2023

Wrapping up 2023, and Welcome to 2024!

The image to the left takes you to the home screen which lists all major topics.

To search this blog you have to use the desktop version of this blog.

This link will show all 2023 posts.

After reviewing last year's targets I concluded that I didn't accomplish anything his year... Seriously?!?

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #1 - Write a Lot

Countdown + Writing

The final tip on the final day of 2023 is very straightforward and way too obvious: write a lot. Write some more. Read a lot. Write again.

After a while building sentences becomes something automatic. You'll reach the stage where you'll effortlessly find the right words to describe the scene in your mind. This just takes practice. So write a lot, read a lot, then write even more.

Note: using a decent keyboard and some blind typing helps a lot here!

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #2 - Shock Yourself And Your Reader

Countdown + Writing

Shock yourself and your reader.

What's the most exotic, outrageous thing your character would do? Would he / she really do it? Does the story lend itself to that? If so, create a situation where your character would do exactly that... the impossible, the unthinkable, the illogical (not from the character's point of view, mind you).

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #3 - Character Sheets

Countdown + Writing

In general I don't see much use for extensive character sheets. I even tend to skip as much of world building as I can get away with. I did find it useful to make a small char sheet for my main cast. Not to flesh them out and delve into their deepest secrets and hidden background.

My reasons are much more ordinary: I don't want to get caught out.

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #4 - Switch Off That Brain!

Countdown + Writing

Don't overthink. Or from a broader point of view: don't brood. Don't whine. Don't worry.

Advice is what it is: an opinion of another person. Listen to them, learn from them, but don't depend on them.

It's an odd dilemma: you must learn from others, to avoid their mistakes, and to improve your own work. On the other hand you must develop a spine. (Yeah, that's a little harsh, but read on...)

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #5 - Do the Math!

Countdown + Writing

We're past Christmas, and a couple of days away from New Year's Eve. And so I think it is time to combine mathematics with the art of writing:

It's easier to add than to subtract.

Removing a plot line, a character, a chapter or a scene, all of that is way harder than adding something.  Anything. (Especially adding spelling errors is easier, but that's not the point.)

Write short. Concise. Focused. You can always expand later.

Video Encoding - H265 vs NVidia Enc vs CPU vs 1080p vs 720p vs...

Datatalk

Goodie. There are so many (good) video codecs these days that it is hard to pick one... Or not?

There are some very decent explanations of the different formats on the Internet... but, as usual, I just had to figure it out and see for myself 😇

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #6 - Bang It Right The First Time!

Countdown + Writing

Use a (real) keyboard.

Don't write on your phone. Instead, use a real keyboard (and a real screen). A tablet (with an external BT keyboard) will work, but nothing beats that big piece of screen real estate in front of you.

If you can afford it, go big. 27", or even 2x 27" or some ultrawide thingy. And don't forget you'll be editing as well! If you use an editor (as in: a person, not the software 😏) it can be nice to show the editor's and your own version side by side.

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #7 - Making a Scene

Countdown + Writing

You're stuck.

In the countdown to 2024 I'm sharing a bunch of the most obvious tips with the poor victims that landed on this blog. Hey! You're one of them! So, what should you do when you want to write but you're stuck?

Close your eyes...

Jessica Brody – Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

Writing + Book Review

After Janice Hardy's Plotting Your Novel I had to get this one as well, as it has a great reputation and addresses similar topics... though it's quite a different book and concept in the end. 

This book uses the ‘beat sheet’ approach used by Blake Snyder to create and improve tv- and movie-scripts. Following a specific script or method might be your thing, or it might not, so I approached this book with a bit more caution.

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #8 - Write What the Reader Wants

Countdown + Writing + Wallpaper

Tip number 8 is so obvious that it hurts. And it hurts doubly so, because it effectively means that you have to sell your soul.

Write what the reader wants.

... but that's unfair! Should you shelve your dreams and go low and commercial?

Countdown to 2024 - Nine Writing Tips Before Christmas - #9 - Write readable

Countdown + Writing

Actually, it's nine hints before the end of the year, but this sounds better 🤔😁

Matt asked me for nine tips... Hmmm... So, here's number 9:

Write Readable

... but that is not a tip. That's the same thing I tell everyone.

A.J. Hackwith - Hell's Library - The Library of the Unwritten

Audiobook Review.

Books about libraries will always have a special place in the SF / Fantasy reader’s heart. In most novels featuring libraries these ‘arcane’ (in the most loose sense of the word) collections of books allow access to other places or alternate realities. I think my first encounter was via Pratchett’s librarian, but there are many more.

So, here's another one to add to the list 😏

USB-C / Thunderbolt / USB4 / USB-C Docking Stations

Datatalk / USB Standards.

I needed to figure out what kind of USB-C cable I needed for a docking station, and then things got complicated really fast 😁

So, did you know that you don't need high speed cables if you want to connect (multiple) monitors over USB-C? Or that different combinations of adapters, cables and devices offer different charge speeds because they negotiate -- if they're all new enough, of a decent quality, and have a chip? Read on...

Janice Hardy – Plotting Your Novel

Writing / Book Review.

I've recently bought some books to become a better writer, and some of those were Janice Hardy's.

At 300 pages this one’s a bit bigger, and of the three Janice Hardy books I’ve picked up this one feels the most like a real ‘text book’, something to study. You can actually buy a companion ‘work book’ to work out the questions at the end of each chapter, but you don't really need it.

Writer's Block - The Sequel

Writing.

I strongly believe there is no such thing as 'writer's block'. (I do believe in procrastination though.) 

But if there is, then the only cure I know of is writing bad poetry. Preferably so bad your brain tries to crawl out through your ears from pure terror.

Let's have another go at it... 

Here's a new ditty, and after that my umpteenth attempt to translate a (horrible and disgusting) Dutch one...

Lauren Dane - Goddess with a Blade

Audiobook Review.

A hardboiled detective / supernatural investigator femme fatale, doing her thing in Sin City? Promising…

Or, perhaps, not. Few action scenes, some romantic stuff, cock sucking, more access scenes, repeat ad nauseum. If you like sex scenes in your books, sprinkled with some Vampire hormones then go and read this. I gave up after a couple of chapters. Explicit sex scenes every other chapter just ain’t rocking my boat. If it’s yours then there are at least 5 sequels to work your way through.

Monitor Kleur Kalibratie... Lekker Goedkoop (Dutch)

Datatalk + Dutch

Je zou een ton apps verwachten, welke allemaal claimen dat ze je helpen je monitor te kalibreren... Maar nee. En de paar welke ik gevonden heb waren niet echt indrukwekkend. Dus wat te doen als je geen colorimeter hebt?

Uiteindelijk ben ik maar voor de goedkoopste oplossing gegaan: met het blote oog. (Da's altijd fout, maar soms heb je geen andere optie.)

Monitor Color Calibration... On the Cheap (English)

Datatalk

You'd expect to find tons of apps that would claim to aid in monitor calibration, but there aren't that many... and the few I tried were not very impressive. So, unless you have an actual colorimeter, you're pretty much on your own.

I tried some things but in the end I had to settle for the cheapest solution: eyeball it. (Which is always wrong, but sometimes all that's left.)

Wallpaper - Galactica

Wallpaper

Symbology aside (right) the BattleStar Galactica wallpaper is a great 2h wallpaper.

(Click on the image to enlarge.)