Doing Research
Published January 23rd, 2010 | 
One of the most important skills for a writer to have is knowing how to do research. Library research. Internet Research. Etc.
You may find as a writer that you will, over the course of your career, be called upon to write on many different topics. Whether you are a freelance copywriter or a writer of crime novels, you will have to know stuff you do not know.
And no writer knows everything (although, I’ve met my share who think they know everything). Let’s face it: if "write what you know" literally meant write about what you already know, most of us wouldn’t have that much to write about. That’s where research comes into play. For example, I have no idea what spring plungers are. From the words alone, I surmise that it’s related to something mechanical, but I couldn’t tell you what one looked like or what it’s function is. I’m not a mechanically inclined person. As such, if I were to write something about spring plungers — either an article or some story in which the device played some small part, I’d have to learn about it. As a teenager, I didn’t really understand this. If you are a young writer just starting out, you need to understand this. Being a writer will require you to do copious amounts of research on many different topics, so if you’re not into doing that, you’re going to have to get into it. Write what you know — sure, but more importantly know what you write.
Nightmares, Dreamscapes and Auto Repair
Published January 22nd, 2010 | I have weird dreams sometimes. Sometimes nightmares, but more often than not, when they’re not specifically happy dreams, they are just weird.
For years, I’ve had a recurring series of dream set firmly in this dreamscape region I called Elsewhere. It’s a mixture of geographical regions that don’t really make sense. For instance, there is a region that’s set in a very Indiana-like town, but quickly morphs into a seaside town or desert region at times, yet is undoubtedly a part of the same world. In addition to the town, there is a large school that seems to be a hodgepodge of every school I’ve ever attended, taught in or visited and a shopping mall that is larger on the inside than on the outside and, as far as I can tell, goes on forever. Well, last night, I ended up dreaming about this place for the first time in almost 3 years.
This time, however, I didn’t make into the town proper or to the school or the mall or the sea resort. I was driving down the long stretch of highway leading into the town. I was driving a Honda Accord, which is somewhat odd because I’ve never owned, rented or driven a Honda in my life. Anyway, on the way to the town, the timing belt went and I had to call a tow-truck. I had this cell phone that looked like something from the late eighties, early nineties — huge. Of course, I couldn’t get cell reception and started on foot towards the town. a pay phone miraculously materialized by the side of the road and I called for the tow. A tall, greasy-looking man with an unruly beard and a droopy eye, pulls up in his tow truck. He hitches up my car and gives me a lift to his garage just outside of the town.
"Ain’t seen you ’round here in a while," he says.
"Pardon. I don’t believe we’ve met," I say.
The man just grins.
We pull into his garage. The sign is rusted-over and I can’t make-out the name. It’s either "San Francisco auto repair" or "Sandino’s Fast auto repair".
"How long is this going to take?" I ask him.
The man scratches his belly and looks out at the road. "Can’t rightly say. Don’t got the part here. Have to order it."
"How can you not have the part? It’s a timing belt. It’s a Honda!"
"Cool your jets, now. See, we just don’t get many of your kind around here. Not many of you arrive by car."
"Then how do you stay in business?"
Again he grins at me and doesn’t answer. Just then, before the dream progresses any further, it abruptly ends. What do you think that dream means? Creeped me out anyway.
Amazon Hits Back
Published January 20th, 2010 | Publishers have been worried about Amazon’s grip on the ebook market for a while now. I previously reported the moved by several major publishing conglomorates to create their own digital storefront to combat Amazon’s $10 price tag edict.
While I normally don’t side with Amazon giving some of my own experiences with them as a publisher, I’d have to say Amazon is mostly right about the need to sell ebooks at a lower cost. I’ve said it myself many times — ebooks put out by the major publishers cost too much. Give that digital copies of books costs almost nothing to produce (and in fact digital rights are normally bundled into the publishing contract at the onset), there is no good excuse for charging the same for an ebook as the hardcopy edition. Rupert Murdock and his publishing cronies really should take some colon cleansing pills and otherwise back-off. Besides, Amazon is starting to get plenty of competition for the ebook market. But Amazon’s latest move in the wake of publisher paranoia is rather ingenious — the company is now offering higher royalties to authors. If this trend takes hold, other digital marketplace will have to follow suit and big publishing will not have anything left to bargain with. Consumers do not want to pay inflated prices for digital content. In the end, the company that offers the best deal for both writers and consumers will win the ebook war. And Amazon has just struck a major blow to the industry. Now, let’s see what Google does.
