Yzabel / August 15, 2005

Tips on Starting a New Blog – Part 1

No, I’m not starting a new one myself; this post actually got inspired by the questions Darren Rowse posted on ProBlogger, and I wondered about how many things exactly would’ve to be taken into account when starting a new blog. Even though I haven’t many years of blogging behind me (I guess you could say I really started in the spring of 2004 only), I think I’m now able to put the finger on tips centered on this theme—I may not always have followed them myself from the start, but now I sure know them.Please note that I’ll be posting these tips in two separate entries, as it is quite a long read.Why blogging?First of all comes the aim of the blog itself. Blogging just for the sake of blogging isn’t going to get you very far, so one should question why they’re doing it. Is it to give news to friends and family by keeping a place easy to update as well as to check? Is it to promote a book, a product, freelance services? Is it to share knowledge and reflexions about a specific field (what one could call “niche blogs”), or to simply gather news about said field? Will the blog have a professional orientation, or a personal one? There are many purposes to a blog, and depending on what you want to craft here, much of what’s going to follow will have to be planned in a different way. One shouldn’t write on a business blog the way they write about their families on a personal page, unless they want their professional readership seriously wonder about what they’re up to.Make also sure that you will know what to write about for a long time. Granted, this isn’t a problem in the case of personal blogs: life will always provide you with events. Things are different for niche/professional blogs: if you’re not sure that in a few weeks from now, you’ll still have material to post about, perhaps focusing on a narrow topic isn’t a good idea to start with. So, make sure that you’ll know what to write about in order to publish at least two or three times a week.Read More

Yzabel / August 14, 2005

Considering NaNoWriMo

50,000 words in one month of writing: doable or not? An impossible task to set myself to, or a very attainable goal?I say it’s a perfectly attainable goal. When I try to watch more closely my writing rythm, I realize that in one month, it’s really nothing impossible (to be honest, I’ve already done it more than once). Sure, I don’t do that every day, and regularly enough I’ll scrap out entire weeks of work because I’m not satisfied with it anymore. Regardless, NaNoWriMo, given my current cadence, is totally doable.I’m very tempted to try, just to see how writing with a deadline of this kind works for me. It’s nothing professional, it won’t bring me any prize or money, but I really couldn’t care more. When it comes to creative writing, I’ve never had to do with deadlines so far: technical documents is the only field I do have them, and these don’t demand the same kind of focus. Both “genres” are way too different from each other to be comparable.I don’t know which degree of involvment I’ll have in it, whether I’ll take an active part in their forums and the likes. I may however post excerpts and works-in-progress here. None of this will start before November, in any case. I like this game, and I’ll stick to its rules.nanowrimo, writing

Yzabel / August 13, 2005

Et In Arcadia Nos – Part 1

[A draft for a short story I’m trying to put together. It can be seen as specific material, as it’s set in the world I’m working on, and I’m not sure yet whether I’ll manage to give it enough sense to stand on its own, or if it should forever remain stashed in a folder until I publish a longer story presenting said world itself. I’m also still trying my hand at using proper dialogue mechanisms in another language than mine. Please bear with me.]

 

Et In Arcadia Nos

 

Once the communications were restrained, Chief Engineer Vall’Eran knew that it was only a matter of hours before the personnel would get at him.”This is going nowhere! What do you want?”Enhanced by the nano-transmitters whirlwinding around him from his personal unit, his voice boomed in the vast conference room of the Core Research Center, covering for a second the shouts of the workers. Coming from all nations of Ewell, from the white-haired Rims to the stern Kellens with their icy gazes, they were all gathered on that day for the same reason, and he couldn’t ignore their claims any more.Read More

Yzabel / August 13, 2005

Meta Tags Analyzer

A little useful tool, for those who don’t mind slightly dabbling with HTML coding: a meta-tags analyzer.While meta-tags are not “the” thing anymore when it comes to SEO (search-engine optimization), they’re still quite useful when it comes to getting properly indexed by search-engine spiders, and making sure that the ones on your webpage are up-to-date and appropriate can never hurt. At least, running my sites through it has pointed a few flaws to me, that I can now correct.html, metatags, seo

Yzabel / August 12, 2005

Likeable Characters

At some point today, I seriously wondered how I managed to weed through nine volumes of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, when there must actually be 1.5 characters I somewhat like in it (yes, you read this number right).Let’s not be mistaken, there are good sides to the series, including the fact that it allowed me to go through three weeks of illness during a hot summer month, a few years ago—that, and some nice concepts as well (even though I keep on thinking that the world is better fit to a role-playing game setting than to a written story). However, no matter my efforts and how many times I’ve tried, I never managed to find a character that I’d really like in it. Female characters especially are the worse; “strong women” definitely doesn’t mean “know-it-all beasts who think they’re above everyone else” (who can I nominate… Nynaeve-Egwene-Faile-Elayne, perhaps?). His male characters aren’t really better; the only one I used to really liked is turning in a sour way, as far as my reading goes, and the others are too often the bland or annoying types. Can’t say that Rand is extremely attaching, is he?Read More

Yzabel / August 11, 2005

Mind and Body

I recently enough saw this question in some meme on a blog I can’t remember now, but the implications of it made me think twice.If you were to live 90 years and could choose between retaining the body of a 30-years old or the mind of a 30-years old, what would you choose?In all honesty, I’d decide to go with the body. If I were to lose my mind, I wouldn’t be aware of it in the end anyway, right? So might as well go with a healthy body. Besides, having a 90-years old mind doesn’t necessary mean being senile, whereas the body, even with a healthy lifestyle, wouldn’t be a terribly strong one no matter what. And what good would it be, having a shrewd and acute mind in a decrepit body? I probably wouldn’t be able to stand that, being conscious of how limited I’d be physically, while my mind would still be racing.Of course, I don’t have such a choice. Now, just out of curiosity, what would you choose?body, mind, reflexion

Yzabel / August 11, 2005

Blog Client: W.bloggar

Alright, the name of this blog client is nothing short of weird, and not very inspiring (it definitely makes me thinkof “beggar” each time I try to pronounce it, sorry). Going past this uneasy feeling to test it further was however a very good idea, for it turned out to be a pretty interesting tool. Moreover, it’s free.

W.bloggar interface

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Yzabel / August 10, 2005

Working From Home

Since most of my job is currently done this way, I was quite interested, a few days ago, when Keith Robinson from To-Done posted his compiled list of things to do to be productive working from home. Sure, it can appear like the ideal way of working, and something that everyone would want to do. Beware, though. It’s not as easy as it seems, and temptations to slack off are numerous, especially when other members of the family are home when you’re working (I remember a commenter, on another post at To-Done, who was mentioning finding himself helping with the kids or the laundry instead of working).Here are a few of the points he mentions in his list:

  • Stick to a schedule. Treat your days like a “regular” work day. Many people have found that a 9-5 or 10-6 schedule really helps keep them on track and productive. (I can’t agree more with that! Actually, it’s even what I myself suggested.)
  • Separate your “work” area from your “living” area. This includes your phone and computer. If you’re a gamer, you should use a separate computer, or maybe a separate alias. Or hit up the Xbox like me! (I’m trying this—not the Xbox, working on another computer and in another room. It works wonders!)
  • Get dressed everyday. Don’t wear pajamas all day. It’ll make you feel less work-like. (This way, when people ring at the door, you also don’t look like a slob.)

As an add-on, here’s also an article I got today through the Freelance Writing Success newsletter:Working from Home: 4 Rules to FollowA necessary dose of self-management, indeed.work

Yzabel / August 9, 2005

The Abstracts Site: Shvoong.com

I stumbled upon this site after following an ad. Yes, sometimes I click on AdSense banners; somewhere in the world, maybe some blogger has been cheered up by my click appearing in their reports. Anyway—I gave a try to Shvoong.com, more out of curiosity than of real hopes to make money through it, I admit.So, what is Shvoong? Behind this word is a multi-language online database containing abstracts about books, ideas and concepts (said abstracts being written by the members themselves, who can earn money each time they’re read). The idea behind it is to provide summaries on the most topics possible, so that visitors can quickly have access to them. It’s not meant to provide full information, only summaries (usually in about 300, 600 or 900 words). Readers also have the opportunity to rate the abstracts; the better rated an abstract is, the better it brings money to its author. Probably this wouldn’t be much money, of course, unless one writes ten or twenty abstracts a day, perhaps.The concept is nice. Whether it really works or not, this is another matter, but it’s nice regardless.abstract, shvoong, writing

Yzabel / August 8, 2005

Improving One’s Writing?

This post has originated from an answer to Mina in an e-mail; as I was starting to go on a tangent, I kept it short there, but then thought that I could indeed develop the point a little further.There is a lingering conception in France that “writing is an innate talent”, “writing can’t be learnt”, “either you know how to write or you don’t”. I’m not sure where this comes from; it may simply be some reminiscence from our literary past smelling of elitism. Regardless, I strongly disagree. Talent enters the game to a certain extent only; the rest can indeed be learnt and perfected through advice and practicing—and, like I’ve discovered, much to my dismay, “talent” can also decay with time and lack of said practicing!In writing like in many other domains, I believe that nothing is ever completely carved in stone. Structures change. The most popular genres change. Story organizing change as well. We wouldn’t write nowadays like novelists were doing in the 18th or 19th century—well, we could, but I wouldn’t bet much on getting successful in finding a publisher for such stories, or if people do, it would then be the exception that makes the rule. Not exactly a nice dream for any young writer to aspire to.Read More