NaNoWriMo is in the Cloud

November 5th, 2009

Hello, writers!

It is day four of NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. The object of Nanowrimo (or Nano, as people write shorthand) is to write a novel (50,000 words minimum) in one month. As of day 4, I am 7800 words into my novel, which puts me just a little ahead of the game at this time.

I intend to write more before bed, but I had to stop for a blog post after checking my email. As a participant, I receive letters of encouragement from NaNoWriMo’s very own Chris Baty at intervals during the process. Tonight, I read letter one.

I learned something new.

NaNoWriMo is In the Cloud.

For tech geeks everywhere–who have been buzzing about Cloud Computing for a year or more–this ‘non-techie’ explanation of the Cloud offers some perspective. Yes, virtual computing world, the rest of the world is way way WAY behind you.

But it takes a writer to make it funny.

I am republishing this letter for two reasons: 1. The piece about Cloud Computing is just precious, and 2. I want all the people I know who hemmed and hawed about how they want to do NaNoWriMo but just CAN’T to get the same encouragement as people who made it at LEAST as far as signing up.

Enjoy!

Dear Author,

Is it November 1 already? Holy cow.

This is my 11th NaNoWriMo, and I feel as excited today as I did for my first NaNo back in 1999. One of the reasons for my giddiness is that we recently moved the NaNoWriMo and Young Writers Program sites to a cutting-edge, virtual server set-up known as “cloud computing.”

I have no idea what “cloud computing” is. Every time our Tech Manager Dan tries to explain it, I get a little more confused. From what I’ve been able to glean, NaNoWriMo’s websites exist entirely in the imagination of an astronaut in Belarus, and we log into the sites through his forehead.

I just ran this by Dan and he said it wasn’t technically accurate. But wherever our mysterious server cloud is located, it’s been giving us great new insights into our participants. The cloud tells us which web browsers people are using, and how long Wrimos spend on each page of the site. It also has the telepathic, possibly illegal ability to tell us what our participants are thinking at all times.

This is why I’m writing you today.

Last night, the cloud mentioned that you were having some mixed feelings about the month ahead. Is this true? It said you were excited by the challenge, but worried that adding a 50,000-word novel to your to-do list for November may end up doing some bad things to your sanity. It also said that you were concerned that your novel might set new records for suckitude.

I apologize if the cloud was talking about another participant—its non-binary language skills are rudimentary at best. But just in case the cloud was talking about you, I wanted to reach out with a couple quick reassurances before we start writing.

1) Your novel will not be as bad as you fear. In fact, by November 30 you will have amassed tens of thousands of words of very solid prose. You will come up with things that make you laugh so hard you have to wipe off the keyboard afterwards, and passages so moving that you will cry as you write them. Your plot will unexpectedly give birth to fantastic subplots, characters will reveal surprising and juicy things about themselves, and you’ll have some moments during NaNoWriMo that will rank among the most satisfying and happy-making of your life.

You will also, however, write some flagrantly nonsensical chapters, create pages and pages of dialogue that make you cry (in a bad way), and endure a few shameful days where the only thing keeping your word-count afloat is the fact that your protagonist has a habit of reading the dictionary aloud whenever she gets nervous. And she’s always nervous.

This is totally fine. All the books we’ve loved started out in a similarly imperfect form. They’re called rough drafts for a reason. No one gets a novel totally right on the first pass. This is true whether you give yourself a month or a lifetime to write the first draft. There’s an adage in noveling that you can revise a bad first draft into a great book. But you can’t revise a blank page into anything but a blank page. Take this to heart during NaNoWriMo. In November, all words are good words.

2) You deserve some fun. We get so focused on doing the things that pay the bills that we sometimes neglect to do the things that make us feel truly alive. You have a world of people depending on you—family, friends, co-workers, bosses, teachers. Taking care of everyone’s needs while still finding time to buy groceries and bathe every couple days can be a feat. Unfortunately, this means that activities like writing and art and music tend to disappear into the margins of our lives.

Think of November as an all-expenses-paid, 30-day vacation to novel-land. It’s a place where you can whoop and holler and dance the crazy dance. A place where you can conjure new worlds, dream oversized dreams, and explore the wilds of your imagination. For one month, you get to orient your life around your creative spark, rather than vice versa.

Which brings us back to November 1. Today, over 100,000 people are heading out to find that spark. It’s going to be a great, unforgettable month. The cloud wishes you well! And all of us here on staff wish you well, too.

The world needs your new novel, author.

It’s time to go get it written.

Chris
NaNoWriMo

It’s not too late to join NaNoWriMo! Plenty of days to go. IF you start now, you just have to write 1,923 words a day. If you’ve got an idea for a novel, and just a little bit of gumption, you can do it! Just sign up at www.nanowrimo.org.

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NanoWrimo 2009 Begins!

November 1st, 2009

Nanowrimo 2009 has begun and to-be novelists all over the world are busy typing away–trying to get those 50,000 words in before the end of November.

I am sort of cheating as I am working on the fantasy novel I have been writing for over a year, but if I stick to my word counts, it’s highly possibly I might actually finish it. Wouldn’t that be amazing? I hope so!

You can follow my word count progress at:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/521426.

Please be aware that on the first day of NanoWrimo, the site is experiencing some sluggishness!

I am actually headed out the door to START writing now, but I did upload my novel’s summary, excerpt, and a word cloud of my progress so far. Please cheer me on! And if you are a writer, join in! Anyone from the Seattle area, especially the Eastside, is encouraged to join me in work sessions. I am going to be at Starbucks tonight, roughly from 5-11pm.

Synopsis:
A castle servant girl PERIEL partners with the unscrupulous magician TANTALVADOR to save the one she loves, the noble prince ANDAR, from a soul-destroying curse.

Meanwhile, Prince Andar’s bride-to-be, the witch-princess RESLYN, targets Periel out of vengeance, while the dark wizard ARIMAN, who cursed Andar, seeks to overthrow the kingdom.

To have a hope in the world, Periel must learn to unlock magic of her own. But things are complicated when the wrong man falls in love with her.

Excerpt:
The magician had said exactly three things to her since their bargain: that she was unforgivably unsociable, that her temperament was reprehensibly moderate, and that she had an ‘obscene fastidiousness for the arranging of objects’.

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My Trip to New York City

November 1st, 2009

Hello world!

I decided to go to New York City for the first time on an impromptu weekend vacation. I’m so glad I went. I love this city. Something about the lights, the variety, and a sense of being somewhere where something is always happening. Of course it is also the publishing capital of the world and the home of many literary agents as well as the headquarters of many agencies and corporate giants.

Two of my loves are writing and social media. Seeing New York tickled both of these. In conversations with locals I got to talk about what I do, what I think social media means, and where I think it is going to go. Meanwhile, I am strolling up and down Broadway oogling the shows, culture, and entertainment.

I made sure to eat a hot dog from a stand, pizza, and a bagel. I also had two fancy dinners. Perilla (restaurant of a Bravo Top Chef contestant) was WONDERFUL.

As I enjoyed myself I thought about my career as a writer. I am thankful that I think about writing everyday, that I believe in myself, and that I work as hard as hard and humbly as I do. I suppose some people might find New York intimidating but I found it inspiring. It really made me want to work hard.

Thank you, New York! I hope to visit you again soon.

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Spam Bots Attacked My Blog … via Twitter

September 18th, 2009

Over the spring and summer, this blog was attacked viciously by spam bots that filled up the comments with a never-ending stream of links.

Akismet seems to have abetted much of it, but I imagine it will be a continuing problem. I do recommend Akismet.

Having worked in Search Engine Optimization I understand what spammers are doing and how they make a living doing it (still hate ‘em) but I really do wish they would leave my blog well enough alone!

Since practically the only place I advertise my blog is Twitter, I am driven to the conclusion that the spam attack on my pool originated from people following me, or people I follow. I use the term ‘people’ loosely.

No surprise. Twitter is a cesspool of spam agents. I haven’t tried to figure it out in any quantiative sense, but I would be unsurprised to learn that the majority of my ‘followers’ are spam bots. Lately, a fair number of them are sex bots.

That’s the problem with Twitter. Or, rather, it is one problem with Twitter.

There are also many marketer-types on Twitter. Some of them are cool. Others are essentially doing the same thing that spammers do: Following everybody in the hopes that a percentage of everybody will follow them. Afterall, number of followers = amount of awesome…. right?

Well, it works. Spammers apply this same logic . They try to put links/content everywhere with the expectation of pissing off the majority of people. However, a small percent will work for them, and that percent keep spamming profitable.

I don’t really have a point, except to say ’sorry about the spam’. Spamming is a reality of the internet. Spamming isn’t going to go away. But we can draw from the technique of spamming one conclusion: ‘quantity’ doesn’t equal ‘quality’. That goes for content, links, popularity, and everything else.

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Writers of ABC’s LOST Spill It At Bumbershoot 2009

September 10th, 2009

I attended Bumbershoot 2009 in Seattle on Labor Day and slipped into one of the last available seats for a Q&A panel with staff writers for the ABC hit series Lost.

Why did I attend? There was a time in my life (can’t say it has expired) where script writing for television held a lot of appeal for me as a possible career choice. Unfortunately, my university did not offer any script writing or screen writing classes (I looked) and I didn’t know how else to pursue it (I was young and silly). But the concept of writing a story with a team of creative people still appeals, especially for an ongoing story with a definitive end (i.e. not a sitcom or a soap opera), so I was excited by the opportunity to hear professional television writers discuss the process of writing for a hit series.

For fans of the show, or just the curious, here are some things that were said:

  • About Season 2010: Season 2010 is a mystery the writers can’t discuss (not a surprise). However it was said that we might see some dead or missing characters, such as Charlie (whoo hoo!) and maybe Cindy (a flight attendant?). It was not revealed if these characters would appear in flashbacks, in real time, or in “rewritten” time.
  • Consulting the Internet: The writers for Lost do not check the Internet or read comments from fans. Critiques mid-writing can interfere with the writing process (I know this from experience, so that makes a lot of sense to me). However, the Lost team does employ two guys (just two?) whose jobs (or part of their jobs) is to peruse the Internet conversation. One of the guys is named Greg Nations. The League of Nations is an internet group of Greg fans.
  • Timeline Graphs: The staff of writers for Lost have timeline graphs that run along the walls so they don’t get lost (har har). I imagine them to look kind of like the graph that Doc Brown draws for Marty McFly in Back to the Future II, especially with the time divergence, only more detailed and more interesting. Also, something other than the flux compacitor and 1.21 jigawatts makes time travel possible in Lost (not sure what…).
  • Mythology: When asked about how much the writers ‘know what is going on’ in advance to writing it, the answer is that the mythology is pretty deep and that what viewers see in the show is the tip of the ice berg. However, many things are affected by the organic nature of television writing. For example, the characters Jin and Michael were supposed to hate each other, but the actors got along together so well on screen they ended up being written as friends.
  • How Cool Stuff is Decided: The writers talked about how fun it is to write for a show like Lost where there is so much room for zany happenings. The writers spoke about feeling confident pitching even the ‘worst ideas’ and that sometimes the best ideas came from ideas that were originally rejected. The writers specifically mentioned the decision to show the “whole statue” (only one foot is seen in the ‘present’). The idea came out at the discussion table in which someone simply proposed it as ’something cool’ they could do.
  • Why is Jack…? The first and best question came from someone who asked why Jack reminds us of that ex-boyfriend who needs to get up early in the morning to train for a Triathlon. This was hilarious on many levels. The response from the writers indicated awareness that they know Jack’s character is ‘like that’.
  • Other Character Stuff: Hurley was a favorite character of the writers present. One writer felt that Jin should be written as shirtless more often. The character Mr. Eko was supposed to have more of a story, but the actor had a difficult time living in Hawaii and had to leave the show.
  • Most Difficult Episode: The Constant was apparently a very difficult episode to write.
  • Keeping the Mystery: One questioner asked if the writers were concerned that the end of the series would reveal too much of the mystery that made the show enjoyable. The writers responded that they were conscious of that struggle and had learned from the example of the Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menanace and midi-chlorians.
  • Sequels or Spin-Offs?: One questioner asked if any sequels or spin offs were in the works following the end of Lost. It seems obvious to me that the writers would not know this as the show belongs to the network. However, one of the writers joked that perhaps there would be a cartoon miniseries called “Locke and the Monster” with moral/spiritual lessons. I would watch that noise.


There was more, but that’s what stayed in my head. Discuss!

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Why Writers Must Know Grammar

June 10th, 2009

It surprises me how many aspiring fiction writers don’t know a thing about grammar. The majority can’t identify the eight Parts of Speech, explain when you would use ‘well’ instead of ‘good,’ or understand why you shouldn’t end a sentence with a prepositional phrase.

I am not a grammarian myself. There are many rules about language structure that I don’t understand, despite having studied grammar independently, taken a few college courses, and taught it to children. I forget, for instance, the difference between an embedded clause and a relative clause (or embedded relative clauses?). I could use more practice in sentence diagramming. I sometimes mix up British and American usage.

Like many writers, I make mistakes. There are also things that I have learned to do incorrectly. For example, it wasn’t too long ago that I broke myself of the habit of using an ellipsis (…) instead of a dash (–) to indicate an interruption. For some reason known only to my muse, I occasionally write her when I mean him or him when I mean her, not because I’m confused by the difference, but by some sort of defunct muscle memory.

My point is that I need a copy editor and a proofreader as much as anyone. However, I do not expect a copy editor to do my writing for me. I know the basics, and I make an effort to always be learning and practicing.

There are many writers who know next to nothing about grammar or punctuation. That’s okay as we all have to start somewhere. However, it is a problem when writers believe that they don’t need to know grammar, either because they don’t recognize how difficult their writing is to understand or because they assume it is the job of a copy editor to fix their mistakes.

Let’s dispel this myth! If a publishing house wants to print your manuscript, an editor will help you make your story better, a copy editor will go line-by-line through your work, and a proof reader will make sure all is set for print, but it is not the responsibility of any of these professionals to teach you how to write.

A writer who cannot form coherent sentences is not going to get published. At the very least, every writer should know the basics of grammar and punctuation. You should know all the Parts of Speech, what they mean, and how to identify them in a sentence. You should understand what a sentence is and how it differs from a clause. You should know how to use all punctuation marks, including commas, semicolons, dashes, apostrophes and ellipses correctly. Otherwise, your manuscript is going to resemble a garbled mess that no one will want to wade through in order to find the story!

At least have a grammar book! Everyone should. It wouldn’t hurt to have several.

Not all grammar books are stuffy and hard to understand. The basic ones are like encyclopedias, but some are written like narratives and can be entertaining. The best grammar books (in my opinion) are a mix of the two and explains the whens and whys with really clear and interesting examples.

My favorite grammarian is Grammar Girl, or Mignon Fogarty, who was one of the first people I started following on Twitter. I love her because she responds to my questions. She has a podcast and a best selling book. In fact, you can win a copy of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by entering this contest at Writing the Cyber Highway (ends June 13, 2009).

You can keep up with Grammar Girl in the following ways:

* On Twitter: @GrammarGirl
* Subscribe to Grammar Girl’s daily tip newsletter.
* Visit Grammar Girl’s website and listen to the podcast!

Writing is a craft. If you are serious about writing, you need to understand the structure of your discipline. A writer who ignores grammar is like a chef who ignores ingredients. You need to understand the elements of language if you are going to tell a story you expect anyone to read! Doing so will not only make you a better writer, but also make the process of writing more enjoyable.

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Beloved Fantasy Author David Eddings Passes Away at 77

June 7th, 2009

I learned via Michael Pinto on Twitter and an article from The Guardian that David Eddings has passed away. He was 77.

David Eddings is a fantasy author most famous for the epic fantasy series the Belgariad, which was five novels in length, and its sequel the Mallorean, which was also five novels. He wrote high epic fantasy at a time when it was an underserved genre. His works were inspired by The Lord of the Rings, and followed a similar (now common) story outline of a simple farmboy whose is really a prince and whose destiny was to become a sorcerer, take the throne of his kingdom, and defeat an evil god according to an ancient prophesy. Of course, Garion wants nothing to do with any of that.

The story had several lovable elements, most of which were in the characters. The sorcerer Belgarath plays a role similar to Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, but doesn’t take himself as seriously and sometimes needs firm reminders from his daughter Polgara (also a sorceress) not to be a scoundrel. One of the most memorable characters is Silk, a thief who is the funniest character in the cast and also the most disreputable (but in a good way). One of my personal favorites was CeNedra, the princess destined to be Garion’s bride, who is spoiled, obsessed with vanity and wealth, but comes to love poor farmboy Garion (much to her dismay) without knowing he is her betrothed, and upon accepting the situation shapes up to be a better person in order to support him.

The Belgariad was a lovable story, as evidenced by the fact that I can recall it so well having not touched it in over ten years.

Of course it wasn’t perfect, and David Eddings did borrow a lot from Tolkien, which is obvious to anyone who has read both series, but he made his stories unique by poking fun at tropes in the fantasy genre, writing viciously funny dialogue (his characters were consistently irreverant toward powerful people), and providing a fantasy world rich in medieval elements Tolkien didn’t mess with, such as knights, mythological gods, hunts, economics, and politics. The books’ themes also included a slew of commentary about the relationships between men and women, which made them funny and more relatable for young girls. They were a delight when I was reading them in middle school.

David Eddings grew up in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, which is also where I grew up and live today. According to The Guardian, Eddings saw himself as a story teller who hoped to inspire reading in young people:

Eddings was always delighted, he said, to hear that he’d turned non-readers into readers. “I look upon this as perhaps my purpose in life,” he said in 1997. “I am here to teach a generation or two how to read. After they’ve finished with me and I don’t challenge them any more, they can move on to somebody important like Homer or Milton.”

I did move on (to both Homer and Milton), but I still have some of Eddings’ books (the exact same ones I read in middle school) on my shelves. They are in poor shape. I read Eddings before I read Tolkien, and although he was not the author who inspired me to read and love fantasy (that was CS Lewis in the third grade, followed by DragonLance in the fifth grade), he was one of the authors whose work I reread three or four times, carried around with me, and occasionally lost in that space between the bed and the wall. I haven’t read any of his work in awhile, and doubtless I would find much to critque in his stories (I vaguely remember thinking the Mallorean was too similar to the Belgariad), but he will always be one of my most nostalgic and beloved authors.

David Eddings, you touched a generation of young fantasy readers. You were one who inspired me to write. You will be greatly missed.

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Review of the Palm Pre: Why I Switched to Sprint!

June 6th, 2009

Today, June 6, 2009, I bought the Palm Pre mobile smartphone from Sprint. I work in social media as an analyst and write for a living, so it’s really about time I jumped on the band wagon and got a decent phone (yes, I can blog from it!).

I live in Bellevue, Washington. My local Sprint store sold out of the Palm Pre at 9:05 am. They opened at 8:00am. I was the second to last person to get one of these awesome phones! Yes, I had to stand in line, but not very long; maybe 20 minutes. I didn’t camp out or anything.

I spent another hour in the store playing with it.

The Palm Pre is my first smartphone and I am very excited about it! In fact, it is my first ‘cool’ phone. My previous phone was a Samsung A707 which I bought in 2007 (it came out in 2006). The exciting feature with that phone was that it was ‘flat’ and fit in my pocket and had a color screen (hawt). After having it for about a year, I cracked the front screen by stepping on it (oops). Since then it has been occasionally unreliable (unless the reason for that is AT&T’s network suffering from iPhone over-usage).

Here is a picture of my old phone:

My old Samsung on Twitpic

I didn’t get a better phone. Affordable phones required new contracts and cool phones required data plans at $30 added to my already too-high AT&T bill. AT&T has been raping me. I pay over $75 a month on the LOWEST voice plan ($39.99) they have. I don’t use my phone to talk much. I use 0-10 Anytime Minutes a month and have several thousand rollover minutes stored up for no purpose. I do text message, though, so I bought text messaging for an additional $20 a month. This brings my bill to $60 without taxes and other fees (the grand total being $75).

I was sold unlimited text messaging. I didn’t even know they had other options. It is ridiculous because I don’t text that much and any sales person should have seen that when looking at my bills. I even complained about it when I bought my last phone. They could have informed me that there was an option of 200 text messages for $5 a month, which is too little, or 1500 text messages for $15 a month, which is too high, but they didn’t. If AT&T had made an effort to set me up with the best plan for me and make me happy, I might have felt better about the whole thing, but as it was, I felt they were just out to sell me as high as they could.

It doesn’t upset me, but it’s not loyalty-inspiring.

They could have informed me at ANY time how they could SAVE ME money on a different plan. All they have to do is build a robot to look at people who regularly aren’t using all their minutes or text messages and inform those people that better options are available. This would have created brand loyalty for me.

As it is, we have a business relationship. My contract with AT&T is up in three weeks and I feel no reason not to go elsewhere.

So I am moving to Sprint! While I was cruising plans on their website, a representative contacted me via chat. Cool. I talked to a real person (though that person is probably not named ‘Jessica’ despite the IM label). This sales rep helped me figure out that I could cut my regular bill in HALF with a Sprint plan if I did not want a smartphone. With a smartphone, I could still save $30 a month on service over comparable plans offered by AT&T or Verizon. I haven’t heard of any Network Coverage complaints for Sprint in my area, and the word on the street is that customer service from Sprint has soared to fangasm amazing since David Hesse became CEO and presumably fired all the surly, rude customer reps that worked for Sprint a few years ago. I was sold.

So, my dear Sprint, as you have addressed and corrected your problems, and because you have been good to me, you have won yourself at least one new customer who will blog your praises to other potential customers.

Also, you have a HOT phone.

I shall now gush out a review of the Palm Pre.

The Palm Pre – Sprint’s Hawt New Phone

The Sprint Palm Pre on Twitpic

I decided I wanted a Palm Pre while looking for a boring phone to replace my current boring phone with a better rate plan. I read about the Palm Pre while researching Sprint (against all competitors) and couldn’t believe the phone was coming out at the end of the week I happened to be looking for a new phone. I had wanted a smart phone for awhile. I had considered the iPhone because of the spiffy apps, but I wanted a keyboard. And lo and behold! The Palm Pre has both.

It should be obvious that I’m not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to mobile technology, but as a writer I do my research and I can tell you why so far I think the Palm Pre is awesome.

As a writer, I need a phone I can use to write to the web. BlackBerry has been tempting for years, but I wasn’t motivated to get one because of the price tag. Also, I had to ask myself: ‘is email really all that important to me?’ Then the iPhone came out in all its sexiness. I like the iPhone’s pretty touch screen and the lovely apps, but I still wanted a physical keyboard, and the iPhone was also very expensive.

When I learned about the Palm Pre, I did even more research. People have been buzzing about it for months.

The Palm Pre has been dubbed the ‘iPhone Killer.’ It is Palm’s first market-competitive phone in ten years. It is Sprint’s greatest hope. Here are the top ten things I like about the Palm Pre (in no particular order):

  1. It has a physical QUERTY keyboard
  2. It has a touch screen
  3. It has apps like the iPhone
  4. You can run multiple apps at a time (which you can’t on the iPhone)
  5. You can load and check multiple email addresses
  6. Service plans are cheaper with Sprint than competitors
  7. You can surf and post to websites and social media (including your blog)
  8. It has a music player and syncs with iTunes
  9. It is sleek and pretty
  10. It runs on a faster network than the iPhone and has better coverage (at least where I live)


Extra kicks: The Palm Pre comes with a USB charger as well as an outlet adapter. This means I can charge it on my laptop if I really need to (of course that would drain my laptop battery if I am not plugged in) as well as plug into an outlet. The Palm Pre also comes with earphones (albeit, not very comfortable, but good sound quality and I go through earphones like nobody’s business so I enjoy an extra pair!)

Drawbacks to the Palm Pre are minimal. I’ve noticed that sometimes I cancel out of applications without meaning to. The software may be oversensitive to touch, but it is just as likely user error as I am not used to the touch screen. The keyboard is also quite small, which has led some people to wish the Palm Pre also had a virtual keyboard like the iPhone, but I like the Palm Pre’s keyboard. I’ve had it a few hours and I am used to it already. I find physical keyboards to be much faster and easier than virtual keyboards.

Best of all is that the Pre Palm is with Sprint and therefore more affordable! I did a lot of research on Sprint before purchasing, so I can break it down for you. The best thing for me is that Sprint offers packaged service plans where you can reduce Voice minutes and still have unlimited text, media, messaging, and data. You can get unlimited voice, 900 Anytime Minutes, or 450 Anytime Minutes. This plan set-up is ideal for me as I don’t talk on the phone all that much and would be overpaying for Voice with other carriers.

I have the Everything Plan with 450 voice minutes for $69.99. This includes unlimited weekend minutes, unlimited evening minutes that start at 7:00 pm, unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes, and unlimited messaging and data. This allows me to use the phone less for talking and more for texting, web surfing, and writing, which is what I really want to do. Woot! If I did want unlimited talking, the total would be $99.99 for Sprint’s Simply Everything Plan, which is still a lot cheaper than competitor prices.

Some people have reservations about Sprint as a carrier. I researched this too. For coverage, as with ALL carriers, reliability with Sprint can depend on where you live. Network coverage with Sprint is great in Seattle. It is great most places, I hear, especially populated places, but of course YMMV. I am not sure, but it may be less reliable out of the United States (AT&T is said to be the best out of the country because it runs off of a GSM network as opposed to CDMA). Generally, Sprint has great nationwide coverage.

As far as customer service is concerned, Sprint used to have a very poor reputation, but since Dan Hesse became CEO, customer service has changed a lot. The poor customer service rating Sprint received in the past was a motivating factor for me to change to Sprint, not because I want poor customer service, but because I know they are concerned about that now and working very hard to address it. This signals to me that I can expect great customer service from Sprint. So far it has been everything I hoped!

For people who do not want to switch to Sprint, the Palm Pre will probably become available to other carriers sometime around Christmas (I heard 6 months). I don’t know the details, though. Still, I think you will be paying more with other carriers (AT&T and Verizon) unless they revise their price plans in order to be competitive.

Well that’s all I got! All I can say in conclusion is that I love this phone, and that I am thrilled to be able to write, read, edit, and respond to comments to my blog from my Palm Pre mobile from wherever I am at!

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Internet Drama: Why Writers Need to Be Aware of Social Media

June 4th, 2009

I work in social media and online reputation management as a community intelligence analyst for Visible Technologies. Typically I work with internet data from blogs, forums, and social networking sites for Fortune 500 companies, but today I was reminded that social media affects everybody–especially writers.

I hang out on forums, blog, Tweet, participate in memberships, manage websites, moderate some newsgroups,write for Livejournal, etc. and so forth. I can tell you that social communities on the internet are as close-knit as social communities anywhere. They are just…better connected.

People know each other on forums, and despite what you may think, there is a culture on every website as well as rules for behavior (granted, these vary by community). A lot of folks forget this. It is easy to assume that having an internet username protects you with a shroud of anonymity. Furthermore, the physical distance makes people feel like they can say whatever they want without consequences. But this is an illusion. The people you speak to online are real people. If you are a professional, you shouldn’t say things to them on a blog or forum that you wouldn’t say to them in real life… in a public setting… where are all your friends are watching.

In fact, I would argue that behaving poorly online is worse than behaving poorly in ‘real life’. Why? Because written words are immortal. They cut deeper than spoken words because they can be read over and over. They can also be passed around. And trust me: they are.

As a writer (published or unpublished), there are some things you should never do:

1. Insult your readers, even if they gave a nasty review of your work.
2. Get in fights with other writers, editors, or readers, especially over petty issues.
3. Belittle editors, copyeditors, agents, or anyone else in the publishing industry (They know each other and they will share! Besides, shouldn’t you appreciate the people helping you to publish your work?)
4. Act like a child or a prima donna, especially about your work (a superiority complex is not attractive)

Blogs can be particularly dangerous for writers. They are very attractive because they incorporate what we love best: writing for an audience. But you have to be careful. It is a misconception that a blog is a “personal space.” It is not the ideal place to vent frustration. Blogs are public forums. When you write in a blog, you are publishing to a global audience. Forums also are public venues. Posting a rant, throwing a fit, or participating in a flame war is not advisable!

This isn’t to say that you can’t engage in reasoned arguments or can’t say how your feel. Just don’t say anything about anyone you wouldn’t say to their face…in front of a camera.

The reason for caution is that drama incites interest, and anyone who sees what you wrote can ‘move it’ with a simple copy and paste. You may not even know about it. The majority of people who read threads on forums and blogs don’t comment themselves. They may not have a membership, or prefer not to incite wrath by getting involved, but they might say something about it somewhere else!

There are in fact blogs, forums, and communities dedicated to harvesting dramatic spats and republishing them for the purpose of heckling (in fandom, a facet of social media that fiction writers should be familiar with, internet drama of ‘point-and-laugh’ entertainment value is called a wank.)

So if you value your online reputation (you should), don’t be douchebag. As a writer, your words represent you. Be careful with them. Control them. If you don’t, you may be exposing a poor side of yourself to the people you most want to impress, and you may not even realize it.

As your mother taught you, online or anywhere, always mind your Ps and Qs. When in doubt, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!

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Posted in Blogs and Blogging, Publishing and Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Secondary Characters Need Conflict Too

May 28th, 2009

The middle section of my novel is STILL irritating me. Fortunately, I think I know what the problem is. My main characters are dragging their feet because the characters around them might as well be vapor. This is because I have been focused on cramming the main conflict into the allotted page count to the neglect of all other potential conflicts. Thus between ‘big scenes’ for my main characters there is an annoying lull.

I’ve been mulling over this for a few days. I don’t think I can get to the end of the first book (and have it make sense) without some scenes that develop my secondary characters–you know, those characters that are ‘friends’ of the main characters and help the main character either get into trouble or get out of it. In this case, those characters act as foils as well, so it’s really important that the reader gets to know them. They have depth already–in my mind. The challenge will be finding a place to explore it on paper.

I know I will be glad of the time it takes to develop a well rounded cast when the plot gets more complicated! I know the future (sort of…) and I will eventually NEED these characters. More importantly, I think giving the secondary characters some conflict NOW will the solve the problem I’m having with this section of the book lacking conflict for my main characters. Of course a larger plot is there, but I’m talking about the kind of immediate, gritty conflict that keeps a readers turning pages. More of that please!

So I have devised a clever solution:

I’m going to give my secondary character some background. I am going to write it into the present through an encounter with the past. I will have my secondary characters fight with each other over this event, and use that conflict to propel the rest of the story forward.

Oh. And there’s going to be a play within a play! Er, a play within a novel. How often do you see that?

I can’t help that I love theatre.

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Posted in Fiction Writing, Writing A First Novel | No Comments »

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