I wanted to keep 3S_stories . . . → Read More: Hash it out – My next great Twitter adventure]]> When I started 3S stories on Nov 17,2008, my goal was to tweet  a short-short-short story five days a week for a year. With the exception of a couple weeks holidays, I pulled it off. I learned a lot about editing, about impact, and more importantly, about the social value of Twitter.

I wanted to keep 3S_stories a pure fiction venue. But the social  nature of Twitter wouldn’t allow it. I found myself getting LOL replies, and laudatory DMs, and retweets that increased my followers by ten or 15 people a week. I replied with thank yous, responded in kind by retweeting my faves. Before I knew it, I was part of a community; sharing jokes, having conversations, doling out support and advice and receiving the same in return. I don’t have the most followers but the ones I have, I like.

Which brings me to my Twitter meme/goal/conspiracy for 2010: The Hashtag.

The hashtag functions as a sort of collective bookmark on Twitter. It’s that addendum to a tweet marked with an ‘#’.  They allow  tweets on a theme or topic to be archived and easily searched. You can see examples under Trending Topics on the right hand side of your Twitter page.

Here’s some example I contributed to the Dec 31st #BadDoctorWhoSynopsis:

Other examples from  November:

3S_stories@JodiMacArthur Captain Ahab’s Seafood Palace? Christine’s Drive-In ? Fried and Freshly Juiced? The Crepes of Plath? #literaryrestaurants

JodiMacArthur@3S_stories: That’s ridiculous. How about. Lord Of The Fries?

Chris Farley was my Sensei, David Spade my sparring partner. #iamabadninja

Uniform accidentally bleached, I am limited to missions in the Arctic.#iamabadninja

Fleeing pursuer I forward roll over parked car, get hit by passing city bus.#iamabadninja

Get the idea?

Hash tags provide context. They leverage the social aspect of Twitter and invite participation, which is a direction I want to go with 3S_stories.

Will you join me in creating random acts of creativity?  All that’s required is that you be brief, be relevant, and interesting. You can do that, can’t you?

Prom King and Queen of My Twitter Stream

One . . . → Read More: Things I Forgot in 2009]]> No obligatory year in review post this year. Nope. Not gonna do it.
It’s been a good year, but a busy year. I had a lot of things I’d made notes to share that wound up  missed, ignored, left for dead, or flat-out forgotten. Here are a few of them.

Prom King and Queen of My Twitter Stream

One of the people I started following on Twitter was JC Hutchins. This was for a couple of reasons. First, he’s funny.  Second,  the way he uses twitter as marketing and promo tool is genius. He includes judicious doses of humour, humility, pride, and a certain non-annoying business savvy that I wish more people (including me) had.

Mighty Mur, of the I Should Be Writing podcast was another early find. An artful purveyor of promotion, her balance of personal anecdote and  information is served up in a very human and humane style. In particular, I’ve grown fond of her use of hashtags. So much so, in fact, it has inspired a new creative direction for 3S_stories in 2010 (more info next post).

Nov 17 – My First Year of Online Socializing

Yup, one year. Prior to November 2008, I used the web pretty much like my own personal library. Lots of information, and very little interaction. My work schedule changed and I found myself on a compressed shift, working my 40 hours from 6am to 7:30pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Well, this had some impact on the ol’ social life. Who’s at work when I’m off? Everybody, that’s who. Who’s hitting the town when I’m putting my PJs on? Everybody.  I started with the Six Sentences community on Ning, hooked up with the 13 Stitches crowd, and started tweeting my Short-short-short stories under the 3S_stories moniker. Twitter became my fave hang, and #fridayflash became my writing vice.

My online experience became more satisfying as it became more specific. Slowly, I got to the point  where I was following and being followed by interesting, benevolent, intelligent, funny people. Yay, internet!

Conspiracy Theory #13 a-1: The Google Quest for World Domination.

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but not much.
If you jump to the most interesting, least provable conclusion, all circumspect and hearsay evidence points to Google upsetting the existing Telco infrastructure and business models in the coming years. The purchase of Gizmo5 & rolling it into Google Voice, patents for sea-going data centres, white space lobbying, and the emergence of Google Wave all point to traditional phone lines & services becoming redundant. In the 21st century, all businesses are data businesses, whether they understand it or not. Google does.

Technorati Tags: google, Social Network, Writing

In the days following, my Google reader was spewing forth post after post after post on the subject of ebooks, e-readers, the perils of self publishing, the possibilities of self publishing, the perils of traditional publishing, and the significance of the pickle . . . → Read More: The eBook Adventure]]> On a cold, lazy  Sunday afternoon, I decided to publish an eBook using Smashwords.

In the days following, my Google reader was spewing forth post after post after post on the subject of ebooks, e-readers, the perils of self publishing, the possibilities of self publishing, the perils of traditional publishing, and the significance of the pickle (those of you finding that last bit to be an artless and confusing non sequitur rather than a clever-but-dated cultural reference are advised to pick up an Arlo Guthrie album or two).

The proliferation of differing opinions points to a world of opportunity. I don’t think anyone knows, or can predict what happens next in this fledgling market. Well, perhaps one certainty: People with these shiny new devices will be looking for something to read on them. The challenge will be in connecting with these consumer.

I’m still taking it all in.  I’ll likely publish another e-book, and when I do, I’ll use everything I learned from this little experiment.
One thing I feel certain about is that the quest for us writer types will be getting noticed. How will we become the easiest to find needle in the haystack?
Had I not uploaded my files and clicked the big ol’ PUBLISH button on Sunday, I probably wouldn’t have, given what I read on Monday and Tuesday. Was the internet watching, waiting for me to publish so as to righteously confuse, confound, and frighten me with it’s news and opinions on the matter? Maybe. I’m almost paranoid enough to buy that line. The truth is, I don’t know or care.

I did what I did for the following reasons:

I  Believe in Technology.  More specifically, I believe in participating in, messing about with, and coming to terms with new technology. Whether we like it or loathe it, we need to be familiar enough with technology  to articulate our preferences.  Innovation is not going to stop. In the years to come, we will be inundated with change, often much faster than we would like.

I wanted to take responsibility for my own work. I’m not afraid of rejection, but I don’t go looking for it, either.
It could be months of not knowing, not being able to re-submit. Why let an editor in some far-flung locale decide if people will or won’t like my story? Tools exist to take them out of the equation, and go directly to the readers in the form of websites, twitter, blog posts, and self published  eBooks.  The feedback loop is shorter, more responsive, and more varied. Is that better than being vetted and edited by traditional means? Don’t know, don’t care.

I like to learn. Yeah, that makes me sound like a big geek. But you know what? I AM a big geek.
One of the most important things I’ve figured out as an adult (and I use that term loosely), is that if you stop learning, you’re fucked. The less you know and understand, the greater the opportunity for others to take advantage of your naivete, and sell you a time share, an Amway franchise, or three cheeseburgers for a dollar. If you want a degree, you need to go to University. If you want to learn, all you need is a library card and some bandwidth. Get your hands dirty. Take chances. Remember what works and what doesn’t.

It looked like it might be fun: This goes back to being a geek, I suppose. I come from a long line of tinkerers. Where my father and grandfathers had wood lathes, band saws, and a never ending assortment of chisels, I have SQL databases, Java IDEs, and an irresponsible and under-used cavalcade of Google APIs. Making stuff, and making stuff up is fun. My workshop is digital, and sawdust free. Music, comic strips, short stories - it’s all fun and games to me.

If you want to publish an eBook, I say go for it. Just have a clear idea of why you’re doing it, and what you hope to get out of it.

Technorati Tags: eBook, e-reader, DIY

For example, I just published an ebook.

Oh, did I mention I also made a promo film for it? Enjoy the short film, then head over to my  publications page to find out . . . → Read More: Something’s Not Right #ebook #free]]> What I love most about the internet is that it makes it easy to do things that you didn’t even know you wanted to do.

For example, I just published an ebook.

Oh, did I mention I also made a promo film for it? Enjoy the short film, then head over to my  publications page to find out how to get a copy for free.

Yup, free. I like you guys so much that I’m giving it away until December 21, 2009.

Before committing to National Novel Writing Month, I sat down with the calendar and a calculator. Given my oddball work schedule and various and sundry commitments, my daily word count would have to exceed the magic 1667 per diem. I was looking at 2631 words per available day. Some . . . → Read More: A NaNoWriMo Debrief #nanowrimo]]> I came, I saw, and I got conquered.

Before committing to National Novel Writing Month, I sat down with the calendar and a calculator. Given my oddball work schedule and various and sundry commitments, my daily word count would have to exceed the magic 1667 per diem. I was looking at 2631 words per available day. Some days I just made the count, some days I surpassed it, and other days I fell monstrously short. In all, I wound up with just over 27,000 words.

Am I upset that I didn’t hit the magic 50,000? A little bit, but not much. You see, I had a secondary goal. I wanted to see what I would learn about myself as a writer.

My preferred format is the short story, and I was nervous about attempting a novel. Could I organize that much material? Would my fingers seize up from the typing? Did I have any ideas worthy of a novel length story? The only way to find out was to do it, so I did. Here’s what I learned:

I have a very short long term attention span. After two weeks, I missed my other activities. I like to keep up with technology and gadgets, dabble in a little coding, and muck about with new software. When I got my Google Wave invite, I lost it. Total geek-o-rama for 48 hours, and I loved it. From there, it was back into the neglected feed reader to get lost in bits and bytes about neuro-plasticity, artificial intelligence, my beloved Android phone, and cartoons. I thrive on switching gears.

I missed my reading time. All output and no input makes Trev a dull boy. Ideas beget ideas, and stories beget stories. If you want to stand on the shoulders of giants, you need to make the acquaintance of those giants. Around week three, I threw in the metaphorical towel and picked up novels by Gabriel Garcia Marquez  and TIm Dorsey. I’m back in my happy place, and I like it here. I already have two new short story ideas & revisions for another existing project.

There’s more than one type of writing. The physical act of writing, putting the words on the page, is one of them. The other is the creating and organizing part, the imagination game, as I like to call it. The act of figuring out the who, what, where, when, and how of your story. The latter is my favorite part. I simply like making stuff up.  NaNoWriMo’s emphasis on the former was a challenge. I found I squeezed out some interesting ideas under the weight of deadlines and daily word count, but I had to leave them unshaped and uncared for while I chased the mighty 50k. This bugged me. I felt a real need to balance the typing and the creating.

Along the way, I discovered some tools, some tricks,  met some new and interesting people, and had some fun.
Was National Novel Writing Month worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? Maybe. Will I continue to edit, revise, and build on the 27000 words committed to the hard drive? Yes.  But first, I am finishing my book.

Technorati Tags: nanowrimo, Writing

When your crouched in an aisle in the back of the poorly lit corner of the university library, surrounded by 2 years worth of the Journal of Pop Music, you’ll know. You’ll know because you will look . . . → Read More: How you’ll know. #fridayflash]]> Another from the Six Sentences Archive to finish off National Novel Writing Month. This was originally shared January of 2009.

When your crouched in an aisle in the back of the poorly lit corner of the university library, surrounded by 2 years worth of the Journal of Pop Music, you’ll know. You’ll know because you will look up and see a woman in a simple paisley peasant skirt and a mom-knit sweater, her frizzy red hair corralled by a sky blue hair band. She’ll hike up her skirt, sit in the middle of the aisle three feet away, and pull her own year’s worth of journals off the shelf. She’ll tell you she’s researching the influence of Latvian bugle calls on house music, and asks what your searching for. You tell her Indonesian punk rock, circa 1992 and she raises an eyebrow. Then she smiles, pushing her constellation of freckles into new patterns. Pulling her backpack to her side, she removes a tupperware container of home made cookies, pops the lid and offers you one.

I notice the orange cones that mark a ladder sticking out of a manhole cover, and I look because I am the curious sort.

A head and shoulders emerge, the eyes . . . → Read More: Some Folks. #fridayflash]]> During National Novel Writing Month, I am highlighting a selection of my contributions to the 6 Sentences Social Network. This was originally posted in March of  2009.

I notice the orange cones that mark a ladder sticking out of a manhole cover, and I look because I am the curious sort.

A head and shoulders emerge, the eyes darting about like a rabbit at the mouth of a well hidden hutch. The worker sees me and calls out “Hey mac – you got a screwdriver on ya? maybe a dime or a jack knife? Something, anything to turn a small screw and make an adjustment to the gear ratio before this city  starts losing time . We might miss the next generation by almost a month.”

I pull the lining of my pockets out, signaling my lack of relevant tools, and pose my own question: “Are there really alligators down there?” The city worker looks at me and shakes his oil smudged head in bewilderment.

“Some folks will believe anything,” he mutters  descending the ladder.

This was supposed to be a simple, straight forward time travel story. It has expanded to includet mythological figures, redneck vigilantes, healthy doses of game theory, and the ghost of Marshal MacLuhan leaning over my shoulder . . . → Read More: No man is an island, but some of us are sponges. #nanowrimo]]> Week two started with an interesting revelation: My brain is a sponge. Writing is what happens when that sponge gets squeezed.

This was supposed to be a simple, straight forward time travel story. It has expanded to includet mythological figures, redneck vigilantes, healthy doses of game theory, and the ghost of Marshal MacLuhan leaning over my shoulder offering narrative suggestions.

Ye olde subconscious is offering up absolutely everything that ever held my attention for more than 30 seconds for inclusion in this first draft. That’s 40 years of infatuation, intrigue, titillation, outrage, and confusion gushing forth.

I’m elated  that so many ideas pop to the surface at the simplest sign of encouragement . However, trying to get them all to play nice and fit together is daunting. It occurs to me that this may very well be why I write – to make more room for soaking up more information. It’s my intrinsic de-frag algorithm. It’s how  clean house, organize existing data, and make room for more.

To aid in that metaphorical house cleaning, I have started a MindMap of the story’s constituent parts:

I find this works great for a visual thinker like myself. I can take a look and realize ‘ yeah, I need 1000 words about the Orientation meeting,’ and I instantly have a writing goal. Nice thing is, the FreeMind software cooperates with the ThinkingSpace program on my mobile. So if I get inspired while in the line up at the grocery store, it just takes a couple of clicks, to add an event, character, or a quick note.

Technorati Tags: nanowrimo, Writing

The clouds rolled and churned in the sky, each revolution darker than the last, until the sun was gone entirely and the air grew heavy and damp. Little Charles was . . . → Read More: Weatherman #fridayflash]]> During National Novel Writing Month, I am highlighting a selection of my contributions to the 6 Sentences Social Network. This was originally posted in May of  2009.

The clouds rolled and churned in the sky, each revolution darker than the last, until the sun was gone entirely and the air grew heavy and damp. Little Charles was restless, his wrinkled 2 month old body kicking and wriggling, his face scrunching in preparation for some serious bawling.
Emma put him down, hoping to preempt a fit, and he calmed and snuggled into his blankets. The clouds grew thinner and whiter and began to part, the sun peaking around their edges. Playing on a mother’s hunch, she picked Charles up again and the clouds went gray, and a cold wind came out of the East as he fussed and mewled.
The doctor said he though it might be autism, but Emma suspected something much worse.