The Satirical Author

A quick little memo for anyone interested!

noreply@blogger.com (The Satirical Author) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:13:00 +0000

Just a quick little memo for you all, full length post on its way later on today. I just wanted everyone to know (If anyone reads this thing) that leave your blog links in my comments and subscribe to me through google connect and if you do those two things I shall reciprocate your actions in return as a show of my gratitude.
Hopefully you will take this opportunity to raise your followers and in turn "hopefully" raise mine, the 1 follower on the left isn't very exciting at the moment... so spread happiness for me!
Rant finished.

RECAP:

Leave your blog link on my comments under this blog post.
Follow me through google connect... The box to your right.
I will leave my link under your comments and follow you in return.

Please leave a comment below, I look forward to some input... I need social interaction!!! Twitter account: https://twitter.com/SatiricalAuthor
(Tweet for me minions - MWAHAHAHA!)

Slush Piles - Killing Myself From Boredom

noreply@blogger.com (The Satirical Author) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:24:00 +0000

Welcome back, I have been summonded by my computer to notify ye all that now you can experience the slush pile. The word slush pile instills fear into all our hearts, it has good reason to... after experiencing a virtual slush pile via Pagetofame, I can no kill myself from boredom.
https://www.webook.com/poll/raters.aspx This is the link to the site where you can sign up and then rate people's creative jottings, their success is in your hands. If your ever having a bad day then you can purposely fight anger with low ratings... OK I'm not being serious, that would be incredibly unfair but If you want to take over the world via webook.com then so it be.

You can also submit your scribblings to this site for a small fee of $3.00 or something along that price tag, for that price you get the chance of a book deal and people debating how crap your writing skill is, its all for a good cause. Apparently.

Some random stick woman is flaunting her manuscript... GRRR (Why are all the stick people successful?)

From this diagram you can see there are 3 rounds to complete before a literary agent reveiws your magical stylings.

Round one: You rate 1 page of a particular manuscript, after a while this gets very tedious but there are some really good beans within this tin.
Round Two: You are then permitted to rate 5 pages of a random manuscript, basically the same as above but requires a little bit more effort.
Round Three: Shamefully I will never attempt this, I cannot sit at a computer reading 50 pages of said manuscript, I would thrust my head against the computer screen in pain as the evil screen burns its way into my eyes... Tut Tut!!!

I'm not going to rant about this as it is best to experience this magical slush pile of virtual goodness yourself. After awhile I found it lost its initial appeal but Its a clever and well crafted idea for many writers who would struggle to get their unsolicited manuscripts read.
Please leave a comment below, I look forward to some input... I need social interaction!!!
Twitter account: https://twitter.com/SatiricalAuthor
(Tweet for me minions - MWAHAHAHA!)
Rant over - Peace.

The err wonderful world of research!

noreply@blogger.com (The Satirical Author) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:31:00 +0000

Beleive it or not, research is an important part of planning and writing your novel. It helps you create more in depth scenes, characters and places that help your novel appear to be of professional standard. I love research, mainly as it is the only time my keyboard does not curse at me, beleive me it happens. Apparently freedom of speech is not allowed within my laptop. You will suddenly experience the shriek of a thousand Apple keyboards wailing into your ears. I find that usually the mighty mouse accepts cheese and then behaves itself but apparently the neanderthal keyboard does not succumb to such inhumane trickery. Shame really.

Back on track, research is important for the story world and plot within your novel, if your story deals with computer hacking and you have no idea what this is then you need to research this area to create credible plots, scenes etc. Most authors, people and neanderthal keyboards say stick to what you know. This is good as you aren't going out of your depth and your sticking within a topic that you understand to the bet of your ability thus giving the story more credibility. Although I agree to an extent, I feel you should always go the extra mile, who got anywhere by being safe? (Please don't answer as loads have people got where they wanted to be by being safe but shh!) Please, please research if you need to... risk not doing so with your writing career or a chocolate milkshake! You decide :O

Research can take many forms, going to the supermarket, reading books about a particular topic, looking at maps etc. Picking up little snippets of detail from whatever means possible helps you get a better understanding of the setting in your novel, relationships between characters and so on. If you are researching something you know then research may be minimal but if your researching 19th century britain then you may spend alot of time researching.

When researching you do not have to include everything you research within your book, if you feel its not needed don't add it but its best to research anything and everything you feel may be important during your writing.

Now once you've decided the topics etc that you must research you have to note it down. I tend to use a moleskin notebook mainly because they are simple and well made and apparently white people like them. You can use anything from notepads, loose paper and a word document to napkins and random scraps of little to no importance.

I'm trying not to go in to great depth because research is different for many people, you have to develop a workflow that suits you in order to get the best results.

Well, i'm leaving my keyboard now because my hands hurt. Make sure you heed my advice otherwise I will summon a thousand meerkats to descend upon your Moleskin notebook.

Please leave a comment below and feel free to mock me, after all that's what I volunteered to do. (Shamefully)

What does that word mean?

noreply@blogger.com (The Satirical Author) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:42:00 +0000

satirical |səˈti(ə)rikəl| (also satiric |-ˈti(ə)rik|)adjectivecontaining or using satire : a New York-based satirical magazine.• (of a person or their behavior) sarcastic, critical, and mocking another's weaknesses.
Stupidly, yet again I did not check the meaning of satirical before choosing my blog name, if I had, satirical would not be in my blog name. The joys of the dictionary. Sigh!I'm not here to mock your weaknesses, Stupidly I have agreed that i'm here to mock myself for the benefit and perhaps amusement of others. Yet again if I had checked the dictionary, making a fool of myself would have been an unnecessary action. Before anyone asks, I know the meaning of unnecessary. (Thank you trusted thesaurus, I can count on you for help)
This blog is centered around writing, publishing and any other realms of my imagination that you want to prod your dirty fingers into. Please don't take offense, I assume you all wash your hands. If you don't shame on you!!! The soapy hand fairy is looking down on you in shame.Anyhow despite scowling mythical beasts and random dictionary checking I have an important topic to discuss. Unfortunately I cannot be bothered to write much more, my keyboard keeps screaming at me to stop and to be truthful it's driving me insane. Stay tuned for a little post about 'Research'. It can be fun, unfortunately for you lot I don't want it to be, Enjoy!
Please feel free the leave a comment or question, I will respond. Post about research coming very soon. Please follow my blog and twitter. Link below:http://twitter.com/SatiricalAuthorThank you!