Tag Archives: blogging

May 20, 2014

Welcome to the attic of the Green-Walled Tower

Come on it, don’t mind the mess (I don’t pick up that often). Just follow the steps up and up until you get to the top. I’m letting you into the inner sanctum of my writing world in response to an invitation by Amy Reese, at amyreesewrites.com. She is a great writer and a good blogging friend of mine since the beginning of this blog. This is part of the Writing Process Blog Tour, I do believe. Without further ado, here are the four questions that I was given.

1) What am I working on?

Ah, what a question. It almost pains me to think about it. It’s like I have this jar of wriggly, squirming stories and I love every single, slimy one of them. They are my children: each at a different stage of development but they all have such potential. But then, with some chagrin, I have to cram the top back on top of that sucker or they might get out and I do NOT have time to deal with all of them at the moment.

Yeah, my jar is extra full, I’m afraid. I only mention them here since I work on things slowly, turning them over in my mind over a long time, like a literary Sarlacc.

Plots…I need plots.

I’m usually pretty private about my projects, but what the hey. Here is what is on my plate:

– The Inner Darkness: this was originally a Nanowrimo novel I did in 2009. It has been through several edits since then, but I have a lot of plans for it in my head. No time though. It’s a quirky, first-person fantasy involving an abyss in a cave where people occasionally emerge from. I really love the main character.

– The Girl Who Could Snee: I wrote this novel around a story I originally posted on this blog. This one is unfortunately not finished, not for lack of ideas but just time. Why didn’t I finish it originally? Sigh. Why not, indeed?

– Brother Alien: This is another novel that is not finished, although with this one, I am still thinking about one particular point. It’s sitting in the belly of the literary Sarlacc, still stewing. It deals with the aftermath of a failed alien invasion.

– Special Becky: This is a novella I’m working on, which is based on the series of Friday Fictioneers stories I did, one with the same name. It’s not finished, not because of a lack of ideas or interest, just because other, more urgent projects came up.

I don’t mention all these to brag. If anything, they are a mark of shame that so many are unfinished. I mention them because they are all on my mind and even when I’m not actively working on them, I’m working through ideas for them, until the day I can pull up the file, read through the notes and begin gloriously again to create.

What I am currently working on actively is a collaborative novel. It’s kind of a secret though, so I can’t say much about it. It is a great story though and if/when it’s published, you’ll know all about it.

Pictured: not me

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I have a confession: I don’t know what my genre is. As you might know, my blog stories tend to be quirky or dark and everything in between.

Of course, those are blog stories. With my novels, seven are adventure stories; four are funny; six have fantasy or sci-fi elements in them. However, if I had to answer this question (which I apparently do) I would say that I combine these elements together in my own style, which makes it different. Also, there are three minor elements that many of my stories share that reveal my personality. 1) other languages are a key part of the story or some character is learning another language, 2) there are often huge, dark expanses, 3) there are other worlds and some way to go between them.

3) Why do I write what I do?

First and foremost, I write the kind of stuff I want to read. I write my ideal books (as well as I can) so it’s always fun to go back and reread them again and again.

Secondly, I write to express what I believe. I am a Christian, but I don’t mean I want to write blatantly Christian books (mostly because I don’t like to read most blatantly Christian books). I have a lot of beliefs.

I believe the world is a wonderful, magical place; I believe in forgiveness and mercy; I believe in truth; I believe the world is a really complicated place with no easy answers sometimes. For instance, in Brother Alien, the plot turns around the idea of what to do in a stalemate with stranded aliens who have killed hundreds of millions of people. Some people want to wage eternal war, others want to forgive them. Can you ever forgive a crime so great? I want to explore that question.

[*]

4) How does my writing process work?

Many of my novels start with a picture. For a few of them, the picture came from a dream. My very first story, Teardrop, started with the image of a train going up a valley at quitting time. Inside were two different races: one short, one tall. Another one, The Wild Children, started with a dream where I was in a wet, muddy cave. The roof suddenly split open and light streamed in and a hand reached down. That was it; the whole dream. I built the novel around it.

After I have that picture or a What if? idea, I just think about it. I think and think, working the idea back and forth until I have the kernel of a story. Then I start writing. When I begin, I usually have an inkling of where the story will end, but not always. I don’t plot out scenes on paper, since I’ll just change them while I’m writing. If I get stuck on a point, I think on it a while until I get it unstuck.

After I get the rough draft done, I put it away and start something else, usually an edit of another project, since I don’t usually write novel rough drafts back to back. When that edit is done, I’ll come back to the rough draft, reread it and plot out the scenes with all their characters and significant events. Then I can see what needs changing, what needs cutting and adding, and so on.

Thanks for coming on this tour. Now I would like to pass on the challenge to Sharmishtha Basu, if she has any interest in answering these questions. Sharmishtha is a prolific writer and poet from India who manages an impressive number of blogs and specializes in fantasy and paranormal stories.

This is true: the teacher in The Wild Children is named after a barista.

22 Comments | tags: blog tour, blogging, National Novel Writing Month, novel, sarlacc, writing, writing process | posted in Uncategorized

May 13, 2014

How to Post a Picture to your WordPress Sidebar

By David Stewart

There can be kind of a steep learning curve using WordPress. I know that when I first started blogging, I would spend a long time trying to get things to work, going back, and trying other things. So, I’m putting this out there in case anyone has an issue with posting images to the sidebar of their blog. I’ve included step-by-step pictures.

Step 1:

First of all, the image you want to use has to be in your WordPress Media Library.

So, go to your Dashboard and click on Media, and then Add New.

Step 2:

Click Select Files and choose the picture file you want to use from your computer.

Step 3:

Once the file is uploaded, it will appear as a thumbnail and a description on the bottom of the screen. I chose a picture of a Basset hound pup and a baby rabbit. Click on the Edit button next to it.

Step 4:

This will bring up the picture and its information on the right-hand side of the screen. Copy the entire File URL, making sure it ends with .jpg/.png/.gif or some file extension like that.

Step 5:

On the left side of the screen, hover over Appearance, and then click on Widgets.

Step 6:

Under the Widgets tab is a long list of various types of things you can put in the sidebar. The right-hand side of the screen shows what is already in your sidebar, in order. Find Image, down near the bottom of the list, and drag it to the place you’d like it on your sidebar. For this demonstration, I put mine last, underneath Blogs I like to read.

Once it is in place, a box will open up. First of all, paste the File URL we copied in Step 4 into the box marked Image URL.

Step 7:

From here, you can fill in a Widget title and picture caption , if you’d like. At the bottom in the section marked Link URL. Many people use this to go to Amazon.com or some other bookseller, if they put up a picture of their book cover (like I did with my short story Giselle). For my demonstration, I put in the URL to a Chinese comic site I like to read.

After this, click Save, then Close and everything is done. Now you can see the cute picture on the right side of my screen and click on it to go read some Chinese comics.

12 Comments | tags: blogging, images, outside the tower, posting, sidebar, tutorial, Wordpress | posted in Uncategorized

April 12, 2014

A slice of humanity on the bus

By David Stewart

All writers should take the bus, at least every now and then. Or the subway. Really anywhere where you can observe a lot of different people up close. I take the bus almost every day and I see some interesting people.

Last Thursday, I was taking the bus out into the countryside to one of my four schools. I was sitting in the back when a mentally handicapped man and an older man got on and sat down next to me, the handicapped one closer to me. He was interested in my book and pointed at it and gave me a thumbs up. Then he motioned to the older man and said, “He’s my dad.” This caused the older man to start laughing, so I didn’t know if he really was his father or not. I just said, “Oh, really?” “Oh, I see” and such things, since he kept saying it.

A lot of the people on the bus were older and seemed to know each other, so I felt like I was in kind of a community meeting. Then the handicapped man said, “He’s fifty” pointing to his “dad”, who started laughing even harder and said, “Yeah, I wish I were fifty again.” I really liked the older man; just a jolly sort of fellow.

A middle-aged woman came back, and saw there weren’t any seats left, so I gave her mine. Her husband was still standing up, with his backpack on. “Hey groom!” she yelled (Korean woman often call their husbands “groom”, although I’ve never heard a man call his wife “bride”). “Hey groom! It’s going to be a long ride. Take off your heavy backpack.” He took it off and put it on the floor with a grin. “That’s my groom for you,” she said. I saw other older women smiling and nodding as well. They understood.

The two men who were sitting next to me got off a few stops before me and the handicapped one gave me an awkward high-five. I smiled and said good bye. I went back and sat where they had been sitting and the woman I had given up my seat to apologized. I’m not sure why but possibly because she thought the handicapped man was bothering me. “Not a problem,” I said. “It’s okay.” And I meant it. I may never totally fit in here in Korea, but I do enjoy being a part of things anyway.

By the way, a few days ago, I posted something called The Mystery on the Bus, recounting another experience I had on a bus coming home from school. I asked people what they thought was going on. The first virtual high-five is for Carmelita, for the wackiest idea (I almost wish it were true), and the second is for EadesyBeadsy, for what I think is the most likely answer. Good job!

High five!

7 Comments | tags: blogging, bus, commuting, daily life, Korea, mystery, outside the tower, Wanju | posted in Korea

April 5, 2014

Little things that make me happy…like China

By David Stewart

I’ll bet you never thought of a country with 1.3 billion people as a little thing, but it’s all about context. I’m one of those people who loves the accomplishment of collecting things and checking things off a list. That’s why I really like the WordPress map feature, which shows you which countries viewers come from. I have gotten some pretty obscure ones, like the Palestinian territories, or Reunion island, etc. However, never any from China. Obviously, WordPress is blocked there, especially since I’ve had lots from Hong Kong.

But then, a few days ago, I saw that I had one view from China. One single view, but it was enough to color the whole country in on the map. That made me really happy. I kind of wonder who it was who saw my blog, whether it was someone high up in the government checking up on me or something. Probably nothing that cool, but it still has me wondering. Here are some other small things that make me really happy.

If you know any bloggers in Greenland, I want to be their friend.

Seeing the 121 bus: There are five buses that go past my house. I ride the bus almost every day and most of them I take pretty regularly, except the 121 bus. It only runs a dozen times a day, so it’s pretty rare to see it. I’ve only ridden it once in five years. I was really happy that day.

I’ve read many a book on buses like this.

Finding out Minecraft Steve is the same height as me: For those of you who don’t play Minecraft, the basic guy you play is called Steve. Some people did a calculation based on various things, and found out that he was 185cm or 6’1″, which is how tall I am. I like that fact.

We’re basically twins, is what I’m saying. (Source: http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/xilefian/360steve.png)

Are there any little things that make you unreasonably happy? Let me know.

24 Comments | tags: blogging, bus, China, Jeonju, Minecraft, outside the tower, stats, Wordpress | posted in Uncategorized

March 14, 2014

Lesser Known Writing Challenges

By David Stewart

If you’ve read my blog at all, you know that every week I participate in a writing group called Friday Fictioneers. It is a challenge to write a 100-word story around a photo prompt. I also often do a similar thing on Sundays, called Sunday Photo Fiction, run by Al Forbes.

These aren’t the only ones out there, by far. There are challenges to write 33-word stories, haibun (prose + haiku), even six-word stories. In that spirit, I have come up with some other writing challenges.

1. Mono-words.

Write a complete story with conflict and plot development in one word.

Example:

The Time Billy Replaced All the Thanksgiving Candles with Firecrackers

Blam!

2. The Little Word Challenge.

Write a story with words no longer than 3 letters.

Example:

My Pig Was Sad

I had a pig, Joe. Joe was sad. He saw me and my new gun. I put Joe and my new gun in my bag. We ran to the bus. At the end of the day, I ate ham. Joe was not a bad pig, but he’s not sad now. Now he’s a yum pig.

3. The Alphabet Trainers.

You must write a 26-word story, in alphabetical order by first letter.

Example:

A Beautiful Cat

A beautiful cat dodged Ernie’s fist.

“Gotcha!” he interjected joyously. “Kill little mice now!”

Ophelia proffered Quentin’s red sweater. “Tight underneath?”

“Very warm!” Xavier yelled zealously.

4. The Punctuators.

The challenge is to write a story, then take out everything but the punctuation. It’s up to the reader to fill in the blanks.

Example:

? !

,,,.,,…,..??,?,??,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.,.,,!??.,.!,.,….,.,,..,.,.,,,.,.,.,??;,.,:;;;;.,.,().,.?;.,.:

21 Comments | tags: blogging, Friday Fictioneers, prompts, punctuation, Trifecta, writing, writing challenge | posted in Uncategorized

March 3, 2014

It’s a brand new school year!

By David Stewart

Well, it’s back to the daily grind again. Here in Korea, today was the first day of school, which makes for one very tired Green-Walled Tower keeper. I got in the habit of getting up at 8:00 or 8:30 during vacation; now I have to get up around 6:00. As well, I’ve taught almost exclusively elementary schools for the last five years and this year I’m teaching mostly middle schools, so that’s a big adjustment.

All that to say, don’t be worried or offended if I’m not around as much in the next few days. I have a lot to do and not much energy. I’ll do what I can though.

A look into the mentality of school. This says: "The day has finally come." "The First Day of School" (high school and middle school students' final day)

A look into the mentality of students here. This says: “The day has finally come, &*@#!.” “The First Day of School” (high school and middle school students’ final day)

17 Comments | tags: blogging, 개학, first day of school, Korea, outside the tower, school, The Green-Walled Tower | posted in Korea

February 27, 2014

Why Writers Should Blog

By David Stewart

I’ve been writing in a serious, dedicated way for about nine years now, but I’ve only had a blog for a little under two years. I had heard for a long time that writers these days should have blogs, but I resisted for the same reason I resisted getting a smartphone: I had gotten along fine for years without one (yes, in some ways I’m a mental octogenarian). Here is what I learned, however, and why I have very glad one of my friends finally convinced me to start The Green-Walled Tower.

The final frontier. [*]

1. It’s great practice

This is partly bad. Since I started my blog in June, 2012, I have worked a lot less on my novel writing and editing. On the other hand, I have still made progress on several of them while also writing about 450 blog posts, almost 350 of which are fiction pieces. Not all 350 are great, but not all of them are bad either, and some are really good. A few have even been published in literary magazines. Writing is not just a numbers game–quality counts for a lot–but quantity is important too. Before my blog, I probably write fewer short stories in a year than I currently write in a week. And like anything, if you do it enough, you will inevitably get better.

2. You get practice interacting with an audience

When it comes to my blog, page views are great and Likes are awesome, but it is the comments that really make it all worthwhile. People point out things I never noticed, offer good constructive criticism, and make suggestions I never would have thought of on my own. When I wrote my story, The Girl Who Could Snee, one of the commenters said I should turn it into a novel. I hadn’t thought of it, but I liked the idea, so that November I wrote the novel version of the short story and while it still needs a lot of work, I think it definitely has publishing promise (if/when it does get published, I’m going to give a dedication to you, Samesides, for the suggestion.)

In the same way, when I wrote Peregrine’s Bar, another commenter suggested doing more with it, so I turned it into a series and now I’m writing a novella version of it. My point is that comments add an interactive element to writing which is totally different than the traditional method of writing alone, showing it to some trusted friends, and then sending it off to an editor. There is still a place for the old way (I’m not suggesting we all post our novel drafts online) but I value every comment I get.

3. It’s all about the relationships

I don’t like to use the word ‘networking’. While blogs are useful for that, it seems much too cold and calculating. When it comes down to it, I don’t blog to market myself or promote my writing or even gain valuable business contacts. Those things may come, but for me it’s about the relationships with real people from many different countries and backgrounds. There is always the temptation to go on a blitz of Liking a million blog posts I haven’t read or Following hundreds of blogs I’ll never read, in the hopes of gaining more readers, but that would be missing out on the most important thing, which is getting to know the people behind the blogs and blog posts. Because I have gotten to know so many wonderful bloggers, I have done collaborative stories with several other bloggers, gotten tips about publishing opportunities, and I am even working on a book with a good blogging friend of mine. And most importantly, I’ve made a lot of good friends.

Blogging is not always an easy addition to a writer’s schedule. It take time to do it right: writing posts, reading others’ posts, commenting, and replying to comments. Still, I think it is a good investment for any writer. In today’s world, writers do not have to be isolated units–they can be part of a community that is beneficial to all involved.

8 Comments | tags: blogging, outside the tower, writing | posted in Uncategorized

February 17, 2014

The Green-Walled Twitter

By David Stewart

I just joined Twitter and I’m still not sure I know how I feel about it.

I’ve been a member of Facebook for years and that’s fine, but I’ve always been resistant to Twitter. Maybe it was the name, which sounds a bit like it’s all inane chatter, or maybe it was the stories I heard of people tweeting what they ate for breakfast or how many pieces of junk mail they received.

So why now? Well, I’ve been thinking about it for some time. Part of it was finding things I wanted to say that were too short for a blog post and no where to say them. Ah, the plight of the poor individual with a pithy 140-character remark and nowhere to express it! As well, Twitter is so well established now, that it’s a good chance for a lot of exposure. But I will always be a late adopter, and proud of it.

My username is @greenwalltower, so if you’re on Twitter, go follow me. I’ll try to follow you back too.

See? It’s legit.

16 Comments | tags: blogging, The Green-Walled Tower, Twitter | posted in Uncategorized

February 13, 2014

Let me tell you about the exciting world of online deodorant purchasing.

By David Stewart

Sometime early this morning, I got my 3000th follower here at the Green-Walled Tower. It may seem pretty easy to follow a tower around, since it doesn’t move, but I try to jump around to various topics, to make things interesting. I just want to let you know, dear followers, that I appreciate all of you. Mostly the ones who have actual blogs since what I love most about blogging is forming relationships, but I don’t want to leave out the ones who are clearly spam as well. I’m looking at you, directpaybiz01.wordpress.com. I may never follow your blog back or even visit it, but I appreciate you.

I was going to do a feature about my 3000th follower, and then I found out that it was deodorantonline, which made me really want to do a feature on it. I don’t know about you, but I’m still buying my deodorant in a store, like a caveman, instead of exploring the exciting world of online deodorant purchase. Speaking of cavemen (kind of), one of their fragrances is Yeti, because nothing says sexy like smelling like the Abominable Snowman. Other fragrances include IQ (duh!), Delve (for you dwarves out there), and Alter Ego, for those of you who happen to be Superman, or are just sneaking around behind someone’s back.

Sorry, deodorantonline. I’ll always be a Power Bacon man. For those special occasions, when you want your armpits smelling like a hearty breakfast.

I’m not saying you should buy deodorant online, but I’m also not saying you shouldn’t. Follow your heart. But if you do, know that all their stock is marked down 2%. Some of it is even slashed as much as 4% off! Holy cow!

By the way, if none of that interests you, check out the blog of my most recent follower, Being MG. She is a real person, a fellow writer, and a fellow Friday Fictioneer. Check out her work; it’s good stuff.

18 Comments | tags: blogging, deodorant, followers, funny, milestone, online, spam | posted in Uncategorized

February 3, 2014

5 emoticons with a story (and personality)

By David Stewart

It’s funny how ideas sometimes come about by accident. I got the idea for this when I was replying to a post by Susannah Bianchi (seriously, go check out her blog) and accidentally typed a smiley without the eyes. And so, Filbert was born. Read about him and four others below.

1. Filbert smiles in his sleep. He also sleepwalks. He also constantly wears a flesh-colored balaclava. His hero is the Cheshire Cat. The upshot is that a lot of time he walks around, totally asleep, the only thing visible his smile.

2. Consuela went to a plastic surgeon to get a nose job. Unfortunately, since her eyesight wasn’t that great, she wandered into a construction site by accident. George, the foreman (no relation), kept telling her she was in the wrong place until he heard how much she was willing to pay. Then he thought he’d take a shot at it. He cut off a section of I-beam and fastened it to her face. Surprisingly, she was thrilled with the results. And people thought she was hard-nosed before…

3. Not only does Cedric only have one eye (his choice, don’t pity him), but he is also quite the aristocrat. Not that he has any money, but he does wear a monocle everywhere. He is unhappy because Cedric is always unhappy about something. At the moment, it’s because the woman at McDonald’s wasn’t smiling when she handed him his change.

4. Penelope is a small creature that grew on a pile of dirty dishes the dishwasher of a bar and grill hid in a closet just before he quit. Penelope is only a pair of eyes so far, but she has high hopes. “Look at me, world! I’m going to make it after all!” her eyes seem to shout.

5. Victoria stood on her head as a child and was so tickled by the change in perspective that she never turned right way up again. She views the world upside and is a leading expert in people’s shoes and socks. She has a smile, but her scarf fell down around her mouth years ago, so no one knows what it looks like.