Wriging

Is it important? No. Desirable? If you're trying to build a particular audience, then perhaps, since it allows you to personally target a particular market. (For example, if you have a blog about your town, then passing out cards may be a good idea to draw readers.) Of course, if you're treating your blog as a business, then the answer is a definite yes, if for no other reason than you'll likely talk about it to somoene and you'll likely want them to take you seriously. (As compared to the millions of bloggers they ignore because they DON'T take them seriously.)

Personally, I've considered getting cards, but haven't done so. Yet.

@RightOn: ORLY?

I'm with you 100%. I despise that.

Actually, I did. I've also been eying this beauty. Thing is I have to make sure the typewriter is visually pleasing to The Wife, and I'm fairly certain the blue won't be something she welcomes. (I showed her that one and in an uncertain, fearful voice she replied, "If that's what you REALLY, REALLY want...") Strangely, she didn't mind the tan/green-keys combination, though like most, I'm sure, she prefers the black.

@Nils: By the way, nice pictures. When I read this before I guess Flickr was down (or at least slow, since I couldn't quite access it) so I couldn't see them. VERY well kept, congrats on that. And yea, if it wasn't for the shipping I'd take you up on that typewriter offer. If my note sounded a bit snippy before, know that it had nothing to do with you, only with the utter lack of availability for decent manual typewriters at an affordable price anywhere in the general vicinity of, say, 50 miles.

I'll probably end up ordering some from either bluemooncamera.com (Yes, they sell typewriters) or MrTypewriter.com, Pricey, yes, but if they work and last me a while, then by golly they're worth it.

Why haven't you just gone and got one? It isn't a vintage car is it? Maybe they're harder to get by where you are, but over here you could easily find one in any thrift shop or at any flea market. Besides, they cost next to nothing. You could by ten and try them all out to see which works best (but don't tell the wife that).

Unfortunately, it seems people unload all their heavy stuff before moving to FL. I've found a grand total of ZERO usable typewriters for sale in antique stores, garage sales or Craig's List. Haven't tried any estate sales yet or flea markets, though.

Most of the stuff I find is electrical, and frankly I'm not interested in those. I'm interested in something that'll work when there's no power just as well as when there is. (Otherwise, I'd stick to my computer.) And for some reason the only cheap ones I find are online, meaning shipping costs are present (usually in the $20 - 40 range, depending on what part of the country), so the cheapest I'll likely get is $30. Even then, that which I've found usually have keys that stick, no end-line bell, etc. $50 is a more likely base minimum for a usable one. I've found some shops that refurbish these, but those tend to cost between $70 and $200+ for working typewriters, not counting shipping. Buying ten and trying them all out isn't much of an option for me.

I'll likely be using it intermittently for special occasions, or just when I want to try to work in other ways. (I've written enough stuff -- full projects -- with pencil to know that the mentality used when writing on a PC is decidedly different than the mentality used when writing otherwise. And I rather enjoy those differences.) I may, temporarily, steal my parents' old electric typewriter, though, the one I used to write reports on in 9th grade.

FYI: I've narrowed down my options to one of the following:

* Royal Quiet De Luxe (1950's: gray with green keys seems to be the most commonly available)-- I love the so-ugly-it's-kitschy-beautiful retro look.

* Smith - Corona (Sterling or Silent) -- It's rather elegant.

By the way, funny you should mention Olivetti, I started by looking -- and almost buying -- an Underwood, which Olivetti bought out somewhere in the 1950's/60's, I think. I was looking at some of their late 1940's/early 1950's offerings. And I've heard a fair amount about the quality of the Underwood Hermes style, and wouldn't mind trying one of those.

Make sure it's something you can work on and repair, and you have access to parts if necessary down the road.

THAT's the big question here. Theoretically, everything I've been looking at I can work on. However. having never actually played around with one, this bit still remains theory. Parts are only as accessible as my nearest internet connection, and whether that's good or bad depends heavily on the extent of the repair necessary. (And, of course, my ability to perform it.) However, I know of no repair shops for old typewriters anywhere near.

Still, at the very least this'll serve as a great experiment. And maybe it'll kickstart some unholy, damned-by-the-wife typewriter collection. (She cringes every time I bring up that possibility, yet lights up whenever I describe my dream office, the one I may actually get to build when we buy a home in the hopefully-not-to-distant future. That dream office, of course, includes a typewriter.)

convince them that they should write here instead of their own sites.

I feel like I've been bamboozled.

Done with the comics for the moment and started "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" by Max Brooks. Seriously, this is one of the most entertaining, well researched novels I've read... pretty much ever. This book is to the Zombie genre what Bram Stoker's "Dracula" is to the Vampire genre. It has become an instant favorite, in large part due to the format: think "NPR Documentary" meets "Night of the Living Dead".

Frankly, I have no idea what I'm reading, since it's so transient as of late. I pick up a book, read a page or two, say it's awesome, then put it down. Rinse and repeat.

I guess I've been reading a lot of comics lately, though. Just finished Book 1 of J. Michael Straczynski's "Rising Stars" ("Born in Fire"). Very awesome, and I can't wait to get books 2-4. At the SuperCon this weekend I've picked up a number of independent titles I'll be checking out, some with very good stories and art, others with just good art.

Favorite authors, for me, often depend on the medium (comics, books, blooks, flash fiction, short stories, novels... etc). But, lumping all mediums to one list:

Gene Wolfe (Hands down, one of the greatest American authors of the 20th c.)
J. Michael Strazcynski (Comics)
Neil Gaiman (Mostly his short stories)
Iain M. Banks (Not to be confused with the Iain Banks who resides in the same body but doesn't write sci-fi)
Arthur C. Clarke
Issac Asimov

Honorable mentions are:
Alastair Reynolds (Haven't read enough to make him one of my favs yet)
Michael Stackpole (Fantasy stuff is usually great)
Orson Scott Card (Echoing Ozone42's statement)
Frank Herbert (his worlds are AWESOME)

I've checked this thread 634 times.

Today.

Does it count if you started the thread?

@Mike: You know, I've been using Chawlk for so long now that I forgot about 9Rules Notes. Didn't piece together that people may not be all that comfortable (for some reason) posting here instead of there. Odd, because going to 9rules.com/notes redirects to Chawlk.com/notes.

Hmm.

No, it doesn't. But it does earn some through advertisement. Still, if it could make money... that would be awesome.

Nice title.

My Macbook. I can do it on a PC, too, but there's something about that keyboard. I have one of the flac Mac keyboards and plug that into my wife's Dell laptop whenever I'm using it because it's more comfortable for me to use to that to write than to use the attached keyboard. It's just... something about the keys. (So I guess the answer is "an Apple keyboard." The rest is negotiable.)

although 99% could care less about what we are twittering.

Exactly why I don't twitter (all that often). In fact, 90% of the time I'm confused at the cryptic stuff everyone else writes.

/Off to attempt writing another comic.
//Maybe someone will laugh this time.

So... let's get this straight: you want us to give you a writing course in one comment. Gotcha.

No easy way to go about this, so instead I'll go about it the lazy way:

First, don't worry about genre. That's an artificial grouping anyway, mostly used to organize bookstores and libraries. Write whatever you feel like and let the cards fall how they may.

Second, avoid cliches like "let the cards fall how they may."

Third, stop using ellipses. Seriously, they're annoying, unless... well, unless they're used sparingly.

Fourth, start by writing stories about what you know. You know your life, right? Write about that. Try to characterize people you know, then exaggerate their qualities. And don't make yourself the hero. Make the hero like everyone else: someone with flaws. We all know you don't have flaws, and those you have aren't really flaws anyways. They're quirks. Of course, you know other people have flaws, even when they don't know they have them, right? Like Bobby's tendency to do things all by himself, even when help is offered to him.

Fifth, our lives are mostly plotless, so why do you need a plot? Once you have a few characters in your head -- and you should get to know them by doing things like spending some time chatting with each (great thing to do when you're on the can, hopefully alone) -- throw a conflict in the middle (say, a bus crash they were all somehow near) and see where the characters take the story. Remember: not everything has to be answered all the time. Sometimes the bad guy(s) escape(s) unharmed, never to be heard of again.

Sixth: Read a few short stories or books. Try to figure out why you like what you like, and why you don't like what you don't. That'll help you shape your style.

Seventh: Have fun. It's alright to write really bad stuff. In fact, if you don't, you're not doing enough writing. All the good stuff you see is what's left over after all the bad stuff was tossed out and posted somewhere as either a blog post or a comment in a forum somewhere.

Did I cover it all?

You may be about to find out.

The ones here. Actually, I was thinking about the possibility of using them all in one story. And you're right: I, too, doubt I'd come up with the same idea anyway.

Just read the entry, Leliathomas: it was awesome. Very dark.

(Side note: Would anyone who wrote first lines here mind much if I try the same thing? Linkage would most certainly ensue. This was an awesome idea, Lelia.)

Line: Until I attended my own, I never quite understood why the word "funeral" started with "fun".
Name: Gnorb
Site: Gnorb.NET

First off, listen to what leilathomas said. Very, very solid advice there.

The only thing I'll add here is in regards to self publishing, and that mostly depends on your goals. If you have a goal of making a career of writing, self publishing may not be the best way to go, insofar as mainstream book publishers are concerned. They don't like it when you start self publishing and agents will be leery of that. (Note that this only applies to services like Lulu. I'm not sure what the sentiment is regarding newspapers.) The poetry market may be different about this so you'll have to research. Also, other markets (comics, video) consider self publishing a plus.

Sometimes the trick is getting out of the "catch 22" agents will sometimes put you in. Most agents won't really even look at your stuff unless you've already sold something, and you cant' generally sell something unless you have an agent. Oops! Unfortunately, it's often about who you know, so I recommend getting into situations -- clubs, organizations, conventions -- where you can meet people who can introduce you to the right people. This ups your chances at getting an invitation to submit your stuff, which is where you want to be.

Finally, always remember this: money should only flow one way: towards you. There should never be money flowing from you to the agent/publisher (unless you're self-publishing, in which case there is no agent).

Good luck.

I've had the same issue. Here's what I've done:

1) Don't close down the comments on old posts, unless you're getting a ton of spam there.

2) If they're short replies like "I agree!" I usually delete them. They add no value to future readers.

I've had posts that some of these replies make sense for and some which they don't make any sense for. My guess is that someone's trying to make sure their IP is not on any black lists OR that they're trying to weaken your spam protection by forcing you to flag certain comments as spam, therefore giving your system "permission" to start flagging false positives. It's the same technique used by some email spammers when they send you a page out of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", they're trying to make the spam system ineffective by loading it up with messages which could be real content. Once the spam filter starts flagging legitimate comments, then you're pretty much screwed.

I hope that made sense. I'm trying to regain my cognitive faculties after two very, very stressful weeks.

Adam:
I'll check out your site. Thanks for the heads up. My favorite writers' podcast is "The Secrets" by Michael A. Stackpole (he's a fantasy/sci-fi writer). You can find it at StormWolf.com. It seems, though, that he hasn't updated it in a while (or maybe I'm not looking at the right feed.

Note: It's normally not considered good form to ask something like this from a community to which you really haven't given much. (Also, it may be against the rules) But since you ask so nicely...

Days ending in "y" have always been good to me.

Yo listen up:
here's a story
About a little guy that writes in a blue blog
And all day and all night and everything he sees is Just blue
like him
inside and outside
Blue his blog with a blue little background
And a blue header,
and everything is blue for him
And himself and everybody around
'Cause he has got
somebody
to comment...

Very Ubuntu-ish. I like it.

@shadow7: Afterlife went proprietary from the beginning. They have their own internet protocols which can't interface with the ones on this side of the life/death curtain.

I hereby quote everyone who commented before me.

(and working on an Evangelion live action movie, go figure).

I've heard rumors of this for years. Is it true?

I'm in agreement with Binary on this one. On my monitor I have a pretty hard time reading the text because of the dark gray on black. Maybe shade it up a bit to medium gray on black?

Otherwise, it's very nice.

part of it involves me doing writing exercises to expand how I put things to paper.

As in "part of the book involves doing writing exercises" or as in "I'm trying to write a book and so to get into the writing mood I'm doing some writing exercises"?

If the first, then I'd love to hear more.

If the second, then I'm in the "it's probably a waste of time" camp. I say "probably" because there are instances, like Nils pointed out, in which you want to write using a certain technique, so you do a few practice runs in that technique, then get writing.

Of course, I wouldn't do that.

Personally, I'd just write it then go back and re-write if I had to, in the better style. And you don't have to write all the way through. Entering text like "EXPLAIN TECHNICAL STUFF HERE" or "EXPLAIN MORE ABOUT CHARACTER X" is perfectly viable during the draft stages. That's one of the wonders of using a Word Processor, rewrites are a snap. (On the other hand, if you're using a type writer then may I suggest practice exercises with a pen and paper?)

The problem with writing exercises is that they're generally not all that useful unless you have someone to help critique them (example: a classroom setting). There's a saying that goes "Practice makes perfect," which is one of the greatest lies ever told. PERFECT practice makes perfect. Practicing something badly over and over again will simply ingrain the bad. But then, even a little is better than nothing, and if you write enough, even without guidance, you'll pick up a few good habits, provided you're also reading a lot in the genre in which you intend to write. The danger here is picking up more bad habits than good, something which can be alleviated by reading (and, ironically, working through) writing books.

If you're at the point where you're writing a book, your time would be better spent writing than exercising. It's like being on stage with the orchestra and deciding that getting in a few scales between movements so you improve is useful. It isn't. When you're not working on a book, or if you wish to put the book on hold, then yeah, start playing around with some exercises for a few months, then pick the book back up.

My advice:
1) Work on outlines and structure for the book, but not the content itself. (If it's fiction, then also work on character development and plot. If it's non-fiction, then work on how ideas will flow. Jot down all the notes you want, even blurbs of text.)

2) Read and Write -- A LOT -- in whatever genre(s) and style(s) you'll be working on in the book. (I find short stories to be a great way to do this, but that's a personal opinion not shared by many.) For example, if it's fiction, is it 1st person? Multi-1st person? Locked 3rd person? Read and write a lot in those styles. Non-fiction? Pick up a few non-fiction books, especially those in the areas in which you're writing, but certainly not exclusively.

3) When you feel you're ready to write, start writing, and make it a point to pound out at least 2,000 words a day. Sometimes I can do this in an hour and a half. Sometimes it takes me half a day. But the key here is to KEEP WRITING. Remember: you'll write a lot of bad stuff in order to find the good. Don't censor yourself.

4) Write first, edit later. It doesn't help you in the least to edit and re-write the first chapter of your book 25 times before moving on to the next. Write it once, move on, take notes on changes later.

P.S.
Sorry I didn't have time to make this shorter.