A year in writing 500 Words very close to weekly, this is a perfect time to reflect. After the disk issues I’ve battled over the last couple months I’m feeling better and ready to recommit to publishing my manuscripts. Hard to stay in the game when you’re as out of it as I was. Add to it that in many industries very little happens over the holidays.
Tag: publishing a book
500 Words #39-
On Publishing
Except When It Isn’t
During it all I had a recording session and quite a bit of chef work to do which aggravated it considerably. Riding in a car hurts. So does sitting or sleeping in the wrong position. Hobbling more than a few steps? Forget about it. 2 trips to urgent care and double doses of Advil and Tylenol coupled with some Meloxicam, Lidocaine patches, CBD ointment, kinesthetic tape, a cane, a heating pad… nothing provides anything but brief relief. Lucky for me my ever loving wife sees to my every whimpering need. I’ve always been a bad patient and can’t imagine what I’d do without her.
500 Words #38- Chatting with a Machine
Publishing wise the book covers are covered. Home Cookin’ The Stories Behind The Food via Midjourney (an advanced AI image generator utilizing text prompts) apparently preferred over ChatPT, or so I’m told by the people helping me. This from their website “explore the intersection of personality and aesthetics”. I’m paraphrasing what I’ve heard but it seems to humanize the machine, and therefore the image created. That you can do things, like ask it how it would do it better?
500 Words #34 – Machinations of Marketing
Some parts of the DIY method of publishing or making records are fun. Creating the content for one. I also enjoy conceptualizing and choosing the artwork for the covers. Marketing I fucking hate. Approached in need but with little knowledge, social media platforms can eat you up and spread you so thinly that you don’t do any of them justice.
500 Words #28- So Many Words
I saw a comedian complaining about reading books. How there’s so many words page after page without a few blank ones in between so you can rest… but no, the words just keep coming. It was very funny and led me to consider how much worse it is writing them, in this case, 500 a week.
500 Words #27- Write Fearlessly, Edit Mercilessly
Discover the journey of a chef-turned-writer navigating the challenges of storytelling, self-publishing, and branding. Insights on creativity, restaurant life, and the art of writing fearlessly and editing mercilessly.
500 Words #26- You’ve Come A Long Way Baby
At the beginning of the year this blog ostensibly on my publishing quest (now expanded) didn’t exist. Efforts regarding my manuscript Home Cookin’- The Stories Behind The Food were suspended in amber. It was my first client/now friend Melissa who suggested that stories are more like evergreens- and like good songs, have no expiration date.
500 Words #25
Swimming with Unicorns
A family reunion was the scene of my bondage. My plan last week was to familiarize myself more with Substack, Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter- but instead opted for swimming with unicorns, playing Candyland with Scarlett’s ever-changing rules and jumping on the bed.
500 Words #24 An Audience Of One
Spent the better part of the week researching and editing a new Home Cookin’ profile I’m doing in order to finish the first draft. Hacen is the first subject in years that’s compelled me to write a new profile (with 20 others in the can). As a result I’ve been doing a deep dive into the Northwest Saharan African country of Mauritania where my subject escaped because hereditary racial slavery is still current events there as opposed to mainly legacy as it is here.
500 words #23 – The Storyteller
Transcribing recent interviews for the most powerful piece I’ve written for Home Cookin’- The Stories Behind The Food, my POV should be noted.
Storytellers relate anecdotes and recite tales and their narration makes the audience identify with scenarios and characters. Creativity, humor, timing and merciless editing (aka “killing your darlings”) are important skills to possess. AKA chronicler, fabulator, raconteur, griot, spinner of yarns or anecdotist.