On Writing and Design

6 ways to stop me following you on Twitter

2009-01-07T04:37:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've noticed a number of bloggers writing posts entitled 'Why I won't follow you on Twitter', which (not surprisingly) list various reasons why they won't add people to their list of friends. So, as all the cool kids are doing it, I thought I'd compile a similar list

1) You have 9000 followers but only 3 friends: Sorry, but unless you are imparting truly 'must have' information, I'm not going to follow you, I don't care how famous you think you are. If @stephenfry can follow back, you really haven't got much of an excuse not to.

2) You constantly tweet about how Twitter should be used: Who made you king of the twittersphere? It's supposed to a form of communication, not a platform for your business. People can use it anyway they choose, and if you don't like it, don't look.

3) You post nothing but links to get-rich-quick schemes which, you claim, have made you millions: If you really are that successful, why are you spending so much time marketing? Surely you should be tweeting about drinking Dom Perignon on the beach of your private island.

4) You say things like LOOL, or WOOT: What do they even mean? OK, you might not like my LOLs, Eeks, or Yucks, but at least they have a meaning that is widely understood (and you can always see point number 2 above). WOOT sounds like something annoying, English public school boys said in the 1920s when they discovered they were getting jam roly-poly for pudding, and the only time I've ever heard anything similar to LOOL, it came from a drunk who was throwing up outside a particularly sleazy nightclub.

5) You keep tweeting about how much you love Your God/George Bush/BarackObama/Darren Rowse/WordPress: I'm sure they are all absolutely delightful, but do we really need you to tell us about them, constantly, in every other tweet, day-in, day-out.

6) You are a dirty old man: If you send me direct messages containing thinly disguised pick-up lines, I will unfollow you. Sorry to shatter your illusions, but using the internet does not turn women into racy sex maniacs, it won't give you the pulling power of George Clooney and using lines from Sid James is never a good idea anyway (online or off). Sid was joking, you just look like a joke.

So now you know how to make me go away and never follow you again, but be warned: If you consistently post interesting tweets, link to useful stuff, are the least bit amusing, or are sociable and chatty, you'll never get rid of me :-)

Hot Links Thursday 11/12/08

2008-12-11T05:36:00.000-08:00

Just a quick round-up of interesting things I've discovered on my internet travels.

CSS Toolbox - a free CSS editor and validator. I haven't tried it, but it looks really useful.

100 Blog Topics I Hope You Write - Well, not me personally, it's actually Chris Brogan. The list has quite a techy theme, but might inspire you if you write about such things.

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage - Available as a free, downloadable PDF.

100 More Ways to Organise Your Life - Loads of useful organisation tools and services.

The Festive Toolbox and Over 100 Free Christmas Design Resources - Ideas and resources for giving your blog a seasonal makeover.

Cool Stuff for Twitter - Some useful tools and services including a few I haven't seen before.

101 Facebook Hacks You Never Knew About - Some great ways to make Facebook more useful and personal.

Down for Everyone - Very simple but useful. Just add the url of the site you can't access and find out whether it is down for everyone, or if the problem is at your end.

Twitter in Plain English - Short video explaining Twitter.

Typealyzer - Discover your blog's personality.

A Collection of Strange Links on Google.com - Visit Google's back alleys and side roads.

How to Create Blogger Label Feeds - The title is pretty self-explanatory.

Email Error End Up On Road Sign - This should really be called 'Lost in Translation'.

Agent Query Connect - A place for agents, editors and writers to network.

30 Creative Website Headers - A collection of really nice looking headers, useful if you are looking for inspiration.

The Poor Misunderstood Semicolon - What are they, what do they do? Is it true they are the James Dean of punctuation?

Your Personalised Shakespeare Insult - Just click the link to get yours.

Letter to a Young Blogger - Really good blogging advice. Forget all those gurus, this is the stuff newbies should be reading!

That's all folks :-)

Post NaNoWriMo Resources

2008-12-07T06:47:00.000-08:00

So, you’ve got your 50,000 words down and finished NaNo. Now it’s all over until next year and you can put your feet up and relax. Err, no. Now the real work begins! That was just the first draft, you now need to edit, rewrite, maybe even write more because 50,000 words is not enough for a full novel. Of course, you could simply pop your manuscript into a drawer and forget about it, but wouldn’t that be a terrible waste? Think of all the time and effort you put into to producing it in the first place, don’t you owe it to yourself to see this project through to the end?

You’ve still got a lot of work to do, that is the bad news. The good news is, you don’t have to do it straight away - take December off, your novel isn’t going anywhere and the break will help to give you a fresh perspective on it’s strengths and weaknesses. In addition, you don’t have to work at the same frantic pace. Now you have your first draft, you can take your time and hone it to perfection.

If you aren’t quite sure how to go about editing or rewriting, the following links should help. Oh, and if you weren’t able to complete NaNo, pay a visit to the the I Wrote a Novel, Now What? page on the NaNo site for details of other novel writing months - yes, they are springing up all over the place.

Editing and Rewriting Guides
1) BBC Get Writing - Editing Mini Course: A short online course covering editing, rewriting and how to ask for and receive critiques.
2) How to Revise a Novel: Holly Lisle offers some really useful advice and tips from the perspective of a published novelist.
3) National Novel Publishing Year: A forum offering a step by step guide to transforming your novel from a rough draft into a finished manuscript ready to be submitted to publishers.
4) Editing 101: Another online course covering the basics of editing and rewriting.
5) Poewar - Read What You Have Written: Informative article explaining how to undertake that first reading and how to make use of it.
6) NaNoEdMo: Like NaNoWriMo, but with editing. If you want to edit your novel at the same frantic pace you wrote it, why not wait until March and do it in the company of other crazy, sorry, dedicated writers.

And that’s all folks! If you have any suggestions, tips or resources for NaNo re-writers, don’t forget to leave a comment. And if you are not the least bit interested in novel writing, don’t worry, normal service will be resumed asap.

This post was first published on December 6th, 2007

It's Oscar Wilde day . . .

2008-12-01T00:56:00.000-08:00

. . . on Twitter. Organised by @stephenfry, you can find all related tweets here.

Reading: The gift that keeps on giving

2008-11-29T06:13:00.000-08:00

Collection of National Media Museum/The Royal Photographic Society (Peter Henry Emerson)

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young." ~ Maya Angelou

I've had a link to The Literacy Site in the sidebar for a while now, but as Christmas is almost upon us, I thought I'd highlight it in a post because it's a great way to give children a wonderful gift.

The site works in the same way as a number of others - visitors click a button and make a free donation - but in this case, instead of food or water, the donation goes towards providing books to children who otherwise would not have access to them. I strongly believe that a love of books is one of the greatest gifts you can give to a child because, not only does it give them a vital tool for further education, it also expands their horizons in more ways than I can possibly list here. And of course, today's young readers are the writers and bloggers of tomorrow, you can help to start them on that path.

Oh, and if you are wondering how you will remember to click daily, try Morning Coffee, a Firefox plugin which lets you create a menu of all the pages you visit regularly to be opened with one click of your mouse.

When Hitler can't tweet

2008-11-27T06:07:00.000-08:00

If you can understand German, turn the sound down, it doesn't really work if you know what he is saying. Otherwise, it's hilarious.

Gah! Some people.

2008-11-25T01:11:00.000-08:00

In an article entitled Mourn not for end of pointless blogging, Mike Seate says, "Writing is a tough gig, and the fact that millions of people choose to do it for free is a mystery to us paid writers".

Well, I would suggest bloggers blog for the same reason some people choose to play guitar in a pub band, or turn out for local five-aside football teams for little or no recompense. In other words, they do it because they have a passion for it, because it enriches their lives and helps them to build relationships with other like-minded individuals. Oddly, one nevers hears of rock stars or professional footballers having a hissy fit about amateur participation, quite the opposite, many positively encourage it.

The fact that Mr Seate sees writing as something that is only worthwhile if it is officially sanctioned and financially beneficial is really quite sad. However, his remarks about "pointless blogging" are interesting because they mirror criticisms of 19th century women writers who were derided for frivolity and triviality, and suggest a kneejerk reaction to a perceived threat, rather than a genuine critique.

Climbing down off my soapbox . . .

Updated to add: Of course, it isn't only bloggers who face the wrath of disgruntled MSM writers, Tweeters are dismissed in a similar manner.

Killing my darlings

2008-11-24T03:17:00.000-08:00

Today, I want to talk about cold blooded killings. Unfortunately, the writers of horror have to indulge in, literal, character assassination from time to time, and sometimes that means killing off perfectly nice people for no other reason than that it makes for good reading. As a writer, I admit I don’t like doing this, partly because I tend to grow quite fond of my ‘chaps’, and partly because it seems such a waste. After all the time and effort I put into creating that person, developing their character, their history, their idiosyncrasies, it seems quite perverse to have them fall victim to a vampire/homicidal maniac/tub of potato salad. However, as a reader, I think very differently.

Some horror writers play it safe and make sure the reader knows some characters are untouchable. They may go through some scraps and scrapes, but, at the end of the story they will stroll off into the sunset, a little bit battered and much wiser, but otherwise unharmed. As someone says in the film, Scream, there are rules to horror. A result of these rules is that some characters are more vulnerable than others. I can understand why that kind of plot may be popular, but on the whole, I prefer writers who break the rules.

Stephen King and James Herbert are two notable examples of writers who break the rules of horror. In Pet Sematary, King kills examples of all three untouchable groups: the elderly, the very young and/or anything cute and furry. Herbert does the same in most of his novels. These books don’t make for easy reading because there are no guarantees, but at the same time, a reader keeps turning the pages because they have to know the truth, even if it may not be the truth they wanted. And, knowing all the rules have been thrown out of the window keeps one guessing, not second guessing.

So, I come to my latest dilemma. I have five main characters and that is too many. Three will be quite sufficient. The question is, which two of these flawed but delightful folk should get the chop, or the axe, or maybe the tub of potato salad? Of course, that isn’t a question you can answer, you probably aren’t familiar with these people. However, the feedback from those who have read the first draft, suggests that two particular characters are popular. Hmm. How mean am I feeling?

Note: The title of this post is a paraphrasing of a quote by William Faulkner, or Stephen King, or Dorothy L Sayers, or someone else entirely.

This post was originally published on 21st November, 2007

2 useful links for Blogger bloggers

2008-11-22T06:10:00.000-08:00

Long time, no post. Please accept my apologies. I've been suffering from a cold (that will not go away) and writing coherently has not been easy, partly due to cold remedies, and partly to feeling like my head has been stuffed with concrete.

Anyhoo, even though I haven't done much writing, I have been surfing and came across a couple of pretty nifty links for Blogger bloggers.

First, a way to add a list of related posts to the end of a post (golly, that sentence is repetitive), you'll probably have seen the same thing used on many WordPress blogs. There are two ways to add the list, one very easy, the other a little trickier but not overwhelmingly difficult - if you choose the latter and get lost trying to find the correct place to insert the code, use your computer's built-in search tool which can be accessed by pressing CTRL and F on your keyboard.

Next, a collection of 100 free templates for Blogger. There are some really nice ones on offer covering a variety of styles, so no matter what the theme of your blog is you should find something to suit it.

Off now to imbibe Lemsip and hug my hot-water bottle.

7 Things About Me

2008-11-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

Finally, the meme I promised you eons ago. Nicole tagged me for this saying "I enjoy your blog so much and want to know more about you", when she reads my responses she might wish she had picked someone else LOL

First, these are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

And, here are seven facts about me:

1) Ever since the time I felt something wriggling in my shoe and discovered it contained a large spider, I make a point of shaking any item of footwear before putting it on.

2) You know how some people can't resist the urge to straighten crookedly hanging pictures? I have the internet equivalent. I absolutely must align text to the left. If I come across a blog or website where content is centred I have to leave, immediately. It really, really bugs me.

3) As a drunken student I invented my own religion called Plantism which was based on the worship of Robert Plant, and involved saying 'ooh yeah', having a 'Whole Lotta Love' and, of course, climbing the 'Stairway to Heaven'. I've often been tempted to try to preach it to door-to-door religion salesmen, but always chicken out.

4) Five or six years ago, my Beloved and I had a minor disagreement about something or another - I really can't remember what - and he made the mistake of going out (to a football match) while I was still fuming. So, in revenge, I removed the last few pages of the book he was reading and hid them in my handbag.

5) I can't figure out how to use MySpace or LinkedIn, which is quite embarrassing for someone who is supposed to be a tech savvy type - show me a page full of code, or ask me to install and customise the blogging platform of your choice and it will all make perfect sense to me. My LI skills are so lacking I don't even know how to add people to my network.

6) In the ten years I've lived in this village, I've only made one close female friend. Sometimes, I wonder if it's me, but most of the time I just accept the fact that I don't have a great deal in common with the women I meet - most of them seem to have (what I consider to be) an unhealthy interest in washing powder and reality television.

7) For this years NaNoWriMo I tried to write not one, but two proper, literary novels. They were both terrible. I'm going to spend the second half of the month trying to crank out 50,000 words of gothic horror, which will also be terrible, but intentionally so.

I'm going to break the rules because I can't think of anyone to tag - well, I can, but I've tagged them so often it seems a bit rude to do it again. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

If only it was this easy . . .

2008-11-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is a hint. No, my NaNo novel isn't going so well :-( Truly, chipping away at Mount Everest with a toffee hammer would be more productive, and probably more enjoyable. I'll be back tomorrow with a meme courtesy of Nicole which I can promise you will be far more interesting than the 3500 words of utter drivel I have managed to scrawl so far.

Meet-up for bloggers in Yorkshire and North Midlands

2008-10-29T08:39:00.001-07:00

A while ago I mentioned that Anna and I were planning a meet-up for bloggers in the Sheffield area. Well, we have finally got it organised, so if you are within travelling distance of Sheffield you'll be most welcome to come along!

Where: University Arms, 197 Brooke Hill, Sheffield
When: Saturday, 15th November, 1.30pm
Find it on Facebook: Facebook

We deliberately chose the day and date to give people who have to work during the week, or whose evenings are already busy with childcare a chance to come along, so no excuses LOL Anyhoo, it's going to be an informal event, but themed around blogging, so if you have questions you want to ask, or ideas to share, jot them down.

It’s Spam Jim, Whatever They Call It

2008-10-29T03:56:00.000-07:00

OK Folks, back from my hols and back on my soapbox. This morning I spent a some time browsing a forum which offers advice to people wishing to promote their blogs and websites. Most of the advice on offer was good, but then I came across something that made me sit up and (almost) spray coffee over the monitor screen in exasperation. Some bright spark was telling readers that comment spam was a good way to get more visitors to your blog.

Comment spam is the practice of leaving a comment on a blog for no reason other than to promote your site, product etc. You may have seen it recommended yourself, the person suggesting it won’t actually call it spam and will usually tell you something along the lines of:

Leaving comments on other blogs is a great way to get readers for yours. Browse through blog directories and post to any blogs you find, not forgetting to leave your link so that others can come and visit you.

It sounds like a good idea doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. Posting a comment on a blog you enjoy reading is fine, but posting purely for the purposes of self-promotion is spam, and anyone who has been blogging for more than five minutes will recognise your comment as such. The majority of spam comments I receive are obviously from people who have never read a word I have written, here are two typical examples:

Great blog, why not visit mine at http://me.com

We have a site about (insert subject here) at http://junk.com

There are numerous reasons why it is a bad idea to use this method to promote yourself, and as far as I can tell, no advantages.

First, you will be wasting your time, almost no one is going to follow up your link. Secondly, it is very likely that you will find the blog publisher blocks your ip address, and may even report you to your hosting service who could remove your site and add you to a blacklist. Finally, no one will ever take your blog seriously. You may have invested a lot of time and effort on it, but it will be seen as spam, and could even be dropped by search engines.

If at this point you are feeling nervous about commenting on any blog, please don’t. Commenting is good! Bloggers love to receive real comments, I know I certainly do. By all means seek out and read blogs you genuinely enjoy, leave the blogger a comment and don’t forget to go back to read their response. Over time you will build up a relationship with that person and they will visit your blog too but as a reader, rather than someone who is looking for your contact info to include in a complaint.

This post was originally published on September 6th, 2006

Picture management in Blogger

2008-10-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

If you use Blogger the chances are you probably also use an external image storage service to host any images you use. However, you don't need to, because every image you upload to your blog is stored at Google's Picasa. If you have more than one Blogger blog, there will be a separate folder for each from which you can manage all your images.

Off now to do some NaNo planning - only five days to go!

Hot Links Thursday revisited

2008-10-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

Hot Links Thursday was a feature I used to run every Thursday (surprisingly enough). I haven't done it for a while, which is a shame because I've collected some really interesting bookmarks. So, I thought I'd revive it in an occasional format. It probably won't be a weekly thing, maybe once or twice a month.

Anyhoo, here, without further ado, are some things I found on the internet.

Some great examples of well designed business cards.

Inspiration for frustrated logo designers.

A list of free resources for would-be home business owners - the post was written in support of Blog Action Day.

Free access to university lectures.

A quiz to test apostrophe usage - I got all the questions right, which is surprising, because I guess most of the time.

A way to bypass the slush pile at Harper Collins.

A really, really (really) detailed character profile sheet. Really, it is very detailed, probably writing's equivalent of method acting.

How to find out if someone stops following you on twitter - perfect for those ~~spammers~~ delightful people who add, then remove you, just to keep their numbers looking good. Ha! Well, now you can remove them back*!

How to create drop-down menus with CSS. I'm not a fan of them, but if you are it should be handy.

A thoughtful piece about what happens to our online presence when we shuffle off to the great office in the sky. It's worth reading the comments, there are some interesting remarks and ideas about the subject.

And, not to finish on a down note, here's something that made me laugh

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

* I did that to a ~~spammer~~delightful person, and they re-followed me. I didn't reciprocate because I suspect the same thing would have happened again. And, to be truthful, they were a bit dull.

Why do you blog and/or write?

2008-10-19T06:38:00.000-07:00

I was going to publish something new today, but I wanted to respond to this post by Betty, which was written in response to this post by Wife in the North. So, instead I'm republishing something I originally wrote back in March 2007. I still agree with the sentiments I expressed at the time, but I'll say more about that at the bottom of the page.

Writing for The Blog Herald, Lorelle Van Fossen airs her opinion on the great A List debate (if you haven’t heard about it, there is a link in Lorelle’s post). It’s a refreshing read, because Lorelle suggests that the success of a blog can only really be determined by the original intentions of the blogger. This is true, and I think it is something which can be applied to writers too.

People write for all sorts of reasons. Fame, money, respect, or simply because they have something to say, a story to tell. Some writers dream of becoming a worldwide best-seller, others are happy to publish a weekly column in their local paper, others still, share their writing with only a few, trusted friends. It is not possible to say that any of these writers are more successful than any other because each one has different aspirations. The writer motivated by a desire for fame, would feel a failure if she remained unpublished. The writer who writes simply for the pleasure of doing so, may feel overwhelmed by fame.

Lorelle creates a new blogger rating list, with listings which reflect the different types of people who blog. Reading through, I would say I am a ‘T Lister’, a Talker. I blog because I have things to say. This ranges from information I want to share, to opinions I want to air, to a strange urge to tell people what I bought from the shops, and when I last mowed my lawn - people seem to enjoy this, and oddly, I like to read this stuff about other people. (Truly, I find personal blogs far more interesting than the celeb gossip/entertainment type) Where was I? Oh yes, for me, the act of having a blog (or blogs) and posting is an end in itself. While a fortune would be nice, I would really hate to be famous for a whole host of reasons. Silly as it sounds, I’m happy just to know that people actually read what I post.

I take writing a little more seriously, but even then if I had the choice between financial and critical rewards I would choose the latter. Of course I want to make enough to live comfortably, but it is possible to do so without becoming a household name. And lets face it, just because someone is a household name it does not mean that they are a good writer, or that they have the respect of their peers*.

But that’s just me, what about you - why do you blog and/or write?

* There is a clue in that sentence

Back in the present - I think many people who have worked in the mainstream media rather miss the point of blogging, and even of writing for the pleasure of doing so. Not everyone wants to become a career journalist or writer. A blogger with a book deal is not neccessarily any better than one without. In fact, in many cases, the lower profile blogs are infinitely better because they are honest, and have the personality of their author threaded through every word. Surprising as it may seem, a large number of people are quite happy publishing a personal blog which will only be read by a handful of people. To denigrate those bloggers based on your own personal measure of success is not only spiteful and arrogant, but also pointless. A blogger who never wanted a book deal really couldn't care less if another blogger has one. They'd probably feel the same about an AGA.

Podcasting - Turns readers into listeners

2008-10-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a big day for me. No, nothing of earth shattering importance happened but I did record and upload my first podcast for visitors to my personal blog to listen to. The podcast itself wasn’t all that thrilling and lasted less than two minutes, but it was fun and will open up a range of new possibilities. If you have ever considerd podcasting yourself, I would urge you to have a go. It’s a fairly simple process, and you don’t need lots of expensive equipment. If you are wondering what a podcast is, read on . . .

What is a podcast?

Basically a podcast is simply a recording which you add to your blog and which your readers can download and listen to. It may include your voice, music or any other type of sound, or a combination of these.

What are they for?

Podcasts can be used for many purposes. Some bloggers use them as an alternative to a written post, others set up online radio broadcasts, some people serialise stories or novels, some offer tutorials and how to guides. If you visit a dedicated directory you will find podcasts covering pretty much every subject you can think of, and probably a few that you haven’t.

How do you create one?

To create a podcast you need some basic equipment. Most of it you can obtain for free, but you will need to buy a microphone and headphones or a headset. Everything else you need can be found online. I used Audacity, Lame and the Feedburner service. The first two items are software, Audacity is used to record and edit podcasts, Lame exports your recording as an MP3 file. Feedburner is a free feed burning service, if you blog you probably already use it, but if not, it is extremely useful, and offers a number of clever features to help you manage your blog feed.

But isn’t it really difficult?

Truthfully, no, it isn’t. Before I began I had no prior knowledge of the subject, but thanks to the wonders of the web I found all the information I needed. In fact it took me longer to make a recording I was happy with than it did to understand the technical process. The following sites were particularly useful:

They should tell you pretty much everything you need to know, but if you have any questions, you are welcome to leave a comment here. I can’t promise that I will know the answer but I’ll do what I can to help.

Further Information:

This post was first published on August 17th, 2006

8 Useful NaNoWriMo resources

2008-10-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

Last week I shared 11 tips for would be NaNoWriMo participants. Today, I'd like to highlight some of the useful resources available for anyone taking part in this year's month of novel writing.

The official NaNoWriMo website has some useful bits and pieces, not least WriMo radio.
Keep track of your progress with this spreadsheet template, or, on the same page, use the catch up form to, well, catch up.
Add a NaNoWriMO progress meter to Firefox.
Find other participants by joining a NaNo webring.
Listen to NaNo themed podcasts.
Grab some nifty utilities.
Follow this advice about preparing yourself.
Find lots of useful practical advice here.

Hope you find this list useful! If you have any other useful resources to add, feel free to leave a comment.

This made me chuckle

2008-10-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

more animals

I wonder if he is writing A Tail of Two Kitties - sorry couldn't resist that LOL

11 Tips for NaNoWriMo Newbies

2008-10-09T05:39:00.000-07:00

I took part in NaNoWriMo for the first time last year, and managed to successfully write my 50,000 words - in fact I wrote more because my novel went on for a further two chapters. However, if you had come to me on October 31st and told me that would be the case I would have either laughed at you, or thrown something heavy, because I was in the grip of thoughts such as, ‘What was I thinking?! I’ll never reach 50,000 words. Have I gone crazy!?’. However, I did, and if I can, anyone can.

Following on from my experience last year, I have compiled a few tips and ideas for first time NaNo-ers. I hope you find them useful.

1. Don’t panic! I know that’s easier said than done, but try to stay calm and focused. It’s normal to feel something akin to stage-fright when you are about to embark on your novel writing month, but don’t let that overwhelm you so much that you can’t put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. Take deep breaths, think positive - remember when you wrote stories in English lessons at school? That’s all you are doing now. Writing a story. You could do it when you were ten, so you can do the same thing at slightly more than ten.

2. Set a time to write. It is important to plan when you are going to do the actual writing. I aimed for a session in the morning and another in the evening. You might think you’ll squeeze it in when you have time, but life has a habit of getting in the way, so you never get around to it. Decide in advance when you are going to write and stick to it.

3. Work in bite sized chunks. Instead of thinking about writing 50,000 words - which can seem daunting - take NaNo on a day to day basis. Don’t think of it as a novel in a month, think of it as x number of words a day, which you can break down into x number of words per writing session.

4. Aim for 2000* words a day. The actual daily average is about 1666 words, but if you can exceed this, especially in the early stages you will not only give yourself a big morale boost, but you will have time on your side if you do find your novel comes grinding to a halt.

5. Don’t panic again! If you succumb to writers’ block, or find your story unravelling, don’t worry! This happens to most NaNo entrants, and most novelists at some point. Try to keep writing, even if what you write isn’t particularly good. Remember, you are aiming for. . .

6. . . . Quantity, not quality. This goes against the natural instincts of many writers, but when you are working to this kind of deadline, you really don’t have time to go back and edit. Your plot may be full of holes and continuity errors but that doesn’t matter. The important thing is to write until you reach the end. This is the first draft of your novel, mistakes are perfectly acceptable and you can correct them later.

7. Feed your mind. Make sure you eat well, and get plenty to drink. It is tempting to stock up on junk food, but real food will do you more good for all sorts of reasons. Similarly, don’t overdo the coffee. Yes, it does pick you up, but drink too much and you’ll feel dehydrated and tired. Try tea if you prefer warm drinks, or stick to water and fruit juice. Instead of crisps, biscuits or other snack food, make some sandwiches - I favoured tuna and tomato - they are just as easy to eat, but far more nutritious. The latter is important because your brain needs nutrition, it’s the most important writing tool you have.

8. Do something else. It’s important to spend some time doing things which are in no way connected to writing, so crawl out from behind your keyboard and go for a walk, go to the pub, watch tv, listen to some music, you could even speak to other people! Whatever you do, do something. Of course, your novel is important to you, but if you think of nothing else you will become jaded, so give yourself a break.

9. Remember you aren’t alone. Writing can be a lonely occupation at the best of times, but this is one occasion when it doesn’t need to be. Thousands of other people are taking part, so you have a ready made network of writers who know just how you feel. Post a message on your blog, it is likely some of your readers will be fellow NaNoWriMo-ers. Get involved in the NaNo forums, and join a network - they have them for many locations across the world. The coordinator of the network I joined sent out regular emails, which were really helpful. Some networks have meet ups where you can meet local writers in person.

10. If the worst happens, and you don’t finish your novel, don’t despair. You have made a start which is more than most people ever do. The work you do put in isn’t going anywhere, you can continue to write after November. And there is always next year!

11. One final thing - remember to enjoy the experience. And when you pass the 50,000 word hurdle**, give yourself a pat on the back and display your winners badge with pride because you have done something to be proud of: you have turned that inkling of an idea into a novel!

Once again, I hope you find these tips useful, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Or, if you are an old hand, why not share your own tips and wrinkles?

* Prior to editing, this post was 970 words long - minus this bit - it took less than an hour to write, during which time I also fed the cats, looked out of the window, made a drink, brushed my hair and had a conversation with my son. See, 2000 words isn’t that many!

** And I know you will :-)

Related post: 8 NaNoWriMo Resources

This post was originally published on 9th October, 2007

CSS: How to indent a paragraph

2008-10-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Paragraphs, to indent, or not indent? If you fall into the first camp, here’s how to indent your paragraphs quickly and easily using cascading style sheets (CSS). If you have no idea what CSS is, there is a link to a tutorial for beginners at the end of this post.

Open up your style sheet in a text editor, and add the following:

p {text-indent: 25px}

Save the file, and preview a page from your site - do this on your computer - you should now see the first line of every paragraph is indented by 25 pixels looking something like this.

Of course, you may not want every paragraph on your site to be indented, so create a class which you can apply only to specific paragraphs.

If you check the demonstration page again, you will see the first letter of every paragraph is larger than the rest of the text, you can create the same effect by adding this to your style sheet:

p:first-letter {font-size: 20px}

The sizes used here are only guidelines, you can adjust them to suit your own preferences.

New to CSS? You can find out more here.

What is this Twitter of which you speak?

2008-10-01T05:59:00.000-07:00

There was a time when people who tweeted were considered a little odd and usually excluded from polite society. Those days are gone and tweeting is now an accepted and popular form of communication. I am, of course, referring to the successful micro-blogging platform, Twitter. If you have recently joined the phenomenon that is Twitter and aren't quite sure what to do or how to make best use of the service, here are my responses to some of the most commonly asked questions.

What is it? Twitter is one of the best know examples of micro-blogging. The idea is you post messages or tweets of 140 characters or less, these can include links and photos.

How do I use it? I know some people have very specific ideas about how Twitter should be used, I'm not one of them. Really how you use it is up to you. You can post updates on your status, respond to other messages and develop a conversation, post updates from your blog, post useful links you have found. If you are working on a team project you can use it to communicate with other members, or to send yourself reminders or memos. The features are quite basic, but with a little imagination can be put to a wide range of uses.

A word of warning: If you only use it to publicise your blog, you are likely to find few people want to follow you. And vice versa, there is a fine line between posting interesting snippets about your day and revealing far too much. Really no one wants to know how often you use the loo.

One of the best aspects of Twitter is the way users can have a real time conversation, so don't forget to look out for replies to your tweets and try to send a response. If you are hugely popular it might not be easy to do that for every single one, but do make the effort. If you never respond to anyone it could be seen as rude, the online equivalent of going to a party and walking away from anyone who tries to start up a conversation.

How do I find people to follow? When you first join Twitter gives you the option of finding other members from your email contact lists. You can also search the site for specific names and locations. If you want to find other tweeters who share your interests try Twitter Search.

How do I keep up? You've got yourself a nice posse of followers, to keep up with them try one of the growing number of Twitter clients. I prefer Twhirl but there are numerous others and also addons for Firefox.

You mention photos, how do I add them? Twhirl has built in photo sharing, but if you prefer to read your tweets onsite, try a service such as Twitpic.

I only have 140 characters, won't links take up most of that? If you paste them straight in, then yes, you will reduce the space for the rest of your message. However, Twhirl and many other clients include a link shrinker, or you could try a standalone service such as Shrink this Link.

What is this hash thingy? The hashtag symbol # is used to denote a specific topic, similar to the way tagging is used in blogging. For example, the US elections are big news at the moment so a lot of people will post messages which include #Sarah Palin, or #Barack Obama which makes it easier for other people who are interested in those topics to find relevant tweets. To follow hashtags on Twitter subscribe to Twitter hashtags.

How do I retweet: I asked someone this quite recently thinking there was a magic retweet button, but there isn't. Retweeting simply means resending a message with the word 'Retweet': at the beginning.

That's all folks! Why not share your Twitter tips in the comments below, and if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask, I can't promise to know the answer but I'll try to help.

Free background tile

2008-09-27T05:47:00.000-07:00

I've given my twitter profile a bit of a makeover, so I have a spare background tile. You can see a preview to the left, and if anyone wants to grab it, just go to this page, right click over the image and select 'Save Image As' from the menu - don't save the one on this page, it's just an example and won't tile.

Blog Promotion Series: Asking for links

2008-09-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks I have received a number of emails from bloggers and site owners requesting link exchanges with my blog/s. Although, all were polite and well written, I did not feel I could take these people up on their offer. No, not because I’m a great big meanie who only shares links with established blogs, but because not one of these blogs came even close to covering a subject which was related to any of mine, or which would have been of any interest to my readers. Is this important? Yes, it is, and for a couple of reasons.

Before I explain why relevance is important when it comes to linking, let me say I don’t blame the people who wrote to me for doing so, or for believing that contacting random bloggers was a good way to get publicity for their new blogs. If you scout around many marketing and money making blogs, you will see so called gurus suggesting this very idea, and making it sound as though bloggers are literally overjoyed to receive such requests. The truth is they aren’t. That doesn’t mean that you should never consider asking for a link, but to randomly contact bloggers based on such things as Google Page Rank, or the number of commenters is a bad idea.

Why is relevance important?

Search engine bots, especially those belonging to Google are highly sophisticated little guys, and are capable of understanding context and relevance. I won’t pretend to understand how this works, and most search engines guard their algorithms closely, but it is true to say that having your link on sites which are related to your own in some way is of far more benefit than having it appear in random places. If you blog about gardening, it would be of little value for you to have your link on blogs about football, or welding. However, having it mentioned on other gardening sites, or on those which are in some way related - a blog about cooking with your own home grown vegetables for example - is very valuable.

Lack of relevance is a problem for human visitors too. If people are visiting your blog to find out more about gardening, they probably won’t be particularly interested in football or welding, or if they are, they won’t expect to find such subjects on your blog. When a reader looks at your blogroll, they will be hoping to discover the gardening blogs and sites you recommend.

Put yourself in their shoes. You find a great blog, packed full of useful info, because of this you have a degree of respect for the opinion of the blogger, you think ‘this girl knows her onions, I wonder which blogs she reads’, then you check the sidebar, and find a load of completely irrelevant stuff. I suspect you would be distinctly unimpressed.

So, how should you go about asking for links on another blog or site? Well, I’ll be honest and say this isn’t something I have ever done, mainly because I prefer to have the kind of links which are based on the value of what I write, therefore the following suggestions are simply my own ideas about the kind of approach that would make me consider accepting such an offer. Other people will have other ideas, and if you do, don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments.

Spend some time researching your theme or subject to find appropriate blogs.
Don’t contact the blogger immediately. A more useful approach would be to get to know the blogger first. Read their blog, leave valid comments - not spam such as ‘great blog, visit mine’. The chances are, if you become a regular the blogger will link to you anyway, but even if they don’t, they will be more receptive to an approach from a regular commenter, than a complete stranger.
When you do make contact be polite, use those manners your mother taught you. Don’t boast, brag or write in a way that could be construed as arrogant. You may think your blog is the best thing since sliced bread, that doesn’t mean anyone else will.
Allow the blogger to choose the text they will use with your link. Identikit links are not good, and can count against you with search engines. Natural, organic text is a far better option. In addition, your choice of wording may not be suitable for all blogs, so let the blogger have a free choice about this.
If the blogger says no, take it on the chin. There are many reasons why they may not want to link to you - it isn’t necessarily a slight against your blog. Be philosophical, just because they don’t want to link to you today, does not mean they will never link to you.

One final point: While the above advice may be of some use to you, the best way to encourage other bloggers to link to you is to write good content. This may be more time consuming, but in the long run, it will be more productive.

This post was first published on March 16th, 2007

Updated to add: To find out more about the importance of link relevance pop over to this post at the Official Google Webmaster blog

In which I sight misspelling on many a site's cites

2008-09-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

We are all familiar with the incorrect use of there/they're/their - it's so common there is even a Facebook app devoted to testing yourself - and I'm sure we have all used the wrong one at some point. However, in the last couple of days I've noticed an outbreak of misspelling of another word, cites.

'Cite' means to make reference to, or to commend. However, I have seen the word 'site' used instead. For example 'Fred sites the article on page 24 of The Times'. In this sentence the word should be spelt with a 'c'. The word 'site' means a location or a collection of web pages and is itself another commonly misspelt word. Often the word 'sight' is used instead. Of course a site may be a sight, but it should never be spelt as such.

This is one of those situations in which a careful read through will pick up words which are correctly spelt, but not used in the right context, something spell checkers are not able to do.