Tag: Tools

  • What are your Writuals?

    I found this article very interesting, it’s great to have an insight intowhat other writers do to get in the writing mood and then what they do whilst writing too. I’d love to see what the Writer’s Retreat member’s writuals are *cough*hinthint*cough*

    “Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw and Roald Dahl did it in sheds at the bottom
    of the garden. Shaw’s desk was famously on castors, so he could turn it
    throughout the day to get maximum light. Dahl even had one of his own hip bones
    sitting on the desk. Every writer will have their own ritual. Kerry McKittrick
    examines the modus operandi of some of Ireland’s favourite writers and asks:
    What are your Writuals?”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7340217.stm

    Where are you?
    I write at home in my bedroom, usually surronded by the bits of scibbled on paper that contain my plot, character bios and obscure doodles of things to do with the story. Oh and Jérôme the cabbage patch is usually around somewhere.

    What are you writing with?
    Always paper for the plan and then my laptop for writing

    What’s the oddest object in front of you?
    I’ll take a picture, there are no words for its epicness.

    What are you listening to?
    The Sharpest Lives by My Chemical Romance but it can be anything from that to Ludovico Einaudi. I can’t write with the TV or radio on though because people talking disturbs me.

    Is there anyone else in the room?
    No way, that would drive me mad.

    What time of day is it?
    The best stuff seems to appear around 3am but any time in the day seems to work alright.

    What do you look at when you’re looking for inspiration?
    Go on wiki-trails, for people who’ve never heard of it, you start on a random wikipedia page and then click on any link on the page that catches your interest. And generally stuff in my room or out the window that catches my eye, sometimes dreams can be quite useful too.

    What is guaranteed to remove your concentration?
    People talking and lack of tea

  • Wiley Wednesday: Weaving the Web

    One of my favorite writing websites is Writing World, www.writing-world.com (don’t forget the dash or it’ll send you somewhere different). Now edited by Dawn Copeman, it was started by Moira Allen. They publish a free monthly newsletter on the first Thursday of each month. The website has over 825 pages of information covering every genre.

    Moira Allen was editor of Cat Fancy magazine for over a decade and has numerous writing credits to her name. I took a class from her, Breaking into Magazine Writing, that I found tremendously informative and useful. She is very business-like in her approach. She doesn’t have fairy-dust in her eyes about how the publishing industry works, but she is very proactive in how she approaches it.

    Writing World covers all sorts of material of interest to the beginner and experienced author alike:

    Beginner’s World
    The Business of Writing
    Freelancer’s World
    Commercial Corner
    International Writing
    General Fiction
    Romance
    Mystery
    SF/Fantasy
    Children’s Writing
    Poetry/Greeting Cards
    Creative Nonfiction
    Screenwriting
    Publishing Your Book
    Promoting Your Writing

    In addition, Moira Allen has written several books of interest to the freelancer. In particular, she has released an e-book, How to Write for Magazines, which is a synthesis of the class I mentioned earlier. I have it, it’s excellent.

    Their Links page is worth the price of admission. It’s enormous; I don’t have room to fit all the topics here. That alone is worth seeing; I highly recommend you check it out. She’s even got a section on Rights and Copyright, which is always an important thing to understand.

    Most importantly, they do accept submissions! Since they have nearly 600 articles already, it’s important to double-check their guidelines, but check it out!

  • Writing Reference Series #1


    A while back, I went on a ‘craft-building’ book buying binge. Over my next few Wiley Wednesdays, I’ll be talking about what I took away from each of them. One repeating pattern I found was that several of the books had lists of other handy reference. At the top of almost every one of those lists was Strunk & White’s ‘The Elements of Style’ – a short text that packs a real wallop, and definitely the place to begin. In short, I wish I had read this book three years ago. It would have saved me a lot of time.

    William Strunk Jr. was an English professor at Cornell in the early 1900s. He taught from his own ‘little book’ – a concise text he wrote to cover the basics of grammar and composition, originally published in 1869. At 105 pages, including forwards and index, it truly is little. But little is too small a word. E. B. White (Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web) was a student of Mr. Strunk, and decided much later in his career that Strunk’s ‘little book’ could serve a much broader audience. The text was revised in 1935, 1959, 1979 and 2000 – and everything in it still bears repeating. In his original introduction, Mr. White describes the book as, “seven rules of usage, eleven principals of composition, a few matters of form, and a list of expressions commonly misused . . .” All of these are centered around one theme, that edict pounded home by Strunk himself:

    Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

    I won’t run through every rule here. They are neatly numbered and stated with very clear examples in the full text, and I highly recommend you pick up the book and read it from cover to cover several times, as I did. The full text is also available online. Instead, I’ll skip the grammar stuff, and cut straight to the elements of composition I wish I had learned by studying this text, rather than the hard way (i.e. sludging along cluelessly until someone pointed it out to me the twelvth time).

    13. Make the paragraph the unit of composition. To some, this may come naturally. To others, it is something pounded into our heads by 6th grade teachers. Still others struggle. But it’s quite simple, as laid down by Strunk. Writing is a series of thoughts. How we compose and gather these thoughts either facilitates or hinders how the the reader understands. In summary: one idea per paragraph. Introduce it. Add detail. Conclude or sum up.

    14. Use the active voice. Ugh! I can’t tell you how long people were saying ‘that’s passive voice’ before I knew what they were talking about. And finding someone to clearly explain it had me tearing my hair out. In general, passive voice takes the action away from your subject and misplaces it. According to Strunk, the active voice makes for more ‘forcible’ writing. But, examples do far better (from the text):

    “I shall always remember my first visit to Boston.” Not, “My first visit to Boston will alway be remembered by me.”

    Not, “At dawn the crowing of a rooster could be heard.” But, “The cock’s crow came with dawn.”

    In general, when scanning for passive voice, the words would, could, was and were are indicators. However, this is not to be confused with the progressive past tense: “I was walking through the woods.”

    15. Put statements in positive form. Basically – don’t describe what is not happening, describe what is happening.

    Not, “He was not very often on time.” But, “He usually came late.”

    Not, “She did not think that studying Latin was a sensible way to use one’s time.” But, “She thought the study of Latin a waste of time.”

    As you can see, the affirmative is usually more direct and concise. It also sounds less ‘wavering’. Be definite in what you say. Oh, wait . . . that’s number 16.

    16. Use definite, specific, concrete language:

    Not, “A period of unfavorable weather set in.” But, “It rained every day for a week.”

    Usually, this means you will give more specific details. If you are trying to make a general statement, do so, but make it concrete and definite. At least knock out two of the three:

    Not, “She seldom enjoyed visiting her aunt.” But, “He hated visiting her aunt.”

    17. OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS. This is by far Strunk’s most important point, linking back to his main theme. Omit needless words. Omit needless words! You’ll find this easier at the edit phase. I don’t recommend having this mind set when you are drafting, because when you haven’t written anything, one could argue every word is needless. But once you have a draft, you’ll find there are a HUGE amount of ways to rephrase to use less words or to simply cross out the ones you don’t need, without losing meaning. Some examples of classic needless words are often: that, because, as to, for. Also stall phrases, such as: started to, began to, almost, was going to, etc. Strunk lists several examples of his least favorite needless phrases, which you’ll find very useful. Cut to the action, and . . . OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS.

    I think that is a good start, and a fair chunk of some of Strunk’s most important points. As stated above, I highly recommend reviewing the text in its entirety. Adding these feathers to your editing cap will most certainly help you to write concisely, without losing meaning.

    Happy writing!

    -Gwen

  • Wiley Wednesday 08/27/2008

    The Peripatetic School

    Peripatetic:

    ADJECTIVE:
    1. Walking about or from place to place; traveling on foot. 2. Peripatetic Of or relating to the philosophy or teaching methods of Aristotle, who conducted discussions while walking about in the Lyceum of ancient Athens.

    NOUN:
    1. One who walks from place to place; an itinerant. 2. Peripatetic A follower of the philosophy of Aristotle; an Aristotelian.

    ETYMOLOGY:
    Middle English peripatetik, from Latin peripat ticus, from Greek peripat tikos, from peripatein, to walk about, or from peripatos, covered walk (where Aristotle allegedly lectured) : peri-, peri- + patein, to walk.

    http://www.bartleby.com/61/55/P0195500.html

    So. What does peripatetic have to do with writing? Good question. I was reading Julia Cameron’s work and she commented that several writers belong to the “peripatetic school.” My first thought was, what the heck is peripatetic? Then it was, what does walking have to do with writing?

    Well, try it, then you can tell me.

    I should just stop the essay there, but I’ll be kind. For me, walking is something that slows me down to human speed, rather than caffeine speed, stress speed, or I have to finish twenty things in time enough only for ten speed. Walking is repetitive. There’s not much more than pick up one foot, put it in front of the other. Lather, rinse, repeat. This allows the mind to wander while the feet, well, wander.

    How is this of benefit to writing?

    Well, try it, then… you get the picture.

    It’s strange how we get so into our own heads when we write. Our own heads are not necessarily the most helpful places to be when writing, either. But instead of fighting with our internalized voices, next time you are stuck try getting up and walking around the block for twenty minutes. See what interesting insights might bubble up for you.

    Besides. You can dazzle and confuse everyone by telling them, “I’m part of the peripatetic school.” “Really? What degree are you getting?”

  • Setting the scene

    ‘Nothing happens nowhere‘, or so said Elizabeth Bowen. I think she’s right. Your characters deserve a place where they can roam freely and interact, yet subtle enough to fall into the background (which is where it belongs, being a setting) like the landscape behind Mona Lisa. Her slight smile and lack of eyebrows would not be so amazing if the background was dull, hazy smudge.

    Through the setting we can tell the time of year, the approximate century, the country and even the predominant emotions the characters are feeling.

    Now when I first heard this, I could agree with all but the latter point. The weather could tell you the season, the various fixtures could be a big clue to the date and there are different building styles in every country. Of course, there are exceptions, depending on the hemisphere, the genre and the diversity of the community, but generally it’s true.

    I didn’t think a character’s feelings could be shown through setting, but of course, they can. I’m sure we’ve all been out on a lovely day feeling miserable; the sun would be too bright and the heat an uncomfortable weight. When you feel happy, the whole world glimmers and seems more vibrant.

    But I’m getting ahead of myself. Eep! What I do when making a new setting is similar to what I do when creating a character. I note important things – the size, the walls (painted, papered, postered, colour) the floor (carpet, bare, rugs, colour), lighting, furniture. I make a plan, rough and by hand, to refer to so I don’t have my characters going through a door that wasn’t there in the scene previously. That’s the skeleton and it’s actually pretty boring, but needs to be done so you can move onto the fun bit.

    I’m going to take my WIP, Unreal and more specifically, Stephan’s bedroom to show you what I do. I think of six objects I can ‘see’ in the room. If I can’t see six, I think about what that character would consider of some importance, and I list them.

    Now, Steph is a romantic, and enjoys reading. In fact, the first thing I wrote about Steph was him curled on a sofa, reading a trashy romance. So the first thing in the room – a romance novel. Next, being undeniably British and a little lazy, the next thing in his bedroom would be – an old cup of tea. Stephan is a little absent minded, something that leads me to – a dried out plant. He also gets lonely sometimes, but has had many acquaintances. That added with the absent-mindedness mean there should be – an address book. The next thing is a secret, but it was the next item I though of -a stoppered vial. And then we get to the last object. A chessboard.

    These items are all hints into Stephan’s character. Taking those six items and what I know of the room, I write a short description, around two- to four-hundred words long. It doesn’t have to be polished, but it has to be clear.

    The bed is spacious and neat, the sheets a light ivory, the quilt carefully folded back to look inviting, no sign that anyone had slept there the night before. The windows along the South wall let the daylight bleed into the room through the long, thin curtains, the light colours making the room larger yet almost clinical. The door to the landing is on the West wall, the wood the same light ash as the bare floorboards. On the glass bedside table there is a book, the cover bent and curling but the image of a woman wilting in a man’s strong arms is still visible. The title is illegible, the gilt on the embossed letter flaked off. The pages also curl, as if it had been wet and dried quickly. Beside it is a mug, charcoal grey and square rimmed, a few simple green tiles adorning the sides. Inside, milk congeals in the long cold tea.

    There is another table against the far wall, the varnish scratched and a few scorches along the top. It could be called a dresser, as it held a mirror with tarnished spots under the glass and a single draw with a brass handle. A withered, twiggy plant stands on the table; its stems twist morbidly as if it were in great pain, the soil cracked and dusty from lack of water. An empty vial, the length of a finger, has been left in the shadows of the plant, the cork sealed tightly with black wax. The rest of the table is taken up by a soapstone chessboard. The squares are cream and green, but there is only one piece on the board – a green rook. One corner of the board, diagonally opposite the single rook has been chipped off.

    That’s as clear as I see Steph’s bedroom. It’s not how I’m portray it in my story, but it’s handy for quick reference. Doing this can also help spark plot or just give the characters more depth. The book, for example, hints that Stephan likes to read in the bath. Who hasn’t dropped a book in the tub one time or other? The address book is in the draw, and it acts like his little black book, holding the addresses of revisited bitees, the people he can and can’t rely on. The vial and the chessboard were gifts from his maker.

    I don’t do this for every room, but I do a general one for the places visited in the story, a more detailed one for my main character’s semi-private areas (not those areas! Romance writers, seeing smut everywhere… *muttermutter*) and where major plot events occur.

    Setting is important for a story, but should be like the bass guitar in a song, the oak-taste in whiskey, something subtle but enhancing. Don’t forget it or you’ll lose an important layer. Respect settings. They are more important than you think!

  • Editing Schmediting

    Unless you’re lucky enough to write everything perfect the first time, or you have an editing slave at your beck and call, editing is a reality for every writer. For some people, editing comes naturally, for others, it doesn’t. I’ve figured out I’m one of the latter. I’m a writer. A prolific one. Give me a prompt or idea, and a keyboard, and . . . off I go!

    But just because I can write and write and write, doesn’t mean it’s actually good. There has to be clean up, tightening, re-wording, re-structuring, clarification to make my writing read-worthy, just like anybody else (except for you annoying three people who get it exactly right the first time). I spent the better part of a week earlier this month doing nothing but editing, and here’s what I’ve determined: it’s no fun. XP

    But I learned something else about myself: I can learn to edit. Really edit. And while it might not be as much fun as letting my imagination have free reign and letting my fingers fly over the keyboard – the results are very satisfying. It does require me to switch out the cogs in my head, and after a bout of editing like what I just went through, I think it will be some time before I can turn off that ‘internal’ editor and get back to writing smoothly. However, the next time I sit down and put on my ‘editor cap’, I’ll be better prepared because of the list of steps I’ve made for myself.

    I thought I would share them here because, a) they are gathered from various well-trusted sources, b) I find them useful, c) I told you I’m sapped and I couldn’t think of anything else to post. =P

    So, here’s my semi-gelatinous editing task list:

    1. I edit for spelling, grammar and continuity as I go. In a novel, this means after I draft a scene, I read it again and edit. Sometimes more than once. If I go away for any length of time, when I get back I read the last scene or two again (and sometimes edit) before moving on. However, if you don’t do this, a spellcheck and grammar check are a good place to start. They won’t catch most homophones though, so watch out.

    2. My next step is a simple cut/re-arrange. Basically, ignoring mechanics, does each scene move the story forward? Is there a message to take away from each scene, and what is it? This is the time for major cuts/re-writes and this is also where I take word count under strongest consideration. I’m sort of obsessive about having well-balanced chapters, meaning that they be a fairly consistent number of words. I know, I know . . . moving on.

    3. Next, I do a search and highlight (in various colors) for the major ‘weak writing indicators’. Some of these are universal: was, were, have, and had can signal passive voice; began, started, almost, practically are stall/lessening phrases; something/anything/everything are vague; THAT – they aren’t lying when they say you can delete half of these with no effect. I also have a set more specific to me, words I know I overuse: look, shrug, grin, nod, eyes, dark, wanted, felt, etc. By the time I’m done with this – my manuscript looks like a laser light show.

    4. Time for another read-through. Yep. From the beginning. The goal here is to lessen the color spectrum by re-phrasing, choosing stronger verbs, more exact nouns and or taking out unnecessary clauses. At the same time, on this read through I try to manage the flow of the narrative, make sure I have the emphasis in the right place, fiddle around with paragraph breaks, vary my punctuation, etc. I’m like a diva shoe-shopping with my word choices too – “Hmm… maybe this one. No, no . . . this one.”

    5. If you’re doing it all by my lonesome, the last step is yet ANOTHER read-through. From the beginning, just for smoothing. This time, I try to focus on envisioning the story, feeling the characters. Did I get my point across? Is the story engaging? Does anything kick me out as a reader. It’s always better if you have someone else to do this step for you. But if you’re very prolific, sometimes this is difficult. So, taking a break from the steps above (when possible) is most advisable. Try to look at the story as if you’re a reader reading it for the first time.

    As you can imagine, my eyes are still crossed. I read my novel about six times in a week. And now I’m sick of me.

    For what it’s worth, though . . .

    ~Gwen

  • Building A Goal Pyramid

    Last time I posted a long essay for Wiley Wednesday talking about motivation and dedication, following one on balance-point. I’ll finish this series with today’s post on GOALS.

    If you missed the first two, you can find them here:

    1. Balance-Point

    2. Motivation + Reinforcement = Dedication

    In quick review:

    – It’s crucial to find your internal/external balance-point in any creative pursuit. You have to know your limits in order to set realistic goals.

    – Your desires motivate your actions. The act of reinforcing your motivations is dedication. When you combine dedication and goal-setting, you get positive action – progress towards your ultimate desires.

    DISCLAIMER: As per usual, this is just my opinion, and one of an infinite number of ways to attack the task of goal-setting. If it works for you, that makes me gleeful. If it doesn’t, don’t blame me!

    Once you’ve gotten a handle on what motivates you, and you have your general compass-point (your desires/dreams) you are ready to set some goals. One method for doing this, is to think of your goal-plan like a pyramid.

    Remember: Your dreams are the pinnacle of your ‘pyramid-o-happiness’, which you
    are hopefully always building. Your goals are the bricks that, when stacked with care, will get you to the top. Sometimes they’re gritty and heavy, sometimes they’re fun and ornate. Positive action is the act of stacking your bricks. (And results from combining dedication with your goals.)

    How many writers does it take to build a pyramid?

    One.

    Everything you need to get to that pinnacle is inside of you. And believing this is the key to ultimately achieving those dreams of yours. You can’t stand around waiting for someone else to pick up your bricks and start stacking. It’s up to you. You can recruit help from time to time,
    borrow tools, rely on someone else’s strong back, consult other pyramid engineers – but if you aren’t dedicated to it, your pyramid will not get built.

    Let’s assume that we all have dreams – that spot up in the clouds somewhere that we want to be. Maybe it’s being a NYT best-selling author, or a record-holding sword swallower, or just
    managing to complete one novel on top of raising two stellar kids. Whatever it is, dream big. I’m a firm believer that aspirations are healthy, as long as you realize that until you take positive action towards them, that’s all they are.

    Dream exercise:

    Find a nice quite spot and set aside a good chunk of pressure-free time. Take out a blank piece of paper. At the top, write, “I want to be . . .” and then list off everything you can finish that sentence with. Now, these are dreams, so you’re allowed to be whimsical, of course. But, try to think of it in terms of WHO you want to be. Many of the things listed might be who you are, or strive to be, already.

    Example:
    I want to be . . . Able to run three miles in fifteen minutes. Someone who speaks three languages fluently. A published author. The first person my friends think to come to when they’re sad. A teacher. A good role model for my nieces and nephews.

    You get the idea. This is a boundless exercises, aimed at getting you thinking about that pinnacle of your pyramid. What do you want to accomplish most? Who do you want to be? That is your pinnacle.

    Now we’re back to the first part of our formula: Goals.

    Goals are sorta like dreams – they are things that you want to accomplish, often as a means to obtaining said dreams. The difference is that goals are concrete. In our pyramid analogy, they are the concrete bricks we use to build the pyramid up towards our dreams. To work on goals, you need to pick one ‘aspiration’ or several that are tied together, and set that as a pinnacle to build towards.

    Let’s take my ‘I want to be a published author’ aspiration and expand on that. We’ll ask questions and add details so that it can start to take solid form – so that it can morph from dream to goal. What type of author? What genre? What length? Published where, by who and for what audience?

    Once I’ve determined that I want to be published in novel length fiction, in the paranormal romance genre, by a NY print house (maybe I have a top five list), then I’m almost there. Only one thing missing to make this goal solid by asking one question – when? You have to have something more definitive than ‘someday’. Someday is up in the clouds. We want to come down to earth. But we will answer this question after a little more self-exploration.

    Your goals are very personal. Just as your list of ‘I want to be’s’ is personal. Some goals can remain more abstract and you can still reach them, some can be very detailed. The most important thing in setting your goals is that you do set constraints on them – give them a solid form. Don’t leave them wispy and unformed – these are still dreams. It’s OKAY to have those – have LOTS of them, but don’t mix them up with goals. Your goal needs to have a who/what/where and a when. The why is personal, and the how is . . . well, the how comes later. Keep reading.

    So, have you built your top triangular brick – the pinnacle of this particular pyramid? Great! Now I’ve got news for you: goals come in multiples. Rather, they sort of spawn each other like rabbits. You have one main goal. Now we need all the other bricks that go underneath it – a wide foundation, growing smaller towards the top. You have two choices in planning your pyramid: top-down, or ground-up. It’s a matter of personal taste, so do what feels the most natural to you.

    Pyramid planning exercise:

    We have our main goal, and now we need to carve out the rest of our bricks. Using the back of the sheet of paper you wrote your dreams on (or a fresh one – or, heck, you can make this out of construction paper and glitter glue if you like – have fun), start like this:

    Write your three-sided who/what/where goal at the top of the page. If you’re using top-down, think of two things you need that would be your last two steps towards that goal.

    Example of the top-down:
    I want to be published in novel length paranormal romance by publisher XYZ. I need:
    1 polished manuscript worthy of print, and an agent to land me a deal.

    (The ground-up method would start with basics and work up from there. You might start with: I need a computer/word processor, I need books on craft XYZ, and genre books, I need a basic
    writing class, etc.)

    Now, take each of those branches and think of (at least) two things you need in order to get them:

    To get an agent, I need:
    1. A list of agents and
    2. A polished query

    To get a print-worthy manuscript, I need:
    1. A really great idea
    2. Time to write said idea
    3. Feedback to help polish the manuscript.

    Note: If you have problems with this step, look at your top goal. It might be too general.

    And so on. Do you see how your goals branch out and get wider at the bottom? Sort of like a pyramid? Well, use your imagination.

    You can be as detailed or as vague as you want in this process, depending on how detail oriented you are. Some people will have 100 tiny bricks (steps) and some just need the 10 major ones to keep them on track. You might also find that some of your ‘bricks’ end up being the same, repeating, or inter-linking. That’s to be expected, if you’ve made your top brick concrete enough. Also, remember to make this subjective. They are always multiple ways of approaching a problem, and this is catered to you – what you need and want, what your strengths and weaknesses are.

    The main purpose here is to start seeing the pyramid take form. Maybe some of the bricks you have handled already – that’s terrific. You still need to know what they are and where they go. Maybe there are big holes in your plan and you have no idea what step goes there? Write the question you need answered in its place and below it, put finding a resource to have that question answered. The other thing you will hopefully see is that when setting goals, you can make them tiny manageable pieces, or more general. (Hopefully both.) Just make them concrete.

    Pyramids don’t get built overnight.

    Once you have your pyramid outlined to a level of detail that is comfortable to you, you’re more than halfway there. Now we can ask ‘When?’

    Guess what – the ‘How?’ has taken care of itself! Look at your pyramid again – the how is what you’ve just done. Pat yourself on the back.

    The next step is where my previous post on Balance Point fits in. Be honest about your limits and knowing what you can accomplish. I’m not going to tell you: ‘if you really want to be a NYT best-selling author, you will take out a second mortgage on your house, quit your job and write the Great American Novel in the next year.’ Partially because I don’t believe that, and partially because I think that is a very unbalanced way of doing things. Whether your goal is to publish, or simply to complete a work, it shouldn’t come at the cost of other things and people important to you. KNOW YOUR LIMITS.

    Now, keeping your limits in mind, write underneath each one of your ‘bricks’ how long you
    estimate it will take you to accomplish each of them. Be realistic, and keep your balance point in mind. If you think you can read every how-to book on writing fiction in a year – you’re probably wrong. These estimates can be in rates: two books a month; but they must also
    have a TOTAL time required: 12 books at two books a month = 6 months.

    And remember, these are your best estimates and don’t have to be 100%. Many will be influenced by things out of your control. I guarantee they will ALL change. That’s okay.

    Got that done? All except for the top one right? Here’s a trick – items on the same level of
    your pyramid can generally be done concurrently. Add up the longest time frame of each level. This is the minimum amount of time you need to prepare to reach that pinnacle. It might take longer than you initially anticipate, but as long as you keep building, you’ll get there.

    I’ll see you at the top.

  • I Heart Wordle

    Yesterday I followed the crumbs from the Paperback Writer blog and discovered the joys of Wordle. It creates abstract word clouds out of a block of text. Now I have one more way to waste hours in cyber-land doing nothing productive, but having oh so much fun. *grin*

    I played on that thing for about an hour. And, okay, ‘nothing productive’ isn’t entirely true either. If you’re a very right-brained type, or just a visual person like me, this might be a good tool to keep at hand.

    Here’s one I made for my most recent project:

    You can play with the font, color scheme, and orientation of the words too. What’s seriously cool is that Wordle takes into account how often a word is used and changes the size in accordance. So, with a quick glance, you can tell the emphasis of the text block you enter (it might be a good idea to take out words like a, the, he, she, etc.).

    Looking at this one, it tells me my blurb is right on track: Scarlett-Zyne-witch-amulet, Rook-mission-book-life. The rest of the words are small, meaning I only used them once – as it should be for a blurb.