Dec 03
A few things have cluttered up my thoughts today, feel free to wiegh in on any one of these:
- Ficlets. A place where you can write what basically amount to Story Bones, and if it is well received by someone else they can write a prequel or a sequel to the Bone, or in this case, “Ficlet.” My problem with this is that, as a writer, I’m trying to get my stories published. Why would I want to write for a place that is cluttered with little nothings? Or are they somethings? Is it just something for fun? Because it just doesn’t seem fun to me, even though it seems like a really cool concept.
- Guidevines. A wiki for writers. In principle I think it’s a pretty good idea and I think he’s picked a great name for it, but it’s hosted on Alex Wilson’s domain, so it loses a bit of allure right up front because it looks like a back-ended concept. Even if it had been posted on Wetpaint.com (a tool I love) it would at least have had a professional-looking domain: guidevines.wetpaint.com. I also have a tiny bit of hesitation in linking to it because my friendly email to Mr. Wilson was ignored, but I went ahead and linked it because maybe the Internet went down and he didn’t get the email.
- Google Docs. I’d heard of this before but never checked it out until I saw Ken McConnell’s Submission Log spreadsheet. I like the idea, but I usually carry my submission log on a thumb drive, so I don’t have a need for that just yet, although it is fun to see someone else’s SL (which bears a striking resemblance to my own. But then, I guess there’re only so many ways to keep track of subs in a spreadsheet).
If you liked that post, then try these...
The Dawn of a New Age of Sail on April 8th, 2008
I'm Looking For Cool Blogs on November 6th, 2007
Overused Words; the plight of the descriptive adjective on June 4th, 2008
The Novella Format on January 16th, 2008
In a Million Years... on March 4th, 2008
December 4th, 2007 at 10:39 am
When John started up Fliclets I thought, “Hey, I know that idea.” But all their stuff is under Creative Commons licensing, and the encourage th eposting of people’s own ideas. I think it’s a fun idea, but I haven’t played there. I’m more interested in getting my own stories out, polished/finished and then published.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I agree with you and Steve, better to spend your time on your own stuff until you can afford to goof off on Ficlets. I have done a few but then stopped for the same reason Steve mentioned.
As for Google Docs, I am so hooked on them right now I hope their servers never crap out. I use the heck out of GD. My only real beef is when you export to any format, you get weird spacing issues if you look at your document with the paragraph icon show/hide thing activated. I’m so anal about what is a tab and what is a space, I inevitably spend way more time than usual making my story look nice before I send it out. I can just imagine an editor looking at my non-standard spacing and thinking that I’m an idiot.
In reality, they probably never use that on submitted work until it’s time to send it to the printer or make it ready for on-line posting.
Other than that, GD rocks.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Well, both of you guys kind of verified my feelings on Ficlets. It’s hard for me to justify spending time away from my own projects and working on something that neither gain me fame nor fortune. Granted the road I’m on won’t likely give me either one of those any time soon, but at least with publishing there’s always an outside shot.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Ken, I need to start looking at GD to see if it would make the iTouch (iPhone without the phone) a viable tool for me. What I would really want is a widget that could edit RTFs (actual Word Docs would be better). I really would want to be able to do that, without needing a WiFi connection. With a WiFi, GD fills the bill. Where I live and work, though, there is a derth of wireless access.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Steve, I’m looking at the iTouch as well right now. Can you keep me updated on your findings?