I don’t think there’s an absolute answer to this question, as there very likely are as many solutions as there are writers out there. Therefore, I’m going to consider this from a subjective point of view only: drafting a precise plan and outlines for a story before writing it, is it an effective method for you, or not?

Weirldy enough, I’ve always worked with a plan for non-fiction writing, such as school essays or technical documents later on. For fiction stories, on the other hand, I work much more loosely, not even writing chapters in order. These days, I’m trying to use both methods, so that I can compare them and see which one is more efficient for me. It’s not that evident to define.

Currently perusing and comparing webhosting services, I went off a tangent in my head about how my perception of the internet has evolved since I started using it…

I’m not one of the early children of the web, but I’m not too new to it either. My first contact with it was in 1997, when our teacher in Applied English class decided that we had to be open to the world, and dragged us at the school library for a few sessions on the computers. From 1997 to 1999, I went on accessing websites sporadically from college computers, when I had some time to surf; my main researches at the time were on the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Enoch, and websites related to Mage: The Ascension, so my use of the internet was a very basic one. Later on in 1999, the friend who was to become my boyfriend convinced me to take an e-mail address at the university, which I did: I had discovered the joys of e-mailing! From there, my horizons expanded, and by year 2000, I would access the web everyday, or almost.

I suppose that all of us who went to gradually use this tool had our little lightbulb moments, as well as stupid beliefs on which we stood corrected later on. Here are some of the things I remember, mainly from these 1997-1999 years. In a way, it’s very funny:

Here’s an interesting post—wielding quite an amount of questions— that I picked on Darren’s blog: signatures in blog comments.

Because I was too tired to develop in my own comment there yesterday, here’s my own opinion on the matter:

• I’m technically okay with signatures in comments on this blog, provided they’re not cumbersome: a name and a link is enough. However, so that you know, posts containing any link are screened and must be approved by yours truly before being published. This is an anti-spam measure.


• “Signature” does not equal “free pass for spamming”. Spammy comments will be immediately deleted, or never let in in first place (WordPress’ filter is a powerful one). Of course, what is considered spam or not is left to my own appreciation, but if the previous point is followed, you’ll be okay.


• Obnoxious signatures are a no-no, especially when they contain banners and other images, whatever their size. I’ve been editing images-signatures for a good five years on a variety of forums I’ve administrated, and trust me, they’re a serious bother.


• For me, it’s a matter of etiquette. I’ll courteously allow signatures in comments for people who’re courteous enough to keep it under sensible control.

Now, one may ask, what’s the point of adding a sig to a comment, given that most blog systems will let you enter a link to your website along with your name? Personnally, I know enough about blogs to know where to click if I want to visit someone’s webpage. One the other hand, not everyone knows that, and a commenter may want to leave a link to a different site of his, if it’s more related to the blog he’s commented on.

This said, don’t hesitate to go have a read at the comments on Darren’s posts. Many valuable opinions are represented there.

Y Tags: blogging | etiquette | signature

The reason why I haven’t blogged about anything insightful since Thursday is the image on the left, and I must simply admit that s much as I wanted to finish my next planned entry yesterday evening, I’ve been too dead tired to go on with it. In any case, I’m glad I went to the European Fair no matter what.

Here’s one of the interesting things we found here: a little series of brain-teasers called “Bozo-Bozo” (nevermind the weird-sounding name, really). Its principle of course caught our interest, based as it is on actual scientific matters: a wooden stick with indents in it and a propeller on its end. Rubbing another, smaller stick on the indents will make the propeller move. No problem here, except that when you say “bozo”, the propeller rotates backwards, which in theory isn’t possible by itself.

Of course, there’s a trick, and I’m not going to give the solution here (a shame we figured it out quickly). Who knows, perhaps I can one day use the theory in a story, too. Everything is worth being investigated when it comes to imagination.

Y Tags: fair | games | science

A little musing on my mind today: in the case of fiction (since I assume that it’s not really appliable to non-fiction works), do some of you also happen to sketch their characters, or even landscapes, actions, and so on, instead of directly describing them in your books? This is regardless of style and skill, and only as a personal way of fixing your ideas, not as artwork in itself.

My own style isn’t what you could call “realistic” (my influences mainly come from comics and manga, as well as a certain type of vector works), but I’ve found that more often, sketching helps me to write better descriptions, as what I want to show is clearly pictured in my mind already. Moreover, in the case of action scenes, it’s also a good exercise for me to see if said action can be performed by a human body, or is just looking nice in my own perception. If the latter can seem laughable, sometimes it really isn’t, and has already allowed me to avoid… many mistakes.

Y Tags: characters | drawing | sketching | writing