I’ve been busy busy busy here, but recently finished a website for Peter Swift’s Fright Files.  He’s a good friend and fellow author who writes youth oriented (ages 9-12ish) horror and supernatural fiction.  I’m pretty happy with how the site art turned out overall, but I may do the cover again at some point.  I don’t love it.  He seemed happy with it, though!  Click on the banner below to head on over, and please tell me what you think!  Plus you can grab his free e-book while you’re there.  Well, it’s not actually available yet, but you can sign up and he’ll send you a notice when it is.  He promises it’ll bring you good scares this Halloween.

www.peterswiftbooks.com

www.frightfiles.com

Testing out Toy Photo Mode on our new Canon HS 500.

Picked up a new camera today and tested it out using a little novelty mode called “Toy Photo Mode”.  This shot is from my balcony, looking down at the trolley that runs up the mountain.  It works especially well, because these things look like toys anyway!

Happy Birthday!

I’ve spent waaaaaay too much time since I wrote my last post sitting in front of my computer and testing out a bunch of new writing software as well diving further into the ones I mentioned. I’ve changed my mind here and there on a few things. Tomorrow or the day after, I’ll add my notes to the previous post and mark my edits, so take a look back there soon.

I’m about to begin work on a new novel.  I know, right off the bat, that it’s going to be extensive.  Multiple plot lines, a somewhat large cast of characters off doing this and that, research.  In the past with my novels, I’ve taken a Word approach.  Multiple documents with outlines, characters, detailed chapter summaries, etc.  It’s worked, but at times I find myself a bit lost.  The first draft isn’t usually too much trouble, but as I move into revising, restructuring, and rewriting, it can turn into a bit of a mess.

So I think to myself, hey, why don’t you look into some of this writing software?  Maybe it’ll help you keep things tight.  Now, before you get into reading much further, I should warn you that I’m not going to talk about the software that asks you a bunch of questions, suggests plot lines, asks you to fill in the blanks, and pops out a novel.  I came across a few like that, and I knew it wasn’t what I needed.  What I figured out was that I basically wanted a personal assistant, but since I don’t have that kind of cash flow, I’ll look for some software.  Which is what I did.  I’m going to tell you what I decided on for my own personal method first, and then I’ll go into some other neat programs I stumbled across that you might like.

Turns out, believe it or not, I wasn’t alone.  And this next bit amazes me.  Many of the writers wanted software that included a word processor, because Word doesn’t let you reorder sections (aka scenes and chapters), and it doesn’t let you label and jump directly to those scenes from a main index.  Well, my friends, I’m here to tell you that Word does in fact do both of those things quite nicely.  I’m also going to give you a template you can download in manuscript format with everything already set up.  Why am I doing this, you might ask?  What’s my hidden agenda?  Well, simply this.  I love you.

And I want you to love me.

So, after a week and a half of research into these different programs, downloading demos, and spending far too many hours trying these things out, my personal final production method, in this order, is:

Freemind (free!) + OneNote + Word

Before I even get into the way this works, I’m going to tell you one HUGE advantage of using Word and OneNote.  Skydrive.  If you’re not familiar with Skydrive, I highly recommend you smack yourself and then get a friend to kick you in the hurty bits.  Essentially it’s this.  If you have a Hotmail account, you can use Skydrive to create and access the Microsoft Office suite of programs.  All you do is log into Hotmail,  put the little pointer up on Skydrive, and create a new document or access these folders.  Also, you can create the documents in Word or OneNote, and have them automatically sync with your Skydrive folder.  What this means is that no matter where I am or what computer I’m on, I have access to my files and can edit them either in the software if it’s available on that computer, or in a browser if the software is not installed.  I can visit a friend for a weekend carrying nothing more than what God gave me and be able to work at a moment’s notice from said friend’s computer.

WORD:  First, though I saved this file down to an older version, I’m using office 2010.  Hopefully my instructions are universal, but I’m not sure.  Download ! MANUSCRIPT TEMPLATE (click to download) so you know what I’m talking about.  The exclamation mark is just there to move it to the top of your folder hierarchy.  Now, first thing’s first.  You’re not going to put all your chapters/scenes in different files.  Everything will go in this one file.  Open it up and take a look.  Go ahead.  Don’t be shy.  Okay?  Now, just plug in your information.  You see where it says SCENE?  That’s done using a modified HEADING style.  Again, I’m hoping the styles are included when you open it up in your version of Word, otherwise you might have to redo that.  Let me know.  Now press ctrl-f, which opens the navigation panel and click on the HEADINGS tab.  Now, whenever you add a title using the HEADING style, it shows up here.  Just make sure you switch back to the normal style when you move on to actually write the body text.

Here’s the beautiful part.  Let’s suppose you decide the second scene works better before the first one.  Well, just click on the heading in the navigation panel, hold, and drag it to where you want.  It’ll move your heading and all the body text that comes after it.  Oh, I usually end my scene with a page break.  Not sure if you need to do this or not.

ONENOTE:  OneNote is my new best friend.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s essentially a virtual three ring binder, scrapbook, and idea grabber.  You can create binders, and then just add about whatever you want to any page wherever you want and keep it all organized with tabs, pages, and child pages.  You can draw, say a murder scene floorplan (great if you have a stylus), add photos from the internet, and then type notes and ideas.  It’s brilliant.  With Internet Explorer or Firefox (with a plug in), you can grab things on the internet, right click, and send it directly to OneNote.  You can even jot a note from anywhere while OneNote is closed, and send it there.  There are other programs and websites that let you do this (Evernote comes to mind), but if you’re using Word, OneNote is designed to work flawlessly with the rest of Office Suite.

Here, have some screenshots of how I have it set up for my novel writing.  These are my general template pages.  Click twice to get the big picture.

Notice in the above pictures the name of the binder is down the side, the sections (tabs) are along the top, and the individual pages are on the right.

Edit:  In the original post, I stated that Freemind was optional.  After spending the weekend thinking about the plot of my next novel and trying to work it out, I’ve decided that Freemind is an essential thinking and outlining tool.  Furthermore, once you have the mind map created, you can export it to a word processor as a normal hierarchical outline.

FREEMIND: Freemind is completely free.  In fact, I’ve come to love it so much that I went to the authors’ website looking for a way to donate, but they don’t have one.  They just ask for thanks, of which I have plenty to give.  It’s a simple to use yet robust mind-map software that generates ideas by helping you organize your thoughts.  It’s like building an outline in an organic way that opens up your mind to new ideas you didn’t know were there.  HERE is a link to an author who has really put it to the test, and has done a fine job of explaining it with a great example using one of his own books.  By the way, this author is also a software programmer, and if you don’t want to throw down the dough for Word and OneNote, he has created one of the finest pieces of writing software with built in word processor available, and it’s free!  More about yWriter below.

THE OTHERS

Below are the other pieces of writing software I stumbled across while searching.  I’ve used them all only to the point of deciding they weren’t best for me, but enough to know that they’re quality programs.  They may be better options for you.  Certainly cheaper if you don’t already have Word and OneNote.  Take a look-see!

Edit:  Added Scrivener, Chapter-by-Chapter, and SuperNotecard.

Scrivener (PC): I wasn’t going to do it because it’s still in beta, but this weekend I downloaded the PC version of Scrivener and spent about 5 hours playing with all of it’s features and working through the tutorials.  It’s AMAZING.  Easy, intuitive, and pretty.  And I’ve heard the Mac version, which has been in development for years, is polished and even better.  If I were not loving the Word+OneNote combo, or didn’t have Word and wanted accessible writing software with tons of wonderfully thought-out features, this would be an insta-buy.  Check out the free beta until August, and then it’s $40.

SuperNotecard: Free fully funtional demo, and then $29.  I plan to give this a thorough run-through on my next project, and then I’ll give you a better review of my thoughts.  SuperNotecard is similar to Storybook (see below).  It allows you to create decks of cards and move them around, and then create an outline.  Again, it has tons of great features such as timeline, character and location references, setting up relationships between cards, adding notes, flags, and adding tension markers.  I’ve played with it a bit and it seems like a user-friendly program that could be very helpful in the outlining and organization stage, and eliminates some of Storybook’s main shortcomings.  I highly recommend you try the fully functional free demo if you’re in the organizing stage and having a little trouble keeping things in order.

Chapter-by-Chapter (free!): A neat little piece of software that functions similar to yWriter (see below), but works as an overlay for Word.  If you use my template and the navigation pane I explained above, it’s not really necessary.  If, however, you have a book where you’ve written many different files and need to put them all together, this is the way to go.  With CbC, you create a master document, and it creates a new Word document for each section, which you can then move around easily.  I haven’t tried it, but it looks like a great idea.  Also, if you use SuperNotecard, it will pull your information from that file and use it to help you organize and create the sections.

yWriter (free!): Software written by a programmer who is also an author, so he knows what we need.  It is part word processor, part plot organizer, part character keeper-track-of…er.  It does a fine job of all of these things and is a breeze to use once you spend a few moments with it.  It’s not pretty, but with the time I spent with it, I can see it doing a fine, fine job.  You could say it combines Word and SuperNotecard, but isn’t quite as complete in functionality as either.  It’s completely free, though you can make a donation or help spread the word.

Liquid Story Binder: Free for a month, and then $45, but you can get it on July 8th for $16ish from BitsduJour.com.  Probably a steal, if it’s what you want.  This is FOR writers.  Liquid Story Binder is clean, polished software with a ton of great features.  In fact, I read in a couple of reviews that it has so many features it’s overwhelming and could almost be a distraction to writers.  I downloaded it and have played with it for hours.  Let me just say that, yes, it has a ton of great and very useful features.  Let me also say that, yes, I agree with the reviews.  I can see myself spending so much time playing with all of the spiffy tools and trying to figure out the multitude of features that I don’t get any writing done.  I almost bought this.  As it’s July 8th right now, I’m still considering it.  It’s kind of like Word and OneNote put together.  And the word processor has lots of great features, though it’s nowhere near as robust as Word.  It has a neat storyboard feature that I think would work really well for children’s books.  The big draw for me is Word and OneNote on Skydrive.  I can’t access this from the internet, though this is portable (you can run it from a usb stick).  Try the demo, but be prepared to spend some serious time figuring it out.

WriteWay: Free for a month, and then you have to buy it (about $35).  Created by a software programmer for his author wife, WriteWay is similar to yWriter.  I found it a little more intuitive, and with maybe a few more features, and a tad prettier.  Nice program, but I read on a forum here and there a couple of people that lost their work after a session that wasn’t saved.  I had not problem personally, but be aware.

Edit:  After playing with Storybook a bit, I’ve removed it from my essential list due to some difficulties I’ve come across.  It’s still a nice piece of software, and future versions may eliminate these problems.  Let’s mark it as one to watch!

STORYBOOK: Storybook is a free software, but you can donate or buy a professional version if you like it.  Essentially, it’s not a word processor at all.  It has places where you can make notes, but its strength lies in helping you to organize your story.  You enter scene information, character information, location information, item information, etc., and then you add scenes to what Storybook calls strands.  Strands are plotlines/timelines for each of the major characters and it places scene cards along these lines.  You can add dates, events, notes about the scene, etc.  As great as it is, it has a few serious shortcomings that will keep me from using it for the time being.  First, the user interface, while it looks good, is not very functional.  Once items are entered, dragging and dropping to assign tags or reorder scenes is not an option, and there often is not a right click contextual menu when I wanted one.  Secondly, while you can order scenes by date, there is no time designator available, so scenes go in to, say, July 4th, as they are entered.  A lot can happen to my characters in a day!  You can reorder them by number manually mark a specific time in the notes section, but this is a cumbersome process, especially if you’ve finished a long strand and are going back to reorder some of the earlier scenes.  Drag and drop in the chronological view, as well as adding times, would really make this program shine.  Hopefully, these issues will come in future updates.  I saw in the developers forums that I wasn’t the only one missing these features.  I also saw two complaints where people upgraded to a newer version, and their old files from the previous version no longer worked.  This would be a huge issue, but I can not confirm or deny.  I emailed the dev about it, and will update here if I get a response.  Edit/Update:  The response I received from the programmer left me feeling less than warm and fuzzy regarding the aforementioned issue.  In fact, I didn’t receive a clear, direct answer.  He said:

“there is only one strategy again losing data: daily backups. That message is automatically shown to the user before every storybook update. I cannot force user to do backups. I cannot force user to read such messages. Then they go to some pages and right complains.”

I would suggest user beware, and check his official forums.  As for me, I’ll wait.  I have too little time or patience to redo the massive amounts of work I could see potentially lost.

Okay, folks.  Sorry this isn’t my cleanest or most entertaining post, but I hope it was informative and helpful to my sisters and brothers in the writing world.  I’m exhausted and I wanted to get it up in case anyone is interested in that super cheap Liquid Binder deal.  Happy writing!  Please post a comment if you try any of these and what you think, or if you use something else.

Hi all!  Just returned from the States a short while ago, and now is testing season here for my students, so my schedule has been TIGHT!  Lots of emails I’m trying to catch up on, and some posts will be forthcoming.  With pictures, of course!  Also, I just noticed the link to my Japan Relief page was broken, so I’ve repaired that, and I’ll be adding some new links that I received in the email while I was away.  More soon!

It’s Sakura season.  Here are a couple of pics I took of the blossoms at my daughter’s daycare.  This is one of the many things I’d really miss if I would ever leave Japan.

This week ONLY HERE at Gamersgate.com, when you order any of the very inexpensive games from the developer Boss Baddie, 100% of the earnings go to the Japanese Red Cross.  Do something good, and get a little treat for yourself, or your kids, or your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/aunt/uncle/nephews/nieces/grandparents/second cousins twice removed/all of the above/etc….

I bought the set last night, but haven’t had a chance to try the games yet.  If anyone does, or has, drop a comment and let us know how you like them!

I’m giving this a new post instead of in my permanent Help Japan page, since this is a very limited time offer.

There were times during this month of goal setting–especially early on–where I just couldn’t believe my luck.  You know what I’m talking about, right?  When you have time set aside to get some serious work done, and through no fault of your own, you just can’t make it happen.  I’m not talking about procrastination here.  I’m talking chips.  Dice.  Spinning wheels and one-armed bandits.  The cards are falling and you just gotta play the hand you’re dealt.  Own up, throw down, and put in late hours or get up early and find a way to get it done.

But I think another important thing to remember is that it’s all part of the game of life, and if life throws you lemons, you gotta make lemonade.  (Gambling? Lemonade?  Not my most coherent post.)  Don’t get hung up on what you didn’t do, but think about what you’ll do next.  My mother had a saying that has stuck with me:  Adapt or become extinct.  This was usually tossed out to me at times when circumstances had left me reeling in teenage angst-ridden self-pity and less than open to the wisdom of the exceedingly obvious yet true remark.

Don’t get down on yourself if you haven’t made your goals so far.  Don’t be upset because life has thrown you one lemon after the next.  Let’s push the envelope and see what we can accomplish in the closing week of March!

As for me, the tragedy and worry over here has preoccupied my time.  I’ve temporarily set aside the writing, and changed my goals for the remainder of the month to address more immediate concerns.  I’m pleased with how the first half of the month went, and made a huge dent in my WIP, so I’m not upset that I must set it aside for the time being.  Everything that has happened in Japan these past two weeks has really reminded me of how small and trivial my own problems are, and more importantly, how when you get dealt a lucky hand, it’s a sweet, sweet game to play.

I posted a note regarding donations to the Red Cross earlier, and I just wanted to update it with a few more links and possible ways to get involved.  I’ll update this continually as I come across more information, and I’ll make a permanent link here as well.  If you are aware of a charity or fund raiser for this crisis that you think should be included, please email me directly.  Thank you.

SAVE THE CHILDREN

Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in need in the United States and around the world. Recognized for our commitment to accountability, innovation and collaboration, our work takes us into the heart of communities, where we help children and families help themselves. We work with other organizations, governments, non-profits and a variety of local partners while maintaining our own independence without political agenda or religious orientation.

UNICEF

NEW YORK (March 14, 2011) — The U.S. Fund for UNICEF (USF) is raising funds to help children in Japan impacted by the recent earthquake and tsunami.  This is an unusual decision, as Japan is a donor to UNICEF, not a recipient of its assistance.  However, due to the unprecedented nature of the epic disaster and its impact on children, resources are going to be critical in helping provide for the very unique needs of children.  These may include health, development and protection and other needs that may have been compromised or disrupted in the wake of catastrophe.

AMERICAN RED CROSS

Your gift to the American Red Cross will support our disaster relief efforts to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific. On those rare occasions when donations exceed American Red Cross expenses for a specific disaster, contributions are used to prepare for and serve victims of other disasters

JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY

If your national society doesn’t collect donation or you wish to send your donations directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

KidLit4Japan

Beginning at 9AM EDT on March 21st, this site will feature a children’s and YA auction to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Authors, illustrators, agents, or editors can use an online form at http://bit.ly/japanform to donate items or services for the auction–these might be signed books, ARCs, critique services, book swag, artwork, etc.

Bidding will be open on each item for 3 to 5 days. Winning bidders will be directed to send their donations directly to an organization providing basic needs services specifically to children in the affected area. Once we get a copy of the donation receipt, we’ll connect the bidder with the person who donated that item. Standard shipping expenses for physical objects will be the responsibility of the donor unless stated otherwise in the item listing.

The auction is being organized by children’s book author Greg R. Fishbone. General inquiries can be sent to kidlit4japan@gmail.com and Twitter users can follow @kidlit4japan account and use the #kidlit4japan hashtag.

 

Hi everyone.  I’m keeping this one simple today, as life has thrown yet another curve ball, and I’m afraid this one is strong enough to knock March Madness out of the park.  At least for me.  This week, at least.  I haven’t even been checking in with the others these past few days, with all that’s going on.  But we’re well so far.  Just wondering:  Should I stay or should I go?

But please post your progress here, and I’ll hopefully be back next week with better news, better progress, and better motivation.  My hours have been spent glued to the TV and the internet, trying to get an accurate evaluation of the situation.  Let me apologize in advance.  I may not be throwing out the personal responses to your comments, as usual.  Cheer each other on, though!

I didn’t want to make this post about what’s happening in Japan, as I think everyone wants to keep these March Madness posts upbeat, positive, and motivational.  I’m refraining from posting pictures for this reason.  However, I’d like to just take a moment to say how proud I am of the human race in moments like these when individuals come together and selflessly put their lives at risk for the benefit of others.  I’m speaking not only of the wonderful people that are fighting to keep the reactor in Fukushima under control, without a doubt subjecting their bodies to intense amounts of radiation, very possibly sacrificing their lives, but also to the doctors, nurses, and humanitarians assisting those that are unable to evacuate the area, of which there are too many.  Heroes.  All of them.  Every now and then my faith in humanity falters, but it is never very long before something happens to change my mind.

People can do anything when they come together.  It’s not always easy, and it might not be successful at first, but the steadfastness, determination, and maybe stubbornness of our race gives us the ability to do anything we want.  I mean, that’s why you joined March Madness, isn’t it?

Sorry folks.  I don’t have time for a proper post just this moment, but I wanted to get this up.  It’s a terrible mess over here, and lots of unfortunate people have had their homes and lives and loved ones literally washed away within a matter of hours.  Now that the power plant appears to have ruptured (I don’t have the details on this yet), things could become much worse for those affected in that area.

If you would care to donate to the relief cause, you can do so by clicking Here Through Amazon, or directly to The Red Cross Here, and then selecting the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

CLICK HERE to read about what The Red Cross is doing in response to this disaster.

Amazon’s note:

American Red Cross: Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami

On March 11, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, triggering tsunami waves that affected several countries, including the United States.

While the toll of this disaster is only beginning to be understood, the American Red Cross and its humanitarian partners will work together to meet the needs of earthquake and tsunami survivors. Your financial contribution will support these efforts. On the rare occasions when donations exceed American Red Cross expenses for a specific disaster, contributions are used to prepare for and serve victims of other disasters.

*** Quick note to all of those worried and e-mailing/Facebooking about the quake this afternoon, and the subsequent tsunami.  The earthquake was extremely bad, but not where we live.  Everyone here is well and alive and counting our blessings.  Thank you for thinking about us.  I’ll post something further later in the week.  It happened after this post was written and scheduled, hence this note. ***

Wow, I was thinking about what to write for this week’s post, feelin’ a little down on myself because the creativity just wasn’t coming, when I stumbled across a half-eaten nine month old Nutri-Grain bar.  Oh  yeah!  I feel great!

Sometimes, when I see artists of any kind, be they writers or illustrators or sculptors or [insert your favorite art here]s, I get a little bit of my envy on.  I think this is natural for all creative people.  We see others do something great, and we want to do it, too.  For most people, I think this has one of two effects.

The I CAN DO IT! Group

The “I Can Do It!” group sees the master at work, and instantly believes that with hard work and determination, they can do it, too.  They are motivated, willing to overcome any hurdle, ready to push on with a positive attitude, and excited as much by the challenge as by the reward.  These people believe they have what it takes to get the job done.  If you are one of these people, you know it, and congratulations!  It’s a great place to be.

I generally start here, and then slip by degrees (and often prompted by rejections) into group number two…

The I CAN DO IT! “I SUCK” Group

This group sees what wondrous things others are accomplishing, but instead of feeling motivated by the success of aforementioned others, they wallow in self-pity, eat comfort food, and maybe retreat from the world by playing copious amounts of Left4Dead 2, or if things are really bad, Space Channel 5, Part 2 (recently re-released for the PC).

5 hours of Left, Right, Up, Right, Hey!, Chu!, Hey!Hey! will numb the mind of almost all its woes.

In which group do you feel you belong?  Or are you in a completely different group?  If it’s group number one, that’s awesome!  Keep up the steam and keep pushing forward.  It’s people like you that motivate the rest of us.    If, however, you find yourself in group number two, take heart.  I have found that group number two is a temporary place brought on by the circumstance of the moment.  Eventually you’ll move on and be excited about your work again.  You’ll overcome a plateau, or develop a new style, do an illustration you’re happy with, or maybe just write a page that you adore–the kind that you end up reading over and over again because it just worked so well, or it makes you laugh out loud.

To me, the trick has always been that while I might get momentarily depressed by the work of those I highly respect, I learn from each of them, and it’s the learning that motivates me.  Finding a way I can apply that new knowledge to my own work.  Any art is a growing process.  I don’t care how good you are, if you’re not growing in some way, your work will stagnate.

So get out there!  Push on!  Get inspired by others, but also inspire yourself.  Be your own Nutri-Grain bar.  Make yourself feel great! *

As for me, I’m pretty happy with this week’s progress.  Yesterday, on the tenth day of MM, I hit 10,ooo words.  If I can continue, I’ll make my goal right on schedule.  I’d like to give myself a little breathing room, though.

In your comments, I’d love to hear about the works of art, literature, or whatever that really inspire and motivate you.  What moves you to keep on keepin’ on?  Or makes you feel like you need to bust out the Ben & Jerry’s and watch black and white movies with a box of tissues?  And of course, let us know how you did this week!  It’s Friday!  We’re all ready to cheer for ya!

* Craig Pirrall is in no way compensated by or affiliated with Nutri-Grain, Sega, Or Nickelodeon.  **

** Craig Pirrall would love to be compensated by or affiliated with Nutri-Grain, Sega, or Nickelodeon.

Hey Boss! Day 4! Day 4!

It is Friday already, yes?  So, welcome, my friends, to March Madness, Day 4!  Where all of your dreams may come true!  * * *

Have you been successful at meeting your goals?  Did you come close?  Did you spend all your precious free time playing Wii and then looking for excuses as to why you were too busy to accomplish your goals?  Well, never fear!  We’re not here to judge.  You are among the friends!

It's good to have friends.

Okay, enough with the Fantasy Island theme.  Shari did that great Sesame Street post yesterday. Maybe I was subconsciously influenced, so I’m just gonna quit while I’m ahead so things don’t feel too similar (i.e., people think I’m ripping her off).

During February and in preparing for March Madness, I took some time to really think about my process.  With my most recent couple of novels, I’ve done serious plotting and legwork  prior to actually beginning to write.  Extensive plotting, character development, time lines, and full chapter summaries.  While this made writing go pretty quickly, as I had most of my thinking out of the way, it also felt kind of rigid.  While writing, it became more of an exercise since all of my major thinking was done beforehand.    And I think maybe it also pushed the story toward being more plot driven, rather than character driven.

So, with the WIP I’ve started during MM, I kept the outlining simple.  I made detailed character sketches, but for the plot I just wrote one or two sentences for each key event.  That way, I’m hoping, I can keep my story on track and have good plot development, but I can keep my writing a little more spontaneous and character focused.

How about you?  How do you get ready before a big project?  Or do you just dive right in?  In addition to posting your progress for the week, if you’d like, I’d love to hear about your preliminary process, be it for writing, art, or whatever.

As for my own goals for this first week, well let me just say that I’m thankful I set a month-end word count goal instead of a daily one.  I accomplished the second part of my goal, which was to work on my WIP every day, but on a few of those days the quantity was less than satisfactory.  But I’m not going to worry about it.  Just gonna keep looking forward and staying positive!

See you next week!  And don’t forget, we’re back at Denise’s blog on Monday for a brand new week.  And stay off that Wii, will ya?  Keep the push on through the weekend!

* * *By reading this post, you hereby agree that this network, partners, and affiliates thereof shall in no way be held responsible for your dream fulfillment.

If anyone stopped by in the past 12 hours or so, you may have noticed my blog to be disturbingly blank.  I made some changes to my WordPress settings last night, and they were bad.  Very, very bad.  Everything should be up and running just fine now, though.  Just in time for my March Madness post, which will be coming later in the day.