Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sunday Surfing (And a Status Update)

Probably everyone but the cave-dwelling hermit living in the canyon over yonder knows this, but the Blogging from A to Z Challenge is drawing nigh.  Many are participating this year.  Be sure to sign up if you're interested.  You will be welcomed.

One Simple Trick That Makes Editing Less Painful

Juggling Genres...Brilliance or Pure Folly?

So You Want to Use Song Lyrics in Your Novel? 5 Steps to Getting Rights to Lyrics

Honorary Geekdom membership requires that you view the new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer. (Platinum-level membership requires you to view it at least twice.)

And although I haven't written much prose lately, I have been writing a good deal of code.  Below is a screenshot of Magic Muse's current state of development.  I have much more to do before I can switch to it as my primary writing workbench, but I am making progress.

The DotNet version of Magic Muse

I'm still working on interface issues rather than the actual text editing and formatting functionality.  After all, the structure must be constructed before running the wiring and plumbing.

I'm hoping to have it ready for some initial testing within a few months, should anyone be interested in test driving it.

So, what have you been doing lately?

30 comments:

  1. Yup I'm doing A-Z for the first time. Thanks for the links Jeff.

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    1. This will be my first time too, although I've not yet officially committed myself to it yet. ;-)

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  2. I've signed up to do the A-Z. I've never done it before, and I have to confess I'm beginning to wonder just what I've gotten myself into.

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    1. Yeah, there is a bit of commitment to following through on it. I've written a few posts, but not scheduled anything yet. Hope you have fun with it.

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  3. Like to know more about Magic Muse.
    My fourth year for the Challenge and my posts are all written!

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    1. Sounds like someone has planned ahead! I'll probably put a post together about the new Magic Muse version before too long.

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  4. If you are interested in finding out just how dummy...err, I mean, user friendly Magic Muse is, then I'm your dragon.

    And if during your surfing you happen to find a site where genres are explained in detail along with its requirements, by all means poke me. You would be doing a great service to the dragons.

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    1. A challenge? And Sir Jeff will do his best to rise and meet said challenge. :) I'll see what I can find!

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  5. Blah, whole family is sick so we haven't been doing much lately. I'm hoping to get back into work this week.

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    1. It seems like everyone I know is sick or was sick. Not sure how I got lucky and dodged it this year, but I'm not complaining. I hope you and the family find yourselves 100% very soon!

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  6. I really loved the article about lyrics. So much advice online says not to use them, yet I still see them pop up in countless books, so it was nice to get a thorough, behind-the-scenes look as to why people caution against using 'em!

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    1. Thankfully, writing epic fantasy, that's one worry I don't have. :)

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  7. The Star Trek trailer is AWESOME. Cumberbatch is going to steal this movie.

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  8. Ahh, yes. A to Z time. It is such a blessing and a curse. It is a great way to both discover great bloggers and be discovered yourself. But, it is also a lot of work! Especially if you are not accustomed to being a daily blogger.(I'm more like a once or twice a week blogger)

    I am glad to see so many newbies will be participating this year. I may just end up regretting my decision to enter both of my blogs this year. See you in the blogosphere.

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    1. I'm more of a once or twice per week blogger myself, so I can definitely relate. The biggest challenge is getting around to visit all the participants. Caffeine, here I come! :)

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  9. I am the cave-dwelling hermit living in the canyon over yonder. Or I was, until I heard about this from Misha.

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    1. LOL! It's an ambitious undertaking for many of us, no doubt about it. It'll be a whirlwind for a month straight.

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  10. Good program writing takes time to envision, design, write and work out the bugs. Maybe as much as writing a novel :)

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    1. So very alike, they are. I suppose craft is craft. I just try to envision what I want and then try to find a way to make it flexible and intuitive enough to be fun to use. Wish me luck! ;-)

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  11. Ah A-Z. I so want to participate, but I've not even thought of what to write about yet. If I can pull somethung together before the start, I might, just might have a chance to do this. Maybe I'll see you in the madness!

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  12. Wow. I never knew that about song titles. I will make note of it. I'm impressed with your muse page. And to think I couldn't even change my time stamp without help ;)

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    1. We get by with a little help from our friends. And now I've got that tune running around in my head! LOL

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  13. Just sold my book, let some agents know that I did... ;-)

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    1. Big whopper congrats on the book deal, Misha! Splitting it in two though? You're braver than I am.

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  14. looks like a storylines board. are you using cafewriter?good luck with your edits!
    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

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    1. I had to do a Google search to find the Writer's Cafe software, which is what I think you referred to here. It looks neat. I may have to download a trial version of it. But no, Magic Muse was something I wrote many years ago in VB6 and am now starting to update and expand. Although the concept of what they call "StoryLines" is at the heart of my software, the ability to write in a modular fashion and "assemble" everything afterwards.

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  15. I just started a second blog: Victorian Scribbles. ( http://victorianscribbles.blogspot.com/) Stop by some time if you are interested in the Victorian Era. Meanwhile, it sounds like you are quite busy with the A-Z challenge. I've never participated, because I don't think I could keep up the pace. I'll be checking back to see your posts.

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    1. Stop by, I shall! I love almost everything related to history.

      I toyed with the idea of participating in A-to-Z, decided against it, and was then persuaded by some friends to do it. I still have less than a dozen posts drafted, but hope to make some progress over the next few days. I suppose I should get around to actually signing up on the linky. ;-)

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