Day: June 12, 2014

Expanding the New Rule

Lynn

I’m expanding my new rule to encompass my smartphone and my Kindle. Has to be done. ;) As I suspected would happen, I’ve started turning to these devices to check my email and read websites, the two things I most need to stop doing when I’m supposed to be writing.

My rule is simple. I’m not supposed to do anything on the computer that’s not directly publishing related until I’ve done a minimum of writing for the day, probably about 2,000 words. (So I can reach my weekly goal.)

Now that rule also applies to my phone and my Kindle. :D

I haven’t done my writing for the day, and I’m not supposed to be here posting. So—

I gotta go before I feel worse about that than I already do!

 

Blog posts need context: where are the dates?

Lynn

I’ve decided that writers who don’t include dates on their blog pages, or at least in the permalink structure, are following one of the worst blogging trends ever to grace the wide open spaces of the blogosphere.

Here’s why: Context matters.

I found an interesting post today that started out, “Last night, I finished my first book…” but there wasn’t a date in the url, on the page, or anywhere else that I could find. It mattered, because I’m pretty sure the blogger in question has since finished several books and I just really wanted to know when it was that the post was written, or when that first book was finished.

I didn’t find out.

It hit me then that although there are contexts where we don’t want to include dates because someone might pass by an article when the article is still very relevant, in situations like this, where the post is very much part of a history of something, missing dates are significant.

Blog entries need context—they’re incomplete without it. Dates matter.

In a fit of pique, I abandoned the site. It probably had something interesting to say, but it was just a jumble of posts without context.

One more thing done that needed done…

Lynn

Finally getting some stuff done that’s been needing done for a while. I mean, like five months late stuff.

I finished the paperback formatting of my last novel this morning when I put the finishing touches on the wrap around book cover. Yay!

Unfortunately, I discovered an issue last night after I’d submitted them, so as soon as they’d gone through review, I had to upload the tweaked cover file and submit them for review all over again. But that’s okay. Better now than after I get the proof copy of the paperback!

I put the price on the back cover and I had the price wrong. I didn’t know that until I’d hit the pricing section and realized that because of length, this one was going to need to be $2 higher than my usual. I’m not thrilled with that, but it was $2 or change my formatting, and I like the formatting as is.

So … I tweaked the cover file and resubmitted.

This cover was probably the easiest wrap around cover I’ve done to date. Maybe I really just need more practice. It’s getting easier to do the stuff that’s more technical and less about art (like the front cover—that still gets me every time).