Writing Tips at GarySpeer.com

There was a time when buying a laptop computer was only a dream or a some-day-when-I-succeed goal for writers. Those of you new to the business will have to trust me on this: Any sort of portable computer, notebook computer, laptop computer, whatever, was extremely expensive, very limited in features, and very awkward to use.

My first “laptop,” was a Sharps computer with a 20 meg hard drive (yes, MEG, not gig) and a “floppy drive” that used the 3.5 inch diskettes and attached to the computer itself with a sort of pop-in, screw-in interface. My current laptop is a Toshiba that I’ve had about three years now and is far from cutting edge in features, but WAAAAYYY more than adequate for writing, accessing the Internet, blogging, and building websites.

And over the years I have found this to be universally true in my experience and in the experience of every other writer or editor I’ve spoken to: The more high-tech and sophisticated the computer, the more it distracts us from actually getting some writing done.

What about you? Do you use a laptop or a desktop? Or both? My wife and I each have a laptop (hers is a Gateway with less memory but a slightly faster processor than mine, for no particular reason) that we work on. We have an ancient desktop which has too little memory to effectively run Windows XP and do anything else. We use it simply to run our printer to and network to the printer via our wireless home network.

Do you prefer the least system and software possible to allow you only to write? Or are you an “Internet junkie” and love all the bells and whistles with your computer? Tell us, please.

Technorati Tags: laptop computers, desktop computers, computers for writers, advice for new writers, writing tips at garyspeer.com

In a recent post, we discussed the importance of organization and scheduling your writing efforts. I came up with a revolutionary way that works for me. It’s called a pocket organizer or calendar. Yes, truly “revolutionary” because it’s so “low-tech” in our world of computers and gadgets.

I don’t care whether you own the latest, cutting edge PIM software, an expensive Hublot Big Bang watch (which I understand are highly coveted and not easy to find) — if you don’t actually USE the scheduler or organizing tool, it won’t work for you.

Which brings me back to the trusty pocket organizer. I’m not talking about anything digital or electronic here. I’m talking about something made from paper, bound in a plastic cover, with each two-page spread holding a single week. (If you want to go the luxury route, look for one with each two-page spread holding a single day.)

It works for me. It probably works where none of the others do because I’m accustomed to pulling something out of my back pocket or book bag, flipping through it, and using a pen or pencil to write in it, check off completed items, cross off changes, etc.

Funny thing, but something just that old fashioned works for me because it’s what I used first, in those long ago days before I had a laptop computer or my trusty AlphaSmart Neo.

So do what works for you. Don’t try to adapt yourself and your writing comfort to new scheduling technology. Yes, learn to use all the high-tech tools out there, and learn to use high-tech organizers if you really want to — but find what REALLY works for you and then “just do it.”

Technorati Tags: time organization, scheduling, writing time, writing and life, advice for new writers, writing tips at garyspeer.com

The beauty of using the Internet for research is its convenience for most of us. Whether you’re looking for the history of the Alamo, or the origin of the name “Alamo,” you can find it with a quick query through Google or Yahoo! or MSN. Whether you want to find out about herbal medicine or simply find the definition of a medicinal herb like Astragalus, you can search with a few clicks of your mouse.

(Not that many years ago, we wouldn’t even have understood the phrase “clicks of your mouse,” would we??)

Anyway, online research is quick and very useful. For example, I rarely pull out the old dictionary anymore. For one thing, my wife, Shirley, has it over in her corner of the room behind the arm of a couch, and I’m too lazy to dig for it. For another, I can go much more quickly to the Merriam-Webster website and search the same dictionary with that fabled click of my mouse.

But, of course, if you do very specialized research for specialized types of writing, you may not be able to use the Internet directly. The most immediate example that comes to mind is interviewing sources. Interviews often require meeting face-to-face with one of your sources, or at least involves making phone calls or other sorts of direct interaction. (Of course, if you use VOIP phone services you would be using the Internet indirectly for your research. You got me there.)

The point of this would be: Think carefully and plan your research when you are faced with researching a writing project. Don’t find yourself missing deadlines or failing to get the material you need because you make the assumption that the Internet is the only way or the best way to go. Be a careful, prudent researcher. Save your passion for your writing.

Technorati Tags: doing research, Internet research, research without the Internet, writing tips at garyspeer.com

One of the best resources I’ve found for the sort of research I’ve used when writing historical fiction is a set of books that were published in the 1980s and ’90s by Writers Digest Books. This was a series of dictionary-like books called “The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life …” followed by whatever period of history or historical niche the book covered. I only own one volume in the series, “The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s.” Other volumes include ” … in Renaissance England,” ” … from Prohibition Through Word War II,” ” … in Regency and Victorian England,” and I believe several others.

There are two unfortunate drawbacks to this series of historical writing reference material: 1) many or even most of the series is out of print or very hard to find, and, 2) they are not carefully organized if you’re looking for detailed discussions. Due to their dictionary-style setup, you almost need to know a specific subject or topic in order to look it up alphabetically. However, for the browser with a bit of time to invest, they have a huge amount of material.

The second historical research source I would recommend to you is perhaps surprising. But it’s very convenient and has a huge amount of general material on just about all things historical you might need to scratch through. I’m talking about that universal Internet “fall-back” resource for everything knowledgeable — Wikipedia.

I’m aware of many problems using Wikipedia. It’s sort of the odd uncle nobody likes to take out in public of encyclopedias. But it’s very comprehensive in one way or another and will always give you something to start with. It’s easily accessible if you’re doing any research online, and even public librarians I know take a peek there once in awhile. But be warned: Don’t take anything in Wikipedia as “authoritative,” because it’s a grow as it goes kind of resource. The editing and oversight, from what I’ve heard, is improving, and I only recommend it as a quick “brainstorming” resource to lead you to other places.

The third specific research resource I’m calling your attention to is World History Compass. It is an extremely useful source of links and reviews, as well as visitor-added links, to Internet sites and even historical documents. Don’t overlook this site and all the sites to which it links.

When all else fails, go to a reliable online or public library encyclopedia like Britannica, World Book, and Encarta. You’ll find some good “starter” material in any good encyclopedia, and our high-tech world makes it extremely easy to access good encyclopedias online.

Technorati Tags: Writing Historical Fiction Part 3, historical research sources, writing tips at garyspeer.com

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I’m really not that good at writing humor, especially puns. You can tell that from the lame title I’ve put on this post.

I’m referring in the title, of course, to one of my favorite half hours on television: “Jeopardy!” My wife, Shirley, and I watch the program faithfully, and I heartily recommend the habit. I suspect many of you do watch the program. I note that a large percentage of the contestants in the course of any given season are writers. Lots of lawyers, too, but we’re especially interested in the prevalence of writers.

I recommend the program for the same reason I recommend doing word games, word puzzles, etc. Stimulating your mind with words and “Jeopardy!” helps you stay mentally sharp, and serves to make those creative juices pump. Watch “Jeopardy!” will help you be the best writer you can be — and it could make you even better.

Now if they would just find a bit sharper contestant pool than the ones they’ve had on for the last year or so …

Technorati Tags: Jeopardy, word games, mental stimulation, creative stimulation, writing tips at garyspeer.com

We all know the term “Bluebook” as the standard for automotive values and prices, but here’s a “Useful Website” if you’re in the market for hosting for your website or blog — “Web Hosting Bluebook.” In fact, the site has a wealth of information about web hosting and web hosting companies, including reviews and ratings for various web hosting companies.

They also have an extremely useful web hosting glossary on the site. If you want an extremely useful reference guide to what’s involved in hosting and maintaining a website or blog, this is an excellent place to bookmark for return visits. Do you know what CGI means? What the difference is between CGI and CGI-BIN? The Web Hosting Bluebook Glossary will tell you.

This is an extremely useful guide to web hosting companies and terminology for anyone seeking to set up their own blog or website. I recommend you go there, look all around, and enjoy their resources.

Technorati Tags: web hosting bluebook, web hosting glossary, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

A few years ago I was taking a graduate level course in Mexican history and ran onto the perfect idea for a historical novel set in 1785-86 in the region which became New Mexico and involved a Spanish governor, Juan Baptista de Anza, and the Comanche Indians.

I realized that de Anza displayed an understanding of the Comanche people and genuinely sought to work out a peace agreement with them that was fair to both the Spanish settlers and the Comanches. For a period of years (something like a decade or two, perhaps), a serious peace and stability came to that region.

Realizing how very different that was to most European-Native American encounters, I thought it would make a setting for a great historical novel. I’m still trying to get back to that historical setting and those people to do something with it.

The lesson here for you is this: If you dig into history and do some reading about a time, place, or people who interest you, there’s no limit to the background material and character information you’ll find for creating fiction. The next post in this series will deal with some resources you can use of historical research to help you find those seeds for a story.

Technorati Tags: historical fiction, using historical research for story ideas, advice for new writers, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Hey, how about a chance at winning a free Nintendo Wii system? Would you also like the chance to bid on cheap high-speed Internet access for life?

Step right up, my friends, and Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo® Wii™! Go to that page and you can also register to bid on Charter High-Speed Internet access for life from Charter Communications.

The winner of the Wii drawing will receive a Nintendo Wii Console, Wii Stand, 5 Sports games (boxing, baseball, tennis, golf, and bowling), 1 Remote Controller, 1 Nunchuk Controller, 1 Sensor Bar, 1 Wii AC Adapter, 1 Wii AV Cable. This is a complete, ready-to-play setup with no other equipment needed. Personally, I haven’t yet tried Wii, but my adult son and adult daughter both have. They are not people who are into video games, nor are they easily impressed — but they’ve both assured me that Wii is a fantastic entertainment system that is FAR more than just a “video game.”

The bidding on Internet access is dependent upon living in a Charter access ZIP Code, I believe. But the Wii entry has no such limitations. You can get all the details and be certain about those qualifications/restrictions by going to their website and reading through the FAQ and all the relevant terms of auction and terms of sweepstakes. You can pre-register now for the Internet access auction, with bidding to begin on March 12, 2008.

The Sweepstakes began at 12:01 p.m. on March 5, 2008, and ends at 12:00 p.m. on March 26, 2008. A total of one (1) prize winner will be selected in a random drawing from among all eligible entries, on or about March 31, 2008.

Go check it out. It’s worth your consideration, both for the Wii sweepstakes and, if you should qualify and win the auction, the Charter High-Speed Internet access for life.

Technorati Tags: Charter High-Speed Internet access for life, Win a Nintendo® Wii™, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

If you’ve written a novel or ever studied novel writing, you know the term “back story” and how important that is to the development of the novel. The “back story” is the background information about characters, events, and locations which rarely makes it directly into your novel, but which you and your reader need to know to make the novel work.

When you’re writing historical fiction, history is the back story that becomes crucial to the novel. Your characters, your plot, your physical and cultural setting all rest on some version of history in which you are setting the whole shebang. (”Whole shebang” — look it up if you need. I’ll wait.) So the research you do on the historical setting for your novel can never be too much.

BUT …

I said the historical setting still is part of the back story. So obviously you must limit the historical research, or you’ll never get the novel written. If you’re like me, you enjoy the history part and researching it that you are easily be distracted from the task at hand — which is actually WRITING the novel. (Look at the shiny pretty thing, Gary … ooooooh.)

At any rate, make the historical setting, from clothing to events to character attitudes and thoughts to, well, the whole shebang, true to life. You don’t need to get every tiny detail exactly right to make a historical novel work. But you do need to get enough right, and use enough detail, that the reader feels like they’re at home in your novel’s world — and that world is like the real world was at the time and place you’ve chosen.

It’s important to add: Many lovers of historical fiction obsess on a particular period of history or particular events in history and they probably know far more about it than you. Don’t try to “one up” your readers. But never mess up on details that will insult their intelligence.

I’m doing this as a multi-part series on writing historical fiction, because it’s something I’ve put a hand to personally and historical fiction is something I love to read.

NEXT UP IN THIS SERIES ON WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION: How to find ideas and how to do historical research for your writing.

Technorati Tags: writing historical fiction, doing historical research for writing, advice for new writers, writing tips at garyspeer.com

There’s a nasty stereotype of writers hunched over their keyboards in a smoke-filled room, planted firmly in “The Zone,” creating tons of material in marathon writing sessions alleviated only by booze, drugs, and an occasional glass of milk.

Or something like that.

You’ve seen such imagery in movies and novels, I’m sure. It’s the “bad boy/bad girl behavior and excesses stimulate the creative juices” mentality of writing and art. Blasting through life with the after burners flaring seems to attract certain personality types, including those creative people who often strive to write. Too many young writers fall into the trap of thinking they will live forever and always have the mental edge it takes to write like demons. They give little or no thought to tomorrow and tomorrow’s career.

In real life, every writer I’ve known personally has either 1) never behaved even remotely like that, or, 2) managed to salvage their lives and careers by going through drug rehabilitation, alcohol rehabilitation, or a good, swift “kick” of proper diet and exercise followed by a major change in lifestyle.

We’ve gotten way past that destruction-means-creativity mentality for writers, haven’t we? My reason for bringing this up is that I fear young or new writers, especially in this age of celebrity gossip and entertainment 24/7 on the Internet and cable TV, may fall into such a trap.

Don’t let abusive or negligent behavior drain your creative resources. Keep your mind and body in shape and “clean” from all the garbage that’s out there to tempt you.

Now get busy and write something that’ll make us all proud of you.

Technorati Tags: drug rehabilitation, destructive lifestyles, creative resources, advice for new writers, writing and life, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Do you do transcription? Are you involved with any kind of professional captioning service? If you do either — or both — you know what I mean when I say such specialized writing requires a special set of listening skills and dexterity most people don’t appreciate.

I remember how fascinated I was waaaayyyyy back in the Dark Ages when I was in junior high school (no, not middle school) and took my one semester class in “typing.” That’s what they called it before computers and keyboarding. It was fun learning how to type, it was amazing to watch Marsha type. Marsha was one of the older girls in my eighth-grade class, more mature mentally and physically, and she developed the ability to type at the rate of 83 correct words per minute.

Now that’s pretty amazing to me — an 83 correct wpm typing speed. It still commands my respect. The best I’ve ever tested was once a few years ago when I did a 70. I can hit 55 pretty consistently and I’ve done 63 a couple of times.

I have no idea how fast some of you type/keyboard. If you happen to do captioning for a live television closed-captioning service, I would be very interested in knowing what sort of typing skills/speeds you do.

I’ve told previously in this blog of the several years I spent transcribing for an insurance company. That’s when I learned the fascinating mental skills a good transcriptionist must have. Chief among them is the ability to hear and type exactly what is said, not with any mental editing to skip “uh, um, and, uh, but, uh, gonna, yeah” and all the other mumblings and stutterings real people do in real interviews.

Transcriptionists and captioners out there — I salute you. Tell us about your work.

Technorati Tags: transcription, captioning service, specialized writing skills, writing as a business, writing tips at garyspeer.com

One of the most enjoyable things I do in life is write this and three other regular blogs. I really enjoy the opportunity to put my words down on “virtual paper” and have them out there for the whole world to see. Just yesterday, my wife, Shirley, and I were looking through some of the web stats for this blog and marveling at the places people come from to find my ramblings. We’ve had visitors from many countries in the world. As Shirley remarked, it’s really kind of amazing that I can sit here in Springfield, Missouri, in the U.S., type out a couple of hundred words, click a button, and someone in Germany, Denmark, the Philippines, China, New Zealand or almost any nation in the world can choose to read them.

But I cannot make this blog worth much doing it all by myself. I know you, good readers, are out there. I know some of you have chosen, from time to time, to leave comments on some of the things I’ve posted here. Which is really a good thing. The very best blogging is a “team sport,” not an individual achievement. As with resort timeshares, fractional ownership is important to all online communities, including this one.

So I encourage you all to leave comments on those posts that speak to you. If you’re not finding useful information here, please comment and let me know. I’m considering posting an occasional survey, as soon as I can find a good survey software or host, so you can express details on what you really want from our little “community” on the Internet.

Thanks for hanging around my blog. I value your presence and your input.

Technorati Tags: blogging teamwork, blogging community, reader feedback, writing tips at garyspeer.com

I think I’ve addressed this issue before, but it’s been awhile. If you write ad copy for a living, as a freelancer part-time, or in any capacity — where do you draw the line (or lines) in your marketing? What are you willing to write for money or other benefits, and what would you refuse?

It’s probably easy to say we wouldn’t write something illegal or intentionally offensive, especially regarding ad writing. And I doubt many of us that come here would intentionally write or disseminate pornography.

What about writing copy that preys on the ignorance of customers? Is that wrong? Is it unethical? What would you do about it?

Let me illustrate what I mean by preying on the ignorance of customers. I starting thinking about all this when I received a very classy, almost “official” looking piece of snail mail today warning me that the domain name where I host this blog was going to expire in May. The mailing urged me to renew for 1, 3, or 4 years, as soon as possible so I could “avoid complications” regarding the ownership of my domain.

Here’s the catch: The company sending me the mailing is NOT the company where I have the domain registered. It did NOT point out the fact that it was trying to get my business, it merely wrote the ad copy assuming I would fill out the form and send them my business.

Oh, yeah: The registration fees they charge are about THREE TIMES the amount charged by my long-time and preferred domain registrar. Of course, this ad copy was aimed to take advantage of my ignorance. I assume there are many people on the Internet who don’t know you can readily find quality domain registrations for around $9-$10 a year or less — NOT the $30 a year fee these guys charge.

So what? These guys were just using some clever marketing techniques to make a living, right? They’re probably as able to take my domain registration as anybody, and so what’s the big deal between $9 a year and $30 a year, anyway?

You tell me. Would you be comfortable writing ad copy for this company or someone similar? Or would you feel it might be less than honest/ethical to pitch a service without disclosing what I’ve talked about in this case? Tell us, please.

Technorati Tags: Internet domain registrations, ad copy writing, ethical ad copy writing, writing as a business, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Have you ever heard of Buzzfuse.com? I hadn’t either, but they seem to be a “Useful Website” you could use to draw traffic to your blog or website with little effort and no cost on your part. (Okay, looking around, I see they offer some paid services. But their basic membership is free. I just signed up to try it myself.)

They work by helping to draw traffic to blog posts, web pages, and other “digital creations” you want people to see. There appear to be no “strings” attached to their offer. I hope you’ll go try the service, just as I am, and we can compare notes about how well they work. Go take a look for yourself and see if it’s something useful for your website.

Technorati Tags: BuzzFuse.com, web traffic, draw traffic to your blog, useful website, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Have you ever wanted just the right poster or framed artwork to hang above your trusty writing desk/sofa/whatever?

Now you can find just what you’re looking for right here at our blog. You can click on this link to get there, or you can simply use the “Posters & Artwork” link in the site navigation bar at the top of each page on the site.

Take a look around. I hope you’ll find something there you like. If you want to click on any link on the poster/artwork displays, you’ll be taken to the merchant’s website and you can find a huge selection of posters and framed or unframed artwork on just about any subject or topic that might suit your decorating fancy.

Technorati Tags: posters, artwork, framed posters, framed artwork, writing and life, writing tips at garyspeer.com