Robyn Paterson's Blog, page 30
June 3, 2014
Tracking Your Writing Progress
While you wouldn’t normally associate the art-driven author with something numbers-driven like a spreadsheet, the two actually go very well, together. Many authors use Excel and Google Sheets to track their word counts in an effort to improve their performance and to stimulate their productivity.
It’s a kind of psychological hack to be able to see your word counts rise each day and feel accomplished and knowing that you’re making actual progress. So recently, I decided to start tracking my own...
June 2, 2014
Kung Fu Cooking Girls
Your dose of Kung Fu action, served with a side order of fun! This short animated film was made to order for a dull Monday morning! Enjoy!
June 1, 2014
Phasing, a Unique Story Plotting Technique
As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for innovative plotting techniques that might improve my output or help me put together a story faster. Recently, I’ve been especially focused on how people structure their books, since that’s one of my weaker areas and I want to see if it can work for me. I’m not a natural plotter, but I think it can give my work a level of structure that can improve it and also prevent me from starting novels that I don’t finish-both of which are worth trying for.
I rea...
May 31, 2014
I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo
Well, it looks like my July is going to look a whole lot like this…
Registration for Camp NaNoWriMo‘s July session opened yesterday, and being the fool I am I decided to sign up. I’m always looking for ways to improve my writing and do more of it, and I figure this will make sure I get at least 50,000 words done on a book this Summer. I will be publishing my second Novel- Little Gou and the Crocodile Princess in the coming months, and it’s time to get another book ready for editing. Of course,...
May 30, 2014
Look Up and Be There.
A great short spoken-word film about the importance of real life, real friends, and real moments. You can find the full text of his poem here.
May 29, 2014
Camp NaNoWriMo
As a person in the academic field, one of the busiest months we have is November. It is a month of papers, tests, and general craziness for teachers and students and anyone else involved in education. This is why I’ve always considered holding National Novel Writing Month(NaNoWriMo for short) in November a seriously cruel joke. I mean, many students dream of writing a novel, and even more teachers feel they have a novel in them, so why torture them by putting NaNoWriMo in one the few months t...
May 28, 2014
The Rocking Self Publishing Podcast
Since I’m back in the writing world over the Summer, I decided to hunt around and see if there were any new writing podcasts worth a look. I started by checking out the Author U: Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast, which was interesting but I personally found it way overproduced (it sounds like a talk radio show, in the crass way) and literally packed to the gills with commercials, so I felt like ideas weren’t being fully explored in the limited time they had before they jumped to the next...
May 27, 2014
Dr. Rodney McKay Vlogs!
Well, okay, not entirely true. David Hewlett, Dr. McKay’s very real alter acting ego, has just started a video blog on Youtube where he hangs out with fans and geeks out with them. If, like me, you watched Stargate Atlantis for the entirely neurotic and very Canadian McKay, then maybe you’ll enjoy this as well, since there’s no doubt Hewlett and McKay are the same guy, just separated by a few IQ points and a few thousand light years.
Rob
May 26, 2014
Making a Little Money on the Side
We live in an amazing age, when thanks to the internet people in need across the planet can find people to do almost anything to help them solve those needs. Thanks to this, it’s become easier than ever for people to use their talents to make anything from a little money to a full income.
Take Fiverr.com for example. 
It’s an innovative site where people offer services for $5 (with extra options for more money, but the base price is always $5), which can be as simple as writing a poem or a simp...
