Writing Tips at GarySpeer.com

As a writer, can you invent your own words or your own language? Sure, why not?

I’ve tried occasionally to write science fiction, only to find that I lack the science background and become too impatient to do the research to make it seem authentic.

I’ve had better luck writing fantasy, though I’ve not had anything published yet in any fantasy genre. The beauty of fantasy is that you can make things up when you don’t know the “facts” you need for serious science fiction. I am not saying that to disparage fantasy writers in any way. I appreciate the challenges of writing good fantasy — I simply understand that it’s easier to invent a language, or invent an entire world, when writing fantasy.

I was thinking about all this because I just saw a trailer on television for that intriguing remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” which is coming to theaters in December. I definitely want to see it. One of the best and worst movies I recall from my childhood was the original 1951 “Day” starring Michael Rennie. I say “best,” because it turned my young world around. As I kid in a small southeast Nebraska town, it opened my eyes to the awesome world outside our town, and the wonderful possibilities of “make believe.” I say “worst” because it kept me in nightmare land for a loooooonnnnnggg time as a kid. (I was a very impressionable little kid, I guess.)

The original “Day,” and perhaps this new sequel, too, sort of falls between the cracks of “science fiction” or “fantasy.” It had hints of hard science, but relied really on a lot of fantasy. Which is a good reason to forget about labels and strict adherence to genres and just set down and WRITE your story.

Finally, in all this rambling, I arrive at the subject of this post: You are perfectly free as a writer — and science fiction/fantasy thrive on this fact — to make things up as you go along, including creating words and an entire language if you wish. I refer specifically to the classic line from the original “Day,” which has appeared in every type of movie, television show, and even comic books since those writers came up with it in 1951:

“Klaatu barada nikto.”

So get out there and use your imagination and write something to make us all proud of you. (And if you don’t recognize or know anything about the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto,” look it up. You can start with Wikipedia.)

I just saw a CNN story about the prevalence of student cheating in schools — at every level from elementary school to graduate school. The story pointed out (and I verified it) that Googling “how to cheat on school tests” brings up more than 300,000 hits, ranging from websites to YouTube videos.

Amazingly, many people find nothing wrong with all this and many of the people creating these web pages and videos, CNN said, make no effort whatsoever to hide their identities.

But what does cheating on tests have to do with writing and writers anyway? I suppose a lot of the way you answer that speaks as much to your sense of ethics and morality as it does to various “how-to” opportunities this whole area opens up. In reality, for DECADES there have been various services offering to sell you lecture-by-lecture class notes at most major universities. And you can easily find writing services on the Internet which will provide everything from outlines and basic research notes to completed essays and term papers for a price.

Are those writing services really so much different than the YouTube video where some guy shows how to substitute math or physics test material on a soda pop bottle label for the soda ingredients? Yes, one of the quick mentions in the CNN piece was a video where some guy shows how to put test material into the label on a soda where the soda ingredients list normally goes. Amazing.

But what are we to do as writers? I don’t think there are any retail franchises out there for companies that sell cheat methods or pirated test materials. (I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t rule it out!) There are, however, unscrupulous writers and editors who will plagiarizer your work to suit their purposes. There are software scripts online that will strip your website content and allow someone else to benefit from your hard work, if you have a website or blog. (Indeed, someone stole material from one of my websites and I’m trying to figure out ways to stop that from happening again. Not this site.)

The “bottom line” on all this for writers? Be honest. Be ethical. Don’t plagiarize. Don’t use other people’s writing — unless you have legitimate permission and follow any restrictions they put on that writing. (Look for a post in the near future about Private Label Rights articles and how such material can be useful for your blog or website.)

Simply put: Do the right thing. Always.

There’s a universal “rule” of writing, akin to the old “Murphy’s Law” thinking about life in general: Typos happen. I have no data on the matter, but I’m pretty sure typos happen in ALL written languages, too.

I was just looking over my last post here and noticed that the link in the left-hand sidebar to one of my “merchant partners” who offers great deals on tarps and other utility coverings has been sitting there with a typo in it for however many months I’ve had the link up.

And no one even noticed or called that to my attention.

As it read before, the link was: “Yard tarps, for easy leaf removal. Chick for Full Details!” The typo, of course, was “Chick.” It should read as it does now — “Click.”

Those typos realyl aer na embarasment, aren’t thye?