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Month: August 2022

Self-Review – CynthiaJake to represent Cynthia

Self-Review – Cynthia

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 25, 2022

Review – Cynthia

So the thing about Cynthia is, it’s a fun although ultimately sad story.

You see, Cynthia is a Great Dane.

And to her sorrow, her master is succumbing to Alzheimer’s. This short story was written for the second volume of The Longest Night Watch. All of the proceeds go to the Alzheimer’s Association.

I love the canine point of view. There is just something about writing about a species that is so incredibly close to us yet their ‘language’, such as it is, is vastly different.

Furthermore, even science says that dogs experience so much more than we do when it comes to scent. And so, I firmly believe that their perceptions have to be rendered in that manner.

Background

I have always been a dog lover, and I even have some fan fiction where the POV comes from a canine perspective. As a result, I had the itch to write something similar yet wholly original. I also wanted it to reflect the overall subject matter, Alzheimer’s. What better way, than to show that the creature keeping their faculties is one who didn’t have quite so many to begin with?

Plot

The plot is small and compact, and it reflects how Daniel’s life is shrinking in on itself. The dog even says that there is more food when Keisha arrives, and the walks are longer. You don’t need to be human to know that Daniel is faltering. Because this status quo will change, and the center will not hold.

Characters

The characters are the narrator, Cynthia the dog, Daniel Robinson, her owner, and Daniel’s daughter, Keisha. However, we only see Keisha at the end, although there is a mentioning of her before.

Memorable Quotes from Cynthia

I love him.

He smells good.

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Cynthia: Upshot

Canine POV, as I noted above, is great fun to write. But the story is truly a sad one. For Keisha in particular, her father is slipping away. And even though she’s a nurse, she can do nothing to slow down or stop his decline.

Cynthia’s devotion and love are as real and true as any human’s. #amwriting

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Writing Better AccentsPromotions, Swag, Exposition, Better Dialogue, Character Sexuality, Starting, Personal Writing Process, Starburst Method, how do I write a book, Supporting Indie Authors, Snowflake, Libraries, Descriptions, Ages, Dialogue Tags, Gender Swap, Pocket conflicts, Giveaways, Plotting, mental energy, Character Creation, Scene Setting, Transitioning, Genre Treatments, Easter Eggs, Accents, Plot Creation, Complex evil characters, Bechdel test, Writer Newsletter, Wattpad gets into the Digital Publishing Game, character reviews, Universal Explorations, Libraries, Awards, Social Signals, Blog Community, Query Letter,

Writing Better Accents

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 23, 2022

Writing Better Accents

Accents can be tough to write. However, not to worry. Because New York Times bestselling author Dayton Ward has some wonderful advice amidst the humor.

Distinguishing Each Accent

So, can you tell the difference between someone from the Bronx and someone from Brooklyn? And what about Chicago versus Detroit? Or Swedish versus Norwegian? YouTube has a number of videos about speech and speaking details; just conduct a search.

However, I caution you that the information is not always correct. Hence, listen to several videos and try to split the difference, unless you know for certain where the speaker hails from. Because sometimes a person is just trying to practice or mimic the way others speak and they don’t always do such a great job of that.

Respecting the Speakers

If your southern American characters sound like Gomer Pyle, and your Mexican characters sound like Señor Wences, you are probably not doing such a hot job with depicting their accents. Same with a British character who ends up sounding like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Just, don’t.

Furthermore, areas of the world have variations when it comes to speaking. And it’s not just with word choice (e. g. Bostonians call a sandwich on a long roll a grinder whereas that same sandwich is a po’boy in New Orleans and a sub in New York City); it also has to do with sounds. Brooklynites tend to broaden their vowels and can often drop an ending g or an r.

For example, a Brooklynite from the area called “East New York” (such as my own mother) will call Barbey Street “Bobby Street”. Yes, really – true story – I didn’t know the correct name of the street my mother grew up on until we went there and I saw the street sign for the first time.

In addition, a county does not have to be as large as the United States for there to be differences in speech. England is notorious for this. Go to Liverpool and they speak far differently from how people speak in Cornwall.

Accents and Takeaways

Be sure to listen to people who have the accents you want to write about. Do so in person if you can, or at least online with a reliable source. And particularly pay attention to how people say the name of the place they come from. Finally, respect accents and don’t automatically assign intelligence or stupidity based upon them.

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Self-Review – GentrificationShort Stories, Road, My Aliens, Last Patient, interview, Surprises, Props, shipwrecked, child, Killing Us Softly, Ditte, Band, three minutes, Longest Night Watch, Nothing Good Ever Happens, Complications, Your Call, Darkness into Light, canaries, gentrification, Cynthia, True Believer, Short Stories, Wilder Bloom, Dish, Gentrification, Mitalisque, kitten, Last Try, Minnesota Wish, Dominick and Angela, Alix, Alix’s Apocalypse, A Chance Encounter in Time, A Crime in Time, A Show for the Galaxy, Aenor the Wanted, Alien Justice, And the Band Played the Apocalypse, Babel 2.0, Back, Front, and Side Pages, Camp, Courier to the Soviets, Frozen Assets, Julie's Dollar, Mandy Goes to Aspen, Martin's Choice, Mike’s Grades, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, Saddle Up, Bank Teller, Sarah’s Invention, Small Acts of Defiance, The Future Has No Foundation, The Ides of the Secretarial Pool, Unexpected Help, You Will Drink Your Coffee and Like It, Unreliable, East Side of the Universe, Eros vs Thanatos, Dust Between Our Stars, A Show for the Galaxy, A Fairy Tale for Skeptical Adults, A School for Scavengers, Frozen Assets, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, 1960s Temporal Crimes, Lizzie Borden is Vital to the Timeline, Walls Came Tumbling Down Again, The End, Will's Dog,

Self-Review – Gentrification

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 18, 2022

Review – Gentrification

Gentrification is about an extremely controversial topic—abortion. When I wrote it, Roe v Wade was still fairly secure. I didn’t intend to write a prophecy.

Background

The story idea originally came to me because house flippers are a pretty large segment of the customers for the company where I work. And then the peeling away of the layers of ownership turned into something far different. But I did not intend to write about much. But it just … happened.

Plot

While peeling wallpaper from an old house’s walls, the narrator comes across a mural, painted in pastels. So, it’s clearly for a child.

She traces down the ownership of the house, finally finding one woman who was probably around when the mural was painted.

Yet Hazel Prentice Morse wasn’t just around. She was in the thick of it.

Characters in Gentrification

The characters are the unnamed narrative, a woman who is a retired lawyer. Also, Hazel Morse, the storyteller, who was twelve at the time of the events. In addition, Hazel’s Aunt Martha and Martha’s boyfriend, Chet. Also, Hazel’s parents and her grandparents.

Memorable Quotes

That woman, Hazel Prentice Morse, agreed to meet with me. We met at a café in her much nicer neighborhood, where she was reserved and somewhat skeptical, even after seeing numerous pictures. Then I drove her to the brownstone. The four flights we had to walk up weren’t too kind to our old knees.

When we were in the room and she saw the mural in the flesh as it were, she started to cry. I didn’t really have much of a place to sit during renovations, so I went downstairs to give her some privacy and find the one folding chair I always bring so I can have a place to eat my lunch.

I brought the chair up. She sat down as I leaned against the windowsill. “What is it?” I asked. “What do you remember, Mrs. Morse? Do you know who the artist was?” When I was still practicing law, I took a ton of depositions. I know how to gently get information out of frightened witnesses. You never forget how to do that.

“Yes, I know who it was.” She stared off into the distance.

“You don’t have to tell me anything.” She was no witness. I didn’t have to indulge my morbid curiosity.

“I do, actually. Woman to woman. It’s funny. But I’m the only person alive who remembers. I imagine the statute has run by now.”

“Statute?”

“The Statute of Limitations—you know—how long you can be charged with a crime.”

Rating

The story has a PG-13 rating. There are some rather upsetting parts of it, and I depict deaths but not in detail. However, the deaths are told via the conceit of having a character relate them decades later. So, the reader is even further removed from them.

But they’re still not the kind of thing most people like to talk about, or ever think about.

Gentrification: the Upshot

I have workshopped this story more than once and I have submitted it for publication. So for a publisher with the cojones to take it on, I think it’s a story to tell.

But I have been getting the feeling that publishers are just too afraid to rock the boat right now.

Gentrification, a story that needs to be told. #amwriting

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Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (verbal elements)Twitter, Twitter Stream, offsite connections, visual elements, Twitter followers, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, Demystifying Twitter, metrics, verbal elements, Amazoncart debuts, Optimizing Twitter, Professionalism, metrics, verbal elements, Bruins denounce Twitter hate, Twitter bigots, lost dogs, using Twitter to track, Shift in Twitter Trends

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (verbal elements)

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 16, 2022

Almost Everything But the Tweet – Conquering Twitter (verbal elements)

Verbal elements? Twitter is, of course, utterly verbal. It’s just about all text. But not all of that text is tweets.

One piece is the profile. There isn’t a lot of space here. The good news is that these verbal elements are searchable. If you want to make it clear that your company is green, you can put that here. Separate short messages with delimiters like pipes (|) or asterisks (*). Don’t use semicolons as they can end up being converted to code.

This is an easy section to change, so consider changing it as needed, perhaps as special events come up. Just keep track of the older wording so you can more readily recreate it if you ever need to.

Another area is the site URL. In order to be better able to track traffic coming in from Twitter, how about using a unique URL here, say, https://www.yoursite.com/twitter? That page could contain a customized welcome message to Twitter users. This is another readily editable area of Twitter, so why not switch it up as circumstances change?

This is also a useful way to help to better segment your audience. Anyone using the /twitter link is bound to have some sort of affinity with the microblogging service.

Your location is another verbal area. Of course it need not be a real place, but for a commercial Twitter account you can’t get too whimsical here.

However, if you’ve got a multi-state presence (and want to get that across but not create separate Twitter accounts for each state), there’s nothing wrong with making your location something like United States or New England or Great Lakes Region.

Verbiage: Names

Another area is the name behind the account. This is a searchable field. A company can add a tiny bit of additional information here, such as the general company location. Hence the user name could be Your Company but the name behind it could be Your Company, Cleveland.

Yet another area is the name(s) of list(s) that your company uses to follow others. Does a company need Twitter lists? Not necessarily, but you can still use them to make certain accounts stand out.

What about lists like customers or distributors? Perhaps not very imaginative, but these could prove useful in the future if Twitter ever makes it possible to send certain tweets only to certain lists.

Finally, although it is an issue to change it, the username is another nugget of non-tweet verbiage. Instead of changing it, what about creating a few accounts to cover different eventualities? Able2Know used to do this well (although some of these feeds are abandoned these days).

Years ago, Able2know used to split off a few feeds as follows:

A user was able to follow any or all of these and see a different slice of that site. The individual user names for the accounts make it abundantly clear which cut of the site you’re following.

But that was dropped, and I am not 100% certain as to why–although automatic tweeting meant we were tweeting spam and porn before the moderating team could zap it out of existence.

Takeaways

So, what do you want to get across? I mean, really. What image do you wish to project? Peripheral information can support or obfuscate your message.

Make certain that the content and social media people (if not the entire marketing department) get a say in the wording. They may find things that you missed. Or at least they should be able to help you spot typos.

Choose what you really want your verbal elements to say. And then, say them!

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Why You Can’t Charge for FanfictionLegal, Creative Commons, fanfiction, crash course, copyright law, exceptions, Practice Law, Avoiding Common Legal Mistakes, Transitioning, cyber infidelity,

Why You Can’t Charge for Fanfiction

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 11, 2022

Do You Know Why You Can’t Charge for Fanfiction?

I enjoy fanfiction as much as, perhaps, the next person. But you still can never, ever charge for it. I implore you: don’t even try.

Seriously, put it out of your mind. Someone owns that copyright. And that someone is not you.

But aren’t there exceptions?

Yes, there are some. But they have limitations. Do not hang your hat on them. So first, let’s talk about why fan fiction is problematic.

There are Issues With This Form of Expression

For writers like you and me—and Stephen King and JK Rowling as well, etc.—we prepare our own universes. Some universes are familiar and take any number of real-life elements.

For example, King’s The Stand mainly takes place in more or less present-day America. King does not run into any copyright issues with New York City being New York City. Other places in the book, though, are more the product of his imagination. In Rowling’s Harry Potter universe, though, a lot more of the scenes were dreamt up by her.

For both authors, and for countless others, originality consists of creating a universe, creating characters, devising a plot, and then executing the plot in some fashion. Even in familiar settings, there is still scene setting and universe creation. But it’s more a function of subtraction that addition. That is, you don’t make New York City. You just take the Chelsea section of it.

But that’s not the case with fan fic. In fan fiction, another person (or persons) created the universe and the characters. Even when the fanficcer adds characters, the fictional world remains the original author’s creation. Hence one of the main issues with fan fiction is that it keeps the fanficcer from learning how to do that.

Fair Use and Other Exceptions to Copyright

Time to look at the law.

Per 17 U.S. Code § 107 – Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use:  

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Can You Use a Fair Use Argument?

Eh, not really.

So the sad old truth is that there are only a few ways to get around copyright. In general, you’re a lot more likely to be able to claim fair use if what you write is educational. This includes citing passages in scholarly works and articles.

If you’re writing an article about Star Trek, no one’s going to have a winning copyright case against you if you write “Live Long and Prosper.” Hell, they wouldn’t even have a good case against me right now, either. Educational, yo’. And, you might be able to argue that the phrase is a part of the general public lexicon now, much like “Live and Let Live”.

The “nature” bit in the law mainly refers to whether the source material is published. Published source material is more likely to be the foundation for fair use. With fan fiction, at least, that is virtually always the case.

Amount and substantiality is a kind of sliding scale. My writing LLAP, above, is tiny when you compare it to the vast array of Trek products, writings, and broadcasts out there.

Finally, the effect part can cover everything from whether the public would be deceived by a too-close copy to using the characters for out and out porn. And while even porn can sometimes that can be seen as parody, recognize that parody is often even harder to prove.

What About Saying You Don’t Want to Make a Profit, or Not Selling it?

Neither matter. 

You can write up disclaimers until the cows come home. But they have nothing to do with the above statute. As a result, this means you can be on the receiving end of a lawsuit even if you give your stuff away. Yep, even if you pay people to take it.

But as a practical and public relations matter, big rights holders are less likely to sue when it’s freebie fanfiction.

Why?

Because the last thing many large corporations want is for the press to turn it into a David and Goliath situation. And these corporations really don’t want to potentially lose and see their copyright get chipped away at. Also, these corporations know that most fan fiction isn’t too popular. So, why draw attention to it?

I’m not suggesting you have free rein, by the way.

Seriously, if Disney (for example), tells you to knock off with fanfiction, do yourself an enormous favor and do so. You do not have the House of Mouse’s deep pockets and access to a stunning array of experienced, high-priced attorneys.

Benefits of Fanfiction

It’s not all bad, of course. The biggest and most measurable benefit is that it keeps you writing. You can often spark creativity by simply being creative, that is, you write five or seven days per week, and you can fill up that writing time fairly readily.

But if you only write three times per month, you may find you have writers’ block when you make the infrequent attempt. There is something about the pressure of deadlines or at least the pressure of your own internal expectations. It helps to not have a blank page to stare at all the time.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with borrowing another’s universe in order to keep writing and exercising the creativity muscle.

Just don’t try to sell it.

Do YOU know why you can’t charge for #fanfiction? Does it really matter? If you don’t want to be sued, it sure does! #amwriting

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Character Review — Nell MurphyBailee Madison, who I see as Nell Murphy

Character Review — Nell Murphy

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 9, 2022

Consider Nell Murphy, One of My Original Characters

Who is Nell Murphy?

For Mettle, I needed a character who would be bullied. In contrast to the wealthy and overly pretty Kitty and Mink—and the troublemaking Dez—I wanted a mousey character. Nell fills the bill perfectly.

Where Did Nell Murphy Come From?

Because I’ve been on the receiving end of bullying myself, writing those scenes was easy. And, frankly, they mainly came from real life. But it’s not just what happens to her. It’s also how she reacts to it. Since Nell has few resources at her disposal, she retreats even more into herself.

The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Nell Murphy

Born after the turn of the 21st century, Nell is fourteen during the entire run of Mettle. She never knows who her father is. Her mother, Julia, overdoses on opioids when Nell is only six. As a result of this harsh childhood, her Gran (Sally Murphy) is raising her.

But her family is far from wealthy. Gran scrimps to get Nell good food and keep a roof over their heads. When the book starts, Gran is having trouble paying the heating bills.

Shy, quiet, and introverted, Nell wants to be anywhere but wherever she is. Feeling undue pressure, she cuts herself.

Like many tweens, she’s mouthy at times, and mumbles at others. Sometimes, she’s responsible. But other times, she slacks off. Just like any other kid of her age.

Description

Nell is small and slight. I see her with straight, stringy mousey brown hair and large eyes. She’s pale, too. Often, she wants to disappear. If I had to describe her with one word, I would say she’s scrawny.

Purpose/Theme/Motivation

Like all of the other characters in Mettle, Nell’s primary motivation is to survive. And she realizes cutting won’t help anything, so she stops voluntarily. It’s one of the more mature things she does throughout the book.

Quotes

In this scene, Nell and Dez (a classmate) are trying to survive with fellow Bostonians Elise, Noah, Mei-Lin, Craig, and Olga. To save fuel and conserve their own human energy, the idea is to combine households. Even though they were classmates, Dez and Nell barely knew each other before. The others didn’t know her at all. Before, Elise was working as a medical examiner and was acquainted with Mei-Lin, another doctor at the local hospital. Olga, a Russian immigrant, is the caregiver for Noah’s mother, who has Alzheimer’s.

“Would you both live in the Carter Street house?” Elise asked, point blank. “If you don’t want to, it’s okay. But Nell, you’re right. Combining households will save us fuel.”

“I guess so.” Nell looked down. “It’ll be weird not being around Gran’s things.”

“I could live in the Carter Street house,” Dez said. “I won’t really miss anything back home. My old man saw to that. Anything I really owned or liked can’t be used except the skateboard. The rest is all computers, stuff like that. I had my own TV. That’s a waste now.”

“Bring some of your grandmother’s stuff over if you want to, Nell,” Mei-Lin suggested. “Or your mother’s.”

“I just have one thing from my mom.”

“What that?” asked Olga.

“The burgundy down jacket.”

“She’s kept you warm, then,” Noah said.

“That’s about all she ever did.”

“You don’t have to give us the gory details if you don’t want to,” Craig said.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind. My mother OD’d when I was six.”

“Opioids, right?” Elise asked. Nell nodded. “I probably did her autopsy.”

“Julia Murphy.”

“I don’t know. But it wouldn’t shock me.” Elise squeezed the girl’s hand.

Relationships

Nell is very young, so she doesn’t really have much in the way of relationships. Certainly, there’s nothing sexual. She’s probably ace. I’ve mulled that idea over a few times and it’s … possible. But even I’m not 100% sure.

Gran

Nell’s grandmother is the only family she’s got. Gran is mother, father, and tutor to Nell. Because there’s no one else, they are close. But this doesn’t mean Nell is a good little obedient girl. While she tends to keep quiet about things, she’s still not a perfect little angel, to be reared effortlessly.

Eleanor Braverman

For a few days, Eleanor has the wherewithal to become a more active member of the group. Nell latches onto her immediately, as Gran has gone out of town and there’s no way to know when or even if she’ll ever be back. Eleanor and Nell read together, and it gets Nell excited about learning in a way she never was before.

Noah Braverman

While Nell and Noah don’t have a lot of scenes together, she comes to love everyone in the group. With the Bravermans, she even takes on their name as a second middle name. In that way, she honors both Noah and his mother.

Craig Firenze

Although they don’t get off on the right foot, Nell comes to appreciate and truly respect Craig. As everything else goes to pot around them, she develops what is not really a crush. It’s more like hero worship. Because Craig offers stability and reassurance when everything else feels hopeless.

Conflict and Turning Point

Like for the other characters in Mettle, the turning point centers around things finally becoming so dire that it seems inevitable that none of them will make it. Nell is the first to really get close to the point of no return. But she’s also the first to recover, and the first to start to piece together what’s really going on.

Continuity/Easter Eggs

When I had trouble coming up with the name of a side, throwaway character in Time Addicts, I named her Nell. Although that character is Nell Shaw.

Are There Any Future Plans for Nell Murphy?

I don’t really have any future plans for her, but she’s a character I could see myself revisiting.

Nell Murphy: Takeaways

Don’t count her out. Nell may be small, but she’s mighty all the same. I see my seventh grade self in her.

Nell Murphy — small but fierce.

Want More of Nell and the Rest of Mettle?

If Mettle resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how changes in the periodic table nearly kill us all.

Character Reviews: Mettle

The Mettle Universe
Self Review: Mettle

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