[stylist] Introduction (was why do chapters?)
Tamara Smith-Kinney
tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Mon Apr 20 18:38:32 UTC 2009
Thanks for the welcome! I live in Oregon, in the Portland metro area, out
in the 'burbs. I grew up in rural eastern Oregon, but I'm a city girl at
heart. My dad's family moved from Kansas when he was young, during the
depression, so I've heard quite a bit about it, and I have some long-lost
rels around there somewhere. /smile/ They mostly lived around Lucas, but
they also spent some time in Lawrence.
Anyway, I've always been an avid reader and writer, although most of my
non-work-related writing has been for my own entertainment, just practicing
for when I was ready to write that really great novel... You know how that
is. I did submit Volume 1 of a proposed five-part fantasy series long ago,
and was a little shocked that it made it out of the slush pile and up the
line to be rejected by the top editor of a major publishing company. I even
got a very nice and encouraging rejection letter! I had been honestly
expecting to get it back quickly with a rubber stamp: "Get a life and keep
your day job!" /grin/ But my health had broken down, and I had no choice
but to move home to survive, which was a difficult choice to make. Not a
healthy environment there. I kept working on my writing, but the
combination of pain, sleep deprivation and the stifling family atmosphere
was more than I could overcome. I just kept making it worse instead of
better, so I decided to table it until life improved. Which is has;
although it's been a real struggle to make that happen. Whew!
The past few years, I have been recovering from physical injuries received
at, of all places, our state's VR for the blind living skills program.
Mentally ill roommate, negligent staff - not a good combo! So now that I'm
nearly back to health - again!! - I'm thinking a good way to start rehabbing
my finances is to use my writing as a freelancer. I'm actually a geek by
trade, but being nearly 3 years behind in the field, I might as well try to
get a job based on my strong background as a dinosaur herder. There's also
the matter of the adaptive tech I need to start gathering if I want to get
back in anywhere close to where I was.
The past couple of years, I have been owner-training a poodle guide as part
of my self-assigned physical therapy. Mitzi will be 3 in June, and she is
finally starting to reach the psychosocial maturity required for her career.
/smile/ She's always been really great - brilliant, even - at the get out
and go aspect of guide work. It was the lie down and rest part that
stressed her out. /lol/ The first time she took me straight to the booth
at a restaurant and just went under and lay down, I couldn't figure out what
had happened. I'm just now starting to take it for granted.
My exuberant, lively black poodle pup has given me plenty of fodder for
storytelling. She's as smart as they come, has a highly developed sense of
humor and drama, and has taught me the real meaning of "intelligent
disobedience." /lol/ It is very hard to convince your poodle you're mad at
her for being a bad, BAD dog when you're cracking up inside and just totally
impressed by her creativity. She also happens to be one of the most
adorable creatures ever to walk the face of the earth, from what people tell
me. Portland is a ridiculously dog-friendly town, anyway, and with the
Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB) Boring campus close by, people are accustomed
to seeing guide dogs in training or out with their raisers. GDB is famous
for the mellow yellow labs they produce, so my jet black bundle of bouncy,
curly adorableness gets lots of attention for being so unlike them. This
has been a real adjustment for me because, while I like people and am
generally considered to be friendly and outgoing, I prefer to watch others
and avoid being the center of attention. Well, it's my dog who is the cente
rof attention these days, but being her mouthpiece is not terribly
comfortable for me. I'm getting used to it, though. She does make some
really good friends for me, though. Yup. My dog is my social coordinator.
/smile/
Mitzi is my first guide dog, so I've been reading the NAGDU list to learn
more about being a good guide dog user and to refine my understanding of a
guide dog's role and responsibilities. I've also been part of a
clicker-training list for owner trainers of guide and other service dogs. I
just haven't been able to resist the urge to tell tales on my young wild one
- and on myself, of course. She came to me at a week shy of 7 months, with
no individualized training whatsoever, so getting her all socialized and
refined has been quite an adventure. I've taken an adaptive approach to the
process, which means I chucked out my sensible training plan on Day Two and
hoped for the best. I've enjoyed using a loose, free flow style of writing
born mostly of exhaustion from keeping up with the antics I'm telling
stories about. Apparently, I have managed to entertain a number of people,
while utterly shocking - even frightening - established guide dog users who
know "the right way" to do things and didn't realize I was talking about an
untrained pup. Oh, my! I've gotten really good feedback that way, though,
which has been a boon because I often haven't known the right questions to
ask.
Now I'm hoping I can remember how to be disciplined in my writing instead of
just blathering through my fingers. I am one of those people who can't
write a summary of a thousand-word essay in under ten thousand words, so I
have my work cut out for me there! As you may have noticed. /grin/
I'm enjoying getting to know the rest of you through your posts, so I'll get
back to playing catch up now.
Tami Smith-Kinney
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of James Canaday M.A. N6YR
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10:38 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] why do chapters?
thank you for your thoughtfulness Tami,
and welcome to our list or lists. where are you located?
your message summarizes the range of chaptering, from a hard-and-fast
quantity to flow, events and change of perspective.
yes I know this is ultimately my preferance, though I suspect some
publishers also have some ideas, and even requirements sometimes.
that's why I posed the question.
yes, you are absolutely correctly, when I am reading in audio format,
chapter break might cue me to a change of perspective, time, or
events. but indeed for sighted people depending on the type of book,
the new chapter might also come with a page break, too, thus ending
the reading of the previous chapter with a partial page of print and
going on to the top of the next page. I remember that. I had low
vision until I was 13.
by way of introduction, I live in lawrence, kansas, grew up in rural
central california. I've written nonfiction but my heart is really
in writing fiction. and I haven't found a good label for the kind of
fiction that seems to be attracting my storyminding.
welcome Tami.
jc
Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS
At 03:25 PM 4/7/2009, you wrote:
>Jim,
>
>Hm... I did a lot of thought about this about a zillion years ago and
>started analyzing my favorite authors in the genre (fantasy). And now I'm
>wracking my brain to remember what all I observed. /smile/ I've set my
own
>fantasy work aside for a number of years, for various reasons, but always
>with the "I'll get back to it and get it published even if I'm 90!" caveat
>firmly in mind. /smile/
>
>As I recall, I started out by making my chapters an even 30 manuscript
pages
>and shooting for a specific number of words for the whole. I was really
>digging in to the project to practice novel writing, then ended up really
>getting enthused about the story and characters I came up with. So I had a
>big, rambling mess to somehow wrestle into some sort of structure with the
>notion that I wanted someone else to be able to enjoy reading it as much as
>I was enjoying writing it.
>
>The 30 chapters of 30 pages notion worked surprisingly well, and I learned
a
>lot in the process of fitting my story and its pacing into that format. I
>did use section breaks at places within some of the chapters to help with
>flow. When I get back to "really" working on it again, though, I will
>probably take a less structured approach, using chapter breaks as part of
>the flow and pacing as well as to switch from main plot and characters to
>this or that subplot and the characters involved in that story line. Make
>sense?
>
>Ultimately, how you use chapters is up to you, depending on your personal
>style of organization and how you structure your story overall, how you
want
>to tell it.
>
>Thinking about it more, it suddenly occurs to me that chapter breaks and
>headings are a visual tool, much like heading levels in a structured
>technical document or the like. The let the reader see at a glance that
>something has changed, that we're starting another section of importance
>here, etc. In most novels there will be some sort of fancy initial
>character, or even a picture of what the chapter is about. Paragraph
breaks
>and indentation serve the same purpose.
>
>So for us nonvisual readers, a lot of the usefulness is lost. We just have
>to have our reading interrupted by hearing JAWS say "Chapter 29" or to key
>through a line of all caps on our Braille displays (or whatever; I'm new to
>nonvisual reading and am startled by many things about it, while being
>delighted to learn I enjoy it quite a lot). So those breaks and fancy caps
>or even the line of asterisks between sections don't have the same meaning
>they do for the visual reader. They just get in the way.
>
>So for a blind writer, you might make chaptering (is that word?) decisions
>based on your target audience? If you're writing for the general print
>audience, you would want to give them the familiar trappings of the book
>reading experience, unless you're wanting your book to make some sort of
>stylistic statement... If you're writing for a primarily audo book or
>Braille audience, then you might just decide to do what you suggested and
>skip breaking things into chapters....
>
>They do help those of us who forget to bookmark our stopping points on our
>electronic Braille displays search through the book for where we left off,
>though. /smile/
>
>Tami Smith-Kinney
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf Of James Canaday M.A. N6YR
>Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 2:22 PM
>To: Writer's Division Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [stylist] why do chapters?
>
>why do the chaptering?
>
>I'm assuming that most authors set out the chapter organization
>before they write?
>
>I realized on reflection that I was asking this question about
>fiction book writing. nonfiction topics often just fit right into a
>chapter organization.
>
>what's the shortest work appropriate for chapters? a
>5,000-word "short" story? and in that case you don't necessarily
>have a table of contents and title each but you write the text with
>an extra blank line between the end paragraph of one chapter and the
>beginning of the next chapter.
>is that correct?
>
>so far on this there've been four responses: Lori just doesn't and I
>would love to know more about that; Aziza says it is to
>organize what's important in the story; Justin points out you can
>use chapters to change perspective or time; and Helene says chapters
>make the reading easier to digest (I hope that's a good choice of words).
>
>I hope we can continue this, as I want to learn more on making chapters.
>jc
>
>Jim Canaday M.A.
>Lawrence, KS
>
>At 04:18 PM 4/4/2009, you wrote:
> >Chapters make it easier for the reader. Personally I find books that
> >don't have chapters or have very long chapters, hard to get into.
> >
> >Helene.
> >
> >On 04/04/2009, Justin Williams <justin.williams2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > It is a good way to segway into something else. Chapter two can be
> > > completely different than chapter one. It allows you to switch
>characters.
> > > Also, it helps with the setting up of different plot lines in a book.
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On
> > > Behalf Of James Canaday M.A. N6YR
> > > Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 1:06 AM
> > > To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
> > > Subject: [stylist] why do chapters?
> > >
> > > Alan and others,
> > > I think we should discuss this. do we set chapters because everybody
> > > seems to do it? because it gives the reader to catch his or her
> > > breath? because it makes changes of perspective easier? to help
> > > readers recollection of what they read?
> > >
> > > why do we designate chapters?
> > >
> > > jc
> > >
> > > Jim Canaday M.A.
> > > Lawrence, KS
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Writers Division web site:
> > > http://www.nfb-writers-division.org
><http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
> > >
> > > stylist mailing list
> > > stylist at nfbnet.org
> > > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> > > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > > stylist:
> > >
> >
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/justin.williams2%4
0
> > > gmail.com
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Writers Division web site:
> > > http://www.nfb-writers-division.org
><http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
> > >
> > > stylist mailing list
> > > stylist at nfbnet.org
> > > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> > > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > > stylist:
> > >
> >
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/dreamavdb%40google
m
>ail.com
> > >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Writers Division web site:
> >http://www.nfb-writers-division.org
<http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
> >
> >stylist mailing list
> >stylist at nfbnet.org
> >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> >To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>stylist:
>
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/n6yr%40sunflower.c
>om
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Writers Division web site:
>http://www.nfb-writers-division.org <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
>
>stylist mailing list
>stylist at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>stylist:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/tamara.8024%40comc
a
>st.net
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Writers Division web site:
>http://www.nfb-writers-division.org <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
>
>stylist mailing list
>stylist at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
stylist:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/n6yr%40sunflower.c
om
_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site:
http://www.nfb-writers-division.org <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
stylist:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/tamara.8024%40comca
st.net
More information about the Stylist
mailing list