I'm in the middle of revising/writing a Query Letter for my book, so I'm not in the best place to create a new story. Instead, I'll share one of my tricks for when I need inspiration for a story: The StoryMaker! Or, more specifically, the Setting and Theme maker! This is the simpler version. The more complex version includes the intended/hypothetical medium for the story. You can also make it more complex by rolling multiple times in Setting or Theme, then merging them. I will post the complex version if I get enough interest. Also, let me know if any description is too vague. The StoryMaker uses a random number generator that goes from 1-20. So a 20-sided dice, or any of the billion or so random number generators online or in any spreadsheet program.
The Story Generator (Simple Version)
Step 1: Setting
Roll A Base Setting
Roll Result
1-16 Standard Setting; Go to Roll B
17-20 Nonstandard Setting; Go to Roll C
Roll B Standard Setting
Roll Result
1-6 Fantasy/Medeival; Go to Roll D
7-12 Modern; Go to Roll D
13-18 Future; Go to Roll D
19-20 Switch to Nonstandard Setting; Go to Roll C
Roll C Nonstandard Setting
Roll Result
1-2 Primitive/Savage; Go to Roll D
3-5 Steampunk; Go to Roll D
6-8 Cyberpunk; Go to Roll D
9-10 Paradise (Heaven); Go to Roll D
11-12 Punishment (Hell); Go to Roll D
13-15 Frontier/Western; Go to Roll D
16-18 Post-Apocalyptic/Wasteland; Go to Roll D
19-20 Blended Tech (Mix of primitive and futuristic); Go to Roll D
Roll D Chance of Modifier
Roll Result
1-12 No Modifier; Go to Step 2
13-20 Modifier; Go to Roll E
Roll E Chance of Modifier
Roll Result
1 Aquatic; Go to Step 2
2 Aerial; Go to Step 2
3-5 Cartoon; Go to Step 2
6 Voidwrapped (setting surrounded by nothing); Go to Step 2
7-8 Vessel; Go to Step 2
9-10 Gothic; Go to Step 2
11-12 Blending Reality/Historical Eras; Go to Step 2
13 Artificial; Go to Step 2
14 Organic; Go to Step 2
15 Crystal; Go to Step 2
16 Near Human; Go to Step 2
17 Incomprehensible; Go to Step 2
18-20 Alt-Cultural; Go to Step 2
Step 2: Theme
Roll F Base Theme
Roll Result
1-5 Comedy; Go to Roll G
6-10 Horror; Go to Roll H
11-15 Drama; Go to Roll I
16-20 Action; Go to Roll J
Roll G Comedy Theme
Roll Result
1-3 Slapstick
4-6 Surreal World/Puns
7-9 Dialogue and Wordplay
10-12 Relationship Humor
13-15 Satirical
16-17 Body/Scatological Humor
18-20 Random/Meta-Humor
Roll H Drama Theme
Roll Result
1-2 Personal
3-4 Noir
5-7 Professional/Office
8-9 Mystery
10-12 Competitive
13-14 Psychological
15-16 Politics/Intrigue
17-18 Social
19-20 Romance
Roll I Horror Theme
Roll Result
1-2 Gore/Slasher
3-5 The Unknown/Eldritch Horror
6-8 Hunted
9-11 The Conspiracy
12-13 Against the Horde
14-16 Us as Monster
17-18 Archetypical Evil (Satan, etc.)
19-20 Ghost Story
Roll J Action Theme
Roll Result
1-4 Adventure/Hero's Journey
5-6 War Story
7-8 Martial Arts/Brawl
9-10 Shooting/Gunplay
11-12 Stylistic Violence
13-14 Crime/Heist
15-16 Thriller/Suspense
17-20 Exploration/Travel the World
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Twitter Tools for Writers :: updated
Below I have listed some Twitter tools I have used in the past. Because these tools are all pulling from the same data source, the Twitter API, many of their features are the same. Where differences come into play is how the information is presented and inferred.
Better Understand Your Profile
@twibitz.com
www.twibitz.com
Tapping into the Twitter API, this tool provides metrics on your account. In my case I can see that my percentage of mentions is low, and I need to engage more. Sign up as version 2 is coming out later this year which will track new followers and pre-run reports for you.
Brand Sentiments
http://www.sentiment140.com
Would you like to see how different brands are perceived online?
The one I found most useful for me is @twibitz.com due to it's simple and straightforward UI. That doesn't mean I don't use the others. The trick with all of this is to find the tools that work with you best, and use them.
What Twitter tools do you use?
Update:
In pushing this post out to the medias, Liz Covart introduced me to Buffer and I found it very cool. It is a multi-account scheduling and analytics social media tool. I have brought in my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts this morning and started playing with the app. Thank you Liz!
Previous Posts
Better Understand Your Profile
@twibitz.com
www.twibitz.com
Tapping into the Twitter API, this tool provides metrics on your account. In my case I can see that my percentage of mentions is low, and I need to engage more. Sign up as version 2 is coming out later this year which will track new followers and pre-run reports for you.
Brand Sentiments
http://www.sentiment140.com
Would you like to see how different brands are perceived online?
Tweet Psychology
TweetPsych attempts to create a profile of any public Twitter account. Here is a part of mine:
SocialBro
15 day free trial lets up run multiple reports against your Twitter account to find various nuggets of good stuff. This is a large application and there is a lot here:
Best time to Tweet graph:
Engagement Analytics:
The one I found most useful for me is @twibitz.com due to it's simple and straightforward UI. That doesn't mean I don't use the others. The trick with all of this is to find the tools that work with you best, and use them.
What Twitter tools do you use?
Update:
In pushing this post out to the medias, Liz Covart introduced me to Buffer and I found it very cool. It is a multi-account scheduling and analytics social media tool. I have brought in my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts this morning and started playing with the app. Thank you Liz!
Previous Posts
- Tools of the Trade part 1 Pen Paper / Sublime Text
- Tools of the Trade part 2 Open Office / Trello
- Tools of the Trade part 3 Ommwriter / Scrivener
- Website Development and SEO Basics for Writers
- Git and the Writer
Friday, March 7, 2014
Dreamleaks 2: Stuck In Transit
Dreamleaks 2: Stuck In Transit
I used to be the hero.
There was that thought again. Captain Marcus Corona shook it out of his head like he always did. Why did he worry about being the hero? He already was A hero, protector of the lives of hundreds of good, decent, caring people. Never mind that none of them are real.
No, he can't think like that. They're as real as he is, after all. Transit worked like any other city; it just happened to exist entirely inside a computer simulation. And also the laws of physics work, at best, about half the time. And people can take off their own heads with only minor consequences. And just the other day, that Jerry kid fell in love with a animate hammer. But BESIDES all that, it was just like normal. And besides, none of them knew any better. The truth was allowed only to those who could be trusted with it, like Marcus. That's why she made him a captain. And now …
I lived in a ship, one of three alone in the ocean. We played and had adventures and imagined the world around us, what could exist beyond the horizon. We never knew any other life, never even guessed that not only was the world beyond the horizon a lie, so was the horizon itself. So was everything more than a hundred feet from the ships.
Marcus shook his head. Stupid dreams. Why did computer programs even need dreams? He asked EMMA about that once, but as always, she dodged the question. No where was he? Right, now he had a job to do. Most Transitians never even imagined a world beyond their city, but he didn't have that luxury. EMMA just warned of motion outside of the city, in the “real” world. It might not be a threat, but he couldn't afford to take that chance. Besides, nothing should be moving out there anymore, threat or otherwise.
On the way to the city's “borders,” Marcus met Alice Falchione. Great, another complication. “What are you doing here?” Marcus demanded.
Alice just shrugged. “What else? Nothing better to do. Like you couldn't use the backup out there.”
Marcus wanted to argue, but he just snarled and moved on. He couldn't do anything to Alice, and he knew it. He didn't even know what she was. She just popped in and out of Transit on a whim. She could be gone for months, only to return with an army, or a cure for some virus running rampant in Transit. Or a Mariachi band. That was an odd day. EMMA must trust her, since she never asked Marcus to stop her. But Marcus didn't, and he didn't see why anyone else would. Reckless people like her just get people hurt, or worse.
I didn't mean to do anything wrong, really! I just wanted to explore, have a little fun, maybe solve a mystery or two. People said that nobody every returned from the hull of the Third Ship, but I never knew anyone who went there in the first place, so what did that mean? And sure, the place was crawling with monsters, but they weren't THAT bad. I fought worse. Well, I didn't, but I fought things almost as bad. So it seemed natural that this would be the next place to go.
“Just don't get in my way,” Marcus warned, but his words had no weight to them, and he knew it. Alice just smirked and followed him to the borders. As he left the simulation, Marcus felt an electric sensation, as he knew his body changed from one of pure data to one of substance, albeit that of pure energy. EMMA described it as a hard-light hologram, but Marcus didn't really understand what that meant or cared. Alice, as far as Marcus knew, didn't change at all, save for a force barrier forming around her.
The reality outside of Transit was supposed to be the real world, but to Marcus' eyes, this one looked like a poor simulation. Everyone looked so … blocky out here, the vibrant colors of his home replaced with simple shapes. Maybe that was a limit to Marcus' digital eyes; he had no way of knowing. Either way, the shapes that caught their attention moved with a purpose, and they were shaped like humans. As Marcus and Alice floated towards them, they scattered with incredible speed, jumping from one place to another in an instant. And while they seemed to be just observing the machinery that made up Transit and the city around it, Marcus and Alice's unwelcome intrusion made them aggressive. Bursts of color bounced off his virtual skin and Alice's barrier. They retaliated with energy blasts of their own, but nothing came close to hitting the invaders. “I expected better than this,” one of their attackers enigmatically taunted as they vanished.
“EMMA, update!” Marcus begged his creator.
“No further activity detected,” EMMA replied. “At least within the city. But I am still sensing their presence nearby. If I may take an estimate, they are biding their time.”
Marcus frowned. As fast as they are, the attackers must not be that powerful if they fled so quickly. But his holographic body couldn't travel outside of the boundaries of the city, and no point in asking Alice to seek them out. “Then what can we do?” he asked.
“I have a potential solution,” EMMA offered. “They seem interested in exploiting our resources, but are unwilling to engage us in a direct conflict. I propose creating a simple crisis within Transit; nothing serious, but enough to make it appear that our defenses are compromised. When the scavengers investigate, we can ambush them, taking them unaware. If they are simply curious, we can get answers. If hostile, we can eliminate them.”
“I don't like it,” Marcus admitted. “What if things go wrong?”
“I assure you, the crisis I envision is nothing that the citizens of Transit can't handle,” EMMA said. “Provided, of course, that the usual residents are up to the task.”
“You mean, if HE's up to it.” Marcus scowled. For all his powers, all his loyalty, Marcus never seemed to be the one to save the day. No, that fell on Jerry's shoulders. A mere child, an irresponsible one at that. For some reason, he always seemed to be around when trouble started (often because he caused it,) and yet for all of Marcus' efforts, Jerry and his friends would be the ones to bumble into the solution, and he got all accolades. He got to be their champion, their hero...
Marcus stopped himself. He didn't like where this train of thought was going. Alice, however, just chuckled. “You know, EMMA, you're exactly the sort of computer we used to be warned about. Glad you're on our side.” Seeing Marcus' sour mood, she floated over to him and whispered. “He's not even one of you, you know. Seriously, Jerry's a gerbil that EMMA threw into the simulation before he could starve. Let him enjoy his moment as hero. You already had your chance.”
“Enough of your contemptible words,” Marcus demanded as he shooed her away, and for once, Alice listened, her body vanishing into nothing. But the damage had been done. She just babbled nonsense, Marcus thought to himself. A gerbil? What was she even talking about? And yet, when she mentioned that Marcus had his chance, he couldn't help but feel his thoughts drift once more …
I didn't expect to find anyone down there. But instead, I found everyone. A crowd cheered me on as I slipped into the darkness of the hull. I was on the top of the world, but it didn't last. I suddenly saw my friends before me, and a voice asked me who would continue on living in this world, and who would … not. I wanted to refuse this demand, but I couldn't. I didn't even know how not to answer.
But I knew a trick when I heard one. I made my choice, picking only casual acquaintances to live on in this world, folks I wouldn't miss. My friends and I would move on, then. If we couldn't live in this world anymore, I bet there would be another, a better one maybe. And if not, who cares? Hell, we ran out of things to explore in the last one anyway.
I used to be the hero.
There was that thought again. Captain Marcus Corona shook it out of his head like he always did. Why did he worry about being the hero? He already was A hero, protector of the lives of hundreds of good, decent, caring people. Never mind that none of them are real.
No, he can't think like that. They're as real as he is, after all. Transit worked like any other city; it just happened to exist entirely inside a computer simulation. And also the laws of physics work, at best, about half the time. And people can take off their own heads with only minor consequences. And just the other day, that Jerry kid fell in love with a animate hammer. But BESIDES all that, it was just like normal. And besides, none of them knew any better. The truth was allowed only to those who could be trusted with it, like Marcus. That's why she made him a captain. And now …
I lived in a ship, one of three alone in the ocean. We played and had adventures and imagined the world around us, what could exist beyond the horizon. We never knew any other life, never even guessed that not only was the world beyond the horizon a lie, so was the horizon itself. So was everything more than a hundred feet from the ships.
Marcus shook his head. Stupid dreams. Why did computer programs even need dreams? He asked EMMA about that once, but as always, she dodged the question. No where was he? Right, now he had a job to do. Most Transitians never even imagined a world beyond their city, but he didn't have that luxury. EMMA just warned of motion outside of the city, in the “real” world. It might not be a threat, but he couldn't afford to take that chance. Besides, nothing should be moving out there anymore, threat or otherwise.
On the way to the city's “borders,” Marcus met Alice Falchione. Great, another complication. “What are you doing here?” Marcus demanded.
Alice just shrugged. “What else? Nothing better to do. Like you couldn't use the backup out there.”
Marcus wanted to argue, but he just snarled and moved on. He couldn't do anything to Alice, and he knew it. He didn't even know what she was. She just popped in and out of Transit on a whim. She could be gone for months, only to return with an army, or a cure for some virus running rampant in Transit. Or a Mariachi band. That was an odd day. EMMA must trust her, since she never asked Marcus to stop her. But Marcus didn't, and he didn't see why anyone else would. Reckless people like her just get people hurt, or worse.
I didn't mean to do anything wrong, really! I just wanted to explore, have a little fun, maybe solve a mystery or two. People said that nobody every returned from the hull of the Third Ship, but I never knew anyone who went there in the first place, so what did that mean? And sure, the place was crawling with monsters, but they weren't THAT bad. I fought worse. Well, I didn't, but I fought things almost as bad. So it seemed natural that this would be the next place to go.
“Just don't get in my way,” Marcus warned, but his words had no weight to them, and he knew it. Alice just smirked and followed him to the borders. As he left the simulation, Marcus felt an electric sensation, as he knew his body changed from one of pure data to one of substance, albeit that of pure energy. EMMA described it as a hard-light hologram, but Marcus didn't really understand what that meant or cared. Alice, as far as Marcus knew, didn't change at all, save for a force barrier forming around her.
The reality outside of Transit was supposed to be the real world, but to Marcus' eyes, this one looked like a poor simulation. Everyone looked so … blocky out here, the vibrant colors of his home replaced with simple shapes. Maybe that was a limit to Marcus' digital eyes; he had no way of knowing. Either way, the shapes that caught their attention moved with a purpose, and they were shaped like humans. As Marcus and Alice floated towards them, they scattered with incredible speed, jumping from one place to another in an instant. And while they seemed to be just observing the machinery that made up Transit and the city around it, Marcus and Alice's unwelcome intrusion made them aggressive. Bursts of color bounced off his virtual skin and Alice's barrier. They retaliated with energy blasts of their own, but nothing came close to hitting the invaders. “I expected better than this,” one of their attackers enigmatically taunted as they vanished.
“EMMA, update!” Marcus begged his creator.
“No further activity detected,” EMMA replied. “At least within the city. But I am still sensing their presence nearby. If I may take an estimate, they are biding their time.”
Marcus frowned. As fast as they are, the attackers must not be that powerful if they fled so quickly. But his holographic body couldn't travel outside of the boundaries of the city, and no point in asking Alice to seek them out. “Then what can we do?” he asked.
“I have a potential solution,” EMMA offered. “They seem interested in exploiting our resources, but are unwilling to engage us in a direct conflict. I propose creating a simple crisis within Transit; nothing serious, but enough to make it appear that our defenses are compromised. When the scavengers investigate, we can ambush them, taking them unaware. If they are simply curious, we can get answers. If hostile, we can eliminate them.”
“I don't like it,” Marcus admitted. “What if things go wrong?”
“I assure you, the crisis I envision is nothing that the citizens of Transit can't handle,” EMMA said. “Provided, of course, that the usual residents are up to the task.”
“You mean, if HE's up to it.” Marcus scowled. For all his powers, all his loyalty, Marcus never seemed to be the one to save the day. No, that fell on Jerry's shoulders. A mere child, an irresponsible one at that. For some reason, he always seemed to be around when trouble started (often because he caused it,) and yet for all of Marcus' efforts, Jerry and his friends would be the ones to bumble into the solution, and he got all accolades. He got to be their champion, their hero...
Marcus stopped himself. He didn't like where this train of thought was going. Alice, however, just chuckled. “You know, EMMA, you're exactly the sort of computer we used to be warned about. Glad you're on our side.” Seeing Marcus' sour mood, she floated over to him and whispered. “He's not even one of you, you know. Seriously, Jerry's a gerbil that EMMA threw into the simulation before he could starve. Let him enjoy his moment as hero. You already had your chance.”
“Enough of your contemptible words,” Marcus demanded as he shooed her away, and for once, Alice listened, her body vanishing into nothing. But the damage had been done. She just babbled nonsense, Marcus thought to himself. A gerbil? What was she even talking about? And yet, when she mentioned that Marcus had his chance, he couldn't help but feel his thoughts drift once more …
I didn't expect to find anyone down there. But instead, I found everyone. A crowd cheered me on as I slipped into the darkness of the hull. I was on the top of the world, but it didn't last. I suddenly saw my friends before me, and a voice asked me who would continue on living in this world, and who would … not. I wanted to refuse this demand, but I couldn't. I didn't even know how not to answer.
But I knew a trick when I heard one. I made my choice, picking only casual acquaintances to live on in this world, folks I wouldn't miss. My friends and I would move on, then. If we couldn't live in this world anymore, I bet there would be another, a better one maybe. And if not, who cares? Hell, we ran out of things to explore in the last one anyway.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Free Website Hosting :: Github.io
Building on recent posts, today's post will show you step-by-step how to get and build your own website, for free, with no ads.
Although writing is the fun part, I need to start thinking about marketing. Forget the publishers on this one, I'm going to be marketing directly to the Lego Robotic / Maker Fair kids, and as such I need a website. It needs to be simple so I can promote my book during its pre-release stage and after it is in print. I don't need anything complicated, at least not yet. Just a simple page to let readers know about my book. Github to the rescue!
To start you have to create a free account at Github.
Important!
For those of you that think you can just design an HTML page and FTP it up to the site, you can't. FTP is so 2004. We do things with Git now, which means a whole new methodology to learn. What does this mean for you? Either learn Git or find someone else to do the heavy lifting.
Not scared yet? Let's roll.
The first place you will need to visit is the Pages section
There is also a great interactive walkthrough at http://www.thinkful.com/learn/a-guide-to-using-github-pages/ to help you better undertand how to build your website.
These are the steps I followed to create my page:
What is the end product?
I have been working a short novel about a 14 year old boy who builds a monster using discarded parts scavenged from a throw-away society. He names it Wonkzilla, and you can find the beginning of the website at: http://wonkzilla.com
This site is currently a work in progress, but the basics are there, including a very cool robot designed by a Chicago artist, Jason Hawk
You are probably wondering now how I got the domain name pointing to the site. Here is a useful how-to on getting the domain name to point to your site:
https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-pages
If you are interested in trying this out for your site, please let me know. We can go over the steps together in the comments below and we can perhaps setup a "best practices" for those new to this technology.
Previous Blog Posts
Although writing is the fun part, I need to start thinking about marketing. Forget the publishers on this one, I'm going to be marketing directly to the Lego Robotic / Maker Fair kids, and as such I need a website. It needs to be simple so I can promote my book during its pre-release stage and after it is in print. I don't need anything complicated, at least not yet. Just a simple page to let readers know about my book. Github to the rescue!
To start you have to create a free account at Github.
Important!
For those of you that think you can just design an HTML page and FTP it up to the site, you can't. FTP is so 2004. We do things with Git now, which means a whole new methodology to learn. What does this mean for you? Either learn Git or find someone else to do the heavy lifting.
Not scared yet? Let's roll.
The first place you will need to visit is the Pages section
There is also a great interactive walkthrough at http://www.thinkful.com/learn/a-guide-to-using-github-pages/ to help you better undertand how to build your website.
These are the steps I followed to create my page:
- I created a repository with my account michalsen.github.io.
- I cloned down the repository to my local machine.
- Using HTML, CSS and javascript I built a single page.
- For the javascript I just went to unheap.com and found a layout I liked and used that.
- Made text changes in the sample index.html file, a couple small tweaks in the CSS and added a couple images.
- Added those files to the local repository
- Committed those files
- Then pushed those files to the master repository at michalsen.github.io
What is the end product?
I have been working a short novel about a 14 year old boy who builds a monster using discarded parts scavenged from a throw-away society. He names it Wonkzilla, and you can find the beginning of the website at: http://wonkzilla.com
This site is currently a work in progress, but the basics are there, including a very cool robot designed by a Chicago artist, Jason Hawk
You are probably wondering now how I got the domain name pointing to the site. Here is a useful how-to on getting the domain name to point to your site:
https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-pages
If you are interested in trying this out for your site, please let me know. We can go over the steps together in the comments below and we can perhaps setup a "best practices" for those new to this technology.
Previous Blog Posts
Friday, February 28, 2014
A Poem Close to My Heart - A Little Too Close
This poem does a lovely job of showing not only my mind-state this week, but also why it took until Thursday to post last Friday's update.
I give praise in tribute
To something quite keen
A wondrous treasure
That we call caffeine
Caffeine is awesome
Caffeine is great
Without caffeine
I would be quite irate
Without it, I won't work
I won't even try
I'd get it from an IV
Except I would die
Caffeine is so wonderful
And also superb
I need caffeine
Or I get perturbed
Caffeine's superior
Caffeine’s the best
I drink caffeine
Because I don't get enough rest
Caffeine's amazing
Caffeine is sublime
I need caffeine
To make this shit rhyme
Coffee, soda, or red bull
They're all on the top
But I'm out of caffeine
So now I will stop
I give praise in tribute
To something quite keen
A wondrous treasure
That we call caffeine
Caffeine is awesome
Caffeine is great
Without caffeine
I would be quite irate
Without it, I won't work
I won't even try
I'd get it from an IV
Except I would die
Caffeine is so wonderful
And also superb
I need caffeine
Or I get perturbed
Caffeine's superior
Caffeine’s the best
I drink caffeine
Because I don't get enough rest
Caffeine's amazing
Caffeine is sublime
I need caffeine
To make this shit rhyme
Coffee, soda, or red bull
They're all on the top
But I'm out of caffeine
So now I will stop
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Git and the Writer
In the development house I work at we have multiple programmers and designers all working on the same web projects throughout the day. We all work on our local machines, then push up to the development server. Without a way to track changes we would be erasing our co-workers efforts all day long. Luckily we do not have this problem because we use version control, a method of tracking changes across a wide range of users, and the tool we use is Git.
Image the power of your editors and beta readers to commit changes for your review through a freely distributed application where each participant can enact changes without the knowledge of others doing the same.
Medium stepped into the creative writing git fray with their Top 10 Reasons Git is a great tool for creative writing in which they touch on Git-Scribe, "The git-scribe tool is a simple command line toolset to help you use Git, GitHub and Asciidoc to write e-books."
Then there is Hoborg, dieselpunk science fiction novel created in Git; a book that is contributed, commented and edited by its readers. Looking to involve your audience?
Zen Mode allows you to remove distractions and directly work on your "cloud", your own 750words.com that you can give others access to.
I reached out to a Git user group on Google + looking to see what others are doing:
Image the power of your editors and beta readers to commit changes for your review through a freely distributed application where each participant can enact changes without the knowledge of others doing the same.
Medium stepped into the creative writing git fray with their Top 10 Reasons Git is a great tool for creative writing in which they touch on Git-Scribe, "The git-scribe tool is a simple command line toolset to help you use Git, GitHub and Asciidoc to write e-books."
Then there is Hoborg, dieselpunk science fiction novel created in Git; a book that is contributed, commented and edited by its readers. Looking to involve your audience?
Zen Mode allows you to remove distractions and directly work on your "cloud", your own 750words.com that you can give others access to.
I reached out to a Git user group on Google + looking to see what others are doing:
- Ian Barton who uses Git to manage both his blog and non-fiction book he is currently writing.
- Matto Frasen writes for a Dutch Linux Magazine who shared his use of Git with ikiwiki to control his website.
As you see there are some very interesting, and powerful tools at your disposal. Yes, it does take some technical aptitude and this may not be the best option for you. But it is an option you can better understand and make a more informed decision.
Next week I will dig a little deeper into Github, specifically github.io, a place where you too can host your own website. For Free.
Below is a 20 minute TED Talk by Clay Shirky on the power of Git.
Next week I will dig a little deeper into Github, specifically github.io, a place where you too can host your own website. For Free.
Below is a 20 minute TED Talk by Clay Shirky on the power of Git.
Previous Blog Post
Friday, February 21, 2014
Converging with Convergence
Land your rocket on such a station and you may find a mechanical world like a large hotel or office building with endless hallways and side halls wandering off to who knows where in level upon level of circular floors. Life on that distant space station will be much as Karen T. Smith (a contributor to this blog) presents it to us in Convergence, except for the unlikely sentient computer.
In Smith’s Convergence, a family enters the world of the space station after a flight up from earth. The story focuses on Anya, the new teenage girl in school, as she makes friends, including that sentient main computer.
Convergence combines teenage romance with a stunning whodunit mystery packed with what-happens-next suspense. Once you are into it, you’re not likely to put this book down, so settle into this delightful story when you have the time to spare for a lengthy read or you may find yourself losing sleep.
I wish Convergence was available when my kids were young because it paints as accurate a picture of near future science as you’re likely to find in books for young readers.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
So you want a website for your writing
Websites. Can't live with them. Can't live without. It's the place on the internet you can call your own. And it's a pain keep up. We've all been there, pushing on Facebook, Twitter, G+, GoodReads; what do you need a website for? That is a very good question. I'm not going to answer that for you as that'll take the fun out of figuring it out for yourselves. So decide, then either stick around or scram to the next blog.
A Great Domain Name
#1 on Google
Yes, you can be organically ranked on the first page of your favorite search engine for word terms that your readers will be searching on. Well, within reason. All it takes is time, knowledge, content, time, more knowledge and more content, content, and content. Quality content. Very high quality content. This isn't easy and companies make a lot of money guiding other companies up the rankings. But let's not scare you off too quickly. Let's break this into two challenges: the Technology and the Strategy.
A word of caution: This can be a sticky wicket and if you get over-zealous or start thinking you are smarter than the search engines, you site could loose ranking, or worse get blacklisted. The key to being new with SEO is baby-steps, and measure every step of the way to see what works and what doesn't.
The Tech
An Award Winning Design
Browser Wars
Resources
From my domain registrar, r4l.com, these tld's are now available:
You're still here? Nice.
So now you have or want a website but don't have a lot of money to spend and you want it to do everything and look really good while doing it:
- A blog to show off your writing talents, a Twitter stream to show off your engagement, a Pintrest page to keep your friends together and above all, a place to sell yourself.
- A great domain name that is easy for everyone to find.
- Top organic search engine placement on keywords so you can be found.
- Sharp graphics and layout that says you are contemporary and relevant to the new UI technologies.
- Fully responsive to ALL the desktop and handheld devices, and IE 6 because your mom's friends will be visiting your site on a weekly basis for updates.
- Most important, to spend as little money as possible.
That's quite the list you have there sunshine. What if I were to tell you that most of that is doable for free? I'd say I have some swamp land to sell you. Sorry, each of those items requires resources; mostly time and money which would be better served towards your writing.
But let's not fret too much. There are some hidden gems in that list that we can work through. Let's review each point and find some truth.
Super Blogging Website
- Having a website with a blog is quite easy and you can be up and running in a very short time. Wordpress.com and Blogger.com are examples that allow you to create your own blog and in quick order you are up and running for free. You can choose and adjust themes and colors to help make it your own. Some of these have modules that bring in streams from other services, like Twitter and Pintrest. That all sounds pretty easy, right? Well slow down sparky, you need to review terms of service for these sites and understand that they are going to be placing ads on your site. Blogger is owned by Google and in the Google TOS: "you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works" Yep. You should consider this.
- Then there are the ads these sites will put on your blog because nothing is truly free. Do you want some content marketing company pushing your competitors work?
- Bluehost, GoDaddy are among the frighteningly large number of hosting companies out there that will give you space, domain name and a CMS (content management system like Wordpress), but all at between $8 and $12/month. Not free, but there are no ads and there is technical support
- Red Hat's OpenShift This PaaS (Platform as a Service) allows you to build out with simple clicks of a mouse your own space that can run your Application (Wordpress, Drupal or roll your own). Once your site is in play you can point your domain name at your server and your done. Cost? They have very reasonable plans for business's large and small, but to start your cost is $0/month. Yep, free, and no ads. This is really for development but for sites with limited traffic it'll work great.
- github pages If you are looking for a very simple space to put up static pages, this may be an answer. You are allowed one free site per your github account (free). There are some limitations to this server as you can only run static pages, but there is a blogging option for the developers out there. Be warned, this is for the true geeks, but no ads! I will be getting (or git'ing) into this in a couple weeks.
- These options will require some technical know-how. How much depends on where you are now. For example, can you setup an ssh key or use the basic git commands? No? This may cause some trouble. (ftp is so 2007) You can install your own Drupal or Wordpress application in Openshift just by using a mouse, but then you will also need to learn how to use the said applications. This can be a rabbit hole. Caution is required.
- DrupalGardens is an easy work around with a very active community. (Free account will have ads)
Remember, there is some ramp-up speed in understanding the technology of your website. Every hour not spent writing, another kitten dies.
A Great Domain Name
- So you want to buy a kick-butt .com domain name? You do realize it is 2014, right? You are a little late to the game; all the good ones are taken.OK, not all the good ones, but they are running out fast. You can find one, it just takes a little digging and creative gumption.
- Not everything has to be a .com. There are some interesting and new TLD's coming down the pike. .cool, .ing, .kids, .book, .art, .coffee. Be creative!
- Be thoughtful about your address in regards to how long it is, remember-able, brand-able...and most of all don't be like:
- www.whorepresents.com (Who Represents)
- www.expertsexchange.com (Experts Exchange)
- www.therapistfinder.com (The Therapist Finder)
- www.speedofart.com (Speed of Art)
- Yes, somebody thought those were a good ideas.
#1 on Google
Yes, you can be organically ranked on the first page of your favorite search engine for word terms that your readers will be searching on. Well, within reason. All it takes is time, knowledge, content, time, more knowledge and more content, content, and content. Quality content. Very high quality content. This isn't easy and companies make a lot of money guiding other companies up the rankings. But let's not scare you off too quickly. Let's break this into two challenges: the Technology and the Strategy.
A word of caution: This can be a sticky wicket and if you get over-zealous or start thinking you are smarter than the search engines, you site could loose ranking, or worse get blacklisted. The key to being new with SEO is baby-steps, and measure every step of the way to see what works and what doesn't.
The Tech
- You need a website that the SE's (search engine) can crawl and index. A few things to remember:
- Use HTML standards
- Populate the page title, description, keywords, alt and titles tags, properly named images, SE safe url's. Where ever an SE sees a piece of content, it must be relevant to what is on the page. (more of what to exactly have in the next part).
- Remember that if is in javascript an SE won't see it.
- Speed it import. The faster your page loads the happier the SE will be. This is your code, images, hosting...everything.
- You need analytic's
- See where your visitors are coming from (SE's, social media, QR Codes, etc)
- How they are finding your site (what keywords did they use?)
- How long did they stay on your site? Where they engaged?
- This is called a Bounce Rate, the percentage of visitors that immediately leave. The higher this number, the worse it is. Strive for between 20 and 30%. Over 50% and you have a problem.
- How far down the funnel did they go?
- Funnel? Yep, each of your visitors should be tracked
- Anonymous visitor arrives at your site
- Do they leave or do they stay?
- They stay, so do they click:
- Facebook like
- Twitter follow
- Do they provide their email address for updates?
- All of these are the process of turning an anonymous visitor into a sell-able visitor.
- Make the sale. Make lots of money.
- Remember, you don't want a lot of traffic. You don't want to pay for the hosting and bandwidth. You want the Right traffic.
The Strategy
- Understand your target audience
- Who are they?
- Where else are they on the internet?
- What else are they searching for across the internet?
- Create a list of your keywords and phrases as your "targets"
- See who ranks with those targets
- Are they your competition?
- Refine your list
- Go through your site and pepper it with these targeted words and phrases.
- Image names, along with titles and alt's
- Page titles, descriptions, keywords and page urls
- When you write your content don't stuff all your targets. Be judicious
- This is probably going to raise some hackles of professional SEO people. Behind all the tech is a subtle art which is why they get paid the mad cash. Hopefully one or two will comment below.
- Analytics
- Measure everything. Remember, everything that gets measured, gets done. And if it gets measured well, it gets done well.
- Intelligence
- See who is linking to sites that you like.
- Start building your inbound link strategy. Yep, another strategy. You need people linking to your page, which means you need content that people want to link to.
- Social Media. Matt Cutts (The Google SEO guy) stated that Google does not rank Twitter of Facebook for their ranking. He said nothing about Google+. If you don't have a G+ account, get it and join some writing groups. Create thoughtful posts.
- Author referral tag. Use it.
Keep this in mind about SEO: Search engines want to provide their clients with the best results for their clients query. They do this by scouring your site and indexing the language, the location, relevance of the inbound links and your history. What you are selling a search engine is trust. Trust that what you have is truly what their clients are looking for. Break that trust, lose your ranking. Gain that trust and get ranked.
There is a lot there, and so much more. Perhaps for another blog post. What should become apparent is that this can quickly become a full-time job, which it shouldn't because you already have another job. You should be writing!
There is a lot there, and so much more. Perhaps for another blog post. What should become apparent is that this can quickly become a full-time job, which it shouldn't because you already have another job. You should be writing!
An Award Winning Design
- First understand this: Ugly websites make money. Don't believe me? Craigslist.
- Secondly, your website is a reflection of you, your brand and your product. It's nice that you found that really cool theme for free, but so did a bunch of other sites, including possibly your competition, or the writer that is really, really bad but their site looks just like yours.
- Most business websites work from the logo, meaning the logo is on every page, the Twitter account, the Facebook page...everywhere. Well, you are an author and usually that means it's your mug that's the logo. Don't fret as it doesn't have to be, but you need to choose. What will be the point of contact across the internet for your product that will send the same message? Remember, continuity is important here. Your visitors don't want unwelcome surprises. Reward them. Make them eager to share what you have. Make them emotionally involved with your product. Make them Mavens!
- Go to your local community college and put up an ad for a web designer. These kids need beer money.
- As a last ditch effort spend a couple dollars at fiverr.com Here you will find graphic artists that will design a logo for $5. Remember, you get what you pay for. Fivrr is also an interesting place for book covers. Now, I'm not saying you can get a book cover for $5, but you can spend $20 for 4 different artists to see how your ideas translate to image, then take what you like to your graphics professional for visual ideas.
- How many of your visitors will be visiting your site via their phone or tablet (remember when I talked about analytics?)
- Does your website resolve properly on these devices? Does it have to? Well, it does, sorry. But on the bright side that is getting easier and easier to do. If you use the above mentioned Drupal or Wordpress site that functionality will be "mostly" built in. (That is going to raise an argument from some designers. Suck it Trebek. It's my blog post.)
- This also gets into the topic on design and the ultimate question, what are the visitor expectations? Do they want to read snippets? Find out more about your research or process? Connect with you as a fan or friend? Find out where you are signing books, or speaking, or where they can sign up for the latest updates from you?
Round up
Well, that's a lot to do, so get busy, right? Well, not yet. First we go back to the original question, is a website really needed? Will a Facebook page do just as well, if not better? Perhaps. Are all your potential customers on Facebook? With Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and your website, what is the reason? What is the goal? To sell more books, or gain followers where will sell the books for you?
What I have brought up is all just the tip of the iceberg and in no way gospel. Engage in the comments below, think out loud and question everything.
Resources
- A post listing great reasons to invest in a website
- Wordpress Optimization Tips for Performance and Speed
- openshift.redhat.com
- wordpress.com
- blogger.com
- drupalgardens.com
- github pages
- SEO for Drupal Sites
Videos
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Drupal Gardens (free w/ads)
- Deploy Drupal or Wordpress on OpenShift with simple clicks (free w/no ads)
- Combinator, a small tool I built for combining keyword combinations (bigbadgun.com)
From my domain registrar, r4l.com, these tld's are now available:
- .bike
- .camera
- .clothing
- .construction
- .contractors
- .directory
- .equipment
- .estate
- .gallery
- .graphics
- .guru
- .holdings
- .kitchen
- .land
- .lighting
- .plumbing
- .singles
- .technology
- .today
- .ventures
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Tools of the Trade, Part 3 of 3
Saving the biggest guns for the end, today I'll be talking about OmmWriter and Scrivener.
So in conclusion, whether you are a Microsoft Word maven or a vim cowboy, at the end of the day it doesn't matter what you use, so long as you slap down the words. But like a joiner or cabinet maker, the better you know how to use your tools, and the sharper you keep the edges, the better the finished product.
OmmWriter.
This app annoyed the crap out of me, but in a fit of rage I found its niche. It shuts everything out. Completely. No distractions, no intrusions, no worries. It's like going to the spa for writing without strangers touching you. As you can see by these images, Ommwriter not only shuts out the rest of the distractions, it cleans your desk as well:
Are you easily distracted or prone to procrastinating while writing? Remember, any hour not spent writing another kitten dies. And the following graph produced by scientific guess-work shows where your attention wanders while trying to write: (results may vary)
That is scientific evidence you just can't argue with.
And finally, the big dog in the kennel, Scrivener.
Firstly, this is a fairly big application as it is more than a word processor. It's power comes, in my opinion, from two major functions:
- The organizational features of notes and revisions, all within one application with an user friendly UI.
- The wide range of electronic publishing formats. Yep, straight from your first draft to Amazon, just like most everyone else.
My workflow is chapter based and name each one descriptively so that as start re-reading I can easily move chapters about with the drag of a mouse. This works great in more complex chapters where I can place each scene in its own container and move each about the chapter or book independently.
I have had some issues with Scrivener which I feel is important as I would not want you facing the same headaches I've been plagued with. First, when saving and opening your Scrivener Projects in a cloud space, like Drop Box, take care to ensure that the project on one computer is truly out of the project before opening it in another machine. In debugging some of my issues these looked to be a common issue with writers working with other writers or editors, and corrupting their project. To be clear, "corrupting" is not good.
Another issue that has plagued me is the Scrivener Projects are not OS agnostic. Create a Project in Mac and Windows has a problem with it. While this may not seem like too big a deal right now, when you send off the 70,000 word manuscript to your editor for revisions and tracking changes, you may be in for some problems if they are running a different OS.
A serious consideration to the above is your start-up time. What does it take to learn the new interface and all it can do? Remember the kittens! Below is a scientific map showing your ramp-up speeds and learning torque for the three main editors listed:
As you can see Scrivener, with the longest learning curve also requires the greatest amount of understanding. Have you used it? If you haven't you'll see what I mean. OmmWriter is so silly easy, but that's all it is. It does one thing, and it does it very well.
So in conclusion, whether you are a Microsoft Word maven or a vim cowboy, at the end of the day it doesn't matter what you use, so long as you slap down the words. But like a joiner or cabinet maker, the better you know how to use your tools, and the sharper you keep the edges, the better the finished product.
Resources
- This guy has documented a small part of his process using Scrivener for his kickstarter
- This gall gets into the guts of it
- If you are still intrigued, here are the official Scrivener videos
Resources for the the past 3 parts
Monday, February 10, 2014
Holy F@^#ing S#!?
I have been in some discussions about the use of swear words in writing. There are authors who love them in general, others who use them as just an extension of some of their characters’ personalities, and some authors are limited (usually by genre) as to how many and which words they can use.
Swears words are just like any other word in the English language. They have power when it is given to them. When it comes down to it, swear words are really just words that show a degree of emotion.
A swear word compared to its non-offensive counterparts operate in the same manner ‘good’ and ‘amazing’ compare to each other. If someone uses the word ‘darn’, in most cases, they aren’t usually that upset about something. Now if that person were to use ‘damn’ instead, then it would be understood that the person had a stronger connection to that thing. So there is a time and place to use them. A swear word should really be used in situations where it could actually be left out and still have the sentence make sense (when used as an adjective/adverb). If it’s used as a noun, it gets trickier to test if it was used appropriately. It’s more dependent on the context in this situation. For instance, the phrase ‘That’s bullshit’ would have to be tested by replacing ‘bullshit’ with words like ‘crap’, similar to the same test as ‘darn’. All in all, swear words should be used when they portray the appropriate emotion, with the exception of it being a characteristic of a character that does not use them at appropriate times.
There have been stories which use profanity in them that are completely clashing to the motif of the book. I have read books in which halfway through a swear word was used. While it fit the appropriate reaction to the event for the character, it created a dissonance in the book. The character was a noble of a city set in a medieval locale and he went off swearing up a storm. Up to this point, no profanity had been used in the book and even the main characters, who were assassins, didn’t use such language. So to go from no use what so ever to four f-bombs in a row was very distracting and caused me to lose my flow. The scene had such a disruptive effect that I put the book down.
Often the problem of using them for the portrayal of a character’s personality is the overuse of them. A character that drops an ‘f’ bomb every other word or tries to use it in every part of speech that is possible, can become annoying to a reader. The repeated use can, but doesn’t always, create a jarring effect and ends up ‘breaking up the illusion’ of the book. Similar to typos and plot holes, when a jarring effect happens, it can cause the reader to break their flow. If a reader’s flow is disrupted, it detracts from their reading experience. This often causes them to lower their opinion of the book and possibly go as far as to stop reading it, if it has happened on multiple occasions.
The other consequence of overuse is the loss of meaning in a word. In an episode of a TV show several characters confronted another character about his use of the word ‘divine’. They pointed out that ‘not everything can be ‘divine’’. If people use swear words too much, they eventually degrade the meaning of the word to the level of their less obtrusive brethren. Which is, of course, simply no good. ‘Darn it’ should be used in a sense of disappointment, while ‘Damn it’ should be used when one seeks to call forth the wrath of the gods down upon their intended target to have it smitten into the nether.
I also believe that swear words are something that should not be used by children, not until they understand the word’s true meanings. Of my experiences with children who use swear words, I’ve noticed that they use the words as filler words or simply adjectives. Because it’s seen as ‘cool’ to use the words around their peers, children use them without knowing what they are actually saying, which of course leads to the misuse of the words. No person should have to suffer through that.
The use of profanity in literature has its purposes but should, above all, be used with consideration. It can be used tactfully to enhance a character or situation in a book. But if used without thoughtfulness, profanity can really deteriorate the quality of a book.
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