All Things Writing

The Craft of Writing


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Hmmm

Has anyone else noticed that writers don’t just write any more? Maybe they never did, but I distinctly remember not doing a lot of what I now do when I first started freelancing. What am I talking about? This whole social media – presence thing.

In the past two weeks I have created a podcast, burned a feed, submitted the podcast to iTunes, pleaded with them to help me switch to a different feed, tweaked the feed, and seen it all appear in iTunes – pretty much as I’d envisioned it. Continue reading →


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Productivity Tools: EasyBib Pro

My least favorite thing to do as a writer? Create citations for anything related to a Web page. It’s tedious. There is never the info I need, when I need it, where it need it. It’s just the most dismal and daunting part of the entire writing process.

But today — I know – I sound like one of those commercials for Ginsu Knives – I discovered EASYBib  Pro.

All I have to do is enter the url and it generates the citation. If there is an author name or something it can’t find, I fill it in. If not, I press the cite button. It goes to a project and can be exported as a text file. I can open it with a Word file and, VOILA, happy me, happy my editor.

This little tool is at the top of my list!

The RIGHT stylus

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The Mud Guy

Lena Blackburne MudDid you know that every baseball in Minor and Major League Baseball is rubbed with a special mud before it is put into play? Yep. The mud is from a secret location on the Delaware River. It’s been in use for more than 75 years. I know it’s true because I’ve got a jar on my shelf and I’ve personally spoken to the Mud Guy.

The mud, Lena Blackburne Original Baseball Rubbing Mud, does not discolor or stink up the ball. This was a problem with earlier mud that was used on the balls. In fact, one such ball killed a player after a pitch cracked his skull. The ball could do this because it was so difficult to see. Also difficult to control because of the accumulated gunk on the ball. Not so with modern baseballs.

A brand new baseball is very slick. It’s difficult to grip – sort of like an ice cube. Unless the pitcher can control the ball and the batter and other players can see the baseball, it’s a difficult situation for them all. Enter stink-free secret mud!

Now when you hear them shout, “Play Ball,” on Opening Day, you’ll know the secret of the pitcher’s grip!


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Flexible Planning

Unknown-1Writing is my first love but third career. My first career was as a financial/strategic planning analyst and business consultant. My next, while I was home and the kids were young, was as a small business/database/QuickBooks consultant. Now that the kids are older, it’s writing.

When my daughter was a baby, I decided to finally do what I’d been wanting to do for years and work as a freelance writer. I wasn’t doing it as a hobby. I wanted to do it as a business. Because of that, it only made sense to me to make a plan. I was surprised by how many writers were surprised by my plan. Their take on it was that you couldn’t plan for something over which you have no control. My take on it was that I could at least try to wind up where I wanted to be.

It’s been 12 years and I still make a plan. It’s not a signed-in-stone plan. It’s more like a master overview. It helps me to stay on top of the things I need to do to keep a good balance of work. It helps me to have some idea of what I hope to accomplish. I’ve been teased about my plan, having several people point out that my plan is highly mutable – often winding up with versions all the way up through G or F. That’s okay. To me a plan is a work in progress. A road map to use and modify as conditions change.

Do you plan? How does it work for you?


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Here a Meme. There a Meme.

All of the sudden, “meme” is the hot word in my life. It’s as if a cosmic button has been pushed and meme is the word du jour, each and every jour.

So what the heck is a meme?

Here’s one definition from a Google search on “What’s a Meme?”

meme  /mēm/ 

  • An element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.
  • An image, video, etc. that is passed electronically from one Internet user to another.

But the true shout out goes to my friend Barbara Krasner! She supplied this link for those of us who might otherwise be meme-less!


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Keeping Track of Projects

3-D ChessI’ve noticed that each assignment I have is actually a project. I’ve also noticed that juggling these projects is stressful and worrisome. The key for me has been to view these assignments as entities that require planning in more than one dimension. I’ve ultimately come to view the process as a variation on the 3-D chess played on Star Trek. It makes sense since each element of each project impacts each element of each project.

To get a handle on everything I’ve tried a number of things that did not work. They didn’t work because everything wasn’t all in one place or because everything was on a computer and I wasn’t at a computer or because it was all on paper but there was no way to see it all by date. You get what I mean, I’m sure.

So now I have gone to an admittedly ridiculous length and it is working! Beautifully! I found these Action Day project planning planners at Staples. They are perfect! I have one that is large and not bound. This one I’m using for my book proposal because I know it is going to be  an ongoing project with a lot of detail. For my blog, I’m using a smaller, spiral bound version. It allows me to plan my posts and see what’s next.

The final step? I put what I have to do each day in my Filofax that is with me all the time. It sounds like a lot of work – okay, it is a lot of work – but for the first time in years, I know my projects are planned out and I know I’m using my time wisely day-to-day.

Phew!


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A New Look

It’s a new look. Why? I couldn’t live without widgets.

Yes. I feel shallow. I feel sad that I couldn’t understand the post about using CSS to make widgets on my own…

Ultimately, I feel delighted to have widgets.

Now – What to do with them…


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My Brain Hurts

I can now relate to both the Monty Python guy who said, “My brain hurts” and whoever it was that said he’d give his kingdom for a horse!

It is not just a matter of creating the podcast in GarageBand and then purchasing the WordPress media upgrade and uploading the audio file to WordPress.

Oh. So. Not. So.

You then need to create a feed in FeedBurner – which I did. But I wound up with two and opted for the first before I read all the stuff at the bottom. It was evidently the WordPress one I somehow already had. So now I have some of the correct info in the iTunes listing. And some not. But it’s up there! Am I disappointed? Yes. But I’ll mark it a Triple and go for the Grand Slam next time I’m at bat.

Meanwhile, would it not make sense to mention that there were additional steps to getting the correct url for iTunes. Never mind. I clearly have no business messing with this stuff. However, I am going to continue because having a career as a freelance writer is evidently not painful enough.

So – does anyone want some posts about how to do this, given that I can get you about 98% of the way there? By that I mean, your podcast will appear in iTunes and people can subscribe. The exact description of the podcast may come from the header of your blog rather than your heart’s desire.

Next up? A trailer for my book – which I saw on the shelf  at Barnes and Noble in Bethesda yesterday!!!!


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Podcasting

Oh. My. Stars.

It’s not that I thought a podcast would be simple. I mean, I’m a writer. On demand, I can imagine some truly vivid worst case scenarios. Seriously, even my fevered imagination did not do justice to this effort.

First, I spent a couple of days figuring out the GarageBand was going to be just fine. (It was not at all obvious to me from the info on the Apple site!) I quickly discovered that using just the mic on my computer left me sounding like a child screaming into a tin can on a string in a cave with a serious echo. Enter the Blue Yeti microphone. I suppose there is a way to make it less obvious when I press and un-press the mute button – so far this eludes me. Likewise cutting the audio and re-taping a portion. If I were in charge of the audio for a film, the entire cast would sound like they had a bad case of the hiccups. I hasten to add that I am not blaming this on the mic. It clearly took care of the problem of sounding like a child with a tin can.

Now that I’ve invested days in this endeavor, I have a 10-minute podcast. I honestly am excited about it – I just wish it sounded more professional. I know how to get it into my iTunes. Next up for today is how to get it onto the iTunes store and add a link to my blog.

Fingers crossed, it will all work out just fine.