Cameron's Writing Journal

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

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron) — 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!

Property Development

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron) — 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) — 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.

How to "Win" NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron) — 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) — 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)

Springtime

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron) — 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.

What's the Best Time to Write?

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron) — 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.

Hi everyone...it's NOVEMBER!

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron) — 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...

Rainbows and Classes

noreply@blogger.com (Cameron) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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) — 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.