Author Archives: Craig

Tools for Writers

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Posted by Craig on September 1, 2010 – 6:10 pm
Filed under Writing
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Yesterday a most tragic event happened.

I lost all my writing.

Well, I lost what I had done that day, 1,942 words. And I have no idea how it happened. I keep backups, and incremental versions of each file I use. So when I begin my writing for the day, I make a copy and rename it. IE: Noah Vale v1.08.odt would become Noah Vale v1.09.odt. Then I go about my writing for the day. I use both my PC and my Laptop, so I regularly copy the files between them, and haven’t had a problem until now.

Somehow, my V1.09 disappeared completely. The only possibly explanation I can think of thus:

  1. I copied the latest files to my laptop
  2. I updated the version numbers
  3. I did my writing
  4. I forgot that I did my writing.
  5. I copied the files to my laptop again.
  6. I remembered that I did my writing, but couldn’t find it.
  7. I paniced.

Of course, this makes no sense, as I’m very careful about my writing. But this mishap made me thing more closely about the software tools I use when I write.

For the actual writing, I use a combination of OpenOffice.Org and Q10. Q10 is a nifty little program that removes all distractions when you write. All you get is a black screen, and text. Nothing else. It even replicates the sound of a typewriter, which strangely enough, helps immensly. I heartily recommend it if you have trouble being distracted by the internet. Q10 is my program of choice when writing the first draft, because I can just pump the text out with no thought of anything else but the story.

When I’m doing the second draft, I want more formatting abilities, so I use OpenOffice.org. I used to use MS Word, but I truly hated the latest version, when they introduced the horrid ‘ribbon’. Open Office Writer is what Word used to be, a simple easy to use word processor.

My programmer friends would have be use LaTeX. It’s a document markup language, and if you don’t know what that is, think HTML for writing books. And I tried it, I honestly did, but what they don’t understand is there’s a difference between programmers and writers. I don’t care what is working behind the scenes when I write my book, I just need it to be as easy as possible so I don’t need to stop and think about how to do things. LaTeX is good if you have a scientific mind, or if you care about how the software treats your files ‘behind the scenes’. But if you just want to write easily, then forget about it.

Another piece of software my programmer friend tried to get me to use was GIT. It’s a version control system, meaning it handles revisions of documents, keeping every version of the file as you make each change – which basically means it would automate what I was doing manually. On the surface, this sounded great, but when I tried to use it I found it was immensely complicated, and not designed for writers at all. It’s programmers software. I want something easy and simple, because I should be concentrating on writing my book, not trying to remember how to commit the changes I made.

As long as I’m talking about tools for writers, I want to mention one more that is extremely useful for planning out your story.

yWriter is a great program for planning a novel. It helps you break up your novel into chapters and scenes, plan out the timeline, flesh out the characters… it does pretty much everything. I used to use this a lot. Now, I just write everything out in office documents, but if planning a novel is confusing to you, check out yWriter. It’s great.

A self-doubty kind of feeling

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Posted by Craig on August 24, 2010 – 7:30 pm
Filed under Blog, Writing
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Today, while searching for something that doesn’t really matter, I came across some old writing I did about ten years ago. The first book I actually set out to write was called “Roovantis in Mesunoc” (which,by the way, were just words I made up).

I’d forgotten all about this. It was an extremely lame story about a guy who was kidnapped from Earth, taken to a fantasy world and given an epic quest. But it got me to thinking, so I went back and re-read a lot of other things I’ve written as well.

And it led me to one conclusion. I was a really awful writer when I first started. The text was full of cliche’s and one-dimensional characters. The plot meandered all over the place, with no clear direction or focus. It was abismal.

And now, the trouble is, reading that has left me with a depressing, self-doubty kind of feeling. When I wrote that stuff ten years ago, I thought I was good. I had no idea how bad it was.

What if that’s still the case? What if I’m wasting my time writing, when I should be doing something completely different? What if I’m like those horrible people on Australian Idol who think they’re amazing singers, but end up being incredibly bad? They had no idea.

I know some people would say, write for yourself. Therefore it doesn’t matter if you’re good or not, but I disagree. I write so that other people can read it and be entertained. I’m already a writer, but my goal is to be a GOOD writer.

Am I wasting my time?

To be honest, I was perfectly happy until I read these old writings a few hours ago. Maybe its just a bad mood. Maybe it’ll blow over, and I can go back to being blissfully ignorant.

I really wish I had something published. That’s like professional validation that you have reached the next level of writing skill. If writing were an RPG, then I feel like I’ve been grinding for years and have never levelled up.

I hope tomorrow brings happy thoughts.

Crawling back into books

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Posted by Craig on August 16, 2010 – 8:54 am
Filed under Reading
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A few weeks ago I bought myself a Kobo Ebook Reader. Kobo Ereader As a teenager I used to read a lot. I devoured fantasy books – but now I haven’t anything in a long time. The Kobo eReader came preloaded with 100 ebooks, classical books half of which I will never read anyway, but some of which I’ve been curious about.

Currently I am reading The Works of Edgar Allan Poe and its confusingly not what I expected. The first ‘piece of writing’ that came up was an essay called The Philosophy of Furniture, which is exactly like it sounds. Basically its about interior decorating, and how rich people judge themselves by how expensive their furtnure is.

Another story, called The Sphinx, was about a guy seeing a horrible giant monster on a far-away hill, then realising it was actually an insect quite close to his face. Very :|

I have high hopes though, as I’m not very far into it yet. It was one of the free-books that came with the Kobo. The only eBook I have actually purchased was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, and I regret every dollar spent. It’s a horrible book by an amateurish author, and I couldn’t even finish it. Although a bad book, it gives me hope that if Dan Brown can achieve success, then so can I :D

Cube Puzzle

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Posted by Craig on August 1, 2010 – 2:53 pm
Filed under Papercraft
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Here is a papercraft puzzle, 7 different shapes fit together to make a 3×3 cube. The template is available HERE.

Papercraft 3x3 Cube Puzzle

Various Lovecraft/TSW inspired Papercraft

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Posted by Craig on August 1, 2010 – 2:51 pm
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I honestly can’t remember where I found these, it was various places on the net.

Some various Lovecraft-inspired Papercraft

Cubee Mario and Luigi

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Posted by Craig on August 1, 2010 – 2:50 pm
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Here are two quickie’s I made. Cubee versions of Mario and Luigi, taken from HERE.

Papercraft Mario, Luigi Cubee

Papercraft Magic Cube

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Posted by Craig on August 1, 2010 – 2:43 pm
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Here’s a little papercraft toy I made.

If you’d like to make one yourself, you can get the template here.

My strange weird fear of talking to people

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Posted by Craig on July 30, 2010 – 2:48 pm
Filed under Blog

Alright, I’ve decided to take the plunge and blog about something deeply personal. I have a strange fear of talking people. I’m hesitant to call it a phobia, because it comes and goes.

I guess its best described by example. Today I planned to go to the smash repair place and get a quote on repairs to my car. I rang them a few days ago and they said there’s no need to make an appointment. I can just come in and get a quote, it wouldn’t take long. He sounded like a nice guy.

I already put it off for a few days, so today I decided to get it over and done with. It’s just a quote, after all. But as I drove down there I became intensely nervous, and I can’t really explain why. The thought of having to go in and explain to them that I crashed my car and needed a quote on repairs was scary. I felt like I was going to a job interview and they were going to judge me.

But at the same time, I know how silly that sounds. He sounded perfectly nice on the phone. They get paid to be nice to people. Yet still I couldn’t stop being nervous.

And then, of course, nothing can ever be easy for me.

When I got there, there was absolutely nobody around. There were two cars, but no staff at all. I waited in the office for a few minutes, nobody turned up, so I quickly left.

They have another place at another suburb, so I might try that one instead, on Monday.

But my point is, the thought of talking to a total stranger and explaining how I crashed my car made me terribly nervous, and I don’t know why. It’s not like I’m the first person on earth to crash their car. It’s not even a bad crash. There’s hardly any damage, and it wasn’t even my fault.

And this happens a lot. I hate talking on the phone, because I never know what they’re doing on the other end. My car insurance was cancelled, all because I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it. If I go to parties (and I should clarify, the only parties I go to are family events), I will mostly just sit there and say nothing, because I don’t know how to talk to people.

It’s not that I don’t want to talk to people. It seems like fun. I just don’t know how to, and it makes me nervous.

Am I alone, or do others feel like this too?

5 Thoughts on Alan Wake: The Signal

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Posted by Craig on July 30, 2010 – 2:35 pm
Filed under Reviews
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(only 5 thoughts cause its just DLC :D )

1. The gameplay is much the same as the main game, but harder – which is good because the main game was fun, but a little too easy.

2. It looks great, sounds great. Everything is great.

3. The story is a little minimal, compared to the main game. I know its just DLC, but still, overall I feel that I didn’t actually accomplish anything.

4. It’s a little short, but there are a few new achievements (and I’m an achievement whore), so getting those will keep me occupied for a few more days.

5. It’s great. I would have paid for it if I hadn’t had the free code.

10 Thoughts on Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo Wii)

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Posted by Craig on July 16, 2010 – 11:44 am
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1. It’s just extra levels for Super Mario Galaxy.

2. There is nothing new, apart from Yoshi, but then he’s hardly new.

3. One level is taken straight out of Super Mario 64. How’s that for laziness?

4. A few boss battles are straight out of Super Mario Galaxy.

5. You will fight Bowser a few times, and each time its exactly the same.

6. The game still uses levels, which totally have no point because if you run out, you get 4 extra for free.

7. Okay, its fun, but in an incredibly annoying, sadistic sort of way.

8. You have to shake the controller to get Mario to spin, which gets old really quickly.

9. There’s no story, but that’s not really a surprising thing.

10. The big purple guy that looks like Grimace is a bastard and I hate him! If you die, he says “You look like you’re having some trouble, maybe you should take a break.” He says this even if you’ve just started the game. STFU Grimace wannabe!!

11. I’m adding an extra point because I forgot to mention something. The game assumes you’re a complete moron and explains things multiple times over and over. It’s VERY patronising!