Wired to Write on the Move

Are you still interested in being Wired to Write? You may be wondering why there have been no recent updates. In February, 2010, I moved Wired to Write content to the new blog, Blog4Writers,  on my website.

Why you should move your subscription now: The new blog includes plenty of articles on computers, online resources, blogging, and websites. Plus, I’ve added articles on marketing, organizing, grammar and style, inspirational pieces, and reviews on books of interest to writers. I post once a week. In addition, I’ve added many static pages to my site with print resources lists and links to online resources for writers. Check out this recent post describing what’s available on my site.

There’s more. I periodically offer the opportunity for subscribers to submit guest posts. See these articles by Tracy Crump, Dianne E. Butts, and Cassandra Wessel. I also offer book giveaways from time to time.

Still not convinced? To sample the variety of content on Blog4Writers, follow these directions.

• Go to any page on my site .
• Click on the Categories drop-down menu. You’ll see a list of categories with the number of articles in that category. Choose your category, and that will bring up all the articles in that category.
• Next, try the Search feature that’s in the sidebar on each page just below the Subscribe box.
• Check out the Archives drop-down and the Tags feature if you still want to know more.

Want to stay connected as a subscriber? I tried to figure out how to move it for you, but it’s just not allowed. For those who want to move now, here’s the easiest way. Click the following link, and follow directions. Subscribe to Blog4writers by Email. If you need any help, e-mail me at akinemily@gmail.com.

Blog4writers Is Up and Running

As I mentioned in my last post, Wired to Write is moving to my new Web site at http://emilyakin.com/blog. After much brainstorming and focus grouping with online writers’ groups, I came up with the name, “Blog4writers.” Although the name is simple, I think it best describes why I started my blogs in the first place. I’ve been fortunate enough to have my work published, and I like to share what I’ve learned with other writers.

Blog4writers includes content from Wired to Write, my marketing blog, and my book reviews on writing books. I wanted to transfer subscribers from this blog to the new one, but, alas, I couldn’t do that. So, I’m going to make it as easy for you as I possibly can.

To subscribe to the new blog, click this link, and follow directions. Subscribe to Blog4writers by Email

I invite you to browse Blog4writers after you’ve subscribed. The latest post is a review of Donna Clark Goodrich’s new book,  A Step in the Write Direction. See post here.

Moving to New Blog: Need Your Help

In my last post, I announced that I was moving the content of this blog to my new Web site. Finally, the design is done, and everything from Wired to Write has been imported to the blog at www.emilyakin.com/blog.

Wired to Write content is combined with that of my marketing blog on the new site. Since both blogs were designed for writers and some of you are subscribed to both, it makes sense to combine the two.

And….you can help give the new blog a name. I have a contest running for the next week with a prize for the winning entry. See details here.

I will not post regularly on this blog in the future. I invite you to subscribe to the new blog page.

Working on New Look

The New Year is the time to make changes, right? Well, I decided I wanted to drastically change my Web site. I had been using Microsoft’s Front Page 2000 to design the site, but I was not very skillful with it. In order to make my site look up-to-date, I either needed to learn more about the software or buy another. So—I decided to check out hosting companies that offered sitebuilder software along with their hosting plans.

Making the decision was a slow process, since I am not a technical genius. I looked at Godaddy, EZ Christian Hosting, Hostgator, SquareSpace, and Webs.com. All offer free trials, and I did experiment with all of them. I won’t get into all the pros and cons of the different companies. I’ll just tell you what I decided.

Since I wanted to have a hosted WordPress site to house all my blogs, I ruled out all of the sitebuilders. However, I seriously considered Squarespace because the look and function of their designs is very much like WordPress. When I checked into pricing, though, I decided against Squarespace.  I found that, if I wanted to have my own domain name (which I already have and want to continue to use), I would have to go with the Pro plan at $14 a month rather than the $8-a-month basic plan. See pricing here.

I chose to go with Hostgator with WordPress, and here is the result: www.emilyakin.com. Hosting cost is about half what it would have been with Squarespace, and the WordPress theme was free on WordPress.org.

I’m not done yet, but I will be transferring some of this free blog’s content to my new site. If you are a subscriber, I may be able to change the feed and save you the trouble of re-subscribing. More on that later. Meanwhile, feel free to comment on my new site here on this post.

Online Bible Resources

I’m running behind schedule with my blog posts, but maybe I can get back in routine now that the holidays are behind me.

Part of observing the passing of the old year is looking back, sometimes with nostalgia and sometimes with thanksgiving. This year, as I made my writing plans, I looked back to how we used to get our writing done—with a typewriter, paper, and an eraser. A writer had to be truly dedicated to persist with those tools. Today, my job as a writer is so much easier with the technology available to me.

It’s hard to say which of the computer-based tools are the most useful, but for Christian writers, I have to say having numerous online Bible versions has to be near the top of the list. For my writing, I’ve tried to find one online source that offers all popular translations. I submit regularly to publishers who use the New International Version (NIV) or the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). In addition, I like to use The Message on my devotional blog.

All sites below offer numerous translations as well as search by keyword or by Bible passage. Let’s take a look at the details.

Blue Letter Bible

• No NRSV or The Message,
• Several commentaries including John Calvin, Martin Luther, Matthew Henry, and Charles Spurgeon,
• Study tools page features charts, outlines, encyclopedias, and dictionaries.
• Images link takes you to several maps.

Bible Gateway

• In addition to search, there’s a topical index,
• Features a number of English translations, including The Message,
• Does not have NRSV,
• Allows you to put the verse of the day on your site,
• Commentary and dictionaries available under Additional Resources.

Bible Study Tools

• Has more English translations than the others, including NRSV, NIV, and The Message,
• Parallel Bible lets you compare two versions on one search,
• Numerous resources including commentaries, dictionaries, encyclopedia, and interlinear Bible.

It can be overwhelming when you try to absorb what’s offered on these sites, so I suggest choosing one and exploring it before going to another. I like Bible Gateway, but, since it doesn’t have the NRSV, I often go to Bible Study Tools instead. Most of the time I don’t need all the stuff that’s on BST, but it does come in handy when research is needed.

I invite readers to comment on these Bible study sites and to offer suggestions on other resources not mentioned here.

Twitter Bible

I’m working on an article about the various online Bible study tools, but I’m not ready to post it yet. However, I recently discovered Twitter Bible, and I think it’s something everyone needs to see.

The Twitter URL is http://twitter.com/WWGT (What would God tweet). The writer’s moniker is Holy Ghostwriter, and the location is listed as “heaven.”  The Twitter page shows a link to an article on a Web site named Not the LA Times. Huh? And, God Himself is supposed to be the writer.

The writer attempts to craft Bible verses in the latest modern language while keeping it under the 140-character per-tweet limit. Spiced with humor, the writing is very creative.  On the Twitter venue, the writer is sure to reach some people who don’t know or have lost interest in the Bible.

Check out this example of the Twitter “translation.”

“Jesus foresees Twitter, shortens 10 Commandments to under 140 characters: Love God 110%, love neighbor like self. (Mark 12.30-31)”

OK, so I should have called it a paraphrase instead of a translation. I’m going to follow WWGT for a while and see where it goes. Check back next week for my article on the online Bible study tools.

Life Journal™ Software

Journaling is a great way to collect subject matter and organize your thoughts for your articles and stories. I still do most of my journaling on in notebooks, and I’ve tried to organize and index them as I complete a volume. However, over time, the sheer volume of my journal content has made it hard for me to find my notes on a given topic when I need it.

Last year, I purchased Life Journal™ software which was developed by Ruth Folit, a writer with 30 years experience with journaling. Lee Jones, the programmer, also is a journaler. I chose the version for writers, but there are also versions dubbed For Staying Sober, For Christians, and For Educators. It’s not as expensive as some software, and you can try it for free before you buy.

Before I share my evaluation, see this excellent summary of the features and benefits of Life Journal™ .

Pros

• Plenty of help: Once you’ve purchased the software, you have several resources to help you learn to use it effectively. On the Web site under Support, there’s a knowledge base and a number of video tutorials. I’ve also found the newsletter archives useful. Occasionally, the company offers a free webinar on how to use it.
• Search feature helps you find entries easily.
• Password protection keeps your journal entries private.
• Writing prompts to get you started.
• Life events organizer for gleaning stories from your experience.
• Submission tracker.

Cons

• It takes some time to learn to use it, and I’m still learning one year later.
• Windows search will not pick up journal entries inside Life Journal™.
• Entries that are submitted to publishers must be extracted from Life Journal™ and formatted for the publisher’s guidelines.
• Maybe it’s my age, but I don’t think my computer journaling is as effective as handwritten. I should probably give this some more time.

It’s certainly worth the time it takes to do the free trial. Priced at $39.95 at this writing, Life Journal™ provides you with experience and training in journal writing for about the price of a textbook.

See all details at Life Journal™ site: http://writers.lifejournal.com/.

Other journaling resources:

Christian Journaling

Keeping a Writer’s Journal by Sheila Bender

The Power of Journaling

Value of Journaling

Book Reviews

How to Keep a Spiritual Journal

Article Roundup

I’ve found so many good items of interest to Wired Writers that I’m sharing them with you rather than writing a new post myself.

Specifically for Writers

Web site for Newbie Writers (appears to be based in UK, but About link is not working for me today.

20 Hi-Tech Tools and Resources for Writers

Web Sites and Blogging

Author Tech Tips: The Top 5 Author Website Mistakes

New Rule for Book Review Bloggers

Online Security

5 Essential Tips to Keep Your PC Safe

Publishing Industry

Options in the Price War Over Books

If you have articles or Web site URLs to share, please post a comment. Next week, I hope to be done with my evaluation of the free brainstorming software, Personal Brain 5. If you have used this software, please contact me at akinemily(a)gmail.com.

Online Security: Passwords

Usernames and passwords are a fact of life for anyone active online. From your e-mail account to your bank account, you have to deal with keeping your login information private. And how difficult is it to remember and manage all those usernames and passwords?

Dedicated Address Book

I keep my usernames and passwords in a wire-bound address book listed alphabetically by the name of the Web site. If I change a password, I immediately record the change in the address book and make a note of the date I changed it. I use some of my logins often enough that I can remember them, but I keep the address book on my desk just in case. It almost goes without saying that you don’t store your password list on computer, but I’m going to say it anyway. Don’t make a Word file or any other file with usernames and passwords that will be saved on your computer.

Password Manager Software

It’ll cost you between $25 and $30, but you can get software that will help you manage your usernames and passwords without compromising security. The top ten are reviewed online here. I have never considered using this method because I’m a cheapskate, and, whenever you buy software, at some point you have to buy an update. However, there are people who firmly believe this is the best way to manage login info.

Secret Formula

Here’s a great idea. Develop your own formula for your passwords. If you use the same formula for every password, the password will be unique each site and easier for you to remember. Still, I’d keep them written down somewhere anyway. See this article by Daniel Scocco on DailyBlogTips.com. I’d want my formula to be simpler than his, but it is a great idea. I think I will choose five-letter word to use as the base of my formula. I will change it up by adding letters, numbers or special characters before and after it. Of course, my formula is secret, so I won’t share it with you.

Online Research: Scoping Out Your Competition

Do you have a book idea? Would you like to know what’s already published on your subject? You pretty much have to know this before you can write a book proposal. My book idea has been hanging around in the far reaches of my mind for a couple of years now. I’ve finally started researching what’s out there so that I can know if it’s worthwhile to pursue my idea. Here’s what I’ve done so far (and my results).

Search Amazon.com

First, I searched my prospective title, Write What You Know: Finding Stories in Everyday Life. Didn’t get much. Next, I shortened the title to Write What You Know. I got a long list of items with similar titles, but only one book with a similar title. See results here. Finally, I put my title in quotes “Write What You Know.” Using the quotation marks limits my results to phrases with those exact words. I got a list of several titles, but only one book could be considered current (and stock is low). See search results here.

Search Publisher’s Site

The one title I found is a Writer’s Digest book, so I went to their site. I searched my title and the ISBN number of the book on Amazon with no results at all. I have to assume that the book is out of print.

Google It

Next, I went to Google and search my original title, Write What You Know: Finding Stories in Everyday Life, with this result. I took a few minutes to browse the first few links, bookmarking the ones with content similar to what I have planned for my book. I searched again using “Write What You Know.” Results were a bit different this time. Again, I browsed the results and bookmarked new sites of interest.

What Next?

Now that I have determined that there are few books with the title I’ve planned, I will take some time to study my search results. It appears that the books that have been published on this topic apply to writing personal experience articles or adapting your experiences to fiction. My book will be a how-to for beginning article writers. It might even be a workbook before I’m done.

I’ll need to do more research by talking with publishing industry professionals and with people who teach writing. No doubt, there’s a lot of work left to do, but I’m off to a great start with what I’ve found online.

I invite comments on this blog. If you use other research methods, please share them by commenting. If you would like to write a guest post, please e-mail me at akinemily@gmail.com.