CornerScribe

Archive for May, 2007

I recently did an article about blog carnivals.

Recap

In brief, blog carnival occurs when one blog “hosts” writers from other blogs, who write on a topic specified by the host. The blog host will post links to participating writers, and perhaps some description of the work.

In my mind, there are a few benefits.

1. You get link(s) from other blogs, so you’re traffic will increase. Even if this is temporary, you may attract some permanent readers.
2. You will provide links back to the blog host. This is a polite thing to do for your carnival host, and it gives your readers an opportunity to see other blogs they might be interested in.

Results
I’ve participated in a few blog carnivals, mostly in May, and I’ve seen a significant traffic jump. It’s almost impossible to really know what the true effect was, but I have to think that was a large part of it. My hits, visitors, and page views have all nearly doubled this month.

That’s good for several reasons. If you blog, I’m guessing you’d like someone to read it, and the more someones, the better! Since way less than one percent of readers comment (my stats, at least), more readers theoretically means more comments. Discussions will, over time, build a blog community.

If you’re trying to make money from your blog, more traffic is obviously good. If you want, you can turn the pennies you make from pay-per-click ads like AdSense into real advertising as traffic builds.

Of course, being able to contribute something to the “blogosphere” discussion on your topic of choice is great. I enjoy knowing that others read my blog and get some benefit from it. In my opinion, that should be the first goal for anyone creating a blog, whether for love or money. If you focus on providing something really worth reading, then the traffic will come along.

Blog Carnival Thanks

Here’s a list of blog carnivals that have included one or more of my blog entries. If you’re interested in hosting a carnival on your own site, you might want to take a look at these and see how they’ve approached it.

Some do a really good job of putting together a nice-looking page, and others do a quick cut/paste. So far, I haven’t known if my work would actually appear until I saw the link tracked in my blog software, so don’t be surprised if you submit and don’t hear anything.

DigitalRichDaily: Carnival of the Storytellers

Fiction Scribe

The Writers’ Block Contest

Make Money Blogging

I’m pretty sure I’m missing one entry, but I can’t find anything in my referrer’s list. If you published something of mine and I’ve missed you here, please let me know in comments, and I’ll fix the error. Thanks to everyone!

I think this one somehow takes hold when we’re kids. A child says, “Billy and me want to go out.” He’s immediately told to say, “Billy and I.” That takes hold, and he says “Billy and I” all the time, whether it’s appropriate or not.

This one is simple. When using I or me with a name or another pronoun, ignore the other name or pronoun! Choose I or me as you would normally if it were standing alone.

• Billy and I/me want to play.

becomes

• Billy and I/me want to play.

Obviously, “I” is the correct choice.

• Give the toys to Billy and I/me.

becomes

• Give the toys to Billy and I/me.

This time, “me” is correct. You’d never say, “Give the toys to I.”

Who and whom are often confused. Even worse, so few people get it right, the right version sounds wrong to most of us! It doesn’t have to be hard at all.

Start by substituting he for who and him for whom.

So, let’s say you have this sentence. Who/whom are you going with? First off, put it in subject…verb order. Find the verb, going, and ask who’s going? You.

So you’ll change it to You are going with who/whom? Now, do your substitution. Which sounds right?

1. You are going with he? who
2. You are going with him? whom

The second is the obvious choice, isn’t it? So, Whom are you going with? is correct.

Let’s do one more.

Who/whom chose you as a lab partner? In this case, chose is the verb. Who chose? Well…. that’s what we want to know, right? So who/whom (whichever we choose) is the subject. Next do the substitution.

1. He chose you as a lab partner. who
2. Him chose you as a lab partner. whom

The choice is obvious again. Number one is right.

A little while ago, I did an entry on Achieving your Writing Dreams.

I thought it would be a fun exercise to think about your ideal writing day. You’ve “made it.” You’re doing exactly what you want to do.

1. What time do you get up? What’s for breakfast? Do you go right to work with a cup of coffee by your side, or do you do something else first?
2. What are you working on? Are you writing a novel? Freelancing? Writing a non-fiction book?
3. Where is your office? Is it where it is now, whether your bedroom, kitchen table, or spare room? What’s the furniture like? Or maybe your office is portable? Where do you do your writing?
4. What’s the next thing you do? Do you take a break from writing and exercise, research, grab a snack?
5. Do you have an assistant? Do you team up with other people to get your work done, do research, run errands?
6. Do you keep your kids with you during the day? Are you shuffling other duties along with your writing?
7. Lunchtime! How much writing have you done? What’s your plan for the afternoon?
8. Do you head back to writing or work on something else? Maybe a trip to the library, or a walk to clear your head?
9. Do you cook dinner, go out, or does your significant other take care of that?
10. What’s your evening look like? Writing? Editing? Do you show someone what you’ve worked on today?
11. When do you go to bed?
12. Do you have an agent? An editor? Are you self-publishing?
13. How many of your books are already on your bookshelf?
14. What kinds of promotional activities do you do? Book signings? Conferences? Do you attend, or speak?
15. What problems do you no longer have because of your writing career?
16. What problems has your writing career created for you?
17. Are you making enough money to support yourself? Your family?
18. What’s the best thing about your writing life? Is there anything you’d like to change about it?
19. Whom have you met since achieving your writing success? Whom do you still want to meet?
20. Has a stranger recognized you? Do you want them to?

I believe that in order to achieve your dreams, you have to have a concrete idea what your dream is. That means accept the good, and the not so good, that will come to you because of it. For example, you might love staying home but miss the social life of the office. You might be able to keep your kids with you, but that would take away from your writing time. You’ll meet new people, but some of your current friends may not feel comfortable with your new success.

Have fun with it! Post your answers in the comments if you like.

Use a comma to separate items in a list of three or more.

1. We brought sandwiches, fruit, and salads to the picnic.

or

1. We brought sandwiches, fruit and salads to the picnic.

Note that the final comma is optional. However, you may find that your writing is clearer at times with the comma. Whichever you choose, be consistent.

Commas should also be used to separate verbs and phrases that are in a series.

1. I cleaned the house, did the shopping, and paid our bills before lunch.

This is one I see (and hear) all the time!

An idea is a thought. “I had a good idea,” or “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

Ideal means that something is exceptionally good, even perfect. “Writing is my ideal job.” It can also mean that someone or something stands as an example of perfection. “He is an ideal father.”

To appraise something means to get its value estimated. For example,”Our loan officer says the house must be appraised.”

To apprise is to let someone know about something. So, “We apprised our supervisor of the situation.”

I’ve been thinking lately about ways to find more time to write. I’ve been working on that for a while now, since I tend to be pretty busy in general. I’ve made a list of some of the things I’ve tried, and how well they worked for me.

1. Get up earlier. I’ve tried this one (barely), but I have a really tough time dragging myself out of bed any earlier than I have to. I’m already getting up around 5:15 to get to work, so this is a toughie. I’m sure it works for some people, and if I didn’t already have to get up so early, it might for me too. I’ve found more success with…
2. Stay up later. I tend to be a night owl, so staying up an extra hour isn’t nearly as difficult for me as getting up early. During that hour, I only allow myself to write. No reading, no surfing, etc.
3. Use “dead” time in your day. It might be your lunch time at your desk, or appointments, or even standing in line. No, working on your novel might not be practical, but you can make notes, do research, even edit a few pages. For me, working on a rough draft is a good way to make use of these small bits of time. (As an aside, I’ve been looking for something portable and cheap ($100 or so!) to carry along for writing. No, I’m not found of the Dana. I’m looking for something like the old Jornada. Ideas?)
4. Housework help. I’m not the world’s greatest housekeeper; it just doesn’t seem to come naturally for me like it does for some people. I’ve worked hard to get some routines down. I spend a little time every night doing housework, and I do it first thing, since I know it’s the most likely thing to get postponed. I also ask for help! Believe me, just asking for a hand makes a huge difference.
5. Workspace. I keep my writing handy and my workspace relatively neat. It’s easier to sit down and work if I don’t have to do a lot of cleaning or paper shuffling first.
6. Set aside time to write. For me, that’s evenings, but it might be any time. Committing to writing every evening has really helped me be more productive.
7. Re-evaluate what you need to do. Think about all the tasks that infringe on your writing time. Can you eliminate any of them? Can you ask anyone else to help with them? How about paying someone else to handle them? Don’t think I’m kidding on the last one. We pay to have our grass mowed, and it saves us both lots of time and aggravation, and it’s more than worth what we pay to have it done.
8. Re-evaluate what you want to do. Again, think about all the things that take away from your writing time. Is it reading? Research? Television? While these may be things you enjoy, do you enjoy them enough to let them keep you from writing? In some cases, the answer may be yes, but be sure you’re making the decision to not write, and not just having it happen without thinking about it. I know that I don’t read as much as I used to. I don’t knit as much as I’d like, and I only watch shows on television that I really, really enjoy.
9. Take time off. This may seem counter-intuitive, but I need some time away from writing occasionally. Give yourself permission to goof off and do whatever you want. Just as you’d take a vacation from your job, it’s good to take a vacation from writing as well.
10. Find quicker ways to do other things. A couple examples come to mind. I spend less time on housework now because 1. I’m keeping up with it better and 2. I’ve decluttered a lot. You’d be surprised how much quicker it is to clean when every surface isn’t covered in stuff. Another thing I do is use an RSS reader (I use Google Reader) to manage the blogs I read. I still get to read what I enjoy, but it’s a lot faster than visiting each individual blog.
11. Set writing goals. Whether it’s a daily goal, or weekly, or whatever, goals help me stick with my writing plans. I tend to use time goals rather than length goals; length goals have me checking my word count too often!
12. Don’t work on too many things at once. I’m bad to start multiple writing projects and make little progress on any of them. I try to limit myself now to one or two (max!) projects at once. I find that jumping between projects really wastes lots of time. By the time I remember where I was and what I intended to do, my writing time is over for the day.
13. Make yourself notes. No matter how soon you plan to get back to the work, make yourself some notes about what you want to do next, where the scene is going, the plot twist you’re about to write, etc. Believe me, I can’t count the times I’ve forgotten what I meant to write. Talk about frustrating!
14. Mark where you leave off. This applies more to editing, but I find it handy to make where I left off in the draft. If you’re using paper, that’s easy. If you edit on the screen like I have been lately, then put something in the text you can search for and find your spot. I use ###.
15. Stay stocked on supplies. There’s nothing more irritating than needing to print something (or make notes, or do an outline, etc.) and not have the supplies you need to do it. Make a list of supplies you need and pick them up on your next trip to the store. Stay stocked up.
16. Keep track of your accounting. If you’re not writing for money, it may not be worth your time to track expenses, but if you’re getting paid to write, then you’ll need to keep some track of it. A simple spreadsheet does fine for me.

Here’s the example of the novel and how I’m doing the outlining that I promised. Of course, all standard copyright applies. Please feel free to link to it here, but please don’t copy it on your own site.

Novel excerpt

I used OpenOffice.org software to write the novel and do the table of contents, which is actually an outline for me. I can work from those notes as I’m doing the editing/rewriting that’s next in the process.

I used the following abbreviations and style formatting.

S: subject heading1

C: conflict heading2

N: notes heading3

E: ending heading4

You could, of course, add even more layers to the outline. If you prefer, you can even set Open Office to include the paragraph text in the table of contents/outline. I’m sure something similar is possible in Word, but I usually don’t use Word for anything more complicated than a simple document.

This is an extremely rough draft. One thing that jumps out at me is that. the scenes are far too short and choppy. Not all the characters are going to stick around until the end of the novel. Teresa and her story just dwindle away, so I’m probably going to remove her entirely. I’m also going to redo the ending.

By the way, these scenes were written last November as part of NaNoWriMo, so I’m not kidding when I say they’re rough!

I know that writing a novel, and editing a novel, are very personal tasks. I hope that something I’m doing might give you some ideas or come in handy in some way.

I just wanted to mention that I HATE websites that spew music. Not only is it intrusive, but when I’m somewhere quiet surfing, it’s very annoying.

And I won’t even mention that most of these sites are infringing copyright.

Sigh….

Glad I got that out of my system.