I found a little site called 750words that provides a simple service: 750Words provides writers with an online space to write three pages daily. What makes this site great is the information provided about what you wrote in the form of a bowling-esque score card, badges, charts and graphs, mood indicators and more. Together these items form a personal feed back loop for writers to understand and chart their progress.

Here’s my progress from the first day:

There are some social media aspects too. Let me know if you give this site a try.

“I spent ten years writing Oscar Wao, and I definitely didn’t spend the ten years being like, “I’m amazing! This has taken ten years because this much genius requires a decade!” [laughter] I spent the whole time, you know, fucked up, unhappy, really miserable and convinced that I’d ruined the whole thing, and all the stuff you get when you spend a really long time lost in the desert. I think more than anything, my basic lesson as an artist has been humility.… The crazy thing about the arts is it’s not like other stuff where you can build up muscle to help you with the next project. A friend of mine, he’s a surgeon, he’s like a combat surgeon in Iraq, and we grew up together and immigrated together, and he tells me every surgery makes you even more awesome for the next surgery. I’ve never felt that anything I’ve written has made me more awesome. So I think for me it’s going to be a struggle for whatever the next project is, and if you’re an artist and you work long enough at this, you begin to understand your rhythm, and what I’m beginning to understand is my rhythm is very slow. I felt like my first book was just an accident, but what I’m discovering now is that this is my rhythm. I take forever. Friends of mine hear this and they want to fucking throw themselves off a bridge, because the first ten years drove them crazy.… Melville wrote Moby-Dick — does anyone remember how many months it took him? Like fourteen months! Fuck you, Melville!”

— Junot Díaz, interviewed by Dave Eggers in The Boston Review

I came across Daniel through his blog many years ago and was impressed with his writing skill, sense of style and breath of topics. Meeting Daniel at the Hispanicize Conference in Hollywood, CA was a big pleasure for it’s always nice to meet a writer/blogger in the flesh.

We’ve had a few discussions on hammering out our new writing alliance, and agreed to do a couple of pilot runs before embracing larger projects.

Our first post is featured on The Huffington Post: How Will Personal-Feedback Loops Affect The Hispanic Population. Check it out.

Many thanks to Huffington Post for allowing our collaborative effort.

Since I use WordPress CMS the most I find that my focus wavers when using other software programs. In fact, there have been several times when I’ve switched from one medium over to WordPress and then transferred back the finished piece once done.

I don’t recall reading or hearing about this experience from other bloggers, but there may be a related topic. During my research on the writing habits of various authors and journalists there was usually a preferred method that each one had. Some preferred handwriting the first draft; others preferred to solely use computers, including laptops and tablets with varying software; a rare few prefer the clopping ostinatos of the typewriter.

Delving a little deeper into the writing process it is interesting to note how technology can play a part. Standing writing desks, the quill pen, the ballpoint pen, typewriters, computers and more currently, smart pens and speech recognition software have all played a role in how writers approach their craft.

Hemingway at his standing desk

My feelings here are that in most cases this is more of a personal preference than a well thought out conclusion of execution which had weighed the pros of one method against the other. And that is fine, because the end result is a finished piece, and not the platform that was used to get there.

In the case of my quirky WordPress inclination, I think it’s just that – a quirk. But, when thinking about the bigger picture I do see it as potentially hindering my writing, so it does concern me somewhat. My plan is to practice writing more on Microsoft Word. As for when, I’m not in front of a computer I usually have a pen and paper on me, or I can use software on my phone.

This is an area that I usually play close attention to. If you have any tips or insights, please share.

This would be my first improv post, inspired from improv theater.

I’m going to write and let it flow.  It’s an exercise in fearlessness or in Spanish, an exercise in bollas (if that’s offensive, then gonadas…if still, then valiente).

It would be very cool if you could of seen this as I wrote it. I could of planned that out, but then it would of lost it’s improvness (I know… not a word).

Here’s some advice: if you’re going to do something, you should do it right. If you’re going to blog, get a grammar book and learn to write. If you don’t like to write, but still want a blog then hire someone to do it for you – Ghost Blogger. It would be nice, if you let people know about the stand-in, like Guy Kawasaki admits he does.

After a grammar book, comes a book on writing. Clear writing to get your message across would be key in a blog, no?

But we can’t say much on writing without talking about thinking. Clear writing, comes from clear thinking. If you can’t think, then you won’t write good. Sorry, they are related and you’ll have to do some thinking in order to have a blog…there are some exceptions thought, lol.

So, now we know why writing is hard, because thinking is hard. It’s a shame how many people can’t think write.

UPDATE:  So I was thinking (yes, I do that from time to time), wouldn’t social media as a whole be the largest improv theater in the world?  Twitter being first w/ text, and Facebook w/ pics.  With social media’s immediacy and push-button publishing, I’m sure most of it is made up as we go along.

Not writing on my blog, is like not being at home for an extended period of time.  It’s not like I have not been busy though.  Here’s what I’ve been occupied with:

Networking:  I hope many of you are not undervaluing meeting people in ‘real-life.’  I’ve been busy adding more influential people to my address book and have been going out and shaking their hands to solidify the relationship.

Planning: Success is a continuous cycle of striving to reach goals, constantly readjusting to meet those goals, and formulating new direction.  If you’re social media plan is the same as it was a month or two ago, then you need a serious re-evaluation in order to reach new heights – nothing remains static.

Entrepreneurship: With Phase I of my social media plan done (more on that later), I’ve been concentrating on developing more business related agendas.  On the plate is a new business product which I’m partnering with my wife (she’s such a creative soul) on.  Another area is the ongoing development of the business side of  social media (forgive me for being vague, but that’s best for now).

As you can see, I’ve been busy.  A promise to you, is that I’m recommitting myself to the blog with more updates on the market in general as well as what I’m up to…hope to see you around.

Social media has many great potentials.  I’m constantly amazed by the innovation that individuals display.

Again and again, I see come across very unique ways individuals are using social media to engage the market.

A while back, we saw how one individual came up with how to learn a different language, with social media.  For this entry, here’s a mention of a virtual book tour promoting Latino authors.

The purpose here is to promote authors in the Latino market, and get other blogs on board to promote the same.

I have to mention that Jo Ann, is steadfast in promoting this – I get an email daily from her concerning this.  That’s commitment!

Her name is Jo Ann Hernández and when she’s not reviewing books for Latina Lista or writing her own novels or blogging on her own site, she has always been advising other Latina/o authors how to promote themselves. Now, she’s created a special site just to help those same authors launch their careers — starting in cyberspace.

BronzeWord Latino Virtual Book Tours is a one-stop shop for authors who want to reach the Latino market. The way the virtual book tours work is Jo Ann and her staff contact various Latino bloggers about hosting a virtual book tour on their site with a particular author. The author makes a commitment to visit those blogs during the scheduled times and interact with the blogger and their readers.

On Twitter, I’ve thought of creating a new hashtag (#) called #latinoleaders, but I’ll just use the hashtag #leader for a broader discussion.  Here, on the blog I’m considering putting a new page for this endeavor, but for now will just use the Category – Interviews (yes…not Latino Interviews).

For the next guest, I decided to hold nothing back and let him have it with some very probing questions…I know he can take it because we talk the same language.  He’s a superb author, and social media promoter.  He’s an author of a new novel that takes pulse of the American heartbeat.

Raul Ramos

What is America Libre about and how is it relevant to today’s political atmosphere in the US?
It’s unfortunate but the U.S. news media pays little attention to an issue until there is blood on the streets. With America Libre, I put blood on the streets in a work of fiction in hopes of avoiding a similar fate in real life. The novel takes place in the near future and is the story of Mano Suarez, an unemployed Afghan veteran in Los Angeles who is drawn into an emerging Hispanic separatist insurrection with the intent of reclaiming U.S. territory once part of Mexico and Spain. A loyal American, Mano is radicalized by the attacks of vigilante supremacists against Latinos in his neighborhood. I think there is a danger the escalating climate of hate toward illegal immigrants could metastasize into an ethnic conflict similar to those of the Chechen rebels in Russia, the Basque separatists in Spain, the Tamils in Sri Lanka, and the Balkans, to name a few.

What real life current events specifically can we find mirrored in America Libre?
The warning signs that America Libre may be a prediction more than fiction are already here. The U.S. has seen a 40% increase in hate crimes against Latinos over the last five years. In fact, Latinos are now the number one group victimized by hate crimes. Young men presumed to be Hispanic have been brutally attacked by strangers in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. An Imperial Wizard of the KKK publicly bragged that hostility toward illegal immigrants has swelled his group’s ranks. In April of this year Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned of the growing threat of violence from right-wing extremist groups. Unless we scale back the public hate and take a more reasoned approach to the immigration debate, the U.S. could be in for turbulent times.

What did this novel mean to you?
Among many other things, I wanted America Libre to create a more diverse view of Latinos. I feel the Hispanic identity is much more complex than the portrayal created by the media. For example, “Latino” and “immigrant” have become so synonymous that Sonia Sotomayor was characterized in some news sources as an immigrant during the early days of her nomination as a Supreme Court Justice. As most Latinos know, Judge Sotomayor was born in the Bronx of Puerto Rican parents – and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, not “immigrants.” The entertainment world also engages in stereotypes. Félix Sánchez, chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, points out that Hispanic actors who speak standard English and do not fit the expected racial stereotypes are usually cast in non-Hispanic roles. What’s more, Afro-Latinos are virtually non-existent in TV and movie roles—despite the fact that more people of African descent speak Spanish in the Americas than English.

What influenced you to be a writer and what do you seek to accomplish?
America Libre is my first novel but some would say I’ve been creating fiction for more than 25 years in my advertising career. Seriously though, I wanted to employ the skills I’ve acquired as a professional communicator to issues personally more meaningful.

How important is literature and/or all media?
I think a well-crafted novel can put us inside another person’s skin. The heightened drama of fiction is in many ways more powerful at creating that human connection than a textbook or non-fiction. That’s why Picasso said, “art is a lie that tells the truth.” Today, as the U.S. becomes increasingly diverse, we need to understand each other more than ever. No matter what your ideology, ethnicity or race, recognizing our common humanity goes a long way toward helping resolve our differences.

Should ‘regular’ people participate in media dialogue? If so, how?
I think the emerging power of social media shows that everyone can play a role in shaping the dialogue on issues. Bloggers and tweeters in China, Cuba, Iran and other nations have influenced government policy. In the U.S., people of every political stripe are engaging in the political process through social media. Unfortunately, social media is a double edged sword. Some extremists are using it to agitate and recruit. But as long as we keep the discourse civil, public discussion is healthy. And let’s not forget that social media is great for spreading prosperity through better, more transparent communications about products and businesses. We live in a very dynamic time.

A great article…it even seems to have some picante to it as it’s spiced up with some humor and witty lines.

If you have some image in your head of a poor campesino looking confusedly at a computer screen, delete it. Replace that with an image of Perez Hilton tweeting and blogging and instant-messaging all day. In fact, Latinos far outpace Anglos in online and mobile usage. Of all wireless users in the U.S., 39% of U.S.-Hispanics use their mobile devices to read the news, in comparison to just 17% of non-Hispanics.

Note the quick change to ‘Latino’ from ‘Hispanic’ when talking about online/mobile usage.  I almost got excited about that, but then noted that Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably throughout the piece.  It’s still a great read.

The ability to cement your message within the stream of media conversation is more vital NOW than ever before.  We stand at the cusp of change.

With history unfolding before us, we must ensure our views engage the forefront of America’s, and thus the world’s conciousness.  Otherwise, others will define everything for us.

This is why I’m a huge advocate of new media.  It  provides the tools, which enables the masses to thrust forth with their stories and viewpoints.

If you are not so inclined, that’s okay but please support those who express this interest.