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Showing posts with label IMac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IMac. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 November 2014

Writing and Running for ME/CFS #8

Washing machine- without front
Washing machine- without front (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Writing: Well; could have been better. I’ve been continuing with the curating of the diary entries, as I need to have them copied to a single file, so I can highlight and extract the relevant sections. But, in their weird wisdom, Microsoft seem to think that a date in a document should automatically change to the date the document is edited. Why they think that, I can’t imagine. In fact, I’m finding it hard to think of any circumstances in which it would be helpful to have a pre-existing date automatically change to the current date in any document. No doubt someone will enlighten me.

The point is, that in copying the documents over to a single file, all the entry dates changed to the date of copying. Something I hadn’t noticed at the time. This meant, of course, that I had to start again. Fortunately, I still have the original documents! But how to preserve the dates of the diary entries?

I use a desktop iMac with MS Word, because I’m familiar with that word processor. It took a while to discover how I could ensure the dates didn’t alter. A blend of highlighting the date and then pressing a combination of the ‘fn’, ‘cmd’ and ‘f11’ keys. But, of course, this has to be done for every date and can’t be applied to the whole document! Now, there’s a really helpful user-friendly solution. Do you think programmers make these things deliberately obtuse so that we are all left in the dark to struggle, and therefore made to believe they are somehow clever? Surely, any programmer worth his salt (and I use the male pronoun advisedly) could devise a way of preserving all dates in a document with a couple of keystrokes?

Anyway, the outcome is that I am still in the process of amending all the dates in the diaries before I can even start the proper curating. Oh, good!

Running: This week I was supposed to do 2 sessions of 10 minute running followed by a session of 15 minute running today. I managed my Monday run with no problem. However…

At the moment, we’re in the process of moving house and the packing has begun. Last week, the seal on the washing machine decided to split so, as it’s insured, we had an engineer booked to fix it. The washing machine stands in a corner with a tumbler dryer atop. In order to get to the back of washing machine, so he could change the seal, I had to lift the tumbler dryer off the top of the washer. No problem: it’s bulky and awkward, but not particularly heavy.

Turns out I didn’t need to lift it off; the job could be done from the front! No matter. I’d done it. When the man left, I decided to replace the tumbler dryer. Mistake. My back went. I have a slight weakness, which manifests itself from time to time in severe pain for a couple of days after an event followed by a period of delicate necessity.


So, no running until next week!

Friday, 9 May 2014

Writers Reveal

I’m pleased to be part of a blog-hop centring on four questions that reveal part of my writing life. Thanks to Linda Acaster, also from the Hornsea Writers group, for the hand-on.

1) What are you working on?

The short answer is ‘Too much!’. I’m approaching the end of a marathon penultimate edit of book 3 (around 200k words) of my epic fantasy trilogy, A Seared Sky, book 1 of which, Joinings, was published by Fantastic Books Publishing at the end of March. I’m finalising research for a sci-fi novelette. Producing posts for my blog relating to A Seared Sky, to enhance readers’ experience. Writing short stories. Participating in various online forums with Goodreads, LinkedIn and Facebook.

2) What is happening around you while you write?

Ah, now that’s where I’m fortunate. My daughter’s away from home on her third year at university, at the moment. She’ll be home at the end of the month, so I’ll no doubt be involved with her various ‘Dad…?’ demands then. My wife, who acts as one of my beta readers, is applying a fine-tooth comb to each chapter as I print it off. In the background, my iMac is playing a selection from 1414 tracks on iTunes; a mix of pop, rock, jazz and classical. I find the music has the effect of excluding other sounds. Outside my window, across the drive, the neighbour’s hedge peeks over our wooden fence and occasionally hosts songbirds. Recently, as a way of holding back the deterioration of my aging body fit, I’ve taken to setting my audio alarm (I use the Howler Timer) for an hour at a time and I then get up and use a skipping rope for a few minutes (I was once a boxer, so I know the value of skipping as an aerobic exercise). Floor to ceiling behind me and above my desk, shelves groan with books. Next to the window is a map for A Seared Sky, so I can check on locations as I edit. And my desk is scattered with odd notes and Post-its bearing scribbles I’ve recorded whilst engaged in some otherwise uninterruptable task.

3) Explain your research routine

Routine? Now there’s an interesting idea. I write as a pantster. My research takes the same sort of route. In other words, I discover I need to know something, so I see what I can find out about it. No plan, no programme, no set routine at all. At present, I’m gathering information for a sci-fi novelette, so I’m viewing certain TV programmes, reading snippets from reference books, visiting various websites. All the information is placed in a file on the computer, to be dredged as and when required as I write the story. I’ve done the character sketches already and the basis of the story lurks somewhere within the tangle of my subconscious mind, to ooze out once I start dedicating time to the creation.

4) Which comes first plot strand, character, or...?


Character. Actually, that’s not strictly true.  Usually, what happens is that an idea strikes me. It can stem from something someone says, an item in the news, another story I’m reading (or writing), or may simply pop out of thin air when I’m out walking with my wife. I keep notebooks, and a voice recorder, for such moments of inspiration. I allow the idea to simmer within the warm juices of my brain (it’s mostly water in there) until it demands special notice. It’s then that I develop character sketches for what I believe will be the main players. Once at that stage, I begin the creation of the story. I don’t plot. But I have a sort of skeletal diagram in my head of the story, and I generally have a fairly good idea of where the story ends (that’s not to say the characters won’t rebel and send it to another destination entirely, of course!). The rest just happens as I sit at the keyboard.  I never edit a word until the story is complete. Of course, this means that the editing process is lengthy and detailed. But that’s how I write. I’ve tried other methods and none of them works for me.

Click the following links, if you'd like to connect:

PennyGrubb is a crime-writing academic who cures by day and kills by night. Her fourth novel, Where There's Smoke, is due out in paperback later this year. Penny is following me on this trail, her post appears 16th May; click here to reach it.


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Thursday, 2 January 2014

What Will 2014 Bring?

Last year, around this time, I produced a blog post on my writing activity during 2012. Because I find it useful to detail my activities, and it may interest those who follow the blog, I’m repeating that exercise today for 2013.

It’s been a peculiar year in many ways. Socially and professionally there have been many events and changes. I retired from employment in April and celebrated my 65th birthday in May. In September, my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and, in the same month, our daughter reached the milestone age of 21. In December, my aunt reached the great age of 100. So many reasons to celebrate, and the freedom to do so in terms of travel and time.

I changed from PC to desktop iMac, an investment I’ve really appreciated in spite of a few disappointments (Apple’s definition of ‘intuitive’ is clearly not the same as mine!). But, in many ways this has been a positive change. I’m still learning, though. And, possibly the single most irritating aspect is the lack of a # on the keyboard, an exclusion that makes hash-tagging Twitter and Facebook posts far less simple than it otherwise would be: Apple take note!

I spent a good deal of time editing the first 2 volumes of my fantasy trilogy, since Fantastic BooksPublishing have accepted the work and will be publishing volume one, A Seared Sky – Joinings, soon. I also spent a lot of hours writing book 3 of the series. This year will see the editing of that volume, of course.

I wrote a few short stories and entered a couple of contests, though fewer than I intended. I made a start at writing poetry, and this is an activity I intend to increase over the coming years: it’s a different skill from prose writing and has a beneficial effect on that, developing the understanding of metaphor and simile as well as encouraging brevity.

On the admin side, I’ve continued with research and compilation of details of writing contests and you can find this regularly up-dated information under the Writing Contests tab above. Hope it’s useful.

Much of December I spent in experimentation on social networking. (The chart illustrates the portion of time spent on this) Really, I did this to confirm suspicions I acquired last year about the effectiveness of such activity for an author. It seemed to me that the apparently ubiquitous ‘author platform’ may be less than effective in actually garnering readers and selling books. This year’s activity has confirmed those suspicions and I shall be curbing my social networking activity this year to concentrate on writing, submitting and publishing stories, since it’s apparent that those writers who achieve wide readerships are the ones who publish more work. As I enjoy the actual writing more than any other of the activities that surround authorship, it will be a pleasure for me to take this turn.

I’m also intending to read more. I read 53 books in 2013 (most of them I reviewed as well) and I’ve set myself a target of 52 books over the year, using the Goodreads Reading Challenge as incentive for this.
I do, however, expect to exceed this target.

The chart at the top of this post shows the proportion of time I’ve spent on the various activities during the year. It’s noticeable that the activity on which I’ve spent most time is networking. Whilst there’s some satisfaction and much pleasure to be gained from interacting (not to mention the way it can help others), I have my doubts about its real value in relation to the activities of an author. The coming year will see a great deal more actual writing, editing, submission and publishing. I’m a writer, and writers write, after all.

So, to the comparison figures, where I list ‘achievements’ for the year. I gave a list for 2012, which I’ve repeated here, so we can see the comparison with 2013. Please note, it’s the left hand column that shows this year’s activities.

2013                                                                            2012

Published work:
None!                                                                          Sensuous Touches, an erotic anthology.
Heir to Death’s Folly, a gothic horror short story.
Rebirth, my contribution to the sci-fi anthology, Fusion,  published by Fantastic Books Publishing.

Writing Contests:
2 entered. No success                                                 4 entered, 1 short-listed.

Social Networking as at the end of each year:
2013                                                                            2012
Blog:
1181 posts                                                                  1062 posts
491 followers                                                              447 followers
181,769 page views                                                    85,511 page views
29,250 visitors identifying location                           18,882 visitors identifying location

Facebook:
Author Page: 569 ‘Likes’                                            379 ‘Likes’
Personal Profile: 1,795 Friends                                  1,599 Friends

1,001 books listed as ‘Read’                                       882 books listed as ‘Read’
177 Reviews written                                                   130 Reviews written
125 titles in ‘to read’ list                                             136 titles in ‘to read’ list
3,231 Friends                                                              2,118 Friends

2,958 Contacts                                                           2,274 Contacts

1,123 Followers                                                          662 Followers
7,305 Pins on 33 boards                                            4,774 on 32 boards

559 in my circles                                                         336 in my circles
413 circles including me                                              183 circles including me

8,759 Following me                                                    5,110 Following me
8,758 I Follow                                                            5,012 I Follow
22,033 Tweets                                                            11,823 Tweets

As you can see, my social networks have all expanded quite significantly. However, this increase has had little impact on the number of books I’ve sold, which is you can expect less social activity this year and more in the way of writing. I’ll continue to record that here on the blog.


By all means add me on your social networks: I’m cutting down on the activity, not stopping it completely! Let’s see what 2014 has to offer, shall we?
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