Caleb Woodbridge's Blog, page 3

Article on BookMachine: SEO tips for book publishers

[image error]I’m pleased that BookMachine chose an article I pitched to them as their winning blog idea for April! I explore some SEO do’s and don’ts for publishers, and how far from being a dark art, good SEO is a natural extension of how a good publisher thinks anyway. Read “Dos and don’ts for using SEO to be a better publisher” here!

The post Article on BookMachine: SEO tips for book publishers appeared first on Caleb Woodbridge.

Art and technology – what’s the difference?

A few weeks ago I visited the English L’Abri Fellowship, where one of the staff, Andy Patton, was giving the weekly Friday night lecture on the subject of How Technology Behaves. (Hopefully it will be available to listen to online on the L’Abri Ideas Library sometime soon.) It was wide-ranging, fascinating and provocative, but one element that I particularly spent time discussing afterwards was the question of the difference between art and technology, if there is one.

Andy gave a very broad...

Mass Effect Andromeda story impressions

Over the last few days, I’ve been playing the opening of Mass Effect Andromeda on PC. I’ve read lots of discussions of animations, graphics and gameplay, but not much detailed analysis of the story. So let’s have at it!

For me, the storytelling is core to the appeal of Mass Effect and Bioware’s games more generally. Where their stories really shine is in appealing, interesting characters, and in giving you choices and consequences. Your choices might only occasionally change the overall story...

Do characters have to be likeable?

A much-debated question among writers and readers is whether characters in a story have to be “likeable”. Some people can’t enjoy stories where they don’t like the characters. Others enjoy the complexities of flawed, unpleasant characters. But I don’t think likeability is the real issue.

Readers aren’t necessarily very good at describing why a book doesn’t work for them. It’s one thing to be able to sense that a story isn’t working for you, and another thing entirely to accurately diagnose th...

Be Prepared – 2 Timothy 3:10–4:8

Today I preached at Grace Church Milton Keynes for the first time, where Bev and I have been going for just over a year. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to share from 2 Timothy 3:10-4:8 on how God’s Word prepares us for endurance and fruitfulness, even when faced with suffering and persecution. You can download the audio here, or read some of my other sermons.

Introduction

Have you ever stopped to think what would you want your last words to be? We pay particular attention to someone...

Kingdom Code: What are the biases embedded in tech?

One evening a couple of weeks ago, I headed into London to attend Kingdom Code, a meet-up for Christians in digital. I’d been aware of the group mainly via Twitter, and one of my colleagues from Scripture Union on the Guardians of Ancora project team suggested I go along. I’m glad I did, because it was a really interesting evening discussing how our values shape tech and tech shapes our values.

You can listen to the audio of Andy’s introduction on the Kingdom Code blog – what follows are my n...

How Jesus’ resurrection puts the clock forward

I love it when the clocks go forward.

After the long dark nights of winter, the days have already been getting longer for a while. It’s no longer already dark when I leave work, or when I arrive in the morning.

And then with the changing clocks, we take a collective step forward. Boom! An extra hour of sunlight in the evening.

And even though officially Spring has only just begun, it’s clear that summer is coming. We’ve moved from one timezone to another, from GMT to BST, Greenwich Mean Time...

Perelandra Revisited

I’ve just had the pleasure of (re)reading Perelandra with my wife – it’s her first time, but one of many times I’ve read it. It’s possibly my favourite C S Lewis novel (against strong competition!). I first read it back when I was in secondary school, and it made a deep and lasting impression on my thinking and imagination.

Perelandra sees Cambridge philologist Dr Elwin Ransom dispatched on a divine mission to Venus (or Perelandra as it is known, hence the title), where he must prevent the Gr...

Advent, anticipation and The Force Awakens

It’s a time of eager anticipation, as across the world people of all ages and backgrounds count down to a very special day. Yes, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is only three days away from release. J J Abrams, the hopes and fears of all the years (of Star Wars fans) are met in thee on Thursday night. Of course, it’s another season too, that of Advent, which is supposed to be a time of reflection and anticipation for Christ’s birth. But perhaps the two aren’t so different…

Being a Star Wars fan...

The secret ingredient of Pixar’s storytelling success

I love Pixar’s films. Their most recent movie Inside Out was another story that combined fun characters, a clever concept, and emotional resonance. While some of their films are relatively forgettable (sorry Cars), their batting average is incredible with the likes of the Toy Story trilogy, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E and Up among my all-time favourite movies. But as someone who enjoys both receiving and creating stories, I’m fascinated to know how do they maintain such a generally h...