The Grain of Rice
Grain of Rice
Copyright/Czarnota 2008
No portion of this story may be recorded or copied without permission from the author. This story is in the public domain but this version is protected.
There was a king who had four daughters, each of whom he knew and loved equally. In his aging years he knew one must take the throne as his replacement, but didn’t know which one to choose. So, he devised a test. The king gave each daughter a single grain of rice.
“Each of you must decide what to do with your rice. I’m going away and when I return I will choose who will be queen.”
The first daughter looked at the rice in her hand and said, “My father is a great king and so this rice is most precious.” She wrapped it in golden thread and placing it on an altar prayed over it each day for her father’s safe return.
The second daughter thought this is special rice from my most special father. She hid hers in a plain box under the bed so that robbers would not steal it.
The third daughter said “My father is a great king and I can have rice anytime I want.” She threw hers in the trash bin.
The fourth held her rice for a year and a day and contemplated what to do with it.
Time passed, perhaps two years and more. The daughters were looking out the window one day and saw a man traveling toward the palace; it was their venerable father. They took him in, washed his feet, dressed him in clean robes, and fed him before he asked; “Now daughters, I am most curious to know what you did with your rice.”
The first brought the gold wrapped grain to him. “I treated it with great respect and prayed for your safe return.”
The king kissed his first daughter’s cheek. “I am proud of you my daughter.”
The second brought a dusty box from under her bed. “I kept it safe from robbers, Father.”
“I am proud of you,” he said kissing his second daughter’s cheek.
The third daughter had a problem didn’t she? She had thrown hers away, but let’s face it, one grain of rice looks like any other. She went to the kitchen and got another grain. “Look father, here is mine.”
The king did not become king for lack of wisdom and he knew his daughters well. “I expected as much,” he said with a knowing smile. She was a clever one to be sure. “And I am proud of you.”
His fourth daughter stood silent by the window as each of her sisters presented their rice.
“And my fourth one, where is your rice?”
“My father,” she said sadly. “I no longer have my rice.”
The old king walked to her side and looked out the window.
“I planted it Father for the people were hungry.”
Before the old king’s eyes were fields of rice from the single grain he had given his daughter.
“I am most proud of you,” he said placing a crown upon her head. “For a good queen knows that she must care for others.”
Now it is not so much that the fourth became queen that makes this story important when we think about choices. Each daughter did what she felt was the right thing, each was presented with the same opportunity, and each was successful in some way. No choice made by the princesses was wrong, because success has many definitions. But only one daughter succeeded at the proposed goal of becoming queen.
May you do with your grain of rice that which will bring you success.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
One Writer's Process for One Writing Project
Authors will approach their projects differently, but I would like to share my own. It will also vary depending on what is being written. The process I am writing about here is for the historical work I am completing at this time: "The Spirits and Secrets of Western New York." This book is a combination of history, myth, legends and lore of the region.
I was given a choice about what I’d like to write by the publisher. So the first step was to determine what that would be. I wanted to write something other than the Western New York book but it seemed to me that what I had looked into was already somewhat saturated. I’m not saying what that was because I would like to write a children’s book on it eventually. That has not been done yet. Anyway, I considered Western New York. The next step was to decide if I had enough stories to fill the book and how to handle such a wide region.
Step 1. Decide what you want to write about and research what has been done already.
Results: This region has been written about extensively but usually in specific themes. My book has a variety of stories from history to lore spanning the entire history of this region. I did not find other books that did that. There are history books from particular eras and events, ghost stories, biographies, but nothing quite like my book.
Step 2: Figure out what is available for the size book you want to write. Submit.
Children’s books are generally shorter, this book had to have 30,000 to 40,000 words or about 128 pages.
Process and results: I took stories I already knew something about and added them to other tidbits I found in my research. I then created a tentative table of contents with tentative chapter titles and listed specific story titles under those. I submitted this to the publisher and they gave me a contract. I also needed to give them a title. This is a working title; they are always subject to change by the publisher. I chose something that expressed the content and feel for this book. I also use titles to help me stay focused on my goal. *You wander less when you have an objective.
Step 3: Begin writing. Authors approach this in different ways. I am a chronological writer, first things first for me. So I began at the beginning by writing a very short introduction. I will be rewriting this introduction but like the title it served as my mission statement and kept me focused.
Results: write, don’t edit. Get the story on paper (or computer as the case might be). I wrote as much as I could on each particular story and simultaneously researched the missing bits. I took tons of handwritten notes and copies, all filed in individual folders per topic. If other story ideas popped into my head, I made a list. After finishing the stories I knew I wanted to include, I went back and used this list to fill in. Some stories had to be left out because of length. That is a difficult choice to make, but it also means material for another book.
Step 4: research and fill in. I did this as I went along but after each chapter was finished I went back and reviewed the details (not editing yet), just correcting dates, names, numbers and the like for historical accuracy. I also gave copies of these early chapters to readers, friends and relatives I trust to give me their opinions. Was it interesting? Did they learn something new? Did my writing make sense? And my significant other is always the one I ask to make notes in the margins. (Work in double space for this reason.)
Step 5: I had to submit images for this book before the text so I needed to know early what I was going to include. I wrote all my text first. Once I was satisfied that most of the stories were in place, I began looking for images. At the same time, I was adding new stories and looking for images to include with those and beginning an early edit of the first chapters. When the images were all gathered (two weeks ahead of scheduled in this case) I sent them in with a rough draft of the manuscript so the publisher could begin a layout. They had not specifically asked for that but Western New York is celebrating an anniversary and I would like to piggyback on that for marketing, time is of the essence.
Step 6: Last edits and marketing: While I finished writing stories, Thomas continued to review previous chapters. As he finished those, I went back and made changes accordingly, not always taking his advice but more often that not doing so. I also had to supply the publisher with a marketing plan so I did hours of research for local bookstores, historical societies, museums and events, trying to give them as many contact names and addresses as possible. (All this going on, by the way, at the same time I am finishing stories.)
Thomas finished reviewing earlier chapters, and after I sent all the marketing information to the publisher, I went back to do my final edit from the beginning. I do this final edit in red pen and transfer that to my computer pages by typing. This final process is tedious and required many breaks. I’d say I did three or four pages, then took a game break, or walked, or gardened, or cleaned house, something completely different.
Step 7: Submit final draft. When the manuscript is done, do a final spell and grammar check, check your formatting so it follows publisher guidelines, complete introductions and acknowledgments, bibliographies or whatever else needs to be done, and send.
I do not plan a bibliography because I did most of my research online, however the publisher may ask for one. That would be another project. Also, in the case of this publisher, I must send the manuscript electronically. Follow up to make sure it arrived safely.
Step 8: Wait. The publisher will have editors review the manuscript and I will get additional edit notes from them. That will be crunch time. It has to be completed without ten days of their sending them to me, at least for this publisher. I will move on to my next project, editing a book I’ve been writing for four years on using story with at-risk youth. (I plan to self-publish this one as a training manual.)
Step 9: If my editing is accepted, I will wait to be notified that the book is ready, they will probably send a cover design for me to sign off on and that’s it.
Step 10: Market. Even though the publisher will do a lot of this, the author has to talk up their book too.
I hope this helps some of you budding authors to get an insight look at a process and inspire some of you would be authors to get started. You just have to get it in writing! All those thoughts go on paper and you should not worry about whether they sound good, get them down. All you experienced writers, I welcome your additions to this discussion and hopefully you too will help get people going.
I was given a choice about what I’d like to write by the publisher. So the first step was to determine what that would be. I wanted to write something other than the Western New York book but it seemed to me that what I had looked into was already somewhat saturated. I’m not saying what that was because I would like to write a children’s book on it eventually. That has not been done yet. Anyway, I considered Western New York. The next step was to decide if I had enough stories to fill the book and how to handle such a wide region.
Step 1. Decide what you want to write about and research what has been done already.
Results: This region has been written about extensively but usually in specific themes. My book has a variety of stories from history to lore spanning the entire history of this region. I did not find other books that did that. There are history books from particular eras and events, ghost stories, biographies, but nothing quite like my book.
Step 2: Figure out what is available for the size book you want to write. Submit.
Children’s books are generally shorter, this book had to have 30,000 to 40,000 words or about 128 pages.
Process and results: I took stories I already knew something about and added them to other tidbits I found in my research. I then created a tentative table of contents with tentative chapter titles and listed specific story titles under those. I submitted this to the publisher and they gave me a contract. I also needed to give them a title. This is a working title; they are always subject to change by the publisher. I chose something that expressed the content and feel for this book. I also use titles to help me stay focused on my goal. *You wander less when you have an objective.
Step 3: Begin writing. Authors approach this in different ways. I am a chronological writer, first things first for me. So I began at the beginning by writing a very short introduction. I will be rewriting this introduction but like the title it served as my mission statement and kept me focused.
Results: write, don’t edit. Get the story on paper (or computer as the case might be). I wrote as much as I could on each particular story and simultaneously researched the missing bits. I took tons of handwritten notes and copies, all filed in individual folders per topic. If other story ideas popped into my head, I made a list. After finishing the stories I knew I wanted to include, I went back and used this list to fill in. Some stories had to be left out because of length. That is a difficult choice to make, but it also means material for another book.
Step 4: research and fill in. I did this as I went along but after each chapter was finished I went back and reviewed the details (not editing yet), just correcting dates, names, numbers and the like for historical accuracy. I also gave copies of these early chapters to readers, friends and relatives I trust to give me their opinions. Was it interesting? Did they learn something new? Did my writing make sense? And my significant other is always the one I ask to make notes in the margins. (Work in double space for this reason.)
Step 5: I had to submit images for this book before the text so I needed to know early what I was going to include. I wrote all my text first. Once I was satisfied that most of the stories were in place, I began looking for images. At the same time, I was adding new stories and looking for images to include with those and beginning an early edit of the first chapters. When the images were all gathered (two weeks ahead of scheduled in this case) I sent them in with a rough draft of the manuscript so the publisher could begin a layout. They had not specifically asked for that but Western New York is celebrating an anniversary and I would like to piggyback on that for marketing, time is of the essence.
Step 6: Last edits and marketing: While I finished writing stories, Thomas continued to review previous chapters. As he finished those, I went back and made changes accordingly, not always taking his advice but more often that not doing so. I also had to supply the publisher with a marketing plan so I did hours of research for local bookstores, historical societies, museums and events, trying to give them as many contact names and addresses as possible. (All this going on, by the way, at the same time I am finishing stories.)
Thomas finished reviewing earlier chapters, and after I sent all the marketing information to the publisher, I went back to do my final edit from the beginning. I do this final edit in red pen and transfer that to my computer pages by typing. This final process is tedious and required many breaks. I’d say I did three or four pages, then took a game break, or walked, or gardened, or cleaned house, something completely different.
Step 7: Submit final draft. When the manuscript is done, do a final spell and grammar check, check your formatting so it follows publisher guidelines, complete introductions and acknowledgments, bibliographies or whatever else needs to be done, and send.
I do not plan a bibliography because I did most of my research online, however the publisher may ask for one. That would be another project. Also, in the case of this publisher, I must send the manuscript electronically. Follow up to make sure it arrived safely.
Step 8: Wait. The publisher will have editors review the manuscript and I will get additional edit notes from them. That will be crunch time. It has to be completed without ten days of their sending them to me, at least for this publisher. I will move on to my next project, editing a book I’ve been writing for four years on using story with at-risk youth. (I plan to self-publish this one as a training manual.)
Step 9: If my editing is accepted, I will wait to be notified that the book is ready, they will probably send a cover design for me to sign off on and that’s it.
Step 10: Market. Even though the publisher will do a lot of this, the author has to talk up their book too.
I hope this helps some of you budding authors to get an insight look at a process and inspire some of you would be authors to get started. You just have to get it in writing! All those thoughts go on paper and you should not worry about whether they sound good, get them down. All you experienced writers, I welcome your additions to this discussion and hopefully you too will help get people going.
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