Write from Source

Well I've been back from visiting my homeland, family and friends for nearly 3 weeks now and in that time I've been fairly quiet on social media - on my business pages at least. For those of you who have followed my work for a while, you'll know I'm not the best at keeping up with my business social media - particularly when I'm really busy with work (funnily enough 😁) Well Write from Source has been keeping me busy and away from here but I thought I'd pop on here to say hello and share a little titbit about the writing journey.

Many people have a glorified view of what writing is ...sitting with coffee at a computer, perhaps gazing out every now and then over a beautiful view as you await the muse to appear. Well - yes - sometime writing is a bit like that - but that generally only happens on my days off. 😁 My work days are a little messier ...and that's what I wanted to share with you.

I am old school. I was taught the textual editing marks and symbols, and I learned how to mark-up editorial and work with flat plans back at college, long before my publishing days. Everything then was on paper. Drafts were sent to designers in brown envelopes, and content was signed off in the 'big book' at the front of the editorial desk. I am still a very 'visual' writer and editor. I am very tactile with the page - it's a tangible experience to write this way - I can't just sit endlessly typing keys on a keyboard. I am conscious about the environment and re-use any paper I print out - but sometimes yes - I need to print work out. Only by printing the pages, marking the pages, re-arranging the pages on the desk - can I truly see how the content should flow - as the reader would read it. I have my typed out pre-planned checklists, structure outlines/plot points, author notes all strewn out beside me and only then can I inhabit the pages. So much of my work ends up with coffee stains, notes to self and doodles that it can, by the end of a session, look like a wild animal has run amok across my pages ... but somehow I find the order and the flow, ready to be transferred back into the manuscript sitting waiting on the computer.

So if you'd love to write, but have some romantic notion of how that should look, let that go right now. We all have our different styles and different rituals in terms of how we approach the page, so enjoy finding yours ....

Hello beautiful souls. I hope you all survived "hump day" ... a wonderful term here in Australia for mid week. I have to confess I am exhausted. It's been a long, full day! Rewarding - but tiring none-the-less. So as I consider a quick healthy dinner I thought I would share an old post with you for today's Christmas Gift for writers. It's an important subject that never goes out of date though - the subject of "Copyright". As a writer you need to ensure you understand copyright law and how it affects you and anyone you engage to help you create /or write your book (I'm thinking designers, photographers and ghostwriters at the very least).

The subject of Copyright is a real hot button at the moment and over time I will update this article to take into account AI.

Many people don't realise that AI mines the internet for writing and photos that "artists" and "creatives" have spent years creating ... (amongst all the other random stuff on the internet) only to serve it up for everyone to use. This is stealing - pure and simple and yet there is no recourse at the moment. Those facebook apps that use your photos to create a superhero image of yourself are huge fun ...but have you considered behind these games and filters, AI is mining the photos of your face ... and who knows a few years down the line you could see your face being used in a campaign that you have no knowledge of, don't support and haven't been paid for ... Hopefully there will be some proper guidelines and laws around using AI very soon - but at the moment things are pretty loose.

As you can tell, it's a topic that gets me a bit fired up .... lol.
So on that note, I will leave you with this article on Copyright so you always know your Rights as creatives. Until tomorrow beautiful people 🥰

Giving Credit Where it's Due: Understanding Copyright - Write from Source Hello, all you creative souls out there. Today’s topic is a bit of a soapbox item for me as I care passionately about artists, writers, and creators of original work being credited for their work.  You see, there is a commonly held ‘misunderstanding’ that if you have paid for creative service...