The Writer’s Tool Box – Online Pt. 1
Today, children, we’re going to learn about the tools to be found online that grant aid and sustenance to the struggling writer. This will be a multi-series blogging experience. A first for me, and my readers.
As a writer, I need access to my current work-in-progress (hereafter addressed as WIP). You never know where you’ll be when the mood to write strikes you, much like a lightning bolt could always pick your car that one fateful night on the road.
I generally carry a journal for these writing emergencies. It’s a magical one that I believe passed along a newer, much more productive Muse. Also, it’s bulky, heavy and wrapped in wood, bound with leather. (An expensive gift that I love very much. Thanks, Kristen!)
If the mood really strikes, then there’s no way my hands can possibly keep up with what’s racing around my head. I just can’t write that fast. But I do type that fast, so if I’m really getting whipped by my Muse, I turn to a computer – any computer – in reach.
Here is where we find a major dilemma.
While most of the United States is, for the most part, tech-savvy, I still meet people who have no idea what a flash drive is. (A flash drive is a small device you can carry around, plugs into the USB port on your computer and stores information.)
I had never considered using a flash drive to store my stories, those active and completed, until a friend of mine suggested it. My poor, abused flash drive goes with me everywhere. The day it’s not in my purse is a rare one.
In its journeys with me, we’ve learned that sometimes carrying the WIP on a flash drive is down right frustrating.
First, there’s the wait while the computer acknowledges the flash drive, pretends to need the software in order to use it, etc. Then there’s the Crap-the-stupid-thing-didn’t-save-properly-last-time-and-I’m-missing-half-the-story issue.
Beneath it all is the lurking fear that you’ll drop your bag/briefcase/purse/wherever-you-keep-your-gizmos, and somehow permanently mangle the drive so it never loads again.
Through it all, you know that one day, you will have to buy another flash drive. It will run out of space, sooner or later.
There is a solution to these obstacles, though. As writers, I think we’ve underestimated the value (and distraction) of the Internet.
My favorite web service of all time is Google. 
Why, you ask?
Because Google doesn’t play. The wonderful people at Google spend all their waking time on the Internets trying to find ways of making our lives easier. (Recently they released a new browser, designed specifically by them, called Google Chrome. Check it out. It is awesome.)
Not too long ago, they released what is essentially an Open-Source Word Processor ….. Online.
They call it Google Documents.
When I say that it is one of the most incredible, mind-blowing gifts I have been given as a writer, I am not joking around.
Through Google Documents, I have complete, secure access from any location to every single one of my documents. (Permitted I have uploaded them already.) I can pull up a story in a new window or tab, do some writing, quickly pull up a blank document if I feel like making notes as I write, and if necessary, pull up another tab to do some fast research. All within a single browser. All at a fairly decent speed.
The best part?
The possibility of Google Documents crashing is ridiculously minimal. (Though I would never inherently trust Google to fight to the death to save a little nobody newb’s writing. I do back-up what I put on Google, though I feel secure enough not to do it every day.)
They also offer you INFINITE space for every document you imagined you would write/work on.
Not only that, they also have templates for other projects (ranging from spreadsheets to resumes), you can “allow” outsiders to peer at your work, regardless of whether or not they have a Google account. They can edit, offer comments, make up a new part of the story, whatever.
The only thing that hinders you with Google Docs is your own imagination and paranoia. (That thing when you save 4 copies in different places and still worry about losing the whole shebang.)
I personally find Google’s organizational options to be more than satisfying. I can make as many folders as I want/need, rename at will and change label colors.
My only complaint is that Google Docs is falling behind as far as format goes. While writing, I tend to do so in block paragraphs, justified left, with an extra space between. In order to submit, that seemingly neat set of words must be double-spaced, tab indented, with zero extra lines between paragraphs. (Not to mention, headers and a cover page.) Here is where I’ve found my only problem. Google Docs at this time does not allow a lot of these changes. (It will probably change in the future.) So you will still need to copy/paste the WIP to a new doc and alter the format to suit your market’s needs.
Writer’s Tip #47: Once you have correctly formatted a story in standard manuscript format (see an example here), save it twice – once as your story, the other as a Correct Format Template. Then all you’ll need to do is copy/paste your future stories into the template and alter headers, title and byline, etc. as needed.
Also keep in mind that some markets chose to do things differently. Always read your markets guidelines before submitting!
So if you haven’t tried Google Documents yet, get yourself over there. It’s perfect for those times when you’re visiting family or friends and are, for whatever reason, unable to use your flash drive or whichever preferred method of keeping your stories close by.
I personally find the folders, labels, colors and infinite organization to be my favorite part. It’s far easier to move stories from folder to folder, or rename them in seconds, and so on and so forth. Imagine it as a gigantic filing cabinet, and you’ll never run out of file folders!
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Here we come to the end of The Writer’s Tool Box – Online. I hope I’ve offered some interesting tidbits and maybe some helpful advice.
Look forward to another installment next week. We’ll tackle the various websites online where writers can find markets to submit to. As well as any other ideas that jump into my head.
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As for other cool gadgets online, I just found an extension on Flock (my chosen web browser) that allows me to create and save screenshots of anything. (Where’d you think the screenshot of my Google Docs came from?)
It’s really cool and so easy to use, even I have no trouble. Check out Flock and their amazing extensions/add-ons.
I love playing with my gizmo.
If you haven’t already, stop by Myspace and add me as a friend. Just click the shot of my profile above.
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One more shot before we close the bar….
Talent in cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
Stephen King
Wasteful Blogging, Or How to Yak on About Yourself
Buried somewhere within this website is a deformed, missing link of a blog about Passive Voice. I intended to write a blog that was informative and entertaining. (Eventually I’ll finish it and then we’ll know, won’t we?)
But since it’s been a while, I figured it’s time to throw something on the grill again.
So, let’s talk about THE NOVEL.
Yes, that evil beastie that every beginning writer fears. It’s the largest obstacle a writer can face.
I mean, for the most part, we can all tell a story, right? Some better than others, sure, but just about everybody has the capacity to tell/write a short story.
But a novel? How many people have mentioned, off-handedly usually, like a New Year’s Resolution they’ll eventually get around to tackling, that they would like to write a novel?
Writing a novel is like running a marathon.
You know what? Forget marathon. It’s an Iron Man competition. It’s the you’ve-crossed-the-finish-line-and-accomplished-something-even-if-you-lost type of race, where in the end, winning doesn’t really count, it’s just making to the end.
I’m still a long ways from the end of my race. I’m sitting at just under 20% of my desired word count. (I’m shooting big, because I know I’ll have to cut at least a third of the junk away in just the first round of editing.)
But I still feel like I’ve done something.
Accomplished.
For the last two years, I’ve attempted novels. I trained up a bit, did some stretching and just went for it. Little did I know that you just can’t do that.
Sure, there’s those lucky few whose first books sell like crazy, *cough* Twilight *cough*, but the guy I look up to wrote a couple of novels before one sold. In fact, he nearly threw away the novel he started because he thought it was crap.
It took a Constant Reader (i.e. his wife) to save the first few pages of Carrie.
(Who’d you think I look up to? E.B. White? Haha!)
Two years later, published a few times, with a couple lengthy stories under my belt, I’m finally making headway in the race. I know if I keep pushing, if I run through the ache in my brain and put the words down, I’ll at least cross the finish line.
For all you other “newbie” writers out there, remember, that’s what the first novel is about. It’s training. Think of it, in another way, as learning to ride a bike. Short stories and such are the tricycles of writing. It’s how you get the basic method down.
The first novel is the big kid’s bike with the dinky training wheels attached. You hate it the entire time you’re riding it. You feel like an idiot because you’ve got training wheels and you’re constantly trying to talk your folks into taking them off and trust you. You know you won’t fall over.
But you do. You want to throw it away, forget ever riding that evil bike.
Eventually, you get over it, jump back on and learn how to ride without training wheels.
I’ve started several novels. None of them went anywhere past, maybe, 10-15 thousand words.
But I know, just know, that this one will cross the finish line. Even if I have to drag its dead, lifeless body the whole way.
Then again, I write horror….. that could be a good thing!
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Alright. I’ve run out of steam. Time to pep up the engine with coal and get something done. Like, more possibly pointless and useless words written down.
Late Night With….
Yeah, it’s pretty darned late at night. And yes, I have written blogs this late at night before. No biggie.
I’m still up, despite an early morning wake up call, because I was working on a flash fiction (which is 1000 words or less) for a friendly contest among writers. . . . that ended up turning into an over 4000 word short story.
Yes. It is awesome, I know.
Now, with a head full of accomplishment (and if I were to be honest, a bit of narcissism, but who said I was being honest?), I find myself lacking in the tired and overflowing with the “what can I write next?”
Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue. If this were any other night of the summer, this would have ZERO bearing on my inability to sleep. I could stay up until I did get tired and then sleep in some and be A-OK.
Except I need to get the car in the morning so I can haul the laundry to my Mom’s house to wash it (haven’t gotten a washer/dryer for the new digs yet) and Mom has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, and I’m not letting Mom drive my stepdad’s Jeep around in 100 plus degree weather without an A/C to keep her brain from imploding.
So. Hence my dilemma.
Since I can’t really stay up to do anymore writing (I’ve already edited the finished story a bit and will look for a place to submit it tomorrow) I figured I’d run by here, say a few words and then head on to bed.
Here it is.
A FEW WORDS.
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See? Told you. Just a few words.
Aside from that, I wanted to pass on a link to you all that I find helps me fill the empty moments when no one else is online and you can’t bear the thought of taking another quiz/playing a dumb flash game/staring at Twitter and wondering why you aren’t wittier/etc. anymore.
Check out Ill Will Press. It’s a hilarious site where a guy makes little flash cartoons and comic strips about an angry squirrel named Foamy, his assorted crazy squirrel friends and a goth chick named Germaine.
Just believe me. It is funny.
In fact, I just got done watching a toon that summed up my view on horror movies completely. (But only if you’re listening to the squirrel, not the human.) It’s called “Horror Flick Chicks” and for a quick link, click HERE.
Yes. You should click and watch. If not, you are missing out on the funniness.
(That is a made-up word. I will one day have it copyrighted, for it is mine!)
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So….. yeah. That’s all I’ve got. It’s nearing 3 a.m. I’m finally getting a wee bit tired, which is magnificent. I need some rest. My fingers are worn out.
I’ll leave you with a taste of Ill Will Press. It’s funny.
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Oh, and I will be back tomorrow. Got a blog to write about writing. The craft of said art form, not more of this junk above.
Tuesday Horror — Drag Me To Hell
Alright, so I know it’s been a while since I blogged. I can’t believe how fast time flies. In my son’s first month out of school, his first real month of summer, he’s managed to knock out two already loose teeth and give himself a real bump on his noggin. I’ve had my hands full. I apologize.
But since I wanted to tell y’all everything I can about Sam Raimi’s latest flick, “Drag Me To Hell,” here I am.
Them's some nasty looking hands copping a feel....
First, my sister called me, oh, two or three weeks ago. It was late. Say around 9 or 10 p.m. The first thing she says is, “Oh my God, Shanna, that was so scary!” I’m thinking, what is this chick smoking? She fills me in, after a few breathy gasps and sounds of real fear. She had gone to see “Drag Me To Hell.” Told me I HAD to see it.
Now, when the trailers first aired months ago, everyone commented (everyone being my sister, her girlfriend, my stepfather and my husband) that it was definitely a “Shanna and Gloria” movie. (Gloria is my mom.) So, after Breanna (the sister) called up scared out of her mind it seemed, my mom and I made plans to see the movie one afternoon my husband was off from work. (That fell through when her A/C decided to die an agonizing death on a terribly hot day.)
But finally the stars aligned and the opportunity presented itself yesterday. I pick Mom up, we head to the theater, get our popcorn, nearly walk into a wall in the dark (ok, that was me, not her), and sit down to watch our first Sam Raimi horror film in theaters. (I was born after the theater premiere of Evil Dead, otherwise we would’ve seen that in theaters.)
Here, a warning. There may be *SPOILERS* below. I will try to avoid giving anything away, and generally I don’t, but I make no promises. Read on at your own risk.
Beware.... there be gypsies here!!!
After my sister’s late evening call, I have to admit, I was pretty stoked to see this movie. My sister does not scare easy, so for her to actually sound scared and excited on the phone was kind of weird. I was trying not to have an inflated impression of the film’s strength, but I did go in with a certain idea of how the movie would measure up.
I wasn’t disappointed, mind you. I did text my sister later that night and laugh at her for being that scared by it. It is quite obviously a PG-13 movie and while there are a lot of scary moments, usually accompanied by loud music and “da-da-DUM!”, overall it wasn’t that scary. I would love to have left the theater with an ominous feeling in my heart, but that didn’t happen.
But in the end, it was a fun movie to watch. If you’ve an eye for good writing, there’s a few scenes that really stand out, for good and bad. Good: A seance scene that actually includes other spirits lingering by the gate to the afterlife. I almost felt like applauding right then. It’s always chafed my butt that movie/book writers tend to neglect the rest of the world in scenes like that. I mean, is the spirit world so generous that other spirits wouldn’t try to move in on another spirit’s seance? I don’t think so. If anything, our selfishness is twice as bad in death than in life. (At least, if you’re a ghost stuck between life and true death, anyway.)
Bad: There’s a scene where Christine is fighting off a spirit and in order to end this hallucination/spiritual battle, she actually…. and I kid you not… drops an anvil on the spirit’s head. Yeah. At this scene I actually felt like getting up, leaving the theater and emailing Sam Raimi, his publicist, or whoever I had to and saying, “What were you thinking? Looney Tunes + Horror = … what? Crap??”
Any fear I might have felt at all in the film ended right there. Unfortunately, this scene occurs between a half and two thirds of the way through the film. Generally, a good horror movie builds up to the biggest scare at the end, and well, this scene just ruined that for me. From that point on, it was a comedy, not even really scary any more. Just jumpy.
Honestly, I am still reeling from that. Let me just set this up a bit more for you. (I’ve already spoiled the damn scene, might as well fill in the blanks, right?) Christine is searching around for belongings to sell and ends up in a shed outside, kind of a cross between storage area and work shop, and is grabbing a pair of ice skates hanging on a post to throw in this enormous trunk full of stuff to pawn (I will at least not explain why she’s raising money, watch the movie to get that one). So, while she’s holding this ice skate in her hand, the spirit jumps out at her, throws her against the post and is choking her. Christine, being this wise and yet incredibly dumb blond, looks at her surroundings, following this rope tied to the post near her head, just in arm’s reach, to its eventual end… an anvil dangling above the spirit.
And I laughed my sorry little tail off.
Thankfully, there were only two other people in the theater. (Movie’s been out for weeks already, and it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon.) Otherwise I might have really pissed someone off.
Just.. really… an anvil? Why the hell does this blond banker have an anvil dangling in her shed??????????????
Only Sam Raimi.
It’s kind of what makes his movies fun, and also what keeps them from being entirely scary. Like in Evil Dead 2, when Ash’s hand becomes possessed and he goes through that slapstick scene, fighting off his hand still on him—and then when he cuts it off. Evil Dead, the first one, is an impressively terrifying movie. As long as I put a bit of time between viewings, it always scares me. I run to bed so my feet don’t linger near the dark space under it.
I worry that maybe Evil Dead was all Sam Raimi had to put out that was actually scary. Evil Dead 2 couldn’t be called scary by a long shot and aside from the jumpy scenes that will get everyone to jump because suddenly the speakers burst with sound and your brain recoils to the bottom of your spine, neither can Drag Me To Hell.
Though I will admit there are a couple scenes that will either scare you or just shock you. I was taken aback a couple of times at the places Sam Raimi and his cast and crew were willing to go. It was a reminder that you can’t be afraid of taking your Main Character to a dark place. Sometimes it’s the only believable thing you can do.
As such, everyone should see the film just for a quiet, telling moment where we learn something very deep, very secret about our Main Character, Christine, that we can tell in just a few seconds has a major impact on why she is the way she is.
In the end, it’s a wonderful movie. I give it 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5. It’s a fun experience, it will make you jump, and even scare/shock you a couple times. You’ll leave the theater talking and that is what’s most important. Having a great time with your movie buddies.
Go see it, try to do it during matinee and have some fun.
Unearthing graves in the dark... in a rain storm... soaking wet... so much fun!!
And, just for me, when you’re done watching it, ask yourself this… How does Christine have any hair left on her head??
Oh, and one more… does this gypsy….
She's going to do some sick, disgusting stuff. Just... be prepared.
Really compare to the Deadites?
I'll swallow your soul!!!!!!!
Oh, and for a second opinion, check out FilmCritic.com.
