Bookmark your bookmarks.
I learned two lessons today, both about organization and the interweb. Glean away, dear reader.
Try making your bookmarking technique a time-saver over being a site-saver.
It’s not so much about saving every website you want to visit again, but making it easy to do just that. I’ve always been a proponent of well-organized bookmark folders, but am taking it a step further (call me a newbie for what you’re about to hear, if this is standard for you, but as Ralph Wiggum would say, “I’m learnding!”). I’m just getting into subscribing to RSS feeds and using new ways of exploring the interweb, and am beginning to make use of the Firefox bookmark toolbar. This way, when I don’t know what a word means, I can click Dictionary.com immediately instead of Bookmarks > Define > Dictionary.com. I’ll save two valuable seconds each time. I think after checking Dictionary.com in this manner four-hundred and fifty times, I’ll have given myself fifteen minutes to play a round of Desktop Tower Defense (click only if you dare!). Despite my chagrin, I take organization seriously and now that I’ve found a slightly improved system, I can’t imagine how I lived without it. Must’ve been the same way for those folks test-driving the first horseless carriage.
If you bookmarked a website and haven’t visited in a while, check it out.
A few years ago, a writer named Zach Everson had an entertaining website filled with short nonfiction stories detailing the funny, the unbelievable, and the embarassing lives of he and his friends. The stories were always entertaining and linked in clever ways (Zach used tags before the blogosphere knew what tags were) so a reader could find recurring characters, plot lines, subjects, etc. One day, Zach changed the direction of his website to focus on his professional skills and resume. I had no plans to hire Zach, and his stories were nowhere to be found, so I stopped reading.
I kept the bookmark, however. I haven’t looked at the website in years, definitely not since entering my MFA program. Then today, while conducting the aforementioned bookmark cleanup, I found the link the Zach’s website and clicked. Turns out he’s writing a great blog about improving one’s writing as craft. Having that sort of website on my radar screen is right up my alley, nowadays, and I’ve subscribed to his RSS feed (how’s that for linking tip one with tip two?). It reminds me of what I’ve heard about scientists and blackboards. So the tale goes, a scientist does not erase any mistakes they make on the blackboard. They cross it out but leave it legible. They’ll still have their path history as a guide of where not to go again as they strive for success. I’ll say the same for websites. Sometimes things change, and your interest wanes. But file the bookmark away - it may peak your interest later.
-nm
Technorati Tags: Zach Everson, bookmarking tip, bookmark toolbar, Desktop Tower Defense
Discovering niche reading/writing websites: LibraryThing.
With so many websites out there celebrating reading and writing, two difficulties develop for two distinct groups. For users, it’s time-consuming, daunting, and nigh-impossible to find websites with the content they want / need / enjoy. For site owners, it’s just as difficult to help potential users sift through the sludge pile and discover their website. Part of what makes the blogosphere important, as far as information dissemination is concerned, is viral networking. That said, viral networking is at the mercy of taste, and that means users may hear about sites ranging from helpful to fun to weird to mind-boggling in terms of usefulness. From me to you, here’s a bit of viral networking for a website celebrating reading that I find fun.
LibraryThing is a social networking (well, social cataloging) website that, for once, celebrates something completely outside the word of the interweb. It’s completely about what you do offline - reading. Sign up, list books you own, recommend books to others, see who else has the same interests, and join author-crazy groups. It’s a cool niche site perfect for the reader who thought they were alone in liking that obscure book. I couldn’t tell you how I first heard about it. At some point a year ago, I listed it on the online section of an English composition course I was teaching. Today I clicked the link for the first time in a long time and the experience was fresh for me. Fresh enough, in fact, that I registered and created a small, selected library.
The only LT disappointment for me so far is cover images. LT has synergy with Amazon and utilize Amazon’s cover images. However, Amazon isn’t being 100% helpful. For example, I own the first-edition hardback of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, but Amazon only has this cover for the more-recent paperback release. In other instances, covers aren’t initially available, like the “no image available” tag for the first-edition hardback of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods on this search list. However here it is, and in-stock no less, when I click the hardcover link on the paperback’s page. This may be an LT search / code issue, but Amazon isn’t making itself 100% accessible, either. In short, if one is interested in making an accurate library reflecting actual covers, editions, printings one owns, they may have to sacrifice the desire for a library consisting of accurate images.
As for my library, you’ll see it at the bottom of my posts from now on unless I forget and/or suddenly get paranoid about exposing to the world my affinity for (cough!) the original Weis & Hickman DragonLance novels…
-nm
Technorati Tags: LibraryThing, viral networking, social networking, social cataloging, celebrate reading, DragonLance
Writing criticism and the all-listening ear.
A few days ago, I wrote about Roy Peter Clark’s Learning Tools for Writing. Since then, I’ve found Clark’s list makes for fascinating reading and re-reading. I’ll likely add my thoughts on several of Clark’s tools in the future, but one in particular caught my attention. Learning Tool #49: Learn From Criticism is how I wish all feedback was accepted in both live and online writing workshops. Part of what draws me to Clark’s tools is his articles are both clear and fun to read. Clark explains both the seeming impossibility of such a task and the importance of it, plus he gives a humorous example of how a journalist / editor may disagree on the matter, as well as a bullet-point summary of his already-brief article (make the concise even more concise, I like it).
Clark has a simple credo: “I never defend my story against criticism.” I’m proud to say this has been a staple of my workshop behavior for some time. I never understood the point of explaining why a story I wrote is actually wonderful when the people I asked to read it and give me their honest opinions tell me the story is less-than-stellar. Whatever fodder I have to defend my story with should already be in the story. Staying true to this idea has helped me develop my “all-listening ear.”
The all-listening ear takes in all praise and all criticism without discrimination. The all-listening ear leaves no bit of feedback behind. When I have a story workshopped, I take in all the feedback, jotting down the oral notes and almost never look up as I continue writing whatever my peers have for me. Sometimes, I write down who said what, sometimes I don’t (more on that in a future post). I’ll hear notes I agree with, and am almost guaranteed to hear a few I’ll think are doggerel, but that doesn’t stop me from taking them all in. If I were to pick-and-choose notes I thought had merit in the moment, I would likely lose notes which might make sense to me upon a second look. Instead, I save those recorded oral notes, along with the written manuscript notes, for another day. I return to my asked-for criticisms another day, fresh, ready to weigh each one equally. It’s not easy, as Clark says, but it’s worth it.
I think of the would-be contestants on talent-based “reality” tv shows who don’t make the cut, who have judges tell them what rubbish their act is or how if only they tried a little harder they might have something, someday. The camera invariably shows these folks who want to appear honest and good-hearted doing anything but be honest with themselves. “Those judges just don’t get my act,” one may say. “I don’t care. I do what I do and I’m proud of it and I’ll make it, anyway, so we’ll see who has the last laugh.” If the determination they show in that type of proclamation is genuine, I wish them the best of luck. But if it’s only emerging as a knee-jerk reaction to tough criticism, their time spent in the mire of mediocrity is only bound to get longer.
-nm
Technorati Tags: online writing workshop, writing criticism, writing feedback, reality tv contestant
Share stories with friends
A new feature released today at Scrawlers is the ability to share 100-word stories with friends. You must be logged in to share a story. Simply click into the story’s page. Beneath the list of story tags, you’ll see an entry field with a “Send To Friend” button. Simply enter one or more email addresses, separated by spaces or commas, and an email will be sent to your pals.
The resulting email, sent separately to each of your friends, looks something like this:
Scrawlers writer Barry (barry.hess@scrawlers.com) would like to share this 100-word story with you.
“Palm Reader” by Mornara
To read the story, please click below:
http://www.scrawlers.com/scrawlings/read_story/116
To read what Barry has been writing, visit:
http://www.scrawlers.com/profile/bookshelf/Barry
Thank you!
The Scrawlers Team
http://www.scrawlers.com
info@scrawlers.com
Notice this is one place where your email address will be shared, but only with your friends.
Technorati Tags: writing workshop, creative writing
That which does not kill me…
I try to eliminate the word “that” from my writing whenever possible. It’s turned into an obsession, really; “that” rarely survives the second draft of a story, if I can help it. It certainly has its uses, that you can count on (see?). But it sticks out like a sore thumb to me, the equivalent of someone using “and then and then and then” instead of commas or “I will be going / it will be starting / we will be walking” instead of “I’m going / it starts / we walk.” The word feels superfluous to me most of the time, and I find sentences typically do well enough without it. I find so many people overuse it; not in good prose so much as conversation and basic writing (essays, the interweb, etc.). Any thoughts on this? Is it overused? Is it superfluous? Is it just me?
Imagine my surprise to read an informative debate on “That vs. Which” over at World Wide Words. Now I’m left wondering if I’m overusing “which” and if I’m even using it correctly.
-nm
Technorati Tags: that vs. which, writing
Picking and choosing good writing tools.
To further prove the interweb truly is a web, I found a blog post at LifeHack.com linking to blog posts by Roy Peter Clark about his 50 Learning Tools for Writing and now the links appear here. The tools are each titled in a way so a studious writer comprehends what Clark is getting at without even having to click the link. Still, what he has to say about each tool works, even if writers will find themselves using some Tools more than others. Three tools from Clark I’ve been following in my own writing already include “activate your verbs,” “tune your voice,” “establish a pattern, then give it a twist,” a staple of comedy writing, for sure.
For “activate your verbs,” I concentrate on specific, action-based verbs to assist the tone of the piece. If’ I’m writing a n outer space drama about two groups of pirates battling it out, it would go something like this: “The Duggar blasted a volley of laser fire at its opponent ship. The shafts of energy punched a trickle of holes across the undercarriage. Captain Commodore sneered and strode onto the command deck, his cape whipping behind him. ‘Destroy that ship!’ he said.”
For a lighter piece, say one featuring a forest of critters gathering together, the verbs inform the tone in a different way: “Cody Squirrel chuckled with glee, scampering in circles around the wise old buck. Two bluebirds fluttered to a nearby branch and chirped their approval. The cool breeze tugged the ears of every creature in the glade.”
To prove my point, here’s the first example’s verbs with the second examples storyline. Notice how the verbs make this version of the critter forest much more creepy: “Cody Squirrel blasted with glee, punching circles around the wise old buck. The bluebirds strode to a nearby branch and sneered their approval. The cool breeze whipped and destroyed the ears of every creature in the glade.”
Notice how the tone of the piece can change simply by using alternative verbs, even if they’re action-based: “The Duggar wheezed a volley of laser fire at its opponent ship. The shafts of energy splattered a trickle of holes across the undercarriage. Captain Commodore sniffed and skipped onto the command deck, his cape billowing behind him. ‘that ship!’ he said.”
Clark’s advice regarding how to “tone your voice” is to read one’s work out loud. Much of my work is character-centric, so speaking for my characters gives me additional insight into how they behave. I do some acting, but I don’t believe one has to be an actor to read a work out loud. Hearing your words will still aid in deciphering its readability, understandability, and flow. I give this tip to my English composition students. It saves them from sentence fragments, homonyms, and paragraphs that don’t make sense.
Again, “establish a pattern, then give it a twist” is a staple in writing comedy. The pattern creates the reality and the twist is the interrupting punchline. If you want an example of this, watch a comedy tv show or movie, listen to a comedy record, or read a humorous novel. This tool is synonymous with “The Rule of Three.”
-nm
Technorati Tags: active verbs, tone, read out loud, rule of three
Scrawlers in July
Scrawlers has taken a little while to click with the Interweb. July has seen the site start catching on a little bit, however. The timing is decent as Scrawlers is now in a state where the functionality in place works pretty well. There are certainly features that we are dying to provide, and hopefully you will see those sooner than later.
I thought I’d take the time to do a little comparison of statistics between June and July.
In June:
- 111 visitors
- 248 visits
- 1,079 pageviews
- 4.35 pageviews/visit
- 5:05 average time on site
- 37.5% new visits
- 12 countries and territories visited
- Top 5 countries: United States, Canada, South Korea, Germany, United Kingdom
- 38% used Internet Explorer
- 35% used Firefox
- 65% used Windows
- 33% used Mac (mostly me, I suspect)
- Google was the biggest referrer
- “Nathan Melcher” was the most frequent search term
In July:
- 1,358 visitors
- 1,736 visits
- 5,109 pageviews
- 2.94 pageviews/visit
- 3:38 average time on site
- 77.48% new visits
- 59 countries and territories visited
- Top 5 countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia/Netherlands
- 82% used Firefox (I attribute this to the StumbleUpon extension for Firefox)
- 8% used Internet Explorer
- 75% used Windows
- 21% used Mac
- StumbleUpon! was the biggest referrer, accounting for 64% of visits and 95% of new visits
- “scrawlers” was the most frequent search term
In all, we’re pleased to see a near thirteen-fold increase in visitors. Not a lot of the StumbleUpon! visitors are sticking around, but at least they are helping to get the word out by giving us a “thumbs up.” This non-creative-writing traffic has lead to a dip on the pageviews/visit and average time on the site, but I still think those numbers are pretty decent compared to those of the general Internet.
Our biggest problem is that we are very hard to find through search engines. No one looking for a creative writing outlet or an online writing workshop is going to find us through a search engine. This blog is one thing that seeks to change the math, of course.
In all, it has been an exiting month here at Scrawlers. We’ve seen some excellent new writers join our ranks. We are very excited to find where the next months lead.
I’d be remiss if I did not think the StumbleUpon user who first submitted Scrawlers to the site. Her name is onyxstone, and she’s a 15-year-old from São Tomé and Príncipe. Yes, that São Tomé and Príncipe.
~Barry
Technorati Tags: writing workshop, creative writing
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About
Brought together by mutual interest in creative arts and web development, Minnesota duo Barry Hess and Nathan Melcher founded Scrawlers.com in 2006. Scrawlers marries creativity with a web-based outlet for aspiring writers and The Scrawl blog seeks to add fuel your creative fire.
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