Sneak Peak: Map of Lannan Dús

As some of you are aware, my manuscript is nearing publication. (You know, this story.) My editing group had some interesting ideas for a title, but I have ultimately decided to go with "The King and His Commitments." It's a delightful play on words which will become apparent upon reading the novel.

However, one piece of feedback everybody was unanimous on was to "make a map!" And thus, I present you with this:

NOTE: not to scale

This map should be included in both the paperback and ebook version of the story once I've completed the formatting and publish them. Definitely expect that announcement!

--C.T. Eiser

Poem: Little Fractures

The little fractures in your chest,
Widen under pressure and stress.
Crack, deepen, delve, divide,
And reveal who you are inside.

So ask me now why I disliked
The little fractures in your spine,
And why I insist on making large
Something which seemed so small?

All are capable of great courage or despair,
But of which, we’re currently unaware.
He who is faithful in least is faithful in most,
When trials come, the truth will be known.

So for now I’ll go on those fault lines,
And trace their pattern with my finger.
I won’t have to wait for hard times,
To know which way you’ll shatter.

NOTE: This poem, along with those previously shared on this site, will be part of the book "Unfamiliar Thoughts," to be released at the end of the month. The paperback version of the book will include charcoal illustrations and approximately seventy additional never-before-seen poems. An announcement will be made on this site upon its release. As ever, thank you for your continued readership. --C.E.

Formatting Documents

I've been getting my first book (a collection of poems) ready for publication, and thus have spent the last few weeks reacquainting myself with the joys of formatting. It's about as much fun as it sounds, but I realize that even with a lot of computer experience this can be a frustrating process. I can't imagine what it would be like to attempt this without having a lot of practice with it. So here's a list of general formatting tips. This isn't a guide for specific and technical formatting techniques, for those already exist and are much more detailed than anything I could create, but more of a guide on how to approach formatting a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx).

1. Save formatting for last

This should be obvious, but for some it's not. Get your raw text down before you do anything else. Don't touch anything in the formatting bar until every word that's supposed to be in the finished document is already in it. This includes paragraph spacing, margins, justification, and font. The reason? If you start formatting a half done document you're going to end up with inconsistent formatting and a lot of repeated work. Formatting choices tend to bleed down the paper as you go too, so any change you make may not end up throughout the whole document. Get it written first, then make it pretty.

2. Section breaks

After the document is written, you're going to want to add section breaks to anywhere where the formatting will be different from the rest of the document. Doing this will save you headaches in the long run.

3. Working from the top down

Now that you're formatting your document, the best approach is to work from the top down, or from the big to the small. Basically ask yourself, what's the biggest/broadest thing I need to change? And then do that first. For example, you would change your page orientation/size/margins first, then apply font style/size, and then add page breaks. If you try it the other way around you're going to end up changing where all your page breaks are.

NOTE: Microsoft Word provides "styles" to help with formatting all your scattered text that needs to be consistent (such as headings). While they are useful, I'm not going to explain how to use them because they fall under the 'technical' category and are not required to make a pleasing document.

4. Hot keys

Hot keys are not strictly necessary, but they really help streamline the whole process and make formatting faster. While things vary from computer to computer, here's some basic hot keys to know:

shift: selects everything between one click to the next. Useful for highlighting large bodies of text
ctrl: selects one section and another non-adjacent one. Useful for highlighting disparate pieces of text
home: goes to the beginning of a line
end: goes to the end of a line
ctrl+home: goes to the beginning of your document
ctrl+end: goes to the end of your document
ctrl+a: select all
ctrl+s: save
ctrl+x: cut
ctrl+c: copy
ctrl+v: paste
ctrl+f: find
ctrl+z: undo
double click: select word
triple click: select paragraph

Obviously, these are not all the hot keys available, but they are the ones I use the most. Control and shift can be especially useful in conjunction with some others. For example, if you need to select all the text below a certain point, you can click on the point and then hit shift+ctrl+end to highlight all the text below. Go ahead and try them! They're really great.

5. Keep a notebook

Lastly, I like to keep a physical notebook by the computer at all times. When I discover a formatting or editing error while proofreading I find it useful to write them down and cross them off once they're fixed. This is especially true for large documents where it may not be practical to fix errors as you find them. It's easy reference and a good practice to get into.

Formatting can be a bear, but the results are well worth the effort, as a well formatted document looks both professional and effortless. So keep at it and you will improve.

More Photographs

Iron Goat Trail, Washington

Cougar Lake, Washington

Fire Lookout at High Rock, Washington

Molson, Canada

Ruby Beach, Washington

Silverdale, Washington

New York, New York

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

Elk in Ecola Park, Oregon

Sorry, My Thesaurus, But No

Looking to improve your word choice in your writing? Here's one tool I don't recommend: the standby of the fifth grade writing test, the thesaurus.

Don't get me wrong, the thesaurus can be a great tool, but it has a tendency to be abused and overused. If you must use a thesaurus, use it sparingly. It boils down to one problem:

The difference between denotation and connotation.

Denotation: the exact, dictionary definition of a word.
(For example, "thin" means "having very little flesh.")

Connotation: the associations carried with a word that are not defined explicitly.
(This gets a little more nebulous.)

Thesauruses do not provide connotation, and that is where most newer writers fall into trouble.

Let's say, for example, you want to describe a character who is thin. But "thin" is an overused and vague word, so you crack open your thesaurus to try and find a better one. Here is what you might see:

Thin: [1] flimsy, slim, slight, diaphanous, [2] lean, skinny, scraggy, lank, scrawny, slender

A lot of these would work fine, but if you describe a character as "diaphanous," thinking it's the most impressive sounding, you might run into problems. Diaphanous could be used as a metaphorical way to describe a character's personality, but if they physically appear that way then they're probably a ghost. ("Diaphanous" means "something which is sheer and light, nearly transparent").

There's still a lot of good words on the list though, so which do you choose? Flimsy carries the idea of something without strength, breakable. Slim and slender are both pleasingly thin and shapely, whereas slight carries more the idea of someone small. Lean implies thinness born of exercise and thus carries the idea of endurance, but scraggy and scrawny can imply that someone isn't getting enough food or is otherwise unhealthily thin. Lank describes someone who is tall as well as thin, and finally, skinny is our nearly neutral word, neither pleasing nor displeasing.

See how subtle the shade of meaning can be? But if you opened up your thesaurus and chose a word without already knowing these things you could end up conveying the wrong idea to your readers.

So when is a good time to use a thesaurus? If you're really stuck on a word, a thesaurus can give you ideas of which words to use. But for it to be truly effective, you need to be familiar with the connotations of those words to begin with.

The best way to learn the connotations of words is to simply read them in a lot of contexts. After a while, the similar thread and feeling in all of them will become apparent and second nature. As with most things, the best way to improve your vocabulary is through use, taking words in and giving them out. (Just make sure you use them correctly.)

A final note on word choice: don't be afraid of the bland word. Sometimes, it's okay to say something is thin, bad, even nice. If all of the words you use have punch, none of them are going to stand out. If something is unremarkable, it's okay to describe it using an unremarkable word. This is how we speak. Sometimes, it just flows more naturally, without distraction.

So play around with things. Read a lot. Look words up. And occasionally, occasionally, dust off the old thesaurus.

Short Story: Gold and Silver Wolf

Sometimes, you have to work hard to come up with stories. Other times, you wake up in the middle of the night from a ridiculously detailed dream, write it down, and find (surprisingly) it still makes sense in the morning. This is a story I wrote down on one such night, a long time ago:

Gold Wolf was a princess who lived in a castle in the corner of a large woods. This forest covered the entire land and was home to many people and creatures, including Silver Wolf, a "child of the forest," a little boy who loved to explore. Gold Wolf was lonely and felt unappreciated by her father, who was busy running the kingdom and had many older children. One day she snuck out to play and met Silver Wolf, and the two became good friends.

But her father was oblivious to the forest and decided to erect a wall around the land he claimed as his own. This barrier cut off the corner of the forest where they lived from the rest, which became known as the Woods Beyond. Silver Wolf was trapped within the walls with Gold Wolf. There was plenty of space to live and explore, but still the wall bothered Silver Wolf.

"This is all one forest," he told Gold Wolf. "Why should he divide it?" Silver Wolf wanted to travel to the Woods Beyond. Gold Wolf wanted to go with him, so she could explore and play in all the forest too.

So the next night, Silver Wolf tried to sneak Gold Wolf out of the castle and beyond the wall. But they were caught, and the King was furious at his daughter for sneaking out, so he threw Silver Wolf into the dungeon and locked Gold Wolf in her room. But Gold Wolf was a kind soul, and persistent, and she begged and pleaded with her father to send Silver Wolf into exile instead of locking him up. Finally, she promised her father she would never run away if only he would send Silver Wolf away. He agreed to this and Silver Wolf was left outside the wall, bereft of his playmate but able to travel all of the Woods Beyond.

Still, at night, every night, the whole kingdom can hear a wolf howling, but there is no answer.

December Update

December's been a loooooong month.

Honestly, I haven't completed quite as much as I'd hoped. I did, however, accomplish a few things.

While waiting for feedback on my novel I've had a lot of time to work on editing, organizing, and illustrating my poetry. That has turned into a mammoth project in its own right.

Also, I finished some artwork and kicked around some ideas in my journals.

Now that the month is over and I've received the feedback for my novel, there's a lot more to do this coming month... including working towards publication. (Here's to hoping!)

Thanks for sticking with things; I'll try to do the same.

--C.T. Eiser