With the new Write or Die v2.0!
Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you're fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.
Nice.
(via GeekPress)
De passes on a DUH revelation to which I say -- DUH, too.
Using a spreadsheet to keep track of stuff in your novel.
Using a scheduler (like MS Project) to keep track of timelines, dependencies, etc.
Just freaking brilliant.
I could imagine any of these showing up on the shelf at B&N:
Bright Citadel of Mynash
Curse and Glory
Scourge and Pride
Seed's Chaos
Southern Lady of Zwistforth
Stone of the Deathless Herald
Sun of the Hidden Sea
The Bane and the Dark
The Vengeance of Rhyistrene
Winter Sun of Fordurgir
(via BoingBoing)
"The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot," part of Teresa Nielsen Hayden's stupid plotting tricks. Making a note of this one.
(via Doyce, who has an example)
A test which analyzes writing based on ostensibly gender-based cues keeps trying to say that I'm a woman.
Hrm. Good thing the kids back in school didn't know that.
So it make a little sense, maybe, when I run some of Catspaw through it. The protagonist supposedly is a woman, so I guess that means I Write Real Good.
On the other hand, five out of six blog entries here also came out showing as being girly-girl writing. Huh.
Of course, looking at the results gathered thus far, almost 60% of the time the test is coming out wrong.
Interesting.
(via fellow girly-girl Doyce)
CafePress is about to start up its own vanity press, er, book publishing business.
Hmmmm ...
Looking for a random name for a supporting character in your novel, or for an RPG character, or for filling in a registration form? Check out your spam.
For the past few months I've been sorting through my spam quarantine files, pulling out the senders' names. I don't know how and where they come up with these things, but these spam senders have some kind of awesome random name generator at their disposal, and I don't feel shy about reaping its benefits. It's the least they can do for me. Check out these names, just a small sampling of the wacko names that inundate my mailbox every day.
Very cool.
This is scary. This is funny.
He's a superhumanly strong voodoo romance novelist for the 21st century. She's a wealthy motormouth snake charmer who inherited a spooky stately manor from her late maiden aunt. They fight crime!
He's a Nobel prize-winning amnesiac ex-con living undercover at Ringling Bros. Circus. She's a ditzy Buddhist detective fleeing from a Satanic cult. They fight crime!
The scary part about this funny thing? Each one I see makes me think ... "Hey, yeah, that would make an interesting story ...."
(Via Doyce)