Digital dementia

When I was a kid, mom would send us out to play in the rain and mudpuddles out front of the house by the driveway. We would toss in sticks, dead leaves, stones into the water as if the result would be different. The stones would sink, and the sticks and leaves would catch in the spiky yellow grass like a fly in a web. 

Our world was tiny but our imaginations were large. We learned by doing, seeing the consequences of our actions. Then we would throw our imagination into our play. The water was a sea. The leaf was a boat. The stick was a whale and the stone a meteor from the sky.

When my kids were small, we wouldn't let them play in the rain, or with dirty sticks and leaves. We wouldn't let them feel what it was like to get their rainboot stuck in the mud or hear the sucking sound they created as they tugged their tiny foot up.  We denied them the sudden separation of their foot from their warm boot and the splash of white sock into grainy wet sucky muck.

We let our kids play with the newest technology tools.  They needed to be competitive.  They learned the way the technology trained them.  When you push this key, that page pulls up. Every time. This leads to this, then that, every time. We wanted them to develop their analytical minds. They weren't afraid of the next generation phone, tablet, video console, computer.

Our brains are wired differently from our childrens. Our experiences built our brains, neuron upon neuron, synapse upon synapse. We share the same template, but not the same thought processes. And yet we are the ones who provided this clean, precise, neat world.

What have we created?

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/26/new-digital-dementia-plaguing-young-tech-users/

BTW, if you write science fiction this is the science that can be a fiction theme. (this is a blog about books, right?)

Writing, it's just brain science!

    

     We know that our brain develops rapidly during our development from conception until "adulthood". We have two hemispheres, and we know that one side is our creative side, and the other is the analytic side.  There are people we meet who we sometimes can immediately identify which side is working for them by their personality, the creative writer or the analytical book editor.
       We also have a new term of "neuroplasticity".  This means that we have the potential to continue to learn and adapt regardless of age. The key to plasticity is the introduction of a stimulus or event over and over again.  We use this in therapy for patient's who have suffered a hemispheric stroke to teach surviving brain cells the control lost by the damaged brain cells. We used to think that after two years the patient couldn't regain any additional motor control.  We know know that they developed "learned disuse" of the extremity.  Their brains learned that their arm was not useful and therefore eliminated the use of the arm with activities.  The old adage, "Use it or lose it" really is true.
     In therapy we also know that to gain proficiency you must push the patient beyond a threshold of comfort.  The brain needs to be challanged to make those synapses grow a new pathway. The path may be rocky and lumpy, but the arm won't work at all if that head to hand connection isn't made.
    
So what does this mean for the writer?
      I follow author blogs, and the most successful writers will tell you to write, and write and write some more. Write every day. The more you write, the easier it will become.  It doesn't matter that you think you are too old, you aren't!  Lee Child of the  Jack Reachers series is an example of someone who didn't publish a book until much later in his life.
     Most writers will tell you writing is a love/hate relationship.  This means that they are pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.  How else will their creative synapses spread into a new thought of what their character does next, or the situation they are put into develops?  An author can't improve their manuscript if they don't receive feedback of grammer or context.  The pain of edits can help to produce a much better story in the end.

Coming next:  Digital dementia

Really, Kim?

Ok, so I showed my friend Kim my first public "writing".  I put that in parentheses because although that's what it is I am no author. But anyone who can put one word in front of the other can write. Right?

Even so, I found myself defending what I wrote.

"Why do you need me to say I was folding laundry, Kim. What else do you fold? You fold clothes. Dishcloths. Whatever. You don't have to say you are folding laundry. I don't want to take away from the conversation."

 "Ok, fine." Kim argues. Yes,she did not agree with me. What she really meant was "You are wrong, and I am right."  I can tell because she looks over her magnified glasses and glares at me as if to dare me to say anything more. And mainly because she isn't done. Not yet.,

"I can't tell who did the hair swirl. Who is saying what? It doesn't make sense to me!" Now she is finished.

 

I sigh. Yes, I did. And I took a breathe because I realized that I needed to listen, really listen and respect my friend, my reader, who I asked to read and give me her honest opinion. And a writer should never ever write a running sentence like I just did.

So, here is my first edited writing based on a readers input. 

 

Sigh.
A breath.  Slowly inhale and hold for two seconds.
Purse lips loosely. A pause....and slowly exhale.
     "Mom, you're doing it again!"
     "What?" Head turns towards prickly teen. Eyes squint.
     "That. The sigh. this is the tenth time this morning." The girl neatly pulls her sharply ironed hair into
a tight perfect ponytail.
    "Really. Hmm, I didn't notice." I go back to folding.
    "Could you, like, you know, stop it?" The girl harps.
     "I reserve the right to sigh. This is the mom sigh.  It is sadness. It is resignation,
frustration, exacerbation, and wtf.."
     "Giggle, snort." Hair swirl and hand wave by the girl.
     "WHAT?!" I tensly grip the basket.
     "Exacerbation. It sounds like masterbation!" 

Sigh

Sigh-fi

Sigh.
A breath.  Slowly inhale and hold for two seconds.
Purse lips loosely. A pause....and slowly exhale.
     "Mom, you're doing it again!"
     "What?" Head turns towards prickly teen. Eyes squint.
     "That. The sigh. this is the tenth time this morning." The girl neatly pulls her sharply ironed hair into
a tight perfect ponytail.
    "Really. Hmm, I didn't notice." Back to folding.
    "Could you, like, you know, stop it?"
     "I reserve the right to sigh. This is the mom sigh.  It is sadness. It is resignation,
frustration, exacerbation, and wtf.."
     "Giggle, snort." Hair swirl and wave.
     "WHAT?!"
     "Exacerbation. It sounds like masterbation."

Sigh

Just ask a reader, duh!

     Do you remember the 80's movie "Gung Ho"? It starred Michael Keaton who works for an auto company that closes it's doors down resulting in people losing their jobs.  He goes to Japan to beg an auto company to move to their community and keep the factory going.  What happens is the clash of very different cultures as they struggle to produce... cars.  The American workers and the Japanese business men have very different ideas on how to bring the public....cars.  Get the picture? The end product is the car but never once is the public car buyer even mentioned.  The car buyers are forgotten, and only the publishers and writers (oops) factory owners and workers are mentioned.
    So, is it important to even bring up the reader as part of the equation of book sales in today's conversation of indie/traditional book sales? Hell yes! How are the authors/publishers getting money from their books? Duh! Us, the readers. Yes, it is all about us. Us, us us.
     The books listed first in our kindle or nook book store are at the top of the sales list in the genre we are interested in. We are looking at the cover, the story, the price.  Probably in that order. Today's indie books have some awesome covers and chances are they are at the top of the heap because other readers have deemed them to be good reading. Authors simply don't have enough friends and family to push them up that far in the rankings. Indie authors reach out to each other and as they savor some success they are able to buy better covers and reach out to the reader by their websites, facebook and/or twitter. So what if they promote their books this way. (you mean traditional publishers don't use media to promote their books? Rigggght.)  Indie writers share information and are perhaps the friendliest people I have met on line.
  That doesn't mean I don't buy a traditional pubbed book on my kindle or nook (yes I have both!).   I have my favorite pubbed authors, but it hurts a little to pay almost 3 to 4 times the price of an indie book.  I love to read but in the past how much so was limited on my meager book allowance.  Eating and paying bills seemed to rise to the top of the heap in priority over my TBR list. I have read more books in the last 2 years than I have in the prior 10. Isn't this good for publishing world?  A reader who buys more books than ever?
   It also doesn't mean I only buy e-books.  I have been known to buy the hardcover of a book I  have already on my e-reader when I adore the story. I have been known to drive my husband crazy when I drive an hour to the closest indie book store to buy a hardcover book I have already read and get it signed by the author.  (BTW, it was Wool by Hugh Howey. Amber, do you have a treatment for us crazed fans?)
     So writers, give us readers a bit of credit.  Bridge the culture gap.  If you are traditionally published, continue to do so.  If I like your writing, I will buy your book.  But don't diss the indie author.  I like their writing also.  And I will buy their books.
    I do think traditional pubbed authors need to get off their high horse and stop trashing the indie wave  (Mr. Green).  It kind of makes them look like whiners You all are a lot more alike than different.  It's just a culture. The readers are the same.

And so writers: in the words of the Japanese CEO Soh Yananura, "I like you. You make me laugh."



 

Talk about missing the boat!

Just a few years ago articles in the "traditional" press were far and few between about self publishing.  They mainly portrayed self published books as works of "wanna be" authors whose work wasn't good enough for agents and publishing houses to sign with.  These self pubbed books were produced as "Vanity Publications", many times disappearing into obscurity.  Perhaps they were right, back then.

Roll forward to today and every week there is an article published about an indie writer who is now in the NYT or USA todays best selling list, or who has signed a publishing deal with a major publishing house.

Two such indie authors I follow are very different from each other.  Samantha Young is a young Scottish writer who will tell you on her blog that she always wanted to write.  She graduated college but faced employment issues.  No work. Basically there were no lasting jobs with these ecomomic times.  With college loans looming over her head and living at home, she decided to publish her paranormal YA stories.  She had the time.  She did her research.  She purchased her covers from an artist whose work was used by other authors.  She found people who would read and proof-read her books.She connected with bloggers who would read and recommend her books.   She kept a blog with "vlogs" about books that she read and enjoyed.  I found one of her books on Goodreads.com from the list of books similar to the one I was reading.  I was "wowed", started to follow her and read several of her other books.  She recently signed with Penguin books to publish her new novel "On Dublin Street", and landed a 2 book deal for over 7 figures!

The second author I recently started to follow is Hugh Howey.  He lives in Florida (my state) and wrote an e-book that is kind of sci-fi/horror based.  I saw articles about this book named "Wool" that was very popular. It started as a short story e-book, and grew into Wool Omnibus, the accumulation  of the subsequent storys in one book.  Mr. Howey conducted a class at the Miami-Dade International Book Fest this year.  I didn't attend, but I was hoping to get a signed book.  I didn't realize that this book was only an e-book. But not for long! Mr. Howey has signed a deal for his book to be published, while he retains the e-book rights. Wow!

The columnists out there in the traditional publishing world have missed the boat  Although there will be people who write books that people don't want to read, there are a growing number of authors who self publish who are as good, sometimes better than the traditional pubbed authors.  We, the readers, are finding them, and buying their books right onto the best seller lists.

The columnists are ignoring that the young authors of today are uniquely wired for the social media requirement for spreading the news of their work.  They have their own time tables but can easily produce a new book from start to finish in 3-4 months, instead of up to 2 years.  They are networking with other like minded authors who volunteer as proof-readers, or "beta reader". They use the net to find people who are willing to create the cover of their book. I know of a self pubbed author who found a model from Australia who posed for the cover, sent this to an artist in Poland for her cover, and finished the lettering from her home computer.  They feel that they have the freedom as self pubbed writers to tell the story as they want to, not to simply mimic the current trending book. The indie authors call this "trend chase" writing. They are even developing their own lingo. They like this outlet  that lets them publish their work for others to read.  If they make some money for it, then Yeah! 

 NPR recently published an article about the self pubbed phenonemon. http://www.npr.org/2012/12/19/167448748/self-publishing-no-longer-just-a-vanity-project?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-20121223
So, am I right? have they missed the boat?
   

Beginnings

Hmmm.... first blog post. How should I start this? I don't have an editor, or even a beta reader. My technical advisor comes home from college this weekend for winter break to help me go from a blah background to perhaps not so blah. I told her about this endeavor before she comes home so I didn't have to watch her eyes roll.  Has a writer ever been able to discribe that eye movement that evokes so much visceral reaction in the parent that must be restrained so tightly? Vampires would love all the blood letting if we didn't have the control of President Snow from Hunger Games.

My daughter should be irritated with me.I am the buyer of YA books under the pretense of buying them for her, but I read them first.  It was I who introduced her to Harry Potter.  It was I who dragged her to the local shopping center where three of the stars of the movie Hunger Games visited before the movie arrived in the theaters. How sad I was when I requested a poster, just to be told that my daughter already had one.  She hadn't even read the books yet. I read them in 3 days and nights.  Obviously someone my age has no business loving YA books.

I recently received vindication though from two very lovely ladies who co-wrote Beautiful Creatures, the NY times bestseller YA paranormal  book that has been made into a movie; Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.  They were guest speakers at the Miami International Book Festival 2012 and were signing their books.  They were funny and warm, and talked about how they loved YA and started to write this book together. Here I am in line with young people all around me giggling and acting shy with Alden Ehrenreich, the actor who plays the role of Ethan.  In my arms is a pile of their books to be signed for my girl, my niece, and my book club. I appologized for not having a token teen with me and confessed that I was the fan of YA.  They immediately responded that they were YA fans themselves. Ha! VINDICATION!

I think one of the reasons YA books are doing so well is because of adult readers like myself.  After all, we do have more money to spend on books.  More news articles are out there talking about it. I am still looking for the awesome t-shirt I can wear to another YA book event that screams "I belong here!". So Yeah for YA!
http://www.rtbookreviews.com/rt-daily-blog/young-adult-fiction-bestseller-list-nyt