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Writing - Methodology & Techniques
With a special bit about procrastination - will be here just as soon as i stop putting it off. Mean while, i found Ray Bradbury's 'Zen in the Art of Writing - (essays in creativity)' terrifically inspiring. Review here.
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Hardware
Even if you are a committed technophobe and follow the advice that all you need is a pencil, paper and imagination, when it comes to presenting and marketing your work in the professional arena to an acceptable standard you will inevitably find yourself requiring at least a PC and a printer.
Do not dismay however, word processing requires very little computer power and can easily be handled by a relatively old PC that nobody else wants. These can be picked up very cheaply second-hand and maybe able to handle sufficiently large image sizes if required. A basic printer is all that is needed to produce an acceptable manuscript, associated letters and other bumph. Even new printers are relatively cheap nowadays, the ink cartridges however are where the manufacturers make the money, but it still works out cheaper than using a copy shop.
Laptops are great if you travel a lot or do not have peace and quite at home. Again old versions are available cheaply but check the condition of the batteries if you plan to work away from a mains power supply. I have only been caught once in the library whilst plugging my old mac powerbook into the mains.
As well as just writing, a PC is an invaluable tool for an author when connected to the Internet. The setting up and managing of your own web site, e-mail and of course the largest resource for research in the world (the internet).
Having connectivity and a web presence will improve your profile, effectiveness and chances of being published many fold and put you in contact with many like-minded souls who have already been there and are only too happy to offer help and advice.
If you find all this daunting, don't! You will discover that there are literally millions of pages of tutorials and help forums for everything you will need to know at every level to get you started.
After a while i'm sure that you will surprise yourself.
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Software
Most Programs cost money, (if we are going to stay within the bounds of legality) and i will list my favourite commercial programs later.
However...
There are excellent alternatives to most commercial programs that have been developed by the international open-source software community. these are perfectly capable of yielding professional results just as competently as their expensive cousins and they are completely free! Hence the name 'Freeware'.
You can find great freeware for everything that you will need and here is list of the best of them.
Free software
Here is a list of 'top notch' freeware programs available for download. With these you can have a full complement of programs for your computer absolutely free!
- Web Browser & E-mail - Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird*
Unlike Explorer and Outlook Express, Firefox and Thunderbird are constantly under development and are much less susceptible to security threats. Full feature programs with loads of plug-ins available for customisation. I use these exclusively as do most people 'in the know'. Very easy to use. Excellent!
- Web page composer & IRC Chat client - SeaMonkey1.1.7
Released on 30 Jan 2006. Features Firefox and Thunderbird, as well as a WYSIWYG web page composer and a feature-rich IRC chat client. SeaMonkey 1.0 is one of the most complete, powerful, and secure internet software packages available today.
Another WYSIWYG web page composer i'd recommend is NVU.
- Anti-Virus Software - AVG Anti virus 7.5 Free Edition*
This product has been continuously refined since it was first released in 1991 and now offers excellent protection capabilities. Additionally, it's relatively small,
light on resources, has regular automatic updates and handles email scanning.
- Firewall - Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall*
The free and paid versions of Kerio are the same. If you don't buy the product some advanced features are automatically turned off after 30 days.
- File Archiver/Zip Utility - 7-Zip
You're going to need something to de compress the files that you download and this is a good one. Note: Win XP does have it's own Zip utility built in.
- Image and Photo Editing Software - PhotoPlus 6
Enables beginners to produce images for print, multimedia and the web. Loads of features including layer support. It looks and feels like a simpler version of Adobe PhotoShop except that it is relatively easy to use. Tutorials on home page.
- Office Suite - OpenOffice 2.3.1*
Brilliant! Complete office suite to rival Microsoft's. Includes 5 programs.
Writer - Word processor (An excellent one!)
Calc - Powerful spreadsheet program
Impress - For multimedia presentations
Draw - Well featured graphics program
Base - Database
program
Many professionals use this as an alternative to Microsoft's expensive offering. What more could you ask for?
Another good free replacement for MS Word is AbiWord
- Adobe Acrobat Reader*
To open and read Acrobat .PDF files.
PDF (Portable Document Format) files are the de facto standard in electronic publishing, because the author can be sure that the document will look as intended on all platforms, regardless of local fonts or lack thereof.
- PDF Creator
Use PDF Creator to generate PDF documents directly from any Windows program. PDFs can also be generated with commercial packages, but PDF Creator is by far the easiest and cheapest option (free).
* I use these programs
Commercial Software
-
Microsoft Word
(Part of Microsoft Office)
The industry standard and most commonly used program for word processing. Learning some of the more advanced features is very worthwhile and will save you a lot of time in the long run.
-
Adobe Photoshop
Advanced image manipulation program that is so huge that it could take a lifetime to master. Getting to grips with the basics of this fully featured program is a worthwhile venture if you plan to do any image manipulation for printing or your web pages. Available in easier, feature reduced versions for new users.
-
Macromedia Dreamweaver
The program of choice for professional or experienced Web developers for developing, editing and maintaining web sites.
-
Dragon Naturally Speaking preferred 9
Speech recognition software that actually works (I am using it to write this). Comes complete with a noise canceling microphone and works with most Windows programs. If you are a two finger typist or have difficulty operating a keyboard for long periods and find that your ideas outrun your keyboard skills then this may be for you.
If you get a USB wireless headset then you can write your book whilst walking around your home. (Available from Amazon here)
After reading a number of reviews it seems that people either love it or hate it.
I have been demoing this for three weeks and will be buying it.
-Note-
(You can download full versions of the above programs and trial them for 30 days.)
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Tips & Tricks
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FAQ's
Why don't have any FAQ's here yet Titus?
Good point... I'll get round to it ASAP.
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Manuscript submission package
I read as many books as I could about manuscript submission techniques and as usual in such matters found a lot of conflicting advice. My own advice is to read them all, take what you like, throw away what you don't, change your mind, change it back, have a cup of tea and then do what you thought you were going to do in the first place. Anyway, here is what I did.
- Manuscript
Front page - This has the title (working title), Your name, address, e-mail, web site, telephone number, word count and 'manuscript return not requested' printed thereupon.
Body - basically typed double spaced in Times New Roman on a PC and printed on standard quality plain paper with an inkjet printer.
Here is a word file of the manuscript (with the text changed to x's) to save me an explanation of every detail. Things to note are; numbered pages, no date, unobtrusive header with name and title on each page, page breaks at chapter endings etc.
I chose to put 'manuscript return not requested' on the front as it saves everyone a lot of trouble and 'faffing' about with postage and S.AE's, if they don't like it they can bin it/file it. Maybe someone else will pick it up who will like it.
Do not staple/glue it together etc, leave it loose in a lightweight simple file. I used transparent plastic so they could read the front page details without opening it. Put a sticker on the file that has your name, title of the book and the date.
Also in the file I put...
- Cover letter
I cannot for the life of me find the cover letter I used but I expect it was pretty damn snappy and pro. I can't tell you how to write a letter you're an author for goodness sake, just don't put in threats or words like bum and fart.
Good examples of enquiry/cover letters at the excellent purple crayon web site.
- S. A. Notification of receipt card
A bit of a 'get noticed in their office' ploy, as well as being fairly amusing it gives them an opportunity to let you know what they are doing with your ms. A simple plain card, stamped and addressed on one side and this on the other. I used check boxes instead of the bullets shown here.
Dear Titus,
Thank you for your manuscript ‘Rufus' that we have now:
• Received
• Read
• Lost
• Defenestrated
• Stapled to a mongoose
• Fashioned into 25 Paraguayan nose trumpets
• Adopted as the basis of our newly founded religion
We will contact you via your S.AE in due course.
- S.A.E.
To make it easy for the publisher to tell you:
-They loved your book and want to shower you with money.
-They hated your book and want to shower you with monkey vomit.
-Not to write in crayon with your feet and Thursday isn't spelled with an 'F'.
Put it all in a large envelope and:
- Post it to the appropriate person whose name you got either from your brief and polite phone call or from the 'Children's writers' & Artists' Yearbook'.
- Post it to the appropriate person through their window wrapped around a large house brick. (maybe not)
An after thought;
Given that editors invariably have mountains of A4 size envelopes on their desks and usually spend ages searching though them looking for one in particular. Next time I'm going to write
'This is probably the one you're looking for' in red ink on the bottom of mine.
You never know.
Be inventive.
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