When I’m not working on client stuff, and I’m not cooking meals and being domestic, and I’m not working on my second job (I still can’t believe how much I’m enjoying working for the government), I’m taking the time to write.

I’m carving out tiny bits of time here and there. I’m feeling overwhelmed on a regular basis. Family life has changed dramatically in the last month as our household has grown to include three additional souls. We moved in September to a larger place (which was, as it turns out, done just in the nick of time!)

I love the new place, but wish I had time WITH my man to do little things like finish arranging furniture to be more “us” and to hang a few pictures on the walls. That would be nice.

Right now, it’s not happening. We are barreling down on the holiday season, so I don’t think it will be happening any time soon. There are a slew of other unexpected demands on our time that keep pulling us away from the tasks we would like to start (or complete).

Overall, life is pretty sweet, despite all the challenges. And, as always, I cope by writing. When I get so stressed out that I can’t bear my own company, there is only ONE cure — I must write.

I realized the other day that writing is the one thing I do that can turn a horrible day into a great one. That’s quite a feat! It’s not something I’ve always known, I had to be taught. I have always known that finding the time to write made me happy, but I didn’t know that stopping everything else and TAKING the time to write could turn around a crappy day.

My boyfriend helped me figure that one out. He always asks me how my day is — not the kind of “how are you” that people ask you on the street and never pause to hear the answer and not the “how was your day” which is just a segue for many people to endure one or two sentences from you before driving a truck over you to tell you about their own. He really wants to know. And when I’ve had a rough one, he asks why. And when it’s been good, he asks why.

Sounds simple, huh? Well the other day, my morning was horrid. And by the afternoon, it was good. He asked me what turned it around. I told him I took off an hour to write on my novel. I went to a restaurant, sat down, ordered myself something to eat and typed. This was a luxury I’d never permit myself on a normal day.

I didn’t stop and I didn’t slow down. I just typed. I stopped only to eat my meal and in between bites, I typed some more.

I left the restaurant with an inspired feeling and a short scene to my novel in first draft form. And, I felt like I was walking on clouds! Even the guilt for eating out alone didn’t blemish my joy… much.

So now, I try to squeeze in some time to write. This is the first year in the last three that I didn’t stress out trying to do the daily blog in November. And that “write a novel in a month” deal is insane for me (it depressed me before and made me feel like a loser of gargantuan proportions.) I didn’t want to feel that way again this year. I’d do it if I were independently wealthy and didn’t have the kids all at home (not to mention the other demands on my time.) I just can’t even bear to try it again this year. Maybe next year.

Now, I’m using my iPhone’s recording feature to capture ideas when I’m driving down the road, I’ve loaded up podcasts of famous writers and writing topic courses and inspiration from iTunes University. I use the Amazing Note app to capture snippets of thoughts when wake up in the middle of the night with something on my mind, and no pencil or paper in sight. I carry a book with me everywhere I go. I purchased a small moleskine to keep with me again (I’d gotten out of that habit some time back), and I pay extra close attention to the people around me and the environments I find myself in each day. I notice how people walk, how they talk, what attitudes they radiate, how they weave their words and what makes them smile or scowl.

The Census work gets me out of the house (I’m actually doing recruiting and giving tests for them now before the big push in the spring.) It’s keeping me busy and is taking me outside of my usual element — and sometimes even my comfort zone.

Yeah, recruiting in some of the downtown areas in Lexington is a whole new world. But coincidentally, the novel I started nearly a year ago with a few rough notes and a hope for time to continue… is based in a town about the size of Lexington. How great is that?

So, the Census work is helping me to shape and sculpt my novel. It’s still in novel infancy, barely a bookish zygote, but it’s there. It’s real. It’s finally happening. And, discovering that it can turn a day from hell into a day of joy encourages me to give myself permission to write instead of doing all the other myriad of things that I really “should” be doing.

The fact is, I’m a better person when I carve out some time to write. I feel better. I’m a better mother, better daughter, better girlfriend. I’m just better.

So, my blog may be sparse. I’m still around kicking and scratching in the Internet world… just not with the same frequency that I once was.

I’m online updating FaceBook nearly every day, since that’s something I can do on the fly (I LOVE my iPhone!!) but I’ve not taken the time to blog properly.

I should probably say that I’m going to try to remedy that, but, as long as I’m feeling inspired, I’ll write on the novel. That’s the fact.

In the meantime, catch me on FaceBook. I don’t have the time or desire to twitter so much these days. From a marketing standpoint, with Google’s recent decision to spider the tweeting masses, I probably should — but that’s not what makes me happy. Not right now.

Right now, meeting my obligations, helping the kids, spending a few stolen minutes with my sweetie and running my business and holding down a second job is what I do. And when I have a few extra moments that I can sleep or write… I write.

It’s more than a hobby, it’s more than a desire, it’s a compulsion. And, it’s a compulsion that’s finally garnered my attention.

Writing the "wicked" way

I’ve been looking for the perfect word processor for the Mac for quite some time. When I first broke free of MS Word, I was loving the open-source community and I was all about OpenOffice.

Then, when I made the jump to Linux, I simply adored Abiword and wondered why I had dealt with the bloat of Word and even OpenOffice for so long. (I still use Open Office for other features, but don’t like waiting for the launch for a word processor.)

When I went to the Mac platform, I traded in my OpenOffice for a Mac-specific version of the same called NeoOffice. Frankly, I got tired of waiting so long for it to launch to jot down the idea that I was trying to wrestle, so I started looking for faster options. I looked at Mellel (which was reportedly a favorite of many writers). It came in one of my MacUpdate packages, which pleased me. I liked it ok. I used it for quite awhile. But it always seemed to be a bit lacking. Couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

I considered getting one of the “blackout” programs that turned the full screen into a writing surface without any distracting menus or pop-ups. I test drove a couple. WriteRoom (with the Windows version being DarkRoom) and even got the iPhone app for WriteRoom to try that one on the fly. Neither worked as I had hoped, I needed it to do a bit more than just blacken the screen for $25, so when the Mac trial ran out, I left it.

I also started looking into notes options that would launch quickly… something like the notepad gadget on Windows… but something with a bit more umph. From there, I discovered TextWrangler, TextEdit (which came with my Mac), and even played with Stickies (also came with the Mac) and a dozen or so others, all in an attempt to find a quick way to keep up with my notes.

I gave up finding the perfect tool(s) and hobbled along, busy with all the other balls I was juggling. Finding these holy grails joined the mass of items on the “I’ll get back to it” list. I find that locating the perfect tools (software) on a Mac can become a full-time hobby all by itself. There are so many options! There are dozens of options that I tried that didn’t even make it into the top contenders list.

But, recently, I found my perfect option. I have a four-pronged approach to the office suite thing – one is for quick notes on my Mac, one is for word processing and “darkening” my distractions, one is for full featured word processing (which I seldom touch these days) and one is mobile.

First, I have a quick-launching multi-note system in XPad. It offers a quick way to get the thoughts down and to make lists for specific projects, ideas and writing projects. It also offers a “slide out” list of all the mini-documents contained therein. It offers cool tools like fonts and highlighter and color options without cluttering the interface with more stuff than I need or want. XPad launches when I turn on my Mac and stays “at the ready” for me to use. And, it’s FREE!

Second, I have Bean. Bean is an oddly named, but beautifully built word processor that launches quickly and handles 90% of what I need. In addition to being there in a couple seconds (literally), it also offers bullets, formatting, highlighting and several advanced features. It even offers a “full screen” mode that blacks out the rest of my computer and helps me to concentrate on the business of writing. I changed the blue background with white text to the retro black background and electric green type of my youth. I love it. LOVE IT. And, it’s also free.

I keep a copy of NeoOffice on my machine, although I seldom launch it for anything other than the spreadsheet app. I don’t really do much with advanced features like mail-merge and the like, so I don’t need those “hefty” features because I don’t do admin work. And, I don’t want to sit and wait. I hate waiting for a program to launch. I despise it.

On the “mobile” front, I absolutely adore that feature-rich note system in Awesome Note for my iPhone. I love that it’s wherever I am, and that it’s able to sync with Google Docs — even the Google Apps version! So I can backup and restore my notes from any location. It’s richly textured and as graphically beautiful and visually appealing as it is functional. I may like bare-bones programs on my computer – clean and crisp is fine there – but on my iPhone apps, I expect beauty. I can’t explain that, but the graphics (even the icon for the app) seriously affects how often I’ll use an app. I’m iPhone shallow, I guess.

I’m a writer by trade — mostly a content and marketing writer for my clients. I write, do web work, and SEO submissions. That doesn’t take much word-processing power. It takes a little knowledge and a lot of creativity — and the ability to capture the creative sparks when they fly. I find that having to wait for my software to launch actually discourages my productivity. If it’s a quick launch, I’ll add a thought or an idea on the fly. If I know I have to sit and wait for it to launch — even for an additional 5-10 seconds — I think, “Oh, I’ll just remember this and jot it down next time I’m working on that.”

The fact is… I don’t remember and I’m not patient. I’ve quit trying to pretend that I will or that I am. I know my foibles and I now find the tools I need to work around them. Resistance is, after all, futile. It’s particularly so when fighting my own nature. These tools make my life better and my business stronger and for under five bucks, I have them ALL.

Even in this economy, that’s a GREAT deal!

A mobile writer’s best friend. I’ve fleshed out plot sequences, brainstormed settings and traced historical information for my characters using this app while driving down the road. Maybe not recommended, but alot better than trying to write down that amazing idea that always seems to occur when I have my hands at 10 and 2 (or 9 and 3 if you are younger). This app has a great big easy-to hit record and stop button. You can name the file later (if you are driving) and transcribe it at a later date or wi-fi it to your computer when you get back to the office. It permits continuation of an existing recording and has a choice of sound qualities. I’ve tried four of these types of apps and find this one to be the best, most clean cut of the group so far. Great app and the price couldn’t be better: Free!

WriteRoom – by HogBaySoftware

A distraction-free, basic black background with white type text app (landscape-keyboard-enabled for faster input). This tiny version is based on the desktop program WriteRoom by hogbaysoftware.com. The iPhone version offers support for multiple ongoing documents and basic statistics (number of paragraphs, words, characters) in a couple taps. You can also backup your work with a couple taps by sending yourself (or someone else) an email copy.($4.99)

TextGuru – by Brancipater Software

An easy way to file-share your works in progress and reference materials between your desktop and your iPhone. You can view HTML, Images (.jpg, .png, .tga., .tif, .tiff), PDF files, PowerPoint and Word documents. You can edit text files (but NOT Word documents). Text files can be saved in multiple formats including: .txt, .html/.htm, .php, .js, .c, .h, .cpp, .m/.mm, .pl, .py .taskpaper, .rb, .ja/.jar, .bin, and custom file extensions. Nice extras include cut and paste, find and replace, revert to last save (undo) and user-designated autosave timer.You can see file attributes including most recent modification timestamps, encoding and size.

TextGuru also offers multiple fonts, four background colors, multi-document search, basic statistics (paragraphs, words, character counts) and email for instant backup to your inbox when you are out and about. You can also submit your file to Pastie.org and Sprunge. For programmers, the TextGuru’s view as a webpage option is really nice as well. Although you can view most documents in both landscape and portrait formats, you can only enter text in portrait (unfortunately). If it did have a landscape keyboard, it could replace my need for WriteRoom. Maybe the developer will address this in the next update. ($4.99)

Margins – by Architechies

Offers a great way to keep all your notes on books you are reading (or are using for research) in your favorite all-in-one device. Email backup is offered for the notes on any individual book and it’s ISBN enabled so just a few taps (the ISBN number) will auto-fill all the information about the book for you. I wish this had a landscape keyboard option (maybe the developer will add that in an upcoming version.) It would also be nice to have a way to take a photo of the passage and manually “highlight” it in the app with a touch, rather than having to type it all in before making comments/notes on the printed text. ($3.99)

iStop WritersBlock – by Lab013 Studios

A fun little “muse in a box” concept for your iPhone with plot ideas, inspirational quotes and writing challenges for the creative writer. I hope this developer continues to add new plot and challenge ideas. It’s not a workhorse like some of the other apps, but it’s a cool writer’s tweak for a buck. ($.99 – until the end of November as a special for NaNoWriMo).

Idea Generator  – by The Directors Bureau

Cool little shake-it-up mix and match word phrase program. I didn’t really care for the words that came with the program — they were too far out — but I love the fact that I can add my own to create some interesting mashups of current topics, ideas and actions for a work in progress. Makes me look at some of the standard ideas in unusual ways. Fun, cheap, cool. ($.99)

Stanza – by Lexcycle, Inc

I’ve reviewed and raved about this iPhone Book Reading app before, but for the writer on the go, being able to load up reference materials to read while out and about is a great boost in the value of the iPhone for the writer’s toolbox. (Just wish my Palm ebooks .PDB files would work on it.) Price, as always, is free!

Names – by Richard Wilkes

Name randomizer gives you the choice of four male/four female names on a single iPhone screen. Refresh button gives you a whole new list. Rinse, lather, repeat. Great way to get out of the rut of using the same types and flavors of names for your characters. Besides being an inspiration for character names, it’s fun (at least fun for a writer… in that twisted kind of a wordy way that others will never understand). ($.99)

My Baby – by irona.com and vensi.com

This app offers the ability to search based on meaning, or by letters of the alphabet. You can select from female or male names and you can save the “contending” names in a My Names list. The My Names list is a one-touch operation and is extremely helpful when you are sorting through all the possible options. Do note that the Origins search doesn’t appear to work properly — but the resulting names from other searches does offer origins information. Free.

Wikipanion – by Robert Chin

No writer should be without access to Wikipedia. Period. There are a slew of Wikipedia apps out there and I think I’ve tested most of them. This one is free and is bulletproof (doesn’t crash or report “server” issues), unlike many of the others. I may invest in the plus version of this one to be able to download items in my queue for offline browsing at a later time. That seems like the best option for this resource. One app offerd in the app store downloads the whole wikipedia on your device, but I think that’s a bit of overkill (and eats space I need for other apps and stuff!). The online only versions (which is what the free version is here) sometimes is amazingly slow on cell signals. (Free/$4.99 for Plus version)

Still Under Investigation:

Dictionary/Thesaurus

I’m still holding out and hoping for the Complete (not Concise) Oxford and the full, unabridged Oxford Thesaurus. I’ve texted several free and low-cost versions and will continue to use WordBook – Dictionary/Thesaurus combo ($7.99) by TranCreative Software and Dictionaire: The Simple Dictionary (free) by Hampton Catlin until I find my killer options on these two essential resources.

Organization/Data Management

Capturing the snippets of infomation and ideas in one central location is a challenge. Doing it while mobiel is even more challenging. I’ve dedicated one homepage to just writing apps and resources. I’m also evaluating iDB Datamaster by Evince Technologies, Inc (with a section my databases dedicated for use with writing projects) to see if that organizes or unnecessarily complicates the process. I’m simultaneously testing 44 Jots by Shaila Klosterman of Infofission ($.99) at the moment to see if the multimedia options there are a help or a hindrance to my creative process.

Quotes Apps

I like Daily Quote by Miron Vranjes (free), but would like to not be limited to a single quote, since I tend to binge on those little granules of wisdom at any opportunity. It does offer the ability to save favorite quotes, which is nice and one-tap lookup of the person quoted in Wikipedia, which is also pretty sweet. I’d recommend it for those one quote a day types. It works well.

iQuotes free by Danile Perez has beautiful backgrounds and lovely quote selections, but they are often extremely difficult to read, which distresses me and makes me squint. It also makes me angry whenever I try to read the quotes and have to squint to do so. Squinting makes wrinkles. ‘Nuff said.

iQuote by Gihad Chibb ($1.99) offers over 10,000 quotes on a beautiful, easy-to-read interface, the option to read by category and author… and ability to add your own quotes. SCORE! You can also save your favorites and email quotes and rank your quotes.

But, I didn’t do as well toward my commitment for NaNoWriMo. Despite my several thousand words this month, I didn’t come near the 50,000 I had hoped to log. (Epic Failure!) Alex didn’t get hers logged either — but pressuring her to write was taking all the fun out of it for her, and that seemed counterproductive.

We did both manage to get started on a novel, albeit a less than prolific start. We plan to continue our work on said books… so at least we managed that much.

I may try again next year to participate in the Novel Writing Month. Hopefully I’ll be finished with the current effort by then. We shall see. I don’t know if I’ll do the blogging month commitment next year. I think doing both in the same month isn’t the best choice I ever made.

As far as the rest of this year goes, I’ll probably be blogging alot less during the last month of the year and spend my time trying to close out client accounts and close out my business books for the year.

I missed the Thanksgiving holiday with my family, since I (selfishly) wanted to keep my illness to myself. So I’m really looking forward to spending time with my family though the Christmas season.

For now, as I wind the blogging frenzy down a few notches, I wish you and yours an enjoyable remainder of 2008!

A friend contacted me last night with a quandary…

He wanted to learn to write with a bit more passion. He felt his style was more journalistic than persuasive. He asked if I had any pointers.

So, at midnight, during a 15-minute-cross-country-guerrilla-approach-to-writing session, we covered the following basics:

Grab them with the title

If you don’t pique the audience’s interest with the title, they won’t read any more of your story. Tell them in a quick, pithy style why the rest of the story is something they need to know. Advertise what’s in it for them or intrigue them.

Example:
Change the boring title, “The Current Economy’s Downturn Impacts Designers and Fashion Entrepreneurs in New York”  to “NYC Designers Weather Economy With Style!”

Starting out

At the top you summarize what you are going to say and ask the “w” question that your writing teacher never told you “Who gives a …. a…. hang?” (*Yeah, that works*) Tell them first why it matters to them.

You can’t give away all the information at the top because all the information isn’t contained inside your story. Online, the tentacles and supporting information will go out to hook other webpages.

After the first “w” question, THEN you go on to the classic “Who, What, Where, When and How” of the story.

Break down paragraphs

In standard writing, meaty paragraphs are a good thing. Paper likes large chunks of gray space. The web doesn’t. Online you should:

• Use short paragraphs
• Trim up your sentences
• Make your writing easy to scan

The shape of content to come

Forget what you learned in school and ditch the “reverse pyramid.” Writing is not a simple linear practice online. You don’t skip along from most important facts to least.

Think of your story structure more like an egg; less pointy, more rounded and appealing. The title is your hook, followed by a general statement that summarizes the story. Fill in the “yolk” with details and examples. Add links and sprinkle liberally with bullets to capsulize the essential points. Conclude with a summary.

On the web, content gains depth and dimension through diagrams, graphics, inter-textual links to related outside resources. This doesn’t happen in the lead paragraph. It happens in the middle.

Be conversational

Stilted, sterile language doesn’t work. Your visitors want a comfortable way to absorb information. If you don’t provide it, someone else will. Readers need clarity with warmth. They seek knowledgeable, easy-to-digest resources. Humor is worth bonus points.

The mantra in business used to be “keep it professional.” Internet trends have encouraged us to “keep it personal” online and find ways to bridge the geographic distance by decreasing the psychological and social distance between individuals.

So, speak to your audience the same way you would speak to a friend. Use natural word choices and tone. Let your personality shine through. After all, that’s what will keep them coming back.

When writing for the web, hook your reader with a title too interesting to ignore. Answer the first “w” question right away and tell them the gist of what you plan to say. Answer the five standard questions (who, what, where, when, why and how) and illustrate them with examples from additional resources. Then summarize the article and bid them farewell.

And, yes, amping up your web writing really can be this easy!

(photo courtesy of kesh of morguefile.com)