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Kristen Lamb's Blog
Posts Tagged We Are Not alone
Point of View—What IS It? How to Find the Perfect Voice for YOUR Story
Posted by Author Kristen Lamb in Writing Tips on November 6, 2014
Monday, we talked about the Three Acts of a Writer's Journey. The first hint we might be tipping into The Apprentice Phase is we hear the word P.O.V. and panic. What is THAT? Prisoners of Vietnam? Pets of Vegans? Pals of Viagra?
We ALL know writing a novel is FAR from easy. We just make it look that way ;) .
Today, I'm putting on my editor's hat. Many of you decided to become writers because you love to write. Duh. I'll even bet most of you, back when you were in school, also made very good grades in English. Thus, you might assume that you naturally know how to write a novel that is fit for successful publication.
Maybe you do. But, if you are anything like me when I started out? You might not know as much as you think you do.
Our high school English teacher didn't care that we used 15 metaphors on one page. Why? Her goal was to teach us how to properly use a metaphor…NOT to prepare us for a career in commercial fiction. Same with college.
The single largest mistake I see in new manuscripts is the author does not understand P.O.V. and often this is why agents and people like me only need a page or two to know the manuscript/writer isn't ready to publish.
This is an easy mistake to make, in that, as I stated earlier, formal education classes aren't neccessarily there to teach us how to be great novelists. Some writers pick up on P.O.V. intuitively, but most of us need to be taught, lest we leave the reader feeling as if she is being held hostage on Hell's Tilt-A-Whirl.
P.O.V. Prostitution (A.K.A. Head-Hopping)
Let's step back in time to the days before we all made the decision to become writers. I would guess (hope) all of us were readers. We loved books, and books were a large part of what prompted our career choice. Ask yourself the following questions:
Have you ever tried to read a book, but eventually had to put it down because it was too confusing? You couldn't figure out who was doing what, and you needed Dramamine to keep up with the perspectives?
Have you ever read a story that was so good you actually felt as if you had taken on the character's skin? His success was yours, as was his failure. By the final page, you were sad to say good-bye?
P.O.V. used properly can create entire worlds, and breathe life into characters. Used improperly, it can make your reader feel like she's been bungee-corded to Satan's Merry-Go-Round—not good.
First, we have to know what P.O.V. is if we hope to use it to our advantage.
P.O.V. stands for Point of View.
Although this literary device is one of the most vital tools an author possesses, it is probably the number one style problem I encounter as an editor. I cannot count how many new writers (and, sadly, some not-so-new writers) give me a blank stare when I write P.O.V. in big red letters all over their manuscripts (and H.H., but we'll get to that later).
The best way to describe point of view is to think of your story as viewed through the lens of the video camera. How many people (characters) are going to be permitted to hold that camera?
Is your camera going to travel with one main character through the entire story? Or, do others get a turn? Is "God" holding the camera? These are simple questions you can answer to help you select the point of view perfect for your story.
There is no wrong P.O.V., but we do have to be consistent. P.O.V. is a HUGE factor in determining our writing voice.
What are the types of P.O.V.? What are their inherent weaknesses and strengths? For the record, this is HIGHLY redacted for the sake of time.
A quick overview:
First-Person P.O.V—uses "I" a lot. Only one character (the narrator) has the camera.
There are three disadvantages to this P.O.V.
1. This P.O.V uses a lot of "I" which can become repetitive to the point of distraction.
2. The reader can only see and hear what the narrator knows. This limits the flow of information. Probably good for a mystery, but if you aren't writing a mystery this may not be the right P.O.V for you.
3. First-Person P.O.V is a bugger when it comes to tense. Why? Because First-Person breaks into two camps.
There is the I Remember When camp and the Come Along with Me camp.
One is in past tense, a recollection. "I remember the day my father and I were attacked by a pack of Mary Kay ladies gone feral…."
The other is in present tense, and the reader is along for the ride. "I walk these streets every morning, but today I am just waiting for something to go wrong…."
Note of Caution: It is extremely easy to mix the two camps together. Tense can be problematic…okay, a nightmare.
The benefit of First-Person? First-person P.O.V. adds an intimacy that no other P.O.V. can, and is useful for stories where we might want to withhold information from the reader.
Third-Person P.O.V—is when you, the writer, permit one or more of the characters to lug the camera through your story.
Third Person Locked allows only one character access to the camera. The entire story is told through what that particular character can experience through the 5 Senses. So, if your character's eyes are "shining with love," then she'd best be holding a mirror, or you are guilty of head-hopping.
Third Person Shifting allows more than one character access to the camera. Here's the rub. Your characters must to play nice and take turns. Only one character with the camera at a time. When the next character wants a turn, there has to be a clear cut.
Think of the director's clapboard ending one scene before shifting to the next. It is usually a good idea to limit one P.O.V. per scene. When we switch perspectives inside the same scene, that is called head-hopping, and it will confuse and frustrate our readers.
There are advantages to Third-Person Shifting:
1. It can add additional depth and insight to your story.
2. It can allow you (the writer) to hold back information and add to suspense.
3. Third-Person Shifting can allow other characters to take over during emotionally volatile points in the story.
For instance, if your protagonist walks in on her brother lying dead in a pool of blood, the emotions experienced are realistically too overwhelming to be properly articulated by your protagonist. In this scenario, First-Person P.O.V might not be the best fit. The scene might be more powerful if told from someone watching this protagonist react to discovering a deceased loved one.
Ah, but there are also inherent problems with Third-Person Shifting.
1. Your characters must play nice and take turns. Otherwise, your reader will likely become confused and eventually frustrated.
2. It is best to permit camera access to key characters only. The reader has to stay in one head long enough to feel connected. Too many perspectives can easily become overwhelming and dilute the strength of your characters.
Omniscient P.O.V is when "God" gets to hold the camera.
This P.O.V is like placing your camera up high over all of the action. The narrator is omnipresent and omniscient. "If Joe had only known who was waiting for him outside, he would have never left for that pack of cigarettes."
Joe cannot experience anything beyond the 5 Senses (third-person). So, unless Joe is actually Superman and possesses X-Ray vision, it takes an omniscient presence to tell us someone bad is lurking outside waiting to do Joe harm.
There are advantages to Omniscient P.O.V.
1. Omniscient can relay information that would be far too overwhelming to describe if limited to the 5 Senses. Epic battle scenes are a good example.
2. Omniscient can give information critical to the story that the character doesn't have to personally know. For instance, in NYTBSA Bob Mayer's Area 51 Series (which I HIGHLY recommend), he relays a lot of factual and historical information that is critical to understanding the plot. But, it would really seem bizarre to the reader if his characters just started spouting off the history of the pyramids like an Egyptologist.
To avoid this jarring scenario, Bob used an omniscient presence to relay the information so the prose would remain remain nice and smooth and the fictive dream could stay in tact.
There are disadvantages to Omniscient P.O.V.
1. Third-Person P.O.V. and Omniscient P.O.V. are VERY easy to tangle together.
2. Omniscient P.O.V. and Head-Hopping are not the same, but are easy to confuse. I've edited many writers who believed they were employing Omniscient P.O.V. In reality, they were just letting every character in the book fight over the camera simultaneously, leaving me (the editor) feeling like I was trapped in the Blair Witch Project.
Proper use of P.O.V. takes a lot of practice to master. It is very easy to shift from one type of P.O.V. to another, or what I like to call "P.O.V. Prostitution" or "Head-Hopping."
Key Points to Remember:
In First-Person—Come Along with Me stories can easily turn into I Remember When stories (or vice versa). Tense is a big red flag. Do you shift from present to past or past to present? Pay close attention to verbs.
In Third-Person (Locked & Shifting)—Characters will only play nice and take turns if you, the writer, force them to. Make sure whatever is happening in a scene is something that could be filtered through ONE character's 5 Senses.
In Third-Person (Locked & Shifting) —"God" is really bad about grabbing your character's camera, so keep an eye on Him. If there is suddenly information your character has no way of knowing through the 5 Senses, that is a big clue the Big Guy snagged your camera. Just remind Him nicely of commandment number eight, and ask Him to give the camera back.
In Omniscient—"God" is in charge. Be careful your wide-lens isn't zooming in and out and making your reader dizzy in the process.
P.O.V. is one more reason it is critical for writers to read if they hope to become great authors. Read, read, read. Read all kinds of books by all kinds of authors using different P.O.V.s to see how it is done well.
Suzanne Collins brilliantly employs First-Person in the Come Along with Me fashion in her Hunger Games Trilogy. Her choice of P.O.V. gives an intimate feel no other P.O.V. can, and, since it isn't an I Remember When story, Collins is able to maintain reader suspense.
Stephen King does a great job of using first-person in an I Remember When style in The Green Mile. King chose this P.O.V. for a very specific reason, which I will not say so as not to spoil the ending even though y'all have had like, TWENTY YEARS to read it.
Dennis Lehane does an amazing job of employing omniscient in Mystic River. If you think you might want to use omniscient, I'd recommend reading him.
James Rollins uses third-person shifting very well in The Doomsday Key. Third-shifting is generally a great P.O.V. for thrillers in that it helps manage/reveal a lot of information that the protag may or may not know.
I would recommend Jonathan Maberry's Patient Zero: Joe Ledger Series. I HIGHLY recommend Iron River by T. Jefferson Parker. Both these authors mixed third-limited and first-person and the effect is impressive.
P.O.V. when used properly can take a story to a whole new level. Read, experiment and practice. I know I just touched on a handful of suggestions, so feel free to add your thoughts, expound, ask questions.
I LOVE hearing from you!
To prove it and show my love, for the month of NOVEMBER, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).
For those who need help building a platform and keeping it SIMPLE, pick up a copy of my latest social media/branding book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World on AMAZON, iBooks, or Nook.
first person, how to use POV, Hunger Games and first-person, Kristen Lamb, literary devices POV, omniscient perspective, point of view, POV, Rise of the Machines Human Authors in a Digital World, third person, third person fixed, third person shifting, W.A.N.A., We Are Not alone
Writing Spies: Five Dos and Don'ts
Posted by Author Kristen Lamb in Writing Tips on October 31, 2014
Piper is back to guest post once more. I'm scrambling to catch up after being flattened from travel/work. Le sigh. Also have to get my NaNo tools together. Coffee, candy, energy drinks, stun gun, duct tape. So enjoy your Halloween. It's kind of like New Year's Eve of the Writing World. Party hard and have your fun because tomorrow….
Anyway, if you happen to be working on an action or thriller or some book involving those of the intelligence community, this post will help tremendously. Great writers ALWAYS do their homework. No one cares about our glorious prose if we goof something that five minutes on Google would have answered. But for the stuff maybe Google CAN'T answer? We have Bayard and Holmes…
By Piper Bayard
Spy thrillers are a staple of genre fiction, and a good "Bond" never goes out of style. However, a bad "Bond" can have those in the know throwing your book out the window of an Aston Martin faster than you can shake your martini. My name is Bayard. Piper Bayard. And my best friend and writing partner, Jay Holmes, is a 40-year veteran covert operative. I'm here today to help you write books that stay inside the sports cars.
1. DON'T let your covert operative announce her identity, or that she is a covert operative.
Cover operatives are . . . wait for it . . . covert. Unlike James Bond, covert operatives don't reveal their identities, and especially not while on missions. Even decades after they are out of deep cover, they keep their work to themselves. That's because when they are revealed, former assets and current loved ones alike can become targets.
That also means that, when a celebrity author shows up in an "I'm a Spook" T-shirt flaunting a "covert" career, it's a dead giveaway that though she may have done some great and necessary work with an intelligence agency, she has never been a covert operative in the field. Covert operatives must forever keep a Chinese wall around their true identities.
2. DON'T call your spooks "spies."
Yeah, I know. Then what's with the title of this article? I hadn't gotten to tell you that "spies" are actually "spooks" yet. I didn't want to confuse you on that point before you got this far.
Holmes and his ilk are "spooks," not spies. As Holmes says, "Spying is seamy. It's what the Russians do."
Spooks refer to each other lightheartedly as "spooks." That's also what military personnel call them when military and intelligence operations overlap. For example, if an intelligence team is working in a secured area of a ship, the crew refers to them as "the spooks."
There is no official Dictionary of Spook Terminology, but the proper terms for spooks are "intelligence operatives" and "intelligence agents." By habit, "operative" is used by CIA personnel when they are talking among themselves or reviewing an operation, and "agent" refers to someone – usually a foreigner – who is collecting information in a foreign country. Intelligence personnel are the "operatives" who are managing the foreign "agents."
3. DO put on your spook's seatbelt.
Car chases happen, but they don't happen without seat belts. Every now and then, a spook might have to drive the wrong way up a one-way street or wheel down the Spanish Steps. *cough, cough, Holmes, cough, cough* But when he does, he wears his seatbelt. Religiously. "Because you can't finish the mission if you're dead."
4. DON'T let your spook duck into a doorway to spy on her target.
That's a good way for a real spook to get dead.
One of the first things spooks must learn about following people is to not be followed themselves. It's common for bad guys to have their own people tailing them to pick up any newcomers, so spooks can't only focus on who's in front of them. They have to be acutely aware of who is behind them, too. If they duck into doorways and peek around the edges, they are making it obvious to anyone behind them that they are watching someone.
That means that if a spook wants to watch someone from a doorway, she has to take her eyes off the target, go all the way inside a building, and only turn around once she's out of sight of the street. Then she can come back out and stop in the doorway under some other pretense than watching someone. It also gives her the chance to handle the bad guy's trailing entourage.
5. DON'T let your spook order room service.
How many times has Bond ordered room service? And how has that worked out for him? You'd think he would have learned after Rosa Klebb's stunt in From Russia with Love that this is a seriously bad idea. Even the spooks in the otherwise realistic movie Act of Valor ordered take out and paid the price.
This isn't only because of the opportunity for an enemy to poison them, it's also because it's generally bad juju for spooks to invite strangers into their space when they are on missions. In fact, Holmes won't even have a pizza delivered to his house. The only food he actually enjoys is his own, his wife's, or mine if it includes chocolate, and only then if he is eating at home or at the home of a trusted friend.
These are only a few of the most common blunders that Holmes and I see in movies and books. If you'd like to learn more about writing spooks, keep an eye out for Truth & Fiction posts at Bayard & Holmes.
Do you have any questions? I will answer some here in the Comments section and some on posts over at Bayard & Holmes.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
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Click HERE for details.We have some wonderful prizes for readers to celebrate the release of our debut novella, THE SPY BRIDE, in the RISKY BRIDES Bestsellers' Collection. Sign up for the Bayard & Holmes Newsletter and be automatically entered to win a Secret Decoder Ring, a stash of Ghirardelli chocolate, or a bottle of sparkling wine from Mumm Napa vineyard.
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Piper Bayard is a bestselling author and a recovering attorney. Her spy thriller writing partner, Jay Holmes, is an anonymous senior member of the intelligence community and a field veteran from the Cold War through the current Global War on Terror.
You can contact Bayard & Holmes in comments below, at their site, Bayard & Holmes, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Bayard & Holmes, or at their email, firstname.lastname@example.com.
Act of Valor, Bayard and Holmes, James Bond, Kristen Lamb, Piper Bayard, Risky Brides, spies versus spooks, We Are Not alone, writing about spies, writing spy thriller fiction
NaNoWriMo, Gone Girl & Confessions of a Recovering Jerk
Posted by Author Kristen Lamb in Writing Tips on October 27, 2014
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is days away. I'm loading up on fiction to feed my brain and imagination. I listened to the unabridged version of Gone Girl. Why? Because I kept hearing the same thing over and over for almost a YEAR.
These people are just SO horrible and yet? You can't stop yourself.
Regular people. READERS told me this. NOT other writers.
***Bizarrely, I have found there can often be a BIG difference between what we loathe and what readers LOVE, which is why we must continue to write for readers, not other writers.
The READERS were right. And regardless of one's opinion about the book, I will say it was masterful in that we could see the best and the worst of ourselves reflected back through the characters. The control, self-righteousness, cowardice, love, disappointment, manipulation, etc. (Btw, no spoiler alerts in this post).
Some people love candy-coated fiction. I love the dark stuff. The go-for-the-guts writing that puts the worst of us on display. Because if it isn't out? We can't change what we can't see.
Meet, Kristen Lamb…The JERK
I'm one of the most blessed people on the planet. Truly. I'm not a millionaire and may never be, but I'm infinitely rich. I wouldn't trade the wonderful people I know personally and on-line for anything. This is a tough post to write because it's vulnerable.
I have a confession. I am a Recovered (Recovering?) Jerk. It would be nice to lie to you and tell you I never have my moments, but I do. Thankfully, they are far rarer than they used to be. Today, I'd like to talk about some of my Jerk Reformation. It could be a BOOK…okay a SERIES of books, but we'll touch on the highlights.
And I realize all of you are kind and sweet and don't need this for you, but maybe it can help with someone you know ;) . Or maybe make your NaNoWriMo characters a bit richer. People loooove reading about screwed up people.
It's like my fascination with horror movies. When I have a REALLY BAD KICK YOU IN THE TEETH DAY? Nothing perks me up like a good scary movie.
Because at least I am not (to my knowledge) possessed by demons….
Same with reading. Well, yeah, I'm totally screwed up, but not THAT screwed up.
I used to be highly critical of everyone and everything, including myself. The last part was likely what others never saw. I led those around me to believe they never measured up, but the truth was, I never measured up. I came from a highly dysfunctional and chaotic home. I knew nothing of peace. I only knew
love control. Granted, in my mind I was helping. Yet, I've learned over the years that people need acceptance more than "help."
I was a fraud.
On the outside my clothes were perfect, my hair perfect, my house perfect, but truth was? I was falling apart. I felt that showing any weakness was bad, that it made me a failure. This made me prideful and afraid to ask for help. Others didn't see I needed help because, "Well, Kristen is 'perfect'" *rolls eyes* Granted, others probably sensed I was a mess so my "perfect" facade simply generated more resentment.
People aren't fond of phonies. Imagine that?
Life popped me on the snoot and opened my eyes to my character (or lack thereof); my poor attitude, my judgmental ways and my impossible (and stupid) standards. I couldn't give away what I didn't have. I had no grace for myself, so how could I give that to others?
I was white-knuckled-terrified of failure, of not knowing ALL the answers or being *gasp* WRONG. Every quiet moment was a deafening montage in my mind of how I sucked, how I'd screwed up, how I should've could've would've….
I refused to cry, to let others know I was a mess. I bottled it up—the fear, the disappointment, the feelings of inadequacy.
What I've come to understand is that failure is the tuition we pay for success. Failure is vital. Failure is an event, not a state of being. Failure is to be celebrated, because it means we're being brave. We're trying. We're daring to do something remarkable. As I began to give myself permission to fall on my face and laugh it off, I realized I needed to do that with others.
We don't need critics who point out we fell and draw a diagram of our stupidity and how "they would have done it better." Likely they wouldn't have done it any better and even if they did? Who cares? What we need is a hand helping us up, patting us on the back and then high-fiving us for daring to TRY.
An ugly stepchild of perfectionism is pride. As I mentioned earlier I was prideful. I knew better, did it better and life was all a competition because 2nd place was the first loser.
Dumb, dumb, dumbditty-dumb-dumb.
Yes, I know. I had something to prove but was too foolish to realize there is nothing in life TO PROVE. Good people don't judge us by our resume or our lists of accomplishments or rows of trophies. GOOD people won't remember our designer handbag, our perfect house, our fancy car. They will remember and respond to how we made them feel when they were in our company.
I worked a job for years that I loathed because the pay was good and the title "impressive." But, I longed to write. Oh, but writing meant I might have to shop at Walmart or thrift stores instead of fancy boutiques. I might have to drive an old car and clip coupons. THE HORROR! What would others THINK?
Probably nothing, LOL.
The funny thing was all those people who were my friends when I could pick up the tab or take them shopping vanished when the money ran out. I learned the hard way that real friends aren't for sale ;) . In the past few years? I have family members who've vanished. Family I believed LOVED me.
They did…until I outlived my usefulness.
Pride created other problems. Because I was too afraid to admit I wasn't the All-Knowing-Oracle-Perfect-At-All-Things, I was an unteachable @$$. This left me to relying on luck and resenting others who were successful. Tearing others down to make myself feel better.
Oh, sure, SHE'S a successful writer. If I had a more supportive family, a better computer, a magic pad of FLOWER POST-ITS I could be there too. WHAAAAAHH!
Stupid, I know.
But when I let down my guard and began to admit that perhaps-maybe-kinda-sorta that I didn't precisely-specifically-exactly KNOW EVERYTHING I began to grow. I could take advice and even *gasp* criticism. I could separate my work from ME. Mentors, critique partners, etc. were pointing out problems in a story or a situation, not ME. Wow! Who knew?
These were baby steps to learning that my work could be flawed and I'd live and even improve. The next step? I could be flawed in my character, behavior, or attitudes and would live to tell the tale! I might even…improve.
Whoud'a thunk?
Boundaries, Anger, Forgiveness
For a long time I suffered with an anger problem. I'd love to lie to you guys and tell you I'm perfect and totally cured but I hear thunder rumbling outside and don't want to push my luck :D . When I grew to a point that I could accept increasing layers of critique/criticism with my writing, I was more open to others pointing out my personal flaws.
I was a people-pleaser and said yes to everything. Then I'd get overloaded, stressed, angry and lash out. I'm still working on not overextending. Shingles will show you painfully your own limitations.
I love to help. I DO. If I meet you at a conference and hug you and tell you that you will change the world and that I BELIEVE IN YOU or that I really DO care about you? It isn't an act at all.
An energy drain, yes. But optimism as a superpower? I'll roll with that.
Ugly truth? I used to say all the same things I do now, only I said them solely so you would "like" me. Not because I believed in you. I didn't believe in me. How could I believe in you, too?
Optimism is a great character trait, but it needs balance. One of the reasons I'd lash out in anger is I was realllllly bad at putting down boundaries, communicating them and sticking to them in a loving way. I'd back up and back up and back up and say, "Oh, it's okay" when it wasn't.
Then BOOM!
What I've learned is that boundaries are part of all healthy relationships. I heard this metaphor and love it. Your life, MY life is like a beautiful garden (which likely needs a lot of weeding but that's another post). Frequently we buy into the lie that fences are bad. People should be free to come in and out of our lives. This is true, which is why all good fences have a GATE. You will NEED this gate more than ever when you decide to become a writer. You might need RAZOR WIRE on that gate for NaNo.
Writing isn't a hobby or a fun cute thing we do. It is WORK. HARD FREAKING WORK and others will not respect that unless we draw a line.
Everything we've discussed so far might be useful for you on a personal level. Maybe you aren't as messed up as I was (am?). Chances are though, if you're a writer, fiction is cheaper than therapy. The interesting thing about Gone Girl is it viscerally showed me how we could root for utterly unlikeable people.
The difference between a selfish, insecure jerk who is a horrible person versus a pure sociopath is that, eventually, the terrible-no-good-awful person realizes they are a terrible-no-good-awful-person. Maybe they try to change. Maybe they don't. Maybe they do the right thing. Maybe they don't. But the linchpin difference is their eyes are opened to the reality of who they truly are.
The same applied to ME. The perfectionism, pride, back-biting, resentment, jealousy, anger, false pretenses were fuel that kept me in the destructive cycle of being a jerk. Unlike some fictional characters, I chose to change.
My disaster of a life showed me that I needed to learn to love others where they are. Love myself where I am. Perfection is a lie. Pride is a poison. I had to forgive myself if I ever hoped to forgive others.
We Are All Works in Progress
We all have good days, bad days and days we wish we could erase completely. Most people are not sitting up all night thinking of ways to make others miserable (Some do, so don't let them through that gate until they knock it off). We screw up and always will.
But the good news is we can learn, grow and become better (so can our characters). We can discipline ourselves to look for the good in ourselves and others, because it takes no great talent to be critical. And the beautiful thing is when we learn to give ourselves permission to be imperfect, we get better at extending that grace to others. As we become more dimensional, so does our writing.
If we only want to be around "perfect" people, life will get really lonely. Also, good fence-building is a skill that takes time.
I love this blog and adore all of you. Honestly. I love how you guys talk about your struggles and lift one another up. I'm inspired by your generosity, your honesty, your newness, your authenticity, your brokenness, your flaws, your weakness, your strengths and all of it makes me better every day. I might still be a jerk without you :D .
What are your thoughts? Shocked I am a Recovering Jerk? Hey, we jerks need friends too. Do you struggle with perfectionism? Do you find yourself holding others to super high standards because you do it to yourself? Are you afraid of being you? Afraid if people knew your house was loaded with laundry they might not like you?
Do you deal with family who tramples through your heart and home? Are you learning about how to put up good fences too? Are you afraid if you cry you might never stop? Are you a Recovering Jerk too? What did you learn?
Are you afraid to write the awful character? Do you find yourself candy-coating? And share your thoughts on Gone Girl, just try not to spoil it for those who might want to still read it. I could write a BOOK about my opinions.
I LOVE hearing from you!
To prove it and show my love, for the month of OCTOBER, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).
September's Winner: Taylor Grace. Please send your 20 pages (10,000 word WORD doc to kristen at wan a intl dot com). You an also choose to instead send a one page query or synopsis. Congratulations!
For those who need help building a platform and keeping it SIMPLE, pick up a copy of my latest social media/branding book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World on AMAZON, iBooks, or Nook.
creating dimensional characters, Gone Girl, Gone Girl and writing, Kristen Lamb, Nano, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, personal growth, Rise of the Machines Human Authors in a Digital World, WANA, We Are Not alone
8 Elements to NAILING Your Plot & Owning NaNo
Posted by Author Kristen Lamb in Writing Tips on October 15, 2014
I promised not to leave you guys hanging with my last post. Now that I have a lot of you beating your shields ready for NaNo, I'm going to give you battle tactics to come out victorious (or maybe at least alive).
Sure, NaNo is great to just learn to turn off the Inner Editor and get those 50,000 words DOWN. But, if in the end, all we have is a gelatinous ooze that eats people and attacks the city? They call in the National Guard to take out our WIP, because no revision can tame it.
What to do? This post is incredibly redacted, but it's a blog. So roll with it ;) .
These tips will work for any novel, but they are SUPER important in NaNo, lest we write ourselves into the Corner of NO Escape by November 10th. These tips will ward off plot bunnies, keep the muse cooking, and hopefully help you finish.
Last I checked, finished books sell the best.
Active Goals
A lot of time when I'm called in to repair critically injured plots, the main problem is…well, the problem. It's passive. If your story involves "protecting" something, "escaping" something, "avoiding" something? Not going to work.
Think of it this way. I want to write a story about protecting the princess or the world will be robbed of all glitter and chocolate and all the people will be super sad. Oh-kay. What's the plot? Stick her in a giant human-sized hamster ball and make sure it's heavily guarded? Guarding is not ACTIVE.
A teenage boy inherits the power to time-travel but he will rip the space-time continuum if he does. He must never learn he can time-travel or use his powers.
Again, oh-kay. So does the book involve distracting him with video games for 65,000 words?
I call this The Containing Communism Conundrum. Didn't work in the Cold War, likely will be equally ineffective/frustrating in a novel.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I will get a bunch of comments with, "But Such-and-Such did this and it was a TOTAL HIT in 1875." Have fun storming the castle. I won't stop you.
I will, however, wager that the stories one might be tempted to cite, really DO have an active goal.
Core Story PROBLEM
Novels are simple. Solving a PROBLEM. Why do we dig reading novels? Because of life. Life is just one problem after another and it never ends…EVER. Don't believe me? Come check out my laundry room or peek at your e-mail. We like it when characters go up against something seemingly insurmountable and WIN. It FINISHES.
Maybe it takes 20 books to finish, but it does eventually END. As a caveat, within the series, the problem of that
episode book will be SOLVED.
Lately we've been watching the series Grimm. And yes, I'm slow to series namely because I like to binge and also, if I watch something in the first season and LIKE it? Surefire way to kill it. Still sorry about Firefly.
Anyway, for those who've not watched Grimm, it's a take off the old Grimm's Fairy Tails and the Grimms are humans with special abilities to spot and stop the beasties living among humans and causing problems. Granted, there is a BIG problem involving seven keys and world domination, but this is obviously not solved in ONE episode.
Now, the werewolf that robs the convenience store in the opening scene? He's apprehended or killed by the end of 50 minutes.
ACTIVE: Wow, who/what ate the poor QT clerk and took all the Snicker's bars and stole the Slurpee machine? This person/thing needs to be stopped.
Interesting Problem
What will happen if your protagonist fails? The bigger the stakes the better the story. These can be outward or inward stakes but there must be stakes. Oh, and inward stakes need an outward manifestation. They also need to be BIG or…who cares?
For the literary folks, I like to cite The Road. Man and Boy have an ACTIVE goal. Reach the ocean. No idea what's there, but seems like a good idea. Here's the kicker. Humans somehow did something that killed every living thing on the planet, except people (and I'm really ticked McCarthy never divulged what that was). Thus, humans have devolved to cannibalism.
The point of the book is less about making it to the ocean and more HOW they make it. If they stop to snack on some fellow travelers? They fail. The stakes are Would you die (stave to death) to protect what it truly means to be human, OR would you resort to the animal state?
Perfect characters are boring. Good story problems force the protagonist to do what he or she would NEVER have done in a GAZILLION years had the problem never surfaced. The inciting incident rattles the character's cage and the first turning point is when the protagonist steps out of the comfort zone. The comfort zone is also a coping mechanism that has worked great up until said story problem.
For instance, in The Labyrinth Sarah is doing just peachy hiding in her room with her toys and costumes and refusing to grow up. It's easier to resent her parents and baby brother. She calls on the Goblin King to take the baby away and WHOA! He shows up, takes the a baby and offers her all her dreams.
And any preteen girl who saw this movie took another 20 years to figure out why she didn't take the deal.
But, since that would have made for a seriously short movie, Sarah has to go face the Labyrinth lest she be grounded FOREVER for selling little bro to the Goblin King. She must leave the safety of her carefully constructed world and see her flaws. Life isn't fair and love is about sacrifice, not control.
Blind Spot
Every strength has a counterpoint. The very thing that makes ANY character good at what he or she does is also the Achilles Heel. Most characters are not evolved enough to know what their blind spot is and that's okay because that would make them boring. Heck, it takes years of expensive therapy for most of us to pony up to what we always knew our biggest problem was/is.
I HIGHLY recommend the Positive and Negative Trait Thesauri for help. If a character is funny and charismatic, they can also be flaky and undependable. Show me a great leader and I'll show you a control freak. Give me a loyal person, I'll show you a sucker. Scarlett might have been a spoiled brat and a pit-bull, but she had what it took to keep it together when $#@! got REAL.
The plot serves to help the character see, then face, then overcome the blind spot/weakness and harness the counterpoint (the strength).
RESIST THE URGE TO EXPLAIN. You may need to know why such-and-such is a certain way as WRITER-GOD, but that might not be good for the story and the reader. Keep secrets. Reveal slowly. Ever been on a date with someone who told you every intimate detail of their lives and the waitress had yet to bring the Bloomin' Onion? Don't be THAT
date writer.
The Force was better before it was EXPLAINED. Metachlorians?
Secrets drive great fiction, and for more on that, check out this post on being a great secret-keeper so that THIS post isn't uber-long.
Books must eventually end or they are called Days of Our Lives. Is Stephano still around?
When we create an ACTIVE goal for our character(s), our ending should be far clearer. I'm not a plotter. More of a plotser (I know my main story points and riff from there). But, though I don't do outlines, I will tell you that it seriously helps to at least have an idea where you're going.
In The Labyrinth we KNOW the ending. Sarah solves the Labyrinth and has baby bro home before she's hauled away by police yelling, "The
dingo Goblin King got the baby!"
The Death Star is blowed up. The Ring of Power is melted. Buffalo Bill is stopped from making more human-skin-lady-suits and senator's daughter rescued (and has to have even MORE therapy about being a size 14). The Deadites have to be defeated, the portal closed, curse broken, disease cured, wedding stopped, Voldemort destroyed, Amway stopped, etc. etc.
These are the broad strokes that should help tremendously. They're simple, but NOT easy. Despite what others may very mistakenly believe, writing a novel is HARD. Most people cannot do it. And just remember that the same folks who are telling you writing books is "easy" are the same people who were willing to pay you a hundred bucks to write a 500 word paper for them in college ;) .
What are your thoughts? Do these tips help? Make you want to go run in traffic? Have you skipped one or all of these steps and ended up with a plot so complicated you didn't even understand it? Hey, I've been there.
I LOVE hearing from you!
To prove it and show my love, for the month of OCTOBER, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).
September's Winner: Taylor Grace. Please send your 20 pages (10,000 word WORD doc to kristen at wan a intl dot com). You an also choose to instead send a one page query or synopsis. Congratulations!
For those who need help building a platform and keeping it SIMPLE, pick up a copy of my latest social media/branding book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World on AMAZON, iBooks, or Nook.
becoming a professional author, how to finish NaNoWriMo, how to plot a novel, Kristen Lamb, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, Rise of the Machines Human Authors in a Digital World, WANA, We Are Not alone, writing tips
This Month, We Write IN HELL—To NaNo or Not to NaNo
Posted by Author Kristen Lamb in Writing on October 9, 2014
NaNoWriMo. There are a lot of opinions floating around about NaNo and I can't tell you guys what to do. Wait, I do that all the time. Hmmm. Okay, I can't MAKE you try NaNo, but I am the friend who will gently and lovingly shove you off a cliff because it's good for you.
WHAT!!??? You SAID you wanted to
go BASE jumping be a professional author.
In my 20s, I lived life like a Mountain Dew commercial. You name X Dumb Thing? Sign me up! One of my favorite suicidal activities was skydiving. If I was having a really bad time, nothing to perk me up like free falling from 15,000 feet. But I'm a natural
idiot adventurer.
My little brother? Was probably the more cautious/sane one, but I could tell from this spark in his eyes that he'd one day like to just go for it and jump out of a perfectly good airplane.
One day, I was headed out to jump and invited my brother. "Hey, you can just watch. Check it out. See if it might be something you'd like to try one day." He rides out there with me and, to his horror, I'd signed BOTH of us up and paid for his tandem.
He should have known from our history together that Big Sisters are pathological liars. Also, I was the one who convinced him to jump off our roof with an umbrella when he was five, so, in fairness, he should have TOTALLY seen that coming.
Hey, Penguin does it all the time. You'll just float down.
Little Bro was "fine." But I didn't make him do anything I hadn't already done. Trust me when I say he was a changed person after that experience (and for the better).
Back to NaNo…
To NaNo or Not to NaNo
For those who have not tried NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), at least consider it. Even if you only partially finish (land on your knees and then get dragged through stickers by your chute that caught a sudden updraft) you are now part of a percentage of very few people who TRIED.
And, unlike skydiving, I've yet to encounter any NaNo fatalities.
The trick to NaNo is to appreciate it's PURPOSE. It's to propel us out of the comfort zone and show us what we are truly capable of if we put our minds to something and refuse to give up. It's training for the pace of professional author. Pros have a VERY different operational tempo.
We don't play to win, we play for keeps.
I've finished NaNo quite a few times (and fast-draft everything I write), but every day is NaNo for me. I have a thousand words written before most people wake up. Was it ALWAYS that way? Sure! :D *thunder rumbles*
OKAY, I totally just lied. I used to be thrilled if I had three sentences by the end of the day. OMG, if I could like, write FIVE HUNDRED words a day, THEN I will be EPIC.
There were a LOT of roadblocks to me being a "real writer," roadblocks that NaNo can help us face and overcome.
No Such Thing as Schrodinger's Writer
Want to be a writer? Write. That simple. Lose the existentialism. People who have time to discuss what makes a "real" writer have too much free time. The rest of us are busy writing. The single greatest thing NaNo makes us do is it propels us to sit our tails down and get to WORK.
Ditch Perfectionism
Want a surefire way to NEVER finish NaNo, or any book for that matter? Edit Frenzy. NaNo is NOT for the perfect book ready for sale on December 1st. Sure there are some pros out there who can whip out a perfect book in 30 days…I think. I've never met one, but like Sasquatch, we like to believe they could exist.
The world does not reward perfection, it rewards finishers.
Learn to SHIP. No unfinished idea ever became a NY Times best-selling book.
Word Count
One of the complaints I hear about NaNo is there is too much focus on word count. Oh-KAY. Get a three-book deal and see how important word count becomes. Word count IS critical, because without words? We don't have a BOOK.
The Muse
A lot of new writers wait until inspiration strikes. The rest of us go to work (paraphrased Stephen King). Inspiration is for amateurs and hobbyists. If we look to some of the most successful authors in history, a large percentage shifted over from journalism. Reporters who wish to remain employed can't wait for the muse to report about the four-alarm fire. Learn from that and SHIP.
NaNo is NOT the Time for REVISION
NaNo is for getting as many words on the page as possible in 30 days. Revise LATER. It's NaNoWRIMo, not NaNoWriReviseAngstDrinkMoWineMo.
Humans have two sides to the brain—the creative side and the logical side. The reason NaNo is fabulous is it trains us to remain in the creative hemisphere of the brain. Stay in the fictive dream and play your guts out. Logic brain will have its turn…LATER.
Ignore typos, misspellings, run-on sentences and WRITE.
NaNo Pushes Boundaries
Most of us are capable of a lot more than we believe we are, but we dig the Comfort Zone. It has WiFi and lattes. Excellence is born in a fiery crucible. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.
NaNo Strips Excuses
Life will not change one you are a published or successful author. Today is my Dad's birthday and the 15th anniversary of his death. Hey, he was Scottish and we are known for efficiency. My SIL went in this morning for serious and painful eye surgery to prevent her from going totally blind. I have Shingles, my house is a WRECK and I have a cat I love who's teetering on death that I have to syringe feed every other hour. Our family business was half-flattened by squall lines last week and…blech.
But I write. Doesn't mean I don't CARE about those other things. But if I were in any other job, I might be able to justify a couple days away, but other than that? I'd have to show UP and do my JOB.
I know Mr. Smith has a tumor I was supposed to remove today, but my cat is sick and I am still tired from Shingles, have storm damage to clear and no clean SOCKS to perform surgery in and….
Uh huh.
Writer UP
You guys don't have to do NaNo or like NaNo. It isn't for everyone, but neither is this profession. I participate in NaNo, support it and recommend it.
Just for the LOVE of all that is chocolate, DO NOT believe you are finished after 50,000 or more words. You WILL need revisions and edits, so hold off on the CreateSpace or the query. You
might probably will have a literary train wreck. But you have a FINISHED train wreck. EXPERIENCE will teach you what to do and even what NOT to do.
There are ways to have less of a mess at the end, but we'll talk about that next time.
NaNo trains speed and discipline. Style comes with preparation, time and practice, not nit-picking.
So *beats shield* come back with your first draft or ON it ;).
Haters: We will darken the skies with our criticism.
Real Writers: Then we will WRITE in the SHADE.
What are your thoughts? Are you afraid of NaNo? Good. Now suck it up. Have you tried before and failed to finish? Why? Have you revisited the "footage" to see what you could change to improve odds of finishing? Do you over-edit? STOP IT. Do you have friends, family or activities that interfere? Hint: They aren't going away.
Share your successes, monsters, defeats and we will raise our
goblets coffee mugs and spears red pens to the Elysian Fields! We will forever be Brothers and Sisters at Arms. Sign up HERE for NaNoWriMo.
I LOVE hearing from you!
To prove it and show my love, for the month of OCTOBER, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).
For those who need help building a platform and keeping it SIMPLE, pick up a copy of my latest social media/branding book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World on AMAZON, iBooks, or Nook.
author Kristen Lamb, becoming a professional author, benefits of NaNoWriMo, finishing a novel, how to finish NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, WANA, We Are Not alone, Writing
Formatting—The Difference Between Mediocre & Magnificent
Posted by Author Kristen Lamb in Self-Publishing on September 30, 2014
Today, I have a lovely guest post from a friend of mine, Travis Simmons. He's here to enlighten us about one of the "unseen heroes" of book success. I hear a lot of bantering about what is most important for a book to take off and sell LOTS of copies. A great story? A fantastic cover? Editing? Formatting? Thing is, they are ALL important but for very different reasons.
Who cares if we've written the next "Great American Novel" if the cover looks like our cousin in junior college slapped it together with a pirated copy of Photoshop? The cover can be great, but if the story (sample pages) reflect amateurish writing? Likely people won't click to buy. Sure we all make punctuation and grammar errors. A few? Most readers (who aren't also writers) won't see them. But, if the prose seems as if we slept through basic high school English?
Houston, we have a problem.
Yes, we all pay great attention to our writing, our cover our editing, but one area we might not think about is formatting. But the devil is in the details and the small things are what can transition our work from mediocre to magnificent. So a BIG thanks to Travis for stopping by and demystifying the unsung hero of the book readers can't put down….
Take it away!
What Exactly IS Book Formatting?
Book formatting is one of the last steps of the publishing process. This is when your document, already edited by those awesome, sometimes ruthless people, is ready to be broken down to what is absolutely necessary for printing and e-book distribution. Formatting is when the document is developed into something that e-book readers and printers can read and kick out into a really professional looking copy.
Why is Formatting Important?
Formatting makes a huge difference having a professionally formatted book as opposed to something that was slapped together in the hopes that it will work out well. There are all kinds of hidden codes the untrained eye can't see lurking in the depths of your document, waiting to throw a printer off and give you blocks of blank space and gaps at the beginning of paragraphs.
Professional formatting will develop your book, and take away all of those hiccups. The main thing I should stress here is that as a self-publishing author, or even as a small press, you're contending with big competition. Your book can launch your career, or stall it. Now, this means your entire book from cover, to edit, to formatting.
Imagine for a moment your reader is entranced in a really great scene and suddenly…a HUGE blank space crops up. Your reader's eyes are no longer flowing the way they were. The reader has to think for a moment about what the heck happened, and the fictive dream is shattered. Issues like this can spell disaster because the reader's concentration has shifted to something else and away from the forward momentum you've built.
Formatting takes care of that. A professional formatter will remove those glaring errors in your book, and give you something your readers will love—a format that flows well and keeps your reader captivated.
How Do You Choose a Formatter?
Understand what you're looking for. Do you want print formats? E-book formats? What files are you going to need to upload to your platforms? The formatter should be able to provide you with samples of their work to make sure they provide the quality you're looking for. They should also allow for corrections. Things might get missed or not look precisely as you want them to. You want a formatter who is going to correct those things.
Pricing shouldn't be outrageous either. Most people that are going to help you along the way with editing and covering as well as formatting are likely to be other indie authors, so they understand you don't have a gazillion dollars to spend on services, and their prices should reflect that.
The main thing to take away from this post is that your writing isn't the only factor reflecting your work. Give your reader the same quality or better than your NYC competitors because that's what readers expect.
If you are giving them a product that doesn't meet their standards, that can negatively impact future sales. Be professional and offer the best quality and your readers will love you for it. Now, that doesn't mean they are going to say, "Wow, that book was wonderfully formatted!" But ignore proper formatting and they will definitely say, "I couldn't finish that book because the words were all over the page and gave me a headache."
About Wyrding Ways Press
Wyrding Ways Press offers formatting and beta reading services to self-published authors as well as indie presses. We strive for excellence in all we do, and our work with indie-publishers has helped hone our skills. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us via our website or social media outlets. Thank you so much for reading our guest post!
Thank YOU, Travis. I was blessed to have a premium formatter and I know that it made a crucial difference. Formatters can also add in images, hyperlinks and all kinds of cool add-ons to heighten the reading experience. In my latest social book Rise of the Machines, my formatter embedded all kinds of hyperlinks to make it easy for readers to 'travel' beyond my book to Twitter, etc. Just this small detail made an incredible difference.
We appreciate your post! Feel free to comment or ask questions. I can only keep Travis chained in my panel van so along before someone files a Missing Person's Report :D .
Travis's Information is below:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WyrdingWaysPres
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WyrdingWaysPress
Website: http://wyrdingwayspress.com/
Author Travis Simmons, formatting, formatting e-books, how to find a formatter, Rise of the Machines Human Authors in a Digital World, self-publighing, WANA, We Are Not alone, what is formatting, Wyrding Ways Press
Cyberbullies, Trolls, Mobs & Haters—How to Protect Yourself & Others in a Dangerous World
Posted by Author Kristen Lamb in Writing Tips on September 24, 2014
As the WANA Mama, I am fiercely protective of my writer peeps…like Giant Kodiak Mother Bear Protective. I will and have gone to the mattresses for fellow writers who've found themselves under senseless attack.
Yet, as a counterpoint, I choose my battles. I love Sun Tzu, and have read his Art of War until the pages were falling out. When it comes to dealing with a formidable enemy, Sun Tzu is the master tactician. One of my favorite quotes?
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. ~Sun Tzu
A few days ago Psychology Today posted an article I found interesting in that 1) this article gives data to support what we all know deep down but 2) don't want to believe. We know there is something different about trolls. They exhibit what is called The Dark Tetrad Personality—Machiavellianism, narcissism, sadism, and psychopathy.
Yet, this is where we can get in BIG trouble. We often try to deal with trolls the way we would rational people who are not deeply disturbed. Trolls remind me of the Terminator, and the hero (Kyle Reese) has the best explanation of what an Internet Troll truly is.
Kyle Reese: Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
Kristen Lamb: Listen, and understand. Trolls are out there. They cannot be bargained with. They cannot be reasoned with. They do not feel pity, remorse or fear. They take tremendous joy in our suffering. Suffering and pain is their subsistence, the very thing they LIVE to create so they can FEED. They will not stop ever until we are dead (spiritually/emotionally/professionally)…unless we take a stand.
This blog is called Warrior Writers for good reason. We are in a multi-front war. War with our bad habits, our fears, our insecurities, our family or friend's disapproval. We are fighting and training to grow to be better writers than the day before. Battling to become better business people (yes, writing IS a business).
We also must appreciate we are targets. We can believe the enemy isn't coming, but that doesn't mean they won't. Preparation is paramount.
To be clear. Everyone has a bad day. Some people might strongly disagree with us and might not use the best words because they're emotional. Or they might disagree respectfully and that's okay. I don't want Pod People Commenters. I don't have to agree with others to support their freedom to have opinions.
Some people might believe (have the opinion) I don't know what I'm talking about and have the intellect of a brain-damaged garden slug.
They have the right to be wrong :D .
THESE ARE NOT TROLLS. Trolls are a unique life form with a VERY different psychological makeup. Trolls feed off pain and strife. They seek it. They create it. They need it and they CRAVE it. They are addicts who also need higher and higher doses of suffering to get the same high. KNOW THIS.
Know Thy Enemy—Levels of Trolls
Not all tactics will work equally because not every enemy is the same. There are little trolls and often they're the "easiest" to deal with by simply setting a boundary and refusing to budge. Recently, I had a guest post about grammar, thus I wrote a funny intro for my guest. I used the term Grammar Nazi, which is a common term and a humorous one, likely inspired by the Jewish comedian Jerry Seinfeld in the episode with the Soup Nazi.
One commenter scope-locked on that single term and razed me. He informed me that using the word "Nazi" was never funny and that I needed to take down my post and write a public apology. I replied with a professional version of, "Pound sand."
I informed him that I refused to be PC or let one commenter dictate how I wrote my blog. If he didn't like my blogs, there was the digital door and don't let him hit it in his digital @$$.
There was a time I would have apologized for offending him and tried to reason and explain and that is BUNK.
If I'd catered to his bullying, I assure you that would have emboldened this person to only become a more powerful troll because his comment would have been enough to make me rewrite, revise, and cater to what HE wanted. Oh the surge of god-like powers he could have felt, but I denied him what he wanted.
When we appreciate that trolls are wired differently this makes early intervention make more sense. Serial killers don't start out kidnapping, torturing then butchering people. Research has shown these "creatures" begin small with tormenting animals then escalate. If early deviant behavior is not recognized, dealt with or cut off, it then will continue to grow into a malignant evil with a body count.
Trolls aren't after your flesh, they want your soul. They collect broken dreams and broken hearts. Trolls often hunt in packs because bullies are small insignificant people who need cronies to help them do their dirty work. But, hopefully this post will train you. If you are attacked? It will be instantly and painfully clear they picked the wrong writer to mess with.
The following tips will help handle even the most sadistic and highly motivated trolls.
What To Do—Writers and READERS
Go Sherlock—Scrutinize and Discern
If a book catches your attention and you think you might want to read it, take the ratings at face value. If there are a gazillion one-star reviews, take a moment to look at them. Troll swarms are fairly easy to spot because of all the fecal matter they leave behind.
Other signs?
One-star reviews with no commentary, no picture, a moniker, etc. Reviews with ad hominem personal attacks. Reviews that are psycho-emotional. Often trolls will have their reviews hidden. If they don't, and you're uncertain if this person is a troll, look at their other reviews. Does this individual ever give a good review?
Then, ignore the reviews and look to the sample pages and use those to make your decision. Later, if you LIKE the book, leave a good review and then go back to the one-star reviews that are clearly trolls, and, when Amazon asks if the review is helpful? Do a BLAST NO BLITZKRIEG. If Amazon gets enough of those on certain profiles, these folks will be banned from reviewing. On Goodreads, hit the dislike button. Same deal.
Refuse to tolerate bullying. When we do nothing, we are enabling.
What to Do—Writers
Be YOU—Don't Let Trolls Steal Your Peace or Your Book Sales
First of all, use the name printed on your books. A moniker or a pen name won't stop the hate. It's still you. If someone called me names and ruthlessly attacked my character it wouldn't matter if it was Kristen Lamb's Blog or Penelope Fluffernutter's Blog. It's still me behind the computer. When we try to hide behind a moniker to protect against the inevitable, all we do is make it harder to sell books.
The bullies win. They can steal your peace and maybe even success. If they take your NAME, they can steal your book sales.
When we get off the Internet because of these cretins, they win. It's a "blaming the victim" mentality. If your
skirt wasn't so short blog wasn't there, you wouldn't be raped harassed by trolls. This is why I DO recommend a WP based site. There is this marvelous TRASH function.
Illegitimi non carborundum…
I'm not naive. I KNOW these comments hurt. I've had comments that reduced me to tears. But we have control how much power we give these thugs and for how long. It isn't easy, but it is reality.
Keep Records
If you get hateful, threatening messages take screenshots. Save e-mails. If the troll is motivated enough they can easily slip into an area that can give you power legally. But, proof is what will help your case.
Manage Your Blog
I don't allow hate. I am always open for respectful disagreement, but if someone gets out of control? I politely pop them on the snoot and remind them to behave or delete their comments. You guys need to feel safe to comment on my blog (others need to feel safe to comment on yours). Trolls will shred the fabric of your community. It's our job to keep them in check. Set boundaries and refuse to tolerate abuse.
NEVER hide your blog or shut down comments. It's what they want. The trash function is your friend and you can block them from commenting.
Stand Up for Friends
If you have a writer friend who's being bullied, gather together and, when Amazon asks if a review is helpful? Click NO. The WANA Community is massive. Let us know. We are happy to stick up for you, and a troll might be able to harass one or two pals who come to your aid, but a few thousand is a tougher challenge. Bullying is something that can only be beaten with the power of friends and community. Trolls have their gang? Bring it. We'll be your Huckleberry ;) .
Report and Block
Report abusers on Facebook. I've been on Facebook since 2005 and only had to block three people. These trolls weren't just harassing me, they were harassing all my friends who commented on my wall. They were PSYCHO. I went to Facebook and had them banned. I blocked their comments and profiles (until FB could take them down).
Don't feed the trolls. Negative attention is still attention. Often trolls will leave seething comments to upset people SO much that they HAVE to go to their blog/website to see WHO this JERK IS. It's the only way they can get hits and comments and they feed on negativity. Starve them.
Hire a Professional
If you're worried about your safety or your family's safety because someone has gone THAT nutso? Contact Jay Donovan at TechSurgeons. Jay is an amazing human being, a tireless champion for writers and he IS The Digital Dark Knight. He's a computer genius who can have said troll chasing his own @$$ down a hole of frustrated nothing.
There are ways to protect yourself digitally and Jay is a master of security. Even if you want to take some preventative measures, talk to Jay.
Many of you know I am NOT a fan of pen names. What you may not understand is I'm not a fan of pen names, because a different name alone isn't enough. Worse, it can provide a false sense of security. Writers are locking the screen door thinking that's going to keep out the motivated ax murderer.
There are sound reasons for having a pen name. I advise against it most of the time because friends, schoolmates and family can be powerful mouthpieces and very helpful. A pen name limits how much of that energy we can harness and dilutes focus. BUT, if you DO need a pen name for safety, security, etc. TALK TO JAY. Again, a different name alone isn't enough. An eight-year-old with decent Google skills can find who you are without the skills of someone like Jay helping you.
Speak Up
In the end, trolls (sad to say) are often a sign we are doing something right. Get ten trolls and I think we are officially a celebrity. Learn to un-see. Focus on those who love you. Join our WANA Community (WANA stands for We Are Not Alone, information here). We are a great refuge and support system. You can join us on Twitter at#MyWANA, on Facebook or even WANATribe (a social network for creatives). I have ZERO tolerance for trolls and have smiting powers.
I know it can feel very defeating sometimes, but a great circle of loving friends who have your back is a great start. Refuse to feed the trolls your peace, success and happiness. They exist, but together we are stronger.
Trying to reason with trolls is wasted energy. Trolls need professional help and we aren't being paid NEAR the kind of money to required treat these kinds of people. We're writers, not shrinks and not the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit.
And just remember…WE ARE NOT ALONE.
What about you? Have you been bullied? Did you find any tactics that were effective? What are your thoughts? Do you check the one-star reviews to make sure they are legitimate? I am no expert, so I would LOVE any suggestions.
I LOVE hearing from you!
To prove it and show my love, for the month of SEPTEMBER, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).
For those who need help building a platform and keeping it SIMPLE, pick up a copy of my latest social media/branding book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World on AMAZON, iBooks, or Nook.
Amazon Trolls, cyberbullying, Dark Tetrad Personality, dealing with trolls on-line, Goodreads Trolls, how to stop cyberbullying, Kristen Lamb, Psychology Today, Rise of the Machines Human Authors in a Digital World, WANA, We Are Not alone
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Acadia National Park is America's Favorite Place [VIDEO]
Acadia National Park has been named America's Favorite Place! Of course, we already knew how beautiful it is. But now, so does the world!
Acadia National Park has been named America's Favorite Place! Of course, we already knew how beautiful it is. But now, so does the world!
Jim Carrey, we know him for his antics as a stand-up comedian, and actor with amazing performance such as 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' 'Liar, Liar' and 'Batman Forever' to name a few. His zany antics are like nothing that any other can perform. But seeing his commencement address at Maharishi University, and what he has to say will even impress people who aren't Jim Carrey Fans.
Carrie Underwood walked away with the coveted CMT Video of the Year belt buckle for her 'See You Again' video at the 2014 CMT Awards.
Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood brought their girl power to the stage once again, and we have to say, 'Something Bad' was one of our favorite performances of the 2014 CMT Music Awards.
John Legend's hit 'All of Me' got a country makeover at the 2014 CMT Music Awards, as country stars Jennifer Nettles and Hunter Hayes joined him in an absolutely beautiful performance.
As soon as the first few bars of Dierks Bentley's new hit, 'Drunk On a Plane' began at the 2014 CMT Awards, his strange red carpet attire made perfect sense. The 'I Hold On' singer gave a rousing performance of his new hit while the crowd went wild.
The 2014 CMT Music Awards hosted some of country music's hottest stars on the red carpet. Springtime was in full force for the ladies with Kellie Pickler in bright fuchsia, Carrie Underwood in flowing petals and Cassadee Pope in the season's hottest cropped-top trend.
Earlier this year Jason Aldean confirmed that he and former mistress Brittany Kerr were officially dating. On Wednesday night the two stepped out for the first time together at the 2014 CMT Music Awards.
If you expected the 2014 CMT Music Awards to start with anything but a bang, you thought wrong! Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line kicked off one of country music's biggest nights -- and they brought a few friends.
Hunter Hayes and Kacey Musgraves are just two of the artists recently added as performers for the 2014 CMT Music Awards. In fact, the awards will feature more live performances than ever before.


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Click Here for Articles About Paul Van Dyk
Paul Van Dyk to Release (R)EVOLUTION: THE REMIXES, 2/22
|Related Links
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November 10, 2014
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|Related: Paul Van Dyk
Last year, through his sixth artist album EVOLUTION, electronic music pioneer Paul van Dyk changed up perceptions of the 'PvD sound' in a big way. Over the course of 2012, the critically acclaimed album spawned five singles, an epic, globe-circling 150+ date tour, sustained fan & press veneration (including the covers of Electronic Musician and DJ Times) and an ever-widening stylistic scope of DJ support. Now that the originals have been established, the time has come to let remixers get to work as VAN DYK's evolution becomes an out-and-out revolution. Handpicked by the man himself--from the ready-to-break to the firmly established--the remixes have been assembled and will be released as (R)EVOLUTION: THE REMIXES on VANDIT February 22.
(R)EVOLUTION: THE REMIXES encompasses 16 fresh-off-the-desk reworkings from a full company of VAN DYK's fellow production studionauts. Also included is the radio edit of "Such A Feeling" ft. Austin Leeds and vocalist Elijah King, a remake of the instrumental "Verano" that has never been available in North America before. Leading the charge is the production brotherhood of Woody van Eyden and Alex M.O.R.P.H., who are respectively tasked with retakes of "Sun After Heartbreak" and "Such A Feeling." Drawing on a wealth of harmonics, thermal synths and Sue McLaren's and Elijah King's vocal talents, they reposition PvD's original versions in an entirely new light.
"Naturally, the original versions of EVOLUTION's tracks were my and my co-producers' visions. To date, the singles have brought some wonderful, creative remixes with them--ones that blew me away when I heard them," states PAUL VAN DYK. "I played the tracks in clubs and on the radio throughout 2012. They were the seeds for this album and now is the right time to push the boundaries of EVOLUTION a bit further."
PAUL VAN DYK's next major appearances in North America take place at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami for closing slots Friday, March 15 on the UMF Worldwide stage and Sunday, March 24 on the A State Of Trance 600 stage.
The track listing for PAUL VAN DYK's (R)EVOLUTION: The Remixes album is:
1) Sun After Heartbreak (Woody van Eyden Full Vocal Version)
2) Such A Feeling ft. Austin Leeds and Elijah King (Alex M.O.R.P.H. Remix)
3) I Don't Deserve You ft. Plumb (John O'Callaghan Remix)
4) Symmetries ft. Austin Leeds (Maarten De Jong Remix)
5) Lost In Berlin ft. Michelle Leonard (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix)
6) The Sun After Heartbreak feat. Sue McLaren & Arty (Pedro Del Mar & Double V Remix)
7) All The Way feat. Tyler Michaud & Fisher (Steve Wish Remix)
8) If You Want My Love ft. Caligola (Niels von Ahorn Remix)
9) Wonderful Day ft. Giuseppe Ottaviani (Robert Mint Remix)
10) We Come Together feat. Sue McLaren (Chriss Ortega Remix)
11) I Don't Deserve You ft. Plumb (Gabriel Ben Remix)
12) Love Ammunition ft. Michelle Leonard (Directors Cut Mix)
13) Rock This (Exense Remix)
14) Open My Eyes ft. Kyau & Albert (Kyau & Albert Remix)
15) The Sun After Heartbreak feat. Sue McLaren & Arty (Nick Callaghan & Will Atkinson)
16) I Don't Deserve You ft. Plumb (WAWA Remix)
17) Such A Feeling ft. Austin Leeds and Elijah King (Radio Edit)
About Author
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My Dear Sweet Daughter:
We've come a long way in making our place in the synagogue. When I was a little girl I once told my grandfather—my very old-fashioned Abuelo — that I wanted to be a rabbi. "That," he said to me, "is very ugly." He said the word in Spanish—fea.
I despaired. The bima, the Torah, even the dynamic fervent prayer — you know, the kind that comes with the feeling you have full access to God — would never be mine.
I was 11 then and having a bat mitzvah at 13 like you did was not an option for me. I would have to wait another thirty years to become a bat mitzvah. But in the intervening years between my childhood and my adult bat mitzvah, women made miraculous strides in Jewish life. For example, we don't think twice about a woman being a rabbi. I remember the hoopla when the first women were ordained as rabbis in the Reform and Conservative movements. The first happened in 1970. The latter took place in 1985 when I coincidentally worked at the Jewish Theological Seminary. There was a lot of divisiveness over the decision to ordain Rabbi Amy Eilberg. It was still fea to a lot of people.
As it does every year, The Forward recently published its Forward 50 — and just like every year, the list is short on women. Forward editor Jane Eisner notes the lack of female names on the list, saying "it also could be because we weren't looking in the right places" for women worthy of inclusion on the list. I've got a few names in mind:
Idit Klein (Executive Director, Keshet) Boston-based Keshet is a national grassroots organization that works for the full inclusion of LGBT Jews in Jewish life. Last summer, with a grant from the Schusterman Foundation, Keshet merged with Jewish Mosaic, another Jewish LGBT organization, to strengthen its overall reach. They've since launched Do Not Stand Idly By: A Jewish Community Pledge to Save Lives, a Jewish response to the bullying of homosexual youth.
Kat Dennings (Actress, "2 Broke Girls") Forget Natalie Portman; she's been around forever. It's fresh, new faces like Kat Dennings that are making a mark on current culture. The 25-year-old Dennings, who once told the Jewish Journal that she is "a billion percent Jewish," has starred in films like "40-year-Old Virgin" and "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist." This season, she's making waves as Max, a tough, Brooklyn waitress on CBS's new hit comedy "2 Broke Girls." She recently told Rolling Stone, "I want to bring the sitcom back."
Any parent will tell you that there is no easier way to motivate young children than rewarding them with a sticker for good behavior. The sticker can have anything on it — puppies, kittens, smiley faces, hearts, flowers — as long as it is colorful and cheerful, kids will work to earn it.
The Israeli government's largest HMO, Clalit, decided to use stickers in clinics for the ultra-Orthodox population to motivate stickers for children undergoing examinations and medical procedures. The design they chose were photographs of real kids on them, accompanied cheery slogans like "Get Well Soon!" "Good boy!" and "Good girl!" as well as one with a blessing for healing the sick. Sounds innocent enough. So what's the problem?
Reflective the disturbing trend of eliminating female faces from the public sphere in ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem, the stickers only have pictures of boys. Girls are invisible.
One issue I never quite thought I would experience in 2011 is bus segregation. I am not referring to blacks and whites, because, after all, this is not 1960 in Mississippi. I am referring to the gender segregation of men and women on buses with routes originating from the predominately Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem.
With a group of women visiting Israel on a National Council of Jewish Women study tour, I recently rode the buses to experience firsthand what it is like to be a woman and assume you must "go to the back of the bus" when you board bus No. 56 or No. 40.
This now illegal activity started in 1997, when public transport companies began to operate special bus lines for the Haredi public, beginning with two lines in Jerusalem and Bnei Barak. Called "Mehadrin" (extra kosher) lines, women would board the bus through the rear door and men would board through the front door. Women who objected to these rules would be subjected to harassment and intimidation and, in some cases, physical violence.
Producers of "180," a short documentary that compares abortion to the Holocaust and has been viewed 1.5 million times on YouTube, are now lobbying to show their film in high schools, reports the Washington Independent. The Religion News Service writes that Ray Comfort, the man behind the film, was born to a Jewish mother and gentile father, but had no religious practice until he became a born-again Christian in his 20s. Sadly, teen idol Kirk Cameron from the 1980s sitcom "Growing Pains" is involved with the project, too, through his evangelical ministry outreach with Comfort.
Here's a conversation you probably would never believe actually happened if it weren't for the links attached here. Bloggers at The Gloss debated whether or not it was a good idea to dress up as a sexy Anne Frank for Halloween. Yep!
Scientists suggest that all women, and not just Ashkenazi Jews, should have genetic testing before pregnancy, reports Time.
The opening scene of Anna Solomon's new book "The Little Bride" is one of the most harrowing that I've read in a novel.
The reader meets 16-year-old Minna Losk in a dank basement where she is ordered to undress and then inspected like an animal. Orphaned at 11 and sent into indentured servitude to a cousin in Odessa, Minna — who is the ultimate survivor — applies to Rosenfeld's, an agency sending Jewish brides in Russia to Jewish men who have gone ahead to settle in America. Minna is matched (a generous description of the transaction) with Max, a pious man twice her age and father of two sons who are his new wife's contemporaries
"The Little Bride" captures a lesser-known chapter of Jewish American history, giving it a dramatic arc replete with a love triangle. Some 8,000 Jewish immigrants settled in the vastness west of the Missouri River at the end of the 19th century.
There's a new female heroine in the Arab world. A brave 25-year-old Egyptian marketing manager named Samira Ibrahim is suing the Egyptian military for the trauma she experienced during their so-called 'virginity tests' she suffered while being held in a military detainment center.
Ibrahim was part of the group of 17 women arrested in Tahrir Square on March 9 when they were demonstrating at the height of protests against the Mubarak regime shortly after Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
While in custody, the women were beaten, strip-searched and given electric shocks, and violated sexually, while being told that those who were not found to be virgins would face prostitution charges. The women's mistreatment at the hands of the military officers was documented by Amnesty International. The women were released five days later and some of them received one-year suspended prison sentences.
At the risk of creating another line in the sand between feminists, I am going to weigh in on the midrash manicure thing. This phenomenon is, in my opinion, a new low in girls' Jewish education. I cannot even believe I'm writing an essay that has the words "midrash" and "manicure" in the same sentence. This is a serious regression into some of the most damaging ideas about how girls learn.
There are many ways to make Torah and Judaism interesting, relevant, engaging and creative. Art forms such as music, painting, dance and drama in Torah learning are wonderfully expressive ways to connect to tradition and text. As my friend Ken Quinn says, the Temple was undoubtedly a very sensual place, full of sights, colors and smells. Torah and Judaism do not have to be the overly cerebral experiences that they so often become. Art and creative expression are vital tools for learning.
There is a huge difference, however, between providing a gender-neutral, intellectually challenging artistic learning experience and girls painting their nails. It doesn't matter how "fun" manicures are, or how bonding it supposedly is for women, or how egalitarian it presumably is because manicures are so cheap (which they're not, by the way, if you get them every week, or if they go with pedicures or special designs, or if you do them anywhere else other than Manhattan, like in Israel, where they cost a fortune; plus the fact that when women are still making 77 cents on the dollar to men's salaries, any added financial burden of adhering to social standards of feminine beauty is just added gender inequality).
Secular Israeli documentary filmmaker Efrat Shalom Danon made "The Dreamers" as a way to better understand her sister and a close friend — both of whom are artists who became Haredi. She wanted to better grasp the conflicts these women live with in trying to express themselves creatively while operating within the strict confines of ultra-Orthodoxy. So she made a film about Haredi women making films for Haredi women.
In an interview conducted in Hebrew (and her first with the foreign press), the first-time director explained that filmmaking by Haredi women has grown in the past several years, with one specialized film school for them in B'nei Brak, another in Jerusalem, and also film electives being added to the curriculum of Haredi women's seminaries. "There are about six films being made by Haredi women every year now," Shalom Danon said. "Some are even considered relative blockbusters."
These films, however, need to be put in perspective. First, they do not play in movie theaters, which are off limits to the Haredi sector. Instead, they are shown only to female audiences during holidays, when the films' producers are able to rent event halls for screenings. Second, the films must be solely for educational purposes, and they are produced with the permission and under the strict supervision of rabbis. "You have a conflict. On one hand, you are an artist. On the other, you are a Haredi woman. You don't have creative freedom," a mentor tells Ruchama, one of "The Dreamers'" two main characters.
Pro-lifers are having a busy month. There is the Personhood amendment set to pass November 8th in a general election vote in Mississippi, with support from Democrats and Republicans, which would define human life as legally beginning at fertilization. This would render all abortions and morning-after pills illegal, and, according to some, could result on bans of certain birth control pills and in-vitro fertilization.
And just a few weeks ago the House of Representatives passed the "Protect Life Act" which would prohibit women from receiving coverage for abortion from any federally-funded insurance policy, and, potentially, abortions in federally-funded hospitals even if the women have a life-threatening condition.
The Personhood movement, as well as the anti-choice movement, in general, says that they are trying to comply with divine law, as opposed to civil law, and rely upon portions of the Christian and Hebrew Bibles to make that claim. But when I decided to take a look at the texts they say inspire these "divine" laws, I couldn't find one place that unequivocally said that life begins at conception. Befuddling! And so I decided to email two smart women who know this stuff way better than I do, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights–North America, and Reverend Chloe Breyer, executive director of the Interfaith Center of New York, to help clear up what exactly these portions do and don't say about when life begins. Well, it looks like some Mississippians could use a Sunday school refresher course before they go using their divine interpretations to change our civil laws. Not that Americans are supposed to be using divine law to inspire civil laws anyway (See: Constitution).
Heather Stoltz discovered quilting and fiber art in an unconventional way. Then again, approaching things unconventionally isn't anything new for her. With a degree in mechanical engineering in hand, she went on to pursue a Master's Degree in Jewish Women's Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
We met soon after that, as Arts Fellows at Drisha, a center for women's Torah study in Manhattan. Since that time she's been integrating her love of Jewish texts and values with her art. She now has a compelling new art/social justice project that will be on view at synagogues and churches in the coming months.
The project is called "Temporary Shelter" and was born out of her interactions with homeless people.
When Sandy Bar lost her head, many Jerusalem residents decided that enough was enough. The actress and model, who is featured in Israeli fashion company Honigman's ads for its new winter line, was suddenly reduced to a hand holding a purse. The public could see Bar's face, framed by her long dark hair and adorned with large sunglasses, in the ads posted in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities. But in Jerusalem, she was represented by a disembodied appendage.
This head chopping has prompted two kinds of responses among Jerusalemites. Some have taken to social media to circulate photos showing the difference between the two ads. One has even made up a "missing" poster for Bar's head. "Lost: Sandy Bar's head. Last seen at the entrance to Jerusalem. Finder should call the following phone number immediately," it says.
Activists with the Yerushalmim civic non-profit organization, who have been tracking the disappearance of women's images from Jerusalem's public spaces for the past several months are taking a different tack. As part of its "Uncensored" campaign, they are inviting women to be photographed for posters that Yerushalmim members have begun hanging from balconies in the center of the city.
The New York Times recently wrote about a Jewish day school program for pre-teen girls which combines Torah study and nail painting.
In a response to the piece, Sisterhood contributor Renee Zhert-Gand wrote that she feels torn about the club, which is called "Midrash Manicures." She explains that while she is always open to new ways of engaging students in Torah, she feels women fought too hard to study like men to now do something so gender-specific, and that this endorsement of manicures might make young girls think they need to have one in order to feel attractive. Well, I am all for Midrash Manicures, and here's why.
I understand the instinct to think that young girls doing something "girly" like nail painting while also doing something serious like studying Torah somehow trivializes the latter. But I also think it is important for us to challenge that instinct.
New York Magazine's cover story this week is an oral history of Ms. Magazine in honor of the 40th anniversary of its first issue. The article is written by journalist Abigail Pogrebin, the 46-year-old daughter of Letty Cottin Pogrebin, one of the founding editors of the magazine, which was the first exclusively written and published by women for women. Through her extensive research and interviews of both supporters and critics of the magazine, Pogrebin brings the momentous early days, months and years of the history-changing publication to life. One of the people she was unable to interview was Miriam Wosk, the artist who designed the inaugural issue's cover, and died last year from breast cancer.
Renee Ghert-Zand: How many people did you interview for the oral history and who were they?
Abigail Pogrebin: I interviewed 35 to 40 people. It was anyone who was involved with Ms. over the 40 years, primarily in the first decade and really focusing on the first five years…I pretty much interviewed every living major participant in Ms., save a very few. Every interview was done individually by phone or in person, or both, and some by email. These are the major players, the people whose names come up over and over again. Since I grew up around Ms., I remember many of them.
Alice Shalvi, 85, is one of Israeli feminism's founding mothers. She has been a Hebrew University faculty member, head of the modern Orthodox girl's school Pelech, co-founder of the Israel Women's Network, and recipient of dozens of awards and honorary degrees. In 2007, she was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for lifetime achievement and contributions to Israeli society.
On Nov. 2nd, she will be honored by The New Israel Fund in New York. Shalvi's "life work towards a more just, equal and pluralistic Israel is … the embodiment of that vision in her work as a leader in social activism," said Bruce Temkin, the NIF's New York director.
Shalvi was raised in England after her family fled Hitler's Germany, where she was born. She made aliyah in 1949 and soon met Moshe Shalvi (then Shelkowitz). They live in Jerusalem, have been married for 61 years and have six children, 21 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. While visiting New York before being honored, Shalvi spoke with The Sisterhood.
I had heard about "Midrash Manicures" before, but it didn't really catch my attention until it hit the big time with this recent article in The New York Times.
The story was about Rabbi Yael Buechler's weekly Manicures Midrash club for middle school students at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester. Kids can opt to paint their nails instead of taking one of the other electives, like the glee club, a sports writing seminar or the math club. Rabbi Buechler teaches the girls — and they are not surprisingly all girls — the finer techniques of nail polishing, as well as Jewish texts and commentaries to inspire their midrashic designs.
Never have I been so torn about an innovative educational approach. As an experienced Jewish educator, I am always appreciative of new and creative ways to engage students in Torah study. It is clear that the nail painting in Rabbi Buechler's class is a means to an important educational end. At the same time, I am somewhat uneasy with the manicure piece of this.
Folkie singer Jill Sobule has come out with a new anti-slutty-Halloween-costume song, which can be heard here.
Sobule, who is Jewish, composed the song about adults wearing all-too-revealing costumes. Her sentiments are all the more apt in connection with young girls wearing similarly revealing getups. This evening I saw a pair of 13-year-olds wearing shorty spandex-type shorts (the kind that usually go under cheerleaders' skirts) with not-oversized football jerseys, and posing like they were ready for their close-ups on some "Girls of the NFL" calendar.
The mothers of some trick-or-treaters clearly ought to be doing more than looking over their candy.
If only this could be billed as a spooky Halloween story or something from a medieval archive or from American colonial history. But no, it's a real news story in modern-day Israel: A state court punished a woman for practicing witchcraft. The alleged hocus-pocus cost her a cool $25,000 in alimony when the value of her wedding contract, or ketubah, was reduced by half in her divorce trial. A Haifa rabbinical court recently handed down the ruling.
Some of the charges and counter-charges sound like standard divorce material. The wife claimed that her husband was having an affair. The husband said that he started seeing another woman only after his wife said that she was taking him to divorce court. In an argument that apparently holds water with some rabbis, the husband complained that his wife was derelict in her matrimonial duties because she refused to cook for him. But the rabbis forgave her for her culinary abandonment because of his affair. (Indeed, it is wise to excuse women from getting near an adulterous husband with pots, pans and an open flame. Far too dangerous.)
They weren't as forgiving when it came to the alleged witchcraft. Although the woman denied being a witch, a failed polygraph test (which is not admissible in civil Israeli courts) led the to the conclusion that indeed she was practicing the dark arts.
The Slingshot Fund's list of 2011-12 nominees is out. Slingshot's mission is to strengthen innovation in Jewish life by developing next-generation funders and providing resources to leverage their impact in the Jewish community. It puts out an annual list of the community's most innovative, up-and-coming organizations. Let's have a look at where women land on it.
Out of the 60 organizations on the list this year, 30 are headed by women, including Rabbis for Human Rights, Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community,Be'chol Lashon, the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, the Jewish Teen Funders Network, and Seeds of Peace.
For those of you playing the "Where are the Women in Leadership in the Jewish Community" Game, this is good news. Women are heading organizations that are changing the landscape of the Jewish world, and funders are noticing.
Good news — Israeli women are fighting back against those who would hide and silence them.
Recent developments for women in Israel have been worrisome and depressing, as readers of this blog are well aware. There has been increasing gender separation on buses and on public streets, harassment of young Beit Shemesh girls whose only crime is attending their school, trouble in the Israel Defense Forces with religious officers walking out of ceremonies in which women are singing, as well as the disappearance of women from Jerusalem billboards.
For Hila Bunyovich-Hoffman, a Tel Aviv woman who has a master's degree in gender studies, works as a technical writer and blogs about women's issues, it has all become too much. She decided that someone had to take action. On her Hebrew-language blog and on a Facebook event page she created, she announced a Tel Aviv street protest in which a group of women would stand in public and sing, to make their voices heard.
The tidal wave of response to her initiative has been "unexpected and overwhelming," she told The Sisterhood in an interview.