MuseTracks Link of the Week – KindleGraph

Want to get an autograph on your favorite e-book on your Kindle but don’t know how? Are you e-published and want to know how you can offer a signature on your digital works available on the Kindle? Check out this awesome and FREE site!

You can get and make personalized inscriptions that go directly to e-reading device. How cool is that?

http://www.kindlegraph.com/

Try it out and request a signed cover from me.

http://www.kindlegraph.com/authors/jbrayweber

Link Of The Week

http://750words.com/about

I’m so excited I found this link for this week! It was based on an exercise given in The Artists Way called Morning Pages. The idea is to write 750 words everyday about anything- no censuring. It’s a daily free for all! Your words could be brainstorming something from your project or it could be about anything rumbling around in your head.

What about a blog? Tumbler? Well, these are possible avenues but what happens if you forget to push the “private” button? This site allows you to write and keep it to yourself but all in one place where you can check back over your words. Enjoy!!!

“I’ve long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in The Artist’s Way called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of writing done every day, typically encouraged to be in “long hand”, typically done in the morning, that can be about anything and everything that comes into your head. It’s about getting it all out of your head, and is not supposed to be edited or censored in any way. The idea is that if you can get in the habit of writing three pages a day, that it will help clear your mind and get the ideas flowing for the rest of the day. Unlike many of the other exercises in that book, I found that this one actually worked and was really really useful.

I’ve used the exercise as a great way to think out loud without having to worry about half-formed ideas, random tangents, private stuff, and all the other things in our heads that we often filter out before ever voicing them or writing about them. It’s a daily brain dump. Over time, I’ve found that it’s also very helpful as a tool to get thoughts going that have become stuck, or to help get to the bottom of a rotten mood.”

MuseTracks Link of the Week – UK Translator

Don’t people in the Untied Kingdom speak English? Well, sorta.

I found this really cool site that translates text into various dialects from the British Isles. You can talk, email, and text in Cockney, Irish, Scottish, Yorkshire, Royalty, and more. It’s purely for entertainment and loads of fun. I couldn’t stop playing around with the Jolly Well Spoken translator.

Try it out . Absolutely top hole – I have to say.

http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/

Link Of The Week

 

 

 

This is a gem of a web site. It’s almost like a clearing house for a bunch of places that would benefit or interest a writer. **Be sure to check out World Book Night**

http://websitesforwriters.net/

MuseTracks Link of the Week – Editing

Here’s a cool link. Pro Writing Aid is a great companion to any writer’s toolkit. This handy-dandy site is software that edits writing. It gives reports on overused word, sentence variation, cliches, redundancies, repeated words and phrases, alliterations, pacing, and much more. Just paste in your text and Wha-lah! You’ll see the areas needing improvements.

Free editing software

Check it out and see if it works for you.

Link Of The Week

http://www.averycan.blogspot.com/

Today’s link has absolutely nothing to do with writing. It has everything to do with appreciating your life and celebrating every moment that has been given you and your family.

Celebrate your bucket list!

Celebrate the quiet everyday moments you have with people you love.

Link Of The Week

Are you short on critique partners? Do you just not want to share your writing yet, but need some kind of feedback? Well, I’ve got a site made for you! Check this out-

http://www.autocrit.com/

Link Of The Week

Practice practice practice!

This is a very cool site. Once you’re in, they give you one word and one minute to write about that word. That’s it! Simple, quick and a great way to get a shot of adrenaline and creativity pumping in the morning! Enjoy-

http://oneword.com/

PS. You have to sign in for it to work. It’s free! Press “read” and sign up.

Link of the Week

This week’s link is the fun “word cloud” generator, Wordle.

http://www.wordle.net/

This is great for writers who may be looking for key words to describe the mood and tone for their book. Simply copy and paste text into the generator and, presto, a cloud of words used most often within the chosen text.

You can choose language, fonts, upper and/or lower case lettering, and color schemes. For the techno savvy, the word cloud can even be customized further. Plus, your clouds can used however you see fit. How cool is that?

The Twelve Days Of Writing Elves

“Never allow yourself to become one of those people who, when they are old, tell you how they missed their chance.”
Author, Claire Ortega

 By: Stacey Purcell

 Merry Christmas to all of our Muse Track readers! It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone so quickly.

I believe that, besides getting older, we fill our days so full, there’s hardly room to breathe. The Christmas season is a microcosm of that idea. We pack three months of activities into one and we expect to be merry and productive on top of that. Wow! That is a tough road- especially if you are the creative sort.

I have a confession to make.

I am not able to write on command. I don’t seem to have mastered the idea that you simply have to be disciplined everyday and the words will come. I understand the principle, try to employ it, but if the creative juice is not there- then it just isn’t there.

This month with all the parties, family flying in and out, shopping, cooking, cleaning etc., I’m finding it especially hard to get words down on paper. So what do I do? If my novel set in Costa Rica with lost treasure, drug cartels, small portable nuclear arms and wild romance won’t flow from my fingertips, I go back to my Twelve Days of Writing Elves to keep the creativity from getting rusty. (Those Elves have gotten me through many holidays and back on track.)

1. Elf 1 says- Find a holiday writing prompt and write a scene about 500 words. I borrowed this one from Writer’s Digest: Christmas Ghost
   While hanging up your Christmas lights, you are flagged down by a neighborhood kid who offers to help. As he helps you, he tells you about the Christmas ghost that haunts his house. What’s odd is that you’ve noticed the same things happening around your house. Write this scene.
2. Elf 2 says- What is your voice? Do you like to write in short staccato sentences or are you more flowing? Are you spontaneous? Or more methodical? Our voice is ultimately what comes out of us. Do you have a writer that you really admire? Do you like their voice? Take a few pages from your book and try to re-write it using their voice, their style. You might be surprised at what comes from this exercise.
3. Elf 3 says- Take an emotion that is commonly written about- let’s say “gut wrenching”. Now dig deeper and create a list of different, deeper, ways of making this emotion tangible. (Thank you Donald Maas for this one.) Take a trip out of the surface emotions into unchartered waters. Your writing will be better!
4. Elf 4 says- Create 5 new titles for your current WIP. What elements will you choose to highlight? How does it “color” your book differently?
5. Elf 5 says- Write the top ten things that must happen in your book before you put in the final period. Even if you are a pantster like me, you should be able to make this list. Use it as a road map or a check off list. (Thank you Will Graham for this brilliant idea.)
6. Elf 6 says- Read two chapters out of a new craft book. Write down 3 things you just learned. Post it by your computer, and try using those items the next time you write on your WIP.
7. Elf 7 says- Get your writing buddies on board and do a page swap. No editing, no rewriting to prepare it for others to read. Just swap the last page you all wrote for FUN- only for FUN!!
8. Elf 8 says- Take an experience your character will have and try to experience it yourself. If they are eating oatcakes from a medieval feast, then prepare some yourself. If they are in a rain forest, try going into a steam room fully clothed and do some kind of activity. If they are going to shoot a gun, go to a firing range and try it out. Use all of your senses!
9. Elf 9 says- Use the timer that was given in Link of The Week (Tuesday) and do a 5 minute brain storming session on finding a $1000 poker chip from the 1960s behind a loose board in a boarding house you just bought to remodel into a B and B. (Again- thanks Will Graham.)
10. Elf 10 says- Take 5 chapters and search for comfort words. Start off with “just” and “that”. You can highlight all of them with the push of a button and try eliminating as many as possible. Easy way to improve your chapters!
11. Elf 11 says- Read a book. That’s it- just read a good book.
12. Elf 12 says- Press the power button on your computer, scoot your chair away from your desk and walk out of the room. Never, never forget this is a time for celebrating family and friends. Enjoy them. Revel in your time together. Find peace and contentment in this season. The book will still be there next week.

May your Christmas be happy, healthy, and full of wonder. Merry Christmas!