Symbolism Has No Real Value - What?!

This came up as an argument by some in favor of doing away with a lot of doctrines during a major religious upheaval in a church I once attended. I get that there are a lot of different points of view and I'm tolerant to those ideas but the notion that anything with purely symbolic meaning has no value to me is an idiotic argument. 

This isn't my point of view as a religious person. It's what I think as a civilized human being and a writer. My point here isn't religious at all. It's about the real value of symbols.

Without symbols I couldn't write this and you couldn't read it. Language is all symbols. We have assigned meaning to certain patterns of sound and written patterns to be able to communicate with each other. If I changed the symbols I'm using to another language, you might not be able to understand my meaning. How important are symbols? (It's important enough that Bubblews made a rule about language on the site).

If you have a job, your boss gives you money representing the work you do for him or her. You can use that money to buy things you need like food. Money is a medium of exchange. It has symbolic meaning. If everyone decided tomorrow that the Canadian dollar was worthless, it would be worthless. It would look the same, but have no meaning. How important are symbols?

The truth is we are surrounded by symbols everyday, everywhere all the time. As a married man it is really easy to accidentally do something to symbolically offend my wife, or a friend or anyone. Symbols and symbolism are huge.

If you consider yourself a serious writer, you discount symbolism at your peril. Your personal writing is full of symbols both consciously put on the page and unconsciously. You may pick up a book and not be aware of it but it is there. One of the things I do as a writer is first be aware of the symbols I'm creating and working with and then deliberately develop and deepen them as the story goes. It makes my writing better. 

For me throwing something away because it has only symbolic meaning is incomprehensible. You don't have to believe like I do, but give me a better reason than that or don't give me a reason at all. 

*This article was first written on Bubblews. If you are interested in participating on that site my referral link is: http://www.bubblews.com/?referral=51f5bbc90f3fe9.59547344

Editing - Blind To My Own Mistakes

You just completed the first draft of your first novel and you thought you were done. Editing is hard work. It took me more man hours of work editing my first book "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" than it took to write it. Worse like a lot of writers, I'm completely blind to a lot of my mistakes. I can have a sentence that makes absolutely no sense and can read it thirty times and not see anything wrong with it. Sometimes I need a little help (maybe a lot of help).

Never fear there is help out there and you can find it. It doesn't have to cost you anything if you are broke. That just might mean looking harder and being a little more patient. There are people who make money from editing. There are a couple things you can do without anyone else's help and that is where you should start.

First thing to do is take that wonderful rough draft of yours, put it away and forget about it for at least a couple weeks. While you've forgotten about it temporarily, write something else or educate yourself further about the nuts and bolts of writing. Look for resources online or at the library. After that you will see your work with fresh eyes and you'll be ready to start working it over.

Before I go into a massive edit, I like to get feedback from some fellow writer friends. Online or local writing communities and groups can be great for this. I am at times quite active on Writing.com and Book Junkies on Facebook. It is a give and take deal, so you better be prepared to give back. Friends in those types of places can make a big difference. I have one friend from Writing.com named Glenda who loves the characters I write and has reviewed a great deal of my work just because she likes it. She's good too. She now works as a freelance editor/writer at Literature Editing by Glenda.  She is the only person I know who has perfect grammar and punctuation throughout her rough draft writing. I wish I could do that. She tells me she wishes she could create characters as real and compelling as mine. Everyone has different strengths.

I'm lucky to have my own in home writing group. I have four children with writing aspirations and I do have them critique my work.

Once I've gathered everything together I go to work. I look at every criticism and comment and consider it. Especially the ones I disagree with or that have somehow hurt my delicate feelings. Those are often the ones that make me better. I am probably my own worst critic granted I'm sure some troll will eventually come along and help me out on that one. 

It's tough work. Sometimes painful work but if you want to be a serious writer it has to be done. I think publishers know if you've made the effort to pay your dues.

*This like some of my other posts was first published on Bubblews. I write there for practice and fun. Once in a while there is something like this that I think has enough merit to be added here.

Passed a Couple of Milestones

I submitted my first redemption on Bubblews today. We'll see how long it takes for the payment to come through. I don't have any doubt they pay. Plenty of friends there have been earning payout regularly. Still was nice to get to that point. That means I have already earned more there than I ever did in my entire Mylot career.

I could have posted and boasted about this achievement on Bubblews and I know that a lot of people would have hit comment and like on it. I just don't really feel comfortable about getting paid for what I regard as a garbage post. I'm surprised they allow it.

Another recent milestone was reaching 5000 views on Writing.com. That really doesn't seem like such a big deal when I see how fast views are piling up on Bubblews but it is a different format with a different purpose. I don't get paid there but I get a lot of peer feedback on my writing. Something I can't get enough of.

I did let the kids borrow my review template from that site for doing their own reviews. Being more naturally computer savvy than their old dad, Mieke and Andrew both have more visually appealing templates after they personalized it. I might get them to help me spruce mine up. I'm starting to feel a little bit jealous.

My blog here is inching closer to one thousand visitors. What I'm proud of is that my page views here is two and a half times that. That means that visitors are looking around the site when they visit. I find that encouraging. Makes me feel like I'm doing something right on this blog.

Still working on Rat in the Shadows. Dealing with quite a bit of turmoil in my personal life but I still hope to have something worth submitting to my publisher this fall.

Why I Write On Bubblews

http://www.bubblews.com is a social networking website where the posters get paid for their posts. I have three reasons for participating there and yes one of them is the fact that they pay me for my work.

Within the basic rules of the site you can write whatever you want. As long as you stay within the rules, you will get paid. You can claim your payout as soon as your bank within the site reaches twenty-five dollars. Some members can do that in a week. I don’t have a great deal of time to devote to the site so I’m happy if I can reach payout once in a great while. I don’t view my time spent here as a job, so the money is really a bonus. There is one big caution when it comes payout. When you submit for payout, if even one of your posts breaks the rules your balance will go back to zero and you will not be paid. Follow the rules and you will earn money. I don’t feel sorry for anyone who didn’t get paid because they didn’t follow the rules. The rules are listed in your bank when you get your account. They are reasonable and straightforward. Make sure you read and understand them before you start.

The rate of pay is a complex calculation but from experience, I’m getting about a penny for every view, like, share, post and comment on my posts. You don’t get paid for commenting on other member’s work but if you expect them to pay any attention to your work you need to pay attention to theirs.

That brings me to the social aspect of the site. I migrated to Bubblews from another paid posting site called Mylot. I was over there for years and developed a core of good solid Internet friends. Mylot decided to stop paying and just be a social site. We all left because not only did the money dry up but so did the social part we were enjoying. Arriving together at Bubblews had its advantages. We did our best to help each other find our feet in a new environment.

On Bubblews it is important to “connect” with other members. Connecting means you get notifications every time your friends post, comment on your posts, comment on your comments, one of your posts or comments are liked and whenever another member mentions you in a post. Notifications are the one real sore spot for me with this site. Because I’m not always on, the sheer volume of notifications overwhelms me. Administration will eventually deal with this I’m sure because I’m not the only one who has issues with it. I short-circuit the problem right now by creating a bookmark folder with my faithful Internet friend’s profile links. This way when I do have time to spend on the site I can first go and catch up with everyone. After that I go wading through my notifications. I’ll connect with anyone who connects with me.

My third reason for being on the site is to practice my writing. It gives me an excuse to write small pieces on a variety of topics. Whatever pops into my head that doesn’t fit into my regular writing goes there. Keeps me producing work in spite of an extremely restricted schedule. A lot of the articles I write for my personal writing blog often get published on Bubblews first. After all, I get paid.

Anyone reading this who is not already a member of Bubblews, I would be happy to refer you. I get paid for that too. Here’s the link:  http://www.bubblews.com/?referral=51f5bbc90f3fe9.59547344  Incidentally I write there under the user name koopharper.

Jack Reacher vs Mark Rathman

After reading my first novel, one of my siblings said that Mark Rathman reminded her a bit of Jack Reacher. I have not read any of Lee Child’s work at this point so curiosity made me go look online. Based on a Wikipedia article, I’ve noticed that there are some similarities.

First and foremost both characters stand six feet five inches tall. Mark is lighter at 225 pounds. Reacher was listed as being somewhere between 220 and 250 pounds. He is listed as having a fifty-inch chest. I’m six foot five and have a forty+ inch chest and weigh in at a lean 210. Unless Reacher has no legs he has to be closer to 250. Both men have very little body fat, well-muscled natural physique and abnormally quick reflexes. Both men have a bullet scar on their chest although Mark didn’t start “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” with one. He earned it along the way. Mark has dark hair and dark eyes while Reacher has ice blue eyes and dirty blond hair.

Their backgrounds are significantly different but similar. Reacher was raised in a military family and was trained by the military. Mark on the other hand came from a civilian police family and acquired his skills through special training and from his father.

Personalities are completely different. Reacher is very aggressive while Mark is only as aggressive as he has to be in a given situation. I get some of this from the article in Wikipedia but also from a few movie clips I watched. As a side note the movie may not be much of a reflection of the books. Keep in mind that Reacher is played by Tom Cruise who is not a very physically imposing individual. As an example I refer to the five on one fight scene outside a bar. Young lady asks to share a table with Reacher. He talks in riddles to her and insults her to provoke the fight. Mark would have never gotten into that one. Complete waste of his time and abilities. Both men share a like for blues.

Last similarity is that both men are “ghosts”. Reacher is a drifter and just keeps moving around while Mark has alter egos since birth that he maintains. They both have a knack for disappearing into crowds.

So who would win in a head to head confrontation? I’m biased but I think Mark would win and I have a solid reason for thinking so. Reacher I believe has a clear strength advantage and his aggressiveness may give him another small edge. I think their marital arts skills and reflexes would cancel each other out. Where Mark has a clear advantage is with knives. Reacher doesn’t like facing an opponent with knives. Mark is an expert with his k-bar and double ended daga as well as a few throwing knives. On that basis I tip the scale strongly in favour of the hero I created.

My apologies to Lee Child, I expect to read one of your books someday. I suspect I would like them just because. I give my character the edge but you have a whole series out there and a movie based on one of your books. I’m just recently published. We know who has the edge in this standoff. Heck, you’re probably an expert in the use of the coma.

Things That Amuse Me And Things That Baffle Me

I don't know why but I love statistics. I like to peruse the background statistical information from my Blogger account. I can't help it. I go there almost everyday. Same with my writing dot com account. Yesterday I noticed that I got referral page views from something called thetaoofbadass. Does that sound cool or what? I like to think that my character from my first novel, Mark Rathman, rates badass.That would have been such a cool connection. I ruined everything by going to visit the site. Turned out to be some instructional video about picking up women. I have no idea how that connects to anything I wrote,

There is one other statistic connected to this url that baffles me. All the page views came from Russia. This wouldn't be strange as a one off incident but I get a lot of views from Russia consistently. Why? I only have one friend on Facebook who has any connection to Russia. I can't even blame this on her. We only reconnected as friends recently and this phenomenon has been going on since the beginning. I don't mind, in fact, I'm delighted. At least someone is paying attention to my writing. I just don't understand the connection. Why is Russia a solid number three behind Canada and the United States? Cheers to all my Russian readers. I'm glad you're finding something here you like.

Writing dot com gave me another winner recently. I posted as story I wrote a very long time ago called "Way to Go Barstow!" A very poorly written tongue in cheek children's story. I posted it hoping to get some feedback on it before contemplating a rewrite. It's about an obese young boy whose weight problem turns him into a super NHL goaltender and ends Toronto's ongoing Stanley Cup drought. Someone found that story on bing by searching proper+fit+goalie+pads. I'm sorry I laugh about that every time it crosses my mind.

Writing Took A Backseat For More Than A Month

Way too much going on the last month plus to get many entries made here. Started the month trying to have a painful kidney stone dealt with medically. It worked but it was a long excruciating process. Took a lot out of me. That wasn't the only issue for the month. We also moved the whole family to another home. That was another whole adventure. The move was finished two weeks ago but the Internet wasn't fully functional here until last evening. There is still lots of work ahead of me and more pain from sciatica but things are heading back to normal. I look forward to making this blog a place worth visiting.