Gigi Amateau was our guest on December 9, when she gave a tutorial on using a wiki (a simple online database) for organizing research. In writing her first historical YA novel, she plunged in to more research than she had done with her first three YA novels. Notebooks weren’t quite cutting it for keeping track of all the dates, places, and details of the world she was recreating: Richmond at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries.

So she turned to a wiki. Often, wikis are used for large group projects, like Wikipedia, but Gigi found it helpful to compile her very own personal online encyclopedia. She was able to include links, documents, photographs, drawings, and almost anything else she wanted to use for reference. She has even kept a log of conversations and emails between her editor and herself. When her book is published in fall 2011, she’ll provide a public version of her wiki as a resource for readers and teachers.

How do you get started creating your own wiki? We’ve included links at the end of this article for sites offering wikis. Set up categories that make sense for your own project and start entering text. Link your text to websites that explain or elaborate. Link your wiki pages to each other. Think of it as a free-form database, all custom designed for you. It’s especially useful for collaborative projects, so allow access to your editors, writing group, or work colleagues.

Links to Wiki Providers:

We have not done exhaustive research on the list below. Think of it as a starting point. Thanks to WikiMatrix for listings and comparisons.

• Wikispaces - This is the provider Gigi uses. It’s free if your wiki is public (the content will be indexed by search engines). There is a charge if you want it to be private. Multiple pricing levels.
• PBWorks – Has Basic (free), Premium and Business levels.
• Intodit – Free, but has ads
• PicoWiki – Free, specially designed for PDA and SmartPhone use. Slogan: “All your notes, wherever you are.”
• Springnote – Free. An “online notebook.”
• Zoho – Free up to 3 users.

Some of us fall into a debate with a friend over a prickly issue and walk away muttering to ourselves. Fran Hawthorne walked away with a book idea.

A chance discussion over the merits of Whole Foods Market was the genesis of The Overloaded Liberal: Shopping, Investing, Parenting and other Daily Dilemmas in  an Age of Political Activism, released earlier this year by Beacon Press. Hawthorne tackles the surprisingly complex ethical challenges faced by environmentally-aware, socially-concerned American consumers…including herself.

In fact, including herself as something of a main character in her narrative was a departure for Hawthorne, who has worked as a journalist for twenty years, and was comfortable with the third-person voice.

“It had to be a personal book, because I was living it, my friends were living it,’ Hawthorne told an audience at WriterHouse in Charlottesville last week. At the same time, it was “so scary, because you are putting so much of yourself out there.”

The Overloaded Liberal is not primarily a memoir; it’s a fact-filled account that involved conducing dozens of interviews and reading scores of books and articles. How does she get all that information in some usable form? “Oy vey,” she says via email interview, “you’re going to be sorry you asked…”

Using a technique developed over her years as a journalist, after every interview, Hawthorne types up her notes as a narrative outline complete with topics and subheadings. She does the same with articles she’s clipped and books she has read.

“Then, when I’m ready to write, I create sheets of topic pages — all this is longhand, not computer. On each sheet, there will be subheads. For instance, there might be a sheet labeled “Food,” and then then subheads “organic,” “meat,” “local,” “labels,” she says. Larger subheadings might be further broken into categories. “Then I go through all my typed notes, and basically every comment in every interview will fit into one or more of my pages.”

“Yes, doing this outline takes days and days and DAYS. But, believe me, it is a life-saver when I actually start writing.”

With about a year to write and revise a full manuscript, designing a plan of attack is critical — particularly for Hawthorne,  a full-time freelance writer for publications like the New York Times, The Scientist, and Newsday.

“You just have to push yourself. No days off. No evenings off,”she says. “For my last book, I actually set a  schedule: I would write Chapter 4 from October 14th to the 17th, Chapter 5 from October 18th to the 20th…I’ve never done that before and I hope I never will have to again.”

Her manuscripts go through three major drafts before they ever get to the publisher. After writing the first draft, she goes back through to check her facts and quotes for accuracy. Then, in the third pass, she works on style and language.

Once with the publisher, there are two or three further rounds of edits, ending with the typeset “proof” copy of the manuscript where, she says with a laugh, “they threaten you” if you change more than 10% of the material.  So far, she’s always come in under the threshold.

It’s hard work, she says, but highly rewarding. “I’m a craftsperson. I love words. I love language that sounds right, that sings and flows. Bad writing – repetitive sentence structures, paragraphs that begin with the same word over and over – make me physically cringe. So I love playing with my words to make them better, without the burden of fact-checking hovering over me.”

Asked for one piece of advice for aspiring nonfiction writers, Hawthorne notes that “information is the key. So the most important skill is the ability to get that information. And I think the key tactic there is knowing how to talk to people, how to get them to open up to you….and to keep your own mouth shut.”

Reading about the “worm” that is making its way around “old, unpatched” versions of WordPress, I imagined the segmented, legless creature making its way through my mother’s mending pile. Weaving in and out of grass-stained dungarees, bare at the knees. In and out of holes in the linen, scorched by Cora’s iron. In and out of the heels and toes of socks, waiting for the darning egg.

I have no idea how things get patched in cyberspace, but I am assuming that it does not require the likes of a thimble, needle, and thread. Disposing of the worm does not require touching the untouchable and tossing it back into the dirt outside the back door. I am guessing that patches are easier to find in cyberspace than they are in the twenty-first century shopping mall.

All of this has got me thinking about blogging. That insidious worm is blogging its way through open spaces. A wide open page invites bloggers to blog, making their way into unpatched territory because they can. Lately, I have been inundated with blogs. Some days as I make my way through numerous holes I feel as though I am an aimless Alice, having lost my way, having no idea where this wiggling and wriggling is taking me. Blogs are linked to other blogs, just as the worm finds the hole in the overalls on the other side of the linen napkin. My day is spent and the mending still awaits my attention.

WriterHouse Public Events

»NaNoPrepMo, 10-10-2009, 10-18-2009 and 10-25-2009, 2:00 PM—Come to meet the other local Wrimos (people participating in National Novel Writing Month) and get a jump on November. The rules allow outlines, character sketches, and any kind of planning that doesn’t involve actually writing your novel. Be ready to hit the ground running on November 1.

»Save these dates:

• 10-23-2009, 7:00 PM Ayn Rand Biographer Jennifer Burns

• 10-24-2009, 7:00 PM Stephen Elliott & The Adderall Diaries

• 11-07-2009, 2:30-4:30 Literary Journals: Both Sides of the Transom

More Public Event Details…

Half-Day Seminars (Registration Required)

If you’ve wanted to take a class, but can’t commit to an eight-week schedule, our Saturday Seminar Series is for you.

• 10-17-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00PM Elements of Fiction: Plot

• 10-24-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00PM Writing about Food—Turning Appetite into Art and Articles

• 11-21-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Elements of Fiction: Dialogue

• 12-5-2009, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM Spiritual Essay—Writing into the Questions

Today I found the Writer Beware Blogs.

From the blog header:

“Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America with additional support from the Mystery Writers of America, shines a light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls.”

I’m ashamed to say I fell victim to one of these in high school, promising scholarship money for poems.  Instead, I was invited to attend an awards ceremony in Orlando where the prizes included a fine sterling silver bowl (at $300 value) and a ‘free’ copy of the book of winning poems.

Meredith Cole, who will be teaching Essentials of Mystery Writing at WriterHouse beginning September 26, is currently on tour to promote her novel, Posed for Murder. Here’s a look at her recent experience at the Decatur Book Festival:

As I planned my book tour for my first book Posed for Murder, a wiser and more experienced author gave me a great piece of advice: Go where the people are.

Although it’s great idea to go to book stores on your book tour, unfortunately debut authors often end up sitting alone in the back feeling ignored. I definitely did my share of bookstore events, and have had some great experiences meeting booksellers and readers. But I also had great results doing events with other authors at libraries and book festivals. Book festivals happen all over the country, and attract huge crowds. Although most are there to see a famous or familiar author, others are willing to venture out to make a new discovery — you.

This Labor Day Weekend, I was one of 300 authors selected to be at the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia. It calls itself the largest book festival in the country, or “Bookzilla.” It’s a giant three-day festival with hundreds of volunteers, vendors, and about 65,000 attendees who love books. The festival did not pay for my transportation, but they put me up in a hotel, and ferried me to and from the airport. They also put on a party for all the authors, and provided us with vouchers for free food and drink at local restaurants. All the events (and the hotel) were around a square in downtown Decatur, so it was easy to get around.

I appeared with another mystery author, Megan Abbott, at Eddie’s Attic (a bar that launched the Indigo Girls’ career, as well as many other local bands). Megan and I each read for about five minutes, perched on stools like an acoustic act, and then answered questions. The crowd had some great ones (asking how we used secondary characters, how screenwriting was different from writing novels, how we created atmosphere, etc.), so we had a lively discussion.

We had a respectable crowd, and I sold a good number of books. Independent bookstores from Atlanta handled all the sales and signings, and I was glad to meet a new bookseller. They had me sign the rest of the books as stock for their store, and I imagine they’ll highlight them as “signed by the author” in their store.

Not everyone buys books at the festival, so it’s difficult to measure the true impact of an event. But beyond the sales, I met local librarians, talked to readers, and was advertised on their website and in their publication. My publishing house likes that I’m getting out there and doing my best to sell the book, and I’m sure that all my efforts effected their decision to buy my second book in my series this summer. So in a few weeks, I’ll be at Fall for the Book in DC, and in October I’ll be at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. The tour continues!

I’ve spent the last few hours glued to my computer, following links on a variety of topics, one being writing. I finally arrived at Rachel’s recent post about the Stanford Study of Writing, following her links to read more. I am not sure if I agree with Stanford’s Andrea Lansford that our current literacy revolution is as significant as the beginning of Greek civilization, but I do agree that writing is alive and well in today’s world. We have all experienced sitting at the computer far longer than anticipated due to the abundance of writing that keeps us reading, link upon link.

It is interesting to ponder Ms. Lansford’s remark about her own writing education. It did not, she says, include writing for an audience. I remember having that same revelation as a teacher of writing to elementary students. Having an audience was necessary, I told them. And yet I too remember essays written for a single teacher’s eyes only. I would venture a guess that students in classrooms all over the world write more frequently and with greater purpose than I did as a child. Writing takes on more of an immediacy. Students cannot wait to share their writing with classmates. They write for an audience. The Stanford students’ comments on their experiences as participants in the writing study confirm that writing for them is a means of communication. Reason enough, I think, for rejoicing.

Perhaps Ms. Lansford is right. Perhaps we are in the midst of a monumentally important literacy revolution. What do you think?

From The Morning News, one of my favorite news aggregators, I was directed to this Wired Magazine article (Clive Thompson on the New Literacy) which highlights some changes in how younger people view writing.

The article focuses on the work of Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, head of the Stanford Study of Writing. From Thompson’s article:

“I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization,” she says. For Lunsford, technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.

She makes a good argument about the increased importance of writing in our society and how students have learned to consider the audience for their writing as part of the thought process of composition–something, I think, we all could do better. Take a look at the article.