Monday, April 6, 2020

#amwriting Idea Farming—growing your plot. The South Forty – The Novel



In this blog, the third farming method—The South Forty (the novel) is the focus.

For decades, comedians, cartoonists, and comedy writers have included jokes about “writing the great American novel” in their material. Many people do have such a desire lurking within them. Of the many with that desire, few act on it, and even fewer complete a manuscript that might legitimately qualify as a novel.

What does it take to get more than the cows out of the south forty?

At the base level, writing a novel is an expansion of the process required to write a short story. You must have an idea, a willingness to edit judiciously and be committed to investing the time required to finalize a manuscript of 80,000 to 100,000+ words. However, the process for developing and writing a novel has many, many more levels than even the most tightly written short story or novella. 

Plowing, planting, irrigating, fertilizing, getting rid of pests, and harvesting are steps in growing your novel.

Plowing
It’s a good idea before starting your novel to have the field plowed. Preexisting concepts for other length stories must put out of sight and mind. Most likely, your idea for a book has been around a while. You’ve come and gone from thinking about the idea over months or years. This may provide a well-focused view of the idea, it also allows the ground itself to compact. 

You need to plow the old idea under in your brain’s field so the necessary light, air, and water won’t simply run off the surface. You want light to access all parts of the idea, allowing you to seriously evaluate what’s there. 
Ideas require air to develop into a full-fledged storyline. Such loose brain soil gives life to nuances of the idea.
Even the best-turned soil in a brightly lit field will produce no crop without water, your sweat and tears during this entire process. Water must be available to all parts of the back forty to produce a maximum crop. Plow all the way to the corners!

Planting
As soon as your field is ready, it’s time to get started. I’ve mentioned a variety of strategies in earlier blogs. However, you must develop a detailed outline for a novel before you get too far into your story. 

I don’t know a single farmer who plants only one plant in a field and expects to get a significant harvest. Think of each of the points and sub-points of your outline as individual plants in the South Forty. Without a field filled with viable seeds (plot point), crop yield is negligible. Without an outline, your novel will be no more than a field where random ideas grow unchecked.

A non-farming way to look at this step is: 
If you don’t know where you’re going, 
how will you know when you get there?

Planting is impossible without a plan.

Irrigating
Once the South Forty is planted, a farmer has to water the seeds to cause germination. Once you have an outline with an endpoint, you begin the work of writing. In some climates, irrigation is not a regular need, rainfall is frequent and abundant enough that no outside water source is required. Chances are that your brain is not such a paradise. Plan on irrigating. Think of words as water to the storyline.

In order for a plant to grow, carbon dioxide in the air must combine with water to produce sugar. That sugar is the basis for all plant growth and development. You must combine your words and your ideas into a viable manuscript in much the same way a plant combines elements from air and water to make sugar.

Fertilizing
Next time you buy a bag of fertilizer, check the label. You’ll see three numbers—like 10-20-10—on that label. Those numbers refer to the amount of three essential nutrients that are required for healthy plant growth found in the product.

The first number is the amount of nitrogen (N), the second number is the amount of phosphate (P2O5) and the third number is the amount of potash (K2O). These three numbers represent the primary nutrients (nitrogen (N) - phosphorus (P) – potassium/potash (K)). http://www.ncagr.gov/cyber/kidswrld/plant/label.htm > 

Nitrogen
Mandatory for making chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is responsible for capturing the energy stored during photosynthesis during sugar production—it also is the green color in plants. Healthy plants have adequate supplies of nitrogen. You must add believability to every aspect of your plot or your story will die in the same way that an inadequate supply of nitrogen leads to plant death. Even in science fiction, where things that can’t happen do happen. requires a preponderance of believable parts. Without an abundant basis of belief, your reader will be unwilling to suspend that believability when necessary in a sci-fi novel. Your novel will die before producing fruit.

Phosphate.
Also critical for photosynthesis, without phosphorus plant root growth is inadequate to support a growing plant. And, blooms formed in low phosphorus conditions are small and dull. A writer wants “phosphate-rich flowers” moments throughout the story. Times when your plot points stand out, are thought-provoking or provide insight or a clue are essential. When you provide backstory or hint at times not described in detail in your book, those are “roots by phosphate” moments.

Potash (Potassium). 
Potassium is essential for fruit production. Without fruit, plants can still function, but not often on the back forty. The back forty is for cash crops. There are markets for some root or stem plants, but most money crops, corn, wheat, cotton, and the like produce seeds and fruit. Make sure your story bears fruit, resolution of issues and an ending that people are willing to pay for! 

Pest removal
Pests can be animal, plant, fungus, bacteria, or virus. Regardless of the type of infestation, farmers must rid the field of the problem before the crop is ruined. 

This isn’t a forum for chemical vs. “organic” pest control. What pest removal means to a writer is the excision of material that doesn’t belong in the crop. Editing with an eye for “keeping the story moving forward,” not simply satisfying your love of detail is mandatory.

You should call in an expert in pest control. In fact, if this is your first venture into writing and publishing or your fiftieth, you need a professional editor to edit your manuscript after your second serious edit is complete. There are many services out there that will do this. I have a strong recommendation. 

Her name is Jordan Eagles. She provides feedback (good/bad) and suggestions as well as helping with wording, grammar, and typos. Her rates are VERY competitive, and her work is exemplary. 

Jordan’s contact points:
Twitter: @wredit_jordan (Message her)
eMail: Second_star2the_right@outlook.com
You will be glad you contacted her. 

Amazon offers editing as an option for a fee as well.

Pray for bees!
I know this isn’t in the list above, but the idea just kind of flitted into my brain. (Thanks go to Sherry Frazier, my publicist, who wanted to be called an immune pest, an idea I’m still considering. I cannot recommend her enough.) After you’ve done all you can to get the crop growing, you still need to pollinate those flowers to get fruit. While many flowers are wind-pollinated, that’s a hit/miss chance for your fruit. You want more than chance to determine your final product. 

Bees are very specific pollinators. They search out flowers that have what they need and want. Once they find a field of flowers that fit their need, they spread the word, dancing their way into the GPS systems of all the other bees in the hive. 

Think of your pre-readers as bees, looking for ideas they like based on past experience. Have your manuscript pre-read by someone(s) who like(s) and know(s) your genre. They provide specific feedback on how your book fits the model. But also pray for “new-bees” who generally steer away from your genre. Those bees provide a much better eye on the storyline because that’s all they really care about.

Harvesting
When the crop is ready, you need to get it in quickly. True stories abound of farmers who waited a day too long and had their crops ruined or the field made impassible by torrential rain. On the other hand, harvesting before the peak of crop development cuts the yield significantly. Read your story again after letting it “grow” a week or so without any involvement by you, the author. Have someone else read the story. This time for specific places of like or dislike. Better yet, provide a list of places you’d like feedback. A review who says, “I really liked it,” or “It’s kind of dry,” is not of any value to producing big yields. 

At some point, you have to stop writing and publish, or it’s not a novel. Robert Heinlein, a sci-fi writer of considerable renown had five rules he followed. While they aren’t a “hand in glove” fit in this analogy, they are excellent to keep in mind as you work.
Of course, even if you carefully follow all the above steps, your crop might not sell. But, if you take the time and effort to grow your novel; and if you are willing to listen to critique and act to correct legitimate problems, you should harvest a novel to be proud of. One that others like enough to purchase.

So, what happens after someone reads your novel and likes it asks, 
“When’s the next book
with this main character
coming out?”

Next blog: Idea Farming—growing your plot #last Mega Farming (the book series)

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My Christian Context. Posts M/W of discussion questions. Thursdays - Timeless Truths. Fridays - Expressions of Faith. https://mychristiancontext.blogspot.com/  

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Sunday, April 5, 2020

#Viruses An introduction to what they are and how they work

Artistic enhancement of a transmission electron microscope image of the COVID-19 virus.


This is an actual transmission electron microscope image of the virus. Colors are added after the scan is complete.
  • In June of 1973, I began teaching biology at Monte Vista High.
  • If this “story” wasn’t part of my first year’s teaching, it arrived soon thereafter.
  • Originally presented on a chalkboard, then a whiteboard, then via an overhead projector, and in the 1990s and beyond as Apple's early presentation software then PowerPoint, the original diagrams were hand-drawn.
  • Mercifully for you, the diagrams in this PPT are not.
  • Of course, although you do get better visuals, you don't get the "show" that my lecture was. <snicker>

This post is long in scrolling, but not in verbiage. Hang in there.

An important aside

This is important information because

Viruses 
  1. are not made up of cells.
  2. reproduce only in a host using their cellular equipment.
  3. DO have DNA or RNA.
  4. don't grow or develop.
  5. use a cell's energy, not their own.
  6. don't respond to their environment, except to go dormant.
  7. don't control anything about their internal or external environment.
  8. DO mutate DNA or RNA. HIV and other viruses mutate so frequently that the chance of developing a vaccine for them is LITTE TO NO CHANCE.

Conclusion of the Aside:

  • A LIVING ORGANISM MUST "DO" ALL 8 LISTED ITEMS.
  • VIRUSES "DO" ONLY TWO OF THEM.
  • VIRUSES ARE NOT ALIVE. YOU CANNOT KILL THEM. 
  • More on this later.



The Saga of Victor the Virus 

Hosts of viruses tend to be species or scientific classification group-specific. They don't infect every organism they make contact with.

This comic strip illustrates how a bacteriophage (a virus that attacks bacteria) works.  

Viruses that attack your cells function in the same way.  In fact, it's easier for a virus to enter your cells because your cells don't have cell walls.

If you think about what kinds of molecules cells need to function (Hint: Include protein in your list!) and what the outside of a virus is made of, you might be able to figure out why viruses can enter your cells easily.

Victor is a Bacteriophage-a type of virus that attacks only bacteria
Cold viruses are Adenoviruses.
A retrovirus contains RNA, not DNA. It mutates after every few replication cycles of each version of the virus.
Additional types of viruses.












A viral particle approaches a bacterial cell wall.

Yellowish shapes are bacteriophages.
Upon contact with the bacterium, the virus uses enzymes in its base plate to digest a hole in the bacterial cell wall.


All viruses, as you should recall, do only one thing VERY WELL:  reproduce.  However, 
the virus must be inside a host cell or it cannot reproduce. 
To get inside the host bacterium, the contractile sheath contracts, and the viral DNA is injected into the bacterium.  

Aside #2.

  • Your cells have membranes as their outer border, not cell walls
  • Viruses that infect your body don't need to inject anything into your cells because the outer covering of viruses contains proteins. 
  • When viruses "land" on your cells, your cell membranes recognize the virus as a source of protein. 
  • Sensing the protein as food, the cell membrane engulfs the virus and brings it inside the cell. 
  • The virus does nothing to gain entrance exept land on the cell membrane. 

End of Aside #2


Sometimes the viral DNA attaches to the bacterial DNA.  This temperate phage is replicated every time the bacterium divides.  The herpes viruses that cause cold sores in you are like this. The virus can remain inside the bacterial hosts, or your lip cells, for years.  

But isn't an intact virus more than DNA?

Correctamundo!  

Now that we find out that "Victor" is a lot like Clark Kent.  Just like inside Clark is Superman, inside the protein coat of the virus is the functioning part:  DNA.  

DNA must enter the host or nothing will happen. Once inside the bacterium, two possible endings to the story exist. Bacteria (or your lip cells) are not aware that they are infected.  Pretty boring.


Under certain conditions, like radiation from the sun at the beach, can cause the virus to "escape" from its place in the bacterial DNA.  When the virus escapes, it leads to …

An environmental signal can trigger the virus DNA to exit the bacterial chromosome and switch to the lytic mode.

For example, when triggered
Herpes simplex-1 --> Cold sores
Exposure to ultra-violet radiation in sunlight is one trigger of  Herpes simplex-1 to begin the lytic cycle that ends in cold sores.


The second possible ending resulting from a virus infecting a cell is known as the lytic cycle.  Many viruses never exist in the temperate condition; the lytic cycle is their normal process.

Using the host bacterium's (or your lip cell's) enzymes and energy sources, the viral DNA replicates itself.  The multiple copies of the viral DNA direct the ribosomes of the cell to begin making viral coat protein. 
Something, scientists do not know what triggers the virus sub-parts to combine, or how virus sub-parts assemble into virus particles. One of my professors said that step convinces many researchers of the existence of God.

During the lytic cycle, the host cell is destroyed (lysed).  An enzyme is produced which weakens the cell membrane (and wall if the cell is a plant, fungus, or bacterium) of the host.  The cell boundary ruptures. 


Thousands of newly assembled virus particles are released into the environment to infect other cells.

Vaccines usually damage viral DNA.  Since damaged DNA cannot function properly, these attenuated viruses cannot infect and lyse hosts.  

Radiation is used to damage viruses.  Just like radiation is harmful to the DNA in your cells, it is harmful to viral DNA as well.  That is why many hospitals use ultra-violet lights in operating rooms between surgeries.

One use of the word "kill" I don't like at all is when it's used in reference to viruses. There are ways to damage viruses and reduce or eliminate their ability to infect cells and use those cells' internal structures to replicate.

You can't kill something that was never alive.

Closing Aside
Since viruses are not alive, antibiotics do not have any effect on most viruses. There are anti-viral drugs, of course, but medicine used for first aid or bacterial infections are useless against viruses.

Remember that the outer coating of a virus is protein, sometimes phospholipids, also found in your cell membranes, are present, too. If conditions exceed the range where a virus can function, the proteins begin to denature. They unfold from their functional form to a non-function form. Non-functional protein is recognized by your cells and is not ingested like functional proteins are.

An egg white is made of proteins When a raw egg is cracked, the white isn't white, it's opaque. When you cook the egg white, nothing happens until the temperature reaches the critical temperature. 

Denaturation is the physical changes in protein when it is exposed to abnormal conditions in the environment.
Mechanical agitation, heat, acid, high salt concentration and alcohol can cause proteins to denature.
(Denaturation can only occur in protein foods)
When proteins are denatured, what happens is that the protein bonds are broken down and the natural state of the protein structures is unraveled and becomes a single strand of amino acids. 
http://aifujita-moleculargastronomy.weebly.com/denaturation-and-coagulation.html

Egg white protein coagulates, this occurs after denaturing, between 144° F and 149° F (62.2° C and 65° C).  I couldn't find agreement among various websites for the temperature extremes that are functional limits for the COVID-19 virus.

Bottom Line

  • Avoiding or limiting time in areas where COVID-19 might be found and washing your hands are your best protective actions against this disease. 
  • Dawn is an excellent choice to combine with water because Dawn helps dissolve the outer layer of the virus making it less appealing to your cell membranes. 
  • In addition, it washes easily off your skin, taking whatever it traps with it. That's why they use it on oil-covered animals after oil spills.

Many illustrations in this post are from a PowerPoint Copyright 2008, Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Benjamin Cummings. If you'd like to see the entire PPT or a version that goes into more depth, email me for either or both URLs.

SEO: Virus, viruses, infection, vaccines

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Life as I see itTopics rotate between those of general interest to lovers of life,  authors, teachers—probably you, too.  Posts on Tuesdays and some Mondays.  http://crdowning-author.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context. Posts M/W of discussion questions. Thursdays - Timeless Truths. Fridays - Expressions of Faith. https://mychristiancontext.blogspot.com/  

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Wednesday, April 1, 2020

#Immunity Basic information on types and how to get them

Because of the pervasive reminder of the current threat from the COVID-19 virus, I'm posting two blogs on the BASIC biology of immunity and viruses. The focus of this blog is IMMUNITY.

You can download the original Powerpoint I used in my Biology classes for MANY years. It has sound effects and animation of text/diagrams entry and exit. :-)






The technology of vaccines has improved over time.
In the past, many vaccines used "attenuated" pathogens. These were heated or treated with chemicals and damage the pathogen to the point it
  • would not replicate or
  • its reproduction was slowed enough for human immune systems to defeat them.

Sometimes the pathogen won and people vaccinated got the disease the vaccine was supposed to protect them from. 
  • That is extremely rare these days.

Now pathogens involved (bacterium or virus) is neutralized before the vaccine is made. 

Another blog post today explains what viruses are and how they infect organisms.




If you have comments or questions, please leave them on Blogger. I reply to all the comments received.

SEO: epidemic, immunity, virus

I invite you back to the blog on virus structure and function posted later on 4/1. 
No fooling!

Follow me on 
Twitter: @CRDowningAuthor

My website is: www.crdowning.com

My Blogs
Life as I see itTopics rotate between those of general interest to lovers of life,  authors, teachers—probably you, too.  Posts on Tuesdays and some Mondays.  http://crdowning-author.blogspot.com/?alt=rss

My Christian Context. Posts M/W of discussion questions. Thursdays - Timeless Truths. Fridays - Expressions of Faith. https://mychristiancontext.blogspot.com/  

I'd appreciate your feedback on Blogger!