SURVEY QUESTIONs

by Terry 45 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  creativespirit:

  My only thought is that what you are writing would most likely appeal only to Jw/xJw's and I wish it could hook into a wider audience somehow....

  I know it has been touched upon by others, but perhaps a connection to others who have been taken in by other cults as well...

  You've read my mind. That is exactly what I've done in the second part of the book.

  I took the other pacifist/conscientious objector sects and denominations and followed them through history to demonstrate the differences

  in how they handled war.

  I've opened up to include Catholic, Protestant, Seventh Day Adventist, Quaker, Mennonite, Hutterite, Rogerene, Mormon etc.

  so that I can contrast them with Jehovah's Witnesses.

  My target audience opened up when I'd talk to people in Starbucks where I was writing my book and they would express interest.

  I realized many people are curious about this subject and that JW's act like they are the only noble Christians on the planet.

  I've included a wonderful focus on the Seventh Day Adventist medic who won the Medal of Honor during WWII just to demonstrate

  what contrast in attitude there is with the Watchtower's so-called neutrality policy.
• 

  Terry

  tammy:

  You going to prison for being a conscientious objector is enough to grap the interest of even people who have no experience with the wts, imo. Just something to keep in mind.

  Price-wise... e-books go for as much as print books now, and you get a much higher ratio of sales (either from no overhead, and/or from going at least 50/50 with you e-book publisher).

  And congratulations!!

  Peace to you,

  tammy

  Thank you, Tammy

  I have written extensively in the book on the first time experience of a young person going to the Kingdom Hall for the first time and describe the meetings, Theocratic Ministry school, door to door work, etc so that an outsider has the flavor of it by inches.

  I tried not to make it an "insiders" book.

  I show how J-dubs change words to suit their own meanings and I'm careful to define terms like "the Turth" "placing magazines" "torture stake" etc.

  The wackiness and screwball nature of Watchtower religious ideas pops right out when you do it that way.

  Further, I haven't made this at all like every other anti JW book.

  I've kept it conversational and I avoid quoting scriptures except when showing a snippet from a WT mag.

  Thank you
• 

  SAHS

  An e-book version would certainly be a good idea. One suggestion about that approach: if it’s in Adobe Acrobat format, make sure it is a “locked” file which requires a pass code, which you could e-mail to the recipient upon payment. That way you don’t have to worry as much about someone making a copy of it available to everyone for nothing.
• 

  Doug Mason

  There should be little need for an Audio Book, since a PDF Reader program can read a file out aloud. Depending on the PDF prgram, the option is available under the Menu heading of "View" or "Tools".

  Doug
• 

  Terry

  An e-book version would certainly be a good idea. One suggestion about that approach: if it’s in Adobe Acrobat format, make sure it is a “locked” file which requires a pass code, which you could e-mail to the recipient upon payment. That way you don’t have to worry as much about someone making a copy of it available to everyone for nothing.

  I don't know how you "load" an Adobe Acrobat onto the e-book. Is there a way? I could load it on to mine and see how it looks.

  The one I've got, you have to go on Amazon and pay for the book to get a proper download. Is there a way to load any old Adobe PDF?
• 

  Terry

  There should be little need for an Audio Book, since a PDF Reader program can read a file out aloud. Depending on the PDF prgram, the option is available under the Menu heading of "View" or "Tools".

  Oh, I perfectly get what you're saying here and it is a practical suggestion.

  However...

  I'm a kind of control freak and the (nobody laugh!) artist in me wants to make sure it sounds exactly the way it is written, so...

  I'd have to read it myself. (Or hire Orson Welles.)

  Sidebar here:

  I've listened to quite a few books on Cd and the "talent" in the voice marks the difference between something I can enjoy and something I want to throw out the window onto the tarmac. Isn't that prissy and pissy?

  A mechanical reader sounds like the GPS lady telling me to turn left at the next "bool--ee-vard". I have to switch it off :)

  I'm a picture-straightener and I iron my underwear before I wear it. (Somebody call a cop or a doctor, please..)
• 

  Scully

  Terry:

  the (nobody laugh!) artist in me wants to make sure it sounds exactly the way it is written, so... I'd have to read it myself.

  I'm not laughing at all. In fact, I was kind of hoping you'd say that. I prefer when an author reads their own work. Sam Harris has done it with a couple of his books (Free Will, most recently) as did Christopher Hitchens (RIP ) with God Is Not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything. Seth Andrews (of The Thinking Atheist website and podcast) read his autobiographical work Deconverted - A Journey from Religion to Reason. All of these audiobooks are available at Audible.com.

  I would stand in line around the block and camp out on the doorstep to get your book, read by you, in audiobook format. I would.
• 

  villagegirl

  (A) Define your audience, is it ex-jws only ? Or the general public?

  (B) Define the purpose and structure:

  Is it primarily biographical ?

  Is this your personal biography ?

  Or is it a sort of "Self Help" book or and

  "Instruction Manual", or a "History of Religion" ?

  (C) Don't ramble: always keep the audience in mind.

  Plan where you are taking them and why.

  Make the trip interesting with details.

  Who, Why, What and Where, logical development.

  If it has no characters and no narrative then

  it should at least make sense, have a clear, definable path,

  a beginning, a middle and and end that satisfies and resolves.

  (D) Develop interest by good storytelling, by building atticipation,

  decribing conflict and resoving conflict. If you introduce characters

  make them understandable to the audience, remember the reader

  cannot read your mind or guess your motives, you have to show

  the reader, and remain objective and fair. Don't preach, don't whine.

  Everyone can write, but not everyone can write.
• 

  Terry

  I would stand in line around the block and camp out on the doorstep to get your book, read by you, in audiobook format. I would.

  Kind of you to say so. I will embark upon that task as soon as I can work out the necessary "quiet place" with flat acoustics.
• 

  Terry

  Villagegirl asks:

  (A) Define your audience, is it ex-jws only ? Or the general public?

  I have been very careful to write in such a way than the general public will "follow without confusion", but--the message is aimed at JW's in the most Ray-Franz-ish civilized manner I am capable of.

  (B) Define the purpose and structure:

  Is it primarily biographical ?

  Is this your personal biography ?

  It is so deeply personal it was horrendous trying to get this stuff out on paper without going back (as I did many times) and DELETING the parts that embarassed me. I've never even told some of this to my closest friends or my children.

  The purpose is to lay out as factually and inescapably as possible that the Leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses have been dangerous for the members while, at the same time, comparing the JW brand of Christianity with the other denominations and drawing a sharp distinction.

  The cards fall where they may and no thinking person will come away undecided.

  Or is it a sort of "Self Help" book or and

  "Instruction Manual", or a "History of Religion" ?

  The tone of my book, if I do say so, is civilized intelligence. It is no instruction manual. What History there is consists of small snippets quoted directly from newspapers or such. I didn't want a lame, boring blah blah. Real people are busy and don't have time for that.

  I deal with the fact that Christianity has always come down to either personal conscience or obeying religous Authority.

  Some do it one way and others do it another way. But, Jehovah's Witnesses try to have it both ways and I demonstrate the impact of such duplicity

  in the lives of some really wonderful people.

  (C) Don't ramble: always keep the audience in mind.

  I and three other people have gone over it and over it and I have removed as much as I've left in. I trimmed the fat and then I trimmed the bones.

  Plan where you are taking them and why.

  I worked on and off on this for the last 9 years. I have a pretty good idea of where it needed to go.

  Make the trip interesting with details.

  Who, Why, What and Where, logical development.

  I've never written with as much care as I have in this book. I wanted to keep it engaging, detailed with facts and easy, quick access to references.

  Whatever background needs to be known before a point is made HAS been made.

  If it has no characters and no narrative then

  it should at least make sense, have a clear, definable path,

  a beginning, a middle and and end that satisfies and resolves.

  There are many interesting personal stories in my book besides my own story. I tell one story in particular that I had never known about until quite recently that is quite inspiring and puts JW's to shame by comparison. The Watchtower Society pretends it is the only group that is righteous and my book ends that mythology.

  (D) Develop interest by good storytelling, by building atticipation,

  decribing conflict and resoving conflict. If you introduce characters

  make them understandable to the audience, remember the reader

  cannot read your mind or guess your motives, you have to show

  the reader, and remain objective and fair. Don't preach, don't whine.

  Everyone can write, but not everyone can write.

  I have endeavored to keep it down to story with beginning, middle and conclusion.

  I went to great pains to avoid quoting scriptures unnecessarily. I did NOT want a polemical book that pits one scripture against another.

  This is a different approach than I've ever seen or read before. I'm very happy with the result.

  You would not believe how many times I erased what I thought was "beautiful writing" so that I could spare the reader all that purple, squishy gunk :)