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In the first part of this series, we talked about how you can write while in your car.  Now that we have the What, it’s time to focus on the How.  Selecting the right digital recorder may now seem like a big task.  You can find some out there in most Big Box stores for $25.  But then you’ll have a device where the only way to get your notes off of it is to replay and listen to the tiny speaker hoping to whatever deity above you can understand what you said.  Here are some things to look for when selecting the right digital voice recorder:

• Stereo Microphone: Make sure the recorder has a stereo mic.  This will give you a higher quality recording so you can better understand what you said at that time.
• Two or More Hours Recording Time: Most people looking at the specifications will see high recording times, but watch out.  Make sure you get a recorder that will record at least two hours at its highest quality settings.  Then if you need more time you can switch the recorder to a lower quality setting and get close to double the time.
• PC or Mac Interface: Your digital recorder should have the ability to interface with your computer so you can off-load all of your recorded notes for archival and transcription purposes.  Now for my Mac friends, you may have to use a more expensive recorder in order to get Mac support, but it will be worth it since whatever software that comes with the recorder will be able to convert the compressed format the recorder uses into Mac-friendly audio formats.
• Uncompressed Audio: This isn’t a big deal, but for maximum flexibility, you want to get a voice recorder that can record in uncompressed audio.  This makes it easier to use your notes on systems that don’t support Windows-only audio formats which are popular on most recorders (WMA is a prime example).
• Expandable Storage: Some new recorders now have the ability to accept SD cards.  This is a great capability to have because then you can record on the highest quality settings you can and then simplly switch out the SD card for a new one. If you go this route, make sure you get a couple of SD cards also.

You might be wondering how much will this cost you?  The good news is a good digital voice recorder can be purchased in the range of $45-$100.  For example, I use an Olympus DS-2 Digital Voice Recorder, which has most of the features above except for SD-based storage.  I also selected this recorder because it came with Mac-compatible software. Olympus has several models which will work with the Mac.  You can also look at Sony’s recorders but I tend to prefer Olympus since they do not force you into using a proprietary recording and external memory format (ATRAC and Memory Stick respectively).

If you still don’t want to put down that much cash and you have an iPod then you can purchase an accessory like Griffin’s iTalk Pro which turns your iPod into a stereo digital voice recorder for about $29.  The only caveat is that the quality sometimes can be spotty unless you hold it close to your mouth.

Whatever you end up using  just make sure it doesn’t distract you from the road.  If you find yourself wrapped up in a scene, then you may want to pull over and finish it off.  But, if you’re like myself and can talk while driving, then you’ll be able to use this wasted bit of time to churn out even more writing.  You could even use it as your scheduled writing time since it’s a lot easier to transcribe what you said that creating it.

Time to take a drive!

[Originally appeared at Writer’s Roundabout]

You’re probably looking at the the title and thinking “What? Writing while I drive? Do you want me to get killed?” No, I don’t wish you ill (unless you cut me off, then I may feel differently).  But I would like to talk about using some of the most unproductive time you have other than sleep: commuting.

When your driving you’re paying attention to the road, but what about those times you’re sitting bumper to bumper and you can feel the minutes ticking away into oblivion.  Why not use this time to write? Now even when you’re bumper to bumper you don’t want to necessarily take out a notebook or laptop and start banging away at whatever project you have going on.  You need to keep your eyes on the road, so you’ll need to equip yourself with the one tool that will open up this time to you: A digital voice recorder.

We’ll go more into what is a good digital voice recorder, but for now let’s talk about what kind of writing you can do on the road.  Here are some things you can do to put this normally wasted time to work for you:

• Brainstorming: Why not use this time to come up with article or story ideas?  Listen to your radio and let the ideas flow. Although this time, instead of trying to remember it, you’ll have it recorded and ready to go when you reach your destination and hit your computer.
• Research Notes: You can use this time to think about what you need to complete in order to write your article.  Leave yourself a note that you need to finish research on the world’s largest Kiwi.  Ramble on about possible names you want to find out the meaning of for your serial killer nun.
• Write Dialogue: Do you have a scene that’s bothering you?  Or did something in a song you just heard inspire a new one?  With your handy voice recorder you can act out the scene from the comfort of your own car.  Try an make your voice sound like your characters.  Don’t worry if you sound ridiculous, you’re alone.  Although I wouldn’t recommend doing this while you have your children/friends/significant other with you. They might think you’ve finally lost it.
• Write an entire scene or article: If you want to do more than dialogue, go ahead and write the entire scene.  Know what you want to say for an article? Go ahead and talk it through! You can then transcribe it the next time you get in front of a computer.

With your handy voice recorder by your side you can do most anything you could do in front of a computer.  It’s a great way to use this time which could otherwise go wasted cursing at other drivers.  And think of how it would reduce road rage.  You’d be too busy to get mad!

So now you’re ready to get in your car and write, but have you thought about your voice recorder?  Just what do you need to make sure your brilliant article on penguin conspiracies makes it to your publisher?  Because while there are plenty of inexpensive recorders, the last thing you need is to find yourself scratching your head trying to figure out what you said when that semi was idling beside you.  In the next post of this series, we’ll go into what sort of digital voice recorder you should look for.

[Originally appeared at Writer’s Roundabout]

I know it’s been a little short of updates here, but that was because I just finished my manuscript on October 5th. It was a big milestone for me and something that I’ve been working on for the better part of a couple of years now lays atop my desk complete.

It’s been sent off to the readers and now I have to move on to the next part of my graduation task list: The Genre Essay.

Now, those of you who know me can attest to how much I loath essays. Most of the time I view them as busy work set upon my by a professor who has nothing better to do than make me waste my time. This time though I think it’ll be different. After all, it’s an essay on something academic in genre I love so much: science-fiction. Maybe it will be interesting instead of mind-numbingly boring I don’t know. But, it’ll be interesting to find out.

Also on the plate is looking for a literary agent. I’ve polished off my synopsis and now I need to craft the dreaded query letter. That damned letter is like writer’s kryptonite. I find it hilarious that most of us have no problems putting out a multi-book opus which has the potential to sell millions of copies, but then we’re afraid of writing a little letter that might top out at two hundred words. That will be what I’ll be focusing my efforts on after having scoured the Writer’s Market Agent’s guide earlier in the week.

If any other science-fiction writers out there have an agent they love and is looking for authors, please contact me because I’m definitely looking for that right agent to grow with.

I guess this will be the first of many public presentations I’ll be doing in my career as a writer. I just hadn’t thought it would be before the publication of my first novel.

I’ ve been asked to present at Blog Orlando 2008. I’ll be speaking about my social media novel, Calling Home, and will also be leading a discussion about Writing Social Fiction. I’m looking forward to it next Saturday and if any of you are in Orlando on Saturday September 26th, then please come on by and stop in on my presentation.

I’ll spend some of the time telling people about Calling Home and ideas behind it but then going into how to apply some of those techniques into writing your own social novel.

It’s gonna be a blast and I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

I’m right now at IZEAFest 2008, which is a conference that’s actually local to me.  Since I don’t have to many of those, I jump at the chance to network when I can.

IZEAFest is a blogging, social and new media conference.  Now I bet you’re wondering what in the world would a conference like this be for a traditional media genre science-fiction and fantasy writer like me?

Well, there is a lot a traditional writer can learn from new media.  At first I dabbled by blogging a little, maybe posting a message on Twitter.  Very little involvement to be honest.  That all changed a couple of months ago.

I decided to dive in head first into new media by publishing a novel using social networks Plurk and Twitter.  Doing this opened my eyes to the possibilities of living in a world where a writer can have multiple paths to releasing their work to the world.  It helped me to realize I’m not limited in how I want to reach my readers.

Once I had the “new media epiphany” I then realized I needed to get out and meet more people involved in new media: bloggers, content creators, and social marketers.  I’ve learned quite a bit from these people and I believe all traditional media writers can learn quite a bit from new/social media.

To traditional media writers I would say find a blogging conference and go to it.  Don’t know too much about blogging?  Buy yourself Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner to learn about it and then go to a conference.  The operative thing is to get out there and meet other bloggers and learn.

Doing some of the things above will put you on to a great start to putting a new spin on your traditional media.

When you go to sleep, do you dream in Tweets or Plurks? Do you find yourself talking in sentences that would easily fit within a 140 character limitation?  Does your manuscript have a fine layer of newly accumulated dust?  If you said yes to any of these and you participate in social media, then you’re already addicted.

The good news is you don’t have to quit.  But you do need to curb your micro-blogging appetite.  Here are a some things you can do to hold back the monster:

• Use social media to keep track of your output: There is no better way to keep you from spending all your time on social networking sites than to sending out status messages indicating what little writing you’ve done.  Guilt can be an excellent tool if used correctly.
• Reward yourself with social breaks: If you work at home, the temptation to spend your entire day on social networking sites is incredible.  To mitigate this, give yourself 15 minute social breaks to go online and gab with your friends.  Keep an egg timer or watch with a chronograph handy to track your break time between pages.
• Set a writing schedule: 15 minutes not enough?  Then set a schedule that you will do nothing but write during.  Once you’re finished, you’re free to do what you want.
• Set a daily writing goal: Worried if you set a scheduled writing time you’ll end up doing nothing anyhow just so you can get back to social networking?  Set yourself a daily goal, whether it is words, pages or chapters.  If you don’t meet your goal, you don’t get to play.

The above tricks and tips will help you keep on target, but sometimes the best thing you can do is have an interesting project to write so you have a stronger desire to write it rather than whittle your life away 140 characters at a time.

I love Social Media.  I’m on at least five different services and spend way more time than I should on them, but I enjoy it considerably and have befriended many great people.  With as much enjoyment as I get out of these services I thought it would be great if could combine together two things I feel passionately about: Social Media and Writing Fiction.

But how do you develop a story in only 140 character bite sized morsels? You could write a longer piece and serialize it, or you could even write Flash Fiction which thrives in such small spaces.  Also, how do you develop characters in serialized stories when you use one account for both posting and comments?  I felt all those approaches left much to be desired.  What I wanted to see was a story, using Social Media where one character interacts with another using separate accounts.  And what’s more, I wanted the story to be science fiction.

The big problem with writing science fiction or fantasy is you usually need quite a bit of space to build your world and have your characters explore it.  Could this be done in 140 character pieces and still be a compelling read?  My answer is yes it can.  And the way to do it is by telling the entire story in dialogue.

Dialogue is powerful.  It’s one of the best tools a writer has in their arsenal to convey emotion and feeling.  Think of the last novel or story you read.  What were the parts which moved you the most?  It was when the characters were speaking.  The author manipulated the words coming from the character into a stream of emotional strength.  You knew how the character was feeling because they told you so in their own voice.

With this in mind, the idea for Calling Home popped into my mind.  A story entirely told within the confines of a damaged ship’s system status messaging and emails.  Each character would have their own Twitter and Plurk account, and communicate with each other through those accounts only.

After some refinement of the idea, I’m proud to announce I have started posting the individual Plurks and Tweets for the story.  Here is the information you will need to follow the story on Twitter and Plurk:

Twitter
Hastag: #chh
http://twitter/ISSMontserrat
http://twitter/JFCAllen
http://twitter/JFCSandeep
http://twitter/ISS_Safeguard

Plurk
http://www.plurk.com/user/CallingHome
http://www.plurk.com/user/Allen
http://www.plurk.com/user/Sandeepz
http://www.plurk.com/user/ISS_Safeguard

If you don’t have your own Twitter or Plurk account, you can get your own Plurk account by following this link and then click on the CallingHome link on my profile.  For a Twitter account, go and register here and then follow the accounts in the list above.

Don’t want a Plurk or Twitter account?  That’s a shame to hear, but I can understand.  If you still want to read the story, you can go to Calling Home’s Archive Page on Tumblr and see the story in the way it was posted.

This story will run for at least a couple of months, so feel free to follow and see what happens to our characters in the deep reaches of space.  For the time being, there will be twice daily updates, however that could change as things progress in the story.  Read and you’ll find out why….

Lastly, if you enjoy the story please tell your friends about it and spread the word on any other Social Media services you’re on.  If you’d like to see it posted to another Social Media service then email me and I’ll look into it.

Enjoy the story!

Have you ever found yourself staring at your screen and praying to your fickle muse to grant you the strength to take the words out from deep within you?  If you say yes, stop it.  Yes, I said stop trying to get a hold of her, because she’s on vacation in Cabo San Lucas and the last thing on her mind is you.

So how do you get back on track?  How are you going to write that blog entry?  Finish that piece of flash fiction?  Top off the novel you’d been writing for the last six months?

Try a writing burst.

A writing burst is a session of writing where you concentrate on nothing but output.  It doesn’t matter what you write as long as you write.  If you wanted to you could focus on writing a letter to your grandmother, a blog entry, a recipe, a short story, or your comprehensive plan on taking over the world using only strawberry Twizzlers.   The point is you just have to write something.

To keep things flowing well, I recommend your writing burst be fifteen minutes long.  Fifteen minutes is a small enough piece of time where it doesn’t feel like a major commitment, but isn’t small enough were you’ll be out of time before you even started.  It also helps you silence your inner editor long enough for you to sit down and produce.  Once your fifteen minutes are over, you’ll be surprised at what you’ve accomplished.

For example, I finished this entire blog entry in fifteen minutes.

If you’d like to try a writing burst, call or message a couple of your friends who also have writing to do and do an impromptu writing burst.  Have no writing friends?  Join me on Plurk and we’ll go ahead and do a writing burst together.  You’ll be happy you did, and your muse will be even happier you’ve left her alone with her tall Piña Colada sunning at the edge of the pool.

There are times when you’re writing you find yourself dead in the water because of one missing fact.  In my case this happened recently when I needed to find out some names for a couple of characters I have.  Unfortunately, the names I needed were obscure Breton names, a people who live in Brittany.

After going through the usual channels of Google, the results were lacking to say the least.  I decided to take my search to the social media networks I frequent.  Almost immediately, I received a reply from one of my friends on Plurk.  He pointed me in the direction of some excellent books in french documenting some 1800 Breton names.  This saved me a considerable amount of time and effort.

In order to have social media work for you as a research tool, you’ll need to join several social media networks.  The best two I’ve found are Twitter and Plurk.  Twitter for the sheer amount and variety of people there and Plurk for the incredible community features and helpful people frequenting the service.  Those are just two services though.  You will want to be on at least five or so to cast as wide a net as possible.

Now, in addition to being on a multitude of services, you also need to have a lot of friends. This doesn’t mean friending or following people indiscriminately, you need to cultivate a broad cross-section of people from different backgrounds.  With this diversity, you’ll be able to ask questions concerning whatever and will be assured an answer.

As writers, sometimes we don’t work well with technology, but sometimes its best just to jump into the waters and start treading.  It is a whole lot easier than performing a public reading and in most cases a lot more fun.

Poe War is a great writing blog that covers everything from identifying ways for writers not to negatively reinforce themselves, to hilarious fun lists of annoyances that writers find out in the wilds.

While a lot of the entries deal with freelance writing, a lot of the information they give can be readily applied toward fiction. One of the most useful I’ve found recently was an entry in how to use slang and accents when writing dialogue. While not entirely addressing what I needed, it was still a very useful starting point for me in trying to find resources to help me with some of my character’s speech patterns.

And some of the posts under the Fun section are items that any writer will definitely get a laugh from.