rain - what else do you expect from a British Bank Holiday

[meridian_rose]

So, today is Spring Bank Holiday, aka Whitsun in the UK, while the US has had Memorial Day, for which our closest equivalent is Remembrance Sunday. It is raining, which is typical behaviour for British weather faced with a Bank Holiday. Summer, wherefore art thou?! Although the plants have desperately needed some rain.

Saturday evening I hand-wrote three sides of A5, sketching out the opening paragraphs for a sequel to Suit of Swords; I don't know if the sequel will ever actually be written, but it felt good to write again. I'm still finding it hard to type fiction, for some reason, but maybe today is the day :D

I don't think I'm going to make a To Do list for June. I'm just going to see how things go, maybe get more organised again for July. I haven't finished the calendar for June yet, either; it may be late in getting posted. You all know May has been a bad month for me, and I know it has been hard for many of you, too, so here's hoping June will bring better days :D

One thing I was going to post about way back when, was 750words; it's free and easy to use. It's not a blog site in the way LJ/DW is, because entries are private by default. It's based on an idea that an author ought to write about three pages a day to prime their creativity, which here is said to be the 750 words. You can sign in using Facebook, Google, Yahoo, or Open ID - remember, your LJ account is Open ID, so you've already got at least one of these open to you. Then you just begin typing. At 750 words, you get a congratulations message - you can continue typing, of course.
What's nice is that you gain virtual rewards, little badges of honour, for completing X days in a row. What I find very useful about the site is that it's like a basic word processor, a blank page with just the date at the top; somehow I get less distracted when there isn't the option to start formatting things, and type without stopping to correct mistakes. And it's easy to leave it open while surfing the net or fact checking, and then flick back to the tab and type a bit more.
It even allows you to see an analysis of what you've typed, though obviously this is a bit hit and miss - all my fic about Lord Rahl makes the analytical tool think I'm very concerned with religion :D
It's another place for you to type up notes or posts or fic ideas when you're not at your own PC; just log in and type away. Later, just copy and paste the text into your editor of choice and save it on your own hard drive.

Comments

[scandaloussteph.livejournal.com]

The rain has been scarce here too. They're even thinking about cutting off the water during the day....


I think seeing how things go is a good idea for June, it'll let you slowly get back into the swing of things without too much pressure :)

[meridian_rose]

cutting off the water?! And we get upset over a hosepipe ban. Perhaps it's a good thing you're coming back to the UK :D

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

On that 750words site, does it save all your entries? Can I use it for fanfic?

[meridian_rose]

Yes, it saves everything. If you go to 'this month' once signed in, there's a box with the months listed and you can export the whole month as a txt file (not that I've ever done that) or choose a day to go to. You can use metadata as tags to find things/keep track of things, but I haven't done that either. Usually I finish up for the day and then copy what I want to keep into a Word document for editing.

I certainly use it for fanfic; all first drafts of the Rahlmas drabbles and my Yuletide fics were written there. Somehow, because the aim is quantity rather than quality I find it easier to write when I'm not sure what I'm going for or how to say it. I just get something down and edit it later. But since there isn't any formatting it's not really a blog that you would want to share, though I think you can have followers (more stuff I haven't done!) You can use it for whatever you want, from ranting so you have a clear head to write a nicer post, to making a shopping list or writing a novel :D

[hrhrionastar.livejournal.com]

I like rain ;D Sometimes it puts me in a poetic frame of mind (although I can't actually write poetry...)

Makes sense to take things slower for June - besides, we're all going to busy earning our leathers over at PP!

That 750 words thing sounds interesting - I try to write every day, but sometimes I don't get very far.

Lord Rahl and religion, huh? Interesting...:D

[meridian_rose]

I love rain at night, lying in bed listening to it against the windows :D But it sucks when you want to eat outdoors D:

I read a good book on poetry by Stephen Fry. He explained all the different forms of poetry in a way that was easy to understand and in an entertaining fashion, and it made me want to try more poetry - a mostly failed experiment, but still. I certainly gained a better understanding of the form :D

Lord Rahl. Well, the devotional is pretty religious :D It's odd, because it just counts up words and categorises them by frequency, and given how flexible the English language is when it comes to meanings and the amount of homographs (had to look that up, could only think of homophones!) it's never very accurate. But it is a fun extra feature :D

[hrhrionastar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation :)

I forgot to say a sequel to Suit of Swords would be lovely - I really adore how well you translated the whole story to modern times, adding interesting twists to the relationships - like Cara and Jennsen :D

[talath-dirnen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope for June too... I hope it will be much better then hard May.

*hugs*

[meridian_rose]

It's my hope for all of us :D

[brontefanatic.livejournal.com]

I just saw this - Sorry I've been negligent with keeping up with people lately.

The 31st was the first hot, sunny day we've had in ages here in the midwest. April and May have been wet, cloudy and cold. Hopefully June will be better for everyone.

I'll have to check that site out. I've never heard of it before.

It would be great to see a sequel to "Suit of Swords".

[meridian_rose]

No problem. I expected a lot of people to be off doing Memorial Day Weekend stuff :D
Today was much better weather, so maybe summer is finally coming.
I'd kept meaning to promote the site, since so we're all bloggers and most of my flist are also fic writers and might find it useful sometimes :D
Thank you :D I see you've posted a new chapter of 'Serpent's Tooth', so I'm off to read that :D