What?! It didn’t ask much with ‘who’, but it asked two or three questions. For example, it asked…
1 … WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE WRITER? When people address this question, they mostly expect an author they know, such as an international author and, usually, from English-speaking literature. This is fine, but there are many other authors who lived in previous centuries and who wrote in their national languages or, even, dialects (e.g. there are Austrian poets who wrote poems in German dialects—I learned about this in a German class and it was supposed to make us, German learners, feel encouraged when we don’t understand literary German. :-)). So is my favorite writer. It’s a ‘he’, but one you, most probably, never heard of. He lived in the 19th century and wrote plays and brief sketches that are entertaining for all ages. No, you don’t know him, because he’s not William Shakespeare, neither Oscar Wilde, G.B. Shaw, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller… . But because the world doesn’t know about him and his hilarious works doesn’t mean that he was less talented. And this goes for all writers out there, published or self-published, more or less known by the international public. However, my favorite writers are all the classical writers who wrote different genres in previous centuries. By this, I don’t mean only playwrights, but I mean Balzac, Dickens, I mean Dostoevsky, Gogol, I mean Hemingway, I mean everybody you know, read, and love as I do. The reasons why we love them may be different from reader to reader. Personally, I look at them with enormous admiration (and will to learn) at their writing craft. How could they write so beautifully crafted stories that transcended time and generations, that people still read, study, and buy their books when they only had the light of a candle and a feather ? They didn’t have electricity, computers, apps, email lists, and marketing skills. What? There was less competition then than there is now? I agree that their times were the worst and the best of times: with lots of diseases and wars, but with very few distractions. Speaking of modernity, I recently worked on what, the writing community calls, a ‘reader magnet’ – a written or video document that can be of different formats and sizes (including chapters of a book or the entire book), to offer it free of charge to people who want to join your email list. The argument is based on the importance of ‘owning your audience’ and it’s founded on fear: the big platforms (e.g. Amazon) can close your account and you may lose all your readers. Apparently, it happened to some people and it might happen to others, especially if writers use AI to generate content and lie about it. Remember the proverb, ‘Honesty is the best policy’! It’s very much advisable that everybody applies it in its relationship with the selling platforms. Furthermore, whatever you build (proper or figurative meaning) on a lie, theft, etc. it will crack sooner or later because of the improper founding. After having read others’ reading magnets, I decided on a guide about dialog. I did research to write How to Write a Great Dialog? Free Guide. I followed this advice from the writing community because I love the idea of a giveaway and because others’ giveaways helped me to take one step further on my writing path. For example, edx.org is an educational platform that for a limited period of time offers its courses free of charge to support education – it helped me (and many others) a lot. The email list is about building a community of people who would like to stay in touch with you. A similar concept is the ‘followers’ concept on Social Media, but in comparison to the followers on Social Media, the email list requires sending a newsletter (to stay in contact with the community). And there are people who send daily newsletters. And there are many others who advise to do it weekly to be constantly present within your audience community with your books, your podcasts, your webinars, your ... whatever you want to share with your audience. I decided that if I have subscribers, I’ll send it monthly and it will be about writing – my writing and other’s writings and events. Although this will take some of my writing time, being monthly, it would allow me to send the best information, with proper grammar, and still be present in the audience community’s life. But Shakespeare, for example, is said to have written one play a year. There are also some voices saying that sometimes, some plays, were a collective work. Whatever the truth, he didn’t have any email list or marketing skills, but business flair. He is constantly present and very much alive for generations of audiences for 500 years. And, probably, for many years to come. In short, I listen everybody's advice, but I take the advice I can implement and I implement as much as I can as a 'solopreneur' - learning and working alone as for an entire team. I always look with admiration at the writing craft of the classical writers who transcended times and generations with nothing else but a candle and a feather – and a lot of writing talent for which they, probably, never had enough ink. 2 … WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE MAIN CHARACTER? What about a world-known one? An international one that we all know to end this post with a smile on our faces, such as Mowgli or Zorro!
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1 … DO YOU CREATE A CAREER AS AN AUTHOR?
Step-by-step! Yes, this is the first right word because this is a marathon, not a sprint. ‘Carefully’ is another word—amid so much information, I seek advice and search for answers carefully. I weigh them attentively, I reflect on them and the way they fit my vision and I make one more step. Furthermore, I always keep in mind that each small step is a step forward, like the big oaks that grow from little acorns. For a long time, I thought that an academic career would allow me to write more, but I was wrong because it mainly implies academic writing. Some people argue that this writing genre ‘kills creativity.’ I do not put it so strongly, because I do not think that creativity can be ‘killed’ by anything, but it is not its best friend either. Academic writing allows opinions, usually well-researched ones, but it does not allow emotions. In plain English, it’s boring! But what is fascinating is the process to explore others’ opinions on a topic and the way they got to believe so. On the other side, a career as a writer is more exciting, but if you do not have a team around you, it requires a lot of learning—especially in the first phase. For example, initially, I wrote, I took writing classes from the best universities and best specialists, and I made a Writing Blog. Then, I wrote, I took writing classes, and I learned how to do an author website to include the Writing Blog. Now, I am at the phase where I am learning about marketing and attending conferences to (virtually) meet writers or writing-related people, and get some answers to the questions I got so far. But I also read, take notes, write and re-write, and so on. It is a continuous process. 2 … DO YOU DECIDE ON THE NAME OF A STORY? I first decide on the story I want to write because, usually, it is a topic that I read about, I know about and that fascinated me. Sometimes, it was also about stories I was having in mind for a long time. No, I do not make evaluations about whether the story would sell because I consider the advice on ‘write what you know’ to be good advice. Writing comes with a lot of researching and only 30 percent of the research reflects in the story; therefore, it is hard to spend time to research something the writer does not like. For example, for my WIP, I work on a story about Napoleon’s campaign to Egypt. It is my second about some sort of expedition. I love working on this story because Napoleon is a fascinating (workaholic and avid reader) character, because I love Antiquity (particularly, Egypt), because I want to honor a character who, somehow, remained secondary in history despite the great discovery he made, etc. In which concerns the name of stories, I learned that there is a (fashion) trend here, too. For example, nowadays, it is trendy to have a one-name title (e.g. ‘Spare’). However, the name of the story must show what the story is about, or point to the main character, the setting, the plot, the main dilemma, etc. My WIP’s title has the name of the main character—and it is more than just one word. 3 … DO YOU SELECT THE NAMES OF YOUR CHARACTERS? HOW PARTICULAR ARE YOU ABOUT THE NAMES OF THE CHARACTERS YOU USE IN STORIES? When I must choose a name, I usually try to choose those names that have a meaning or relate, somehow, with a major feature of a character. But once I had twelve characters, all men, from different cultures, and their origin was highly relevant to the opinion they were having. Then, the best choice was to strongly link the name of the character to the culture not to confuse them (e.g. Yves for French, Karl for German, etc.). This was for a single-issue drama which is a kind of drama that focuses more on the topic and on the arguments than on the characters (without neglecting them, if possible). I have heard authors being highly creative about names, particularly those writing fantasy. They search for names, combine names, etc. However, it is important to check the fashionable names in the period when the story is settled. 4 … DO YOU INCREASE TENSION IN WRITING? It depends on what genre a writer writes. In general, to increase tension, the writer must put the main character (or somebody close) in danger, or the obstacles must be more difficult, or by raising the stakes (the consequences are on a larger scale if the main character does not reach the aim), or by limiting the achievement of the goal to a certain time or space, or something bad happens to the main character (e.g. losing a trustful comrade) while something good happens to the antagonist that may give the false and temporary impression that it might win, etc. In play writing, I can use some of these, but I prefer arguments, confusion, and internal or emotional struggles. For example, in the single-issue drama genre that I want to develop and that is less interpretative, conflict can be generated by argument: Can X beat Y? Can Y argue back and push the conflict? What will Y do next: argue back or do something else? Will X insist? 5 … LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO FINISH A BOOK? To sit and write it does not take too much time. But when I sit and write, the written piece is done — in the sense that I cannot do more to develop the story, the characters, or the plot. This is because the actual writing in my head takes me a lot of time. It unfolds during my research; I scribble some notes not to forget certain things, words, and dates; I twist it many times; I check the arcs, etc. and this actual writing takes me a lot of time—months. Then comes the excitement to see if it looks on screen as good as it unfolds in my head. Last, I check other details, such as if the voice of each character is unique, which is usually easier when working with a few characters. I learned from the book Writing for Theater – Creative and Critical Approaches by Kim Wiltshire that I read at the Oxford Public Library, that such a process of first writing in your head is something normal: ‘as a playwright, you need to have the full play acted out and visualized in your head before getting it down on paper …’ 1 … IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘WRITER’ AND ‘AUTHOR’? I do not see any difference. I do not make any difference because there is no difference. And I completely disagree with those voicing that a writer becomes an author after the publication of the written work. My opinion is grounded on the way language dictionaries define the words ‘writer’ and ‘author’. Let’s have a look!
Furthermore, all dictionaries agree that the word ‘writer’ is synonym to ‘author’, ‘wordsmith’, ‘penman’, ‘scribe’, etc. In conclusion, I am the author of this blog post I wrote right now, before being published on the website and before being read by anybody in the audience.
2…IS YOUR FAVORITE LETTER? I did not even know that I was supposed to have one. I do have a favorite word, though: ‘mama’ because, as I argued on previous occasions, I believe it is a short word, still able to encompass the love of an entire universe. In terms of favorite letters… since the Twitter Writing Community asked… I will pick ‘L’ from ‘letter’, from ‘love’, from ‘Laura’, from ‘Lai’ and from all beautiful words starting with the letter ‘L’ that cross your mind right now. 3…WORD OR PHRASE PEOPLE USE EXCESSIVELY THAT YOU CAN’T STAND? On the one side, I particularly can’t stand the excessive use of ‘bro’ – it looks hypocritically used. I would like people to love each other like ‘bros’ and help each other like ‘bros’. Instead, what I see is that they gossip each other… like ‘bros’ and when they are asked for help, the frequent reply that I can’t stand is ‘what is in to it for me, bro?’ And it is very rare when a ‘bro’ will help you get socially or financially better than he or she already is. In other words, if you have a great idea with big financial potential some ‘bros’ will do their best to cut the branch from under your feet and then be the first to come, under a friendly disguise, to tell you: ‘Such is life, bro!’ On the other side, I particularly regret the non-excessive use of the polite pronouns. In English, there is not such a pronoun – just ‘you.’ But in other languages like German, Italian, Spanish, etc. there are certain pronouns (e.g. Sie, Lei, Usted, etc.) that are used when addressing to unknown people, older people, hierarchically superior or people you respect a lot and you are not going for a drink together like ‘bros’ (e.g. a doctor, a teacher, a coach, etc.). So, if I simply enter a small shop in a Spanish-speaking country, I should be asked ‘Qué queria Usted?’ because we do not know each other and to show respect to ‘our client that is our master.’ Instead, by the non-use of the so-called polite pronouns, the common attitude is ‘our client, our bro.’ How about that?! :-) 4… IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE IN A BOOKSTORE? I like the ‘Children’s Books’ section for the creativity. Personally, I think all children’s books are wonderful because they all try to help: either to teach the child the alphabet, or to count, or to have a great conduct towards people and nature – but, somehow, some of us forget when they become adults – and lots of only positive stuff. This is to say that all texts for children are wonderful, but the presentation of the book text takes here the most creative forms and colors. I also like to check the playwright section. Unfortunately, it is usually in another room, behind a corner, sometimes only a shelf, but always with the classical names – and not even then I do not see all the big classical names on the shelf. I hope for new names and I hope to see my plays on the shelf, too. 5…IS YOUR FAVORITE SCENE TO WRITE? My favorites are the dialogues. I have always loved to elaborate on dialogues. They come naturally to me. Writing plays is wonderful for those of us who love writing dialogues. And, newly, I learned in my course series Writing for Video Games that game writing is a genre that requires thousands of lines of dialogues. Thousands! Sometimes, even over ten thousands for the big games. However, most of the professionals said that it is hard to get a job in the industry, not as a writer, but even starting from somewhere in the industry. Anyway, I am happy to have discovered another genre where dialogues fit like a glove, besides the drama writing! OTHER LINKS: THE #WRITINGCOMMUNITY ON #TWITTER ASKED: DO YOU…? (1)
2 … WRITE BETTER IN THE MORNING OR AT NIGHT?
It doesn’t matter, but I don’t write at night anymore. I used to write the things I like (e.g. dialogue writing) at night because I had school during the day, and homework in the afternoon or during the summer vacations—lots of homework. Or when I had internships and then I had readings for doctoral research—lots of readings. I know that when you do things you like you don’t feel the time passing and you don’t feel tired either. I’ve been there, I know that. I also know that you don’t feel tired late at night when going to bed, but you might feel tired when you wake up early in the morning to go to school or to your work. After many years, more than a decade for me, this gets tiring. I know that, too. I’ve been there. It’s awkward to be one person with two speeds. On the other side, the brain is full of plans for the day: I must read that, do that, go there, etc. On the other side, the body is … disobedient to the brain: the hands don’t have the strength to take the pile of books, the fingers can properly hold the pen, and the eyes would rather sleep or watch a movie in a language it understands not to get tired reading the subtitles, etc. And I can tell you that in this equation, the body—not the brain—is the boss. The body started executing what I wanted through my brain and my thoughts after it considered it got enough sleep, enough vitamins (it was then when I started taking vitamins regularly) and felt that I started eating a little more fruits and vegetables than sweets and sandwiches. 3 … FIND LISTENING TO MUSIC WHEN WRITING HELPFUL? When I used to write at night, I was doing it as an amateur, for my fun. Then, yes, I was doing it with music—radio music. Late in the night, certain radio stations only play music and no commercials. When I decided to become a professional writer (meaning, having in mind an audience), I rarely write with music. And if I do, I prefer music without words (e.g. classical and jazz) so that I only concentrate on my written words without listening to the song’s words. When I break, I put on music—I love music! Then, I prefer Latino music because it has a lot of rhythm. And from the many great Latino singers, I often listen to Ricky Martin. 4 … PREFER PUBLISHING OR SELF-PUBLISHING? In the beginning, I didn’t have any preference, but for publishing (stage) plays I didn’t find any publishing house that would, at least, list that it would accept play manuscripts. Therefore, besides improving my writing craft with writing courses and seminars, I also had to learn the (self) publishing business—which is so complex that it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, I came across experienced writers’ YouTube channels – thank God! The pandemic's long-imposed staycation was a period I used for improving my writing craft and learning the (self) publishing business. Now, I can grasp the forest for the trees. But things are dynamic and self-publishing is developing: new information is constantly added to old ones. What mostly scares a writer who self-publishes is marketing which is a completely different realm of study than writing. But when even when publishing traditionally, the writer must do marketing on its own because the writer is the most motivated person to make sales. Therefore, I look at self-publishing as a great idea and a chance for those who don’t even have where to send a play manuscript and/or to exhibit for sale other fruits of their creativity. Many writers consider self-publishing financially advantageous, too. 5 … COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHER WRITERS? No. I compare to myself. And I believe that with each writing course I make and with each text I write, I’m better today than I was yesterday. Furthermore, I don’t see any point to compare yourself to other writers because a writer is a great observer of the surrounding reality and each writer has its own voice, meaning its own original way of presenting its observations. The audience may resonate with the topics a writer approaches and/or with the way it writes about it. Or, it may not. In its turn, a writer may look for certain topics of great audience or join a public debate on a topic that interests the public and write about it a text of a particular genre (e.g. essay, opt-ed, a play, etc.) – but the writer will write its argument its own unique way. This explains why there is only one Dickens, one Balzac, one Dostoevsky, and so on. And there is only one of each of us. I’m not even sure it helps to compare yourself to the other writers. However, I’m convinced it helps to read them, to study them, and to learn from their (positive and/or negative) experiences. I once found an article in The Guardian with great advice from experienced writers and I made a ‘Fictive Dialogues’ series from the playwright's point of view. It was fun, but it was also instructive. OTHER LINKS: Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (XI) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2021/01/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point_15.html January 15th, 2021 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (X) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2021/01/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point_14.html January 14th, 2021 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (IX) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2021/01/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point.html January 6th, 2021 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (VIII) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/12/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point_21.html December 21st, 2020 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (VII) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/12/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point_14.html December 14th, 2020 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (VI) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/12/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point_7.html December 7th, 2020 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (V) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/12/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point.html December 1st, 2020 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (IV) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/11/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point_29.html November 29th, 2020 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (III) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/11/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point_22.html November 22nd, 2020 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (II) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/11/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point_14.html November 14th, 2020 Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (I) https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/11/fictive-dialogues-from-playwright-point.html November 7th, 2020 Tweeting on Twitter https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/09/tweeting-on-twitter.html September 2nd, 2020 Plotter or Pantser? This is the Question! https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2020/09/plotter-or-pantser-this-is-question.html September 10th, 2020 Now, that there are 23 days left to the first ball kick of the FIFA World Cup 2022, both the emotions and the controversies get high—hopefully, the emotions get higher than the controversies. This year Football World Cup scores itself several first times. First, this tournament is carbon-neutral FIFA World Cup because traveling from one venue to another to watch matches does not imply internal flights. Second, it is the first football world cup organized in November-December instead of June-July—that is because the summer temperatures that in Qatar may reach 42-43ͦ C are uncomfortable for both fans and footballers. Third, it is the first time that fans can go from one venue to another in about an hour to watch their favorite teams. Fourth, it is the first time that most of the world’s population can reach this tournament by a max. 8-hour flight. Fifth, after the tournament, the Ras Abu Aboud Stadium in Doha will be the first stadium fully demountable. Furthermore, the Qataris previously succeeded in providing a 25ͦ C temperature inside a stadium when outside there was 43ͦ C. And they are committed to providing the best cooling technology – as part of their bid. 1,500 000 fans are expected. And many more will watch from home. Some fans will come over the weekend, others in a short one or two-week holiday, and the luckiest will be able to stay for the entire period of the tournament. It will be a come-and-go, but 53 million people transit Doha Hamad International Airport per year and it can handle even 8,700 passengers per hour. photo edited by Laura Lai The emotions are both on the fans and on the host side. The host wants to offer a uniquely positive experience that combines Arab hospitality with innovative experiences for the fans. In this sense, Qatar gathered an organization team made of people from 50 nations to work together to deliver ‘a tournament that bridges cultures, breaks down social barriers, and unites the world’—this is like a motto of this tournament.
Football is an entertainment show that has the power to bring people together. And the world cup has the power to unite the world in one emotion. However, on the fans’ side, there are controversies. Women fans are concerned that they may not be welcome at the stadiums as they are used in their countries. Or that they will be fined for not covering the head or the shoulders—although at 24ͦ C many of us wear clothing with long leaves. Men fans are concerned that there is not enough drinking – because some fans also like to over-drink and then engage in street fights to express anger. Over-drinking makes people lose control of their bodies. Besides the fact that some are noisy and/or aggressive, they may urinate on themselves and defecate on the streets because it is hard for somebody who over drank to hold until it gets home or to search for a public toilet. How do I know? No, I do not drink, but where I live, there are three big pubs at the corner of the street that, in summer, do not get closed until the last customer leaves. Do not ask why some people like to drink so much until they lose control of their bodies because I would not know to answer. Still, the Qataris organized some places where drinking is allowed for fans. But walking drunk on the streets of Qatar constitutes a felony. Furthermore, men fans are concerned that they may get fined if they show too much affection to their friends and families in the streets when celebrating their favorite team’s victory. Nobody doubts that the Qataris are nice and welcoming people! But many fans may be concerned about not breaking the laws they do not even know about. They want to come to enjoy the football show not to end up in jail for a cultural clash. Furthermore, nobody goes to such a beautiful world tournament with the precise purpose of offending the local population. In its turn, the local population is strong in its belief and in its traditions and it traveled a lot and most of them are familiar with Western culture. Besides, when a country like Qatar, which hosts over 90 major sports events annually, applied to FIFA to host the 2022 World Cup edition, it knew that an amalgamation of fans will come to visit. That is why sometimes I think maybe fans worry too much. But it is human to be worried when going to a foreign place whose language you do not know. The moment Qatar applied to host this world tournament, it opened its door to the world to visit its amazing country. Such tournaments are also a cultural experience for both the fans and the hosts. We may not learn from each other, but we learn about each other—and this is great to know about each other! The cultures are different, but love for football is what we have in common, and this world cup is the event meant to unite the world in one emotion – even for one month every four years. The fans learn about the country by interacting with people and watching how they interact with each other, trying its gastronomy, visiting historical places, and so on. And the local people would probably look at some fans as having strange habits and they will discuss among each other – maybe have a good laugh about people’s behavior when they over-drink (and how they do not remember anything the next day!) since drinking is not part of the Arab culture, for example. To sum up, the World Cup 2022 will bring together different cultures, different races, and people from all over the world. I believe that when you do not know the laws of a place, decency is the best policy. A proverb says: ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ But when you do not know the Roman culture, I believe that decency on the fans’ side and understanding on the Qatari side may be a working formula for a culture bridge and a successful unification of this divided world for a month under the emotion that football gives its fans. Qatar invested lots of money, time, and effort in hosting the World Cup 2022 event. The Qataris are ambitious and hard-working people that built an amazing country. One organizational thing remains to be done: that the echo of this event in fans’ hearts and in the international press, during and after the event, to be equally amazing as the effort they put into the organization—and this is in Qatar’s hands. The ball for this great echo is in Qatar’s field. It waits for Qatar to kick and score this great goal. Good luck to Qatar with the organization! Good luck to the football teams! Good luck to all fans! May the best team win! by Laura Lai
Have you ever been asked to bring a C.V.? What about bringing a resume? It is mostly when applying for jobs that each applicant is asked to send a C.V. or a resume. But they are also necessary when applying to colleges and universities. However, when reading the job posts, these two documents have always been used as if they mean the same thing, although there is a difference between them. The word ‘curriculum’ is a Latin word. When used in colleges and universities, it refers to all the courses that are taught in that educational institution. At the graduation, other Latin words are used: ‘cum laude’, ‘magna cum laude’ and ‘summa cum laude’ (the word ‘laude’ in Latin means ‘honor'). The C.V. is the abbreviation of the Latin words ‘curriculum vitae’—the word ‘vita/ae’ means ‘life’, and if I remember well, it is a word of the first declination. Indeed, in my school curriculum, one of the subjects was Latin. I studied five years of Latin (the last year of gymnasium and all four years of high school). Therefore, the ‘curriculum vitae’ means ‘the course of one’s life.’ But people undertake lots of activities during their lives. Consequently, the C.V. is a long document. My C.V., for example, has several pages—no matter how short I try to be—but in order to look shorter, I was creative and used a trick: I called the page with the publications’ list an ‘annex’ to the C.V. The resume is a shorter document—usually, one page and adapted to the open advertised position. For example, when I was a Political Scientist under- and post-graduate student, I was involved in research and in organizing international political events (e.g., seminars, round-tables, conferences, NATO Summit, EBRD Summit, etc.), but after completing a series of writing courses and professional certificate-courses, I am extrapolating from my long C.V. only those one or two (or as much as it can fit in one page) activities relevant to writing positions. All the summits, the language competition awards, the publication’s list, etc. they are all irrelevant. Furthermore, because of the fact that the resume is shorter, the ‘summa cum laude’ is also shortened to the ‘cum laude.’ To sum up, although the two terms of ‘curriculum vitae’ and ‘resume’ are used as being similar, there is a difference between them. And the main difference relates to length. I have recently finished my resume to answer writing open advertised positions. And I post it here below. by Laura Lai Every year, on May 9, people celebrate the victory of the Soviet Union and its Allies over Hitler’s nazi political regime. It is also the commemoration day of all the victims of the Second World War. This year, because of the Russian-Ukrainian war conflict, all public attention was focused on the speeches of the two presidents: V. Putin and V. Zelensky. The Second World War officially started in September 1939 when nazi Germany attacked Poland. But the first steps were made in 1938 when nazi Germany occupied another German-speaking country: Austria. And the war lasted until May 9, 1945. It made almost 50 million victims with a record of civilian death: 20 million. For example, in the UK, 100,000 civilians out of 500,000 victims; in France, 400,000 civilians out of 600,000 victims; and in Germany, 500,000 out of 5 million victims. The major causes of this high number of civilian death were air strikes, deportations, hunger, and the lack of medicines. Therefore, a short and quick recollection of the way this Russian-Ukrainian war conflict started—first, with Russia occupying the Russian-speaking Crimea two years ago, and second with a current ‘special operation’—it looks like a frightening déjà vu that, hopefully, will not repeat itself after 77 years. In the meantime, several things have changed. In 1991, Russia became a democracy, Ukraine an independent state, and several countries became nuclear powers. In this year's speech of that Victory Day, Russia’s President, V. Putin, had a speech that in English was approximately 600 words, where the word ‘nuclear’ appears once not as a threat, but as one reason for this special operation: ‘[t]here were calls in Kiev about the possible acquisition of nuclear weapons’ (to read the entire speech in English, click here). He stated the purpose of Russia’s operation in Ukraine without mentioning the word ‘Ukraine’: ‘… fighting for our people in Donbass for the security of our motherland.’ In general, on the older conflict in the Donbass region, there was the Minsk 2 Agreement (2015) under the framework of the OSCE that is said to have been broken by Ukraine. And by ‘the security of our motherland’, V. Putin refers to NATO’s Eastern enlargement that has constantly been viewed as a threat to Russia’s security. The word ‘NATO’ appears twice in this one-page speech to justify and to clarify the reasons of this special operation from Russia’s viewpoint: ‘In December last year, we proposed to make a treaty of non-security guarantees. Russia called for a search for compromise solutions, but that was in vain. NATO countries didn’t want to hear us, and this means that in reality they had quite different plans….The NATO alliance began to move their troops into our neighboring territories, posing an unacceptable threat to us right at our borders.’ Overall, the word choice of V. Putin’s speech is in agreement with the tone of this celebration and commemoration event. From the beginning to the end, it is about respect for the victims and love for his country. The number of words is equilibrated. For example, the word ‘Russia’ appears 6 times; ‘memory’ (6); war (6); motherland (3); ‘hero’ (2), ‘duty’ (1), ‘patriotism’ (1). And the word that appears the most is the word ‘we’ (9): ‘Our duty is to preserve the memory of those who defeated nazism and to make sure that the horror of a global war will never be repeated… We bow our heads to the memory of our comrades in arms….’ These words reinsure us that it is a duty to avoid the horror of a global war similar to the Second World War. On the other side, the President of Ukraine, V. Zelensky, had an approximately 800-word speech (to read his speech in English, click here) that was mainly about this conflict against Russia and about V. Putin. However, he stated his country’s goal in this Russian-Ukrainian conflict: to fight (as ‘free people who have their own path’) and to obtain a new victory, similar to the victory against nazism. It starts by quoting an Ukrainian philosopher who said that: ‘There is nothing more dangerous than an insidious enemy, but there is nothing more poisonous than a feigned friend.’ This ‘feigned friend’ is Russia that is referred to as the ‘enemy’ – this word appears seven times in his speech (the word ‘Russia’ appears once: ‘[o]n February 24, Russia launched an offensive’). Other words that appear in his speech are war (9), ‘victory’ (8), Ukraine (7), ‘land’ (7), and, by far, the most used word is ‘nazi/sm’ (14).
Furthermore, V. Putin is referred as the ‘tsar’, the ‘führer’, and the ‘madman’: ‘Because only a madman can wish to repeat the 2194 days of war. The one who is repeating the horrific crimes of Hitler’s regime today, following Nazi philosophy, copying everything they did. He is doomed. Because he was cursed by millions of ancestors when he began to imitate their killer. And therefore he will lose everything.’ From the viewpoint of Ukraine, the two countries are in a ‘war of two worldviews.’ And in this war, the Ukrainians will not give anyone ‘a single piece of land’; they ‘will not give anyone a single piece of our history’; they ‘will not allow anyone to annex this victory…’ President Zelensky’s speech contains also a question: ‘What is our advantage over the enemy?’ What would you answer in your mind when you hear or read this question? When I read, I answered in my mind that Ukraine’s advantage is that it has NATO countries on its side supplying it with weapons for its soldiers (and, hopefully, with lots of food and medicines for the civilians). Somehow, it was the wrong answer. The right answer was: ‘We are smarter by one book. This is a textbook on the history of Ukraine.’ This may be a cultural thing that is difficult to grasp in English but that is fully understood by the Ukrainian public. To sum up, a victory speech on the Second World War should be mainly about the Second World War with reference to the present. It should contain words like ‘country’, ‘patriotism’, ‘remembrance’, ‘victims’ that are all ‘heroes’ and fewer speculations about the enemy’s dreams (‘[o]ur enemy dreamed we would refuse to celebrate May 9 and the victory over Nazism. So that the word “denazification” gets a chance.’), or words like ‘doom’, ‘cursed’, etc. Since February 24 when the Russian-Ukrainian war conflict started, the public is used to hear speeches of President Zelensky. He is a good communicator and his speeches are a communication tool to mobilize his country against the ‘invader’ and the ‘enemy.’ The point is that at this speech frequency, there are lots of opportunities to focus on Russia, its president, the enemies’ dreams, etc. But to celebrate the victory over nazism and to commemorate its victims it is just one day in the year: on May 9th. In the end, I would like to close more or less the way the two presidents use to end their speeches. Slava Peace! Uraaaa! by Laura Lai I do not think that it is a secret anymore that I love the cinema art, and that I am fascinated by the way film shots contribute to storytelling. In short, I love to watch a movie. Since I am on Twitter, I am following the American Film Academy, some film festivals, and some actresses and actors because it is impossible to follow them all. I am also a follower of Whoopi Goldberg. I recently heard that she was temporarily suspended from a television show where she was a host following a discussion on Holocaust. Then I saw her tweet from February 1st, 2022: ‘On today’s show, I said the Holocaust “is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man.” I should have said it is about both. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, “The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people—who they deemed to be an inferior race.” I stand corrected.’ (www.twitter.com/WhoopiGoldberg) drawing by Laura Lai When I first heard the news (especially that I have not heard from the beginning), I did not know what to believe and whether the information was correct. When I saw the tweet, I understood it was no fake news and that such a discussion took place starting or around a publication for children on Holocaust. I must tell that I know little about this publication, its content and it is also not the subject of this comment. What hooked me were Whoopi Goldberg’s words: ‘I should have said it is about both.’ It made me wonder what she said. What words did she use?
Then comes the argument of Jonathan Greenblatt. He said that the Jews were considered (by the nazis!) an ‘inferior race’, and that from this point of view the Holocaust was about race - argument based on historical truth that invited me to reflection. And the first thing that crossed my mind was: What would I have answered, because I do not believe in superior and inferior races? The US Holocaust Museum added another argument based on historical truth: ‘Racism was central to Nazi ideology. Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder.’ I embarked on this reflection journey with all my objectivity (for me, it is important to keep my conscience clear), for the sake of a writing experience as a comment. Holocaust was genocide. Etymologically, this word is made of two Greek words: holos, which means ‘complete’, and kaustos, which means ‘burned’. The word ‘genocide’ was first formulated in 1944 by a Polish (of Jewish origin) lawyer, Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959). He combined the Greek word geno (meaning ‘race’ or ‘tribe’) with the Latin word cide (meaning ‘killing’). In plain English, genocide means mass murder. In this genocide that took place in Europe during WWII, six million Jews (probably more, but this is the official number) died. Among the victims, there were also Roma people, disabled, and gays. Holocaust Victims' Monuments But genocide happened also in Asia (in Cambodia, in the ‘70s), in Africa (in Rwanda, 1994), and most recently, in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. This shows that history repeats itself. It points that genocide can happen anywhere: it happened among White people (in Europe), it happened among Black people (in Africa) and among Yellow people (in Asia). Therefore, all genocide stories must be told because they remind that some people, with a certain ideology that despises diversity, can run policies that lead to mass murder. Conferences, seminars, books, movies, etc. are resources to remind audiences about such danger and to remember respectfully the souls of the innocent people who died in genocides - by ‘innocent’, I mean that there was and there is no guilt to be a Jew, a Roma, disabled or gay. Such personal details do not justify murder—nothing justifies mass murder!
The US Holocaust Museum’s arguments that ‘racism was central to Nazi ideology’ and that ‘Jews were not defined by religion, but by race’ are historically correct. But they are wrong because there are only three human races. There is no fourth race that is the ‘superior one’, and the fifth that is the ‘inferior race.’ Furthermore, it was wrong to define the Jews by race, because a ‘Jew’ is a person who worships God according to the Judaic tradition, according to Judaism. In concrete terms, a group of people, who call themselves Jews, go to a collective worship place they call ‘temple’, and they most probably sing songs to God. It is hard to understand why some people's singing to God would bother a government that starts a politics of annihilation. The idea of a ‘superior race’ is a non-sense nazi invention. It could be a facade argument for something much deeper than we can understand, but an invention that speculated people’s weakness and desire to feel superior to somebody. Then the nazis pointed on the Jews, the Roma people, the disabled and the gays. In which concerns the disabled people, the nazi’s argument that it costs the government too much to educate them is wrong. The education of a disabled child does not cost the government anything. It costs us, as society. We, the people, know that some of our fellows have a disability, or that they have disabled children. We, the people, pay through our taxes the education of these children—the government (be it national, federal, supra-national, etc.) does not pay a cent from its pocket, it only administers the society’s money. To sum up, Whoopi Goldberg was invited to a TV show where she said that Holocaust was ‘inhuman’. She was corrected by specialists in Holocaust’s history and studies that she should have added that Holocaust was also about ‘race’, because the nazis thought so, and because the nazis said so, and because the nazis made their annihilation policy on their illogical logic. There are only three human races, and no fourth one, called ‘superior race’. Jews are a religion, not a race. And religion is a private matter. Whatever the nazis said, it makes no sense. What they did is murder—and that is inhuman. I think the focus must be more on the consequences of such an ideology. In which concerns the Holocaust, it should be pointed the concept confusion, the illogical in the nazi policy, the undemocratic measures (such as confiscating people’s property on the argument of a ‘superior’ race that does not exist), their interest in live experiments on people, and the inhumanity in all their actions, including murder. I am afraid that by saying that ‘for the nazis, the Jews were a race’, ‘for the nazis, the Jews were an inferior race’, ‘for the nazis, the Jews were like this or like that…’ first, we enter the logic of the nazis, instead of sticking to our healthy logic. Second, I am afraid that by repeating the nazi’s opinions, their ideas may be spread unintentionally—and we do not want that. Furthermore, this happens in a context in which youngsters abandon schools and a high percentage of people do not believe that Holocaust happened (to read the article from The Guardian, click here), but that it is a Hollywood science-fiction movie. The primary focus should be on what the nazis did, instead of what they believed because it may not be a good idea in this constantly growing ignorance context. I am neither a Jew nor a Roma; neither am I disabled nor gay, but I am thinking for a long time about writing a novel on this topic. I want to tell a true story, but archives were bombed and I am reconstructing the story with improvised Jewish names and German nazi names—as it is when preparing to write a novel. Nor am I paid by the Americans, the Jews or the Russians (or whatever extra-terrestrial race) to write. But I learned from history that if one segment of the population conflicts with the government, there is a lot of unrest in the entire society. And I think that we all like to live (and to write) in peaceful societies. Speaking of writing, I wanted to use this topic to write a comment genre, but I think it is more somewhere between comment and opinion genre. What do you think? by Laura Lai When I finished the course on Storytelling in the Workplace, I wanted to continue with the Storytelling for Social Change and before Christmas to learn about movies and watch movies during the course on Hollywood: History, Industry, Art - as a break, an enjoyable and useful break, from the usual writing courses, because I have always loved the way the cinema art tells a story and because I thought it was appropriate for the time before Christmas. Things did not go as I planned, and I left the Storytelling for Social Change course at the beginning of 2022. ![]() By ‘the beginning of 2022’ I mean January 1st. Yes, you did not misread. It is no joke—I enrolled on December 28th, 2021 with the precise intention to start after the New Year celebration. What celebration during this pandemic?! Since this pandemic started, I avoid crowded places and I wear a mask. So, I stayed home and I watched movies. I rarely eat at midnight—I had barely eaten something at midnight. I rarely drink alcohol—I had a glass of alcohol-free (peach tasting!) drink. But I liked it! Ah, the drink had bubbles, I forgot mentioning. Hey, it was New Year! Of course, it had bubbles. Therefore, on January 1st, 2022, I was fit to start the 5-week course on Storytelling for Social Change. My motivation to take this course lies in my concerns about the environment. I am not in school anymore and if I miss the online class to go on a climate strike, as Greta does, I will change nothing. But if I could write stories that can touch a stoned heart and change an indifferent attitude into a more careful and more carrying attitude for environment (e.g., plants, animals, etc.), I think this would great. It is like putting my writing skill at the service of my environmental concerns, particularly when I write for children. Indeed, somebody has to read the story, but if an adult picks it to read for its child, my message reaches them both. The story needs its audience, and this is a tough part, but I believe it is worth trying—very worth trying, I would say.
How would you answer these questions? What drives the story from your point of view? What makes it effective? Please check the website of the course, enroll anytime until the end of August and be one of the almost 40,000 people that have already followed this course! The Legend of John Henry. The Man versus the Machine
In this story, the antagonist challenges the protagonist's efforts so far ('we worked too much to come so far'). The confrontation between the two follows a bet. The story points on the superiority of the man versus the machine using the metaphor of 'bigger hammer'. John Henry said, 'There are always bigger hammers.’ To me, it means that the human being is a resourceful individual who can always find in itself more strength to face greater challenges. Despite being a legend, this story is legitimized by the fact that it is Jack Henry, the son of John Henry, telling the story, which implies that it has a kernel of truth in it – more than a kernel! Furthermore, the story is driven by the music played by the son, which makes it more effective from my point of view. And it also makes it even more artistic thinking that the son has replaced the hammer with the guitar. In this 20-minute documentary on John Henry and the Railroad, it is the guitar that tells the story of a hammer, and Jack telling the beautiful and inspiring story of his father. |
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