AuthorJim Flynn is a humorist, writer and novelist. He is available for speaking engagements. To contact email: [email protected] Archives
October 2024
Categories |
Back to Blog
Tell Me A Story7/25/2024  Everybody knows what a story is until they sit down to write one --Author Flannery O'Connor This included me. (Not actual photo, meant to symbolize the learning process) How hard could it be? I thought. I've read lots of stories. Bad news: It turns out, it's hard. Good news: You can learn how to do it. Bad news: There's a lot of advice, most of it terrible. Bad news: After you learn, it's still hard. There's something called Resistance facing you, every day, trying to stop you. Example: I'll write today, but first I'll check my emails, then Facebook, then...well, it's almost lunch time...I'll write after lunch... I've read or listened to hundreds of books, talks, podcasts over the last six years and have boiled down the following list for anyone interested in writing: How to Write Best Selling Fiction, by James Scott Bell-this is available in audio, the best way to get it is through Audible, it's just one Credit. It's long, only listen if you're interested in really writing. Basic, kind of Novel 101. Introduces stuff like Three Act Structure, The Hero's Journey, The Inciting Incident. If you don't know what those things are---well you probably should find out before you sit down and type, "It was a dark and stormy night..." The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. Not that much on how to write, more on the discipline of the life, and Pressfield introduced the above mentioned concept of Resistance. Very readable and recommended to anyone, whether you're serious about writing or not. Pressfield is an interesting guy, I recommend all of his stuff. Start with The War of Art. The Nutshell Technique, by Jill Chamberlain. You'll learn the difference between a Story and a Situation. Here's the deal: in a Story the Protagonist has a Want, which he knows, and a Need, which he doesn't know. If you don't start here, you've got no Story. There's a lot more, but if you don't have a Story, you've got a pile of words nobody will finish reading. Your friends and relatives may claim to have read the whole thing; they're lying. You wonder why you're not getting anywhere? No Story! The Anatomy of Genres, by John Truby. If the first recommendation is Novel 101, this book is your Master's Degree. Advanced, don't read this first, I tried to read a previous book by Truby six years ago and wasn't ready for it. If you've written a book or two, and are now ready to write a good book, this is for you. Example: I was trying to fit all my stuff into The Hero's Journey format, but it didn't work. Truby says: The Hero's Journey (think Luke Skywalker in Star Wars) is only for the Male Myth, it doesn't work in other genres. He explains the structure of other formats. Like turning on the lightbulb for me! Lots more in this 700 page book. I'm so smart now that my next book will make a lot of money and I'll buy a new vehicle:  Discussion Question One: which one of the two people has a worse hairdo?
Discussion Question Two: Would you wear a suit and tie to fly an experimental helicopter? Note One: I have not been compensated in any way for the book recommendations above. However, if offered I would accept bribes--I haven't been offered. Note Two: if you're trying get in touch with me, the comments section below doesn't work. Please email: [email protected]
0 Comments
Back to Blog
No Respect!7/20/2024  Rodney Dangerfield talking about his early career:
To give you an idea how well I was doing at the time I quit, I was the only one who knew I quit. Then again, Rodney didn't have social media. Times have changed, but I understand his point. It's hard to get noticed above all the noise, the daily release of thousands of books, many written by artificial intelligence, and the attention span of readers is getting shorter. I've gotten to know many other writers. Common responses to less than great book sales: I've got to get an agent, I've got to market better, I need to follow the YouTube guru who espouses "Seven Hacks to Writing Success." They're all looking for the quick fix. How about this: Learn to write better books that a broader audience wants to read. I chose to try that less traveled road. My first novel, Losing Lola, was pretty good. I have some fans, and the book won two awards. It still sells. But let's face it, winning a book award these days is a bit like getting a participation trophy in a Youth Soccer league. I started a learning quest. Read lots of books before stumbling my way to works that helped me. There's a lot of garbage. I won't mention any titles. There are several books by famous well intentioned authors that are entertaining, but not helpful. Best example: the hugely successful On Writing by Steven King. If you ask retired English teachers, this is the book they'll recommend, because King spends a lot of time talking about parts of speech. He says he hates adverbs, for example, even though if you read his books, the text is full of adverbs. The most important thing I've learned is: Story Is Everything. If you have a boring predictable plot, nobody will read your book. Even if you get all the grammar down pat--take that retired English teacher with your unpublished homage to the Jane Austen! Do I sound bitter? It might have something to do with my 11th grade English teacher. King spends no time on Story. He says invent characters and start writing. No outline necessary. This is terrible advice. He doesn't mean to be terrible, it's just that he started writing stories at eight years old, and was submitting to editors by age 12. The Story is second nature to him. It's like a beginner taking a golf lesson from Tiger Woods: just hit your drive 300 yards, and then we'll talk tactics about your next shot. We mortals have to start from a different point. I'll discuss better ideas next week.
Back to Blog
 Did you know that Amazon will let an author (computer operator?) publish up to three books day written completely by Artificial Intelligence?!!! ChatGPT and other programs make it easy to produce these works, and there are hundreds of YouTube videos showing would-be content creators how-to-do it videos. I have a confession to make: Just for laughs, I did a book like that. I didn't write one word of it, merely giving the instructions to ChatGPT. Had AI do the book cover and the formatting. I published under a pen name. It is a New Age, Touchy-Feely Self-Help book. Why not? The good news? The book didn't sell anywhere near as well as my human written books. The bad news? Even though the book is pure drivel; it is well written within the self-help genre. I couldn't make myself read it, the new age epic has sold some copies, and has been favorably reviewed by people who don't know it was a prank. Nobody has written that it's an obvious AI creation. I placed copies in a couple hospital libraries and the Westport train station, and when I returned the books were gone. It does have an attractive cover. That's the end of the experiment for me, but thousands of people are submitting AI books, untouched by human writers, to Amazon and other outlets. I do use AI to help edit my books, and I'll talk about that process in a future blog post. This week's challenge: Try to find the above referenced Self Help book on Amazon. You'll never find it! You could try this is the search bar: New Age Drivel. Note: I did try that---didn't work Below is a possible future collaborator. 
Back to Blog
Prediction: Hole-in-One by 2045!7/6/2024  I heard an interview with a man named Ray Kurzweil. We should probably pay attention to him. He's very smart, as in go to MIT when you're 14 years old smart. Twenty years ago Kurzweil predicted what is happening now in Artificial Intelligence. Ray says: We are going to expand intelligence a millionfold by 2045. Well Ray, you don't know some of the guys I play golf with. They are currently not smart enough to tell time; they always show up late. Let's aim for two millionfold for them. So I listened to more of Ray. Oh, he's advocating using computer technology, stuff like installing computer chips in people's brains. Okay, now we're talkin'! Ray, I will forward some names to you to use as test subjects for brain chip implants. The list of initial nominees for timing chips to be installed in their cerebral cortexes: xxxxx, xxxxxxxx, xx, xxxxxxx (names redacted for privacy reasons). If they don't volunteer, snatch them out of their beds in the middle of the night. It's for their own long term benefit. I assume the procedure will be relatively painless. If not, trust me, they can handle it. What is anesthesia for, after all? The interviewer went on to ask Ray more specific questions. For example: what would sex be like in this hybrid, part human/part computer scenario? Ray said that a physical act won't be necessary, it can all happen in the chip in a person's brain, and they won't know the difference. But I'm unlikely to care about that in 2045. Let's get to the important item. How is this Brave New World going to effect my golf game? I'm spitballing here, but as I understand Futurist Kurzweil, I will be able to play golf using only the chip in my brain. Therefore, I issue this bold prediction: I will have a hole-in-one by 2045. I don't want to get greedy, but I may shoot a 54-under-par round of 18 for eighteen holes, an ace on every hole! Short sighted individuals: Go out and spend your money on new golf clubs! Not me. I'm saving up now, because I want to be able to afford the state-of-the-art in golf computer chip brain implants. The illustration above is what I imagine my appearance will be by 2045 when the golf chip has taken over my brain. Do you like the hat? I'm also considering getting a Jeopardy contestant brain chip. I was on Jeopardy once---bet it all on the last question, got it wrong, ended up with $0. Let's reboot. Install the chip and I'll take Subatomic Particle Physics for 2,000, Alex! When people are a millionfold smarter, I do think the Jeopardy questions will be harder. And hopefully, no more questions on Pop Music of the 2010s. Why this discussion? Because AI plays an important role in my upcoming novel, Useful Idiot. If you like these blog posts, and think you know someone else who'd be interested, please forward the link to them. jimflynnsix.com It's how I grow my readership.  Don't let this happen to you! Above is one possible future scenario of a golfer who did not save enough for top-of-the-line implants and had to go with the bargain basement exterior golf brain chips. Let's see this guy get through TSA at the airport!
|
RSS Feed