- ARCHIVE / TAG ARCHIVE
- OmniOutliner — My Usage
Most who know me and know Macs, know that I love software put out by the OmniGroup. Their applications are smart, sophisticated, totally Mac-ified, user-friendly, and a host of other descriptive but over-used adjectives as well. Specifically, OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle are pretty much daily applications for me. In fact, OmniOutliner almost never closes. This article [...]
- ThursNight: January Update
Back in October, I wrote a series of posts about my experience at the Austin Film Festival. The Festival was fantastic because it really kick-started the creative process for me. I spent several weeks in a good mode.
However, all good things come to an end. The holidays began, and I was derailed.
The creative process here [...]
- REVIEW: “W.” (movie)
This evening, I had the pleasure of seeing W., Oliver Stone’s new biopic about George W. Bush. The premiere had been Wednesday in New York, and Stone screened it at the Austin Film Festival on Thursday with James Cromwell (who is perhaps nine feet tall!) in attendance and fielding Q&A after the movie.
I’ve got to [...]
- Need Snowball? Have Writing Party.
For me, writing is like a snowball. Unfortunately, I live in Texas where snowballs are rare; therefore, I have to make my own. Making your own snowball can be a blast, and recently, a friend of mine showed me a great way:
WRITING PARTY
The friend is John Ramsey. You may have seen him in some of [...]
- Tools: Scrivener
scrivener noun historical a clerk, scribe, or notary. ORIGIN Middle English : shortening of Old French escrivein, from Latin scriba (see scribe).
Thank you, New Oxford American Dictionary that came bundled with my Mac. Scrivener isn’t just some noun historical, it’s also a smashing piece of writing software from the folks at Literature and Latte (for [...]
- Blogging My Trip — What To Do?
Soon I will be posting, in some fashion, about my recent trip to Big Bend National Park. It was a fun little adventure, and I’m trying to determine exactly how it should be blogged.
On the one hand, I took my trusty moleskine with me, and I’m tempted to just transcribe that, with necessary editions (and [...]
- Romancing the Notebook
Man, I’ve gone through a drought. Perhaps not a drought of epic proportions, but I do feel like Israel waiting for Moses to tap on that rock. More than anything, I’d like to break out of this drought and get back into the glorious habit of writing daily. I’ve produced practically nothing for a couple [...]
- February Progress
This month saw my efforts on this blog gradually slow. Not surprising, I suppose. This is in keeping with my M.O. when it comes to these sorts of things. February, however, was not at all uneventful. Finished up a story, started work on editing another, and ultimately came to a decision that I had at [...]
- Progress Update for 2/21
I have not produced one of these progress updates in quite some time. This has little to do with productivity, however, and more to do with a shift in focus. While it’s easy to write brief entries about new material being produced, it is more difficult to write about the process of rewriting which has [...]
- Getting to the Tag
If you haven’t read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, you should. There are some minor spoilers in here — but you shouldn’t fret over them because I know you will go read the book prior to reading this post.
Occasionally, you read something that is so well-written, so tightly wrapped, that [...]
- REVIEW: The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
This is my review from Goodreads.
The back of this book contains a “PS” section with info about the author and a short interview. In this interview, Chabon defends genre fiction (there is also a list of his favorite genre fiction writers; Raymond Chandler tops that list). I am inclined to agree with Chabon that there [...]
- Progress Update for 1/31
Yesterday I posted about what I call writer’s block — which, admittedly, might be a little different from what you have experienced. My solution was pretty simple: Move On. So, today I did that.
I got my thousand words in nice and easy by moving to something new. My new project is a short story about [...]
- Writer’s Block? Self-Doubt? Here’s What I Do…
It’s a bit of a frustrating time for me. Superficially, some of this has to do with my n00b Ruby on Rails skills and having very little knowledge of AJAX (you might notice an increase in Rails-related bookmarks in my ma.rked on ma.gnolia posts). OK, we’ll get over that for the time being. Breathe deep–let’s [...]
- Why You Should Or Shouldn’t Blog Your Novel…
gapingvoid has an interesting little post about novels and blogs. Here is his customary business card cartoon (which cleverly accompanies every post):
Honestly, the cartoon hooked me into the article. This toon could be the subject of many blog posts (and may very well be), but for now I’d like to consider gapingvoid’s post. Essentially, [...]
- There Will Be (another viewing)
Today, Natalie and I saw There Will Be Blood, a P.T. Anderson directed morality play for the 21st century. The film pits all the wonderful intensity of a Daniel Day-Lewis performance against the odd realities of early oil prospecting and zealous religious fanatics in turn-of-the-century western United States.
I freely admit that when the credits began [...]
- Progress Update for 1/23
Update
Only half production tonight. I had left a scene for “Without Vision” uncompleted during my last writing session. I finished off that scene, putting me at what felt like a very natural stopping point. Unless the story grows outside of its current walls, I don’t expect it will be more than a few days before [...]
- Pet Peeve: “Penultimate”
OK, we’ve all got some pet peeves. As a writer, I am often annoyed when I see words misused. I understand mixing up “there”, “their”, and “they’re” — I do it myself. Homophones happen. What I can’t understand is the blatant incorrect use of words, typically because the author doesn’t really know what they mean.
<soap_box>
This [...]
- Progress Update for 1/14
Yet another progress update for those who are following along.
Story Stuff
After a weekend of fun in Austin, I got back to it tonight, putting down a little over 1,000 words for a story that is, at least in the short term, called “Lacking Vision”–or some such thing. I hope to accomplish a couple of things [...]
- Spontaneity
As I write this, Natalie and I are driving West on Highway 71 toward Austin. You may have seen my Twitter post about it. Why are we headed to Austin? There’s the beauty: Absolutely no reason!Our plan for Thursday evening was to do some office work. Acadian Imaging and sbh* headquarters (one and the same) [...]
- Story, Genre, Spielberg, and Indy
Indiana Jones is back. The February 2008 issue of Vanity Fair features an Indiana Jones cover and a bunch of great Indiana Jones content (online there’s even more cool stuff). Needless to say, I am jazzed.
The Indiana Jones films hold a near and dear place in my heart, not least because they are my earliest [...]