaves Gatsby, not knowing it was for the last time. He paid him the only compliment he ever offered, and Gatsby smiled. His smile said that they were always in agreement on the praise just pronounced.

Daisy’s Voice

Daisy had a voice that drew people in and held them spellbound. Notice just a few of its descriptions.

• Daisy’s murmur was only to make people lean toward her. Her voice is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.
• When she comes to Nick’s house for tea, he says her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.
• After she’s reunited with Gatsby, Nick says her voice told only of her unexpected joy.
• Gatsby himself comments that Daisy has an indiscreet voice that is full of money.
• During the reunion, Nick observes Gatsby is still drawn to her voice because it could never be over-dreamed.

Daisy’s existence had always been shallow. So when she meets a young soldier whose smile confirms all the good qualities she whishes she had, or even affirms all the positive characteristics she thinks she has, but never had them validated, it is clear why she would fall for that type.

Daisy’s voice was always full of hope and promises. For a young Gatsby trying to recreate himself into perfection, this voice bolsters his dreams. Each is sustained by the other and they pour themselves into the same mould every young couple in love tries to do. Their story ends in death and sadness, yet theirs is a timeless tale of passion that persists even when it seems there is no more reason.

Much more cold be said, and will be soon. I am working on a book about The Great Gatsby, particularly the narratorship of Nick Carraway. I’ll tell you more when I have more to tell. Now you can tell me more in the Comment section below. Also, let me know if you want to be added to my monthly newsletter – abbott.neal@yahoo.com.

Here are some more articles regarding The Great Gatsby you can find here on A Word Fitly Spoken:

• “Why The Great Gatsby Is The Best American Novel” (6.21.12)
• “The Reliability Of Nick Carraway: Part One – The Naysaying Narrator” (10.9.12)
• “The Reliability Of Nick Carraway: Part Two – The Drive To Lunch” (10.11.12)
• “Who Shot Jay Gatsby?” (3.4.13)

Truth is Beauty, Beauty Truth

John Keats wrote poetry the old fashioned way – he urned it.

Keats most famous poem, “Ode On A Grecian Urn,” contains what may be the most recognizable lines from any verse: “Truth is Beauty, Beauty Truth. That’s all you know on earth and all you need to know.”

My interpretation of this is that one arrives are truth and beauty the same way, and that is through the senses, and what is sensed is treated by our emotions, our cognition, and our volition.

Perfection

Like Leibniz, I believe that this is the best of all possible worlds. That does not mean that this world is flawless and nothing bad ever happens. I mean this world is perfect for what God intended for it to be, which involves everyone facing both blessings and obstacles.

Everything contributes to this perfection, which means everything contains within it the germ of perfection. Beauty is finding and acknowledging the perfection, excellence, or greatness of any thing. Following that, Pleasure is what comes from finding beauty in any thing.

How we know

Senses are flawed, not because we see things not there or hear things that are not sounds, but by physical limitations we sometimes do not sense things that exist. In other words, not all that is sensible is sensed. Also, emotions are flawed, because we can act wrongly when out emotions are out of control.

The rational is not itself flawed, but it is subject to fallibility. By their proper exercise, both the senses and our feelings can loose their fallibility. This exercise comes with joining them with the rational, which also elevates our thinking and keeps it from giving in to fallibility.

Pleasure

This exercise comes by acknowledging the germ of perfection in anything, finding beauty in it, and thus gaining pleasure from this acknowledgement.

This acknowledgement comes from perceiving a thing by the use of the senses, rationally considering it as beautiful, and emoting pleasure. This sharpens both the sense and the emotions so that they do not have to be flawed, and keeps our rational minds in top form.

Pleasure is enhanced by our finding beauty in things because it latently reminds us of our own perfection. The perfection, excellency, and greatness of man can never be determined by what we do or think we can accomplish, but only in noticing we are created by God as part of His “very good” Creation.

Man’s Art

The perception of beauty that leads to pleasure can be found in sensing the perfection in things created by God as well as things created by man. The world around us is God’s creation, and art is man’s creation.

Anything called art that stems from dystopia or dysteleology cannot contain perfection, cannot be perceived as beautiful, and cannot emote pleasure. If there is any art that any person find pleasing that is ontologically imperfect, that pleasure arises from a lack of spirituality and an abundance of selfishness.

This type of art cannot contribute any true Aesthetic. It cannot recall any innate or God-given perfection, so it cannot advance the senses, emotions, or rationale, and thus cannot help the soul. If anything, it retards its development.

Creativity

It requires Creativity to form any work of art. But from what we now know about the mind, the aesthete’s brain goes through the same creative process as the artist himself. From my own experience, I know this is true.

Also, we know that what the mind goes through in an artistic creativity it the same process that takes place with scientific discovery. The more we learn, the clearer it becomes that there truly is no distinction between art and science.

The Value of Fine Art

Art contributes to the determent of the individual and the advancement of society. I am an artist in that I am a writer. If there were no real value to literature, there would be no reason for it. It would be nothing more than a petty indulgence. Good writer should acknowledge what they do for their world, just as readers of good books should understand the worth of what they have.

I’d love to know your thoughts, so tell me in the Comment section below. Also, drop me a line of you are interested in subscribing to my monthly newsletter, which will contain updates on my work, as well as freebies and feedback.

Why Dogs Would Make The Best Novelists

“Everything you need to make a novel takes place at dog height.”         Garrison Keillor

We’ve all heard the bit about a roomful of monkeys at typewriters trying to replicate Shakespeare. The best they ever got was something that looked like “banana,” but that could have been an accident. And I wonder, why monkeys? Why not dogs? I would be much more interested in something written by a dog than some smelly monkey. In fact, I believe that dogs would make great novelists.

Dogs work hard

Dogs are some of the hardest working animals out there. They pull our sleds and rescue us from avalanches. They sniff out drugs and help us when we can’t see. Dogs work almost as hard as novelists. Yes, novel writing is indeed difficult. We sit at a keyboard and type – for hours a day, for months or sometimes years. And that gets us the first draft. Then we go through it again, pushing in and pulling out. I’ll say nothing of the work that goes into finding representation, publication, and notification. Novel writing is hard, and if anything out there could do it, it’ll be a dog.

Dogs come in many breeds

There are a variety of dogs, just as there are a variety of writing genre. Dogs and their breeds are perfect for the different kind of books you see at the bookstore. For example, I would have the German Shepherd write crime novels. Beagles would be great for kids books. Yellow Labs are the most popular breed, so I’d let them write Poplit. I can see Dalmatians writing action stories. And Border Collies can write the literary novels because they are so smart.

Dogs are playful

One thing you just have to admit about dogs, and that is they are playful. They are people pleasers if there ever were such a thing. But shouldn’t that also describe the novelist? Not that a writer should ever write just what they think someone else wants. But we need to be aware of the market, and keep that in mind as we write. Moreover, who are you writing for? Any novelist wants to be read and liked. It seems dogs are perfectly suited for this job, because they are the greatest people pleasers ever. Dogs simply make you feel good, just like a good book should.

Dogs are man’s best friend

From our time in caves and through the rise of civilization, in times of hunting, harvesting, or laboring, the dog has always been man’s best friend. If you love a dog, you live longer, it’s that simple. Dogs are God’s proof in Creation that we are loved and should show love. And as long as man could talk, he’s had something to say. And if it’s really worthwhile, he’ll write it down. In history, the story has also been man’s best friend. Books are valuable and serve a purpose. As with all of the arts, novelists help make the world a better place and contribute to the elevation of humanity. Novelists and dogs are both man’s best friend. In fact if I were a dog, I would want a writer to be my owner because we share so much in common.

If you have a thought, tell me about it in the Comment section below. Also, I am putting together a monthly newsletter. Eventually, I will have an automated signup on this page. But if you’re interested in signing up now, let me know at abbott.neal@yahoo.com. The newsletter will have updates on my writing with special offers for subscribers and it will be used for feedback. Drop me line now, because who signup before the launch of the newsletter get extra freebies.

My Interview With Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeauspeaks, writes and travels. He’s been to every country but six. His latest book is The $100 Startup http://www.amazon.com/Chris-Guillebeau/e/B003G218QO/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1345128663&sr=8-2-ent. His blog is called The Art of Non-Conformity http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/. I am thankful that he allowed me to interview him for you.

Tell us about your background.
I’m a writer, traveler, and entrepreneur. Before that I was a musician and I worked overseas for several years. 

How do you use the metaphor World Domination?

Pursuing big goals while making the world a better place for others at the same time. 

You also talk often of non-conformity. Does World Domination play a part in that?

Sure. Non-conformity as I define is largely about understanding motivations and questioning assumptions. 

You just finished your second World Domination Summit a few months ago. Will there be a WDS3?

Most definitely! July 5-7, 2013 in Portland. 

You travel more than Santa Claus. Tell us how this wanderlust started.

I like being on the move — relaxing stresses me out. It started about ten years ago when I was an aid worker in West Africa. 

Tell us three very interesting things about you that most of us will not know.

• My high-school principal had my stepmother’s number on speed-dial. 
• I’m diagnosed with ADD and see it as a strength instead of a weakness (at least most of the time). 
• I have coffee and pastry every day at 3pm. 

Thanks to Chris for such wonderful responses. If you have any comments or questions, leave them below. Also, I am near ready to have up and running a monthly newsletter. I will have a sign up on this site (it may be up by the time you read this).

Author’s BFF

In the age of text messages and all of the associated abbreviations, we have added to the American lexicon a new set of signifiers, such as LOL, OMG, and BRB. Almost all these terms are inane, but none so silly as BFF, which means Best Friends Forever. As Writers, we need to realize that we have our own BFF. The Author’s BFF is the reader.

Before Readers

There are two kinds of readers, which I call before and after. Before readers are those who read your work as you rewrite. I am not talking about friends and family. They will only tell you how good it is. Join a good writing group, or groups. If you are not a part of one, go online and look for one, or ask you local librarian or book store owner.

I feel most comfortable if between a dozen and twenty before readers have taken a look at my work. These readers are indispensable for all kinds of input. They will tell you what you cannot see. They will find spelling errors and grammatical snafus. More importantly, they will help with content.

Many Novelists cringe at the idea that they need help with the content of their book. But let’s face it, we’re not perfect. I will be making mistakes until I’m in a pine box. Before readers will tell you if a character is flat and the dialogue stiff. They can help with plot holes and issues of backstory and foreshadowing. Writers, get over yourselves and listen to them. The before readers in your writing group are you friends, even your BFF.

After Readers

Writers write so that they can be read. Duh. So when that novel hits the books store shelf, anyone who buys your book is your friend. If he becomes a fan, then he will look out for your next book. These after readers are your best friends, even your BFF.

While you may make an accidental fan such as this, most fans are made even before your book is published. This is where publicity and marketing come to play. The notion of book marketing used to make my eyes glaze. Now I am fascinated by the idea of creating my own fanbase.

This is not an article about how to market your book. Others have done that superbly. I highly recommend my friends Toni and Shannon, whom I compassionately call the Wondertwins, who run Duolit – http://selfpublishingteam.com/. But we need to wrap our minds around the fact that “If I write it, they will come” is a pipedream. We need to learn book marketing and practice it, or all the time we put into writing our novels is wasted. Our after readers who make our fanbase are our BFFs because if it were not for them, we would be failed novelists.

If you read this blog, then you are in my friends. Let me know what you think in the Comment section below.

A Different Kind Of Conflict/Resolution

It has been traditionally taught that the conflict in a story and its resolution stems from the hero wanting something and the villain stops him from having it. Through various trials, the hero finally overcome the villain and gets what he wanted all along.

There is a different kind of conflict/resolution scenario. Our hero wants something. Either he is able to get it, he can’t get it, or he is in the process of obtaining it. The rising action runs him through various obstacles so that he is forced to look at what he wanted in the beginning of the story. By the end, he wants something else, something better. And the course of the tale has made him a better person, so e is able to get what he now wants. This form has suited me well in my three novels, HEIRLOOM, DROVER, and PRINCE.

HEIRLOOM

Set in turn of the century Sicily, HEIRLOOM tells the story of Snodatu, who wants to defend the family honor. But in the name of this defense, he kills his uncle and his sister. He eventually learns how backward this is, and decides to rescue his brother-in-law from peril. The problem is, this brother-in-law has sworn vendetta against Snodatu for killing his wife, Snodatu’s sister. And still, he goes on simply because it is the right thing to do.

DROVER

I placed Ben Bourland in Weatherford, Texas during the 1850s for DROVER. A cattleman wants to come off the trail an settle down. For Ben, nothing could be better than a big ranch and a big family. A few head and a few acres is all he has. After he meets and courts Amanda Jones, he thinks everything in on its way. But calling on Amanda and getting to know her family forces his to deal with the selfishness in his life. So when he must choose between his dreams and the right thing to do, he selflessly gives up on his dreams for a greater good.

PRINCE

It’s a new millennium in LA, and Charlie loves Lizzie. She agrees to marry him. But within an hour, she will be coerced to marry Philip, Charlie’ father. Charlie is encouraged by his best friend to channel his passion for Lizzie into a concern for the suffering of others. Charlie finally decides to work to help those who lives are ruined by Philip’s business practices, and he does so knowing that Philip will try to kill him if he tries.

You can write with the traditional conflict/resolution where the villain stops the hero from getting what he wants, which he ultimately achieves in the end. Or you may try this alternate form. The hero changes inside, and so his desires change – are elevated even. I think it has worked for me.

Snodatu changes from wanting to defend the family’s honor to wanting to help family members in their troubles, even to his own peril. Ben starts out wanting a big ranch and a big family, but eventually he wants to be good person. And when these two desires clash and he must choose, he opts for what is right to the ruin of his hopes. Charlie is forced to deal with his love for Lizzie that he eventually turns into passion for those suffering, even if that passion draws the hatred of the one who cause the suffering.

Compose in the way that suits you. But learn what models and forms are available so that your writing can be its best. Do you have any ideas or opinions? Let me know about them in the Comment section below.

I want to thank all my friends for reading this blog, because you are my friends. I truly believe that. Remember, this is your blog, so any ideas you have, you let me know. Along those lines, I am working on getting a newsletter together. It’ll be used for feedback, as well as for getting out freebies and promotional items from my writing. There are a few things in the hopper now, so you’ll want to get on the newsletter for all the info.

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Top Ten List: Neal’s Favorite First Lines

Blogs should be informative and encouraging, but also they should entertain. Today’s post is just for fun, and maybe it it’ll get you to think, too. In the style of David Letterman, I’ve decided to post blogs every now and then that are my own literary Top Ten List. 

We begin with first lines from novels. No “Call me Ishmael” or “It was the best of times” here. Also, these are not the Top Ten openers from my favorite novels. Simply put, these are nothing but my favorite first lines. I fought the urge to include my own stuff. Maybe someday.

Keep in mind that this is my opinion and nothing more. Do you want to disagree? Fine, let me know how your favorites are different. So, if there is nothing else we need to do, drum roll, please.

Neal’s Favorite Novel Openers

10.     “I am a sick man.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes From The Underground

9.       “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

8.          “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Stubb, and he almost deserved it.” C.S. Lewis’ The Dawn Treader

7.       “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days without taking a fish.” Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man And The Sea

6.       “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed into a gigantic insect.” Fran Kafka’s Metamorphosis

5.       “Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin” A.A. Milne’s Winnie The Pooh

4.       “Once upon a time and a very good time it was there as a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo.” James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man

3.          “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

2.       “On they went, singing ‘Eternal Memory’ and whenever they stopped, the sound of their feet, the horses, and the gusts of wind seemed to carry on their singing.” Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago

And my number one favorite first line,

1.        “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people of the world have not had the advantages that you’ve had’.” Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

So what would you do differently? Or better yet, do you have your own Top Ten List of opening lines?  I’d like to see it. Let me know in the Comment section below.