distraction
FAQ: How do you make yourself write so much and not get distracted?
Jan 01, 2012
This question comes most recently from a school visit, but I get variations on it a lot. (“Isn’t it hard to make yourself work when there’s no one to make sure you’re doing it?”) It seems like an appropriate post for New Year’s Day, when everybody’s busy making resolutions and promises to themselves!
Now I can die happy!
Jul 16, 2010
Today The Rejectionist passed along a seeeerious time-waster, but as it’s probably not quite as much of a time-waster as the Wordle thing, I figure it’s safe to pass it on to you guys. Basically, you paste in a chunk of text (as with Wordle) and the program analyzes it and compares it to a bunch of authors and figures out who you write like. It is the MOST ACCURATE thing I have EVER SEEN, because look:
Apparently, THE IRON WOOD could have been written by Margaret Atwood! And look at this, when I input text from this blog, I get:
(Note: Okay, so maybe my blog isn’t exactly H.P. Lovecraft. And maybe that means the first one is not exactly accurate either. No, scratch that. It is TOTALLY ACCURATE. *clings with deathgrip to comparison to Margaret Atwood.)
What sorts of writers do you guys get?
Shiny new toys!
May 22, 2010
It’s been a while since I posted, mostly because I got hit with the WIP blues, and I’ve been busy working and rewriting. I’ve just gotten to the point where I’ve resurfaced, marginally happier with it and ready to keep going. At some point I’m going to post about how I combat said blues, because the technique might end up being helpful to other folks, but for now, I’ll leave you with this.
Some of you may know about the idea I had recently, that has quickly blossomed into something that is, I am nearly 100% positive, going to be the project I work on once I finish my WIP and get it out there into queries. It’s come and gone, been through one serious “I can’t write it, damn” moment, and survived. It’s still very much in that vulnerable, pre-story mode where looking at it too hard will make it burst like a soap bubble, but I did write a scene from it last week that kept looming and distracting me from THE IRON WOOD.
I’ve been playing with Wordle for a good chunk of the morning, after seeing it on the LTWF blog, and it occurred to me that it’d make a great tool for teasing a story. So, here is a word cloud formed from 1,000 words of my future project. (Click for a larger version.)
It’s pretty fun–or else I’m just really easily amused. If you end up trying it for your own writing, the results might surprise you (they certainly have with TIW). It’s actually a pretty valuable tool for seeing easily if there’s a word you use too much. *cough* pale *cough*