From the category archives:

Write Anything

There really are not enough hours in the day. Or the week. Or the month. And the years are certainly elapsing too quickly. How can it possibly be October again?

If I had a small sum for every great article I have written in my head at various times when I did not have access to a computer to memorialize it, I could probably retire. But I am determined to stem the tide of ideas and words flowing out of my memory bank before they are captured on a hard drive: I have joined the legion of laptop computer owners.

Two laptops, to be exact.

I have been looking for a laptop for a long time, but was determined to find just the right model. And for me, that meant it had to meet two specific criteria: Full functionality, but extremely lightweight.

Thanks to Susan at Toddler Planet, I think I’ve found the solution. I will let you know in a couple of weeks when I take delivery of my new toy, a Dell Mini 9.

Dell's New Mini 9 Computer

I have been reading Susan’s posts for a long time. On September 7, 2007, she wrote All things . . . in which she expressed her happiness and anticipation about purchasing Dell’s newest model. I followed the link she provided to Dell’s website and discovered that they were offering a special deal for a limited time: Purchase a standard laptop and get a Mini-9 for $99.00.

I travel a lot on business and always need a laptop, but I do not use my business laptop to perform personal tasks. Hence my desire to have a separate laptop available so that when, for instance, I am alone in a hotel, I will be able to blog, chat with friends, etc.

Most of my business travel is by car. On those times, the 15.4″ laptop I purchased will be extremely useful. I have already received it and begun using it in a variety of settings.

But when I fly, the Mini-9 will be perfect because it only weighs 2.8 pounds! It is also small and lightweight enough that I can carry it with me virtually all of the time. That means that when I have a few spare moments — and begin writing a post or article in my head — I will be able to open it up and memorialize my thoughts before they are lost forever. I purchased a model with a 16GB hard drive which will be powerful enough to run the software I need. Memory sticks are now incredibly inexpensive. I already have a couple that store 1GB of memory and recently saw one on sale for a very reasonable price that can hold up to 4GB of data.

I am really looking forward to receiving and using the Mini 9. I will let you know if it allows me to increase my productivity in the manner I desire and anticipate.

Do you own a laptop computer? Do you find that it enhances your productivity? Do you carry it with you regularly? If not, why not? What steps other than purchasing/using a laptop have you taken recently to increase your productivity? Or perhaps you are accomplishing all that you desire. Is so, what’s your secret?


Also published at Write Anything.

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No NaNoWriMo for Me

September 30, 2008

From the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) website:

2005: 59,000 participants and 9,769 winners
2006: 79,000 participants and 13,000 winners
2007: 101,510 participants and 15,333 winners

A “winner” is one who actually completes the challenge to write 50,000 words during the month of November.

Not a great success rate.

Last year, I gave serious consideration to participating. But I don’t write fiction and when it came time to think of a plot, premise, characters . . . let’s just say that my mind was the proverbial blank slate. And somebody stole the chalk.

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Just One Word

September 23, 2008

Pat Ruppel at Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom is one of my favorite bloggers.  Recently, she wrote Defining Words, discussing a theory about language, i.e., that one, single word can be used to describe a city, the dominant mindset of its citizens or . . . an individual.

I have many writing tools to which I turn regularly, including, of course, the dictionary and thesaurus, as well as many books by an eclectic group of authors about the techniques and magic of writing.

But imagine for a moment that all of the tools upon which you rely are not available.  Further, pretend that you have been asked to write an autobiography.  And you must do so using just one word.  Just one.  One.

Consider your life right now.  What is the one word that describes how you respond to the world around you, what dominates your thoughts and dreams, how you envision yourself (which may be very different from how other people might describe you)?  Has that one descriptive word changed over the years?  Do you think it might change in the future?

I spent some time thinking about those questions and concluded that the word I would use has not changed over the course of many years and I do not believe it will change.

The word I would use is: Driven.

I look forward to reading your one-word responses! However, if you want to elaborate on your own site, leave a link so that we can all visit and read your explanation!


Also published at Write Anything.

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Judd Corizan, from whom I acquired The Rising Blogger, recently launched Sunday Stealing. Each Sunday, they rip off a meme from another blogger — giving full credit and a link back to that author’s site, of course — and invite everyone to play along.

This week, Judd, et al. ripped off The Meme About Blogging from Momma at Momma Blogs A Lot.  Actually, this particular meme bears some similarity to the What’s Your Story? exercise that was popular in 2007.

Participating in this writing exercise presents an opportunity to pause, reflect, and enunciate your perspectives on blogging.  If you do not have a blog, you can adapt the questions to focus on why you write.  I hope that many of you will take a few minutes to contemplate and respond to the questions.  Feel free to provide your answers in the form of a comment or post a link to your own post!

1. How long have you been blogging?

I founded Colloquium in March 2005.

2. Any advice to beginners?

It it best to establish your own domain from the outset, but if you are undecided about the name or overall concept, you might wish to begin by using a free software platform like Blogger or WordPress.  You can transition to your own domain later, although there are associated drawbacks.

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Yesterday, Paul reflected on last week’s [Friday] Fiction exercise: “Pick a book of fiction you’d never read (e.g., if you read sci-fi, pick a romance). Open to a random page and read the last couple paragraphs of the page. DO NOT TURN THE PAGE. Now continue writing the story. Feel free to change the genre as you write.” He opined:

Should I close my own writing off . . . ? Pigeon-hole myself in one genre? Most writers do find themselves working mainly in one or two genres. Is this because they can only write in those genres? I don’t think so. A good writer can write well in any genre. I believe writers wind up in one genre over others because it is the one they personally enjoy the most as a reader and a writer. [Emphasis added.]

Do you believe that “[a] good writer can write well in any genre?”

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