Tricky decisions

Some people know exactly what to look for at the bookstore – others spend hours without finding what they have in mind…

Did you ever mistake the body lotion tube for the toothpaste a sleepy morning? No? Good, it’s not the best way to start the day.

This might be an awkward approach if you're aiming at the problem of choosing literature, but frankly, haven’t you too picked the ‘wrong’ book by a random grab at the bookshop or at the library? The book you put away with a sigh after three chapters.

It might have been the perfect choice for someone else. One of my friends reads nothing but books about religious history. I tried one. Though I don't mind the subject, I had a feeling of pedaling a bicycle with a leaking tire. You know how that is, you want to get as far as possible before the tire is empty, but you know that if you speed up, it leaks faster.

The first impression of a book is the cover, so the eye leads us to the next step – the time consuming intellectual process. At the rare occasions when we have the time, we would like to read full chapters from some books at the bookstore. The problem is we would feel like shoplifters if we did. Besides, the book dealer would fear that the book might look used if too many pages have been turned. Not everyone is careful. This is where Internet enters the scene.

Alone with our computer we can spend days reading free chapters. And the people who provide the service are happy if we do. The opportunity to form an opinion gives us a freedom that older generations of book readers could only dream of. And when we eventually have found the book we want to read, we can still ask our local retailer to order it for us.

Except for being a door opener, Internet is the perfect instrument for digging deeper down into the literature world. Those of us who are in the habit of roaming around the web with this purpose know that there are many ways of introducing the stories. One concept is extensive samples including long summaries, free chapters, excerpts and facts. This is what I like best, so – naturally - it’s the way my books are introduced. If you want an example, please visit: albertlorenonline. com/ONAfree. htm

Thank you for taking your time to read these lines.

Writing naturally

Have you ever found yourself stuck in your writing like a child on a rocking horse? Rocking back and forth, writing and editing, and wondering why your story doesn't take you anywhere?

As a writer for a local weekly newspaper, I couldn't afford the luxury of writing and editing. I just had to write and worry about editing later; there's something about a deadline that moves you along.

So how do you learn to move beyond the wooden horse, to the real horse, that story or article that will take you across vistas where the sun sets in marmalade skies and where the grass ripples like a green sea?

As a painter, I've learned the value of painting from the right side of your brain. The right brain paints what it sees, whereas the left paints what it thinks it should be. I wondered to myself if there were something for writers along these same lines. I discovered there was.

Our brains are divided into two hemispheres right and left and are joined by a strange piece of gray matter called the corpus collusum. The corpus collusum acts like a switching station. In right-brain driven individuals it tends to be larger. The right brain could be referred to as the feminine or creative side (the writer) whereas the left-brain (the editor) could be referred to as the male or logical side.

The left brain provides us with language, syntax, denotation, analytical thought, logic, math, etc. In the right brain, we discover creativity, patterns of sound, metaphor, ambiguities, and paradox.

In right-brain painting classes the teacher gets you to let go of the image of what you think you see, to seeing only what is there and consequently drawing it. This is done by taking a picture, placing it upside down, and covering up all but a little portion of the picture. You begin to draw only what you see on the page. As you move along, you uncover a little more of the picture as you draw. Practice this sometime to learn to free up your right brain.

You may be wondering - do you write upside down? No - you don't. According to Gabrielle Lusser Rico, author of the book Writing The Natural Way, "if you can speak, form letters on the page, know the rudiments of sentence structure, take a telephone message, or write a thank-you note, you have sufficient language skills to learn to write the natural way."

In her first chapter, "Releasing Your Inner Writer," Rico describes the two different hemispheres of the brain as "Sign and Design" Mind. She describes the interplay between the two hemispheres and lets us know that any good solid writing is collaboration between these two talents of the two hemispheres.

In her second chapter lay the real gems. Here's where we learn to "cluster" or "map" our creative thinking process. She calls clustering the "doorway to your design mind." The method she utilizes begins with a "nucleus word" or short phrase that "acts as the stimulus for recording all the associations that spring to mind in a very brief period of time."

You take your nucleus word or phrase and write it in the middle of a page, drawing a circle around it. Then you let yourself free associate. Every thought, feeling, or idea that comes from that word you write down in little bubbles away from that "nucleus word" but attached by a line. You keep going until you feel the shift in your mind to quit. You may have to do this several times before you recognize the feeling. It's ok - tell yourself it's just play.

She tells us that this methodology is not "merely the spilling of words and phrases at random, but something much more complex: for the Design mind, each association leads inexorably to the next with a logic of its own even though the Sign mind does not perceive the connection." This is learning to write from the creative side of your brain.

This methodology of clustering is like throwing a rock into a pond, it unfolds from the center, each ripple, or thought moving outward. After the completion of the clustering, (and you will learn to know when this occurs), you write a vignette, a poem, whatever strikes you, using the words from your clustering spider web and whatever else comes out of you.

What you'll find is an interesting piece, almost like poetry, with an undiscovered beauty emanating from within you. It's a very rewarding experience.

With enough practice, you won't even need to do the "clustering" approach, as you'll be able to feel the shift internally into that hemisphere of the brain, not unlike shifting into high gear.

Peter Elbow, the author of "Writing with Power" says, "When we were little we had no difficulty sounding the way we felt; thus most little children speak and write with real voice."

Read your writing aloud. Words are meant to be spoken aloud. When you hear it, you'll hear those places where it doesn't flow and you'll feel it. They'll stick out of your sentences and paragraphs like stickers in your socks.

As a writer - it's also important that you allow yourself time. Time to practice, time to play, time to perfect. With time, you'll discover yourself as a writer. You'll find your voice. You'll lift it to sing.

Try different things. Write poetry. Write a movie critique. Write a story. Try writing a newspaper article, a how-to. Try describing the indescribable. Challenge yourself. There's nothing that says you have to show it to anybody. Most professional writers (and best-selling authors) have scads of journals they wouldn't even show their best friends.

Writing doesn't necessarily mean sculpting every word from your mind with a chisel. Your head is not a rock. Be gentle with yourself. Enjoy, kick back, let loose, try this clustering method, learn to relax that muscle between your ears, and who knows, one day, all of sudden, you just might find yourself writing.

Naturally.

What is freelance journalism

Freelance journalism is one of the more hectic forms of freelance writing. If you want to become a successful freelance journalist, you'll need to be comfortable with spending much time hunting down stories, traveling from place to place, and writing under short deadlines. If you enjoy all of that, and if you're interested in some of the best opportunities for personal creativity, then freelance journalism may be for you.

When we talk about freelance journalism, we need to distinguish between two types: newspaper journalism and magazine journalism. As a rule, newspaper journalism involves a much narrower range of subject matter than magazine journalism, significantly shorter articles, and a greater focus on form. Typical newspaper articles follow a hierarchical format: the most pertinent information first, the least pertinent last. For example, an article about a local parade would start with "The X Parade will travel down Main Street at 10:00 Saturday in support of Y," while it might end with "Onlookers are advised to bring umbrellas."

Additionally, writing as a newspaper journalist means that you need the ability to find out about the news. Often, a journalist's day looks like this: the editor assigns the journalist an article topic at 6 AM. By 8 AM, the journalist is making phone calls to various parties related to the topic. For a story on rising gas prices, this may include CEOs of oil companies, local gas station owners, car owners (interviewed on the street or at gas stations), car manufacturers, and local policymakers. Journalists usually interview anyone with a meaningful connection to the topic, and who can provide some good, succinct quotes and information.

Information-gathering goes on for most of the day, usually ending around evening. The journalist then works on the article, fact-checking where appropriate, before submitting it for publication sometime that night, with the deadline depending on the individual paper. Then the journalist is able to go to sleep--until 6 AM rolls around again, and the next article topic comes in.

More leeway is available with the larger "feature" articles. These appear in film sections, lifestyle sections, health sections or other less breaking-news-focused parts of the daily paper. Often newspapers publish these sections weekly, rather than daily, to save on printing costs.

For example, the film section may only appear on Fridays, the food section on Tuesdays, etc. The upshot of this is the freelance journalist has more time to research and to work on an excellent, well-rounded article. Using the same research methods (calling everyone connected to the topic, scheduling interviews, synthesizing succinct points from a large information pool), a feature writer constructs a more in-depth look at a given topic than a news writer can achieve in a short column of text.

Additionally, there's occasionally more freedom in the choice of subject matter. Perhaps you know about an excellent local band in need of a profile? Maybe you volunteer in a community organization that does interesting work and deserves a write-up? How about writing an article on the health benefits of soybeans? A newspaper's "features" section can be an excellent venue and a personal one, which can be rare in freelance writing. Additionally, feature articles don't depend heavily on the hierarchical "news" format, making your job much easier (or harder, if you find it difficult to structure an article without set guidelines.)

Magazine journalism is similar to the "feature" style of newspaper journalism, albeit with much more generous word limits (and often more generous pay rates.) The downside is that a magazine may not have as many opportunities for publishing your work. The broader subject matter of a magazine may also result in topics that require more legwork and potential travel expenses (hopefully paid for by the magazine) than just a profile of a local policymaker. To be an effective magazine writer, you'll need to look much harder for article ideas, but the payoff can be well worth it.

How do you scout out freelance journalism jobs? For newspapers, have some sample articles written, a good working knowledge of style guides (especially Associated Press style), and a willingness to work on whatever is available until the editor or publisher promotes you to working on more enjoyable assignments. For magazines, it's best to research your articles and write them in advance; afterwards you can send query letters to the appropriate editors in hopes of becoming published. In either case, submission information is printed on the staff page of magazines and newspapers. You can also find submission information online at the publications’ web sites.

The career of a journalist isn't for everyone. Whereas many freelance writing projects are about a predictable routine of research and writing, the variety and novelty of writing news and feature articles eschews all routine in favor of a constant flurry of ad hoc interviews, phone calls and general information-gathering. But to some people, this is far from a drawback. If you're one of those people, start developing your portfolio now, get in touch with some editors (either by appointment or by query), and prepare yourself for a successful career in freelance journalism.