Page 31 | MediocreMan

Rock Star Teachers · 16 December 2023

I never knew I was a rock star. (Apologies to those who really are rock stars.)

Okay. I am not a rock start. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But I found out that apparently some students think that some of their teachers are rock stars. It was a humbling experience. (Especially, since none of the students I talked to thought I was a rock star.)

(I must apologize to actual rock stars. Especially those on that commercial where they say they are tired of people using the term “rock star” for those who are doing well at something. I do not even know what the ad was for, but it was clever seeing a bunch of real rock stars telling people to quit using “rock star” to tell people they are doing a great job. After all, the ad tells us, there are real rock stars, and apparently they do not like being compared to the rest of us normal folks.)

At any rate.

I found out that some of our students think that at least some of their teachers are rock stars when I was leaving our staff Christmas party. There they were. Six starry-eyed teens clamoring to see who was at the party. They were ostensibly over at one of the student’s houses getting ready to go back to school for a basketball game. As we talked, it became apparent that they were really there trying to get a glimpse of their rock star teachers. (Sorry again.)

Which seemed odd. After all, these same students see their teachers nearly every day at school. Why all the clamor?

Apparently, students think that teachers only exist at school. Apparently, teachers disappear from school each evening and then reappear each morning. Apparently, seeing them outside of school is such a rarity that they get all starry-eyed, and wonder what they might be doing letting ordinary people see them out in the wild. In the real world.

I suppose I can see that to a certain extent. After all, there are teachers who do not want to teach in a school district where they live. They do not want the awkward interactions of seeing their students at the store. Or just out and about. Worse yet, they do not want the even more awkward interactions of seeing students’ parents out and about. Or worst of all, they do not want the awkward interactions of seeing students and their parents in the real world. The thing is, I never thought of those interactions from the student point of view.

The six starry-eyed teens that I chatted with outside the Christmas party were quite enlightening. They said that they seldom saw any of the teachers outside the building. Ever. Even those who live in the district. Of course, the one who lived across the street (ostensibly) said that she sees her neighbor teacher, but that is about it. The others said that it was such a rarity seeing their teachers outside of the building. Apparently, it is like catching a glimpse of Big Foot in the forest. Or like seeing a rock star anywhere.

It was fun chatting with said teens. They kept trying to catch glimpses of this or that teacher. Oh! Oh! It’s (insert name here)! They were so excited when somebody walked by the front window. Especially, when they thought one of them was going to come out the door.

Well, I never imagined that any students thought of any of their teachers that way, but it is nice to know that students see teachers and all the staff at our school in such a positive light. It is especially nice to know that at least some of them think that at least some of us are rock stars. (Again, my apologies to those who are actual rock stars.)

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An Updated Thought about Editing · 9 December 2023

I have come to like the editing process. Really.

I know have said that edit is a four-letter word. In the bad sense of four-letter words. But I have changed my mind. Oh, it is still a four-letter word. Literally. (“Literally” is quite the word play in and of itself, I might add. Although it was not intentional. Wait. This is a written piece of work, and I do not need to admit that. Ah well. Wait. This is a written piece that I can still edit.) But I have come to the realization that EDIT no longer brings me dread and loathing.

Okay. Dread and loathing are overstatements, but that is okay. They convey the meaning that I want. And frankly, I think they are words that other writers use when thinking of editing. (Not that I would really know, but it sounds good.) After all, if I used to hate it, there are surely other writers who do not like it either. Assuming that I am a fairly typical writer.

(Speaking of fairly typical. I wonder if anybody is really a fairly typical anything. Think about it. If everybody is different, then can anybody really be typical? Even fairly typical? It sounds like a contradiction in terms. Ah well. Sometimes I think that I am a contradiction in terms. But that is another story. I wonder if I wrote it already. Hmm.)

Back to editing. Rather, back to writing about editing. A strange thought in and of itself.

I have come to the realization that editing is a good thing. It helps to clarify thoughts. It helps to make sure the story is logical and flows right. It helps to get rid of those pesky places where you typed some word twice or forgot to type some important word. If I did not do all of my own writing and editing (or at least most of my writing and editing) when everybody else in the house is asleep, I would probably read my work aloud when editing. I think that would help the editing process. It would help me hear the mistakes and the typos and the logic errors. Okay. Maybe not the logic errors. I usually catch those when I do any number of read-throughs.

Which is funny. That is really what my editing sessions are. Just read-throughs. I read through my books to see if they are any good. And then, whether I think they are any good or not, I publish them anyway. Yes. You read that right. I publish them anyway. I get the story down as best as I can and get the errors out as best as I can. Then, I publish it. I do that because in the final analysis, we can be our own worst critics and not publish a gem. True, it is more likely that we are not critical enough and publish a stinker. But think about it. If you do not put yourself out there in the first place, you will never know what anybody else thinks. Let somebody else tell you that your writing stinks. Somebody whose job it is to do so.

At least that is my thought on the subject of publishing. Put it out there and let others decide whether you are a good writer or not.

I know that I have gotten off the subject of editing, but that is okay. I do have one other thought. People say that you should not be your own editor. Which might be true. But I also think it is false. At least to some degree. You must be your own editor before you decide to send anything to a professional editor. Unless, of course, you are a paid writer already. But even then, you need to give your own stuff a onceover at least once. Just to see if the story makes any sense at all. Which is funny. That is often my editing. That onceover. Just make sure it is okay. And maybe give it another onceover just for good measure.

Well, that is about it. EDIT is no longer a four-letter word for me. At least not in the figurative sense. But it is still a four-letter word literally. (I liked that word play so much, I had to use it twice.) And I now enjoy the editing process. Really.

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Plugging Myself · 2 December 2023

(#ad) click

If I was a real writer, I would be plugging my books at every opportunity I could. But that can get nauseating. For my readers and for me.

If you were to search the internet, you would find there is much advice to writers to plug yourself whenever and wherever you can. When you meet a person on the street, let him or her know that you wrote a book. Let your friends know that you just completed a book. Or that your book has been out for quite some time and that said friend ought to check it out. And of course, you should make sure that everybody on social media knows that your books are out there. Every tweet and every post and every blog should be about your book and how wonderful it is, and oh by the way, you should get it.

Right.

I must admit that I do not promote myself very well. Oh sure, I mention every once in a while that I am working on a book or that I completed a book or that I have a couple dozen books out there on Amazon for anybody to get. But I do not want to be one dimensional. I do not want to only be always and ever about me. That would be ludicrous. And tedious. And downright obnoxious. None of which I want to be.

But every once in a while, I feel like I need to give a plug for myself.

I should probably give said plug after I have completed and published a new book. And I probably will. Soon. That is, I should probably give a plug for my latest book which is complete. I just finished the cover and the digital copy is out on Amazon! (The print version will be out soon, if not already. It is called Charlie: My Rival, My Friend, My Hero. You should check it out. Which is my plug, by the way.) But besides that plug for my newest book (in the previous parentheses), I just want to remind all my readers (both real and imaginary) that I do have books out there. Both digital and print. And at least one or two people have actually read at least one or two of them. Or have at least bought them. Which is pretty cool.

At any rate.

(#ad) click

As you can tell, I still have not done a very good job plugging my books. I do not really know what to say. After all, most of my books are for kids. Teens and maybe a little younger (or older) are my target audience for most of my stuff. Which is one of the reasons I spent so much time last year about this time getting them all ready for print on demand. After all, it seems like younger audiences want those books in their hands. (Here comes the big plug.) So if you have a teen or tween or somebody near that age or maybe you are just a little curious, you should check out my books on Amazon. In fact, you can click the word Amazon in the previous sentence and go right to my Amazon author page to see what cool books I have. (Which by the way, is technically an ad, so I am giving notice of that in this parenthetical statement.)

(Whew. What was tough. I never knew that self-promotion or plugging yourself could be so difficult. Okay. Maybe I did. Which is why I do not do it very much.)

Well, there you have it. A silly blog post about what I call plugging. I hope you did not get too nauseated by such obvious self-promotion. Or with the writing itself.