computer Archives - Author K. Williams

Method Writing – Open Book Blog Hop #194

October 14, 2019 By Captain Maiel

♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦

Topic #194
What is your preferred method of writing?
(By hand, on a computer, dictate it?)

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

When I first began my writing career, all those years ago, I loved starting in a fresh notebook. The idea of typing did not turn me on, although I loved the image of an author hard at work behind a classic Royal. What that boiled down to was still learning to type, and how easy it was to just hand write. Fresh notebooks and new pens are still some of my favorite things, but I have so many unused, because I grew past paper and pen. That said, I still write notes by hand, as well as my blog plan.

Since college, I have written in a computer. The transition began with writing a draft on paper and then when I found I could type faster than write, I put all my work in digital. This still gives me a great deal of stress. Paper is forever, unless tragedy strikes or someone destroys it with purpose. Digital can be gone in the blink of an eye and without warning. Backups can fail. Saving one file over another is frequent.

When I was in college, I requested that a friend of mine read a draft of one of my works, so they could give me some feedback. This was on a Brother word processor. They used 3.5 floppy disks. When she asked which file to save it on, I instructed her incorrectly and lost several chapters. I cried for hours, and I still mourn that loss a little to this day.

Such bad luck is a lesson every writer needs to learn. It teaches us to back up our work, in this modern age of technology. Forgetting to do so will never happen again. You can be assured of that.

On my series, I have begun to take the most important notes needed to complete the project in digital format. More recently, I have been taking digital notes for my blog. Whatever is handiest is what is used at this point.

I cannot say that I will turn from using digital to go back to manual writing. It’s certainly not as fast for me, but it isn’t permanent, either. Regardless, digital is the process, because that is how published books are created. No one takes a typewriter or handwritten version and magically makes it into a book. You have to use a computer.

Let’s hop on over to see what the other author methods are…

The Tool Chest – Open Book Blog Hop #52

June 13, 2016 By Captain Maiel

♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦

Topic #52

Tools Every Writer Needs

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are always grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors will engage and impress you weekly, so be prepared to become a regular reader.

This makes me feel like I’m showing my hand, but I am sure I’m not alone in using the tools of the trade, not to mention that I insist on helping other writers. When I was struggling up through the ranks, which seems an endless journey because even now I am struggling to move even higher, there was no one to really guide me. Sure there were teachers and professors and gads of advice on the burgeoning new internet. Very little helped. I mean that, wholeheartedly. That’s could be why you, budding writer, are struggling. Good help is hard to find.

The writing world, believe it or not, is loaded with people who want to trip you up, delay you, and even completely stop you. There are those who feel that there are only so many seats at the table, and their job is to be the Maitre d’of La Maison d’Écrivain. Why? Because the struggle is real and so is paying some serious dues. People believe that you should have to do the same as they did to get wherever they are in your shared fields. It makes them feel better.

For me, I get it. I want to save other authors that heart and soul crushing portion of the journey. The last thing we need on our plate is the world against us. Writers are sensitive, as they are authors, and constant opposition can kill their stride.

The tools that I use, without further adieu…

Webster’s Dictionary App (Go to your app store, and download it if you don’t have it already. It’s free.)
Thesaurus.com – stop using words over and over again.
A good computer with good back up drives. – I can’t emphasize this enough. I used to love a fresh notebook and new pen, but at some point, the manuscript will need to be typed up. It’s flat out easier to start in word processing program than to try and prop your notebook or papers beside your monitor and copy. It’s painfully slow and makes the process of writing your book oppressive. That’s the last thing you want happening around you and your writing. Ritual or not, and I had them, go with the computer not the notebook. You can always print pages. If you’re afraid of losing your files, which I have also done, get a good back up drive with lots of memory and back up often.
Time Management Skills – You’re going to need to figure out when is the best time to write, as well as taking time to relax and live your life, along with working and researching–eventually, you’ll need to add marketing to your calendar, if you can’t afford to pay someone.
Budgeting skills – as I mentioned above, there is an expense coming along with writing, if you intend to publish or not, because the tools you’ll need cost money (that computer isn’t free).
Internet research skills – not just for your topics, but ways to reach out to agents, editors, designers, publishers and your market.
Image/Photo management software – Photoshop is a priceless piece of software, and it costs a pretty penny. There other image tools available, but this is the one I use and I adore it. I took a class through a University I used to work for to learn all about it. Thankfully, that class was free to me as an employee. If you’re lucky enough to work for an employer that will provide improvement courses, take them.
1. You’ll use it to make marketing materials,
2. manage your head shots (which you should get professionally done, don’t rely on selfies).
3. and even design your covers (if you can’t afford a designer).
4. Making quotes/memes is a great way to engage readers.
Coding Skills – You don’t need to be able to code the next great video game, but understanding some basic code can save you a lot of effort, frustration and money. I learned the basics that I consistently use during an active stint on deviantArt.com, where I needed to use it to do my journals and fancy up the descriptions on my submissions.
Snacks and Beverages – Remember to eat right and drink plenty of water. Your health is your greatest asset to a long career.
Your Brain – Don’t abuse it. Your brain is what allows you to do this. Drugs and alcohol in excess aren’t going to open up your brain cells. You want to smoke a little, drink a little, that’s entirely different. But, I’m not getting into this debate here.
A job you can love that can help you pay for your writing while you wait to become a bestseller. – I think you get why, because of the previous entries. There are things you’ll need to buy and maintain, but also investing in yourself is going to help you get to your goal.

I hope the eleven items above will help you on your journey. Let’s go over and see what the other writers have to say. You can’t ever get too many tips from which to glean things that ring true with you and your style.

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Writing Tools, Now and Then…

January 11, 2016 By Captain Maiel

I started writing soon after I saw the film Memphis Belle (1990). I was a freshman in high school and I had years of reading and fandoms behind me. I’m from the generation that enjoyed the John Hughes series as new films. They were iconic and I have no doubt that they played into what I eventually came to do. Then until now there has been so much material put forward that has inspired and framed my thinking.

In those days, spiral notebooks and loose-leaf paper in binders were my tools of choice. Computers were not mainstream, despite films like War Games (1983) and characters like Max Headroom (1984). I filled notebooks with my stories, rewrote them into new ones. I was enthusiastic and a fresh pen and notebook made me feel amazing. This was my high. I could go for hours in the euphoria.

This period also came well before I learned the skills necessary to write scripts or novels. I was practicing dialogue and plot ideas. It was an important time, because, even though I was terrible at it, I was learning how to be good at it. The skills to teach myself what I needed were also developing. This is where I learned tenacity.

As the 1990s progressed, so did the technology. Not writing in notebooks was something I never pictured. I still have a pile of empty notebooks and a drawer of fresh pens. I hardly ever use them now. They serve me better in the capacity of note taking. For each work I have written, there is a notebook, or file of papers on which I’ve written ideas and others notes. So this much is still with me, and I find it to be quite effective. I will never lose the notes in a computer crash! And, typewriters, ha! I learned typing skills on a traditional electric typewriter in high school, sensing that technology was leading that way. The plan was to go to college, and I well knew that my papers couldn’t be hand written any longer. Still, I struggled with this skill.

Tenacity helps you when you realize that the skills you need to learn to accomplish your dreams require use and practice–no matter how boring they might be.

Nearly twenty years on, I write all my books on computers (backing them up all over the place). I learned to type well, thanks to a job as a data entry clerk, and became quite adept with computers in that same position. The technology that has evolved in my lifetime has opened up many doors. Not only am I able to educate myself on myriad topics, I can access information at any time. This has allowed me to pen books much more effectively. Whether I have a grammar question or historical fact, I don’t have to wait until I can get to the library to find out the answer, or find someone who can clarify the topic.

To truly exemplify how technology has opened up writing for me, through technology I was able to find books and information on screenwriting. Prior to my graduate degree, I was completely self-taught in this field. My work was getting great feedback from peers and professionals. The graduate work has only helped me to be taken that much more seriously. It has also helped me to regard things from more lenses, making the depth of my work much more engaging.

Without technology, my pursuit of that education wouldn’t have been possible. My studies were one on one with professors through the State University of New York system. I was able to focus on exactly what I needed to build a degree that served my future. This had an immense affect upon my skills. The decade or so between my undergraduate and graduate work was filled with efforts at honing the writing craft itself (the mechanics). Working with editors smoothed out the rest. But the time spent in graduate school taught me new ways of viewing information, working with it and disseminating it back out. Indeed, without the technology in place to make that possible, I’d not have the polish that is required to display the level of professionalism necessary in my field.

This is not to say that traditional means couldn’t achieve the same. For me, technology has provided opportunities that reached me in ways of which traditional learning and writing were not quite as capable.

On my shelf in my office can be found two large binders full of a series that will eventually become Trailokya: The Aghart Series. I wish there was a technology that could take handwritten pages and just scan them into Word effectively. Retyping this old series from loose-leaf is going to be a hard task.