Monday, November 17, 2008

They gave us Shakespeare... We give them ‘meh’...

As the bully kid from the Simpsons might say, “Ha, ha!” In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, there’s an article about new words entering the British language that’s slightly amusing... it also reinforces the notion that Brits are elegant and polished while their American counterparts are, well, not so much...

I, for one, blame them. Hey, we didn’t skewer the English language. We gave it colour... and we do have some other distinctly Yankee phrases that they could have included in that book....

In other news

Our beloved Church Lady is back... go visit Chris and tell her what to do with her ridiculously high clear healed shoes... I’m voting for Ello’s sandwich and chip combo, but I could just as easily lean toward chocolate and booze (don’t make me decide, here).

And on this here blog

I’m just full of little updates today, aren’t I? In light of current economic turmoil and the usual status of most unpublished writers like myself – that being poor and starving... I’ve decided to start taking paid posts. I did do a lot of paid posting a long time ago, but stopped because I didn’t want to clutter the blog. Now they’re making me an offer that I just can’t refuse... I can decline anything I don’t want to write about, which makes it easier and I promise I’ll try to make them all entertaining and interesting.

Just thought I’d let you all know in case you page in here next week and wonder when I decided to sell out... that would be today... but at least I’m an honest sell out.

Writing Progress

I’m not doing the nano thing, but the rest of the bloggy verse seems to be, so I thought I’d just post a bit of progress on goal to finish by December 31st... I think I can... I think I can... I’m pretty sure I can...

I find it hard to post in word count because I can write three pages and then delete the whole thing and rewrite... and there’s usually deletion and re-writing involved every time I sit down to write lately... hopefully that bodes well for my self-editing abilities. I will say that I think I’m fairly well on track with it and the characters are fleshing out amazingly well.

Okie-dokie artichokies, that’s about it here. How about you guys? Writing progress? New links for to help me waste time? What say you?

15 comments:

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

I am completely done with nano. nono is what I'm calling it! SEriously I think I got 3000 words and just piddled out. Hey what can you do when the muse is gone?

Merry Monteleone said...

Hey Ello,

What can you do when the muse is gone?

Strip poker

monopoly

rob banks... but in today's economy they'll just give you an iou...

eat chocolate

twitter

blog

Yep, I could think of lots of things for to waste time rather than writing... I think we just need to apply the seat of our pants to the chair, though, and the muse will eventually return.

Nice to see you, El!!! Hope the submissions are going good for you.

Gary Corby said...

Hi. I'm not doing Nano either, for this reason. (Sorry, don't intend to advertise my blog as such, but that's where I wrote it two weeks ago.)

I bet I'm getting more good words out than 75% of Nano writers.

The Brit/US English thing...speaking as an Australian sitting in the middle, US writing is noticably more vibrant, and obviously it's the future, but Brit language is simply more...elegant. US language, wonderfully rationalized and direct, paid for it with loss of beauty, like losing all the tizzy bits on buildings when you construct concrete rectangular prisms instead of Victorian palaces. I still wince every time I write color instead of colour.

Merry Monteleone said...

Hi Gary,

You may absolutely link on my blog - it's not only allowed, it's encouraged... well, so long as you're not trying to sell me a bridge or anything.

I think Nano's great if it helps people stay focused and support each other - but I'm like you, I can't write that way... I need to feel free to go back and delete and re-write in the first draft and I can't do that if I'm trying to squeeze in so many words on a time frame.

There is a definite difference between American and British English, and you're right, American is more gutteral and British has a beauty, I think lyrical would be a good word... There is beautiful American writing, too, but I tend to find beauty in voices that might just sound gutteral to someone else...

Oddly enough, I tend to love British literature even more than most American. So much so that two of my beta readers for my first draft of my middle grade asked me if I'd been reading a lot of British literature because it read that way - one of my Beta's is a writer from London, the other teaches British Lit, so I was fairly dancing with that assessment because I thought that was pretty cool. It's not my natural voice, but it was interesting to hear I could mimic it.

I like your comparison to buildings, but I think there's beauty in both... depends on what you're trying to evoke and who you're trying to capture.

jjdebenedictis said...

Just say no to NaNo.

Actually, I don't have anything against the contest, but I once entered the three-day novel contest, and that pretty much cauterized, for life, any inclination I might have to try NaNoWriMo.

I'll wooty-woot-woot for those who do it, but they'll never convince me it would be fun to join in. :-D

Merry Monteleone said...

Hey JJ,

I thought about it for a few days this year, but I was already started with my current wip and it was technically against the rules to already have started... I know a lot of people are registered and supporting each other there, but I'm kind of an all or nothing person - I'd just wind up loitering there instead of on blogs and still wouldn't be writing as much as I should.

Nice to see you - how's your wip coming?

Travis Erwin said...

I see nothing wrong with earning a little coinage for your time.

Merry Monteleone said...

Thanks Travis... there really isn't anything wrong with it, and I've seen some great bloggers do fun things with paid posts... I always worry though that mine will turn into infomercials in blog land.

Colleen_Katana said...

#1 - What the hell is this nano thing I keep hearing about? I'm a little retarded when it comes to internet-type things.

#2 - shit...what was my second question...?
OH YEAH, you're gonna be paid to post blogs? That totally kicks ass. Totally not selling out at all! Ok, well maybe a little, but I would too in a heartbeat! I think we're all kind of sellouts in one way or another.

Does that make sense? Wow, I've had way too much coffee today...

Merry Monteleone said...

Hi Colleen,

1 - National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo - which I condense to nano... it's a movement that writers should take the month of November, and write 50,000 words... the idea is to produce quantity, not necessarily quality, but a lot of writers use it as a good jump start to get their first drafts going.

They have a website and message boards for writers to keep track and support one another... it's really big this year, for some reason, bigger than I remember it being in years past - though it's been popular for a while.

2 - Thanks. I don't think there's anything wrong with it really, I just kind of thought I should announce it to prepare people... I'll probably start posting two or more a week, which will make me a more regular blogger at least :-)

I'll send you an email with the paid blogging service, if you'd like to check them out.

Anonymous said...

Love your title. And no apologies for paid posts - I like to look at them like writing exercises that justify my blogging habit.

Josephine Damian said...

"I find it hard to post in word count because I can write three pages and then delete the whole thing and rewrite... and there’s usually deletion and re-writing involved every time I sit down to write lately... hopefully that bodes well for my self-editing abilities."

I too don't get the post-the-word- count-thing for these same resaons. Plus, it makes writing seem like bean-counting.

Since I was a screenwriter first, I think in terms of acts and scenes, not word count.

Hope you make that 12/31 deadline. I have my last term paper due on 12/7 - I think I can, I think I can.....

You can get paid for blogging???!! Hmmmm.... I'm still going on indefinite hiatus after 1/1.

Merry Monteleone said...

Hey Jersey,

Yeah, when I can fit them in without it being too infomercial, it's okay... I just don't want them to outnumber the regular content.

Hey Josie,

You're almost there! Yay, you! I can't say I blame you for giving the blogging a rest - I like the community, but if it was a choice between that and writing for publication, I'd have to give it up, too... hell, it might even come to that at some point.

You can do paid posts through a few different services. Usually you have to link the advertiser a few times in the post and it only has to be a few paragraphs long... you can also pick and choose which to work for and if you do a few a week you can pick up an extra $100.00 a month or so... helps offset the book budget and gas money, anyway.

Mary Witzl said...

I love Collins Cobuild Dictionary -- I used it for years when I taught in Japan and it never failed me. They also included the word 'diss' before anyone else deigned to recognize it, and their definitions and examples are clear and helpful. I'm thrilled that America is responsible for so many new words; don't forget 'Doh' -- another Simpsonism.

Merry Monteleone said...

Hi Mary,

I like words in general, all sorts of flavors and voices and it's amazing how many of them started in simple slang... Just, umn, could we get a little credit for something more eloquent than, 'meh' or 'doh'... dis I actually don't mind... how about American phrases...

Wait, 'rule of thumb' wasn't one of ours, was it?