Respect Your Audience

Respect Your Audience

A writer who wants to lead an audience towards a conclusion must refrain from clipping on a leash and pulling too hard. Being human, the audience is likely to resist being told what to think unless already perfectly in tune with the writer's thinking ... and how often does that happen?

A writer who is very close to a subject being written about may fail to notice that the facts presented are open to alternative interpretations. If the writer's interpretation is presented as the only logical or only possible view, readers whose interpretations differ—possibly a considerable majority of the audience—could be irritated, or offended, or worse. As Sherlock Holmes said, in A Study in Scarlet, "I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears opposed to a long train of deductions it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation."

Techniques to Use and to AvoidA good approach is to lay out the facts in the most logical and cogent manner possible, then trust the reader to draw the appropriate conclusions. This technique is particularly applicable to fiction writing, in which character and setting are demonstrated by description, conversation, and situation. One hallmark of a less-developed fiction writer is dependence on narrative that bluntly tells the reader—in a sentence or two—what to think of a character or living space, instead of providing evidence to draw the reader to the desired conclusion in longer descriptive or situational passages. For example, rather than say "The Smiths had low-class tastes", the writer might describe how the Smith family's house was decorated.

When conclusions must explicitly be stated, make sure that the presentation is neutral and respects the independence of the reader to take them or to leave them. Trust to both your power of persuasion and your audience's common sense.
Avoid making value judgements based on certain facts or conclusions. Values are best judged by each reader independently. For example, a newspaper story leads off with the statements: "Students at Smith High School achieved the highest test scores of all the high schools in town. The school is also consistently rated "better than most" by a majority of its graduates." Do not follow up by a statement such as: "Smith High School is the best in the city." The question that is sure to be asked is: "Best at what?" Smith may be the best academically (or maybe it is simply located in an affluent neighbourhood). Maybe other schools have better remedial reading programs, sports participation, or drama and chess clubs. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Avoid placing the reader on your side of an us-versus-them statement: "We now can see that....", "We recommend that...." Statements like these vaguely imply the superiority of the "we" (author) who is dictating to the "they" (reader). Rewrite the statements to emphasize the benefits of agreeing with the conclusions or advice being presented. For example, rather than use "We recommend that the Whizzbang be placed on a hard, flat surface", try "For best operation, place the Whizzbang on a hard, flat surface."

When to Force the IssueFinally, ignore most of the preceding advice when writing cautions or warnings about hazardous materials, products, or processes. In these cases, you must be blunt and explicit about the hazard; you must ensure that the reader will understand the consequences of failing to heed the good advice being provided (value judgement); and you must emphasize the credibility of the "we" (expert) who is giving advice to the "they" (assumed novice) by stating credentials, as appropriate.

20 Rules for Writers

20 Rules for Writers

1. Have faith--not cynicism
2. Dare to dream
3. Take your mind off publication
4. Write for joy
5. Get the reader to turn the page
6. Forget politics (let your real politics shine through)
7. Forget intellect8. Forget ego
9. Be a beginner
10. Accept change
11. Don't think your mind needs altering
12. Don't expect approval for telling the truth -(Parents, politicians, colleagues, friends, etc.)
13. Use everything
14. Remember that writing is Heroism
15. Let Sex (The Body, the physical world) in!
16. Forget critics
17. Tell your truth not the world's
18. Remember to be earth-bound
19. Remember to be wild!
20. Write for the child (in yourself and others)

Finally, There are no rules.. Forget rules and write by heart

HOW NOT TO PROCRASTINATE

HOW NOT TO PROCRASTINATE

By Shirley Kawa-Jump

I have a confession to make: I procrastinate as much as the next person. I'll avoid a pending deadline by cleaning out the bathroom cabinet, taking a trip to the mall or simply overdosing on junk TV. The problem is that I'm a working writer, and I'm responsible for a sizable chunk of the household income, so procrastination is not a good idea.

Still, I do it. And I'm not alone. "I procrastinate about almost everything, even though when I do occasionally do something right away it always feels so good! If something is going to be unpleasant I will procrastinate," says writer Holly Gumpher Fawcett.

How do you overcome procrastination and learn to move forward with your work? After a writing career that has spanned more than twenty years, I've developed a few tips that have worked well for me.

* Accept that you are a procrastinator: If you know you have faults, you can work around them. Understand that your tendency is to put things off and work hard to encourage yourself to do the opposite. Just be careful to build in enough extra time to accommodate your habits. "I've learned through experience how long certain projects take, and I procrastinate accordingly," says humor writer Jennifer Doloski. "I have, however, been burned by procrastinating under the assumption that my sources will be available when I'm ready to work, and it doesn't always happen."

* Take Baby Steps: If you need to get three queries out this week and feel overwhelmed by the task, do one tiny thing at a time. Just outline the first one on Monday, then write the opening paragraph on Tuesday. Wednesday, finish it and outline the second one, and so forth. "You know that analogy about the eagle with the branches in its talon?" asks Melanie Gold, a freelancer and Associate Editor with the National Association of Colleges and Employers. "Singularly the branches are weak, but together they're unbreakable. I reverse that. A seemingly impossible project can be done if you break it down into parts."

* Take the work with you: Often, the problem is in your environment. Some people feel all their self-doubts and fears come back the minute they sit in front of their computer. If that's the case, then pick up your pad of paper, your pen and some Post-its and journey to wherever you feel most comfortable. I've worked on the couch, in the library and even in a coffee shop as a reward and a break from my office. A change of pace can also restart those creative juices.

* Get the beginning done: When I have a huge article to write and only have a minute to work on it, I'll often write just the lead. For some reason, once that opening is done, the rest of the article easily falls into place when I come back to it later. Even though I've only composed a paragraph, it feels like the bulk of the work is done and the project isn't so overwhelming anymore.

* Put a mental boss on your shoulder: Working at home or on your own schedule is too much temptation for most procrastinators. It's far too simple to opt for baking cookies over writing essays or sending invoices. Writer Cheryl Duksta pretends she has a To-Do list from a boss. "What helps me is to create a list and pretend that it's my boss. I don't think; I just follow my list."

* Do the icky stuff first: If you have a long list of projects and have a couple that you are dreading doing, do those first. Author Melissa Hill says she uses a prioritized list and deals with the unpleasant jobs early. "If say, number 1 is no fun, [say to yourself] I'll just do it for ten minutes. After ten minutes, you're kind of in the flow of the thing and you end up just finishing it up."

* Make bargains with yourself: I've set all kinds of rewards for myself to get dreaded projects done -- from a Hershey bar to a walk around the block. The key is to find something that motivates you enough to get your work done so that the reward is worth the effort.
You can learn to overcome bad procrastination habits and make yourself a much more productive writer. The key is knowing who you are and finding the right approach for your style of work. Before you know it, you'll be getting ten times more work done than ever before - and seeing ten times the results of your efforts.

Are You A Writer & Scared To Publish On Internet?

Why? I think this is something not reasonable that you are doing to your own words. Just because there are many thieves on the net you don’t at all give your words a chance to be published? You are wise so you write your own poems, stories, articles, etc. and they are just otherwise so they just steal the words written by others. But to stop giving exposure to your words won’t stop them of stealing; it will just stop your words to be read by true readers of the words.

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It’s bliss to be a writer, it’s an art and every artist wants an exposure. Writing few poems and hiding it in your diary is not a way you should respect your words, they need more respect more love. When I ask some writers that for what you write when you don’t want to publish? Most of the answers come to me as, ‘I write for myself’, ‘I write for my friends’, ‘I write for my lover’. That is true that you write for someone, may be yourself, friends, family, lover or anyone, but that doesn’t mean that you should keep it till them only. Your words are your emotion, your heart, your life and your feelings. Do you remember a day – when you were crying with tears in your eyes, there was no one beside you to whom you could talk, you picked up a pen and a piece of paper, removing your falling tears from your cheeks you wrote few lines and your tears stopped coming out. According to me, almost every writer should have faced this day at least once in his/her life. So what it makes you understand? This day, this poem, these feelings were in your heart, eyes and mind… which you penned down on the paper. Do you think its just fine to write that paper and throw it off in a dustbin? Here you will say – ‘I have kept it in my diary and I hold my diary to my heart’; yes I understand that you hold it very safely, but till now how many people have commented about your words? 1- 2 – 3 or 10, that’s it? And that too were your friends, relative and your love, do you think they have given you wise comments? May be or may not be, because they are your close ones they won’t break your heart by giving comments that you won’t like to hear. But friends Internet the World Wide Web is a place where there are people who would comment your words very truly and when they like it they will recommend a friend to read it and they won’t ask you anything against it. Isn’t web a great a portal to share and publish your words? You know when you publish your words it lives more then what you would live. Publishing on a book or magazine is not a easy process and it most of the time targets the local readers only and who knows, may be in this reader also there could be thieves. Friends I wrote this article coz one of my friend who is a poet herself and publishes her words on her own site was very upset today and told me that she will be taking her site down due to the thefts of the words. And there are really many writers who either publish their word then step back and many who due to the chances of theft never publish it. Out of these hidden writers who knows, if they would have published their words, we would have got the chance to read one more writer as William Shakespeare.

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I would suggest you to not hide your words in your diaries, come up start publishing write away, don’t think what you write is good or bad, I am sure the readers of World Wide Web will decide it and surely comment your words. Take a chance to be William Shakespeare or Mirza Ghalib, at least for once. When you write your heart out, why not publish it heartily?

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About the theft of the words, we will here also talk about some tips on protecting your words and behaving with the thieves. Here are few means by which you can protect your copyrights, I have found it and gathered this out from the World Wide Web.

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First of all…What is a Copyright?

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Copyright is a protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic works, whatever the form of expression, provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form. This means that if you can see it, hear it and/or touch it - it may be protected. If it is an essay, if it is a play, if it is a song, if it is a funky original dance move, if it is a photograph, HTML coding or a computer graphic that can be set on paper, recorded on tape or saved to a hard drive, it may be protected. Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly. Exclusive means only the creator of such work, not anybody who has access to it and decides to grab it.
above para from : http://www.whatiscopyright.org/

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I read this some years back, I don’t remember the source website, But this I find the easiest way of protecting a writer’s copyright.

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Step By Step

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1. Whenever you write anything, before giving anyone to read or before publishing it, type it out in a clean neat way on a white paper with copyright symbol, date, day & your name. (i.e. © 13th April 2006 – Ritu Roy)

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2. Put this paper in a envelope (preferably brown envelope). Seal it properly and neatly. Address the envelope to yourself.

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3. Go to a near by post office, Put a stamp as required and ask the postmaster to put a seal of date on the area from where the envelope is sealed. If he enquires do let him know that it is for copyright purpose, he will surely help you. Put it in the post box.

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4. Wait for the envelope to reach you, DO NOT OPEN IT when it reaches you. Just keep it in a safe place.

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Now this envelope is a copyright proof to your words. Whenever you require a legal proof for your copyrights, use this. I suggest you that if you are filing a legal complain against someone for theft of your copyright open this envelope only in front of the judge or authorized registrar.

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Next way to protect copyrights online is, blog your poems. Before posting your article or poems on any website post it on your blog. These days there are many blog spaces available over the net. Open your free account with one of the blog space and first of all put your articles on this, a blog space shows the date and time when the article was posted. DON’T EDIT YOUR POSTS. If you edit the post the date will change to the edited day. So just keep it as a safe place of yours and do not forget to post a copyright notice that is copyright symbol, date, day and your name.

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Then let’s talk over when you find your words with different writer name on a website. Well I know there will be tears and anger in your heart, but wait don’t go emotional. Your words are yours; don’t give up by crying, fight for your precious words. In this case you should first of all write a mail to the webmaster and let him/her know about the theft of the words. If the thief himself/herself is a webmaster surely he/she won’t accept it. Then you need to give a next mail of warning to this person. If yet there is no response, talk to your fans, give them the url of the thief and let them interact with webmaster/thief. Now then you choose a way out to interact with the visitors and members of this thief site. There would surely be a way out, may be forums, yahoo or other group, guestbook, chat box. Use it and speak all your heart out and don’t forget to put a link to your original words.

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© Ritu Roy (Tuesday, 18th April 2006)

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What is a poet all about?

What is a poet all about?

A poet is a person who pens down the words and feelings in a rhyme recognized by the world of literature. Now what is these particular world of literature, well its nothing but the rules of literature that a poet himself / herself has created. Feel free to be open to the changes to the world of literature and rules. A poet can never be tied up in the rules and regulations to pen down his/her feelings, because in any form feelings cannot be bound.

When is a poet created?

Normally they say that poet is created with heart wound. But I say it wrong theory, poet is created when a human with feelings to express is born. And then when that particular person starts writing about his feelings.. at very first in a way of normal wordings or phrase, then as rhyme and then as a poet. A poet is created when God sheds a tear!

When is a poet completed?

A poet is completed only after he/she writes poems which literally brings tear or smile or say exactly similar emotion in the reader’s heart as the poet himself / herself would have felt while writing the poem. A poet is completed on that very same day when he/she writes that particular poem or creation.

What is the life of a poet?

I would rather say that in Indian background there is at present no life for a poet. Coz in India as our history say, poets are recognized after their death. So there is no life for a poet, its only death that may matter to him / her. Poet’s life in other part is hard, very hard. Coz poet is a clean hearted person, who makes his/her emotion visible and comment able by the world. He presents his emotion like a decorated piece of good recipe for which there are few praise and few dislikes. And he had to take all these on his personal emotions, with a smiling face and greed to improve.

Can a poet ever improve?

I don’t think so. A flat answer in my theory is that a poet can never improve. If he/she improves I don’t think he/she is a poet. The reason is very simple, poet is born from a heart of a person and he/she has got something in innersole to show as rhyme. And when a person overrides his innersole, a poet dies and not improves. But they say that a world is a institution and we are here to learn. But poet is a creation of GOD and as I said earlier he/she is tear shed by GOD. There is rather no chance for improvement at least when I say that.

Will a poet die?

No a poet never dies. Coz a poet lives in his/her words and their words are their soul and when soul is alive there is no chance of death. A poet in physical can die, but a poet with his/her word never dies. They live for centuries and when recalled they are always in the heart of a part of new people of new century.Is it worth being a poet?No its not worth being a poet, its priceless. Poets can never be worth in terms of money, gold or diamond. Poets can only be priceless with emotion in the heart of their fans.

Will I as a poet ever get any fans?

Yes, for sure. There is no poet in the world that writes with feelings and cannot get a fan. When the feelings of a poet and a reader match, the fan is created. Naturally in the world there may be many people around who had faced the same feel in the heart as of yours. When they get to read your poems, a fan is born. It may sometime take a time to get fans or fan but I assure you there is one day for sure, when your fan will be born. Take My Words!

Piece of advice!

Don’t try to be much bound in the rules of poems.

Give yourself a freehand to express your feelings.

See you make wonders!

Ritu Roy

Ghazal Kya Hei

Ghazal rudaad hai naakaamiyon ki,
Ghazal mehrumiyon ki daastaan hai
Ghazal riste hue zakhmon ka marham,
Ghazal ek chaaraa-e-dard-e-nihan hai
Ghazal ka husn hi hai, husn-e-aalam,

Ghazal ka noor hi noor-e-jahan hai -

Jagdish Bhatnagar 'Hayaat'

Classical Definition of Ghazal

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Ghazal in short, is a collection of Sher's which follow the rules of'Matla', 'Maqta', 'Beher', 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif'. So to know whatGhazal is, it's necessary to know what these terms mean.

To understand these terms easily , we will take an example.

1. koi ummid bar nahin aatikoi surat nazar nahin aati

2. aage aati thi haale dil par hasiab kisi baat par nahin aati

3. hum wahan hain, jahan se humko bhikucch hamaari khabar nahin aati

4. kaabaa kis muh se jaaoge 'Ghalib'sharm tumko magar nahin aati

What is a Sher ?

It's a poem of two lines. This definition is deceptively simple.Please note that, every Sher is a poem in itself ! A Sher does notneed, anything around it, to convey the message.All the 4 stanzas in our example are independent poems, Sher's.

So Ghazal is necessarily a collection of two-line-poems called Sher.

[ So the Rafi solo "rang aur noor ki baaraat kise pesh karu" is NOTa Ghazal, as every stanza is of 3 lines, and not 2. ]

What are other restrictions ?

Many, and important ones.[ Any collection of Sher's is not Ghazal. Some good examples are ; thefamous Mukesh song from Yehoodi, "yeh mera deewaanaapan hai" ; and thetitle song of "dil apana aur preet parayi". Each stanza in these songscan be considered as an independent Sher, but they are NOT Ghazal's.To understand, why, we have to wait till 'Kaafiyaa, 'Radif'. ]

What is 'Beher' ?

'Beher' is the 'meter' of the Sher's. It can be considered as thelength of the Sher. Both the lines in the Sher *MUST* be ofsame 'Beher'. And all the Sher's in one Ghazal *MUST* be of thesame 'Beher'. There are 19 (!!) kinds of 'Beher'. But in simple terms,'Beher' is categorized in 3 classes. Short, medium, long.

[ The examples in [] are my additions, from Hindi Films. ]

Small :

ahale dairo-haram reh gaye

tere deewane kam reh gaye

[ Also Talat song, "dil-e-nadan tuze hua kya hai" ]

Medium :

umr jalwo me basar ho, ye zaruri to nahin

har shab-e-gam ki seher ho, ye zaruri to nahin

[ And by Gulzar, "ruke ruke se kadam, ruk ke baar baar chale" ]

Long :

ai mere humnashin, chal kahin aur chal, is chaman me ab apanaa guzaaraa nahin

baat hoti gulon ki, to seh lete hum, ab to kaaton pe bhi haq hamaaraa nahin

[ The filmfare winner, "Manzile apani jagah hai" !! Yes ! It IS a Ghazal.And the Shayar is Prakash Mehra !! surprise , surprise !! ]

So Ghazal is a collection of Sher's of SAME 'Beher'.

What is 'Radif' ?

In a Ghazal, second line of all the Sher's *MUST* end with the *SAME*word/s. This repeating common words is the 'Radif' of the Ghazal.

In our example, the 'Radif' is "nahin aati".

[ Sometimes, the Ghazal becomes known by its 'Radif'. eg. "jaraaaahista chal" sung by Pankaj Udhas. On RMIM we all know one Ghazal bythe 'Radif' as "aahista aahista", don't we ? or is it 2 or 3 ? :-) ]

What is 'Kaafiyaa' ?

'Kaafiyaa' is the rhyming pattern which all the words before 'Radif'*MUST* have.

In our example the 'Kaafiyaa' is "bar", "nazar", "par", "magar" etc.

This is a necessary requirement. Something which is followed even inthe exceptions to all these rules.

So Ghazal is a collection of Sher's of same 'Beher', ending in same'Radif' and having same 'Kaafiyaa'.

[ That's the reason, why "yeh mera diwanapan hai" etc. are NOT Ghazals.There is no common thing which can be called 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif'. ]

What is 'Matla' ?

The first Sher in the Ghazal *MUST* have 'Radif' in its both lines.This Sher is called 'Matla' of the Ghazal and the Ghazal is usuallyknown after its 'Matla'. There can be more than one 'Matla' in aGhazal. In such a case the second one is called 'Matla-e-saani' or'Husn-e-matla'.

In our example, the first Sher is the 'Matla'.

What is 'Maqta' ?

A Shayar usually has an alias ie. 'takhallus' eg. Mirza Asadullakhanused 'Ghalib' as his 'takhallus' and is known by that. Other examplesare 'Daag' Dehlvi, 'Mir' Taqi Mir, Said 'Rahi', Ahmed 'Faraz' etc.There is a Sher in a Ghazal, the last one, which has the Shayar's'takhallus' in it.

[ A Shayar, can use the 'Maqta' very intelligently. He can "talk tohimself" like one in our example. I have lots of favourite Sher'swhich are 'Maqta' of some Ghazal. Some gems are

koi nam-o-nishan puchhe to ai kaasid bataa denaa,

takhallus 'Daag' hai, aur aahiqon ke dil me rehte hai

and

jab bhi milte hain, to kehte hain, "kaise ho 'Shakil'",

iske aage to koi baat nahin hoti hai

The first one uses the meaning of the 'takhallus' to create themagic, and the second one is just simple, simply beautiful. ]

To summarize, Ghazal is a collection of Sher's (independent two-linepoems), in which there is atleast one 'Matla', one 'Maqta' and allthe Sher's are of same 'Beher' and have the same 'Kaafiyaa' and'Radif'.

EXCEPTIONS AND IMP. POINTS TO NOTE

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1. Ghazal is just a form. It is independent of any language.eg. in Marathi also, there can be (and there are) good Ghazals.

2. Some Ghazal's do NOT have any 'Radif'. Rarely. Such Ghazal'sare called "gair-muraddaf" Ghazal.

3. Although, every Sher, should be an independent poem in itself,it is possible, that all the Sher's are on the same theme. Whatfamous example can be other than "chupke chupke raat din aasunbahaanaa yaad hai".

4. In modern Urdu poetry, there are lots of Ghazal's which doNOT follow the restriction of same 'Beher' on both the linesof Sher.

[ My example in 'Maqta', the Sher by Shakil, is one. ]

But even in these Ghazal's, 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif' are present.

5. The restriction of 'Maqta' is really very loose. Many manyGhazal's do NOT have any 'Maqta'. [ I think 'Maqta' was used inthe earlier times, as a way to keep the credit. But since this istraditional, many Ghazal's do have a 'Maqta' just for the sake of it.Sometimes the name of the Shayar comes unnaturally in the lastSher of the Ghazal. ]

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So that's my long essay on Ghazal :-)

I hope it helps in clearing some doubts, and I also hope

that atleast for some, the information was interesting and new.- Abhay.http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~navin/india/songs/ghalib/ghazal.def.html