Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation

Hey!

We’re going to start the year off right by talking about porn.

What the what?

And this is your year to give up porn. And no. We aren’t talking about erotica. We’re talking about what self-help guru Tim Denning calls “addictive habits.” He uses the word porn to grab attention (it works if you’re here) and explain how these addictions are everywhere.

He then categorizes all the different types of porn we have.

There’s lifestyle porn – sitting on the toilet and whipping out your phone.

There’s money porn – always being on your phone or laptop so that you can earn that “100,000 in five months,” always reading the article or watching the podcast to figure out how to make that money super quickly.

There’s startup porn, which is basically being addicted to starting new businesses so you can get that money.

There’s revenge porn where you are a mean punk on social media, hurting people’s feelings in comments, subtweets, or messages.

There’s real porn. We don’t need to explain that, right?

There’s influencer porn where you are all about your brand and selfish instead of giving.

I think there are a lot more addictions than that. There’s the:

You think you’ll be happy if you just lose that 40 pounds but you keep hopping from one diet to another.

You think everyone wants to see your vista photos.

You spend all your time consuming other people’s content and escaping. Escaping is fantastic, but you don’t want to do it all the time.

Denning writes:

“The secret to kill all forms of porn is discipline.

“Discipline yourself to focus on what you know is good for you.

“You have a list of habits already that you probably follow — like exercise, reading, leisure time, meditation — and you can focus your time there and get far better returns than the endless porn-fuelled addictions of meaningless nonsense.

“Porn is an addictive distraction to doing the work you know you want to do. Getting started with your life’s work each day is hard, but so is continually distracting yourself with life porn.”

1. Stop trolling people.
2. Stop being mean to yourself.
3. Stop watching so much content (except us of course). Just kidding.
4. Stop making ideas and not actually pursuing those ideas.
5. Stop reading your phone when you go poop.

You only have so much time in this world. Use it well. Use it the way you want to. Not the way your addictions want you to.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/12/26/strange-news-stories-from-2021/

https://timdenning.substack.com/p/your-life-is-full-of-porn-stop-getting

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. 

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

AND we are transitioning to a new writer podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW! You’ll be able to check it out here starting in 2022!

We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook.

Carrie is reading one of her poems every week on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That’s a lot!

Here’s the link.

It’s supposed to be all about the weird that is the tradition of New Year, celebrations, superstitions, and resolutions. It ended up being about Shaun’s naughty New Years at Benigans in Florida because what happens in Florida doesn’t stay in Florida.

LINKS WE MENTION

https://www.thepossumdrop.com/about-the-possum-drop-our-history.html

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/new-years

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/g25360543/new-year-traditions/

So, here at the podcast we’re going to be making a big change this year and DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE isn’t going to be quite so much about writing tips and more about life tips.

Wait! What? Yep. We’re shifting.

First, we have fantastic content about writing, but um, we don’t have the word “WRITING” in our podcast.

If there is anything we’ve learned from our dogs is that you’ve got to be clear about communicating who you are.

Sparty communicates that he is a dog who is all about food and snuggles.

Gabby communicates that she is a dog who is all about keeping a watchful eye over her family and long hugs.

And “Dogs are Smarter Than People” while it’s gathered over 263,000 downloads (thank you all), is definitely not communicating anything about writing.

So, we’re shifting and adapting. We’re going to start another podcast called more appropriately “Write Better Now,” and we’re keeping this one and it’s going to be much more dedicated towards helping us all be as smart and wise as our dogs.

I hope you’ll chill out with us and join us in our journey. Maybe even like and subscribe.

Here’s our quote where we try to be wise:

“Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as being able to remake ourselves.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

Write the story you long to write, not the story you think everyone else wants to hear. Yes, you can make more money self-publishing if you blow off your own wishes/desires and write to market, and money is good, but you have to listen to your muse, too, take chances, and grow.

Life is about more than money as long as you have food, shelter, clean water, safety and heath care. Go after the life you want!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. 

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

AND we are transitioning to a new writer podcast called WRITE BETTER NOW! You’ll be able to check it out here starting in 2022!

We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook.

Here’s the link.

This week in honor of the holiday season, we’re going to talk about a time Carrie did a very Carrie thing at a grocery store in Ellsworth, Maine. It will eventually relate to books, we promise.

One day in the grocery store line a lady behind me dropped her  bag of Cheetos. I picked them up.

She dropped her box of Wheat Thins.

I picked them up.

She dropped her onion. It rolled over to me, shed some purple skin, and hit my foot.

I smiled. I picked it up. I gave it to her.

“I must be missing the belt,” she said.

So, then, it was my turn with the clerk. I opened my bag and my wallet was not there. My check book? Check. But the wallet? MIA.

I told the cashier, terrified.

She said “If you’ve written a check here before, you don’t need an ID.”

???

So, I said, “I don’t know if I have.”

I spent the next three minutes alternately explaining that I had visions of my red cloth wallet hanging out by the 12-grain organic bread in the bread aisle, or in the post office where I’d just used it, or in the middle of the parking lot, or, gulp, in some evil wallet-snatcher’s hands. I looked for sympathetic glances from the food dropper behind me, but she no longer liked me.

I wrote out the check. The machine beeped. The cashier looked at me, apologetically. “You’ve never written a check here before.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll run out and check in the car.”

So, I raced outside despite the fact I was not wearing a sports bra, and unlocked the car, and… no wallet. I gasped. Really. I stepped back and there, beneath the tire, was a flash of red. I snatched it, clutched it to my chest (still without the sports bra) and raced back to the store.

“That was fast,” said the clerk.

“You found it!” said the nice guy who came to finish bagging.

Glare, said the dropping stuff lady who was behind me in line. Glare. Glare. Glare.

It’s like what I imagine happens to my books. I start off really well, everyone likes what I’m doing, and then — bang — I screw up. Drop the voice or something, make a character do something nobody wants her to do.

And then what?

Glares from one. Sympathy from others.

Everything can help inform your story and make a scene to use later on.

Be kind when other people are struggling, not just when you are struggling.

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. 

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook.

Here’s the link.

I was lucky enough to read Taylor’s book in development and I’m so glad it’s out there in the world.

During the podcast, we talk about Taylor’s first stories, her love of lions and even have a cameo from her amazing cat.

It’s pretty hard not to fall in love with someone as great and enthusiastic about writing as Taylor is. Her charm is infectious and her book is amazing! I hope you’ll check it out.

The king of Hollow is dead. When the news of his murder is spread to his kingdom, no one knows why he was killed. For decades King Dravin ruled with wisdom, kindness and peace. A death this brutal was seemingly unprovoked. Queen Seraphina, his wife, now sits on the throne. With someone so sinister and evil ruling the kingdom, the only chance of finding the truth is in the hands of their 22 year-old daughter, Princess Adelaide.

Facing anything it takes to find the truth, Adelaide must overcome torture, betrayal, and the potential demise of those she loves most. When it seems as if she has finally found an answer, she loses all of her memories. Leo, a strange man that found her in the forest, is her only hope of discovering not only who she is, but what her mission was in the first place.

Will Adelaide find the truth? Or will she die trying?

INSTAGRAM: Instagram.com/authortaylorannwright

FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/authortaylorannwright

YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/c/TaylorAnnWright

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HPFMRKG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_WE4GYQP8YBGQBYH5RKP8

Yesterday on Carrie’s blog she talked about a writer worry that happens a lot, which is figuring out when your novel has too many characters.

You should check that out at carriejonesbooks.blog if it’s one of your worries, but here’s a bit more information about making that deadly decision (deadly for your character, not you).

Protagonist – The main character. It’s the character that the reader likes, loves, roots for, worries about, the character that moves the plot forward and has emotional development.

Antagonist – The naughty one who keeps our protagonist from quickly achieving their goals.

Sidekick – The bestie. The support system for the protagonist.

Orbital – They tend to get the protagonist in trouble even if that’s not their intent. Think Hermione in Harry Potter. She’s the coolest, but her insistence on doing the right thing and being heroic sometimes pulls Harry into a path of uh-oh. The orbital is basically an instigator.

Love Interest – I don’t have to explain this one, right?

Confidante – This is the person the protagonist tells their secrets to. It can be a trusted friend, a mentor.

Foil – They aren’t the villain, but they are the protagonist’s opposite. Think Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter.

Red Shirts – These are the extras. They are hanging out in the background and encountered, but not super important. The Patils in Harry Potter

If you have a ton of one type of character, you can probably delete or combine one.

Diversify your characters’ roles and consolidate. Don’t have too many characters doing the same thing/serving the same role.

Keep your crew tight. Don’t think the red shirts are the sidekicks.

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. 

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook.

Here’s the link.

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/142716/where-does-noogie-come-from

https://www.gotoquiz.com/what_killier_wedgie_do_you_deserve_girls_only

This is it! Our final installment in how to punctuate dialogue like a boss

And we’re talking about questions and quotations in dialogue because why not fry our brains a little more. Are you ready?  And as a reminder, our last two podcasts also talk about this, so you should check them out.

Let’s start with . . .

Questions and Exclamations in Dialogue and there is not dialogue tag or beat.

They are just standing out there all by their lonesome.

When this happens, you just put the question mark or the exclamation point inside the last end quotation marks.

“Carrie is obsessed with manatees?”

“Carrie is obsessed with manatees!”

So the formula for that is:

BEGINNING QUOTATION MARKS + QUESTION OR EXCLAMATION + QUESTION MARK OR EXCLAMATION POINT + END QUOTES

Questions and Exclamations With a Dialogue Tag

Now let’s add a dialogue tag for those questions and exclamations.

So here again, the exclamation point or question marks are right there inside the second set of quotation marks. DO NOT USE A COMMA, TOO! BANISH IT!

And do not capitalize the dialogue tag. LOWER CASE THAT BABY! It’s all the same sentence even with the exclamation point/question mark in there.

“Carrie is into manatees?” they asked, pretty much scowling because that was weird.

“Carrie is into manatees!” he said, gesticulating at the manatee. The manatee winked.

BEGINNING QUOTATION MARKS + QUESTION OR EXCLAMATION + QUESTION MARK OR EXCLAMATION POINT + END QUOTES + lowercase dialogue tag and the rest of the sentence + PERIOD.

Okay. Moving on to this dangerous territory.

Quote Inside Your Dialogue

Sometimes, you’ll have a character who is telling you a direct quote from someone else or a book or a song lyric within their dialogue, right? So, we have to tell the reader that this quote is a quote they are quoting (look at all those quote words) and not something they themselves are making up.

How do you do that?

You use the magical punctuation!

So, you put those double quotation marks around everything the speaker is saying AND THEN you put single quotation marks around what they are quoting.

“Carrie said, and I quote, ‘I am so into manatees.’ ”

“Carrie said, ‘I am so into manatees.’ Sometimes it’s hard to be married to her.”

Amazing, right?

Knowing how to punctuate helps make agents, editors, and readers love you.

If you’re quoting someone else, you want to show it. If you don’t? You’re plagiarizing. That’s naughty.

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. 

Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

And we have a new podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook.

Here’s the link.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/colorado-man-sets-moms-home-ablaze-trying-clear-cobwebs-blowtorch-police

https://nypost.com/2021/12/05/bomb-squad-rushes-to-hospital-after-wwii-era-shell-found-in-mans-rectum/

This week we talk about the horror aspects of Christmas. Werewolves. Cryptids. Santa’s elves kidnapping naughty kids? It’s all here.

http://www.americas-most-haunted.com/2015/12/10/weird-christmas-the-yule-log/

http://www.americas-most-haunted.com/2015/12/17/weird-christmas-werewolves-of-yule/

https://www.thetravel.com/weird-christmas-traditions-around-the-world-done-in-america/

https://popculture.com/trending/news/dogman-cryptid-haunts-man-for-years-with-multiple-alleged-sightings/