http://rascaleriter.com Ferreting out the stuff writers really need to know. Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:11:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In yesterday's post, I wrote about how important it is for would-be online novelists to carefully consider what multimedia elements they want to include in their multimedia novels. Today, I want to focus on a different kind of product--something that, while sometimes referred to as a multimedia novel, is not. The heart ... http://rascaleriter.com/when-does-a-multimedia-novel-stop-being-a-multimedia-novel More authors every day are making the decision to post novels or excerpts online. Some have chosen web posting as an alternative to print-on-paper because of the rich elements they can include online, such as songs, videos and hyperlinks. Images, too, fall into this category because, while they're sometimes elements of ... http://rascaleriter.com/posting-your-multimedia-novel-online-dont-let-the-fancy-stuff-get-in-the-way-of-the-story There are quite a few software packages designed to help writers deal with their text in the form of blocks.  Generally, the idea is to give writers a way to create and use notes on the computer in the same way they could do with notecards and stacks of paper in the ... http://rascaleriter.com/like-to-work-with-text-blocks-check-out-mindola-softwares-supernotecard Tia Nevitt of Tia's Writing Blog has put together some great information to help writers get the most out of Microsoft Word.  The principles she's outlined can easily be extended to other word processing tools as well, though you'll need one that supports outlining features to make full use of ... http://rascaleriter.com/tia-nevitts-tips-and-tricks-for-your-manuscripts With the free Zoho Creator, setting up a database is as easy as Click & Drag.  It literally will take you moments to get up and running. If you've already got data in Excel spreadsheets, etc., Zoho Creator's easy import functionality will let you add it in seconds. It's really designed for ease-of-use.  Seriously, ... http://rascaleriter.com/need-a-database-for-your-characters-settings-etc-check-out-zoho-creator-and-zoho-db You might want to take a look at a new tool called Tabbery if any of the following describes you: you hate having to constantly move desktop windows out of the way to see other ones; you sometimes wish you could save your current set-up of files, webpages, etc. for easy access; you ever ... http://rascaleriter.com/get-organized-with-tabbery KallOut lets you search the web from any web page, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel or Powerpoint) document or Adobe PDF.  It's easy to use and extremely helpful. It's free, too! Basically, when you highlight a word or set of words, KallOut adds a little icon above the highlighting.  You click on ... http://rascaleriter.com/kallout-a-handy-little-search-gadget Authors sometimes find it really tempting to use song lyrics in a novel or story. The words of the song are just so powerful and so right that... well, they need to be there. If you're considering using song lyrics in your work of fiction, you may want to come up ... http://rascaleriter.com/song-lyrics-in-fiction For the last few months, I've participated in the beta testing of a site called TWINE.  As of today, it's open to the public.  If you get a chance, check it out. TWINE's a great way to pull together research material from various sources.  It's both a social networking and a web ... http://rascaleriter.com/twine-goes-public In addition to doing full edits on my works now and then, I periodically make a pass through all my works, focusing primarily on the first three chapters.  I try to read them as if I've never seen them before. They get a little better each time I revisit them because ... http://rascaleriter.com/those-all-important-first-chapters