So, I updated my public profile for Gmail to include the new Google+ and now have no idea why I did or what to do with it… Does anyone use this portion of Google? I don’t see a lot of ways that it’s different from Facebook except for the fact that I already have everything set up on Facebook.
I probably won’t delete it because leaving it there and not touching it doesn’t hurt anything, but now I’m curious whether or not people are actually using it.
Having worked in a bookstore during the huge push toward ereading, I am well aware of the arguments for and against virtual libraries. Personally, I’m smack dab in the middle, torn between the practicality and compactness of ereading (I have well over 2,000 books on my iPad, just for a point of reference) and the nostalgia and obsession that my collection of actual books had become (my closet has more books than clothes as the poor quality cell phone picture below illustrates). Packing to move earlier this year was the true turning point for me, the point at which I convinced myself to lean slightly more toward virtual. At the time, I had about twenty-five boxes (jam-packed DC boxes for those of you who worked at Borders and know the boxes I’m talking about) full of books. Seeing as I had to move everything I wanted to take with me in a Dodge Neon and ship the rest, I knew I had to cut back. So I made sure every single book I owned was listed on GoodReads (so that I could go back and find them again if I wanted to) and started making cuts. I donated (to friends or Good Will) thirteen boxes worth of books. Below is a photo of my bookshelf in Tallahassee… Losing it made me want to cry.
While meandering through the interwebs this morning, I came across a blog called The Fine Books Blog, specifically a post concerning the Real vs. Virtual debate. It laid out some very valid points arguing for the superiority of the printed page and may sway some readers back toward their hardcover collection. Check it out and come back here to let me know which side of the fence you currently occupy.
There are so many options available to writers today that sometimes we lose sight of the benefits these technological advances can have for our creative sides. Smart phones, for example, have almost eliminated the random clutter of scraps of paper on my nightstand. Now when I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, I send myself a text or open a new memo or (in the case of my beautiful ipad) go directly into the document and type away. It’s a glorious thing and I love the feeling of knowing that all of my random thoughts that don’t apply to any one story are no longer scattered around my bedroom but neatly organized in a document titled Random Pieces.
There is, however, a downside. With these devices comes a million other ways that you could use them and a billion other things you could distract yourself with if you aren’t careful. I got a new phone today (a Samsung Fascinate which, so far, I highly recommend), but that means that I’ve spent most of the afternoon changing settings and adding apps and before I knew it I’d wasted one of my only afternoons off this week.
The point of this rambling blog post? Use your technological resources to their full potential, just make sure your technology doesn’t end up using you.
This post made possible by my Verizon Smartphone. 😉
With all of the gizmos, gadgets, and greatness available to us today, a lot of people have forgotten about the basics. No, I’m not talking about a Word program with no frills, I’m talking about the way Dickinson and Austen and Wollstonecraft-Shelly wrote. I’m talking about writing a first draft from beginning to end with a pen and paper.
Now I know that there are a few automatic concerns:
1) OMG THE ENVIRONMENT! – Yeah, I know. Use recycled paper and write small.
2) I MIGHT LOSE IT! – A true concern, especially for those used to saving copies on multiple hard drives, in e-mails, and on a friend’s PC, just in case. But then maybe this will be good exercise for your brain! Now where did I put my pen…?
3) BUT THEN I CAN’T EDIT AS I GO! – Exactly.
I recently started working on the first draft of a new story (I’ve honestly lost count of how many I have going at once). When the idea came to me I was at work and, since I work in a book store, I couldn’t exactly sit down on a computer or with my phone and type up the scene. So I grabbed a few pieces of scrap paper and began to write. On my break I worked on it even more, piecing together the papers and writing up the entire beginning scene. When I got home, I had two options: type it up into a word document or continue writing it by hand. Against my usual habits, I decided to write this story by hand.
The experience has been liberating.
I’ve heard from a hundred different people that you have to turn off your inner editor when you write your first draft. Just go with the flow and ignore the changes she suggests! I thought I had managed to do that, but now I realize I wasn’t even close. I know that making changes in a written manuscript are incredibly time consuming and can get very complicated–especially when you’re writing in bound notebooks instead of loose-leaf paper. Because I know this, it is so much easier to lock that editor in a cage and give her something else to keep her occupied. The comparative silence in my head is amazing.
I’m not saying that my writing has suddenly improved tenfold or anything like that, but I’ve come to see that writing an entire first draft by hand is an experience every writer should have. I know that a lot of things I’ve written down will change or disappear entirely. And that’s okay! For now, I’m listening to my characters and letting the story go where they take it. They’ll be plenty of time to direct them later.
I have a Facebook and have for years. I’ve been a member since before they opened it to non-college students, before applications, before anything except the basic profile. I thought it was a great site and easy to use, but now? Now they’re big and corporate and, apparently, evil.
Colleen Lindsay, an agent out of NYC, posted a warning on her blog today about Facebook’s new terms of service. Basically, Facebook now owns everything you post on Facebook forever. Including things you set to update via an RSS feed.
You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual,
non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license
(with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish,
stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display,
transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate,
excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute
(through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post
on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the
promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings
or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share
Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness
and image for any purpose, including commercial or
advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with
the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof. You
represent and warrant that you have all rights and
permissions to grant the foregoing licenses.
While I have never posted anything about my writing or any of my so-called intellectual content on Facebook, I know that others do. I don’t know what, if anything, can be done about this ridiculous clause in the terms of service, but I would recommend not posting anything there that you might one day regret losing.
And, for a better explanation, check out Colleen’s post about it here.
I found a new toy today. It’s a wonderful tool and a perfect example of how the internet (and technology in general) is both making our world an easier place to live in and making us lazier in the process. Let me elaborate.
While on hiatus from the Fallen series, I have been world building for an epic fantasy I plan on writing after the Fallen saga has reached its conclusion. And I’m going all out. I have a map that’s bigger than my desk with the entire world (all 6 continents, 4 oceans, 7 seas, and 16 countries worth) laid out in a geo-political collage of colors, landmarks, cities, and territories. I have over 100 pages of notes on different types of flora and fauna, geographic locations and climates, characters, cultures, and religions. I have a fledgling outline for the first quarter (give or take) of the first book. And I have a three ring binder full of the beginnings of two distantly related languages.
The scary (and wonderfully exciting) part is that I’m not even close to done. 😉
It was in the process of doing research for my map (I’m new to both art and cartography) that I stumbled across this site: Fantasy Mapmaking 101. The author did include some good tips for beginning mapmakers, but I was most interested in this page: the Random Name Generator. [[edited to add: apparently this portion of the site has been taken down]]
At first I simply thought it was kind of nifty, but not something I could use. The names the generator pulled out were based on the Elvish and Orc languages by J.R. Tolkien and are therefore kind of specific in the sound of the words they were capable of producing. But then I noticed this note at the top:
You may edit the JavaScript in this HTML document byviewing the source, and saving it to your hard drive.
Change the letters in each of the arrays you will find, and
voila!, a personalized name generator!
The angles began to sing and the clouds parted for a beautiful ray of sunshine (which was miraculous occurrence indeed considering it was around 11:30 pm) as I frantically called my friend.
“How do I do that?!” I demanded.
Being more than well aware of my eccentricities by now, he pointed me in the right direction. Then, with only a few more (polite) demands for direction, I altered the appropriate elements, turned the source code back into an html document, and opened my own personal name generator for the first time.
Someone please bless the owner of Fantasy Mapmaking 101. Seriously.
I have since created a specific name generator for each of my languages and will create new generators for every language I create after this point as well. Which got me thinking…
What would I have done without this tool?
I would have slogged through countless pages of notebooks and scrap pieces of paper scribbling random combinations of the letters used in the languages until I came up with a couple dozen words that were pronounceable and sounded like words. I would have practiced coming up with these words and probably would have eventually become passably good at creating coherent random strings of letters. But now?
My excuse is that my brain is extraordinarily linear and that limits the possibilities for randomness, that, in the end, I would be stuck with a certain type of word, a certain grouping set, and languages that were far too similar to one another. But I know myself too well for that. My own laziness is using this as an out. I’m letting myself off the hook because I’ve found something that I can personalize that can do the job better than me.
Do I feel guilty for using it? A little.
Is that going to stop me? Nope.
It’s food for thought, though. People have been saying that technology is a crutch for years. Parents bemoan the fact that children are becoming incapable of doing simple math without a calculator, disorders and addictions centering around technology (Blackberrys anyone?) have already been accepted by some psychology groups, and I can’t remember the last day I didn’t wake up and head straight for my laptop. In most cases I’ve argued that our intelligence is not being dumbed down, simply altered. Our social consciousness is evolving and so are the skills and knowledge we use on a daily basis. But what about people like writers who thrive on mental capacity and creativity? How will technology alter the way we work?
No one can say for certain (I know I can’t), but it’ll be interesting to see which way this one goes.
Oh goodness. I think I’m in lust. Seriously, I want an Amazon Kindle. It looks phenomenal. Small, powerful, portable, and light, it can hold over 200 titles. It also (and this is the part that really made me go “Ooooh!”) offers free wireless connectivity to the Amazon store from which you purchase the e-books, wikipedia, and an oxford dictionary. All for the low, low price of $399.00.
Yeah. That part kind of killed me, too. But you have to go here and watch the demonstration video they have.
I want this so much more than I want a new ipod. Though, I wouldn’t say no if someone offered to buy me either. Or both. 😉
Do you think this is what might save books and make reading accessible to everyone (once the price of these things comes down) or do you see this as the downfall of the written word? Maybe you’re somewhere in the middle? I certainly never said you had to think in extremes.