Subtlety or Self-Censorship?

Currently I am engaged in producing a revised and expanded edition of my self-published poetry book, 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'. In the original 2010 edition, I sometimes dealt with some embarrassing words and phrases from my older poetry, written in my Youthful Marxist Phase, by frank self-censorship.

In the revised edition, I am generally restoring the original forms. But sometimes, the choice between an older version and a newer one is not so simple. Like in the poem currently called 'undercover'.  Here it is:

undercover

they cant really tell with my clothes on
i think
them nasty
jokes wouldnt keep on coming if
they knew
i think
if i told them they'd say
you dont really look it
i think
then they'd look very close
because they're sure you can tell
     its the eyebrows george says
     you can tell them by the eyebrows


This poem expresses the experience of a person who feels like an outcast, who wonders if others know the secret thing that makes her an outcast. We don't know, in this version, what kind of outcast the speaker feels herself to be, and so we can't really evaluate if it is something that others really could detect.

The original version, which will be given below, is not subtle at all. It tells what kind of difference we are talking about right in the title. And so, perhaps, persons who otherwise might sympathize with the speaker of this version of the poem might not with the speaker of the original version.

The newer version, thus, may have wider appeal. But is it because of self-censorship--- or, perhaps even cowardice? Am I afraid to speak out on what the poem is really about, and be rejected by people I respect because of it?  I will give you the original version, below a break (you will have to click on 'Read more' to see it.)


undercover lesbian

they cant really tell with my clothes on
i think
the faggot & dyke
jokes wouldnt keep on coming if
they knew
i think
if i told them they'd say
you dont really look it
i think
then they'd look very close
because they're sure you can tell
     its the eyebrows george says
     you can tell them by the eyebrows


There's a little personal story behind this poem. When I was in high school, and long before I began to seriously think about topics such as my own sexual orientation, if any, I had two persecutors who rode by on their bikes every day as I walked to school. They threw rocks at me and called me a lesbian--- the first time I had ever heard that word spoken out loud. When they boys were finally identified, I was called with them into the principal's office and had to sit there while he expressed some sympathy with the boys, who, in his opinion, were provoked by the 'strange' way I dressed. (I wore informal long dresses to school while most of the girls wore miniskirts and halter tops.)

When later I finally admitted to myself that my orientation was less than heterosexual, it made me wonder if somehow those boys long ago had actually known something about me that I hadn't then known myself. Which brings up fears--- what stuff do other people, even strangers, just know about me that I don't even know myself?

The original version of the poem is less subtle, less universal--- does that make it stronger or weaker? It's hard to tell, really. The specifics on the original poem mean that the reaction of readers will be all caught up in their feelings about gay people, and the current social requirement that one either accept gay marriage as a governmental sacrament or be cast into the outer darkness.

I think the poem is about more than that single issue. The character speaking in the poem would not be in the least reassured if people told her 'no, dear, we don't care that you are a lesbian, we despise you because you are Catholic, or Jewish, or have an autism spectrum disorder, or wear an overly modest dress, or speak Esperanto in public....'

So, with much trepidation, I am asking for input. Which version of the poem do you think is more compelling and why? If I get more than seven intelligent responses (excluding spam and hate comments, in other words), I will take them under consideration in deciding which version of the poem will be included in the new Opium Cactus.  (I also could use a little feedback on the book title: should I stick with 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows' or prune it to 'Opium Cactus'?)

This post has been shared on Poetry Pantry #142

In Search of Good Bible Software

Years ago, even though I was not then a Christian, I bought a cheap Bible software and installed it on my computer. The cool thing about it was that I could search for any word and it would come out with a list of verses where that word was found. Bible scholars would use this to study topics such as circumcision or salvation, I used it to look up words like 'wizard' and 'dragon', just for fun.

Nowadays I am not only back to being a Christian, but I am a Catholic. And I have just begun on a non-fiction writing project which requires me to dive into the study of the Bible. Now, I took a lot of theology courses in college, and spent lots of my free time immersed in the theology section of the library. But that was many years ago, and I spent the intervening years without much of the Bible in my life.

I decided I needed to beef up my tiny theological library. I looked at Dave Armstrong's blog to see if he had anything in the way of a list of recommended theological books. Dave is a convert to Catholicism who was previously a Protestant campus missionary, so I thought anything he'd use would be just about right for me as well.

What I found on his page was a link to Verbum, the new Catholic Bible software from the makers of Logos, the premiere Protestant Bible software maker.  Verbum is cool, it's an entire theological library for your computer--- but the cost of the cheapest version is $270.

I could look up some of the commentaries and such and see if I can find them for free online. You see, the theological libraries in software like this is mostly old, classic works that are now in the public domain.

I still wanted a Bible software package I could use now, so I searched for free Bible software. I found e-Sword, which is evidently a Protestant operation, though they didn't feel the need to mention that at their web site. I am downloading that software and will report back on how useful it is.

Some of my readers may wonder why anyone needs special Bible software. Can't they just read a Bible for that information?

The problem is that the Bible is not just some simplistic little book. It is a wide variety of ancient text, written in three languages--- Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic--- and from historical eras quite distant from our own. To really be knowledgeable about any given Bible text, you either have to go to a seminary for years to learn the original languages and the historic context, or you have to use books that can give you a similar amount of knowledge.

Bible software can simplify that process. In my old Bible software, I could go from any given Bible verse to the things that different Bible scholars had written about that verse in commentaries. They were, of course, all Protestant Bible scholars, and that software did not at all include the entire Catholic Bible, but omitted certain books of the Old Testament of the Bible that most Protestants have rejected. (Some Protestant groups still keep these books in their Bibles, but put them in a 'neutral zone' between the Old and New Testaments.)

Even if you are a non-Christian writer--- heck, even if you have an anti-Christian bias--- Bible software can be very useful in coming up with a Bible verse for your characters to quote or misquote. That's what I bought my old Bible software for, after all. I had most firmly rejected Christianity and had no intention of ever going back to that misguided point-of-view.

Some Rules for Writers

"Be united, but not closed off.
Be humble, but not fearful.
Be simple, but not naive.
Be thoughtful, but not complicated.
Enter into dialogue with everyone, but remain yourself."


I think that the instinctive following of these rules is what distinguishes the mature-enough person who is currently ready for the writing profession from the immature wannabe striking a writing pose.

The Wannabe closes himself in with his own little writing in-group. If he ever emerges, he will use common sayings and writing rules from within the group as if all writers everywhere must know them or be ranked an amateur. The true writer seeks out contact with the wider world, even with people who do not agree with him and are not impressed with him.

The Wannabe is seems arrogant as he announces word of his latest self-pubbed masterpiece, assuming this announcement is as newsworthy as a new James Patterson book. But all this just masks his fear that he is 'not a real writer'. The real writer remains humble--- and thus able to learn and to correct his own work. He does not claim his work is brilliant, or 'just right' for any given reader. If he wins writing awards, he does not feel the need to mention them.

The Wannabe does not want to seem simple, so his tongue is always coming out with just the right trendy phrase from just the right elite little segment of the culture. But he is so naive that he often uses these phrases in a way that alienates just the little elite-group he is trying to emulate. The true writer is known for being simple in his words and his way of life.

The Wannabe thinks that good writing is complicated writing. He brags when a computer assesses the reading grade level of his work at 'early college' and mocks a fellow writing-wannabe whose work is at the sixth grade level.  The true writer writes to communicate, not to impress others with the scholarly nature of his vocabulary--- and so he rejoices when his work is tagged as being at the sixth-grade reading level.

The Wannabe, on those occasions when he condescends to dialogue with others, is influenced and changed by that dialogue so much that he does not remain himself. You can see examples of what I mean when some young person joins a new group--- political, religious, or intellectual--- and starts spouting the jargon of that group to the point he alienates anyone who isn't also a part of the new group. The wise writer, on the other hand, does not rule out communication with people of all backgrounds and beliefs, but he is able to remain true to his own beliefs no matter what the people around him think.


Now, about the quote: the person who said it was a Catholic priest once known as Joseph Ratzinger. While he was not speaking specifically about writing in this quote, he is known as a man who has written many scholarly books on theological topics. As Pope Benedict XVI, he continued to write, in spite of his very many responsibilities. So he is a good role model for writers and a source of sound advice.

Page Fright

A Fast Flow Writing exercise based on Chapter 24 of The Writer's Portable Therapist by Rachel Ballon.

"When I sit down and face a blank page....

I am afraid I cannot write anything original or thoughtful. I am a child having daydreams with prefab characters. And my daydreams are not only peopled by characters created by others, they are mere fragments. Nothing with a beginning, a middle and an end.

I am ashamed of my writing on a deep level. Not my writing, my daydreams that masquerade as potential writing.

I sit before the blank page knowing that if I wrote down what was inside me everyone who saw it would laugh. Too much of the real me is showing. And the real me makes people laugh and point.

I sit down before a blank page and I stop. If I write, all I can do is fill a paper full of my mistakes. Everything I write is a mistake because I am a mistake. I am not the femme little girl my parents wanted.

I tried to believe in myself but nothing happened. Is it not time to give up?"

Fast flow writing--- writing quickly and uncensored--- is a way to reveal the inner doubts and demons that may be inhibiting your writing. By bringing these things out in the open they have less power over you. OK, posting this private therapeutic writing exercise on my blog is probably bringing it too much out in the open. But I'll bet a lot of writers--- including better-than-me writers--- have similar inner thoughts.

Inferior Writers: Shakespeare, Austin and Dickens

When I was young, I thought the writers of the past--- Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville and the like--- were good writers. But now that I have learned what it takes to be a good writer--- a critique group and an editor-for-hire--- I know they were bad writers. Since they didn't have critique groups and editors-for-hire back then, it's clear that quality writing hadn't even been invented yet.

Besides the badness of the writing of that pre-modern age, it's clear that writing back then was
a lonely pursuit. Just the writer and his pen, alone, until the work was finished. The writer didn't have a batch of critique-y 'friends' to hold his hand through the writing process. How could a writer decide whether that scene or bit of dialog was OK, worthy to be kept? He had to rely on his own judgment and not defer to the judgment of others--- or gain strength through defying the judgment of others in the critique group.

Modern writing, it seems, is a much more social affair. You don't have to have the delayed gratification involved in writing a novel and doing the corrections on your own. The moment your first paragraph is set down on the page, you can rush it to a critique group to get their unvarnished (and unprofessional) opinions. You then eagerly shape your work around those opinions. When your novel is finished, your critique group will give it high praise--- after all, they helped write it, too. It's a pity that the royalty-paying publishers don't realize how great it is also.

So you take the next step and hire an editor who is a 'professional'. What does 'professional' mean? Only that they are willing to take money for it. Much of the time you don't even know, as you hire a professional, if they even have the knowledge to catch your spelling errors, much less if they are able to make your novel more publishable, rather than less.

LESS publishable? Well, that can happen. Lawrence Block, in one of his many books on writing, wrote about the varying opinions among published writers on whether revision/rewriting was a necessary step. He quotes a fictional hack writer who declares that revision would rob his crap of the one thing it had going for it, its freshness.

Incessant revision can make a work less powerful, as the writer systematically removes every word, every phrase, that is the least bit original, fearing them to be incorrect, or at least risky. That's with old-fashioned revision, with the writer as the sole decision-maker.

When you add the influence of a flock of critique-group members and an editor-for-hire, you have many more chances to weaken your work. Even if you luck out and receive only good advice, you are weakened as a writer when you learn to depend on others instead of developing your own writer's intuition.

Why, then, are there so many folks these days who insist that all writers must seek out critiques and hire professional editors? In part it's because of changes in the community of would-be writers. Bad schools have robbed them of the chance to learn grammar and even, perhaps, correct spelling. Personal computers have made it easier for nearly anyone to throw together enough words on the page to say they have written a novel, and the internet connects such 'writers' to the writing community and to information on where to submit their 'writing'.

When faced with a bad novel, it is far easier to say 'join a critique group' or 'hire a professional editor' than to say out loud that the work is filled with misspellings or with long words misused, that the characters, where they exist, are flat, or that much of the work reads more like a book report on a novel than a novel itself. It's passing the buck, really. People who say these things are counting on critique group members or professional editors to say the thing that is to socially awkward for them to say. But chances are no one is going to want to say the hard things, except for members of the carnivorous critique groups that say them to everyone whether it's true or not.

I'm afraid that I myself am not a social animal, and will not be participating in the critique groups that are considered so essential today. Instead I am developing my own discernment, and my own ability to take responsibility for my words, to not need permissions or praise from others to write what I am called to write. This, of course, condemns me forever to the ranks of bad writers. Like Charles Dickens. But I'm OK with that.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Link Caritas:
Mike Duran's DeCOMPOSE: Is Writing in the General Market LESS of a Ministry Than Writing for Christians?  Mike Duran, previously published in the Christian fiction market, explains why he's aiming his next work at the secular market.

Jeff Hargett's Strands of Pattern: Sunday Surfing   Jeff gives some links to writing-related blog posts of interest.

Worldbuilding Blogfest: History of the Frederikaners

History of the Frederikaners
from 'Shepherd'

The seed colonists of the planet Niesse are a distinct nationality/ethnicity known as the Frederikaners. The main group of Frederikaners live outside the Terran Empire, and are under the authority of an alien species known as the Gray, and live on a continent on one of the Five Worlds that is owned by the Gray. This is their history.

 The Gray

They are humanoids with bulging foreheads, large eyes, and tiny noses and mouths. Their skin is a greenish-gray color and they are hairless. They are the creatures known to Terran folklore as the Gray aliens, the ones who commit alien abductions. And some of what is said about them is true.\par The Gray are what is called 'true aliens', as opposed to human aliens who are biologically humans but of non-Terran origin who can interbreed with humans. Like other true aliens, the Gray seem mentally alien to humans and it's difficult to understand and judge them.

The colony of humans they started is one example. Humans would regard the notion of collecting human beings and putting them in an isolated habitat on another world as a form of cruelty. The Gray consider that they are preserving interesting living artifacts in a sort of museum. They consider that since they took the original human stock from a world which had not yet developed interstellar travel, the humans were merely a form of clever animal with no more rights than any other animal not to be put into preserves and zoos.

The First Collection

 The first group of humans collected by the Gray to form their human colony was collected at least ten years prior to 1871, when the Second Collection--- the first successful Collection--- was made. The First Collection was composed of a group of random individuals of all racial and linguistic backgrounds, collected both from cities and from agricultural areas. It had about 15% more males than females as human social customs on Terra during that era made it less likely for women other than streetwalkers to be roaming the streets. The First Collection failed to form a viable colony due to strife.

The Second Collection

The Grays somehow got rid of the survivors of the First Collection and began on the Second, which they determined was to be a more homogeneous group. They decided on a preferred type of human--- agricultural workers that were speakers of Germanic languages such as English, German or Danish. and who were of the Nordic physical type. This collection began in 1871. The Second Collection did not pick up individuals, but small groups, mostly groups of sisters and brothers who were young enough to be adaptable. They were collected in North America among groups of mostly-immigrant farmers and ranchers, many from an American town called Fredericksburg. A notable member of this group was a professor of linguistics from a university who had created a simple international language based on Anglo-Saxon and Germanic root words. This language, Aermannske, became the basis of the Frederikaner dialect, and in addition was revived on Terra much later and became used on a number of Terran colonies with significant Germanic-ethnic populations. The Second Collection, perhaps because they were people of a pioneering spirit, made a successful colony.

The Third, Fourth and Fifth Collections

These Collections were made of small groups of the desired type, both from North America and from the European homelands. The Third Collection was to bring in people with craft skills--- blacksmiths and stonemasons, potters, weavers and the like. The Fourth Collection featured people with cultural skills--- musicians and makers of musical instruments, painters, wood-carvers, and tailors and seamstresses who were familiar with the national costume of the various European regions which were the home of those in the Collections. The Fifth Collection included a number of university professors with specialties related to Germanic history, languages, mythology and folklore, as well as Catholic and Lutheran theology professors and pastors.

The Last Collection

The Fifth Collection was complete by 1900, but the Grays continued to travel to Terra and observe humans. During the time of the Holocaust, their observation posts were near to Jewish villages in Poland which were overrun by Nazis. The Gray were sympathetic and spirited many of these rural Polish Jews out of harms way. Many of these were of the desired Nordic physical type, and they all spoke a Germanic language, Yiddish. So it is not too surprising that many of the rescued found their way to the Gray colony of humans, who by then were known as the Frederikaners. The people of the Last Collection, having experienced a few extra decades of the goings-on back on Terra, were considered rather sophisticated and clever.

 Post Collection History

The Frederikaners and their farming enterprises did very well in the years following the collection. They may not have been happy on the restrictions placed on them by the Gray but the learned to live within the restrictions. Because of the trauma of being kidnapped by the Gray at a time when humans didn't even know alien beings existed, the Frederikaners became suspicious of 'outlanders'--- anyone from outside the Frederikaner community, whether Terran or alien.\par From time to time, when troublemakers, misfits, rebels or criminals arose, the individuals involved were removed from the colony by the Gray. The only new Terrans were emissaries of the Pope, to report secretly on the state of the faith among the Frederikaners, so that the Pope would be able to appoint the appropriate Frederikaner-born priest to be the group's bishop. (So the Frederikaners knew nothing of Hiroshima or of the European Union, but knew about John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.)

The population growth among the Frederikaners reached a peak just as the Terran Empire began a phase of rapid expansion, and colonists for the new worlds were a highly valuable commodity. The Gray offered a company called Grovanli Iterations a contract for a group of colonists--- all volunteers--- and Grovanli gladly paid the rather exorbitant price to get access to some of the unique Frederikaners as seed colonists for the world Niesse.

Wow, this post is long!!! If you would like to read some of the more concise entries on this blogfest, the list is at Sharon Bayliss' blog.  It's also a day late due to the early arrival yesterday of the septic tank guy who got my indoor plumbing functional again. Functional indoor toilets are cool.

Link Caritas:
TonyBreedenBooks.com: Worldbuilding: A Look at the History and Politics of Øtherworld  First, I must express my admiration for Tony's stamina in using the Ø, it is a lot of work putting in strange letters. The world seems to be a relatively near-future world. With mutants. Mutants are cool. Not as cool as functional indoor toilets, but cool. Note: I could not figure out how to link to the individual post on the blog, so just linked to the blog itself.

Icefall Studio: Worldbuilding Blogfest #2: History & Politics    Layla Lawlor blogged this without having internet at home, so her blog-stamina is greatly to be praised. Karamanda is a city in the mountains in which everyone has wings.

Worldbuilding Blogfest: Geography of Niesse

Geography and Climate of Niesse

Niesse is a world in the Terran Empire, from a WIP with the working title 'Shepherd'.

The planet Niesse is located on the Wieman Expanse, a relatively new slipstream trail with a start-point at the Star Colony Olmayo. Niesse is in the third stage of terraforming and is under control of Grovanli Iterations, an ellessee new to the enterprise of terraforming.

The view on the planet Niesse, regardless of where one chooses to land, is bleak, as is common in a terraformed world at this stage. It looks like a bleak endless sand desert--- rocky in some spots--- with no visible living things.
The presence of human technology is most easily seen in the presence of man-made towers--- the larger ones, called Regulators, regulate the atmosphere and cause the scheduled rains, and the smaller ones, called Shooters, which shoot out spores of multiple varieties of the malarit plant, a genetically engineered terraforming plant used mainly to build up a soil, and also, in time, to provide feed for the earliest life forms to be released on the world.

The sand-like material on the ground has the technical name of 'dust'--- meaning that it lacks the organic material that it would need to qualify for the term 'soil'. As the terraforming process goes on, generations of malarit plants go through their life cycles and die, and contribute that needed organic material. The seed colonists of Niesse--- along with the small number of animals they tend--- also make their contribution to the organic material needs through their excretions.

There are two human settlements on Niesse that qualify for the term 'cities', at least in a relative way. They are Amandus and Bennet, and both are headquarters for bands of terraformers and tower monkeys (the men who set up and maintain the Regulators and Shooters). In addition there are the fixed towns, such as Herford, the one nearest to the home of our main characters, and Bjarka, which is the home of the planet's only educational institute, the seminary in which priests of the various religions are trained. It is also the seat of the planet's Christian bishop.

Most of the seed colonists do not live in fixed towns, but in wandering villages located near a fixed town. The wandering village Horn is home to the main characters of the story. It is near the fixed town of Herford, as is the wandering village of Senda, which also plays a part in the story.

Because the oceans of the planet Niesse have not been fully installed, much less stocked with an ecosystem, all of the cities, villages and towns now in existance are on hilly or mountainous ground. This is to prevent the annoyance of settling valuable seed colonists someplace that will end up under water, drowning them and causing the expense of replacing them.

The seed colonists were all obtained from an old human colony on one of the Five Worlds, a lush agricultural community. They all agreed to be sent to a new world in order to obtain land. But when they arrived from their green and growing world to the harsh reality of Niesse, it was a shock. Depression, misery and apathy were common reactions. But as time goes on some of the seed colonists are recovering their ambition, and are determined to make something of their new world, if they are allowed to.

This was Part 1 of Sharon Bayliss' Worldbuilding Blogfest. In Part 2, which covers the topic 'history', we will learn the history of the seed colonists of Niesse, and a little about the aliens who formerly owned them.

Part of the fun of blogfests is visiting other blogs. Here are two that I have visited and enjoyed so far.

Writing the Other: Worldbuilding Blogfest: Geography and Climate By S. B. Stewart-Laing from Glasgow, Scotland, who writes historic fantasy.  

Rebekah Loper, Writer: Worldbuilding Blogfest Day 1: The World of Catalyst  By Rebekah Loper, a self-described 'cat wrangler and urban farmer', possibly from Oklahoma, and has a husband who re-draws her maps.

Worldbuilding Blogfest starts Monday!!!

Sharon Bayliss is hosting a Worldbuilding Blogfest which starts this Monday. There are post suggestions for each day of the blogfest.

I've found such events are a chance to visit other blogs and to be visited by them, so I am participating. Hope you will consider doing so as well.

Here is the Blogfest list:

Population Dystopia in Fiction

Especially in science fiction, from time to time we see fictional characters coping with a population dystopia--- a demographic trend which causes widespread problems for the human race--- or for any other race you happen to be writing about.

Population dystopias come in two major types: the population bomb of overly high population growth and a demographic winter of falling birthrates, an aging population, and population shrinkage.

In near-future fiction, using either of these themes is sure to provoke extreme emotional reaction in people who have strong opinions on either of these demographic theories. In stories set in the far future or in fantasy world settings, you can hope that these reactions will be toned down.

The Population Bomb: I remember reading a copy of 'The Population Bomb' by Paul Ehrlich. His chilling prediction that high population growth would lead to famine in America and Europe by the end of the 1970s would have been even more compelling had I not been reading it in the late 1980s.

Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room is a science fictional treatment of the population bomb theme with the usual overcrowding/food shortage theme. This book was make into the movie Soylent Green, which added commercialized cannibalism into the mix. I still remember Charlton Heston running around screaming about soylent green being made of people. In the book, of course, it was made of soy--- or perhaps soy and lentils, or some hybrid of the soybean and the lentil.

Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game (a Hugo and Nebula award winner) has the population bomb as a minor theme. In Ender's world, governments forbid families to have more than two children. Excess children from non-complying families are not permitted in the schools (which all seem to be government schools). Ender's parents gave up their non-complying religious faiths--- Catholic and Mormon--- in order to get an education, but when the government asked them to have a third child because their first two were almost-but-not-quite what the government needed in a future military leader, they feel quite awkward about it.

Demographic Winter: This theme is not as widely used, though it can be found in a number of fantasy series featuring elves. The elven race is quite frequently seen as experiencing a demographic winter of falling birth rates.

For example, in Mercedes Lackey's elves-and-race-cars series, the elves are seen as cherishing and protecting abused children, often kidnapping such children from their violently abusive parents. The motive is given that elves cherish children because they have so few of their own. The common demographic winter concern of masses of elderly people needing care and few young people to give it is not shown--- the elves may all be over one hundred, but they seem like young people or at worst, middle aged. But it is obvious that the elves' adoption of abused children is a custom that would provide them with a substitute labor force to help them care for elderly elves when it got to the point there were not enough young elves for the job.

If you have read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood you may have thought it a simple work of new-feminist polemic or of anti-Christianist bigotry. And those are indeed the reasons why the work is taught in schools as literature. But the book also contains a demographic winter theme.  The absurd walking stereotypes of a liberal's view of 'fundamentalists' (evangelical Christians) are experiencing a demographic winter caused by widespread infertility. The feminist heroine, as an enemy of the Gilead state who is a woman of proven fertility, is placed in a home as a 'handmaid'--- a household servant who is expected to bear a child to the household's master. I must applaud Miss Atwood for taking the trouble to create an actual motivation like this for her absurd Christian caricatures. A lesser writer wouldn't have troubled to think of a reason for them to do this evil other than 'that's how evil those Christians are'.  While I personally think Miss Atwood might have taken the trouble to actually meet and talk to a conservative Christian in person before writing this book in order to ground the Gilead characters in some faint semblance of reality, she did at least do enough of her homework in world building and in creating her main character to enable me to find the book not only readable but re-readable, in spite of the bigotry in it directed at my own faith.

Have you ever thought of using a population dystopia theme in your fiction? Was it a major theme of the work, or only a side issue? Did you make it close to the population concerns people have about the real world, or did you try to make it quite fictional and distinct from people's view of real-world population issues?

Worst Author Blog Ever

Once I saw an author blog by a man who had written a self-published novel. He had been told that he should have an author blog. He decided that what that blog was about was his book, and himself as an author

And so he made a few posts to announce when the book came out, and when it became available on Amazon.com. And then, being a fine Christian gentleman who didn't feel right about immodestly talking about himself, he stopped posting for lack of anything appropriate and Christian to say.

But that blog was not the Worst Author Blog Ever. That would have to go to one of the many authors who have made the same decision about what their blog is about--- their book, and themselves as author--- and somehow managed to find things to post about on this topic every day for months or years.

If you want a blog that will connect with potential readers, you need a blog that talks about what they might be interested in--- and at first, your book will not be among those things.

You need to decide what your blog is about--- perhaps write an 'elevator pitch' or a one-sentence summary of your blog topic. It can be about your genre, about the writing life, about the fact that your cat is plotting against you---- anything that can help you reach out to like-minded blog readers.

Another important factor in avoiding that Worst Author Blog Ever title is to follow the Golden Rule--- do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Do you want other blogs to mention your book or blog? Mention the books or blogs of others. Do you want others to review your book/blog kindly? Review the books or blogs of others kindly--- pretend the author of these works is looking over your shoulder as you write. Do you want others to respect your opinions even if they disagree with them? Respect the opinions of others; if their opinions are beyond the pale (as in admirers of Adolf Hitler), at least be as kind as you can to the holder of the opinion. (Calling people dirty no-good skunks never changes their opinion, anyway.)

One published author whose blog I have followed mainly attracted me by how she followed the Golden Rule in her internet presence, Holly Lisle. Her web site and blog is filled with useful advice for beginning writers. Now, I had read a few Holly Lisle books years ago and didn't care for them very much. But after year after year of checking in on Holly Lisle's blog from time to time, I recently picked up one of Holly's books second-hand. I got hooked, and bought the next two books in the trilogy as soon as I finished that book. Her internet work had eventually turned me into a reader of her fiction.

Are you a writer who may have had trouble with this new requirement that authors become bloggers? How has it been working out for you lately? Do you have any wisdom to share?

You should be committed!

Do you dream of being a published writer? You should be committed! No, not that kind of committed. You should be committed to your writing. Not just writing in general, but your particular writing project, right now.

It's hard to do this. We get a good idea for a novel, work on it a bit, and then other ideas come along. If the work on Novel #1 is going well, we may ignore the other ideas for now. But when the road becomes rocky on Novel #1, and those other wonderful novel-ideas are beckoning--- we start Novel #2.

For some of us, this first step of abandoning our novel for a better idea becomes the start of a pattern. We start a novel with high hopes, the novel seems less of a good idea each time we work on it, and before long we leave it unfinished to pursue some new novel idea.

This problem is we have not firmly committed ourselves to writing our Novel #1, working on it every day, until it is finished. If we are committed at all, it is a lukewarm commitment 'until a better idea comes along'. And if you have 'the right stuff' to be a writer, better ideas, or at least newer ideas that seem better, will always be coming along.

So, today, this day, make a firm commitment. That novel project you've got going right now--- you will finish it. Every day, say to yourself: "I commit to finishing (name of novel). I will work on it every day until it is finished."

And then, do it. When the idea appears in your mind to shift your work onto some other project, treat it like the idea of running out on a booze-binge or the idea of running off to Mexico with a cute secretary. Because that idea is a temptation, while the novel that you are committed to--- that's your wife. Be faithful to her!

Why Writers Lack Self-Confidence

If you are a writer, and you are not yet published, I'd be willing to bet good money on one thing: at least some of the time, you lack confidence in your writing, and, thus, in yourself as an author.

It's only natural. As children in school, our first writing efforts may have been 'rewarded' by having our little stories returned full of corrections--- sometimes unneeded ones. Like the time my mother as a child had been assigned to write about an imaginary country. She created one called Boland--- which the teacher corrected to 'Poland'. Mom's lacked confidence in her writing ever since.

Or perhaps you went to the kind of school
where your first writing efforts were met with paeans of insincere praise--- as were the efforts of the illiterate child in the class who simply copied random letters. A clever child (all of my readers were clever children), you concluded if your work were the equal of the illiterate child's paper, your writing wasn't worth much.

My own experience as a child with undiagnosed Asperger Syndrome shows how lack of confidence can be created. In grade school the school authorities decided I was 'unhappy' and ordered my parents to take me in for counseling.  I remember my mother telling me I had to go to a new doctor, who wasn't the kind who gave shots. He was a doctor you just talked to. My interpretation of that was that the doctor was a shrink, which meant that I was crazy.

I was lucky I suppose that at that time, one could go in for appointments on a weekly basis, or even twice a week, rather than the standard now of only 20 mental health visits a year unless you are suicidal or some other form of homicidal.

But the result was that I learned to interpret some of the things that were good and writerly about myself as pathological--- a symptom of my unnamed mental disease. For example, I had been making up stories, usually about my favorite fictional characters, during much of my free time for as long as I could remember. One shrink I went to during my teen years--- after I had already decided to become a writer--- told my parents in my presence that he could 'cure' me of my compulsive 'fantasizing'.

Now that I'm a grownup I know intellectually that being a writer is not a mental disease, and that making up stories is what writers do. But our minds have subconscious parts as well as the wide-awake intellectual parts. And in those subconscious parts, all these negative beliefs we've held over the years, are stored lovingly away for the dreaded 'Inner Critic' godzilla to use to stomp our souls flat.

Self-confidence can be a problem even for published authors. Even published authors get their work rejected, and they often are confronted with hostile, even hateful reviews. And authors that are not going up in book sales may find their writing career threatened by market forces, leading them to fear they are not good writers, or that their good writing is doomed by their lack of marketing skills.

What can you do about lack of self-confidence? The answer I have found involves a horror--- positive thinking. (AGGHH!!!) This is a technique of countering the bad, unconfident thoughts we have with deliberate positive ones.

Some time ago I decided to look for a book on positive thinking, but didn't want one with a new-agey, magical thinking approach. I remembered there had been a book by a Christian pastor, Norman Vincent Peale, called the Power of Positive Thinking, that had been quite popular. I figured that a Christian pastor back in the old days wouldn't have been pushing the whole 'if you chant this affirmation, the universe will be forced to give you a Cadillac' magical thinking.

Reading the book, I was pleased to see I was right about that. I was also pleased that the old pastor was very keen on making use of scientific advancements--- in the form of psychotherapy--- to help overcome confidence problems such as 'inferiority complex'. He also advocated for prayer and trust in Christ--- well, he WAS a Christian pastor--- but he was aware of the fact that many readers would have problems with him offering Christ as the only solution, either because they weren't of his faith, or because they had fallen away from it and didn't see it as a solution. So he often goes out of his way to frame his advice in a more universal way, speaking of a 'Higher Power' sometimes, so that these other readers can connect with it, too.

Since my own thought patterns run to the negative--- I love creating dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories--- it's hard to embrace positive thinking. But my writing needs it, just as my body needs the prescription medication I take every day. So every day in every way, I tell myself my writing is getting better and better. And maybe it is.

Linguistic Aspects of Worldbuilding

In fantasy and science fiction, some degree of world-building is essential. In fact, if you start out without doing some world-building type planning, you may end up writing a world that is a clone of Narnia, Valdemar, Middle-Earth or Darkover without intending to.

A centrally important aspect of world-building is language. You don't have to do what J. R. R. Tolkien did and construct languages for your fantasy world. But your novel will have characters and places, and those characters and places will have names. You want those names to add to
the realism of your fictional world and not distract from it.

Most of us choose an existing language as a model. Celtic languages and older forms of English are particularly popular. If your fantasy is set in what is essentially the past, this can be a good approach.

But if you want your world to be a little different, you might choose to make your names/words a little different from your source. You might replace letters with somewhat-similar sounds--- such as replacing 'd' with 't' or 'th' or shifting vowel sounds.

If you are using Celtic, one method is to write the words/names as they are pronounced, not as they are traditionally spelled. Irish names particularly are often spelled strangely, and respelling them is helpful to the reader as well as making it seem like a slightly different Celtic language, unlike the real ones of our world.

Sometimes words and name elements from different cultures are combined, as if  the language is that of a composite culture. If your world is not based on any Earth culture, picking two unrelated and uncommon languages and combining elements to create appropriate words/names can be a good strategy.

If you are writing a future world in science fiction, you must make sure character names don't contradict elements of your culture. If writing a world in which Christianity and related religions have long ago died out and been forgotten, don't give your characters Biblical names. (Use a good name book to detect name origins.)

Place names, on the other hand, usually are old and little influenced by the current cultural trends. Sometimes they are from other cultures--- as the many names of US cities which are derived from Indian words. Often the language has changed so much since a place was named that to the inhabitants it might as well have been named in a foreign language.

If you have hopes that your fantasy novel will continue to be read many years from now, avoid giving your characters new-and-faddish names. Such names often age quickly. Names like Mildred and Ethel were once wildly popular, but now most people think of them as the names of people's elderly aunts. While names like John and Mary are eternal classics, and even now no one will blink at a fantasy-world warrior named John.