Coffee, elevators and food replicators

If you get a break in your writing go back and read some of the stuff you wrote. Pay particular attention to those moments in writing when you were typing away at a feverish pace and you really had no idea what you were saying. Trust me, while it may momentarily cause you to question your abilities as a writer, it is sure to make you smile at some point.

For example, yesterday my main character woke up, made some coffee, drank some coffee, then went out for coffee. I’m pretty sure right now she is drinking more coffee. Guess what is sitting on my desk while I write? You guessed it! Coffee!

Or I have plenty of these little gems:

“The elevator slowed to a stop at the penthouse floor and the doors opened automatically.”

Only in fiction will you find elevator doors that open automatically! If only we could harness that technology in the real world! Sometimes I just amaze myself with my forward thinking! This one is going to be right up there with the food replicator on Star Trek.

Do you have any gems of your own to share?

Have a productive writing day!

Let the novel writing begin!

So our little group of Wrimos started at midnight and wrote together until 2:00 a.m.  We were able to secure free space at the Wingate Hotel which was a lifesaver. While the pancakes and coffee were much appreciated last year at iHop, this was much more conducive to the writing process.

So my word count stands at 2,885 at 5:00 p.m. on the 1st. Not too shabby. What is more perfect is my first chapter has been written and revised. I know, not the way it is supposed to work but I felt the need to get to know my characters better. Now that I have a good idea of what they look like and how they might behave, I think I can now push forward with enthusiasm.

I  want to offer my thanks to Stephen King for his words of wisdom contained in his book “On Writing.” Particularly the section on the benefits of not plotting  which I read for the second time during the eleventh hour last night. Thank you Mr. King. I am looking forward to having my characters surprise me once again.

Happy writing!

The MacSpeech Dictate Debate

I would really like to try MacSpeech Dictate for writing my next novel but I worry that my mind, which has been collaborating with my fingers all these years, will reject the idea of working with a new partner, my voice. You see it isn’t a question of whether or not the software will work. I have complete faith that the product will do what it says it will. I even accept the limitations and issues that come with voice recognition software:

1. You need to speak clearly
2. You need to speak in chunks
3. You need to speak punctuation
4. It requires the use of a headset so unless you buy a compatible wireless $$$ headset, you are tied to the computer
5. It won’t curse unless you teach it to
6. It does not make spelling errors (Which means if it replaces your word with what it thinks you said, you may not catch it in editing.)

My concern is that I won’t be able to adapt to this new style of writing.

As Apple provides no speech-to-text capabilities built into Mac OS X, as opposed to Windows which I understand has a basic program built in, there is really no way to test the function myself. I also cannot find any shareware on the market. To the best of my knowledge, MacSpeech does not offer a trial version. This may have to do with the limited number of headsets that will work with the software. At any rate, I emailed MacSpeech several days ago about a try before you buy version and I never heard back. This lack of response may give credence to the few negative reviews I have read about MacSpeech lack of support.

As for price, MacSpeech retails for $199 including headest and $299 with a wireless USB headset plus $8 for shipping.  I did find that the Apple store offers an educational discount and free shipping which brings the wired version down to $189 inlcuding tax.  This is a still a pretty steep price for something that I’m just not sure will work for me. All I need is another bluetooth device collecting dust and an unused application taking up memory.

So the jury is out and with NaNoWriMo fast approaching it appears I will most likely be typing away come November 1st. My mind will be happy avoiding retraining in the eleventh hour.  I just hope my fingers will forgive me for contemplating a job replacement action.

This Novelist Uses Storyist!

I recently downloaded Storyist for Mac and although I have only had limited time to test it out, I am thoroughly impressed with the features. It offers so much more than what I was previously working with. So far my favorite feature is the customizable character, setting and plot sheets. I also like the nifty cork board, index cards, and polaroid shots of my characters. I can’t wait to use the word count and timer features for NaNoWriMo. Look for a more in depth review in the weeks to come!

Prepping for NaNoWriMo: Creating my Writing Space

Writing Studio & Creative Procrastination Station

NaNoWriMo provides me with so much more than thirty days of intense writing.  Pre-planning for NaNo is great becuase I get to do things that I put off throughout the year.  This year I am focused on creating my own personal writing space. For some reason I have always put it off. For years I was just too busy to even think about it and it was always one of those “one day” projects. Later when I had the time, I created guilt thinking claiming my own space would take something away from someone else. But circumstances have changed and I realize that not only do I have the space, I deserve to claim it.

So here is the Writing Studio/Creative Procrastination Station as a work in progress. I have an entire room devoted to what I love to do and what I want to learn how to do. Not only do I have a desk devoted strictly to creating fiction but I have a place for all my art and quilting supplies.  I plan to create zones within the room for each task and project. My plan for the walls will include a giant cork board, white board, and a felt board for quilt planning.

Note the blank manuscript page on the screen! Formatted and ready for November!

A room with a view.

My grandfather's typewriter will provide inspiration.

I do need to go chair shopping, but this one will keep me awake!

NaNoWriMo Relaunch = Success!

For those of you who didn’t stay up all night waiting for the relaunch, it is official! We are up and running once again! Check out the shiny new features at NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo Relaunch

Look for the relaunch of the National Novel Writing Month website to take place TODAY in the late afternoon west coast time. So I’ll be watching around 5:00 p.m. my time. The relaunch is to feature a new masthead and exciting new video content. This year there will also be NaNo Q&As and a complete list of this year’s guest pep talkers.  Some features they have announced are a communications module, Procrastination Stations (sounds like this one is for me!), and ML controlled regional info stations. I have no idea what any of this is but I am excited to find out! See you on the forums!

Countdown to NaNoWriMo

Today is the last day in September which means tomorrow brings the relaunch of the 2009 NaNoWriMo site!

My Co-ML and I began our preparations for this year’s event months ago. We have our write-ins scheduled and our locations reserved. We are prepared for the annual wipe of the forums and are ready to get posting our welcomes and shout-outs starting tomorrow! Our sticker reserves have been stocked and our t-shirts have arrived. Soon we will be posting fliers in local libraries and coffee shops and meeting with teen writing groups to introduce young writers to NaNoWriMo.

Yesterday our writing group was interviewed by Josette Keelor of the Northern Virginia Daily. We all met up at the new Samuels Public Library in Front Royal, Virginia and talked about our plans for National Novel Writing Month and our writing activities throughout the year. The article is expected to go to print on the 24th of October, just in time for the start of NaNoWriMo.

Although many of us write throughout the year, we often find it difficult to balance everything and too often it is our one true passion that we are forced to set aside for the more pressing things in life. Thanks to NaNoWriMo we are able to dedicate thirty days to guilt free writing. October is expected to be a busy month as once again we prepare our homes, families, friends and co-workers for our departure in November. So let the countdown begin. 31 days!

New “Oh Hi Lucy” Banner on Etsy Created with Art Rage 2.5

This weekend I created a new banner for the Oh Hi Lucy shop on Etsy.  The application I used is Art Rage 2.5.  I was able to start with the exact canvas specs required by Etsy. Each element of the banner is created in its own layer so I could play around with different ideas without losing anything. The ability to create stencils is a powerful feature of Art Rage. The text, button and bamboo are all created from special fonts and then saved as stencils within Art Rage. Each stencil can be moved, scaled and rotated on the canvas. Once you have your stencils and layout done it is just a matter of selecting colors and tools to create the effect you like. On this banner the main logo is filled with the airbrush tool. The button and bamboo or simply filled with oil paint to give it a 3D look.

Oh Hi Lucy on Twitter

Connect with the Oh Hi Lucy shop on Twitter! Oh Hi Lucy on Twitter

Also, only one day left to view my first treasury on Etsy. I selected items from shops new in 2009 with fewer than 25 sales.

Three cheers for new! For who? For you!