Saturday, 4 of February of 2012
The Best of Learning & Leading with Technology
Selections from Volumes 31-35
Edited by Jennifer Roland
With a large selection of articles from each of the regular sections of ISTE’s award-winning magazine, The Best of Learning & Leading with Technology is an excellent resource for new ISTE members or beginning ed tech users, and is a “must-have” volume for longtime fans of the magazine. Along with provocative columns, insightful features, and practical tips, a full-color section showcases some of the best artwork and covers from the L&L design team.
Order directly from ISTE or from Amazon or Powell's.
See further works here.
With the end of BlogRush, you may be wondering how to drive traffic to your blog. Me, too.
I’m testing out a widget very similar to BlogRush called BlogReach. (I’ve got it posted on Pop Culture Curmudgeon for now.) We’ll see how it goes.
Any other ideas or widgets? Post them in the comments section.
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
I complain a lot in my head. That’s just the sort of person I am.
So, I thought nothing of it when I began complaining about how hard it is to carry on a day job that involves writing and trying to build a career as a writer after work. I’m emotionally exhausted after work and the commute, and I can easily talk myself out of turning on the computer. And I have a long commute. And I have to walk one of the dogs each night. And I feel better if the dishes are in the dishwasher before I go to bed. And I have to do laundry every now and then so we all have clean clothes to wear. Woe is me! (Picture me as a southern belle with the vapors, one hand on my forehead, slumping on the couch.)
Then I read this blog post at Rose City Romance Writers: Mixing Day Job and Writing Life
This woman has just about the same schedule I have, except she gets 200,000+ words written each year.
I immediately decided that meant she is more dedicated, more determined, more disciplined, you know, generally just better than I am. So I should probably just give this whole thing up.
After I wallowed a little, I realized that if Maggie Jaimeson can do it, so can I. I went home, turned on the computer, cranked out lesson 3 in my course, got farther into chapter 2 in my novel, and accomplished a little research that will help me flesh out my villain. Not a bad evening.
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
A few months ago, I read a blog post that suggested getting up two hours early to write. I cringed at the thought. I already get up between 5:45 and 6 every morning to get ready for work. And I’ve always been a night owl–mornings are for sleeping, I say.
But, as I struggle to have time and energy to write after I get home from work, I am beginning to think that might be my only option. In fact, I find that I have all sorts of good ideas in the morning, and they are lost by the time I get home.
I wanted to link to the original blog post, but of course, I don’t remember who wrote it or how I found it. Instead, I found these two pages that might inspire me to drag my ass out of bed in the morning. I mean, this writing thing is important to me, right?
http://writetodone.com/2008/01/17/how-to-write-first-thing-in-the-morning/
http://zenhabits.net/2007/05/10-benefits-of-rising-early-and-how-to-do-it/
Now on to the real question. I know there is a name for morning people (other than insane), but I don’t remember what it is. Larks? Songbirds?
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
My post from a few days ago (Fear and Shame) was included in this week’s Just Write Blog Carnival. Find out what else was included at http://www.missyfrye.net/Blog/?p=920.
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
I’ve gotten into the real meat of On Writing, and I think I shouldn’t listen to it on my way to work, only on my way home. As I’m driving, I’m thinking of all these changes I want to make on my story, but I can’t do them until I get home at night. By then, I’ve probably forgotten my initial brainstorm.
But, I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who has any interest in writing. Not having read Stephen King in such a long time, I had forgotten his way of drawing the reader in, seemingly effortlessly.
BTW, King hates adverbs, especially those used in dialogue attribution. Hence, the title of this blog post is a quote from On Writing.
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
I was listening to Stephen King’s book On Writing this morning on my hour-long commute to work. He spoke of the early stories he wrote, and for a few minutes that made me question whether I really have the writing bug. Does the fact that I didn’t start writing until recently mean that I’m not a real writer?
Then I remembered the story he led with–an exhibition of the world’s strongest boy that ended with wasp stings and smashed toes. Now, I don’t think I would have done anything like that when I was a kid, not because I was afraid of getting hurt, but because I was afraid of anyone seeing me doing anything out of my comfort zone. What if they laughed at me or thought I was stupid?
Fear and shame have been my longtime companions, and they have led to frequent bouts of self-doubt. This self-doubt has kept me from pursuing writing because I never thought I’d be good enough or that people would like what they read.
Thinking back, I know that I created stories in my head, but I never put them down on paper. So, I know that the well of creativity is there, waiting to be accessed. Interestingly, I continue to feel the same doubt, but I’m pushing through it and writing anyway. That feels good.
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
I heard about a book on the radio today that sounds interesting: Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz: How to Attract Massive Attention for Your Business, Your Product, or Yourself by David Seaman.
He apparently describes some publicity stunts that can get good attention in the media. The local library doesn’t have a copy, so I may have to visit a bookstore to check it out.
Speaking of books, I had to return the three writing books I mentioned earlier to the library. I ended up buying The Well-Fed Writer, as it was one of the recommended books for my writing course. I may also buy Jenna Glatzer’s book. I only read the openings of all of the books–the business part–but I enjoyed them all.
I also read The E-Myth for my class. It’s sometimes hard to figure out how to apply the tips he gives to a writing business, but occasionally, I get a good brainstorm. One of the things he mentioned was to know what business you are in. Not what product you create/sell, but what business you are in. I realized that for fiction, I am in the fantasy business–I’m just like Chanel. But I’m not sure how to reconcile that with my nonfiction writing. Should I consider the two to be separate businesses? What business is my nonfiction? Or does my nonfiction fall under marketing for my fiction?
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
As I posted on Pop Culture Curmudgeon earlier this week, I attended a teambuilding ropes course on Monday for my day job. It kicked my ass, and I’ve been sore and exhausted ever since.
I also had some trouble with the power supply for my laptop, so it was also exhausted. I don’t know if it was sore–I like to keep our relationship strictly professional.
After getting a replacement cord from HP (in record time, I might add) and marshaling a little energy last night, I completed another revision of my short story and submitted it to the Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Contest.
As I wrote this story, it turned from a self-contained piece into what will probably be the first chapter of my first novel. I started the story with one idea about what it was going to be and who the characters were, but it did a complete 180 while writing. Motivations changed, things happened that I never would have foreseen, the genre even shifted–it could have been chaos. I feel like I created a strong and interesting story in the horror genre (!), so that is the category in which I entered it.
I also learned that I need an outline for longer projects. My seat of the pants process worked with this short story, but it would kill a novel or even a novella. So, my task for tonight after work is to create a rough outline for my novel. (A week ago, I didn’t think I was ready to even attempt a novel.) I simply have to capture all of the ideas flowing through my head before I lose them.
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
The story I’m working on/having reviewed by a friend focuses on vampire culture in the Pacific Northwest. Vampires are hiding out in a world that worships them without any real knowledge of who they are and how they really live. Sometimes the conflict leads to bad results, even deaths.
The story is mainly set in Portland, and I’m wondering where the vampire culture hotspots are. I know about the Vampire Masquerade Ball, but there has to be more than that. Where do people hang out? How do they meet? How do they find donors? How do vampires weed out potential donors? How do they view the dabblers who want to be part of something exotic or kinky on the weekend, but not make it their lifestyle?
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
OK, so maybe post 1 should have been the “my story” post, but here it is anyway. This is an excerpt from an email I sent to the friend who gave me feedback on my first story:
It’s really funny how this whole thing started. When I learned at the beginning of the
year that I wouldn’t be able to move to full-time immediately, I asked a friend at my old employer if he could send some freelance editing work my way. Instead, he asked me to write a book. Thankfully, I was able to go to full-time about three days after my boss told me we couldn’t afford it–she went to bat for it pretty strong–because writing a book doesn’t actually earn you any money for a long time. It’s not even going to come out until June of next year, and they pay royalties every six months.
But the concept of making money at something like this awakened my desire to be a writer that had been lying dormant since a bad experience writing a story in high school. I simply had no concept of how to structure the middle of the story, so I got a bad grade because point A did not lead to point B very well. That deflated my ego terribly, and I didn’t try my hand at writing anything creative or personal again until after I turned in the book manuscript this year. (Well, there was a brief flash of inspiration after a Tori concert when I had to write a poem before we could even leave the venue, but that was different.)
I’ve got a couple story ideas that I’ve started, but this is the only one that has been so fully formed. And it is really like it is writing itself. It is a struggle to find the time to sit at the computer and capture it because it is swirling around in my head so fast.
With the reading I’m doing about how to structure a writing business, and this rekindled creativity, I’m really beginning to believe that I could achieve this childhood dream.
Categories: Uncategorized, writing
