The Process

 Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Today I am conducting a bit of an experiment, as I am writing to you. As the name of this article indicates, The Process, today I’m showing you behind the curtain and a little bit of the process that takes place when I write an article. With the help of this software Dragon ‘Naturally Speaking’[1] speech to text software… I am right now dictating an article as I am making a video of the dictation. Later today… Much later tonight I will be posting this completed article along with this video.

My Dear Readers you are so very important to me. Today being Thanksgiving I wanted to give you something back for all the support all the kindness all the kind comments and everything that I get from you as My Dear Readers. The gift I have for you today is a little look behind the curtain at the magic that is me writing an article for you.

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I have never done this, before. I am not sure how well it will work out! However, I am sitting here watching and it is keeping up although a little bit behind, with everything that I have said. The process, for me, My Dear Readers is … well… I always have ideas. I had a friend of mine, the other day… share with me…

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“What do you do, when you don’t have any ideas?”

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And I commented back

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“Well that is never a problem with me… I just always seem to have a lot of ideas about what to write.”

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Take ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia”. I already have two notebooks full of; plot ideas, plot twists, cliffhangers, character evolution, character dynamics, relationships. All that will, at one point or another, in time become a part of my five book series ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’.

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For people that have not heard me talk about this before, and anyone that may be new to my blog? ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’ is a tale of a group of genetically engineered rats called “D and A rats” . Most people will see it and hear it as DNA… but actually it is “D and A”. Darrell and Alice. (Yes, named after my brother Darrell)

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The daughter of the original D&A rat, King Nakita, has a daughter named Princess Nadia. All of the rats, both D&A and Rattus Superiorous all live in a city called ‘Rattopia’. The rats are going to help mankind ‘catch-up’ in the evolutionary process. It is a very good series of novels. Which will start, being written, for very young adults… children, and will advance for middle school and then high school aged children. Right now I am going to stop the video and continue with writing ‘The Process’ the article. ]

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But, I’d like to thank you again, everybody, for dropping in and taking a look. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing you, again, soon.

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Now that I have turned off the video I’m going to continue writing the article ‘The Process’. Now, I don’t really think that I have any different or patented way of writing. I would think that the only major difference between me, and any other author of the day, is that I dictate all my articles, first. This is because I have limited use of my left hand, due to the progression of my spinal stenosis. If anything I am just adding one more step to the process of writing and then publishing an article. Whereas most authors will just type out an article then publish. I use a dictation software which takes my spoken words and turns it into a typewritten document. Then I can, change the document; update the document, and then copy and paste document and my publication software all using the Dragon naturally speaking software.

I have to tell you, My Dear Readers that getting this software was truly a godsend. I have needed this software for more than a year. I have wanted this software for the past 8 to 10 months. It was only in August of this year that I was able to get the software. I, alone, was not able to afford the software. However, Allen contributed most of the money so that I could have this software I so desperately needed. I can’t even begin to tell you My Dear Readers just how much of a significant difference this software has made. And my ability to write for you. I have made leaps and bounds in writing ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’ since I have the software.

I am, however, really wanting to get the upgraded Dragon speech software ‘Premium’. The upgraded version will allow me to not only write articles but to completely control my computer without any use of my hands. With the progression of my disease… that my doctors are telling me. The need for a software to control all of my computer functions is going to go beyond a desire and into a necessity… in the coming years. The really great part is? I can use this software and an older computer, connect it to my power chair and be able to control my power chairs movement and functions all with my voice. Now, My Dear Readers, this is not going to happen anytime soon. However, it is going to be something I need to do. It’s good that I’m getting to know this software so that in time I can use it the way I’m going to need to.

Now, back to the process. Unlike a lot of millennial’s, most likely, I still use notebooks, index cards, an index card box to make notes of; plot outlines, character development, and all things of that nature. Right now, today, I can tell you I have two composition notebooks, two index card collections, and a couple of packages of index cards all with all sorts of notes on; dialogue, locations, environments, and plot items. In time I will take all of these note cards and composition books and put them into my novel software.

Now that’s the other part of my process that might be a little bit different from everyone else’s. I use novel writing software called ‘Storybook’. So far, I have found this software to be in invaluable for a novice novel writer like myself. This software keeps track of; character locations, plot lines, through lines, locations of important items, and everything that we novice writers tend to trip up on. Now let me be honest… Completely honest with you, My Dear Readers. I have never completed a novel in my life. I have written, to date, over 310 articles for The Other Shoe. Prior to my blogs I have written short stories in high school, one act plays for college, and have written all sorts of political articles here and there all my life. Oh, and I forgot, for two years I wrote, edited, and published the newsletter for the apartment complex I managed here in Stanton California. While writing the newsletter I also wrote edited and maintained the website for the same apartment complex. I’m thinking of putting up a few scanned pages from the newsletter from Plazawoods apartments right here at The Other Shoe. I really am very proud of the newsletter I created for this apartment complex. I really haven’t mentioned it before… Haven’t talked about it much, because of one reason. After two years of; writing, copying, publishing, editing, and posting on every door of the building I managed for two years? I was never paid one cent, for all my work, by the owner of the building.

My Dear Readers I cannot even begin to put into words how much it hurt… How unappreciated I felt… How jaded it made me for that man to never pay me one cent for all the newsletters I wrote. Honestly, I think it’s why I stopped writing for many years. I cannot tell you how many of the residents complemented me on the newsletter that I wrote. In fact, I had one long-term resident who said they put the newsletter every month on the refrigerator in their apartment and that there are two very young kindergartens and elementary school age children would use my newsletter is practice reading out loud and for spelling. My Dear Readers as an author that’s the kind of thing I live for… I live to hear and know. Yes I used the newsletter as a device to let the tenants know it was the first of the month and the rent was due… without mentioning the rent or browbeating them that it was due. I used it as a tool to develop good habits and the part of my tenants to pay the rent on time. Because the owner of the building wanted to me to charge $75 a month if the rent was late. Like you, My Dear Readers, the residents of the building I managed were important to me. They are human beings with lives, with families, with loved ones, with dreams with, with aspirations and I wanted to provide them with a safe clean positive place to live in.

I hadn’t talked about that in forever. Now that I have… it feels good… It was good to talk about how this man hurt me and hobbled my writing. I don’t think a lot of people… Noncreative people, understand the close personal relationship artists have with their art. Like plagiarism. I don’t think any non-author… Even some soulless leech parasitic authors can understand how deeply you can harm an author by stealing his work. To steal someone’s work like my novel is not just legally wrong… It’s a moral affront and it’s a spiritual death. Now… Now that I think about it I really am I am going to scan… I found several of them the other day. And I sat and looked at them, and read them and it made me smile. I’m going to scan a few copies of the old newsletter, in the next week, I’m going to post them here at The Other Shoe. Now, My Dear Readers, do not be expecting anything grand or even the quality of what I write today. They were written in the late 90s. And they were written by much younger author than I am today. However, I think you will see even in these that when I did something? I poured myself into it. I gave it my all and I wanted to deliver the best product I possibly could.

I that’s what I wanted to share with you in this article ‘The Process’. For me the process is a spiritual process. It starts in my heart. It works out through my hands and through me speaking. It ends up on the screen of the computer, it gets edited, and then it is published to the Internet for all of you to read. But what I think I wanted you to understand in this process My Dear Readers is that when you read is something I put here on this blog you are reading a part of me! For everyone that well, those who read ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’ will be seeing into my mind and hearing my spirit. That is the process. From my heart to my mind to my hands, and my voice, to the Internet and then to you. Even if it’s just a short four paragraph article. They are all important to me. You are all important to me.

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HERE is the VIDEO I made while dictating this article.

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 [youtube=http://youtu.be/DOInja-jLHw]