Privileged Lives by Edward Stewart: What the Novelist Knew

Privileged Lives is a novel about the rich and powerful and what they do in the dark – perhaps out of boredom. Take note: this is a novel.

Written in a very thick book (500+ pages), published by Delacorte Press in New York, the novel is quite captivating until the very end.

But for writers, and would-be writers, attention is best placed on the background knowledge of the author about many things which enabled him to write the novel.

What did Edward Stewart know about? Secret Societies and what they do, their link to powerful lawyers; police procedural and where the law comes in; media and what media can do to perpetuate lies; arts and how arts can be used by the rich in their pecking order; HIV and ARC (AIDS-related complex), their symptoms and how they are acquired; gays and gay life; priests, their sex needs and providers; cocaine and other prohibited drugs and their effects on the body; the drug and its link to crime; psychiatrists and their practice; custom-made lipsticks and their chemistry; fashion and what’s not correct in fashion; commercial buildings unoccupied, their strategic positions, and connection to crimes; what weird things idle people enjoy to see in weird sex. Armed with all of these, the author was able to weave up a novel where each character stands out as real being in the mind of the reader.

If you like the book, it means you’ve learned from Edward Stewart something of every element that he had introduced, beginning with comments from the characters to what happens to the characters as an effect, and the over-all chemistry the story is leading to. You may not like the story to end from the pleasure of having been acquainted with the characters as though they are real.

What’s the one word we can use to describe his use of these elements if not realism? The author worked so hard to present a realistic story.

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t seem to have printouts after 1988. It is very obvious the book is an assault on those in power. This novel could be classified as minority literature since its publication appears restricted.  There was no single review on it – at least when it was published.

Delacorte Press is part of The Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Did someone call? In the Philippines it would appear like that. One call from the powerful and off, the book goes!

Some reviews of the novel appeared only after 10 years in 1999, but still scanty. This time it was published by Amazon.com. The reviewers, though just a handful, said they liked the book. Few reviewers imply scanty circulation or very few customers. But the book is truly riveting until the end. Find a copy and read!

Back to the background knowledge of the novelist, does it take every novelist to know that much? Not necessarily. It depends on your story. Just like any piece of writing, your novel can be as simple as you want, as long as it comes out realistic. Focus on something that you know very well, something you have experienced first-hand. Some writers, in fact had assumed the life of a prisoner since they wanted to write realistic stories from prison. But this is extreme. It is just being able to breathe, think, and live the life of your character.

Saleability is not a gauge for a good novel. There have been millions of books sold on saleability alone because they cater to the taste of the buyer. The fact that some novels employ a mix of realism and surrealism and get sold means that the adult mind is still a child hungering for the surrealist, an escape from reality.

Some examples of surrealism would be a hand walking on the floor, a piece of cake floating in air, someone appearing on horseback and then gone in a whisk. There are novels that have these examples and yet they become best-selling. It is not the kind serious writing as art would employ. Would you be happy if you are known to be writing in this fashion?

A beginning writer would best take care to begin writing from reality if he is serious about writing – and not write just where easy money comes. He can do this by being sensitive about so many things, learning about diverse lives, and experiencing their world, even vicariously. Then he can begin to write with credibility.

 

Time Bound: Escaping from Plagiarizing

One way to tell if you are committing plagiarism in writing a research-based article or even an opinion piece is in the number of sources you are using: too few or only one; and the time you spend on the source.

Unless you are critiquing something, if you spend so much time writing on the ideas contained in one book or one source, chances are you are plagiarizing.

Is the book open by your desktop computer? How long? How many sentences have you copied? How many paragraphs?

Remember that long quotes taken from a published source is considered plagiarism - which is why the emphasis on time. Are you copying too much material from one source and staying there too long? You have to use your own words in such a way that you don’t steal other people’s ideas. In research, it is called “collecting others’ flowers” and that’s not acceptable.

Let’s say you use the dictionary or the thesaurus for synonyms of every word written in the paragraph so that they become yours. Do they really become yours? Absolutely not! Neither is re-arranging the words in a sentence of some source.

The safest way out is to tackle topics that you are familiar with. And the closest to familiarization is studying the subject with as many sources as possible. The variety can give enough angles from which to view your topic. Then you can have a tenable grasp of it rather than a tunnel vision from one source or a few.

Because you now have a wider perspective, you can escape plagiarizing. It will be easier to use your own words rather than hinge on someone’s – word for word, punctuation mark by punctuation mark. More yet, your knowledge has grown on the subject, and what you write can contribute to the knowledge of others. It is because you can now add to what was already written, even if by way of affirming some aspect or negating some. You then have activated some continuing debate.

But if you simply copy, there’s no addition made but just a subtraction – from you! Plagiarized materials don’t contribute anything. They destroy the character of the one producing them.

 

For Column Writing: Use the Written not the Spoken Language

How do newspapers select their columnists?

Now and then we read of columnists writing as though they are lecturing in a classroom or anchoring their program on television. The language is quite of the spoken kind.

Hence, one can read of expressions like, “Let me give you some realizations...” “Do (sic) you know that so and so...” “Don’t get me wrong,” “Here’s the deal...” Yes, I’m quoting from someone’s column that talks of business in a broadsheet. I have just read it and it prompted my topic today.

These expressions are not to be found in clear effective writing. These are a lot of clutter. Ideally, you go straight to the point without such unnecessary baggage.

Columnists are more of writers than speakers since they are being read, not heard. It is then expected that they come up to the level of writers, hence should follow principles in effective writing.

Does the name Inday Badiday ring a bell to you? Inday was known as Philippine television's "queen of showbiz talk.”  “Ate Luds” or Lourdes Jimenez Carvajal is a talker all right, but when she writes her column, she does not use spoken language. Her column comes out as a work or art - a careful piece carved out by a careful writer.

I loved to read Inday’s columns not for the gossip but for the way she expressed things. Her flair for literary expression is not surprising. She is the younger sister of Letty Jimenez- Magsanoc, former editor-in-chief of the Sunday Inquirer.

 

For Thesis Writers: Important Indicators and Research Objectives

AN OVER-CONFIDENT DOCTORATE student wanted to finish his course fast that he did not even consider what would take place in the research proposal stage. Perhaps his Department did not require a defense for the proposal. What was clear was that he went ahead and conducted his research. Then came the final defense. Since he was taking Doctor of Sociology, the question went to what happened to his cultural indicators? What was the culture of the majority of respondents? He had no answer for that. He merely assumed culture would not make any difference.

It happened that his mentor was not a Filipino. Naturally, he wondered if results would be different if the culture differed. Wasn’t he consulting him? In Sociology, culture always mattered.

Michael A. Costello, a sociology professor and native of Crystal Lake, Illinois died February 2, 1998 in a plane crash in the Philippines, according to Chicago Tribune News. This was some four years after his mentee failed to defend. According to the report, Mr. Costello was visiting his family in Manila when his commercial jet crashed into a 7,260-foot mountain 30 miles outside of a city where he had lived and worked, south of the country.

Off-topic, why do we mention this? Because the failed student can always say, “my mentor died so I was not able to finish my course.” The reason is not exactly true.

It is not unusual that we hear reasons like this. The mentor died. But the truth is that the mentor died from waiting way too long for the student’s input.

Culture as an indicator could not be surveyed again separate from other indicators. Research is not done that way. You have to prepare your instrument well and administer it one time.

Another student wanted to study how students could populate their school as his objective for doing research. How could that be a tenable objective when the course is School Administration? It would take on an Economics angle. Even if one’s bachelor’s degree is on Economics, it will not do justice for a thesis to a Master of Arts degree in Administration. The study should contribute to administration or school management, the current course.

Again, always consider your course.

 

Yo, Novelists! What do You Place in Your Chapter 1?

Character sleeping, dreaming, and  waking up to nothing? Funeral calls, death, psycho lurking around? Terrorist planting a bomb, rape scene? Protagonist in the middle of a bodily function like jerking off, peeing, vomiting? Cheesy beginnings with a play of words like “opening”? Opening what?

These are items literary agents dislike to see in a novel’s Chapter 1, writes Writer’s Digest University. If you want your book published, it is best to follow them. After all, literary agents are also editors, and they know what’s saleable to publishing houses. Working with an agent for publication or not, the recommendations are worth considering.

Here are more of their pet peeves: Starting your story with a battle, projecting characters as perfect heroes and heroines, inauthentic dialogue, over- description of the scenery.

More: Beginning with a killer’s point of view, sex and violence; a laundry list of character descriptions.

All of these slow down writing and it shows in their nature: Prologues that have nothing to do with the story; long, flowery descriptive sentences for introductions, character’s back-story, information dump.

These are patently unnecessary:  Introducing the narrator to the reader, introducing the character, setting up the scene, description of the weather, addressing the reader as in “Gentle reader.”

These are boring: An ordinary, predictable outlook, too much accounting.

And these cheat the reader: Adventure-dream stories where at the end, the author says it was only a dream; Character would find out later this and that; Character dies at end of chapter.

What do they want to see in Chapter 1? Action that hooks the reader, some mystery. Moreover, you do not tell but show through the character.

 
 

 

Publishing in Scientific Journals: Ten Principles for Improving Manuscripts

A CHINESE DOCTOR WHO submitted her paper for publication to us couldn’t understand why her manuscript was taking a long time to be processed. Processing included review and editorial advice to improve her paper. She insisted she did her best and followed what was told her. After two reviews, it was becoming clear there was no research method systematically carried out. She was finding it hard, therefore, to return her manuscript to us for another review. If done after the study, this kind will find it hard to fix a research instrument  and then prepare it to fit results. In fact, this practice should never be done.

 

For those who did their work properly but are finding it hard to have their study published, here are 10 principles for increasing the likelihood of manuscript publication written by James M. Provenzale.

Principle 1: Properly Organize the Manuscript

Principle 2: Clearly State the Study Question and Study Rationale

Principle 3: Explain the Materials and Methods in a Systematic Manner

Principle 4: Structure the Materials and Methods and Results Sections in a Similar Manner

Principle 5: Make the Discussion Section Concise

Principle 6: Explain If—and Why—Your Study Results Are Important

Principle 7: Avoid Over-interpretation of the Results

Principle 8: Explain the Limitations of the Study

Principle 9: Account for Unexpected Results

Principle 10: Fully Incorporate Reviewers’ Suggestions into a Revised Manuscript

What Is News Today And What’s Not

SAD NEWS, THE WAY news is going now.  Scandal is news, but poverty is not. Scandal is news but injustice is not. Scandal is news but the cancer that eats up society is not. Hear it from Pope Francis:

 

Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don't have food - that's not news. This is grave. We can't rest easy while things are this way.