3 New Apps That Writers and Teachers Need Now
I just wrote a post for Critical Margins about three apps that can make you a better, faster, and stronger writer. If you’re interest, you know what to do.
http://criticalmargins.com/2014/02/17/three-new-apps-writers-teachers/
Four-Minute Response to the Question “How Do You Get Published?”
I’m not E. L. James, J.K. Rowling, or even Stephen King. Sorry. I haven’t yet signed a contract for my debut book of poetry “Songs to Sing in a Getaway Car.” But I have published 50 poems, numerous essays and blog posts, albums, a comic book with Matt Kindt, and a few apps with Dan McKenzie in the past couple of years, not to mention the dozens of press releases that turned into stories about. So I have been up to something. After this interview at Squalorly (http://www.squalorly.com/interview/discussion-jason-braun) people have started asking me about how to get published. Here is the short answer: Read deeply in the subject you want to write, write a lot, then submit a lot.
If you are convinced, then go do it now! If you are angry or bored I hope you have a great day anyway. If you’d like an explanation, then we’ll keep going.
As some of you know I have dyslexia and ADD. Spelling doesn’t come naturally to me. Yet editors, publishers, and readers like to read words spelled correctly. This is one of the reasons I created homophonecheck.com with Dan McKenzie’s help. When I’m writing poems I tune into the sounds of words so much so that spelling goes out the window.
Homophones can make a poem more interesting, yet when it is written down as opposed to being recited, the poet has to choose which word he or she wants to use primarily. The point is: check your spelling. Most of what I’ve published has been looked over by someone else. Sometimes the editors at the magazines catch an error and like the poem enough to correct it. I’ve got a few publishing credits though. They probably wouldn’t read something all the way through if I was just starting out and had jacked up spelling. This is the small stuff. If you need an editor check out one of these two guys, I vouch for them:
Kevin Eagan at http://kevinthomaseagan.com/
Andrew Doty at http://www.editwright.com/
The real key is to submit a massive of work! I’m talking about the power of large numbers. In the past two year’s I’ve submitted over a hundred packets of poems to various places. Submitting a massive amount of work is easier when you have a lot of poems. I’ve been writing a poem a day for over two years now.
You might say, well it is easy to submit a lot of poems if you have a lot of them. What’s stopping you from doing this? Who among us can’t fit time in their day to write a haiku?
Some days all I write is a haiku. I’m not looking down on the haiku. A lot of times it ends up a better poem than one I labor over for hours. Every day I’m checking in. Everyday I’m reminding myself that yes, I am a writer. Today I have over 822 poems totaling (72,727 words) that aren’t in my manuscript or published individually. I haven’t sent many of these ones out yet. But this starts with writing just one.
I thought I’d need to do more smoozing and handshaking. But I’ve published very little through that method. Not that it couldn’t work. To be honest, the fact that I am (or was) an Editor at Sou’wester (http://souwester.org/) helped tremendously. For one, it gave me a little credibility. Also I read a hell of a lot of unpublished poems about barns, penises, Thor, and even hate-filled Nazi collage pieces. I have an idea what an editor might look for. But I get a lot of rejections.
If you still want to know more about publishing check out my friend Jane Friedman’s blog. http://janefriedman.com/blog/
Edwardsville Intelligencer’s Feature Story on Homophonecheck.com
Corey Stevens had this to say:
Their is going to be a new way to edit your class assignments online. Or is it they’re? There?
Jason Braun, an English composition teacher at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, has released the world’s first homophone checker. Homophones are words that sound alike, but are spelled differently, and cause a lot of confusion for many beginning writers.
Read more at:
http://www.theintelligencer.com/local_news/article_d5ecdb8c-a6b8-11e2-b188-0019bb2963f4.html
The Belleville News Democrate Features Homophone Checker on Front Page
By JAMIE FORSYTHE — News-Democrat
A Southern Illinois University Edwardsville graduate student has created a website application to help other dyslexic students like himself. Jason Braun, 35, of Edwardsville recently launched an online “homophone” checker.
A homophone refers to words that sound the same, but are spelled differently, and Braun’s web application, http://www.homophonecheck.com, allows writers to proofread for errors that word processing software can’t find.
For example, spell checking a document won’t find an error if you use ‘there’ instead of ‘their’ or ‘they’re’ or ‘know’ instead of ‘no.’
http://www.bnd.com/2013/04/11/2573441/dyslexic-student-creates-website.html
Homophone Checker and the Cult of Correctness in The ALESTLE
The Alestle giving some props to the Homophone Checker and making some good points about the “cult of correctness” that follows around English professors, teachers, and majors.
http://www.alestlelive.com/news/article_e9bc89c0-9cbb-11e2-85fe-001a4bcf6878.html
The Homophone Checker Makes The Chronicle Of Higher Education
Lucy Ferriss tells it like it is. The Homophone checker is not perfect, but it is a start. Check it out at:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/04/02/homophone-phobic-hears-help/
Fulbright Scholar and Blogger, Kola Tubosun had this to say about the Homophone Checker
“My friend, Jason Braun, has launched the world’s first free Homophone Checker app at Homophonecheck.com!”
Read more at:
Want to learn how to create an iPhone App?
Check out this blog post I did for Jane Friedman
It starts like this: As anyone who has ever seen a heist film knows, it always starts out with a sequence where the criminal mastermind assembles the perfect team. Turning a graduate student paper I wrote—”Paradise Lost as a Primer on Office Politics”—and turning it into the 144th most downloaded paid business app was surly a heist or coup of sorts. This is how I did it, with no computer programing skills, and how you can do it to.
Paradise Lost in The Office app Released Today
Paradise Lost in The Office is the app that asks, “What Would Lucifer Do?” The quotes pulled from John Milton’s epic cut through the philosophical fluff of the ages to the essence of power, spin, and strategy. Milton’s words hold their own against Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings, or Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. Paradise Lost works as a how-to get what you want in life or instruction manual in spin, niche marketing, employee motivation, outsourcing, hostile takeovers, and geoarbitrage. Read the quotes on the subway, while you are stuck in traffic, or while your boss has their back turned to you pointing at some chart. These words from Milton are actionable, but take action at your own risk.
Download the app at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paradise-lost-office/id524619644?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
What they are saying about it:
“I downloaded it this afternoon and I already gained wisdom from it.” Benson Schliesser, Principal Engineer at Cisco Systems, Inc.
“One of our creative writing students (Jason Braun) at Southern Illinois created the Paradise Lost Office app for iTunes, which (hysterically: but will some people take this seriously?) offers cutthroat “how to get ahead” business advice using quotes from Milton’s poem; who knew Milton was so useful for niche marketing and office spin?” Eileen A. Joy, SIUE English Professor
“So you think you have control of your life. You have all the answers and sense of self satisfaction. Perhaps you do, but perhaps you need some extra guidance through the hard times. Satisfaction is hard to come by,let Milton ( with the help of the beast and friends ) guide you through the troubled times. Buy this app, have you ever had $.99 save your life and piece of mind? Except for a loosey nothing else will come close.” Jason Gonzalez, Roustabout St. Louis, Inc.
jasonandthebeast 