Beyond NaNoWriMo

Whether you made a fantastic effort at NaNoWriMo or not, life goes on. Our December motivational post for writers comes courtesy of Infinity Publishing. Here is the link to their recommended author apps.

Personally, I already like using 'Writeometer' to keep me focused for article deadlines, and I will surely use 'Avoid People' when I need to seek out a quiet place to write.

Here is the full list from Infinity:


Writeometer
This handy app will become your go-to spot for increasing your word production and keeping records. It includes a 25-minute timer for those who write using the Pomodoro Technique, spots to include your daily word count, charts and graphs to see your progress, records on all your works in progress, and even virtual treats for reaching your word count goals. Free, available on Android.

Songza
If you're the type of author who likes music when you write, this is the perfect app for finding the right mood music for your current scene. Songza offers a variety of music based on moods and time, instead of artists or genre. For example, on a recent Saturday morning, Songza offered music for trimming the Christmas tree, cleaning the house, taking a nap, or recovering from a hangover. Search for music by activities, moods, decades, and more, or just let Songza suggest something for you. Available on Android or through your browser.

Wi-Fi Finder
Available both on iTunes and Android, this is the perfect app for the author on the go. Wi-Fi Finder will search your surrounding neighborhood and show all the free wi-fi spots that are available around you. Ideal for road trips or even just when you need a different environment for your writing once in a while.

Avoid Humans
Love to work at coffee shops and outdoor plazas but have a hard time working in a crowd? Avoid Humans takes on that challenge admirably. Click on the app and it will show you bars, coffee shops, restaurants and other places with wi-fi, all with little to no crowds at the present time. Solitude away from your desk: the best of both worlds.

The Brainstormer
Fiction writers who do book series have a unique problem. They use the same environment and the same group of characters in all of their books, but they need to write a different story around them multiple times. When the new plot ideas just won't come, The Brainstormer can be a help. It creates endless combinations of plot or conflict, style or setting, and subject or location. Mix and match until you find one that fits your series. In the App Store for iTunes.

Podcast Republic
Keeping up with the business end of writing can be a tough job. Luckily, dozens of authors and publishers broadcast weekly audible shows each week on that very topic. Podcasts can give you valuable information on any subject, giving you down time from your writing while still not goofing off. Podcast Republic, like many other podcast aggregators, allows you to search for podcasts by topic, saving and updating your favorites each week.

Thanks to Writers's Relief for allowing me to share this with you:

With the distractions and excitement of summer's waning days,  Writer’s Relief invites you to free your mind! Read what they have to say about the process of freewriting. It is a great way to focus on your writing even when you don't know where to start, or don't have much time.


This article has been reprinted with the permission of Writer’s Relief, an author’s submission service that has been helping creative writers make submissions since 1994. Their work is highly recommended in the writing community, and there are TONS of freebies, publishing leads, and writers resources on their website. Check it out!

Some authors still write by hand

Mashable has a neat article about authors who write their books by hand. Joyce Carol Oates is said to write longhand for up to eight hours a day.

In an interview with Salon, she said of her process:

"Why is this so unusual? Every writer has written 'by hand' until relatively recent times. Writing is a consequence of thinking, planning, dreaming -- this is the process that results in 'writing,' rather than the way in which the writing is recorded."

See the full list here on Mashable.

Talk about reverse engineering!

At last, there is a way to connect keyboard-less digital devices to typewriters!

 

See this Poets & Writers article at http://www.pw.org/content/typewriters_in_the_21st_century 

Excerpt:

The USB Typewriter, created by Jack Zylkin, is one of the products that pay homage to that lionized, endangered, and, for some, still preferable writing machine. The USB Typewriter is a kit of electronica that, when installed on a typewriter, sends whatever is typed on the machine to an attached digital device—a computer, tablet, or smartphone—where it is stored as electronic, and thus editable and uploadable, text. The converted typewriter still works on its own, in the traditional fashion, with or without a device attached. Zylkin began tinkering with his own typewriter in 2009, simply out of love for the machine and a wish to rescue it from obsolescence; it wasn’t until he officially introduced his creation to the public, in 2010, that he fully realized what it could mean for writers. “For me, it’s all about the magic of typewriters and how wonderful they are—I just like working on them,” Zylkin says. “But they represent a whole way of writing that is being forgotten.

Read more here...

Grammarly to the rescue

In my youth, a convoy of nuns at Sacred Heart School taught English, grammar, writing, shorthand and typing. The nuns are long gone to their heavenly reward but daily, I am grateful for my ability to string sentences together. These basic skills helped me make a living in the corporate world for many years, and then as a writer/author. Freelance writers without the early-childhood advantage of nuns for teachers can be grateful for Grammarly. This company stepped forward to provide a survey showing the value of good writing, at a time when good freelancers are in great demand. Grammarly is an online automatic proofreading service and grammar coach.


In a survey of nearly 500 freelance professionals, Grammarly analyzed how well the freelancers' online profiles at ELance.com seemed to correlate to credibility, hireability or pay. The results showed the best-reviewed freelancers had the fewest writing errors per 100 words in their profile. Error rates by freelance writers were markedly lower than other areas, such as IT, engineering, sales and financial professionals. Across all fields in the study, writers earned more money per job than other professions.

Perhaps it is our attention to detail, critical eye, and love of words that make us so reliable and in demand.

To the left, you'll find an interesting infographic supplied by Grammarly... (click to enlarge)







Note: Grammarly made a donation to Reading is Fundamental, on my behalf.

NANOWRIMO returns. Stop procrastinating.

If you're excited by National Novel Writing Month, you're in good company. See my 2011 post for more about NANOWRIMO. Some writers have novel ideas ready to go, and others will work on a memoir or use the event to make a commitment to writing over 1,600 words a day or even commit to daily blogging. The goal is a total of 50,000 words, a great first draft on your project.

Too ambitions for you? Any effort is better than none.Either way, it is an inspiring community of writers. Learn more at NANOWRIMO.

Also, Story Studio Chicago has events to keep you motivated here.

And if you need help, there is a new productivity app Stop Procrastinating, designed to help writers stay focused by combining psychology with technology. I just learned about this today, and if you want to find out more, visit this link. (www.stopprocrastinatingapp.com). The app is ridiculously inexpensive and can finally help you focus on your writing instead of online distractions. Do it...now.

Stop Procrastinating App

Feeling stuck?

If the winter weather has your writing in a rut, consider these wise words from a former US President, and keep writing!

"Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction."

                                                                                                                                  — Harry Truman

The Writer's Clock

It's 2014 and the clock is ticking.  Let's hold ourselves accountable but not resist the levity of this terrific clock:

Source and ordering info: http://lindarohrbough.us/clocks.htm

Wearing many hats

Writer? Author? ... Here's an interesting viewpoint on what it takes to make it today.

We know this, but this blog post excerpt, from Cheryl Pickett restates the facts in a direct way.

So, let me ask you.... my friends and clients who've successfully published this year, I'm sure this will resonate with you. She's right... so how many hats are you wearing to keep your book alive?


From Cheryl Pickett, TheNonfictionZone.com

"The biggest rule change? Unless you are writing just for a hobby, you need to wear much more than your writer hat. You’ll need to write, potentially publish, and definitely market. Bottom line, you are a small or micro business owner, not just an author. And that means you need to do all the things that go with running a business."

"Real artists ship."

This should be especially interesting to those of you who, like me, crave more time for writing. We put in a lot of face time at the screen and keyboard, but perhaps the following excerpt from  Notes From My Desk, the weekly motivational blast from Mridu Khullar explains why we aren't shipping the goods, metaphorically speaking...

Productive people ship, as she quotes Steve Jobs who said "“Real artists ship.”

Mridu continues:
"It’s not about how many blog posts you can write or how much you can tweet or how many relationships with editors you can build, though all of those things are important. What matters most, is how many words you can write, how many projects you can finish, how quickly and how often you can ship. How are you going to use those relationships? What is the purpose of the blog posts? Is tweeting taking you away from your goal of shipping?"

You can read her full post here.

Diligence in our writing

Do you quit when your writing is 'good enough?"  Most of us revise our work three or four times and feel its ready to publish. I try to follow the good advice to set any piece of writing aside until at least the next morning.  When I read it over again, with fresh eyes, I almost always find another error.


That's what the professionals in the news business do too, although they have to work much faster. The following journalism fable comes from Carl Sessions Stepp, who marked 50 years of journalism with 50 lessons learned. Here is #49..


49. My favorite fable about journalism.
"According to John Hersey, in the New Yorker's early days a critic complained that unsophisticated theater audiences would "laugh at the drop of a ha on the stage." The pun on "drop of a hat" looked like a typo, so Editor Harold Ross determined to make sure it survived. He wrote "do not change" on galleys. He followed it through the production process. He even climbed into the press, read the plate to make sure "drop the ha" remained, and told printers not to change it. The next day, he picked up the new issue and saw "hat." The printers had changed shifts after he left, and someone proofreading pages had made the change.
The fable, Hersey said, offers two eternal truths. Writers should be willing to risk their lives by climbing into the press to save a word. And they should recognize that no matter what they do, the work will never be perfect."

See Stepp's full list of fifty items here at American Journalism Review.

A little advice on succssful pitches

Thanks to Book Marketing Buzz for their timely tips on their blog. If I was going to BEA this year, I'd definitely nest in their corner and absorb more of their top marketing ideas.  With Spring in full swing, those of us who want to get articles published this year better step up. Knowing the long cycle from query to assignment, your pitch in May might be in print by November.

A recent post on their blog discusses the best ways to pitch the media when most of them are understaffed. The answer ,of course, is to make their job easier.

The way to appeal to the news media is:

<    * Localize your story when possible

<     * Have a truly timely and news-worthy hook

<     * Present a story that is easy to cover, with well-packaged materials such as written content, videos, or visuals

<     * Let them know you have a large platform, such as a big number of Twitter followers or YouTube viewers –
  this will move them to cover you because they hope your social media fans will follow them

<     * Say something new or something old in a new way

<     * Don’t make the media have to think, do research, or download 50 things – make your pitch short, simple and catchy.

A fine quote for those days when you're stuck...

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."-- Mark Twain

 

 

 

When you get some time to spend on your writing, don't let anything get in your way. Even if you can't remember what you wanted to write about, or what magazine you wanted to pitch, sit down and start writing. Something good will come of it, I promise.

Make a good impression in 2013

Start the new year with an aggressive approach to earning new freelance assignments

Besides finding markets, crafting a clever pitch, what's the best thing you can do to get noticed?

The answer is "Wow 'em with yur clips."  Until now, this was an ugly project for most writers. Either send them a link to your site or links to the original articles on magazine sites. Of course, you hope those links remain fresh, but we know that's not always the case. Besides bad links, you can send PDFs or JPGs that may not make the best impression.

So the solution is:  Pressfolios where you can manage an online portfolio of your work. You add a link, whether clips are stored on your site or elsewhere, organize them, and use the one simple link to let editors view your work. You can choose the photo to accompany each article's link, refer editors to the permanent link, and be proud of your queries with smart clips.

Spend an hour this holiday weekend to get started, and you'll put your best clips forward for greater success in 2013.

Housework can wait

This note from someone I just met last week really made my day. If you question why and whether you should keep blogging, let this be your motivation:

"I enjoyed reading your blog and I bookmarked it.It motivated me to make time to work on my writing today and put off the housework until tomorrow."  

From a man of few words:

10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer

Write.
Write more.
Write even more.
Write even more than that.
Write when you don’t want to.
Write when you do.
Write when you have something to say.
Write when you don’t.
Write every day.
Keep writing.

Source: About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media.

Enough said!
Helen

2012 Writer's Calendar

Still time to buy your 2012 writer's calendar...

Bylines Calendar for writers is running late this year but now you can view and purchase the 2012 edition of their spiral-bound calendar dedicated to writers. Here's the link: http://bylinescalendar.com.
Great holiday gift!

I decided a few years ago that I needed a paper calendar specifically for tracking my writing. Between assignments, submission deadlines, and those floating ideas that need to be organized somewhere, using an online calendar or Outlook just doesn't have the flexibility you can get with Bylines Calendar for 2012. The publisher was not able to produce a 2011 edition, due to a family medical problem, so I purchased a different one, and really missed my Bylines.

HAPPILY, it's back and you can order it as a gift to yourself, or for a friend, here.
I even have an essay in it this year, so I'll be even more excited to receive my copy.
Helen

Write today - it's a writer's holiday

Today is I Love to Write Day.
I never heard of this holiday until I saw it on SheWrites.com this morning.


In fact, it is the 10th anniversary of the event - so write something for yourself, and then read more about the history of the event here.

A new hangout, just for writers

Everything old is new again. In addition to Google Plus, which is a new competitor to Facebook, Google has launched  

Google + Hangouts for Writing Groups

MediaBistro.com has a full report and posted a link to a how-to by Mary Robinette Kowal.

In its early stages, it looks useful for writing groups in distant cities, for friends logging in for the commitment to write and then checking back with the group, and creating a structure for discussion or critique. Learn more here.

Mary is one of the people testing the new Hangout for Writers. Learn more and sign up here if you too want to be an early adopter. https://plus.google.com/up/start/?sw=1&type=st

Here's feedback from participants: http://www.jamierubin.net/2011/07/14/my-first-google-writers-hangout/
Helen

Guest post: Penny Colman on organizing her new non-fiction release

Penny Colman is author of the new book released today, May 20, 2011, published by Henry Holt and Co.

 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World

AMAZON LINK

I asked Penny to share her thoughts with Release Your Writing blog readers on how she managed to structure this complex story. Penny's response...


I’ve had the feeling before upon signing a book contract, but with this book—Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World—it was particularly intense.  What feeling, you ask?  Panic in concert with the words echoing in my brain:  “And what have I gotten myself into this time!?” 

Sure, I had tackled big topics before, including a history of burial, the true story of Thanksgiving, a collective biography of eight historic women with widely varying amounts of source material, and the story of Rosie the Riveter. But this book was to be a joint biography that spanned more than ninety years through the lens of a legendary friendship between two very different women that lasted fifty-one years and was at the center of a momentous social movement that is typically trivialized.

In May 1851 when they met, Elizabeth was thirty-five years old and Susan was thirty-one years old.  

Of course, I could have started the book at that point, but I was curious about the differences and similarities in how they grew up.  That curiosity certainly ratcheted up my writerly anxieties about how to structure the telling of these separate stories. I spent weeks working through this decision. 

1. I taped long sheets of paper on a wall and made parallel timelines from their births to their first meeting.  
2. I used Post-it Notes so that I could easily add or remove items, as I tried to discern a structure.  
3. Then, one day, I saw it--four time periods that encompassed significant events in both their lives: 1815-1832; 1833-1839; 1840-1847; 1848-1850.  Eureka! 

With that insight I was able to organize their early years into eight alternating chapters that focused on one and then the other. Here are the title and subtitle of the first two chapters in Part I: 

“Ah, You Should Have Been a Boy!”

 ELIZABETH CADY: 1815-1832
"An Affectionate Family” SUSAN B. ANTHONY: 1820-1832

Part II covers the years from their meeting through the Civil War. The story of what Elizabeth called the “dark hour of woman’s struggle” appears in Part III. Their final years, in which they go from ridicule to reverence, ostracism to embrace, are examined in Part IV. 

With my structure in place, I set off to write a book that brought Elizabeth and Susan to life for me, and, of course, I hope for everyone who reads Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World.