Cameron's Site and Blog Feed

Short break

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 11:50:00 +0000

Hey everyone. Just wanted to let you know I will be without a laptop for the next few days, so I will be taking a few days off from posting. Fear not, regular posts will return next week. Thank you for reading and I will have more content for you soon. In the meamtime, if you need to reach me, contact me on Twitter and I will respond as quickly as I can.

4 Tips to Make Sure You Don't Waste Already Wasted Time

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

On Monday, I talked a little bit about wasting time and procrastinating, along with my favorite ways to do so. Today, I'll talk about my favorite time to not waste: wait time. The picture on the left is the line that was in front of me at Chipotle yesterday for lunch. As you can see, there are at least twenty-five people that like their burritos or burrito bowls as much as I do and who arrived before I did. This meant a solid fifteen minutes of waiting in line before I could haul my fifteen pound burrito back to the office. So I took advantage of the situation and made it productive time. I managed to catch up on email, engage with some people on Twitter, take a photo and make notes about today's post all before I had to make the vital decision between chicken and carnitas.

Take Your Phone With You

I just needed to run in and get a burrito, so I could have left my phone in the car and run in, only to find I had a wait that would have been wasted. If you take your phone with you at all times (assuming you have a smart phone), you have a connection to the internet that can help you get something done. Equally important, though, you need to have the right apps on your phone to accomplish something. Aside from apps for all of my social networks and email, I also have Evernote, Chrome that synchs with my desktop, my blogging app, Buffer, Amazon Kindle app loaded up with books, and more. So while there are activities that I can do from a laptop or desktop faster (mostly due to mouse precision and faster typing on a full keyboard), my phone does enable me to do almost everything online that I could on a PC. If I had been smart enough to bring some headphones as well, I could have finished the second half of that webinar video that I've had bookmarked for a few days.

Keep a Backlog

I have a backlog of items to get done that I often don't have time to complete (replace "don't have time" with "choose other activities instead" to make that sentence more accurate). I have blog posts tagged to read, articles to evaluate for sharing, topics to brainstorm, images to search, writing to do, outlining of larger projects, books to read, and the email backlog always looms in the background. You may have a similar list or completely different ones, but knowing the items on the list and how to access them quickly will help you churn through them. For me, I have flagged emails, Evernote items, and tweets marked as Favorites as a starting list (not to mention my actual backlog in Any.do).

Know Your Go To Item

If you have kept a backlog for some time, you have an idea already of which one needs more attention. And which one you like doing the most. And which one you are most likely to procrastinate. Select one area, one "go to" item that you can always jump into if you have a spare minute. For me, it's usually going through Twitter, either finding new people to follow, reading links that I added to my Favorites, buffering some additional content tweets, or replying to mentions or DMs. If that fails to pique my interest, I always have email to go through and clear out. Having and knowing your go to item eliminates the indecision you might face when you find yourself waiting on something. Start with your go to, and you might end up drifting to another task if your wait time is long enough.

Don't Be a Jerk

These tips should help you maximize time that would otherwise be wasted, whether standing in line at Chipotle, waiting on the dogs to do their business, or sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office. Please, however, don't become that jerk on your phone tweeting away in a meeting, at dinner, or whenever actual face-to-face communication could and should be occurring. I'll admit, I often get sucked into the allure of the beautiful little wireless pocket computer, but I try to have some level of phone etiquette and I recommend you try that, too.

Waiting can frustrate even the most patient person. I have found, though, that much of that frustration stems from a feeling that the time could be put to better use. If you manage to put a little effort into utilizing that time to clear some items off your backlog, you might find that not only are you being more productive, but you get a little less frustrated with lines and wait times. Car in front of you placed a special order on twenty-seven burgers at McDonald's? No problem. Read that next chapter of the book you've been working on. I hope this helps you think of wait time in a slightly different way. If you've got some more ideas, though, feel free to contact me and let me know. If you get these posts in email, you can just reply to me. If you don't, sign up today and you can get the blog posts fresh off the presses (if there were presses)!

Recruiting For The Team You Have

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

At some point, every manager has a hole in their team that they need to fill. Hiring great candidates challenges even the most tenured manager, and several situations necessitate making sure that the new hire fits perfectly with the team that you already have in place. Here's how you can ensure that your new hire complements your established team.

Know The Situation

Several situations require extra special care to make sure that your new hire fits in with the existing team like a glove. As you find yourself with a spot to fill, you need to know how important your existing team's compatibility with the new addition need to be. Look for these key indicators:

Established Team - The longer your team has been together, the tighter their bonds and abilities to work together will be.
Small Team - The fewer people on the team, the more group dynamic will affect their performance.
Extremely High Performers - High performance across the board will suffer more from a talent drain if you hire the wrong person.
Social Interactions - If your team frequently goes out for happy hours and social events (with or without you), they likely need a team member to join in the camaraderie.
Loss of Leader - If the new person replaces someone who left a vacancy in leadership, either formal or informal, the team will be looking for someone to fill that vacuum. If you are not hiring another lead, help them find leadership within their own ranks, but recognize the need for a new person to gel.

If your team has one or more of these characteristics, you definitely need to hire the right addition. If you are looking at multiples, you should be even more careful in how you could impact the team dynamic.

Focus on personality as well as skills

Obviously, if you have lost a skill position, you need to fill that gap. Football teams cannot recruit linebackers to fill an empty wide receiver spot. A law firm would not recruit someone without a law degree to fill an open attorney spot. Your next CFO did not likely come from marketing, though your CMO might have.

That said, when you have a team dynamic at risk, you must interview for personality as well as skills. How the person will fit in with the existing team members and their performance may hold as much weight in your interview as questions around their fitness to perform the actual job duties.

Let the team interview the final candidates

One option that I have seen work effectively in some organizations is allowing the team to interview the final candidates and provide feedback into the process. You as the manager obviously make the final decision around hiring, but taking your team's feedback into account will give you a sense of their feelings and reactions toward the new individual. I would recommend you limit the number of candidates that cycle through the team interview, so the team does not get fatigued of interviewing candidates. Likewise, I would recommend either a team interview or a limited number of small group interviews so that you are not putting the candidates through too much of a gauntlet, particularly for those that won't get the job.

If your team has a high need to gel together, you as the manager have a responsibility to help find the right candidate to join the team, either as a new addition or replacement. You don't have to hold that responsibility by yourself, though. If you can recognize your team's need for a tight relationship with their new member, you can leverage your insight into their personalities and their own feedback on candidates to be able to identify the right fit for the puzzle.

How else can you ensure a key fit? Let me know on Twitter by filling in this tweet.

Image credit: skeeze via Pixabay

What's Your Favorite Way to Waste Time?

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

The Fall television schedule has started up, with new shows like Blindspot and The Muppets now rapidly filling up my DVR to capacity. In these first few weeks of the season, we try out several new shows and get hooked on a few. While there are several we won't like after a couple of episodes and several that will get cancelled, for these first few weeks, we watch those as well, sucking up a bit more time than we would normally give to the television.

Luckily, television can be a background white noise to writing sometimes, and it does not have to dramatically get in the way of work or productivity (though it can also be an excellent time waster and procrastination engine). Still, sometimes, I imagine what all I could get done if I never watched any television at all. Then I realize that I would just find another time waster to get in the way.

So my answer? Moderation. Ah, the old trope of "everything in moderation" may cause you to chuckle, but when it comes to time wasting devices, you will find one that fits your need. So my advice is to accept it, but keep it in check. Make sure you do your work first, or tune it out while you focus on your laptop. Whatever it is, control it and don't let it control you.

What go-to waste of time do you have when you procrastinate? How do you work around it?

Image credit: Unsplash via Pixabay

7 Ways Scott Sigler Has Earned Rabid Fans

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Everyone in the marketing game wants a following. You need more than just an audience, though. You need an army. You need customers and fans of your work that are hungry and eager for every single product you sell, and who evangelize your products to other potential customers. Everyone wants and needs this type of a following, but how do you actually get one?

Scott Sigler - Courtesy Empty Set Entertainment
Photo credit: Joan Allen Photography

One person who has successfully built a pretty devoted following is New York Times best-selling novelist Scott Sigler. His fans, whom he identifies and who self-identify as "junkies," are in a sense just that: addicts for his writing and stories. I know, because even though I don't generally read horror or science fiction, I find myself telling others about Sigler more often than I recommend any other product by any other producer (so there's your caveat, I'm a junkie, too). Timing-wise, Scott struck a perfect storm with the launch of his podcast years and years ago, which you would find impossible to reproduce in today's podcast-saturated market. Still, there are several traits to the way that he and his business partner A Kovacs operate their company that transcend the world of fiction-writing and could be beneficial to other marketers in search of such devoted customers.

Quality

Scott dedicates substantial effort and discussion to the idea that he must deliver a quality product. At times, this dedication has affected production schedules, caused 50,000 word novellas to balloon out to 80,000 words, and resulted in rewrites substantially changing the plot from earlier versions. But in the end, all of the actions Scott takes towards the product come from a concern for the quality delivered to the customer. His fanbase depends on him to deliver quality at least as high as the last product they purchased from him, and he makes it a point to deliver on that, at times trying to exceed his own high standards. When you focus on the quality of the product, no one can complain that you cut corners just to make a buck, and the customers respect that.

Consistency

Beyond seeking the consistent quality, Sigler has managed to consistently deliver to his fans. For over ten years now, he has released a podcast every Sunday containing his fiction stories. On a weekly basis, fans have come to build expectations and he has delivered. Beyond the regular podcasting, though, Scott has written prolifically, bringing several properties to market both through traditional publishing and under his own imprint, creating a consistent delivery of product to market with which to have more available for his customers to buy. If you are in the market with one or two products, you can be successful, but a consistent approach to add products and improve or revise the products you have continually opens up new market opportunities.

Innovation

Scott launched his podcast in 2005, as a vanguard in audio fiction, leading the way for other aspiring novelists to begin releasing their own free downloadable audio. But outside of the marketing innovations that Scott employed, he has also innovated in his product and career as well. Blending traditional publishing with independent publishing, creating genre-bending sci-fi sports novels alongside his traditional hard-science horror, and continuing to give his product away for free in audio format all challenge the established norms in his industry.

Engagement

This is where the personal brand strikes out beyond just the product to really hook his customers. Scott heavily utilizes social media to engage with his fans, but he also makes a point to be available to them at conventions, hangs out with them after readings on book tours, and even hosts an event in Vegas annually for connecting with his customers. Marketing your product unilaterally can get your product known, but to develop a following, take a page from Sigler's book and utilize multiple channels and means to create true engagement and dialogue with your customers.

Transparency

Throughout his career, Sigler has provided behind-the-scenes looks at the production process through "five minutes of fury" at the front of his podcasts. In addition, he and A Kovacs provide even deeper insight into the inner workings of their operation in bonus Friday episodes. Opening the curtains a bit to allow the fans to see how the company and process works helps to create an even stronger sense of engagement with the fans as they feel "let in on" the secret of the operation and even part of the action. Sigler and Kovacs take it a step forward at times, even enlisting armies of fans to assist with shipping parties for new products or other projects.

Gratitude

Through it all, as Sigler pushes forward, he has remained extremely gracious. The humble recognition that he owes much of his accomplishments to the fans and their desire for his product makes him human to the customers, more so than many mega-brand authors. The outpouring of thanks to those that support the company by purchasing products causes them to just want more products.

Collaboration

Where most industries find the competitors fighting and scrapping over a percentage of market-share, Scott Sigler has found collaboration with other writers a strategy to improve his own throughput of product. In return, collaborative products with writers such as Mur Lafferty, Matt Wallace, and Paul E. Cooley offer a cross-pollination marketing effort that all can benefit from as their fans become exposed to other authors. The craft brewing industry has utilized collaboration beers to create a similar effect, but few other industries have capitalized on this same disruption trend. It flips the combative nature of marketing in locked industries (think cola wars) on its head, saying the pie is large enough for all to have a fair slice.

Conclusion

I'm a fan of Sigler's, a fact I am sure has come across in this post. But I am also intrigued by his success so far and the amazing methods he has used to engage fans.

Unless you write novels and have an uncanny knack for timing, you may not be able to duplicate Sigler's path or fanbase. You can, however, utilize the methods he and his business partner use to drive incredible customer engagement. Create quality products and focus on delivering high levels of value to the customers. Put the customers ahead of yourself. And, if you are part of the brand of your company, recognize that may mean making yourself accessible as part of the marketing effort.

If you're interested in learning more about Scott Sigler or reading and listening to his novels, visit his website at http://www.scottsigler.com . If you have ideas for other ways to create a strong fan base full of engaged evangelists, then let me know in the comments or drop me an email. I'd love hearing from you.

3 Questions to Ask Your Consultants

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Consultants often get a bad rap. Some offer true value, experience, and expertise, while others charge you to provide feedback that you could have obtained yourself with some diligence and effort within your own organization. A friend of mine refers to that as "borrowing your watch to tell you what time it is." I've also seen output of some consulting organizations that amounts to little more than a wish list of the few people that could be spared from the team to talk to the consultants. So how do you avoid receiving this kind of output? Here are a few questions that can guide your discussions in the right direction.

What are our competitors doing?

Most consultants won't specifically name what competitors they have worked with, but they can give you a general sense of where the market trends point and what the competitive landscape looks like. You'll want to do your research to make sure that you believe that they actually worked with these competitors, but even a small firm forced to do that research for you will provide more benefit than you can squeeze out of your own employees. You can also use this question to challenge your goals and metrics. Are you trying to squeeze an extra ten percent improvement in performance in an area where you already compete or exceed your competitors, while ignoring other areas where you are clearly deficient?

What are the broad themes that we need to change?

This question forces a summary view, and it can be particularly beneficial when you receive a list of what appears to be minutiae. Not only does it require additional analytical thought on the part of the consultants, but you also get a broader view of the problem that an outsider can help to provide. When faced with specific change requests, some groups may have a tendency to be defensive, but broadening the themes can make them generic enough to avoid finger-pointing. Not only that, but the thematic elements also provide guidance that can be used across other areas of the business.

What part of this will be outdated in eighteen months?

Asking for forward-looking projections may only be slightly more or less accurate than the fortune cookie that came with my lunch, but asking this question may drive a few beneficial responses. First, a good consultant should be able to present you with overall technology and climate changes that may affect your future, even if some of it is totally speculative (and he or she should be able to differentiate their speculation from likely fact). This question also forces a second-guessing of their own analysis to identify what parts of their analysis might become outdated and explain why you should act anyway.

Conclusion

You want to pay consultants for analysis and insight. Many consultants will come in with a standard engagement to learn about your business and how it currently operates. That's nothing to be scared of, but you should take proactive steps to make sure that descriptive outputs of the status quo or pure regurgitation of solutions from your own staff should be taken with a grain of salt. Asking probing questions can drive higher performance out of your consultants and better results.

5 Tips To Be A Smoother Speaker

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

At some point in your career, there's a chance you will be called upon to speak to a group. Whether the audience consists of fifteen coworkers or a group of three thousand, you want to appear professional and smooth when you speak. Beyond that, even after you have had some good experience, speaking as a skill can always be improved. Here are a few tips on how you can do exactly that.

Don't write your speech - When I grew up doing speaking events, I had verbatim prepared speeches, complete with anecdotes and jokes alongside the content. Then I would memorize the speech word for word. That said, those were competition-style speeches that maxed out at about five to seven minutes, and I would have months to prepare, memorize, edit, and practice the speech to get the right pacing, etc. Instead, I recommend jotting a quick outline down of all of the points that you need to cover and work off of the outline. If you have a presentation to accompany you, keep the slides to the main points and fill in all the color verbally.
Talk at slower than normal speed - This one causes me fits as I have a tendency to speak quickly anyway, but whether or not you realize it, when speaking to a crowd, you will accelerate. My recommendation here is to try to talk slower than your normal speed. Recognize that conversational speed is interrupted by the other person talking, so one-way speeches need to accommodate with pauses and a slow enough pace for the audience to absorb the content. My super-speedy presentation style has come in handy when my time window has been overly compressed, but I don't recommend it for normal presentations.
Use a timer - If you have a fixed time limit, you should be aware of how much time you have available to talk so that you don't go over. Fortunately, there are several free presentation timer apps available for your phone, so in a pinch, you can grab one of those and run it on the podium. Some even have vibration settings so you can run it from your pocket. Make sure the phone is muted, though, so you don't get a rogue phone call in the middle of your speech.
Make eye contact - Obviously if you are presenting on a conference call, this one cannot happen, but when in front of a crowd, you should attempt to focus and make eye contact with several individuals in the crowd. I recommend finding at least one person on each side of the audience, and perhaps at different depths in the crowd, to focus on as you present. Don't stare them down, but look them in the eye and move back to scanning. If you are presenting to a smaller group, direct your comments from person to person.
Get a buddy - If you know that you have certain speaking problems, sometimes you can enlist the help of a buddy. I had a tendency to go too quickly through number-heavy material on conference calls (primarily because I tended to allow myself to slip into reading the content and I couldn't connect with the audience via eye contact), so I enlisted a few friends to send me IMs if I moved too quickly. My PC screen would light up like fireworks if my clip got too fast, and I would be able to pause and make a concerted effort to slow the pace after that.

I've got a few more tips and tricks for speaking that I will put in a future post for you, but for now, this list should get you started to smooth out that next presentation.

What tips do you have for speaking smoothly? I'd love to know if they match up with mine.

Image credit:allanfernancato via Pixabay

Rewind: My Top Ten Blog Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Last week I hit 125 posts on the blog, which made it halfway to my original concept goal of 250 posts (about 5 a week for a year with a few days off). As an additional retrospective today, I thought I'd share the top ten most popular posts out of that first 125 in case you missed any of them. So, in no particular order, here are the ten most read posts on this site so far:

The best part about making this list is that now you will click on some of those links, making them even more read and solidifying their place even more as the most read articles on the site.

So maybe you want to be unique and read stuff that everyone else isn't reading. If that's the case, here's a couple of posts for you:

Either way, enjoy some popular or less-than-popular posts today on a trip through memory lane. Let me know what you find.

Hey Millennials, what are you doing with your money?

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

I've written before on personal finance and investing, and why you should have money invested as early as possible. Here's something you should read if you haven't on seeking employer matches and here's something else on timing of those investments. Yet despite all of this wisdom (and charts! I created charts!), I read over the weekend that only 26% of millennials invest. So almost three-fourths of our young people are not investing. (Here's the full article if you are interested). Three-fourths!

I know my blog posts won't change behavior overnight, but people are missing out in a huge way.

Now, I won't blame those that fall in the first category that this author brought up - lack of money. If you truly are struggling to find shelter and food, then investing likely is (and should be) one of the last things on your mind. But otherwise, put some money in the market. And do it soon. But do it right. Here's a couple of more tips to add on to that Forbes article:

Spend more than 15 minutes on this - Even if you are only investing the same amount you would drop on a few lattes at Starbucks this month, it is still money, and you want it to grow and flourish, not wither. Set aside some time to figure out what you are doing.
Read some Wikipedia or Motley Fool - Honestly, it doesn't matter what you read, but take some time to learn how the stock market works and how mutual funds work. If you can understand those two things, you'll understand better what you are buying.
Then read some mutual fund overview material - What I basically look for is a mutual fund that has existed for ten or more years, and has averaged about ten percent or better return a year. That means one dollar today is $1.10 next year. Over time, that will add up. Most of your mutual funds will have a prospectus or other guide that will contain the detailed numbers.
Look out for fees - When you're reading that prospectus, you may find a bunch of attorney's fees, accountants fees, etc. Your job is to look to minimize whatever fees they are charging, whether that means picking "no load" funds or switching investments.
Contribute frequently - Automatic is best, but if you can't do that, find a way to invest every other Friday if that works for you. Finding a regular investment schedule helps you to plan.

This list is quick, but I am sure there's a bunch of other advice that I am sure people could use (the internet is full of it). What's your best advice to get people into investing?

Blogger's Toolkit: Prepopulated Tweets

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

So, partially because I like building things and partially since I am always in need of something to make my own life easier, I built this. What is it? It's a form that lets you auto-generate your own "Tweet This" links with pre-populated Tweets. I may get a little fancier with it over time, but for now, it does exactly what it is asked. You put what you want that prepopulated Tweet to be in the first box, and you can generate code and a test link that you can use for you blog or wherever else you have HTML in need of prepopulated Tweets. Enjoy!

Test the Link:

Tweet This!

If you like this tool, please bookmark the page and come back. And feel free to share with your friends using (you guessed it) this handy prepopulated tweet.

Halfway Point: 25 Things Writing 125 Blog Posts Has Taught Me

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

If you have been reading the blog for a while, you know that the plan has been for me to attempt 250 blog posts, posting relatively close to daily. The idea initially was that it would roughly equate to a year's worth of posts, and give a huge backlog of writing material from which to draw to develop additional enhanced material. As this post marks the halfway point of 125 posts, I thought I would do a halfway retrospective list of things I have learned along this journey so far.

It is really hard to write every day. I know from listening to years of writing podcasts and reading blog posts that "write every day" is a mantra of various successful writers, but even on my limited Monday through Friday schedule, sometimes things get in the way.
Blogs don't automatically generate comments. This isn't Field of Dreams where "If you build it they will come." I honestly don't have a ton of comments on the blog at all. There's certainly a PR element to that, but from a feedback perspective, I have found it doesn't matter. The number of emails, tweets, and Facebook comments I have received lets me know people are reading. Still, I likely have lost several people's interest with a bad post or three. That's OK. It's all for learning.
This isn't really the halfway point. I say that for two reasons. First, let's be honest. This is the 125th published post here, but a few of those are obligatory holiday posts, and there are several what I would consider non-post-posts as well. That said, the bigger picture is that 250 is not the actual finish line. It's just a mark at which I will likely reevaluate the daily posting schedule and switch to something more reasonable, perhaps once or twice a week.
Twitter is fun. I have managed to grow my Twitter following in this short period by about six hundred percent or more. Turns out Twitter has quite a large market for entrepreneurial discussion, and I've found at least 1300 of those individuals out there. Still, even that has not come easy. I've had to learn a few things along the way.
Automation is your friend. I still honestly need even more automation set up, but having my blog posts auto-populate to Twitter and having the ability to utilize Buffer to schedule additional updates has been great when I've been able to maximize its utilization. While I generally do reply genuinely, I'll admit many of my tweets are scheduled. But that's OK, because I still typed it and I'm just trying to space out my content to hit all different time zones.
You are never ahead. Sometimes (like this week, in fact), I will write several posts ahead and schedule them out. It makes me feel great. It makes me feel like I'm ahead of schedule. And then I get lazy and take three days off. At which point I am back to scrambling for daily content once again. If only I could be twenty days ahead, I could postpone the scramble for four weeks.
Talking to people is valuable. This is a hard one for a writer, but the honest truth is that I have received more subscribers from actually, physically talking to people than I have from posting random thoughts on the internet in a vacuum.
I am overambitious. I know this one already. It's even baked into the productivity challenge concepts. That said, when I started this journey, I had intentions of working to write a book alongside this blog experiment. In reality, I spend a good chunk of my writing energy on the blog and leave little for writing outside of that. I have read through some of Nina Amir's information on blogging a book and I have done some additional planning and writing as well, but I think honestly to get a book done I will have to take a less aggressive schedule with the blog.
Brainstorming makes writing easier. When I sit down and come up with topics for the entire week ahead of time in a brainstorming session, I have a much easier time writing that week. When I am flying by the seat of my pants every single night, I waste time that I could be writing trying to come up with a new idea.
Repetition is not the enemy. At first, I thought I needed a new topic every day. But in reality, every post I write has been a different viewpoint and a different take on a topic, allowing me to retwist the same topics into different deep dives. It also creates categories and threads that will eventually let me build a suite.
I had bad writing habits. This one showed up in obvious fashion after sixty or seventy posts. I started noticing verb usage, patterns in my writing, and other habits that I eventually started breaking. The best part of this discovery was that my writing could take a shift during the drafting and required less editing.
I will make mistakes. I had a few posts go out with typos. I have had a few that were not the edited version I intended. And I had one that contained a whole pile of gibberish before I was able to clean it up. Mistakes happen. But I was able to clean most of them up as quickly as I noticed them.
I make more mistakes when I am tired. I used to write late into the evening, but would find myself on the verge of dozing off sometimes. When that happened, mistakes multiplied. Now I write early in the evening, get it done, and move on to relax for the remainder. Seems to be working much better. Especially when I am a few days ahead.
My friends are pretty supportive. I've had several friends reading the posts and emailing, tweeting, or commenting on Facebook about the content. I appreciate all of them.
Posting daily also hurts my ability to work on the site. I have some cool additional ideas for the site (including some exclusive content, better sign-up forms, etc.), but posting daily takes up most of the time that I have available to work on those types of things. Maybe in free time.
I need breaks. Maybe scheduled breaks. Sure, I've taken breaks for vacations. That's to be expected. I'm not working at the office, and I'm not working on the blog at home. But with the blog, I have also taken a few extra days off. Sometimes it is lack of ideas, sometimes it is work or personal commitments taking some of the free time that I normally use to blog, and sometimes it is just fatigue. There were several posts about needing recharges, but in reality, I often needed to just take those days and schedule them. I might even need to take a day off of daily posting to work on the site or write double posts to get two to three days ahead. Taking a break to work more, there's a concept.
Everyone is willing to sell you an ad. Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. all have advertising space for sale. And they're very willing to sell it to me. I just haven't bought any yet. It's hard to justify spending advertising dollars when there's no product here on the site to monetize yet.
I have more favorites than I will be able to read. I flag articles, emails, and videos all of the time with great ideas on how to improve the blog, great ideas that tie in with topics I write about, and help growing and getting subscribers. At this point, the influx of ideas overwhelms my available time to process and read them all, and I will likely remain backlogged for some time until I decide to purge out that backlog.
Blog titles can be magic. I have definitely noted a difference in readership for posts based on the title, but it has not been as predictable as I would have thought. At some point during the posting, I tried out a few more "click bait" type headlines, and I definitely use some of those naming techniques, but I also notice that certain key words have also triggered high response rates.
All posts don't generate the same response types. Posts with high numbers of favorites on Twitter don't necessarily translate to posts with high readership on the site and vice versa. Different titles and content trigger different behaviors in people.
People like when you make it easy to share things. Keep an eye out - I have an experiment to try to post some code tomorrow that will let you generate Twitter links. But those prepopulated links make it much easier for people to share, and they have.
There are all kinds of secret HTML tags you need to optimize a blog. I will likely give the site another HTML makeover at some point and make it much more HTML5 friendly, but I have learned a ton on how to show my name as an author on Facebook shares, how to have unique descriptions and titles on pages, and what value that adds to my SEO and social sharing.
Sometimes short posts are good. As I have written more and more, my posts have started getting longer and longer. This one is a good example. That said, sometimes people seem to prefer a quick hitter: a short post with maybe a paragraph or two. This one might be something good to remember in the next 125 posts.
At some point, I'll be switching email systems. Right now, if you subscribe, you get a nice Feedburner update every morning in your inbox with a copy of the day's post. It does limit me, though, if I just want to send exclusive content to my subscribers. Right now, I could just email most of them directly in a few chunks, but it would be nice to have it all integrated in a better system. There are a few out there (looking at you MailChimp or aWeber), but might require some investment. Again, when I'm not selling anything or making money off the blog, investing doesn't seem too wise yet.
I love writing. But I like other things, too. I didn't learn this through the first 125 posts. I already knew it. In fact, it's likely why I started this little experiment in the first place. I enjoy writing and research and sharing opinions. Often, I write about topics that I really would like to learn more about and through the research process I am able to learn myself before sharing (that's an insider tip, I guess). I have learned a ton about many topics throughout this adventure, but I've also learned about other things I like to do. I like engaging in discussion and dialogue with people about business. I like learning about how other people are succeeding in their business. I like coaching and working to help people that are insecure about their own abilities to achieve more. And I love learning how I might could build something out of this that's bigger than just me and a computer, writing thoughts down for everyone to read.

I've learned quite a bit more than 25 things in this half of the experiment, but this post is definitely long enough. Perhaps some of the other lessons will be expanded into posts of their own in the next six months. And I am certain I will learn quite a bit more along the way.

No call to action today, no "please tweet this or email me" or anything like that. Just a thank you for reading so far and sticking with me on this. I appreciate it. If there's anything you need or anything you'd like my help with, let me know and I will see what I can do. After all, the blog only has value if it helps you with your business and your problems. Thanks.

Did You Earn That Media?

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Did you earn that media? Do you even know what I am talking about?

The term "earned media" describes press about a company, product, or service as a result of actual newsworthiness. A company that donates half of its profits to the homeless or a new building complex being built to support a headquarters relocation. Earned media does not always have to require some sort of charitable offering, but rather that a company or person did something that the general public may want to know. Earned media plays an important role in a marketing strategy for a few reasons:

It's Free - Hard to argue with exposure that you do not have to pay for
It's Positive - Hopefully you are earning only good press
It Hits A Target - Earned media often exposes you only to those who care about what you're doing

Paid media, of course, has a part to play as well, as that allows your company to have an avenue to dictate how it is portrayed.

But in the social world, how does earned media fit in? Even better, it seems. Facebook Likes, Shares, Retweets, or Mentions all are forms of earned media. Your performance on a given social network earns you the exposure that you gain when others share your content. And, simplest of all, you earn exposure through the quality of your content. This social form of earned media comes with a bonus, though, in social proof: the idea that others are on the bandwagon with your ideas encourages their friends and peers more effectively than five articles in the local paper might.

What do you think about earned media in the digital age? How can it play a strong part in marketing strategy?

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

This past weekend, I found myself at Chuy's (great food if you've never been there) eating an order of Elvis Green Chile Fried Chicken. For the uninitiated, this is a chicken breast breaded in Lay's potato chips and fried, then slathered in a green chile paste that at times burns your tongue. Sounds good, eh? But this post really isn't about dinner. After dinner, when walking to the car, I heard the speakers playing to those waiting in line with a little classic Elvis singing "A little less conversation, a little more action please." It got me thinking about work and how often we get wrapped up in conversation and continued analysis rather than action. We even have phrases for it. Whether you call it "Analysis Paralysis" or "Talking about work instead of doing work" the result is the same: endless conversations discussing work but without any real output. Have you found yourself in this trap? If so, here are a few tips to move past it:

Determine What's Good Enough

Often progress stalls when you (or someone in your group) chases down every answer to every question before letting the project or real work start. Some call this "letting the perfect be the enemy of the good." To avoid this, figure out what's really "good enough" before you start. Make sure everyone agrees to the definition and facilitate discussion away from anything "more perfect" than that good enough effort. Of course, some efforts will actually chase or require perfection (I'd hate to think about doctors deciding "good enough" on terminal illness treatment), but for most of us business is not life and death decisions, so "good enough" usually is.

Kill The Neverending Email

Remember in The Neverending Story when Atreyu had to kill that big wolf thing? No? OK, then I'm substantially older than you. But that's OK. I'll ask you to take a big knife and stab something else instead: the neverending email. Have you ever been on an email chain that goes back and forth with one-line comments for twenty or thirty iterations? Kill them. After emails go back and forth between two or more parties four or five times, a quick thirty minute call might be a more effective way to resolve the problem. Email has a place, and allowing us to communicate asynchronously and offer quick commentary certainly has its benefits. But resolving disputed points or complex descriptions? Those are generally resolved faster real time with discussion.

Resolve to Do Something

Often groups keep discussing work end over end because it feels like work. It is work, in a way, but it is not the most productive work. To be productive, we must commit to accomplish and produce something, to generate an output of our work. That commitment hits all the clichés: "Moving the ball forward" or "Moving the needle" or whatever else you call actual progress at your office. Commit yourself to accomplish something real and you will. (Tweet this with a single click)

How else can you break the paralysis analysis or endless conversation? Leave a comment or reply to me via email. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Image credit: skeeze/Public Domain via Pixabay

Managing Larger To Do Lists

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

So if you have stopped by the blog, you may have already stumbled across my productivity challenge, where I show you how to work up to a consistent and planned five items a day to knock off of your backlog. But what happens if you need to get more done than just five items? Here's a couple of tricks to still get you by.

Limit The Commitment

My guide to limit your daily to do list down to five key items does not assume that you will only accomplish five items in a day. Rather, the concept is to limit your commitment to only five items, since we tend to overestimate what we can get done. In this instance, you know you need to get more done, but don't make the mistake of thinking that you can accomplish everything on your whole backlog list.

Make a "May versus Must" List

One of my favorite ways to prioritize larger to do lists is to make what I call the "May versus Must" list. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side, write the word "Must" and on the other side write the word "May." On the "Must" side, write down everything you must get done that day. Be ruthless. You should only include items you have to get done that day. Time pressured items, things that can't be done the next day, or things with severe penalties if you don't get them done should be on the "Must" list. Everything else goes on the "May" side, because you may do it if you have time. Feel free to prioritize the "May" side. Then do the items you must do first. Get all of those done and then start in on the "May" side as you have time. It helps if you keep the "Must" side to close to five, to keep within your normal rhythm.

Move Unfinished Items to the Backlog

Ideally, you finish everything you must do, but likely you will have some items on a large to do list that are left incomplete. Resist the temptation to keep the list for the next day. Rather, move those items into your normal backlog. If you have time the next day to tackle a bigger list - go back and make another "May versus Must" list for the next day. Occasionally, I will do this on the weekends to try to get more done. This will make your second-day list intentional and prioritized, rather than just a carryover list that might not be the most important items. It also gives you a full day's perspective which may alter priorities, rather than depending on your wisdom of the past. Finally, you might have new time pressures that might get overlooked if you are just continuing to work off the prior day's list.

What other tips do you have for managing larger to do lists? I'd love to hear them if you want to drop me a line on social media.

Image credit: StartupStockPhotos on Pixabay

Remembering

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Fourteen years ago, life in the United States changed in a way that may ripple through the rest of our lives. Take some time today to think about those that lost everything that day.

Photo of the World Trade Center Memorial by Ronile

What The Heck is Content Marketing?

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Content Marketing World 2015 kicked off this week. It's a huge conference around the concept of content marketing and how to optimize it, improve its quality, and improve the results from it. If you want to keep up with live updates from the conference, I recommend you check out the Twitter hashtag for the event, #CMWorld. I have to admit I was a little disappointed to find out that #CMWorld did not mean "Cameron Mathews' World" where my legions of fans were tweeting about me. But all ego bruises aside, if you are like me in that you are not currently in Cleveland, Ohio, you might be wondering what content marketing even means.

Have no fear, I will explain it as best I can.

In a nutshell, content marketing is a broad moniker for a strategy of developing content relevant to an audience in an attempt to develop trust and a relationship that may eventually lead to a sale or other transaction. I'm essentially using this blog as a sort of content marketing, to be transparent, in that I share (for free) what I hope to be valuable content for you in exchange for your readership. I don't have anything to sell you, though (yet?), so for now, we'll just consider it free content instead of some sort of marketing strategy. In order to be successful, though, content marketing has a few requirements.

It must be free

Firms don't charge you to watch their commercials. Likewise, content marketing also carries no price tag. Remember, content marketing intends to develop a conversation with the audience. The relationship stands paramount over the idea of the conversion.

It should be valuable

Regurgitated junk has no value. Only valuable content can attract and retain audiences over time. So, when developing content marketing as an actual strategy, you have to seek ways to provide the most valuable content to the target audience. Find what your audience seeks, and provide it, at the best quality level you can provide.

It needs to be repetitive

Writing that one blog post won't gain you a following of millions, unless you hit some magic viral thread (and that might not be the audience you were seeking). Exceptions always exist, but your best strategy is to continue to push strong valuable content in a timely manner. You might not want to write every day, and that is perfectly fine. But you should have a someone regular or at least consistent schedule to push content out to your audience.

It has to be related

You might find it difficult writing tons of intriguing content articles on pet training, only to turn around and try to sell plasma televisions to your audience. The content should circle your product and enhance it. Every article does not have to be directly a plug for your product (if it was, it would most likely be traditional interrupting marketing as opposed to relationship building), but it should tie together with your product offering in a complementary way.

Content marketing works for any industry. I have seen attempts to build audiences using content marketing in fiction novel sales, telecommunications, veterinary supplies, yardwork, self-help services, and more. If you own a small business, think about how it could work for you. If you work at a large firm, what type of content would be valuable to your potential customers? How can you distribute that content most effectively? Feel free to bounce your ideas off of me on Twitter or email if you are looking for some help.

Word cloud courtesy of narciso1 via Pixabay

Short Week

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. I managed to catch a few football games and get perhaps that last bit of summer squeezed in, and I hope you did, too.

The holiday left us with a short week. Sometimes you might find it difficult to get motivated on short weeks, and sometimes you cram five days into four and make them extra productive. Which week is this turning out to be for you? I'm finding myself somewhere in the middle.

Anyway, I will be back to regular posting shortly, but in the meantime, have a great day!

Image credit: geralt via Pixabay

No post today

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 11:51:00 +0000

Taking a couple of days off from the blog for a brief break. I will be back next week. Everyone have a great holiday weekend!

Evolution of a Brand

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

If you do not have your home page set to Google search like I do, you might have missed that Google changed their logo yesterday. It isn't the first update to Google's logo since their inception, but it does represent an evolution in the company. If you want to read the official Google news about it, they have it all here on this blog post.

Their statements represent their recognition of a changing marketplace and an adaptation to tie their brand to the different methods by which their customers utilize their services. Most will ignore it as a blip on the radar screen, but underneath that lies the brilliance in this marketing scheme.

It's familiar - Anyone that doesn't pay attention to fonts might not even notice the logo has changed. The color scheme appears to be the same since 1998. What has changed, though, is the use of the single G and the colored microphone to indicate people are interacting with Google. The preservation of the color scheme means to most people they will recognize this intuitively, without even realizing the little blue "g" was replaced by a four-color "G."
It's adaptable - The intent, according to Google, was creating a unified experience across the multitude of devices that people utilize to access Google and their services. Cross-platform universal recognition allows Google to expand the brand and still create an expectation with their customers of a standard of quality and service.
It's different - Even though it may appear the same to many or only slightly changed, the new logo represents enough of a change that it creates buzz and free earned media. See, I'm even blogging about it.

What other rebranding efforts can you name that redefined the company from a philosophical perspective but had such subtlety in the change? I'd love to hear more examples.

Tweet me or leave a comment below (or on the Facebook page) and let me know if you have any ideas.

A Quick Note On Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

The problem with big picture people is that they often have trouble understanding how the details conflict with their desires and finding ways around that.

The problem with hyper-detail-oriented people is they have difficulty lifting their heads up to see the broader scope of the problem. The adage "can't see the forest for the trees" comes to mind.

If you live somewhere in the middle, you may be doomed to be a translator, and succumb to your own myopic view from one to the next.

The key is to learn how not to operate positioned in between the worlds, but to move interchangeably between them, speaking both languages so fluently, each group thinks of you as a kindred, native speaker, no matter the language.

Like this kind of quick stuff? Well, here's an easy pre-populated tweet that you can use to say thanks!

3 Tips on Leading Alongside Peers

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Leadership comes with difficulties, no matter the relationship of the leader to those they lead. Managers can exert some direct influence from a chain-of-command and disciplinary perspective, but ultimately that only holds so far. When trying to influence peers without a direct manager-subordinate relationship, though, the challenges may appear insurmountable. Still, people successfully lead alongside others every day. So how can you effectively lead others with whom you don't have a direct relationship?

Find How You Can Help

You cannot lead for yourself. Followers give leaders the power to influence. But the reason that they give that power ultimately stems from what they get out of it in return. Simply stated, people follow others because the leader offers them something they don't have and require to grow or move forward. So, when you are trying to lead others, you must remember initially to focus on solving their problems, rather than trying to be a great leader. Some call this concept the "servant leader." Regardless of what you call it, approach people in terms of what problems they have that you can solve, and you will eventually gain rapport with them, and perhaps influence.

Learn to Plan

Sometimes, people cannot get moving because they do not know where to start. The paralysis has killed many a project. In a situation where motion has stagnated, leaders step in to offer up a plan, a solution. Practice developing plans and executing on them, which builds your skills to create plans for others as well as your credibility with others as someone that gets things done. Try planning something from a vague concept and see how accurately you can predict the key milestones. Share it with others for feedback.

Crowdsource

Leaders do not steal their ideas from others. They do, however, seek the wisdom of others in shaping and strengthening their ideas. When working within a peer group, leaders seek approval on every step of their plan. When you preview the plan steps with peers, valuable feedback may come in, but it also provides the ability to seek out the group's objections to the plan without having them comment directly on the plan itself. Those objections should be addressed in the final plan, as if you anticipated all potential challenges.

Keep the Vision

Leaders, by virtue of the position, have to know where they are taking the team. They have an idea of where they are going. Maintaining this vision keeps the rest of the team on track and focused on how they fit into the bigger piece of the puzzle. Be sure that you can speak clearly and often on the vision for the project. But talk to others, and make sure that your vision is the same as theirs. Adjust as necessary.

How else can you lead as a peer? Have ideas? I'd love to hear them. Drop me a line on Twitter

Image Credit: Efraimstochter on Pixabay.

What Type of Product Do You Sell? [Infographic]

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 12:00:00 +0000

How are you marketing your products to differentiate them against your competitors? Most products fall somewhere on a spectrum between novelty and innovation, customer experience, and price. Markets certainly exist to compete at any level between these factors. For example, "me too" products second to the market have to rely on price and experience to differentiate them from the original. Products charging a premium price may justify that with higher quality and customer experience. Where do your products fall on this spectrum?

Want a poster of this graphic? I have a PDF version that you can have if you sign up for email updates from the blog.

Why Good Work Is Never Waste

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Once upon a time, I worked on a project with one of my team members that ended up a flop. We've all had failures (unless you haven't worked long enough), but sometimes they feel colossal, even if the failure was not our fault. This particular project went through multiple iterations and a good chunk of IT's development dollars before we cancelled it due to inability to match the functionality with what the users were seeking.

A few years later, I had a heavy role in the implementation of a new CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. It was a top industry pick, and one that we felt was going to revolutionize our sales process and methodology. A few months before implementation (but almost one year after we had started), some executives pulled the plug on it.

Both of these projects could be chalked up as complete time wasted. Teams spent countless hours working on projects that never saw the light of day. But neither of these were wasted.

The first project got resurrected from a different group who focused primarily on the user interface and experience. When that project got the green light to go forward, the knowledge of the previous project helped the team to avoid similar pitfalls and also make sure the new design covered all of the functionality it needed to cover.

The second project has yet to be resurrected, but the suggestion has come up time and time again. Knowledge of the decisions surrounding the first project have been beneficial in guiding the conversations going forward to make sure that if we do proceed with this project in the future, we approach it with a level of caution that allows us to avoid some of the traps that ended up killing it the first time around.

All in all, I've come to determine that nothing done in the right spirit of helping the company is ever wasted. The experience may not be a determining factor of whether or not to try the project again in the future, but it does provide useful intelligence to help guide smarter decision-making when trying to tackle the same or similar problems in the future.

Do you have any projects that have failed or been killed? What did you learn from them? What would you say to someone trying to tackle the same project in the future that might help them succeed where prior efforts failed?

Image credit: stevepb via Pixabay

6 Aids For Finding Your Way In A New Job

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 12:00:00 +0000

When you are new on a job, sometimes you may feel lost. The first few days often don't have the amount of direction required to perform at your peak right out of the gate. Fortunately, you can find your way easier than following a treasure map with a few lists and a few actions.

List What You Know

Start with a list of everything you know that you need to get done. Chances are, on your first few days, this list will not contain enough to keep you full of work, but it should provide a starting point to get something done. More importantly, this list gives you a map to accomplishing something that you can call work product.

List What You Do Not Know

Most likely you can create a much longer list of things that you don't know than you do when you first start. Some of your list will consist of mundane items like learning the layout of the office building, determining the dates of your paydays, and getting invitations to team meetings. You should have some more detailed items, though, and some related to your work. Who are the right contacts for your project? How do you utilize the systems involved? Who can help you if you have issues? And importantly, what could you possibly not have thought of yet?

Ask For Help

You might find trouble asking how to do basic tasks that should be part of the job description (if you were hired as a Java programmer, asking how to program might get you an exit as quickly as you joined). But asking general questions of your peers or boss is forgiven at first. You're the new person, so everyone expects you to have questions. Use this grace period generously, too, because once you are (or should be) established as an employee, people might become less forgiving of your questions and start considering you "needy" or "unable to learn."

Offer Something of Value

You can easily fall into the trap of being overwhelmed when you first start and clam up in group settings. Remember, they hired you for your experience and skills. You have something to offer to the conversation. There may be history and experience with your peers that can provide context, but your new ideas or outside perspective can be a valuable tool in forcing the incumbents to think differently or to reevaluate some of their preconceived notions. Speak up and offer your opinion. It has value.

Listen

Those around you have a valuable commodity that you can benefit from: the same knowledge and history that your experiences can challenge. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you alone will change the world. You can certainly adjust perspectives, but those around you also can offer valuable history, knowledge of the politics and power around the office, and information that you can amass in your first few days or weeks on the job that will be useful to you in months and years ahead.

Do Something

Most importantly, when you start something new, start moving. Start doing something. Start producing for the employer. You will not be perfect at first, but as a new team member, nobody expects perfection. They likely do expect production. So take a stab, make something or do something. Ask for feedback. Adjust and try again. Work through your lists and ask for more to fill them up. Doing something will always earn you more respect than doing nothing.

What other tips do you have for newbies on the job? I'd love to hear about them.

Image credit: Unsplash on Pixabay

Winning the Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 12:00:00 +0000

By now, I am sure you are familiar with my productivity challenge, but I wanted to throw in a few more examples on how you can leverage the concepts to your advantage, even when it seems difficult. One way you can bump it up a notch is by making a game out of your productivity.

Around our house, we use the phrase "Winning the Weekend" to describe getting our weekend tasks done early on Saturday (or better, Friday night). At its heart, the game is just an extension of the "Get Ahead" task, only we also place a premium on finishing those tasks earlier in the day. That timing lets us have the rest of the weekend back for ourselves. While the heart of the productivity challenge avoids carryover (you still max out at five a day, even if you only completed three yesterday), getting ahead lets you prioritize the tasks for the remaining days differently. You can start to choose more and more enjoyable items off of your backlog when the difficult or distasteful tasks got completed earlier.

During the week, you can use the same technique to maximize what you can get completed. Tackle your "must complete" tasks as early in the day as possible, leaving time for you later in the day to work on what you would like to. It's like the dessert at the end of dinner.

I'd love to hear how this works for you. Feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment and let me know if you have discovered any other tricks to your own productivity.

Image credit: PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay

Just an extremely long self-indulgent, navel-gazing "me" update on fiction/non-fiction, and the like

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 18:42:00 +0000

So I haven't written much about writing, and a large part of that is likely that I haven't been writing all that much of late. The truth is that I have a few projects underway, and one that I started last year that I got so bored with that I am likely just scrapping.

But I still have to write.

If you write much, you know it isn't what you want to do, or a fun hobby, or something "neat" to do when you don't have anything else going on. It is a bizarre compulsion that you feel super guilty when you are not doing it, and super frustrated when you are. OK, maybe the frustrated part is just me.

Anyway, I did some random self-reflection around my writing, which to-date has taken two forms, primarily: fiction, primarily in the mystery novel genre; and non-fiction, generally around business and whatnot.

I'm giving the non-fiction element a try again I think (I say this but all I have are a few ideas right now, but I'll explain). It doesn't mean I am done with fiction. But it means for the short, foreseeable future, I have a whole lot of work to do to develop a non-fiction property or portfolio that I can work on. So to start, here's my reason for the focus shift that may have been long-time-coming:

I don't feel I am getting too much "better" at (long form) fiction writing of late
There isn't a market for short form fiction that offers any career pathing
I have little motivation to revise and rewrite much of my fiction. I blame that on lack of passion for the ideas behind the stories. If I am not passionate about the story, it is hard for me to write them in such a way to convince others to be passionate about them either.
I don't think I come up with great ideas for twists in fiction. I have good ideas, sure, but not great ones. It is frustrating to an egomaniacal perfectionist (at times, in arenas like this) like me.
There's an appeal to me of researching and developing and sharing opinions and conclusions based on research that I just have not found a way to express creatively through fiction.

OK, so all of that (and more introspection and just overall inaction on the fiction front) had me start thinking about writing non-fiction. When I first attempted to write some business-oriented non-fiction, it was all about me. Look at my great ideas, let me share these ideas with you. Don't you think my ideas are great? If everyone thought like this, business would be great!

I know now that that is crap. A few things have changed or I came to realize:

I read more non-fiction. I have LOTS more to read, but I read more over the past several years that gave me a sense for the flavor.
I realized I'm not an expert that anyone wants to listen to (yet). There's work to be done there. It is much more beneficial to utilize research studies from Stanford or MIT to prove my point than to just assert they are true like an opinionated jerk on the corner. Data is key.
Someone somewhere wrote "show don't tell" but angled it for non-fiction instead of its typical use as an instructional tool for fiction authors. I read that. It resonated.
I started thinking up ideas for what I would possibly write about and came up with seven book ideas in under thirty minutes. I have since come up with more.
Non-fiction books don't necessarily need to be as long as fiction books.
Once you have written and published one or two non-fiction books, you might can even get new book deals on outlines and a couple of chapters. I am guessing you can do this in fiction too, but novel ideas seem more difficult for me to come by.
I realized I'm a business guy. At heart, I understand (and actually like and appreciate) accounting, finance, operations, management, marketing, and technology concepts.
I actually think I have a talent for taking complex problems and concepts and explaining those to people who may or may not actually know anything about that in a way that they understand. Heck, I spend a large portion of my work-life doing exactly that, translating between business operations and IT departments and explaining network and product design to both. If I could switch that into something less tailored, more mass marketable, then that could be fulfilling, just to help people (let's not start planning on trying to be a Malcolm Gladwell or Dan Pink or Jim Collins just yet).

And the honest truth is, I have been paid for writing on exactly two gigs in my life. Paid. The first was when I was a kid, and made a little money writing a music review. The other, my ongoing gigs at WebMonkey in the late 90s early 2000s. Oh, look - BOTH NON-FICTION. Perhaps if I want to make money at this little hobby of mine, I should look where people have been willing to pay me before.

So here we go down this fun road. I am not sure that I will have many updates here on actual writing for a while (maybe I will), since I'm in the process of outlining all of the work that I need to do to develop this other path to writing something I might could actively get some income from (and is in tandem with my actual career instead of just a bizarre parallel path).

Anyway, here are a few things on my plan of plans to get started down this path and we will see how far it rolls:

Convert CameronMathews.com into an actual blog site where I can deposit thoughts on business and topics actually related to some of the writing I might want to sell
Build upon my existing platform and connections to develop a conversation around some of the topics - get feedback, etc.
Write a book (or three) (or seven) based on some of the concepts I have come up with
Edit said book(s)
Start collecting rejection slips on those books while writing others
Either publish traditionally or self-publish while continuing to write books to plan, post regularly (goal is 5x/week we will see) short blog posts and build that dialogue
Write more books
Maybe even take up some speaking engagements over time

I give it five years. If this doesn't work out by 2020, then maybe there is yet another path for me, eh? That would be roughly 1300 blog posts, 3 books, and a few other tricks up my sleeve (likely another 3000-4000 tweets over the next five years as well, I guess). We'll see. Check back.

In the meantime, feel free to follow/subscribe/whatever to CameronMathews.com - if you are interested. If you are still reading this, come on, you're interested.

Thanks!

Baylor Fan's Guide to Week 13

Cameron Mathews — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 10:23:00 +0000

Jockeying for final position is in full effect. With only three more weeks to go, the most important thing for Baylor fans to do is to cheer for the Bears and the Bears just need to win-win-win. That said, if you are looking for some other football to watch and wonder what could best help the Bears in their quest to the top, here's my extremely lay-opinion on the topic.

Note - these in no way are predictions, just comments on how things could be...also doesn't even reflect my allegiances, per se. Just geared solely towards how to best position Baylor, and that's it.

Wednesday Nov 19

Kent State at Buffalo - Bears obviously need the Bulls to win out to gain bowl-eligibility and strengthen that "cream-puff" schedule of theirs. Kent State has only won one game, so this one, at least, looks like a possible W for Buffalo. If they can get out from under the 6 feet of snow. Also Kent State was on Ohio State's non-con schedule, which is pretty weak.

Thursday, Nov 20

K State at West Virginia - Baylor needs Kansas State to do what they could not - win at Morgantown. They need to have K State looking pristine coming into the last game of the season. Still, a close game makes WVU look like a good team. Keep it close, but Snydercat victory in the end.

Saturday, Nov 22

Indiana at Ohio State - tOSU will win this game most likely, but if it is anything like the low-margin-of-victory that TCU had over Kansas, Baylor can still leapfrog.

Rutgers at Michigan State - Rutgers win weakens tOSU's SOS. That is all.

Kansas at Oklahoma - Sooners need to blow KU out of the water with a 30 point victory. After losing and being ticked off, they just might.

Minnesota at Nebraska - Not sure how much longer the playoff committee can justify tOSU and TCU being higher than Baylor if Minnesota is a difference-maker with more than 3 losses. Baylor would do well with a BIG Nebraska win.

Marshall at UAB - Marshall wins this one, going 11-0... and yet still not in the discussion. Probably fair, but BCS would likely have had them in the top 25.

SMU at UCF - Ponies need a win, badly, but probably won't come at UCF. Still, root for SMU.

Penn State at Illinois - PSU took Ohio State to double overtime. That looks horrible if Penn State (currently 6-4) loses big to Illinois (4-6). Just saying.

Virginia Tech at Wake Forest - Go Demon Deacons - Make that Va Tech victory over tOSU look even worse for the Buckeyes.

Washington State at Arizona State - Just rooting for the underdog here, WSU. No other real factor at play.

Boston College at Florida State - Stranger things have happened. Perhaps Jameis Winston can't come from behind to win again? I doubt BC has what it takes, but that's the underdog to root for.

Ole Miss at Arkansas - Arkansas shocked LSU. Let's have them upturn the apple cart on Ole Miss as well.

Arizona at Utah - no real gung ho need here, but a Utah win knocks another 2 loss team further out.

Wisconsin at Iowa - Same deal with an Iowa win.

Louisville at Notre Dame - Take your pick.

Maryland at Michigan- another pick'em.

Texas Tech at Iowa State - we need Tech to win at least one more game, preferably solidly. Not sure they will, though.

Western Carolina at Alabama - Well, Alabama has such a cream puff non-conference, I don't expect them to lose, perhaps the Playoff Committee punishes them for... oh wait, no they won't. To be fair, they did have (and beat) WVU in their non-conf. schedule, which somehow excuses the other three non-power-5 games. But of course, Baylor had how many non-power-5? Oh yeah, 3.

Colorado at Oregon - Oregon will win. Very little can be done about that. Maybe it is sloppy?

Samford at Auburn - OK, now if Samford (7-3) could somehow beat an Auburn (7-3) team that could then upset Alabama after getting really mad? Perfect dumpster fire.

Miami (FL) at Virginia - a poor showing by Miami should make FSU's near escape last week less impressive. Then again, what FSU win has been clean and impressive lately?

Vanderbilt at Miss St. - Vandy. Won't happen, but the SEC dumpster fire completes by rooting for the underdog in every SEC game. Best hope to knock Mississippi State out is Ole Miss next week.

OSU at Baylor - Everyone in Black. Baylor needs to win. Big. Statement win. But I'll take a W any way we can get it.

Missouri at Tennessee - A Tennessee win would continue to burn down the SEC, this time in the East.

USC at UCLA - however unlikely, I'd like to see a USC win to keep UCLA from having too high ambitions. Make them both 3 loss teams.

What games am I missing?

Play on...

Property Development

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 19:27:00 +0000

By ReubenGBrewer (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

I have heard the term "property" used to refer to different series or worlds within an author's portfolio, so I have been spending some time lately thinking about property development, not from a land-management or real estate investor perspective, but from an author's perspective attempting to build out a large enough backlist to keep themselves self-employed.

I'm also inspired somewhat by the analytical work that Christine does over at the Better Novel Project site, where she mercilessly analyzes The Hunger Games, Twilight, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone books from every perspective she can to gain an understanding of why those books were massive successes and how to replicate that success.

My thought for this experiment and likely many others- take the same approach, but with titles closer to the genre I enjoy writing. So if I throw Tom Clancy, David Baldacci, and Michael Connelly in the mix, what do I get?

I will admit that I initially think about numbers of properties to cultivate whenever I think about starting a new book that could become a series. To date, I have written a whole bunch of different things, all sitting in a virtual trunk while I work out my million crap words, but some with potential viable futures one day, or at least in some reincarnated sequel or something. I worry (writer-worry) about creating too many things instead of focusing on making one good thing, etc. etc. The honest truth to myself is that I need to just finish, edit, publish something and make it good, but I still get quagmired in these daydream thoughts (procrastination, etc.).

So the question I asked for today - how many properties do each of these authors maintain?

I'll start with Michael Connelly. He has the following series or primary characters:

Harry Bosch - Police Detective
Mickey Haller - Attorney
Jack McEvoy - Reporter
Terry McCaleb - Retired Detective, I think?
Various other - non-fiction and stories

So we'll call that 4-5 properties. They blend, some, and overlap characters and timelines, so it is really one story world with four threads.

Next up, Tom Clancy.

Jack Ryan
John Clark
Jack Ryan, Jr.
Max Moore

And then the grocery store spinoff books:

Net Force
Splinter Cell
Power Plays
Endwar
Ghost Recon
Op-Center
Net Force Explorers
and other non-fiction

That's a property portfolio if I say so. Again, 4 primary, but 12 or so overall.

Finally, I'll check on David Baldacci.

Camel Club - Amateur group of sorts
Sean King & Michelle Maxwell - Secret Service
Will Robie
John Puller
A. Shaw
Various one-off books, any one of which could become another series

So that's a 5 primary plus a wealth of others.

So, for the serial writer, it is clear that over the course of a career, you could easily manage 20+ books over 4-5 property areas, and even have successful one-offs in the mix.

From this, I interpret it as: Time not to be scared to develop a new character, plotline, and setting and write whatever you want. As for me, I've got a couple of "scenarios" outlined that could develop into various properties:

Law student, eventually attorney
Detective
CIA operative
Federal Agent/FBI
International Assassin (less likely to be a property, more likely to be a character in something else or star in short stories)

What do you think about your portfolio? How many properties do you have? Are they Baltic Avenue or Boardwalk?

NaNoPlaNoMo Take Whatever

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 14:53:00 +0000

[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In all likelihood I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year. Not a surprise, really, as I have not done it the past couple of years to any level of success. Part of that is just that I am not prioritizing the level of time required for it, part of it is travel with the holidays, part of it is a few more excuses I can come up with. And honestly, I have a few writing projects to finish before I inject another one.

That said, I may still do a little planning for my next project, and while I have a few days off around the beginning of the month, I may binge-write a few thousand words and call that a win (if you recall several of my actual NaNo wins came at the hands of 10,000+ days on the last day or two of the month, so if I got that over on, say, the 2nd, we could call it a win and I would get to keep my November).

While I might be skipping it, I know that thousands (yes, oddly thousands) of people still will swing by my sites here in the next couple of weeks to download spreadsheets and things, and so I'm doing an obligatory NaNo post as a head-nod to them.

From the fact that my last post on the writing pages here came last October, I'm guessing this is an annual self-imposed feeling. Still, hopefully it can help.

In terms of "how to write a novel in a month" - the answer is simple. Write. Don't worry about what you write, just write some more. And then write a little more. And then you will think "this is stupid" or "I can't write anymore." And then you write your way through that.

The Sprints on Twitter are always helpful - join a fifteen minute sprint or so and crank out 300 words. When I get "into a flow" I can write 800-1000 words an hour doing 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off, 15 minutes on, 15 off, etc. If you could keep that pace, you could finish NaNo in a week. NaNoWriWee?

Anyway, I'm not going to rehash a lot, since there are several discussions of planning, writing to numbers, outlining, character-building, etc. on here.

What has intrigued me of late is the work that Christine at BetterNovelProject is doing, basically breaking down some best sellers by math and algorithms to develop best practices in plotting, character building, and writing overall. Looks a whole lot like my writing by numbers type of detail, but she breaks it out in several different ways other than word count (number of characters in Chapter One, Sequel triggers, etc.). Might be worth doing with my the next Michael Connelly or John Grisham or David Baldacci that I read. Perhaps I should be doing it right now as I read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. Anyway, it's interesting stuff. Maybe you will see more "author math" here as well.

For now, go write something. Or plan something to write in November.

Ciao.

McLane Stadium - The Inaugural Thoughts

Cameron Mathews — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 15:30:00 +0000

Behold McLane Stadium, the Jewel of the Brazos, resplendent in all it's evening glory.

This past Sunday marked the start of the 2014 football season for the Baylor Bears, and the inaugural game of the inaugural season of anything else we can use inaugural for McLane Stadium, Baylor's new $266 million adventure on the banks of the Brazos River. I could go into my analysis of the game and how it went (45-0 shutout against SMU), but that has already been done here and here and here. Nor am I going to give any sort of medical analysis on Bryce Petty's day-to-day back injury (or even how well we played considering Petty was injured and we were missing Goodley and Coleman for pretty much the entire game). Instead, I figured for my first blog post in about 6 months, I would give a report on the good, bad, and ugly of the stadium and game day experience. So here goes.

The Good

Let's start with the good. I mean, Baylor got several things right when they built this stadium. For starters, the stadium. It is quite easily the nicest athletics facility I have ever attended (better than AT&T, save the massive video screen). Even the positioning of the stadium so that over 2/3 of the stadium were shaded by kickoff of the 6:30 game was prime.

Then let's talk food. I'll be honest, I did not partake in much stadium munching, but man the bacon-wrapped onion rings and bacon-wrapped hot dogs seem like they are a tradition I will soon take part in at another game. Overall the number of vendors increased quite a bit, and that's a plus. Also have to admit the condiments stations appeared to be an upgrade over the clear plastic towers of packets at the Case, but they were out of ketchup at one and mustard at another during the first quarter, so they might could do a better job watching that.

Video board - amazing. So good I caught several people even in our lower section watching the game on the board rather than the field - much like you see at AT&T. I'd call that comparable behavior complementary of the video board performance.

The Baylor In-Game App. Gotta admit I didn't use this much, mostly because I was watching the kids while watching the game, but I did play with it a little. Two features I checked out enough to give definitive thumbs up - Parking assistance - gave clear directions and map on how to get to our parking area, and the on-field cameras where I got live-feeds of one of 5 or 6 field-level camera angles. That was nice. I do suspect the app was responsible for some of our collective battery drain (both of our phones and several other folks complained of no cell phone battery), but the app has potential. If I were there without children, I would likely have a constant, ongoing second screen.

A little bit of "sailgating"

The boats. You can't argue with this one either. The "sailgating" experience looked tremendous, with what I hear were around 50 boats in the area. Downside? Not enough slips. I think it was around 10 first-come-first-served as well as the 16 pre-reserved slips. Might need more boat parking.

The bathrooms. Looking for a trough? Try again. And the number of bathrooms also a positive.

The tailgating areas. Large and spacious, and with generally good views, the new tailgating areas were superior to the riverside spots at The Case in many ways. Not to mention the fact that they were out of the general path of traffic.

Grant Teaff Plaza. Looks like a lift-and-lay from Floyd Casey. I was happy to see it made its way over there.

The tailgating experience. Overall, there seemed to be a broader expanse of tents and food and beer and love of football, etc.

Also loved the "mid-deck video banner" - just something that seems commonplace in new stadiums, but was definitely missing in Floyd Casey.

Seating. The seating had narrower sections (requiring fewer people to stomp over you to come in and out of the row) as well as more legroom (reducing need to stand up to let people in or out of the row, even for a giant like me).

The coin toss. I know we will have different folks, but having RG3 fist-bumping George W. Bush when tossing out the first coin at McLane Stadium (and surrounded by the McLane family) was a nice touch.

Finally, I was a big fan of the repositioning of the Baylor Line. At Floyd Casey, the Baylor Line resided in a couple of sections in the middle of the "visitor side" of the field. The thought process was that they would be able to effectively heckle the opponent throughout the game. McLane maximizes this by reducing the DEPTH of the Baylor Line section, and stretching it the length of the sideline so they can more effectively heckle away. I also like the picture of the golden "dragon" with the line waiting on the team with the fire-spewing arch for them to pass through.

The Bad

OK, maybe it isn't all bad here, but could be filed under "could be improved" instead. These are things that generally made the day less pleasant than it could otherwise have been.

Number one complaint: parking (or lack thereof). Sure, you can make the argument that we are in no worse or different situation than other Big XII schools or otherwise. That said, we were spoiled. Floyd Casey had ample parking within 100-200 yards of the stadium that you could park around the stadium even when it was sold to capacity. McLane lacks that tremendously. Not only are there no "day of game" parking spots available, but the prepaid spots aren't even enough to satisfy the Bear Foundation members, and many/most of them require shuttles (or a 15 minute mile long walk) to get to the bridge, which are certainly impediments to dragging a full cooler and tailgating chairs if you are joining others in the tailgating area.

East-West bridges (or lack thereof). Currently, there is one bridge connecting the primary tailgating area with the stadium. This becomes particularly important during the Bear Walk (which is the next unfortunate planning), but in general, this bridge was so crowded during the hour prior to game time that I saw 4 people trying to SCALE THE OUTSIDE of the bridge to get across heading against the grain of traffic. Two went back, and two were given scoldings by the police after they made it across. Still, that's a problem. Additional bridges, rails or something dictating "flow of traffic" to create channels of people that can go West to East as well as East to West, or other options might help the congestion. It was also suggested that after people stop gawking at their bricks in the walkway or the RG3 statue in the concourse that the congestion improves. We will see. Of note, it did clear up closer to kickoff, so perhaps that's a sign of things to come.

Lack of additional East-West and North-South bridge options. Not only the above, but further East. There MAY very well be smooth ways to head east to the Ferrell Center parking, but they were not readily apparent and advertised. As such, there was heavy reliance on foot traffic along University Parks drive with no relief from heat or sun. A shaded, along-the-river walk would be preferable, and if there were additional North-South cross-Brazos bridges to the tailgate area or otherwise, the long walk to get to the footbridge could be broken up and foot traffic might also be reduced.

The Bear Walk. Further complicating the lack of bridges is the decision to block the ONLY connector from the tailgating area to the stadium for an HOUR to allow the players to walk single-file across the bridge. While it provided a cool visual and a great "tunnel" experience for them, it was a model of inefficiency in terms of allowing traffic on EITHER side to pass across. Again, having some way for traffic to be less congested would be beneficial.

Some better bathroom signage. The women's restroom was on the back wall of the stadium with signs that did not adequately point all the way around. Led to several women looking lost or taking up the family restroom (leaving several families standing around outside). I also heard the tap water was hot - that sounds like a problem.

More food. I saw the bacon wrapped onion rings, and visited a couple of places and saw they had some good offerings, but I appreciate a variety. Doesn't have to be State Fair of Texas sized variety, but would love more than what I saw. As it was, there were several "burger, chicken tenders, and fries" with one tricky additional option available. Maybe I was at the wrong places.

RG3 in bronze

The RG3 statue. Hey, it's a great statue. And Robert Griffin III definitely is a class-act without whom this stadium might not be in existence. That said, I am extremely reserved about immortalizing people in statues when they are still alive, let alone when they have active career in front of them. Same argument goes to not awarding Heisman trophies to Freshman (crab legs or autographs, anyone?). I think it was a great gesture, the panels look great all lit up, but just want to caution against getting too giddy over living legends in the future. Don't think it could be a problem? Ask Penn State about their Paterno statue.

The Net

In summary of this giant post, McLane Stadium is awesome. You should visit it for sure. Only if you have not already visited, you likely cannot since it is sold out for the year. So there. I, on the other hand, will visit it. Again. And again.

Car Maintenance: Not an ad but it should be.

Cameron Mathews — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

I'm hard on consoles. The armrest console in each of my last three cars has taken a beating, since I generally keep my right elbow planted on it at all times when driving (side effect of giant arms).

As you can see from the picture at left, my current one was in pitiful shape. Not only was the leather cracked and the padding totally smashed (this happened in both prior cars), but the tray in the middle was cracked (presumably under the weight of my giant elbow and accompanying arm. Over time that crack worked its way towards the back of the armrest and eventually shattered the plastic, causing springs to fly out, leaving my only option to reassemble the pieces with black duct tape.

In walks my Val-Pak (this is not an ad for Val-Pak). I usually flip through these things looking for restaurant coupons for places we might go eat at anyway, and I stumbled across RockAuto.

Gotta say, this should be an ad for RockAuto but it isn't.

RockAuto basically has all kinds of parts for all kinds of cars.

So I ordered (but I ordered the wrong color). So I sent it back and ordered again.

And the piece came, along with installation and removal instructions that were plain and simple.

And so, in just a matter of minutes, I ended up with this console instead of the one above. Night and day difference. Thanks, RockAuto.

Adios Cadbury Eggs

Cameron Mathews — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 14:44:00 +0000

I like candy. Quite a bit, actually. Which means that my calendar could be construed to rotate around the four "prime candy" holidays. As Easter passes, so do the Cadbury Eggs, leaving me in candy drought until October.

Fourth of July lollipops anyone?

In case you're wondering, the "big four" are:

Valentine's Day
Perfect time of year for chocolate. You should try to grab a candy conversation heart or two. And there's always appropriately colored Reese's cups and Hershey's kisses.

Easter
Here I have options. Chocolate or not. We have to start with the Cadbury Egg (pictured) and its gooey center. But there's also jellybeans (of which Starburst or Jelly Belly are the best, and the Laffy Taffy and Sweet Tart are just awful). But expand the jellybean search to include Brach's Spiced Jelly Bird Eggs (only get one bag of those, please). And grab some Peeps. And a chocolate bunny. And a few more jellybeans. And Cadbury solid chocolate with candy coating - forget what they are called.

Halloween
Thank goodness when Halloween arrives. First off, it ends the candy drought. Second off, it is a holiday where non-chocolate candy can exist in droves. Candy corn, sweet tarts, smarties, mini-packages of everything from Runts to Sour Patch Kids, and more.

Christmas
Gotta get some chocolate covered cherries. Maybe a chocolate orange. Gum drops. And something to fill the candy dish (likely Rolo, Reese's, and Hershey Kisses in dedicated packaging).

Anyway, now that you are in the loop, I will chow on that egg. Oh wait, I already did.

And so begins the drought.

How to "Win" NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 19:00:00 +0000

By Ffahm (Own work, section of a photo)
[GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html),
CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

OK, so I've "won" NaNoWriMo a few times (like somewhere between four and seven, but enough times that I can't recall them all), and there have been several different ways that I've done it, though the procrastinator's method is my most frequent modus operandi.

Anyway, for those that haven't done NaNoWriMo before (or haven't won it), I figured it might be beneficial to post some methodologies to winning, and maybe a couple of tips, too.

And after all this, I will likely not succeed this year, and I'm OK with that (because I've done it already. MULTIPLE TIMES).

So here goes. First here are the various ways that you can win based on my observations.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race - this may be the motto of the tortoise when matching up with the hare, but if you are someone possessing an immense amount of discipline and the ability to block out between one and three hours a day for the entire month of November and crank out 1667 words or so in each of those settings, you will actually have 50,000 words of fiction come December 1. That said, I have never actually done this as I lack that discipline I mentioned, and therefore I can't vouch for any tips or tricks to keep on task here. No matter how much I try, I skip a day (or 12) in the middle of November.
Front load like a Front-End Loader - This is my recommendation for you to try to start, regardless of how you end up finishing. Forget the 1667 words a day that puts you at 10,000 words in 6 days. What you actually need is 10,000 words in 4-5 days. For the first 5-10 days of November, when the juices are flowing, and the adrenaline and Red Bull have you in a writing frenzy, crank out as much as you possibly can to try to get yourself over the hump before you SLIDE down the backside. If you can get 40,000 words done by November 15, I'd give 10:1 odds that you'll finish that last 20%. Note - I have only accomplished this once.
It's not a Marathon, it's a Sprint - OK, I have never done this. But I have seen some insanely prolific writing claims on the forums that take the front-loading to the extreme, like some sort of extreme couponing wizardry of writing. Some people (not me) crank out the 50,000 words before the end of the first week. Don't believe me? Check on November 8 around the forums, and you are likely to see some word counts that are just unbelievable. But, there's enough of them and enough people every year doing it, that at least some of them have to be valid.
It's all about the deadline - OK, so this is what Chris Baty was testing when he and his friends came up with NaNoWriMo over a decade ago. It's all about the power of a deadline to get something done. And, to be honest, for a procrastinator like me - this is exactly how I have finished most of my NaNoWriMos. The pattern for me is this: Write a few words a day for the first week. Get bored. Stop writing. Start watching more football. Eat Thanksgiving Turkey. Realize that you haven't written and you're 35,000 words behind. Decide to finish anyway. Write 10,000-15,000 words a day for 3 days (sometimes taking off of work on November 30). Hit 50,000 words sometime between 6 PM and 11 PM on November 30. It's all about the deadline.

Pick your poison, I still recommend you TRY to front-load it, and if you fail, you can always binge-write later. Want some tricks, though? Here are a few that I have tried (to some success):

Word Wars and Sprints - They have them like every 15 minutes on Twitter, but seriously, doing sprints and 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off type of writing will crank that wordcount so fast you won't believe it. At one point I would find myself writing 500 words in a 15 minute sprint (that's 1000 words an hour if you are alternating on/off). That's some serious verbiage.
Start on Halloween - OK, you can't start on October 31, but after midnight you can get a few hundred words in to get jumpstarted. Wake up November 1 with a paragraph or two under your belt.
Stop in the middle of a sentence - At the end of your writing session, stop in the middle of a sentence. This also works at the end of a sprint. Even if you know what you want to say next, when you start typing again, you will jump right back into the train of thought.
Plan for tomorrow - I'm a pantser (write by the seat of your pants) not a plotter, though I have completed one outlined novel along with the other various no-outline ones and I'm trending back towards plotting/planning. Still, even if you are dedicated to your pants, you need to figure out what you are going to write tomorrow before you get there. Then you can just write it. If you are in class or work all day and only writing at night or in the morning, use that time to figure out what's next (but still do your job or classwork). But try to use any dead time (commute, anyone?) to at a minimum figure out what you are going to write in the next session. Which reminds me, I need to get my first five or six scene ideas down. Will do that right after this.
Bookmark tools - I always keep a random name generator on bookmark, because the last thing I need is to sit for hours trying to devise the perfect name for the coffee barista or the extra soldier who is going to get killed in the next scene and only has one line. Other handy things to have quickly on hand - Google Maps, Wikipedia, certain NaNoWriMo forums, etc. Not handy: Facebook, ESPN.com, and Twitter. Unless you're only looking at Twitter for the @NaNoWriMo feeds (@NaNoWordSprints is actually great for sprinting). Sure, that's all you're reading.
Don't write other stuff - So, you likely won't see me write blog posts for a bit (unless I've already "done my words" for the week or so). And if you do the November Poem-A-Day challenge (if Robert Lee Brewer is doing that this year), then that's just more writing for you. But the more writing you pile on yourself, the less likely the novel gets done (or your laundry, which is also important).

Anyway, those are tips/tricks and whatever. But honestly the only way to win is to (sadly) stop reading my blog and go start writing. On November 1.

Crash Plotting A Novel For NaNoWriMo or otherwise

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 13:00:00 +0000

By Thue (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

OK, so I'm not quite sure if I am going to attempt NaNoWriMo this year - though I do know by now that 50,000 words is not where I stop to end up with a real novel. That said, making it through 50K of the first draft in the first thirty days would set me well on my way towards getting something decent on paper.

Still, you would think that 1 day before November, I should have an idea if I am writing something or not. Let's leave that obvious procrastination until the very last minute and talk about how I would go about planning a novel to write (using all kinds of maths and things) should I decide to write one (because, let's be honest, I want to write something, I'm just not sure if I am more comfortable at the 250 word-a-day pace of the Magic Spreadsheet or the frenzied almost-2000-word-a-day pace of NaNoWriMo).

So, I've decided to write a spy novel. Partially because I have an idea for one, partially because I've watched Zero Dark Thirty recently, partially for other reasons that I won't bother to describe.

I have no idea how to write or plot a spy novel. And remember, I'm like a wannabe-reforming-pantser, so plotting is something that I do very loose and painfully, leaving me with a heap of spaghetti that I am supposed to try to form a novel out of later on in edit, which I never get to. So, I decided that I'm going to try to crash-plot a novel (despite the image, I mean crash in the sense of crash course, not crash a vehicle).

First, I did some Googling and found a pretty reasonable breakdown of a spy novel plot. That tells me that the rough ratio I'm looking for is: 15%, 60%, 25% in terms of the three acts. I further break it down to get to a "suggested number of scenes I have to brainstorm up" to plot this out. I will now share my logic with you and the math and I must admit, it all starts at the end.

What I am looking to end up with is an 80,000-85,000 word novel. Since I fully estimate that at least 10-20% of what I write in a first draft will be total crap (OK, let's be honest here, about 40% of it will be crap, but I am optimistic that I can make up about half of that in better stuff during editing and keep the word count there), I know I've got to target around 100,000 words (which makes math so much easier) for the first draft to tighten up and edit down towards my target word count (or edit down and then re-build up as I previously described in that last parenthetical). Beyond that, I average around 1500 words per scene (this is a number you will just have to know after writing a lot and doing some evaluation of what you write), and this number can fluctuate as much as 20% or more. So, I need to estimate a 20% overage of scenes. Worst case scenario, that puts me at 120,000 words, which I can still edit down, and I will be in good shape. I'm much more worried about writing too little than I am too much. So here's my breakdown.

Act	Percentage	Scene Functions	Rough Wordcount	Number of Scenes	Padded Num of Scenes (120%)
Act One	15%	Setup	15,000	10	12
Act Two	50%	Chain of Events	50,000	33.333	40
Act Two	10%	Devolve Into Disaster/Crisis	10,000	6.6667	8
Act Three	15%	Get Out of the Crisis	15,000	10	12
Act Three	10%	Final Resolution/Wrap Up	10,000	6.6667	8
Total	100%		100,000	66.6667	80

So, there you have it - I need about 80 scenes mapped out to get where I'm going, and they are roughly broken out into chunks of 12, 40,8,12 and 8. With that many scenes to set up (and to make up the wrap up), I know I need at least 4 sub-plots and ways to tie them all together. So there's likely a main threat, a political sub-plot, a personal sub-plot, and potentially an internal protagonist sub-plot to go in there.

Now that the math is done, it's time to get to brainstorming, so I'm off to employ my two tools in that front: Scrivener (using cork boards roughly grouping cards in the Acts and scene groups above) and FreeMind, brainstorming mind-mapping to track various thoughts and threads.

(To be fair, I'm ACTUALLY writing this on October 30, so the plotting will have to happen in the next 24 hours (minus work-time and trick-or-treat-time), so we will see where I end up November 1 - if I am not done, but I know where it starts, I can always start, and keep brainstorming the 80 scenes as I go, so long as I have at least 4-5 scenes to start)

Wildlife

Cameron Mathews — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 09:47:00 +0000

When we lived out in Lewisville, we had plenty of large animals around. I saw (within a mile of my house) coyotes, roadrunners, rabbits, snakes, hawks, raccoons, skunks, armadillos, and more. I thought by moving into the city that would likely decrease, but on top of hearing there was a bobcat in our neighborhood recently, I also realized that in addition to our horde of bunnies running around the neighborhood, we have a few more smaller animals that were noticeably missing the past couple of years outside city limits. Fireflies, for starters.

And these guys, whom we originally had in Lewisville but disappeared after a particularly dry summer:

And the other day, I also stumbled on this guy just hanging out by our fence:

Happy Thursday.

Android KitKat

Cameron Mathews — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 10:53:00 +0000

So if you don't follow along, Google has been naming their Android OS versions after desserts for some time (I think since "D"). The latest two were Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybean (I'm running Jellybean on mine). The latest version? KitKat.

In response, Nestle launched new KitKat candybar ads that mock the way Apple positions its products with artsy-yet-techy language. Quite humorous. Enjoy.

Tip of the hat to dad's alma mater

Cameron Mathews — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 10:24:00 +0000

Heard this great welcome to the freshmen speech this morning from a Georgia Tech student. Since my dad is a GT alum, thought I would share...

Blurred Lines

Cameron Mathews — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 09:18:00 +0000

I often don't find Jimmy Fallon that great, but this is awesome.

Aquarium Update

Cameron Mathews — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 21:37:00 +0000

In the move, I managed to convince the local fish store who moved my aquarium for me to take some of my fish that I no longer wanted. In exchange, they offered me some store credit, which I was able to use to get a couple of new guys.

Gotta say, the move was excellent - they even got my filters running better than they had been before.

Anyway, here's the new aquarium setup (I plan on redoing the decor periodically), and here are the inhabitants:

Jack Dempsey
Pink Convict
2x Firemouths
Red/Gold Severum
Green Terror
5x Silver Dollars
5x Red/Blue Colombian Tetras
5x Buenos Aires Tetras
Plecostamus

Boom.

Oh, and here's some pics of the new guys:

And an obligatory pic of my Jack Dempsey:

Piña Piña Piña Piña

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Side note: So, this is a first post over here on the blog concerning plants...and should be part of the death of the "gardening blog" which I had. I am going to consolidate many of the "separate blogs" into one, probably just leaving a blog, a beer recipe page, and the poems, but we will see.

Several years ago, I got a wild idea to grow a pineapple plant. I knew from somewhere deep in my past, wandering around in a memory from my childhood, that you could grow a pineapple plant from just the top of any old pineapple that you bought from the store. I did not, however, have any clue what I was doing in how to grow it.

Insert the Internet.

This page helped me understand what I was doing, and I followed the instructions pretty much with a pineapple top.

After about a year, I had a pineapple plant with two leaves. That was it. Still, I kept up with the sunlight and occasional watering, hoping that one day, I'd have a plant.

Here we are, probably three years later, and you can see from the picture above, I've got one. I can't tell you when or why, but one day last year, the plant just started growing. It started sprouting new leaves out of the center, and the ones it sprouted kept growing and growing. I moved it to the office when we moved houses, and have kept it here a couple of months now where it can get ample sunlight (and some good flourescent light, too), and it seems to be happy here as well.

Suffice it to say, it is not the easiest plant I've ever grown, but it definitely has been rewarding the past few months to see it actually sprout more than the two measly leaves it had.

So go over to that "How to Grow a Pineapple" site and check it out. You might actually want to grow one, too.

Funny - conversations with my 2 year old

Cameron Mathews — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:30:00 +0000

This is funny, and I have totally had similar conversations occur in our household.

The second episode is pretty great too.... Subscribed.

No thanks, I won't pull up

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:30:00 +0000

By Coneingcrew (Own work) [CC0],
via Wikimedia Commons

Every now and again, I am going through a local fast food establishment, and I get to the window to pay and receive my food, and, after paying, the restaurant employee asks me, "if you don't mind, please pull up," accompanied with a gesture to some nebulous blacktop waiting area where I am supposed to sit in my car, out of line, and wait for someone to inefficiently bring my food out to the car after they have prepared it. Often, the request is much ruder: "Pull up over there and we will bring your food."

At times, I have complied with this request, pulling into side parking spots or just moving the car up a few feet, or even wrapping around the front of the building to wait. But this practice has become so frequent among fast food establishments that I begin to wonder if we should remove the "fast" from their moniker.

The worst part about it is that I have occasionally had issues with the "pull up" routine. The absolute worst of the worst experience is that on more than one occasion, the workers have just completely forgotten that I was waiting, leading me to exit my car, march inside, only to find that they have not even made my food, and I will be waiting longer. They already have my money hostage, so there's a sense of powerlessness about it that I find frustrating. Other disasters include waiting a long time and then receiving the wrong food, missing condiments, etc., all requiring a physical exit from the car to go back into the establishment to correct.

So, why do they even do this? I can only think of two reasons. The first is benevolent. Something in my order actually will take longer to make than the order behind me, so they are just rearranging the queue to allow the first food ready to be the first food served. I don't really have an issue with this, as it might benefit me one day. The second is a bit more self-serving. Lots of fast food restaurants are measured on "time to service" sort of metrics that measure (even electronically counting inside the restaurant) the amount of time that a car sits at the drive through window. In some restaurants (I know because I worked in one), the timer starts beeping annoyingly if the car exceeds some allotted service time. In this instance, there is no customer service mentality there, just a desire to artificially deflate the average service times or to avoid getting "dinged" for long wait times. The problem is that you can't ever tell if the motivation is the first reason, second reason, or just plain conditioned behavior.

So what can you do? I say you refuse to pull up. Period.

I got introduced to this idea from a friend who said that he "refused to pull up on principle" and would just stick with that. The response generates confused looks and repetition in the ask, but kept him at the window until receiving his food. I loved the idea so much, I've taken to some adjustments of my own.

The first thought I had was to answer the question "Can you please pull up?" with some enigmatic response, like "I am not allowed." I thought this would generate some sort of suspicion that I would play into, along the lines of my being a secret shopper or something like that, unable to falsify service times in my reports back to corporate. But that opened itself to the same issues as "refusing on principle."

And then, it hit me. A great response, that I (and others, now) have used with some level of success. It is predicated on a two-pronged approach: First, you let yourself believe that they are asking you to pull up as a courtesy to you, to generate great customer service. Second, you let yourself believe that you will do the more polite thing and not require them, at their minimum wage job, to have to run out and serve you food when you are perfectly capable of sitting and waiting on them. The response, "No, thanks, I'm fine."

So, here's how this conversation goes in practice.

Cashier: Sir, can you please pull up?
Me: No thanks, I'm good.

Cashier: Sir, if you can pull over there, we can bring your food to you.
Me: Oh, you really don't have to do that. I'm OK, I will wait for it.

I've tried some other variants, like totally ignoring the request, or pulling up only two or three feet, which negates the purpose of my pulling up but doesn't allow them to protest anymore, but I've found the "polite refusal" is most effective, and generally only results in being asked once or twice. And after you've done it a couple of times, it's just as easy as the obligatory "No thanks" when offered new credit card offers to save 10% off of your $14 Target purchase or the like.

My goal: to eventually end the "please pull up" automatic request, and get it really back to "total exception" scenarios. But I need your help.

Will you join in the refusal?

Hysterical - Sad Dog Diary

Cameron Mathews — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 14:53:00 +0000

Some Friday funny for you.

Springtime

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:02:00 +0000

By Mark S Jobling (Own work)
[GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or
CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

So, to pick up several months later from the previous post (and add another bird picture here), I have two times a year when I get this creative bug. It causes me to go nuts, feeling like I am not creating anything in the world, and I am merely a bystander and consumer.

The primary time that I get this "creative flu" if you will is around October and November. This one makes total sense to me. For starters, I think there's some subconscious tie-back to when I was in school, and summer was the time for slacking off and having fun, and then my brain was programmed to start working in September. Now that I live in Texas, it's still hot and summery in September, and so my mental trigger just kicks in a little later with some seasonal association.

More directly, I think that the creative juices get flowing after doing NaNoWriMo for so many years. Since that runs November 1-November 30, I would usually kick in the planning phases for the novel around late September or early October, which just trained my brain that that is the time to be creative and write.

Add to that the November Poem-A-Day challenge over at Writer's Digest with Robert Brewer? And you've just reinforced November as my "must be creative" month.

A few years ago, though, I noticed that around March, when the temperatures started to come up, and I was rebounding from my post-NaNo slacktime, I started to get "the bug" again. My "springtime second wind" would usually result in musical endeavors rather than writing, but would kick me in the creative pants anyway, and get me doing stuff. Then Writer's Digest added the April PAD challenge, and voila - I had another reinforcement of my Springtime-Falltime-creativity-boost.

This year, I skipped it.

OK, that's not entirely true. Lots of stuff happened over the March/April/May timeframe that caused me to be relatively busy. So what I skipped was completing the April PAD challenge. I started some work on a book in February/March using the "magic spreadsheet" as touted by Mur Lafferty (which I will talk about in a subsequent post and will probably try to start using again at some point), but that dropped off with some real estate transactions that I took part in (and am still taking part in).

What I didn't skip was the crazy "you need to be creating, you are merely consuming, add to the world don't just take from it" nagging at the back of my mind. It's still bugging me. That's why I'm writing something here. To tell it to be quiet.

So, before I post again here, I've got some poems to write. I'm going to try to pop out at least the poems as inspired by the April PAD prompts, even if I didn't do them in April. And then I'm going to work on some flash fiction (I think) since I've downloaded the free flash fiction course from Holly Lisle, who defines the flash fiction as about 500 words each. And then I might get back to that novel. We'll see, and I may or may not keep you posted.

Oh, and I'm considering having one blog, instead of three or four. Will post more on that if I decide to merge...

Cheers.

Off the face of the planet

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 08:57:00 +0000

By NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team
(STScI/AURA) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

So, no. I did not actually fall off of the face of the planet. Nor did I apply for a one-way pass to colonize the planet Mars and get accepted and shipped off. No, nothing that exciting.

Instead, I just disappeared from my own website for a while. It happens.

In the meantime, we had another baby, I moved, and all sorts of other delightful life changes took place.

If you have stuck around this long, chances are you have seen me pull the disappearing act a couple of times. And now I'm back. For a little while at least.

I'm not sure I'll continue all the site in its present form, or if I will just start merging some pieces of it together - I have a feeling I may combine the writing blog with the brewing log with the blog, and just have one place with some different tags separating it. I know I just split it out a few years ago, but honestly, the updates on each one individually are spaced out enough that I don't think there's a continuous stream of content.

So, maybe that will happen. If I get motivated.

In the meantime, I am looking at doing some flash fiction and poetry stuff, which I will talk about on the writing blog. Maybe. For now, hi, and know I'm still somewhere out here - not somewhere out there.

This is not a food blog

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 04:30:00 +0000

By Leo za1 (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

OK, I noticed that the last couple of posts on here have been about what I've been eating. In no way do I intend to turn this blog solely into a food blog, but that is one of the better topics of things I like to make mental (and then literal) notes about. So my apologies if my blog did nothing but to make you hungry of late. I am sure there are other interesting things to come - in fact, I have a couple of ideas. Now if only I would sit and write them.

In the meantime, instead of food I'm eating, check out this iguana eating a delicious flower.

Lobster Mac & Chard!

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 02:00:00 +0000

Every now and again, we make some yummy food, and I decide to share.

We get several food magazines, from Food Network to Rachel Ray and Southern Living (and maybe even one more). This month in Food Network was a litany of cheese recipes, but we both started to drool at the thought of Lobster Mac and it didn't hurt that we had three rock lobster tails in the freezer.

So, we spun up the recipe for lobster mac and cheese (involves whisking flour and butter and milk and adding 3.5 cups of cheddar cheese before adding pasta and chopped cooked lobster meat and broiling briefly). Note: Don't leave your lobster tails boiling unsupervised, lest they boil over on your stove. Just saying.

Along with this we had a combination of rainbow and swiss red chard. If you have never had chard, I recommend you try it. It's a green but without the usual bitterness, and much more sweet. Not to mention it has such colorful stalks, and I'm sure there are great vitamins in there.

Anyway, here's how we made the chard (since this is our own recipe, I don't mind just showing you what we made up):

We took a bunch of Swiss red chard and a bunch of rainbow chard from the grocery store and washed it well. Then slice the stalks of the chard and roll the leaves up. Slice the leaves along the rolls, creating 1/4 inch ribbons of greens.

Heat 2-3 Tbsp of oil in a skillet over medium heat (let it heat 3 minutes or so by itself). Add one clove garlic, crushed, and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Add the shredded greens, and mix up with tongs.

Salt and pepper as desired.

Cook for 5-10 minutes, moving around frequently with tongs until the greens are limp and well cooked. Any pieces of stalk should be quite soft.

What you'll be left with is a colorful and delicious pile of greens. Good luck!

Meat Cupcake Delishus

Cameron Mathews — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:23:00 +0000

OK, as you know, I have a tendency to share foods that I have consumed here (wait - isn't that what they said Twitter is for?).

So, this weekend, I managed to squeeze into the menu this concoction at right -> the bacon-wrapped meatloaf cupcake (topped with mashed potato "icing").

We saw this in some magazine (Food Network Magazine, perhaps?) and ended up making a version from the internet, and it turned out great. Even my meatloaf-disliking-spouse said she'd eat these again, and I felt it necessary to share just because of the deliciousness (and sheer absurdity) of a meatloaf cupcake.

I thought they were great myself - the only downside being how to extract this bacon-wrapped-potato-topped-meatball from the muffin tins without utterly destroying them, and the excessive muffin tin cleaning required afterwards.

Kudos to whichever magazine got us to make these, and to the recipe, which we got here:

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf Cupcakes

Enjoy!

Brushes with Fame

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:43:00 +0000

By Photos by flipchip / LasVegasVegas.com
[CC-BY-SA-2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

So every now and again, when you are traveling, you run into "famous" people. It makes sense, actually, since famous people need to travel, too. In fact, you might could make an argument that many "famous" people have professions that require them to travel, which means it is actually more likely that a person of some stature is traveling than your average Joe or Jane.

Still, it's fun to run into them and have your brush with fame.

The last time I ran into someone of note was in Dulles airport a little over a year ago, when one of my coworkers pointed out Henry Rollins waiting on his plane. By the time I decided to go talk to him and perhaps get a picture, he had moved on (ostensibly to get ON his plane).

So, when I got on the plane home from Vegas last week, I was treated to a double dose of traveling with fame.

Seated in first class was former WWE wrestler Shawn Michaels - I didn't speak to him, as I'm not particularly a big fan of wrestling, but it was still nice having celebrities on the plane.

It wasn't until I got off the plane and went to the baggage claim, that I saw Doyle Brunson (pictured above). I most definitely am a fan of professional poker playing and the World Series of Poker, so I did not pass up on this one. He was waiting on his luggage, and I did get a little fan-like giddy and told him I was really glad to see him in person and that I had watched him play for years and was a fan. He smiled (much like he's doing in that picture), nodded, and said "Thank you." Kind of a nice interchange except I did leave rather quickly since I was ready to get home. I wonder if he would have chatted some more. Anyway, I may retroactively document some of my other brushes with fame (as that provides for nice blog fodder), but I thought I would at least hit this one relatively shortly after its occurrence.

New Year New Tricks?

Cameron Mathews — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:50:00 +0000

By Bird33ou (Own work)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Well, another year has come, and that probably means it is time to make resolutions and whatnot. So, here we are, a week in, and I am thinking, probably not going to make too too many this year.

Here's why.

When you are looking at having not one but two pretty major life events in a single year (both GOOD ones, by the way), there's not much room to fit in other little goals. But I still like to throw a little fuel on the fire, so here goes. Most of these are writing resolutions, so I guess I could move this over to the writing blog, but whatever.

Not so much a resolution, but I am going to see how many days in a row I can write "something" of fiction. I'm at 7.
I'm going to post a few more times than last year, but not sure how many more. But more. But still scattered around the various blogs.
I'm going to play golf more than once - the number of times I managed to play in the last 2 years.
I'm going to try to adjust to all of the changes from the last 6 and next 6 months as quickly as possible (and before year end)
I'll keep a regular poetry schedule. Maybe.
I'll start revision on a work of fiction. Preferably a novel-length work of fiction.

That's it. No more promises.

Things that I also expect. There will be times I am extremely tired, grumpy, cranky, or generally feeling like that dog's face looks up above. I will slow down brewing any beer early in the year (probably only 1 more brew day in the near future), and HOPEFULLY will get back to brew a few batches before the end of the year. And I will, at times, disappear from the internet for a few days. And then return.

I don't know - that seems like a lame list, but it's a list. So there. If you don't like it, tell me what your resolutions are in the comments, and you can one up me. Happy New Year.

Bowl Madness

Cameron Mathews — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:29:00 +0000

By Torsten Bolten (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Writing a football post because I don't feel like writing the resolution post yet and I need to get back to working on fiction stuff instead of blogging.

So here's some thoughts.

Apparently every team I am pulling for in the bowl games is losing (or almost losing - talking about you Louisville), with the exception of Baylor, who spanked UCLA - the score made it appear closer than it was, and the score wasn't close. Sic 'Em. Still, I've been disappointed with just about everyone else that I have wanted to win. I guess this is not my year.

In other news, my first attempt at fantasy left me out of the money and in fourth place, but we will see how the playoffs go... maybe I can do better.

Also, that 1 point safety in the Oregon - K State game... let's all remember - if you block a kick and recover outside of the end zone, do NOT run back into your end zone. 1 point safety negates the whole point of blocking the kick.

That is all for the weekend, kids, have a nice one.

What's the Best Time to Write?

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:18:00 +0000

By Poco a poco [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

First off, Happy New Year, if I haven't wished you that already via some outlet. Second off, we shall expect some resolution talk on my regular blog later in the week, that may include some writing resolutions or something like that, we shall see.

Now, on to the "best time to write." So, this is really a trick question, because I am guessing there is no "best time to write." But for me, there is clearly a "most inspired time to write," but I don't mean a time of day. For me, it is just the span generally from November until March that is my highest productive writing time.

November gets me started, since I originally started writing fiction in November for NaNoWriMo, and although I don't participate officially anymore, I do still feel all nostalgic and writey-writey in November and want to kick into high writing gear.

Then December and January generate that general end-of-year/beginning-of-year resolution-writing and overall overzealous behavior and optimism. And then by March, it starts to wane unless I'm deep in a project.

So right now, I'm right in the middle of the frenzy time, and writing a little bit daily, so we will see how long it lasts this year. Interested in hearing if anyone reading this has a "most productive time of year" or anything like that. Let me know.

Home Improvement Isn't Just An Old Sitcom with Tim Allen

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:30:00 +0000

This is a smoke detector.

This is a smoke detector on a 12 foot ceiling or so.

This is a smoke detector that was not fun to install.

So, just a few months ago, we had the pleasant experience of having a smoke detector go off at 2 in the morning. Not chirping, mind you, but full-on alarm. There was no smoke, no fire. Just alarm noises. A few days later, we had a second smoke detector do the same thing, at around the same time in the morning.
Two things I learned from this experience: 1) Children sleep through smoke detectors. 2) When one goes bad, replace them ALL. So, after learning this life lesson, we bought a ton of smoke detectors at the "Depot" and I proceeded to install them all. This one was not nearly as bad as the one I have to lean out off of the stairwell to get to. Oh, and another thing -all of these are front-battery-loading models, so you don't have to take the smoke detector off of the ceiling and unplug it to change the battery. I'd call that a major home upgrade.

Since this smoke detector delicious, I have also done several other fun home improvement projects like: Replace multiple light fixtures (no more "this house was built in the 90's" brass lighting) and every ceiling fan, including the 15 foot one on a sloped ceiling. That was fun. There are pictures. Then there was the storm door, a WONDERFUL upgrade to the back entrance to the house, and then we have had a plumber here to replace the kitchen sink and various faucets (I don't do plumbing or climbing on the roof - I have my limits).

So now, we just need to have someone come paint outside (and chimney and maybe the fence) while I clean up some paint inside on my remaining days off and our house will be pretty darn close to exactly how we would like it to be for us to live in. And then we can put it on the market. I think that's how this seems to always work according to those I've discussed it with.

Next project!

Big 12 Bowl Selection Special

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:51:00 +0000

So, this is how my regular season of football wrapped up, watching Baylor beat Oklahoma State at home on Senior Day, and then hanging out for the (well done) montage of Seniors on the big screen.

Then I fully intended to hurry up on Sunday and write a nice post in which I predicted the outcome of the bowl selection activities (much like I predicted Eddie Lackey's first quarter pick-6, though that prediction diminished in value with my subsequent failed predictions throughout the game). But, alas, I made no such post. Instead, I did other things all day, and therefore, you will have to take my "I didn't think this would go this way" type of comments as fact. Or not. Doesn't really matter to me. Anyway, here's some bowl game selection reaction from me, and we'll go in pecking order...

Fiesta Bowl - No surprises, Kansas State here as the champion of the league. Should be a really good match-up with Oregon, and I'll be happy to see this game.

Sugar Bowl - Why is this here? The Sugar Bowl didn't pick a Big 12 team. EXACTLY. For the second year in a row, the Sugar Bowl turned its nose up at the Big 12 to take a random other conference in as SEC fodder. Last year's turning of a blind eye to Kansas State bumped the rest of the league down, and this year, Oklahoma gets left out in the cold. Oh well, I guess they didn't want to front-load the Big 12/SEC matchups, since that's the tie-in that they have going forward.

Cotton Bowl - Well, when the Sugar Bowl drops the ball like that, leave it to the Cotton Bowl to pick up the slack. Great pick of Oklahoma, and they will produce a better game against A&M than Texas would have (though I could see some Cotton Bowl committee members salivating over Texas vs. A&M...)

Alamo Bowl - Not surprising, picking Texas. Should be a good draw to San Antonio.

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl - I'm not surprised to see TCU picked here, though originally I had thought Oklahoma State would be hanging out here before any of the 7-5 teams. I guess their lackluster finish destroyed their bowl pickability? When two 7-5 private schools are picked up above 8-4 Ok. State, something gives.. I will enjoy the TCU vs. Michigan State matchup though.

Holiday Bowl - Here comes Baylor. Wha-what? Yup, I am very happy to see Baylor picked above Tech & West Virginia of the 7-5 crew, especially given that 3 of the 5 Baylor losses were one-score, and we're riding high. Also, given the Holiday, Pinstripe, and Meineke Car Care, I figured WVU to Pinstripe made sense. I also figured the Dallas and Meineke would take 2 of the 3 Texas schools in the 7-5 range. But I also thought Oklahoma State would go to Tempe...so...

Meineke Car Care Bowl - Well, like I jsut explained, Houston was going to pick up a Texas school in my opinion, and with TCU & Baylor gone, they'll take Tech's high/low yo-yo team with a potential for an explosive offense to match up against what little offense Minnesota will bring to the table.

New Era Pinstripe Bowl - Certainly Oklahoma State will...what? Oh yeah, West Virginia was a shoe-in in my mind for this since the second they got bowl eligible. The thought of WVU-Pitt had some drooling, but we'll take WVU-Syracuse anyway.

Heart of Dallas Bowl - Ok, I seriously thought there'd be a Texas team from the 7-5 crew here, or maybe Iowa State would jump in, but no... Oklahoma State picked vs. Purdue. Again, I did not see in my wildest dreams every 7-5 team in the Big 12 picked before Oklahoma State given they had a better conference record. I could insert my comments about Gundy's hair or other tasteless jokes here, but I think I just did.

Liberty Bowl - There was no doubt that all our bowl-eligible teams would find a bowl, and Memphis is a fun city - here's hoping my Iowa State friends find some fun on Beale Street. I'm not going to say I'll be glued to the set for the Tulsa matchup, but it could be a good game.

So, when all is said and done, a few things stand out. First, 90% of the Big 12 are attending bowls, which no other conference has ever accomplished. Only Kansas doesn't travel for post-season play. Second, the bowls do not have great confidence in the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma gets overlooked by the Sugar, and Oklahoma State gets overlooked by everyone...

And finally, Baylor finishes strong, and ends up with a nice trip to San Diego in the process. Good deal.

Sic Em!

Hi everyone...it's NOVEMBER!

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:43:00 +0000

So - it's November. That means it is time for a whole host of writing challenges. First up is NaNoWriMo. The crazy challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days is what inspired me to start writing several years ago, and I've done it several times. Not doing it this year, as I didn't do it last year either, but I do have some news in that arena: I have started writing fiction again. Yup - you read that correct - I have written about 2/3 of the first draft of a short story called "Bertram Farm" that is a little outside my genre comfort zone - it's kind of a supernaturalish horror story inspired by a weird dream I had.

Oh, and I've started a new novel, too. We will see how it goes - I have a new character, an FBI agent named Erica Brinks, leading this one. The basic premise is that she's working a computer fraud case with some credit card number scams going on when it all goes seriously wrong and someone dies... Not sure the pace I'm writing that one, though, and I don't have the whole outline done yet, so we will see the interesting path it takes.

In addition to some new fiction I'm generating, I'm also participating in the November Poem A Day challenge from Writer's Digest - I'm 8 days in, and 8 poems written, so I'm caught up. You can follow along at Twitter under #novpad.

And finally, you know, it's artsy time, so the winter beard is back. You could say I got a jump on no-shave November, or you could say I am just performing psychological and sociological experiments on those around me to see who reacts to my expanded facial hair component and how. Or you could say I am a crazy artist. If you haven't seen me in a while, here I am...

Crazy cars

Cameron Mathews — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:30:00 +0000

So, this weekend, as we were driving down the Bush turnpike, we passed one of these - a McLaren MP4-12C. Retail price: $229,000+ from edmunds.com.

Who can afford to own a car that costs that much?

As if that wasn't enough, yesterday I spied one of these:
Aston Martin Vantage - sporting its own retail price of $180,535+.

Gotta love living or working in Plano if you are a car-watcher.

Look, I'm not a "car guy" in terms of getting under the hood, or racing cars, or anything like that. I know a few guys who are, and want their souped up Audis or whatever. I also see the Fast and the Furious crowd pulling their modified Hondas into the Sonic parking lot - that's not me either. I'm just a guy who likes pretty cars, mostly sports cars, and enjoys observing them as they pass me on the highway (or vice versa).

I'll stick with my Chevy Tahoe.

Other cars I've seen on the commute include Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys, Maseratis, and more. In Plano, Texas. Who knew?

Cheers!

Texas State Fair

Cameron Mathews — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:00:00 +0000

This is a picture of chicken fried bacon and a beer from the Texas State Fair. I've had chicken fried bacon before, so this was not a novelty to me, and therefore not something I'm going to describe in my rundown of deep fried goodness that is the fair. Just like corn dogs are not getting a mention either. Or beer.

We went to the fair last Saturday (not the ideal weather day for the fair with all of the rain) and tried out some of the delicious fried foods that the fair has to offer. Here's my rundown.

Fried Jambalaya - there's a reason this won the best taste in the annual competition. This is a legitimately delicious food. Basically it's doughy balls of jambalaya rice and sausage deep fried and served with a cream sauce. Delicious. Get one. Or four.
Fried Mexican Firecrackers - basically like a mini-tamale of chicken and jalapeno deep fried and served with a southwest ranch-type sauce. Good, but not the best. Not like the jambalaya.
Fried Chocolate Tres Leches Cake - OK, I don't really like cake. But I do generally like tres leches, particularly due to the super-moist sweet goodness. I felt this one was a little more dried out and not quite capturing what I expected from the title. It's OK, but not as good as:
Deep Fried Pumpkin Pie - I don't think this is a new one this year, but it was my first time to try it. Basically a ball of pumpkin pie filling deep fried and served with a squirt of whipped cream. This would be my go-to-dessert from the fair.
Fried Pork Wing - Not sure what part of a pig the "wing" comes from, but it looks like a drumstick, and it's coated in some sort of spicy sweet Cuban barbecue sauce. I only had a bite of one, but it was pretty good.

In other exciting fair news, we won a purple monkey in the Midway, lost some needed paperwork somewhere along the way, and got really really wet from the rain.

Notable "did not try" foods:

Fried Bacon Cinnamon Roll - you had me at bacon, you lost me at cinnamon roll
Chicken Fried Cactus Bites - Seemed too much like a vegetable

If you go to the State Fair of Texas, let me know what foods you tried. Oh, and I always recommend Fried Butter if you can find it - delicious.

Monday Movie Review: The Five Year Engagement

Cameron Mathews — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Image displayed from http://www.thefiveyearengagementmovie.com/

OK, we watched The Five Year Engagement this weekend - gotta say, not quite what I expected from a Jud Apatow film. From the folks that gave us Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up and Bridesmaids, I kind of expected wall-to-wall funny. Honestly, I have to say I liked the film, but it was not nearly as funny as some of the previous movies. Not a bad watch for date night, but not a must-see film.

Rainbows and Classes

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:14:00 +0000

Sometimes the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is you. Well, I don't know what else this picture could signify.

Anyway, just a quick update in the land of Cameron's writing... not much going on in terms of actually producing anything. I am making some progress in terms of analyzing things, therefore I am suffering from some level of analysis paralysis, but I also decided to take the plunge into another endeavour: Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways writing course (that is an affiliate link so I get some kickback if you buy from there, but I am also taking the course, so I offer some endorsement so far of what I have seen as outlined below).

So - I've made my way through Lesson 2 so far (working on lesson 3) and what I have seen is that there is a method to the madness, and perhaps Holly is offering something that I have been searching for for some time - a repeatable process for building a better set of writing tools and creating novel after novel of good material. So far, some of it is no-brainer type stuff, and I can't share the details, but there is still some good stuff in there.

I've been wanting to take her How to Revise Your Novel course for a while, but couldn't see plugging down the large chunk of change sight-unseen to do it. But now, she's offering her big courses in tiny $4.99 bite-sized pieces for the Kindle (and other options), and I'm off and running with those. I figure I can quit at any time, and I'm only in for the $4.99 for the last lesson since I thought it was worthwhile. So far I have yet to feel like I have wasted the money.

I do think if/once I finish the HTTS course, I'll still look to take the HTRYN course once she has that "Kindle-ized" - and hopefully I will have a project worthwhile for revising at that point (or maybe time to dig up a trunked novel). We will see.

Cheers and keep writing!

Beat to the Punch

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:47:00 +0000

Well not really. If you read this blog as I sporadically update, you might remember my last post documenting my quest to outline a Janet Evanovich novel and a Michael Connolly novel and start looking deeper into their story structure, length, pacing, etc.

Shortly after publishing that post, I stumbled across this: A Writer's Digest article on how to create an outline like, you guessed it, Janet Evanovich.

Honestly, though, it's not like I was in a race to do this (nor did I intend to interview Evanovich about her outlining style). Instead, at first, I thought, "Hey, here's a way for me to just get an outline of her book and then I can reverse engineer my stats!" Unfortunately, though, while the article is extremely interesting into her process for creating an outline in a three act, scene-based structure, it is not particularly helpful with the other analysis that I wanted to do. So I will keep plugging away. I'm currently about 16 or 17 chapters through Explosive Eighteen, which I think should give me a decent look at what I am looking for from the Stephanie Plum side of the world, and then I need to go through the Michael Connelly book and do the same.

It's hard to focus when I keep getting sucked back into the Song of Fire and Ice series (I'm currently reading book 2).

Still, I started an outline myself this week, and will tinker with it as I get more of this research done to help with my structure.

As for you, go read that Writer's Digest article on how Evanovich outlines and let me know what you think and if that would work for you. Cheers!

Outlines and Maple Trees

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

A few things I have realized lately about my writing. First off, I haven't been doing too much (other than some poetry business for the April Poem A Day Challenge). Which means I need to take some action. I decided to start working on an outline for a novel, and I have a decent idea for a premise there.

Next up, I have problems with story structure. I think part of this comes from generally not plotting and outlining but rather from just flying along writing words and hoping to fix it in revision. A fine plan for some, but that elephant looks too big to eat sometimes. Like if I wanted to paint a tree that looked pretty like the Japanese maple to the left. The tree has a ton of quirks and twists that make it what it is, along with the shades of leaves that create perfection. There's no way I could just throw paint on a canvas and hope to have a tree. To create something along those lines would require not necessarily copying the tree, but understanding the tree so that when I created my own, it would appear real, it would appear to be similar to a tree that I might find in nature. So, I'm doing a little research.

This research is not scientific. There's little factual basis behind it. But, it's based on a concept that perhaps some best-selling authors have better ideas for story structure than I do. So, as I work on an outline for a novel (which I have to put SOME words on paper even to outline or else I'm not really getting closer to a novel, now, am I), I am reading (which I generally do). Difference is, this time I am outlining the books I am reading as I go along. So far I'm about halfway through a Janet Evanovich book (not exactly my sub-genre of crime/mystery but still with some structure), and I plan to do a Michael Connelly book and maybe one more. Because while there's not a formula, per se, for a perfect bestselling novel, there is a formula. Give or take.

I'll share the results.

So if you've made it this far, leave a comment and tell me what you struggle with that bestselling writers do well. Or follow me on Twitter and have a chat about it. Until next time.

Obligatory post about a worthwhile ongoing endeavor

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:24:00 +0000

I've been reading Robert Lee Brewer's blog for a while (he's the editor of various things for Writer's Digest Publications including Poet's Market and others), and he's set a bunch of people on a very interesting journey: a sort of "build a platform in 30 days" adventure. So I'm trying to play catch up and do the 30 tasks. We will see how well it goes. But for now, you can follow along with his tips over at My Name Is Not Bob.

And the Kingfisher to the right has nothing to do with this post. But it did catch a fish!

Another April: 30 Days, 30 Poems

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:30:00 +0000

We will see if I can make it this time. I somewhat struggled through the November Poem A Day Challenge and didn't quite make it, but it's April again, and that means Robert Lee Brewer is hosting the April Poem a Day Challenge again over at Writer's Digest. So off we go trying to play catchup.

You should be able to find my AprilPAD poems posted here with a tag, if you are interested, and we will chug along from there. I hope you enjoy!

The Power of the To Do

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:12:00 +0000

Astrid and Astrid logo are property
of Todoroo, Inc. References used by prior
written permission. I am not affiliated with
Astrid or Todoroo, Inc., except
as a user of their software.

I am a compulsive listmaker. I have to do lists for work, to do lists for the house, to do lists of yardwork, to do lists reminding me to do the groceries, you name it - I've got a list for it. Except for writing. Which makes no sense.

As I recently upgraded my phone into the land of Android, I went in search of a good To Do list function (needed something more robust than the lame included version and Google Tasks just doesn't even synch well with things), and I stumbled across Astrid here. Now, to be clear - I'm not associated with Astrid, other than by my use of it, so I'm not a shill or anything. And it's got problems, bugs, etc. from time to time. But, it has been a wonderful productivity tool that reminds me to feed my fish, make my grocery list, mow the grass, do household repairs, and take out the trash. And every time I check off a task (and keep that happy little squid from popping up to remind me to do something), I get a little burst of joy inside.

And so it was, one day this week, that I had my epiphany...Use my little red squiddyfriend to track writing goals and just check them off as I go. I could even start by setting target dates for outlining a short series of books, then having recurring tasks to remind me to write, and I was already tracking my woefully overdue and incomplete need for blog posts...

Now, as has been suggested elsewhere, and I think it's probably not a bad idea, I should stop talking about writing and write. So, perhaps I will do that and periodically check in here (though there might be non-writing blog posts on the other blog sections here...). Off to the land of outlining for me, now, though.

And then I can check that off the list.

It's a New Year? Oops

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:43:00 +0000

OK so the New Year has come and gone, and I did not write down my resolutions (or more appropriately, goals) like I normally do. So I'll work on it.

Writing resolutions include some frequency things, some planning things, and some other creative endeavors. I also plan to read 18 books this year - last year I hit just over 20, I think, with a plan for 12, so 18 is not too far of a stretch, I don't think. I have some other resolutions as well, in a non-literary setting - balancing financial, career(non-writing career, that is), household, and family among the creative and personal growth goals that I have. How many of those I share, I don't know, but I will have them written down (because that makes them real), and I'll see how well I stick to it.

Anyway, I know it's late in the year (and I'm well past the 13 days overdue for writing things here), but hopefully you have set your goals for the year and are well on your way.

Writing In The Cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:00:00 +0000

I have recently become fascinated with the concept of "the cloud" and all of the tools that people are developing for cloud users.

In case you aren't familiar, here's a quick run-down: "In the cloud" means that the application and stuff that you are doing is actually stored somewhere on the internet. You don't have to install a bunch of software on your PC and you don't actually save files on your PC. The beauty is that you can then view, edit, and save documents from your PC, your work PC, your phone, your iPad or other tablet, and various other gadgets, so long as they can access the content on the internet. The two largest cloud application groups are (not surprisingly) tailored towards users of the two largest consumer smartphone platforms (I said consumer because I am really just guessing that these are the two largest, and I bet Blackberry has lots of business users but fewer consumers, who knows): Android and iPhone. Since I'm a PC user and a Google ~~whore~~ hack, I've decided to focus on the applications that are available on Google Chrome (and perhaps later for me a Chromium notebook and/or Android phone - we'll see how far I go with this).

If you want to play along, you can go download Google Chrome browser and then visit the Chrome Web Store where you can get most of this stuff for free.

So for this first little evaluation and whatever of software, I thought I would toss out a few of the available writing utilities that I've found for Chrome and let you know which one I like best.

Google Documents

Google Docs is more than just word processing, there are spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms, too. It's like a lightweight office suite in the cloud. It has a full-featured word processor, doesn't require additional login besides your google login, and auto-saves. Not much downside, and is probably the best writing platform in Google for Microsoft Word users relocating to the cloud.

Scratchpad
Scratchpad is a pretty neat editor that lets you pop between panel view and a full tab window. Stores docs in Google Docs library. Reminds me a bit of WordPad for the cloud (better than NotePad, less overhead than Word).

Simplenote
Simplenote seems, well, too simple for real writing. Looks good for writing some notes, but I'm gonna kill my account most likely. Nice mobility stuff, though, if you're an Apple fan. Don't like the separate account deal anyway.

Scriblr
Scriblr is good as a journal. Not as a writing package. If you need a diary or journal, though, and don't want a blog, it might be for you.

QuietWrite
Seems like more of a weird blogging platform than writing application. It does have distraction free UI, but does not seem to make efficient use of the screen real estate. Also works apparently on iPad.

Just Write
This seems simple enough, and supports markdown, but I'm not sure it gives me really what I want. Very simple and clean interface though if you are just looking for words on page.

Quick Note
Quick Note is a big yellow digital legal pad. If you like that, this is for you. If you don't, move along.

WriteSpace
When I clicked this I thought I had entered WriteMonkey. Nice. But then I realized I couldn't save. Or do anything else. Maybe this one is too early, but it has potential. Someday. If you want to write, this is a cool interface, but it appears you have to copy it somewhere else to save it. Fail for now.

Notebook
Weird a-z line numbering throws me off on this one, as well as a very small screen. Also not sure how to actually work this. Another fail for now.

RawScripts
Wow - if you write screenplays, this is pretty sweet. If you write novels, move along. If I decide to do ScriptFrenzy, this would be my tool of choice - it auto-formats and everything. Also allows collaboration. Pretty impressive, I'd say.

Scriptito
I had some problems logging into this with my Google and Yahoo accounts, so I ended up creating an account (though I almost gave up on this). Holy moly am I glad I did not. This looks like THE cloud app for Scrivener or YWriter users. It's clunky and takes some getting used to, but it has sections, research, character and location information, and other breakdown sections for each project. Definitely going to play with this and see how well it translates from my PC-based apps.

Pillarbox
This again looks somewhat like WriteMonkey, but it appears to only allow you to edit one document. Cool extras though for a single writing session, such as a timer and wordcount goal tracker.

Software	Login Required	Auto-Save	Word Processor Features	Distraction-Free	Local Editing
Google Docs	Google Login	Yes	All	No	No
Scratchpad	Google Login	Yes	Basic Text Formatting	Tab View	Yes
SimpleNote	Separate Login	Yes	None	No	No
Scriblr	N/A	Yes	None	No	No
QuietWrite	Separate Login	Yes	None	Yes	No
Just Write	Separate Login	Yes	Markdown - not traditional	Yes	No
Quick Note	N/A	Yes	None	No	No
Write Space	N/A	No Save	None	Yes	Yes (but no save)
Notebook	N/A	No Save	None	No	Yes (but no save)
RawScripts	Google or Yahoo	Yes	Basic and all sorts of nice screenplay formatting	No	No
Scriptito	Google via OpenID or Yahoo via OpenID or Custom (what I had to use)	Not sure	Basic with great organizing a la YWriter or Scrivener	No	No
Pillarbox	N/A	Not sure	None	Yes	Yes

The Verdict

Easy answer for me - Scriptito. It is a full-featured writing suite targeted at the organized and/or planning crowd. It is very similar to a cloud-based Scrivener which is exactly what I've been looking for. And it's free (though I'd love to find a way to donate to the cause other than the annual fee - we'll see).

Runners-Up
Well, if I were looking for Word in the cloud, then Google Docs it is. And with some enhancements, Pillarbox might start giving WriteMonkey a run for its money at distraction free zenware. But for now, I'm off to play with Scriptito and try to work my way through the tutorials and manual.

Until next time.

NaNoPlaMo or MoPoWriMo or Whatever

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:53:00 +0000

OK, it's National Novel Writing Month. I have done that fun activity several times and I'm skipping out this year, for various reasons, but I've previously written about why you should try to write a novel in 30 days. I've also summarized my things I learned by not finishing last year. So - been there, done that. If you're interested, go check those out. And feel free to download the fun spreadsheets and planning things that I have out there.

This year, though, I'm not doing it. Instead, I'm doing two other things:

1. November Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge. Did this last year (and the April equivalent), and it results in a whole mess of poems being generated and then eventually submitted. It's fun. It's run by Robert Lee Brewer of Writer's Digest, so go check it out (still time to play catchup and write three poems to get on track). I jokingly called this "MoPoWriMo" (More Poetry Writing Month), but it fits.
2. A NaNoPlaMo exercise (National Novel Planning Month). OK, NaNoPlaMo is unofficially October. But I'm doing it in November. And probably not following any rules or minimums. My goal: Character backgrounds, high level worldbuilding for a story bible, and an outline. For a full-length mystery novel, not a 50,000 word NaNoNovel. So more like 80-100K. The other output of this exercise (I hope) would be a walkthrough planning process exercise. I'm reading several "how to plan your novel" things and incorporating what works for me. Not sure it will work for you. If I find a good way to share, I will.

So that's what's up in my world. What's up in your world?

NaNoTools

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

OK, as promised, here's a quick recap of all the fun NaNoWriMo (and other writing project) tools that I have available for download out here. If you want to just browse the list, you can click here. Every year, my blog gets hammered (haha, get the pun?) with hits of people looking to download my modified version of Erik Benson's spreadsheet that I have been sharing for the past 7 years or so, and the various other tools and files that I offer out here.

Here's what you will find as the most popular:

NaNoWriMo Report Card - OK, this is the 2010 edition (change the date in the start/end dates and it is magically the 2011 edition). Keeps track of your progress throughout the frantic month of November.
Character Profile Sheet - Character profile to help you flesh out your characters.
Character Creator - In case you are missing details in your Character Profile Sheet
Novel Mind Map - For use in October to visually brainstorm

Beyond that, I have a few other nifty items out there, like a Writing by Numbers spreadsheet that tells you at what point in your novel to make the next big turn, a novel workplan to take you through editing your novel over the course of a year, and more.

As always, I hope you find them all helpful, and I appreciate feedback on any of them. If I like your feedback, I might just make some enhancements for you.

Throughout October and November, I may have a few other goodies sprinkled in, including some tool recommendations/trials, and maybe some goodies as I continue to play with things in my new favorite environment. Hint:

(it's a cloud)

Writing Schedules and Other Such Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Read an article lately by Ollin Morales that suggested an interesting writing schedule of 4 hours, once a week. Interesting article, but in the comments, I got into a brief discussion with Ollin about how finding a single block of time like that was difficult, and he pointed me to another article he had written:

The 4 Essential Elements of A Writing Schedule That Works For You « Courage 2 Create:

This article nails it. Find a schedule that you can fit into your life, that isn't forced, and that achieves goals you set out for yourself in workable pieces. Sounds like a winner.

As we approach NaNoWriMo season, I always think more about writing, even though I am not participating in NaNoWriMo this year. What I have determined is that I need to find a schedule that fits flexibly into my overall life as Ollin suggests, not one that is forced and contrived in a single month and leads to unsustainable production levels.

So how to do that? Well, first I have to decide it is something that is important to me. And then I have to make it a priority. And then execute on the plan. And hopefully (though I have been woeful at best on this front lately), document the progress here...

We will see.

Oh, and next week, for the NaNo crowd, I'll do a recap of all my downloadable fun tools that NaNo'ers like so much. Even if I'm not using them, doesn't mean they can't.

Of Toads and Other Things

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

This is a Colorado River Toad. I don't know much about this particular variety of toad, but I did at one point have a pair of toads, and we have had several toads around our house in wetter years.

What I know about toads is this, they hang out, they don't venture off too far, they eat quite a bit, and they look generally fat and lazy, though they do have some energy stored in them, so that in the event something startles them, they are off and running (or hopping) and might actually get away.

What does this have to do with writing?

Sometimes I feel like it's a "toad day" - by that, I mean that I have it in me to write and sprint away towards some finish line (which is just far enough away from where I am to escape where I was) if I am startled, but I am content otherwise to kick back, digest works of other people, and be lazy. However, if the motivation is right, I can find my way into a few hops, and that can keep me moving forward, at whatever pace I need to.

Lately, I've been lazing around, waiting for crickets to come my way.

But, I have found some motivation from various people to drop a few words on this blog from time to time. And, although a couple of posts have been late in the evening or even retrofitted a day, I've continued to pop out a poem weekly on the poetry pages. And now I have, for a little while, thrown something fun or edible or consumable at least out there on Fridays on the blog section. You would think this website was actually getting updated now.

But there has been little by way of fiction. Mostly because I'm trying frantically to finish Mockingjay before my Kindle loan expires, and that's my excuse du jour. Oh, and because I am trying to do my next novel in a planned, different format. Oh, and because I just don't have any good ideas for short fiction. Oh, and because... yeah. That's right. There are plenty of excuses. And one reason.

So, I can only hope things are going better for you with words on page. And in the meantime, I continue to plug along at blogging and whatnot.

The good thing is that I am coming up with a strategy for getting some things done. And that might be a topic for another week.

Until then.

Honesty

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Honesty. It's a great thing. So here's an honest post. I haven't written much lately.

At all.

In fact, there are times in the past couple of weeks in between posts (and I'm still trying to at least post every two weeks even though there is not much in the update world to speak of) when I wonder if I should still have a writing blog.

And yes, that picture is a Red Rockfish that happened to be the featured picture on Wikimedia commons. So I didn't even find an apropos picture. But it was bright and colorful and I couldn't find what I wanted to find, so I used it instead.

So back to the writing, or not-writing as the case may be. We're approaching fall, the season that often inspires me to write more than any other times. Perhaps it's NaNoWriMo (which I am not doing this year in the November cram-timeframe, but I will still probably update my tools for folks), perhaps it is the cooler weather and a desire to sit inside with a laptop and a cup of hot tea, I dunno. But maybe that means I will write some.

The other problem that I've been running into is procrastination. I COULD write, but that is almost acknowledging that I am not going to revise either White Rock or Seven Doors, and I could revise those, but revision is so boring and whatever. All invalid excuses, but whatever (and I could do both - write something new, and work on a revision) - it just takes prioritization. And maybe less television.

Oh, and I'm hooked on The Hunger Games Trilogy (yes, that's an affiliate link - more honesty), which is excellent reading and also sucks you in. Making my way through Catching Fire right now. We will see how quickly I can finish.

So, lots of invalid excuses for not working on fiction and a rockfish. How's your Wednesday?

Punching the Clock

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000

I haven't spent much time writing lately, and I've spent a good bit of time thinking about writing. I have a good idea, I think, and I have a desire to get the story out, I am pretty sure, and I have the ability to do it (I've cranked out stuff before). I even get motivated a little from time to time to write.

For some reason, though, it hasn't been happening. I haven't been punching the clock, so to speak, and putting in the hours.

In a discussion with a co-worker the other day, I heard the phrase "you vote with your feet" in terms of displaying what is priority. If it is a priority, you will do it. Mur Lafferty talks about this all the time on her show I Should Be Writing. The things that you do are the things that are a priority to you. So the hours I spend watching television every week are my priority. The two games of NCAA Football I played last night on the Wii were my priority. Writing, reading about writing, and doing prep work and research (like the worksheets with Hallie Ephron's book that I am reading) have not been a priority. Recently.

So, as we approach fall, which traditionally is my "peak writing time" I wonder what is keeping it from being a priority, other than me. I can't think of much else.

So that's where I am, flouncing about this week. I have some thoughts about how to jumpstart again, but we will see if those pan out, particularly with some days off I have in the next couple of weeks.

Reading For Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:00:00 +0000

I finished the first draft of White Rock last week, and, strangely, the REASON I finished wasn't a need to finish. Instead it was just the fact that I had a new idea and I figured it would be best to finish my last unfinished project prior to starting something new.

So, as for my new idea, I have stumbled across Hallie Ephron's Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel (fair warning - that's an Amazon affiliate link) and it seems to offer some of what I have wanted/longed for/whatever - a process to follow when writing a novel.

Now I am firmly of the believe that pantsers want to be plotters, and plotters want to be pantsers, and ultimately, you have to find what fits and work along that framework. But, what I have found (and blogged about before) is that I have discovered holes in my writing that a little more planning might have prevented, and I have been questing after a process for getting there (and for doing some revision) so that I can seek something repetitive. Not sure this book has all the answers, but it has sported some fruit so far (despite the typos and poor formatting for Kindle in parts of the book - perhaps I should notify the author).

While I've been at it, I've been reading other stuff - some in my genre, some not (yes, those are affiliate links, too). You should read, too. Goodreads stats for the year indicate I've read/finished 10 books so far this year. My goal was 12, so I'm well beyond the halfway point. What I've been working on lately is trying to notice patterns in the authors whose work I admire. Those patterns make for successful genre books. Hmmm. That sounds oddly similar to something I would like to write.

Off to work through some brainstorming.

Cheers!

Back on the Horse

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:00:00 +0000

It is extremely easy when writing long, novel-length fiction for a while for me to be daunted by tasks like re-reading or revising or editing and, as such, to procrastinate any work on those. This procrastination, of course, results in the ultimate horror that the work never gets out. Anywhere. It just sits in a pile of zeroes and ones on my computer known only to me (generally). This, then, causes me to flail about and whatnot and doubt my writing and all of that, and then I generally take long, protracted breaks until something kicks me back in.

So last week, I had a series of vignette stories come out in the latest edition of Slack Lust. This was a fun exercise, and I had an opportunity to put something out there. Though outside my normal style, it was still narrative and gave me an opportunity to showcase some wordsmithery, regardless of whether it was an 80,000 word novel or a 2000 word series of extremely short stories, and regardless of the fact that it was more fact than fiction.

So, despite all the reasons that this little piece was not my normal fiction or poetry, and despite all the other things that made it "not me," what it did do was give me that little kick in the pants that I need every now and again to write something. And to do something with that writing. Since then, I've been sending tweets about the article (some have been retweeted to thousands of people - yay), I have received extremely positive feedback from people (who are and are not related to me, so I have both sides), and I got a kick out of having something out there for people to read.

Kinda makes me want to crank out some short stories in lieu of revising a novel. Is this productivity fuel or procrastination fodder? We shall see, I suppose.

It did also get me back into getting my submission status tracking back up-to-date and seeing where I am with everything, so that's at least a plus. Only a few more subs and I will be close to my goal for "stuff out there" for the year. And then to keep that up on a monthly basis will be key.

New article out in SLACK LUST VOL 6.

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron Mathews) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:22:00 +0000

Here is a link to the latest thing I've got out there -

SLACK LUST. VOL 6. archaic technology -- ANALOG: an obituary for paperbacks (harbinger of death for all physical media) CAMERON MATHEWS

Article/essay/whatever you may call it expressing some pleasant interactions with physical media over the span of my lifetime. Click it, read it, enjoy. Thanks to Allan McLeod for the illustrations.