In need of a Wiki – worldbuilding delimas

I’ve been sick the past couple of weeks with a cold/sinus/headache thingie for the the past week. Horrible sore throat, post-nasal drainage, slight cough and some fever so I’ve not really gotten a lot done wordwise or beadwise.

For the first time in 3 years I missed the Shock Totem flash contest. I had several meeting for the day job and as I said I wasn’t feeling well. It was an interesting prompt though, but I didn’t get an idea. I kind of miss it.

Haven’t heard back yet on my submission, maybe that’s a good sign? *crosses fingers.

At home, I have a necklace waiting on me to finish along with a beaded purse that needs repair.

But I have been working a bit in the Shattered Soul universe. Fear Bound- that novella I finished a few weeks ago- is an origins tale. I’m letting the story sit for a while as it sparked some awesome ideas. Those ideas however are going to take some very careful planning on my part to pull off. So, I started some outlining.

Yea, me, the queen of pantsing outlining?

You better bet I’m outlining this!

This idea of mine is going to be complicated and has to be presented over several stories and books. I have to set it up so that this event is semi-tranparent to the readers but the MC has no clue. I’ll have to be pretty careful as I might go too far either way and miss the expected outcome.

So most of this past week’s work has been on an outline that will encompass  at least 2 novellas and 3 novels to start with.  I’m sure there’s some short stories to be found in this time frame too but this is just a start.

But I’ve run across a problem. My notes are starting to jump around as I realize I need to make notes on different factions, races, historical events, characters and various other information that while not crucial to actual stories is crucial to the world itself.

In other words- I’m world building and putting it on paper is turning out to be a mess.

I could put it on things like notecards or a very large word document, however, I’m not sure how all of that will work out in the long run. So I’m considering a private wiki.

Yes, a wiki.

If you’ve ever done any sort of research online, you know that at some point in time you will run across a wiki page. For the most part wikis are nice because people can add information to an article.  However, because people can add to an article doesn’t always make it true. If you can verify information from other sources on a wiki, they are probably correct.

One of the great things about wikis are its ability to link to other wiki pages. So when I’m writing about dragons on one page I can link to the page of characters of names, places and times without having a long document that I have to scroll down. I can even link it to other wiki pages if I so choose.  (and yes probably going to do this as a compare/contrast for historic events).

Now this is going to be a private wiki. Unless I want other people to take a look, it will be for my eyes only. There’s a lot of different programs out there–some free. some not. I’ve looked a a few but am still looking for recommendations. (yes I’d like free)

So what wiki program do you use and why?

Promotion 101: Blogs for beaders

There was a discussion on one of my FaceBook groups on the necessity of having a separate blog site if they already used Etsy or ArtFire. There were a variety of answers but I do feel that all artists (and writers as well) should have a blog.

Selling “You”

For one, places like Etsy or ArtFire only give a brief glimpse into the life of an artist.  Your about me page on many selling sites is a small promotional introduction designed to create a temporary interest, but as we all know, we are so much more than that. We aren’t a mysterious group who magically creates things out of thin air.  So many people are surprised that *gasp* we are pretty normal with day jobs, kids and a real life. But you can’t put all of that on your about me page.

Blogs give you the opportunity to not only sell your stuff but sell YOU.  In the modern online markeplace, consumers are looking for not only something unique but also someone they can connect to.  If they like your work and like the person you present to the world, not only will they remember to come back, but they will help draw people to you.

How you like it

Secondly, on Etsy and other selling sites, you don’t have control over some parts of your site. If someone makes a complaint, there is the risk that everything on your storefront could be banned. But if you have a blog you can set up a temporary store until you can either get things straightened up or set up somewhere else. It’s a bit complicated, however, it is better than lost income.

Blogs also give you the opportunity to personalize  your page.  I know Etsy has a standard layout that you can’t change. I don’t know about other sites, but most blogs will let you change layouts, customize colors and provide little extra  widgets for your FB, Twitter, and most liked posts.

Traffic Control

Have you ever gone to a blog that discussed a particular necklace or style of earrings but didn’t post a link to the fabulous creations?  Kind of frustrating isn’t it?

Well blogs are a great place to direct traffic to your selling sites and to other beaders or suppliers. Most blogs will allow widgets or buttons to directly link to your storefront. This way, you aren’t always having to directly link your page to your posts, unless you want to.

Shout Outs and other fun things

Blogs aren’t just about promoting you, but anything you have an interest in.  Say, you volunteer at your church or school and they have a special even coming up, POST IT!  You never know when one of your readers will be in the area and want to stop by!

Blog hops are groups of people who put together themed blogs at a particular time and then link them all together. I’ve seen some crazy ones that have you going on a treasure hunt, showcasing bead soup designs, and giveaways. The best thing about blog hops are you are introduced to new people and new things.

Shout Outs are just that.  A shout out to someone who you admire or has done something great. It’s kind of like an online high five that keeps going and going!  lol

But most of all, blogs can be fun.  You don’t have to post every day or even every week. You meet all sorts of new people and can share some interesting ideas. Yea, there might be some trolls but for the most part most of the people who comment are quite nice. You get a laugh out of the spam most of the time. Either that or scratch your head before hitting delete.

So go ahead and give it a try, it takes a while to build up an audience, but in the long run, it’s a good thing.

 

Weekend update: May 6

I usually do my updates over the weekend, however I’ve ended up with a bug and spent most of yesterday cuddled on the couch with the furballs. Not sure what this is, but the sore throat and chills are awful.  I’m at work today but I’m dead tired and if I were home, I’d just go back to bed.

But I did put a few posts online last week

First of all was May Goals

Followed by Why It’s Easier to Talk About Beading Instead of Writing

Then How Gaming Can Help with Writing  It’s TRUE! Sometimes lol.

This week, I’ll be doing a bit of Promotion 101 on blogs for some of my beady friends and other posts about…well, not sure yet.

I finished a rewrite of a short story. Original was just over 900 words but final draft was over 3,000.  AND I submitted it!

I also put together a necklace and got it sent off to a friend. Hopefully it will get there today.

I have a flash piece to write sometime today (Probably over lunch) for the Shock Totem flash contest and must submit that today also as Tomorrow will be crazy busy.

and from there I don’t know.

How gameing can help with writing (sometimes)

I posted a few weeks ago that I was in fact a Gamer Girl. I’m not hard core and I’m not ‘leet. But yea, I do enjoy playing games on the computer and consoles.

Between myself, my boys and my fiance, there’s quite a variety of games that get played on a regular basis. My youngest loves racing games. My fiance plays a lot of shoot’m ups and more sifi orientated games. My oldest likes adventure quests. Me, I like tower defense and puzzle games.

One thing that I’ve realized is games are like opening a box to a specific scene in a book.

Say you have a car chase coming up in your manuscript.  You would like to compare how a muscle car from the 70s compares to a small modern “rice burner.”  Grab a partner, turn on the console and select your cars. Generally, the muscle car power through straight stretches, while the rice burner will hug the corners. But if you modify the cars you might get a closer race than you dreamed.

This is research, believe it or not.  I don’t have a muscle car or a rice burner. Nor do I have the money to pay for the tickets that would probably ensue if I raced through town–let alone car repairs or mechanical work.  This isn’t real world hands on experience, but it is a basis for ideas and analysis.

Another example is in battles. I play League of Legends (LOL) a few times a week.  In this game characters defend their tower while trying to capture the opposing teams tower. Simple right? Not always.

This game always intrigues me because you never know what kind of players you are going to play with let alone play against. * You get first hand experience (or frustration) with inexperienced players, new characters, wrong builds/runes/skills and people of every sort of temperament.

In the real world you can’t sling magic, shoot people or cut them up with big knives/claws/teeth, without getting into a lot of trouble. In a game, you can. *insert evil grin* In solo runs I get ideas on how to counter a ranged character with a melee or how to effectively run an ambush situation. I also see how important it is to work together as a team in larger fights and how 1 person can change the tide of battle.

But LOL is at max a 5v5 game. What if I want a fight on a larger scale? Well, at one time I played World of Warcraft. Some of the dungeons had a cap of 25 and I know I ran raids with nearly 50 people in the group a few times. Yes it was chaotic with so many things going on at one time but is a real time fight going to be any different? Not for the character I’m writing.

What if i want more than 50, what if I want to see what happens when hundreds or thousands of characters meet on the battlefield?  Fellow writers, let me introduce you to EVE Online. This is where two opposing factions can face off and decide the sovereignty of an area. Yes you can literally have thousands online, fighting at one time. And except for the time dilation, it is an awesome sight to see the darkness of space lit up with the flares of exploding ships.

I can’t begin to count how many ideas I have just based on my experiences with gaming.  The people I play with inspire me, the situations help me puzzle out action scenes and yea sometimes even the plot lines will spark an idea.

So if I ever say I’m gaming, I’m not always wasting time. I’m doing important writer stuff.

Thanks for reading

*note I like playing random but do play with friends when I can.

Why it’s easier to talk about beads instead of writing.

I know I’ve been talking quite a bit about beads and lampworking, especially lately. And yes, I’m really excited about getting things going again, but don’t worry, I’ve not put aside my love of words.

You see, it’s difficult to talk about writing. With beading and lampworking, I have something I can show off–even if I have only worked on it for a few hours. My art is something physical that can (or will be) held and touched and worn and admired.

Writing isn’t that easy.  Most of my writing is done in a digital format. On occasion I do use pen and paper, but mostly to outline events. I don’t print out pages until I’m in the editing phase and sometimes I don’t even do that. And until something is published somewhere, I don’t have much to show for all the work I put into a story.

Research is done online. Believe me my search history is kind of scary. I’ve looked into everything from plagues, to disasters, to asteroids, to microbes. Psychology is a big part of my research along with drug use and military history. I’ve even looked up how to make bombs of different kinds and how different poisons affect the body.

Then there’s the actual “work” of the story. It’s pretty darn common for me to sit at the keyboard and just ‘drift away’ for a few minutes. Day dreaming is a huge part of what I do as a writer. This mental phase is where I arrange conversations, see actions and shift around events until they fit into the story. Sometimes it’s a few minutes.  Other times is almost an hour.

Lastly, there’s the frantic rush to get things on the page before the next scene crowds in. On a good day I can type up to 1000 words an hour on a story.  But frankly, that’s only after I’ve gone over the story several times and have it just right in my head. Most writing is a strange kind of leapfrog where I type a few hundred words, daydream then type a few hundred more. 

So while it is much easier to show you this and talk about some exciting new possibilities.

I assure you I am doing quite a bit of this

May Goals

Well, it isn’t quite May yet, but I do want to get some goals set here where everyone can see. That way I can’t chicken out.

My first goal is submissions.
I’ve had a story sitting in my draft folder for over a year now. On occasion it has whispered but until a few weeks ago, I didn’t really have an urge to revise it; let alone submit it anywhere–at least until now. I re-wrote it over 4 days and sent it to my beta reader. I’m crossing my fingers that it only needs a bit of tweaking before I send it out.

There’s another story that I intend on working on soon. Where There is Water needs an overhaul badly and I think I’ve found the perfect format that would link all the pieces of the story in a cohesive whole. I’ll probably print it out and start on editing this week sometime.

I’ll also look at some other markets and see what I have that is ready to send off.

Next is keeping up with my blog
I’ve not been very good with keeping this thing updated in the past year. As I’ve said, there’s been some RL things that has knocked me flat. I’ve come to terms with most of them as they are things that I can’t change. Things will work out how they will.  I will post about progress in my writing and in my studio along with my seed bead work. There will be more photos and maybe some drawings or digital work. I intend on posting at least 3 days a week.

Previous Obligations
Yea, kind of slipped up on those too. And I do apologize to those in charge. If the internet cooperates, I’ll be back on the #sffwrtcht on Wed night 8-9 pm CDT. Along with that, I’ll get back to writing blog posts and doing book reviews focusing on Urban Fantasy (UF) and other books.

I’m still a slush reader for Crossed Genres. So if you submit, there’s a chance I’ll see your story.

And yes, I still beta read for those who ask. Yes go right ahead i need more betas!

Beading
I will have at least 1 new project up on the blog by next week. There’s this lovely little necklace I’m working on for Kay Holt so that she looks awesome for a work shindig. I have the base completed, however the fringe is being a bit of a pain this weekend. I’ll have to have some very busy fingers over the next few days as I’d like to finish it up by this weekend.

I’m Going To Finally Get a STUDIO!
This is one of the things I’m most excited about this month. Being able to lampwork has been a desire of mine for a while. I’ve been working with beads for nearly 15 years and met some very fabulous people. Because of my wonderful fiance, I’m going to finally be able to reach a goal that was previously unattainable on my own. With just a few more items I will be able to play with FIRE! (insert mad cackling)

There’s some other changes coming in the next few months. I’ll let you know as things progress.  And yes, I’m excited about them all!

Oh and if you want to help thing progress a little faster, go check out my Etsy page (yes I do custom work!),

my Facebook page or

purchase one of these anthologies (which contain my work and many other fabulous authors and artists!.)

In Situ

Space Battles #6

or FISH

Weekend update April 26

It’s been a crazy week. Wed and Thurs I was in St. Louis for a work conference. I really felt like a country bumpkin and was SO glad I wasn’t driving.

Since I finished Fear Bound I started working on another short story for Crossed Genres.  This month’s theme is “Touch” and I had a vignette I started last year for one of the Show Me Your Lits contests. I’m expanding it and hope to have it finished either today or tomorrow. (and hey I even have a sort of outline for this story)

I had to do some research for this story which included:

Transgender
Reasons for muteness
Psychometry
and raised garden beds. (well that was for another project)

It makes me wonder how many authors are on a Watch List–my search history is kind of scary if you think about it. lol

Most of my posts this week have been about getting my lampworking studio set up.

What kind of beads do I want to make?

What is Lampworking?

Plan of Action

And it looks like things are coming together. A friend of mine has contacts and has an oxycon that I’ll be able to pick up next month at the Missouri Bead Retreat (MBR). That just leaves hoses and some safety equipment left. *I’ve been doing the happy dance all week when I heard the news!

So by next month, I WILL BE PLAYING WITH FIRE!

I’m off to work on my story, clean house and work with some seed beads.  Have a great weekend everyone!