Jennerosity

Wow, I feel so geeky recommending a non-fiction book, but I really liked it.  My review on Goodreads pretty much says it all.  If you’re a business type person, or just enjoy books on business and networking, then you might want to check it out and read it for yourself.  I do find that some non-fiction tends to drag a bit.  Each chapter tends to follow the same formula and your brain kind of gets overloaded.  But, this one made some pretty good points, kept the stories and examples to a minimum, and spent most of the book telling you WHAT to do, instead of justifying WHY you should do it.

Most of the writer’s that I know tend to categorize themselves as either a Pantser or a Plotter¹ and I am definitely a plotter.  Really, I’m only happy when I’m plotting².  While I’ve used a number of plotting tools in the past, I still haven’t THE ONE.  You know, the one system that just feels so right and aligns itself perfectly with the twisted machinations that go on inside my head when I’m plotting out a story.  In an effort to get back into my neglected manuscripts, I’ve been exploring the different plotting tools out there, trying to find which one might be the best fit.³  Here is the current short list of 5 that I am considering:

1. Spreadsheet – it seems like plotters would naturally gravitate towards such a robust tool of formulas & calculations, and yet, I shy away from it.  I think I feel a little intimidated by the vast complexity that it offers.  I ain’t no slouch, but I’m also not an expert.  I know that if I took the time to learn it well enough to bend it to my needs, it would ultimately be the best fit, since I can make it do almost anything I want.
   Pros: Free & very customizable.  Also very portable, since every computer I use has a spreadsheet program.
   Cons: I’m worried about how much time it would take to set up.⁴  I  know I’d have to actually learn more about spreadsheets. ((See point re: laziness))  And it feels a bit . . . stuffy or confining.  Plus, it isn’t as shiny and cool as some of the other options.
2. Evernote - This is a very handy little program/web app that lets you capture almost anything you can think of.  It has just enough features to elicit the ‘oooooh cool!’ response from me, and yet not enough to make me throw out every other cool program/web app that I use.
   Pros: Free & very portable⁵.
   Cons: I feel restricted by it’s nesting structure!  You can only have notes in your notebook and no sub-folders.  I know they let you tag things and do smart searches, but that’s all too vague for me to make it work with the structure I want.  Plus, you can’t put tables in.⁶  I know that a more robust option is Microsoft’s OneNote program, but it’s also about $100 last I checked. (And I’m kinda cheap.)
3. Liquid Story Binder -  So, aside from opening the program, I haven’t actually attempted to dive in and use it.  But from the feature list, it’s all kinds of shiny writing goodness.  And, in theory, I’d love to dive in and really grok it out.
   Pros: Lots of cool features!
   Cons: Possibly too many features and then it would become a time suck and/or, I’d have to try really hard to learn it.  There is also a cost involved.  And, I’m not sure how portable it would be.  Which means I’d have to install it on my work computer and then synchronize files, and I haven’t checked how easily that could be done.
4. PageFour -  Just discovered this one the other day, and so far it looks pretty good.  Not too many features on it but it does have a nice structuring option.
   Pros: There is a free version!  I tried syncing it at work and home and it works perfectly.  Some good search functionality and the ability to see which words you may be overusing.
   Cons: The free version would not be robust enough for me.  Still no tables!
5. Wiki - When I started plotting, I started out using a wiki and liked it fairly well.  But, I’m not sure that it’s the best tool for me.  It uses a browser which is just like an invitation to distract myself online.
   Pros: There are free ones out there.  Can be pretty easily customized.  Interlinking important elements is very easily done.  It’s also an easily portable option since all you need is a web browser.  I can have it open among my normal web-browsing and/or work tabs and write discreetly at work (on my breaks, of course!)
   Cons: The wiki that I started out using doesn’t seem to work with Chrome, which is the main browser that I use.  I could switch browsers, but right now just the writing wiki isn’t a compelling enough reason to make me switch back to firefox

Ok, if there are any plotters out there who think they have a solution for me, let me hear it in the comments!  Recommendations or comments on any and all of the above are definitely welcome!⁷

1. though it’s really more of a spectrum than an ‘either/or’ situation [↩]
2. and to be quite honest, yes, my plotting does extend beyond the written page . . . [↩]
3. Yeah, I know . . . I should be actually writing instead of mucking about with all the tools [↩]
4. And this is bad mostly because I’m lazy [↩]
5. It even has an iPod Touch app that you can use on the go [↩]
6. I like tables.  They are like the non-scary version of a spreadsheet. [↩]
7. Unless you’re going to recommend Scrivener.  Not only do I not have a Mac at home, but there’s no chance of switching to a Mac at work, so it would cut down on my opportunities to write/plot. [↩]

Another tax season is now officially over and I’m always glad to have it behind me.  And I did kind of infer that I would be posting more meaty posts after it was done, so here I am, blogging again.  But don’t get too excited because this post is mostly about nothing . . . writing nothing, to be specific.

There is a big, exciting project that is writing related that I’ve been working on, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to start spilling the beans on it quite yet.  There are a few people who already know what I’m talking about, but I’m not sure if I should start blogging about it just yet.¹

But, I haven’t done any actual writing lately, so there isn’t much to share about that.²  I did attempt to track down a new tool for plotting, but I’m pretty sure that I’m being overly picky³.

I’ve also been journeying down the thorn-covered path that is selecting an acceptable pen name.  Those who know me will know that the art of selecting names is one of my biggest challenges.  I find it difficult to select character  names, much less a name for myself.  So, I fully expect that it’ll be a long and painful process.  The pen name I finally pick must meet several key criteria: first, it must be a woman’s name⁴; second, it must be acceptable for the fantasy genre⁵; and finally, it must be still available.  I’ve got my Vizier of Nameology working on it, and I’m slowly gathering a list of acceptable options that I can present to a select group of writers & friends, for their voting and discussion⁶.

My current plan is to select an acceptable pen name, buy the domain and put together an author website, and then move my writing related blogging over to that domain.  And, even though I know this will be an unpopular decision, I’m not going to tell everyone over here about it.  A large part of my reason for selecting a pen name is to get some separation for myself between my personal identity and my author identity.  And inviting everyone who exists in my personal universe over to a blog I create for my writing identity really defeats that purpose.  I know that it’ll probably eventually all come out in the open, but I’m going to let that happen when the time is right.

Have an idea for a pen name for me?  Got a cool free tool to suggest for my plotting delights?  Go have at it in the comments with suggestions for everything that makes me write nothing lately.

1. And if you’re one of the people that I’m actually working with on this project, we gotta figure out when a good time for me to start blogging about it is going to be. [↩]
2. And I did toy with the idea of just giving it up altogether, I enjoy certain parts of it too much to do that . . . yet [↩]
3. I just can’t seem to find free Windows software that’s flexible enough to work anywhere and that falls in that sweet spot between lots of cool features, but still simple enough to use [↩]
4. I write about women characters and I think the fact that I am a woman is fairly essential to my writing, so I don’t want to be ambiguous about my gender [↩]
5. if I were writing chick lit, Daisy would be at the top of my list, but I just can’t picture reading an epic fantasy book written by someone named Daisy [↩]
6. and if you have a good pen name to throw in to the ring, feel free to add it in the comments [↩]

National Novel Writing Month Winner Badge

I was going to type ‘welcome back’ but YOU never left.¹  It was me who has been gone for over a month now and am ready to get back to some blogging.

Because I know you’re all wondering how it went, let me give you a bit of a run down. Generally, I think it was a stunning success. For my personal writing, I proved to myself that I can write 50,000 in a month even without much writing time during the day at work and while performing all my Municipal Liaison duties. As I expected, I didn’t finish my story,² but I got a good chunk of it done.  As an organizer, we had record numbers of participants, winners, activities, and donations. On a grand scale, our region had teeny tiny problems for its size. So, I’m very happy with how the month went.

I learned a lot through the month of chaos and creativity but I’ll just skip to the parts likely to interest you most . . .

1. I still love doing it, even when I have to organize it.
2. I have a tendency to be verbose with my writing.³
3. I have a million more ideas about writing AND about organizing things for next year.

From what I can tell, there’s a lot of positive energy surrounding the NaNoWriMo experience this year. ⁴  I want to keep the momentum going with the organization and with my own writing as well, so it looks like there will be no ‘off season’ for me.  For those who enjoy my story geekness posts, this probably won’t be a problem for you.  For those who don’t, you may find my blog less interesting.  Now, there will still be other geekness topics celebrated, but they may not be as frequent as my story geekness ones.⁵

Part of the aftermath for me is the slow return to normal life and a celebration of the awesome that has just passed.  We generally like to celebrate awesome, with more awesome, because we are awesome like that.  Part of my celebration is going on right now (and I’m kind of missing it).  You see, BenevoLance just finished a particularly big, tough, un-fun course.  While he was stuck in the dregs and doldrums of it, I suggested he plan something big and fun for the end of it, to give him something to look forward to aside from the end of the tedious course.  So, a big and fun LAN party was planned.⁶  He even took today off of work, so there are a bunch of boys at my house right now playing computer games in my living room and eating yummy food and drinking our booze and I will get to join in the fun after I finish working this afternoon (155 minutes left to go).⁷

1. At least I’m hoping you didn’t leave! [↩]
2. Don’t bother asking when I’ll finish or what the story is about [↩]
3. Ok, so maybe I didn’t learn that this year, but it’s still true [↩]
4. Perhaps I should say, the VanCoWriMo experience, since we coined our own regional nickname this year [↩]
5. In fact, I’ve a few posts that I’ve got planned out already [↩]
6. Yes, I suggested the LAN party because I’m awesome like that [↩]
7. Lucky for me, the party is going to go all night until sometime tomorrow.  I just hope the food and booze last that long! [↩]

Yes . . . it’s true . . . today is my birthday.  However, today is NOT my 30th birthday.  Confused yet?  Good.  Hopefully things will become more clear if you keep reading!

In the days leading up to my birthday, I was thinking a lot about what I wanted to do for my birthday.  Even though a nice dinner out would be good, what I want more is to participate in one of the writing challenges/contests coming up in September.  However, due to the work schedule of my job¹, spending the time on writing wasn’t really a feasible option.

But it got me to thinking.  I want to be writing.  I want to be published.  It would be a dream come true if I ever managed to support myself through writing.  It’s what I feel drawn to do.  But, I also have a 9-5 job that demands my time along with a slew of hobbies, social engagements, etc.  But, if I’m actually serious about the writing thing, I need to buckle down and start prioritizing my life a bit differently.

So, next year, when I actually do turn 30, my gift to myself is going to be a finished manuscript that I can start shopping around.  This year will be the third time I’ve done National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and will be the third manuscript I’ve started.  So, by September 4th, 2010, I want to have one of them finished.  Complete.  Ready to shop around.  I still like the first two novels that I started.  So, it’s just going to be a matter of adding the time and energy to what I’ve started so that one of them gets finished.

And if you’d rather contribute to my birthday present to myself next year than bother with anything else, here are some ideas to get you started . . .

• Ask me how the story is coming and sit through at least 5 minutes as I prattle on.  You get bonus points if you actually remember something plot worthy and ask specific questions.  But, you can also feel free to let your eyes glaze over too.
• In November, leave me alone.  Seriously.  Don’t ask me to go out to social events², don’t phone me, don’t stop by to just chat.  For the past 2 years I’ve written 50,000 in the 30 days of November.  I’ve written about 6,000 words during the other 11 months.  Let me have the 30 days to write as much as I can since that’ll go a long way to me reaching my goal.
• If you’ve got several hundred dollars lying around that you don’t know what do to with, you could always buy me Microsoft One Note, or pay for me to take a writing workshop/online course, or contribute towards a writer’s retreat weekend.³
• If a few hundred dollars is a bit above your budget, but would still like to buy me something, a nice bottle of wine or some fine dark chocolate (think quality, not quantity) really helps to get my creative juices flowing.
• Or, if you’d rather choose an inspirational gift, I’m sure there’s are a few fiction or non-fiction writing books that I wouldn’t mind adding to my collection either.

1. You know, the one that actually helps me pay my bills [↩]
2. I will still be attending NaNoWriMo social events since I’m one of the Municipal Liaisons this year, but outside of that, no invitations please! [↩]
3. Just email me if you want more specific details on any of these options [↩]

Can you tell I’m a little excited by the 2009 Badges for National Novel Writing Month are here?  Love, LOVE, love the badges this year!  They come in 2 colour schemes and are incredibly steampunky appropriate for my novel setting this year.  In fact, I may need to see about working in a descriptive cameo for this particular machine somewhere in the story.  As one of the Municipal Liaisons for the Vancouver area this year, I’m already right in the thick of things for organizing and planning.  This year, I can tell you that we have some seriously awesome stuff planned for the participants!

Ever wanted to dabble in writing fiction?  Want to throw yourself into a big crazy group writing event?  You know you want to!  Head over to www.nanowrimo.org to read more of the details and sign up now.  Only 73 more days to prepare!