I Quit Blogger

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 2:01 AM

Yet again, I've been reminded why I really shouldn't put my trust in external services when it comes to running my site (see my "I Quit Mambo" post).

On February 2nd, I received an e-mail from Blogger telling me they were discontinuing FTP (File Transfer Protocol) publishing from their list of services effective March 26th (that's less than two months' notice, by the way). Publishing via FTP was the main reason I went with their service in the first place, so I was a little annoyed by this news.

For those of you who don't know what Blogger's FTP service is, let me explain.

Most people who sign up for Google's Blogger service simply choose a unique name for their blog and then Blogger creates a subdomain of their domain, so you end up with an URL like "myblog.blogspot.com" (sort of like any free Web hosting service where you end up with www.hostingservice.com/~yourusername/). You don't have to purchase and register a domain name or pay for an ISP to host the domain, so it's really easy to get started, not to mention free. This is great if you don't already own your own domain and intend for your blog to basically be the full extent of your site.

However, for someone like me, who already owns a domain name and pays an ISP to host my site, Blogger's FTP service still fit the bill. Basically, their FTP service allowed me to use their blogging software, while hosting the pages on my own site. That's where the FTP part came in. I filled in the post form on blogger.com and it FTPed the post, along with any other affected files, to the directory I specified on my own server (www.kodiwolf.com/blog). I was able to very quickly and easily create a template based on my site's template to wrap the blog code in, so it looked seamless. A reader never left my site and my content stayed on my own server.

Well, Blogger is dropping FTP and their only solution is to use their Custom Domains, which amounts to you creating a subdomain of your domain (ex: myblog.mydomain.com) and then have Google host it on their servers, while the rest of your site (ex: www.mydomain.com) stays on its current servers. They even came up with a migration tool to help you move your blog from its current location to the new one and... Oh, wait, that won't be ready until sometime around February 22nd, which is about three weeks from now, so you can either try to do it manually and probably screw up your site in the process or you can wait and pray the tool actually works, since you'll only have about a month to fix it if it doesn't... Are you starting to see why I might be a little upset?

Basically, they're saying, "Give us all your blog pages or your blog dies."

Well, I came up with another option. I've just spent the past several days recoding my blog pages so they're now completely under my control. Everything is hardcoded (as opposed to automated), but it's still fairly flexible, since I use PHP. (Oh, that was another thing. Google's servers won't let you use PHP, which for me was a complete deal-breaker, beyond the whole "they want my content" issue I'm having with them.) It won't be as simple as writing text into a form box and hitting "Post", but I'm satisfied that my system will be easy enough.

Basically, it works like this (I'm mostly writing this out so I have something I can reference if I get stuck later, so you can skip the following geek-speak if you want).

Create a new post:

1. Open post_TEMPLATE.html

2. 'Save As' now, so you don't accidentally 'save over'

3. Enter the long date, post title, and .php file name in the post's permanent link (come back and enter the current time just before you're ready to upload all the files)

4. Write the actual content of the post

5. Save file

Create the post's .php file:

1. Open TEMPLATE_2010_01_01.php

2. 'Save As' now, so you don't accidentally 'save over'

3. Enter the date in the title and the name of the post's .html file in the PHP include

4. Save file

Update the News index.php file:

1. Open the index.php file

2. Delete the last post's PHP include

3. Cut the post_border div above it and paste it above the first post's PHP include

4. Copy the new post's PHP include from the post's .php file and paste it above the post_border div

5. Save file

If it's the month's first post, create the month's archive .php file:

1. Open TEMPLATE_archive_2010_01.php

2. 'Save As' now, so you don't accidentally 'save over'

3. Enter the month in the title and the main content box title, and the name of the post's .html file in the PHP include

4. Save file

If the month's archive .php file already exists, add the new post to it:

1. Open the archive .php file

2. Copy the post_border div from the index.php file (or within the archive .php file, if there are already two posts) and paste it after the last post's PHP include

3. Copy the post's PHP include, either from the post's .php file or the index.php file, and paste it below the post_border div

4. Save file

Update the News Archives menu:

1. Open the NEWSarchives.html file

2. Copy a previous month's link (or a year section if starting a new year) and paste it into the appropriate position within the list

3. Change the newly pasted link to point to the new archive .php file and enter the correct month for the link's text

4. Save file

Update the site:

1. Upload any image files used in the new post

2. Upload the new post's .html and .php files

3. Upload the archive .php file

4. Upload the NEWSarchives.html file if a new month/year has been added

5. Upload the index.php file

You know, written out like that, it looks like a ton of work, but except for the actual writing of the post, it's mostly just opening files, typing in a couple characters (or copying/pasting), and then saving.

For example, to make this post, I wrote my post using my template file, which I renamed 2010_02_07.html (writing took me several hours, but I was also working on the site intermittently). I then created the post's .php file using the template for that, which I renamed 2010_02_07.php (took me maybe 10 seconds). I then created the archive for February using the archive template file, which I renamed archive_2010_02.php (took maybe another 10 seconds). I then edited the index.php file to add the PHP include to the new post at the top and remove the last post at the bottom in order to maintain the 5 most recent posts on the main News page (about 20 seconds). Then I added the new year and month to the NEWSarchives.html file (maybe 30 seconds). So, by my calculations, minus the actual writing time, adding a new post shouldn't take me more than a couple minutes, max.

Anyway, if you want to get an idea of how others have received this news, check out Blogger's FTP Info blog and start reading the comments. All I can say is I'm glad I only had one blog and plenty of time to focus on fixing it. (I just keep thinking of the line from Galaxy Quest when Gilligan's Island is mentioned to the aliens... with heads solemnly bowed, "Those poor people.")

By the way, because I'm not using Blogger now, I don't have the commenting option for my blog anymore, so if you want to comment on any of my posts, you'll have to e-mail me directly. I won't post them to the site (that takes a lot more work), but I will read them and respond to them the way I would any other e-mail (meaning probably not, unless you ask a question). I have, however, preserved the comments originally posted through Blogger, so those haven't been lost.

Stuck On a Scene for The Trine

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 3:30 AM

I've been doing a ton of research for The Trine, reading books about hackers for the character Robyn and interviewing a detective friend of my wife's for the character Karen, as well as reading more books about police procedure and forensics. It's all been very interesting, not to mention useful, since part of a scene I had initially envisioned was completely wrong where police procedure was concerned.

But now I find myself really stuck on a fight scene. It involves a mutant dog pack attacking one of my main characters and her mother. They both have superhuman strength and are masters in multiple martial arts, but they've been caught without armor or weapons and one of them has just been injured, making her slightly disabled.

For some reason, I just cannot figure out how to write this scene. Everything I come up with sounds overly detailed, so that the time flow of the scene is ridiculously drawn out, when it should happen in what feels like just a minute or two (maybe less). Yes, I could write it in such a way that having it feel drawn out works, but that's not how I want the scene to flow. I want it to be BAM, BAM, BAM! (Great, now I sound like a Flintstones character; at least Bamm-Bamm was my favorite, after Dino.) I want the reader to feel the same sense of suddenness that the characters do, with no time to think, just react.

I've considered doing a cheat, where the main character blacks out and misses the action and just wakes up to the results, but I don't think I really want to go that route.

I've also thought about leaving it and writing the scenes that come after, but this really is a pivotal scene for the main character and I feel like the following scenes sort of hang off this one; whatever momentum or tone that I end up with at the end of the fight scene will directly lead into those next few scenes. I need to know how that scene plays out before I can really continue with the next ones.

I guess my biggest problem is that I'm having a hard time actually visualizing the attack/fight. I have multiple ways it could go... Okay, I just wrote a long-ass paragraph that was far too detailed. I'm trying to talk about this without giving serious spoilers for a story that hasn't even been posted yet.

So anyway, I think I need to do a search for dog attack videos. I've already researched techniques for stopping a dog attack, which was useful, but I think I need to see something in action, and the movies I have that show dog attacks (Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Resident Evil: Extinction, True Lies) either don't show multiple dogs going after a single prey or they don't look very realistic regarding dog behavior... Hey, maybe I should search for wolves taking down prey. That might get me better results.

Here's hoping.

...A little while later...

Well, it's National Geographic and YouTube to the rescue. I found a really cool clip showing how different dogs attack. I just wish it had shown how they might behave as part of a group. That seems to be something I can't find. Well, I have found several videos that show multiple wolves hunting and taking down prey, but it always seems to take place as part of a long chase or pacing next to the prey until it becomes too weak to continue, and that's not the same as an immediate direct attack.

Oh well. I think I'm going to give this a rest. I've been sick since I woke up Sunday afternoon, and though I was feeling better enough today to be up at the computer again, I'm still pretty washed out. It kinda sucks, since I was sort of looking forward to maybe going out to dinner with my wife tomorrow, since it's my birthday, but I think we're going to push that to Saturday (not Sunday, since everyone will probably be out for Valentine's Day, and I hate crowds).

Later.

Not Stuck On The Trine Anymore

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 10:05 PM

I'm happy to report that I'm no longer stuck on the fight scene for The Trine. I not only finished that scene, but I also finished the following scene and am geared up to write the next one after that, so I'm quite pleased with myself. :)

I'm also quite pleased with what I came up with. The fight scene flows the way I wanted it to, giving just enough detail to get the visuals across without necessarily sounding like a step-by-step training manual on the subject (at least I hope not; my wife seemed to like it anyway). And the following scene has all the emotional impact I was going for, which I was a little worried about, but it made Corene cry, so I think it's good. She's my test when I'm trying to create a really happy or really sad scene. If she tears up, then I know I've done my job and had an emotional impact. So I'm on a bit of a high, being all impressed with myself for getting all that written in a single day, especially after struggling with it so much over the past month. In fact, being that it's my birthday today (I'm 34 now), I think getting those scenes under my belt turned out to be a pretty good birthday present to myself.

I also realized after my last post that this is the kind of stuff I want to be posting about and it's actually what I'd originally intended. I mean, yeah, I expected to write about personal stuff happening in my life, but mostly I wanted this to be a space for me to talk about what I'm working on, what I'm struggling with or trying to figure out, and what I've learned in the process.

Of course, I think the problem with that has been that I've just been doing snippets here and there, and that's not really conducive to any kind of constructive discussion. There's only so many times I can depress myself (and probably my readers) by writing about how I'm not writing as much as I want to, before I (and probably my readers) tune out.

But I really enjoyed talking about what I was stuck on and working through it enough that I was able to get the scene written the next day (well, I enjoyed the end result; the struggling, not so much). But I know that only works if I actually have something solid I'm working on, as opposed to notes and such.

So here's hoping this little trend continues. I like being able to report good news for a change. :)

Family Visit

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 4:19 PM

The Vermont side of my family came to visit on Monday and Tuesday. It was my sister (the High Priestess of my handfasting) and her two kids (her husband had to stay and work). They hadn't seen the house since before we started the renovations, so Corene and I were very excited for them to see everything we've done. Unfortunately, the house hadn't really been cleaned since before the New York side of my family came by in August for a quick visit on their way back home from the beach vacation we spent with them at Emerald Isle (I kept getting sick or my fibro would act up or I'd rather work on my stories, etc.), and the house was still a wreck from Winter Solstice, so we spent the previous week cleaning. The house looks great now and was actually presentable to my family, so I'm glad Corene and I put so much effort into it. The first thing my sister said when she saw our bedroom was, "So you've decided you're royalty now." :) She was mightily impressed, but we feel that way every time we go in there, so that was cool.

Anyway, they got in Monday afternoon and we spent the evening hanging out and talking, which was great. I even got some really useful tips for The Trine. My sister is an EMT, so she was able to give me those little extra details that I think will make certain scenes more believable and visceral (I love that word). Actually, we spent most of the night talking about the stories we're each working on (my sister and her daughter, who's 15, both write fan fiction, as well as original fiction), so it was a pretty cool night. Of course, it only makes me miss them even more now that they're gone.

Then yesterday, we went to the zoo, which was fun, and it was a great day for it too, mostly overcast and in the 60s. Then we went to McKay's, a local used book store that I love, and that's when I noticed I had some kind of blurry spot on my left eye (this was around 5pm). That scared the crap out of me, since my ability to see clearly is rather closely linked to my ability to read and write. So, we came home and I looked up the symptoms on WebMD and my sister checked the Mayo Clinic's site and we both came up with retinal detachment, migraine with auras, stroke, or optic neuritis as possibilities, but none of them were exactly right.

I have a history of dry eyes with scratches and scarring on outer areas on my eyes, so they've never gotten in the way of my sight, and I have several floaters that I know so well I can practically draw them, but when they get in the way of my vision, I just look around really quickly, and they move out of the way. I've also been diagnosed with chronic migraines, but I don't get auras, I just get nauseous and extremely sensitive to light.

This blurriness was like an oily thumbprint with the tip of the thumb right at the center of my focus and the rest of it going down diagonally to the right. Everything else seemed clear in my peripheral vision. I even drew a dot with concentric circles around it to figure out the shape of the blurriness (that's how I came up with the thumbprint shape).

Retinal detachment would probably come with a sudden increase in floaters and there would be flashes and a shadow over part of the field of vision, none of which I had. Migraine with auras would probably show halos around lights, flashes, and there would be pain, but I didn't have any halos or flashes, though I knew I was working on a migraine, so it was a possibility. Stroke would have other indicators too numerous to mention, but I could smile evenly, I repeated a phrase my sister said, and my eyes were tracking and dilating evenly, so we could pretty much rule that one out. Optic neuritis is basically an inflammation of the optic nerve and its main symptoms are pain and loss of vision. It usually develops due to an autoimmune disorder that may be triggered by a viral infection. Again, I didn't have pain in my eyes, but I do have a twitchy immune system, so it sounded like the most likely candidate.

Well, even though going to the ER was recommended for some of those, I figured I probably wasn't going to die immediately from any of them, so I decided I'd spend the rest of the evening with my family, and then go to the ER afterwards. I took a Naproxen for the migraine I knew the trigger point in my neck was trying to bring on and then did my best to relax and enjoy the visit, since I knew my family was leaving early in the morning and I wouldn't be seeing them again for a while.

So, we hung out at their hotel room, watched a couple episodes of Teen Titans, then a documentary about vampires on National Geographic, and talked, while I curled up on Corene and tried to keep my eyes closed to rest them.

Well, around 11pm, it was time to say goodbye, so I decided to check how my eye was doing and found that the blurriness had just about completely cleared up (there was just a little left in the lower right area). I could focus on stuff and read things clearly, so I was very happy. We talked about it a little and came up with two theories. One, it was just a dry patch and with my putting half a dozen drops in my eyes every few minutes after I first noticed it and then keeping my eyes closed most of the night allowed it to remoisten and clear up. Or two, it was the optic neuritis and me taking the Naproxen, which has anti-inflammatory properties, calmed down the inflammation and allowed my vision to clear. Either way, I'm just happy I can see okay (I don't seem to have any residual blurriness now).

If it happens again, I'll definitely go to the doctor, and I do have an eye doctor appointment in April, so I'll mention it then and see what the doc has to say.

All in all, it was a great visit (except for the minor medical scare) and I can't wait to see them again.

A Year and a Day

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 1:06 PM

It's been a year and day since I had to put my cat Akasha to sleep.

It's gotten easier, but I still miss her a lot. So, I wanted to commemorate the anniversary by putting up pictures of the "Kashi shrine" I ended up creating to hold her ashes and memorialize her life.

Before Kash had died, I'd known the time was coming, so I did a search online to look for pet urns. Most of the prices started around $100 and went up to around $300 or more. I wasn't incredibly happy with any of those prices, especially since I didn't even really like any of the designs, so I decided to say fuck it and deal with it later.

Well, I've always associated Akasha with Bast/Bastet, so at some point I realized I wanted to do something in that area. I already had a bunch of Egyptian statues that I'd collected over the years due mostly to my interest in Egyptian mythology, which has only gotten stronger from working on The Vampire Hunter, so that gave me an idea of what style I was looking for.

So, the Monday after I put Kash to sleep, I went online and started searching for Egyptian Bast boxes. I have a couple favorite sites for getting my Egyptian stuff (Design Toscano and Capricorn's Lair), so I went to those first. I also checked eBay. By the end of the day, I had narrowed down my choices to a small statue, which would require a pedestal, and 4 boxes, one of which would require a tiny statue. I had all the images up on my screen when Corene came home from work and showed them to her.

I'd been kind of freaking out about not being able to come to a decision. I was just having trouble justifying buying so much stuff to memorialize Kash, especially since I couldn't even figure out where everything would go, and felt like I should only get one of the boxes and forget the rest. But Corene said she didn't see why we couldn't just order everything. She liked all the stuff I'd picked out and the total was barely $200, basically what one of the mid-range urns would have cost us. And she said once I had everything in front of me, I would be able to figure out what I wanted to do then without any pressure. She also told me she really liked the statue on the pedestal idea. It made her think of Kash watching over me and she'd already seen the pedestal in the corner by the end of my bookcase, so Kash could look over my shoulder and I could look at her whenever I wanted, but not be forced to see her all the time if I didn't want to because it hurt.

Well, that instantly made me cry, both because of the imagery and because it was a relief to not have to make a decision. I could just get everything and sort it out later, which worked perfectly for me.

I just want to say I really love my wife. She indulges me when it's appropriate and always seems to be able to calm me down, so that I can get to a point where I can do what I feel I need to do.

So, we ordered everything. We ended up getting Kash's ashes back before we received the stuff, so for the first week or two, she stayed in the little white plastic box the pet cremation service returned her in. We finally got the stuff and I started setting up the shrine. I realized I wanted a picture of Kash, but none of the photos we had of her looked right with the ancient Egyptian motif I had going. I also realized I didn't want to be confronted with Kash's image every time I entered the office, so I decided to "play." One of my side jobs in the past has been photo restoration. I also created all the images for this site (except the pink planet image used at the top of every page for the default site style, which I got from NASA's public domain images), so I know my way around manipulating an image.

I took my favorite image of Kash, the one I used for the obituary post, and cropped it down to just Akasha's head. I then played with various settings and used one of my Egyptian fonts to write Akasha's name (Akasha Wolf) on either side of her face. I created two different versions to go with the statues I had. One showed a sandstone background with Akasha's face and hieroglyphs appearing as if etched into the stone. The other showed the same image, but with a black background meant to imitate the basalt of the statues and gold lines intended to simulate the gold leaf carvings. I ended up liking both so much that I couldn't decide again, so I used them both. I then needed frames for the pictures, so we went to Hobby Lobby and found an antiqued gold frame that seemed to mimic some of the design of the boxes, so we got two, a 6x4 and a 5x3, for a little variation.

This is what I ended up with for the shrine:

This is the top two shelves of the bookcase that stands against the wall directly to my right, so all I have to do is turn my head and I can see it.
(Full-size image)

Everything means something, so I'll explain (plus I want to show close-ups).

The statue of the goddess Ma'at was one I already had (from Ataka Imports on eBay), but didn't have a great place for, so I incorporated it into the shrine. Since Ma'at is part of the Egyptian death ritual, I thought it was appropriate to make her part of the scene.

Ma'at stands for truth, justice, and the cosmic order (she's also the wife of Thoth, the god of scribes, my personal patron deity as a writer). When a person dies, according to Egyptian theology, they stand before Osiris, god of the underworld, and are judged. Their heart is placed on one half of a balance and the feather of Ma'at is placed on the other. If the heart is heavy with sin and weighs more than the feather, the deceased is eaten by the demon Ammut, which basically means they die a second time and never reach the Egyptian version of heaven. But if their heart is lighter than the feather, meaning they've lived a good and honest life, then they're judged worthy of paradise and get to go to heaven.

Since I've always had an affinity for Anubis, and he's a major part of the Egyptian death ritual, I really wanted his image as part of the shrine. His jackal form draped over a mastaba coffin seemed perfect (got it from Design Toscano).

Anubis is the caretaker of cemetaries and guides souls through the underworld to the next life. A mastaba is an ancient Egyptian style of tomb that is thought to be the basis for the design of the pyramids that came later.

Like I said before, I couldn't decide between the two Bast boxes (from M and J's Collectibles on eBay), so I just ended up getting them both, and I'm glad I did. I just like how they flank the box in the center like sentinals. The one on the left has the fur the vet shaved off Kash's leg for the euthanasia injection (Corene collected it), while the one on the right has remained empty (it's very tiny).

The center box (from Design Toscano) holds Akasha's ashes. They're still inside the plastic bag they came in, so they wouldn't mess up the black felt lining on the inside of the box. The box is actually supposed to be a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, but the winged women really reminded me of Ma'at and the whole design seemed very reminiscent of Egyptian style, so I came up with the idea of placing a small Bast statue in the center and added two tiny gold-painted Bast-shaped dangles from a pair of earrings one of my sisters (the High Priestess) had given me years ago. I'm very happy with the effect and consider it a very fitting final resting place for Kash.

(Full-size image)

(Full-size image)

(Alternative larger image)

And here are the two images I created using Paint Shop Pro (my archaic image editing program, which I haven't replaced because Adobe Photoshop is too expensive):

(Full-size image)

(Full-size image)

And this is the statue on the pedestal (both from Design Toscano), which I think of as Kash in her form as an avatar for Bast:

In this position, she faces where I sit at my computer. Akasha used to do what Corene and I called her "vulture" routine. Whenever we had food, Kash would have to sit somewhere high up enough to be level with our food while she watched us eat. So, it seemed appropriate to place her where she could still watch over me.
(Full-size image)

And here's a close-up of the Bast statue:

So, that's all the stuff I got to make losing Kashi a little more bearable. Corene and I still talk about her all the time and it doesn't take much to make either one of us cry. She was just a very sweet cat.

You're still very much loved and missed, Kash.

Ten Winters Ago...

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 11:59 PM

It was ten years ago today that Corene e-mailed me for the first time. I was going to do this whole e-mail highlights thing to sort of show how we got to know each other and how our relationship progressed from reader/author to flirting pen pals to raging long distance phone romance, to finally meeting and barely being able to read a map because she was holding my hand, to moving to be with her, getting married, and living our happily so far sorta fairy tale life, but I didn't start working on it until this evening, so it's not really done (I haven't even made it to the first phone call; we corresponded a lot).

So, if I'm still in the mood, I may post it later.

Anyway, to get an idea of how I feel, here's a snippet from an e-mail I sent Corene a few days after I moved to be with her:

Well, it's been ten years and I still feel that way.

Thank you for e-mailing me, baby. You've changed my life and for the better.

I love you. Happy First E-mail Anniversary. :)

Comments:

Roarin' Fire said...

Sunday, March 14, 2010 6:56 PM

Thank you for the post, baby, it made me cry. I love being here in this sorta fairy tale with you, too. (Yeah, I caught the song reference.) And the email you posted reminded me of the poem I wrote for you on the very first anniversary of that first email I sent to you.

Author's Notes

It was a year ago today that I emailed Kodi for the very first time about one of her stories. Sometimes, it amazes me that it's actually been a whole year, that she's here and that she's all mine. My life changed so much and so fast after that email. And looking back now, there isn't anything that I would do differently.

And now, ten years later I still feel the same way, too! I can't imagine my life without you in it. I love you so very much, Kodi. And a Happy First Email Anniversary to you, too.

Your #1 fan,

Corene

Researching Science for The Trine

Monday, April 5, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 6:27 AM

I feel like I'm going to college. I'm doing a ton of research for one of my characters who's supposed to be a genius scientist, so I'm reading all these books on molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, and physics, as well as watching documentaries and learning DVDs. So far, I seem to be having the best luck with understanding biology, while all the math formulas in chemistry and physics are really throwing me for a loop. I seem to do better with concepts and ideas rather than math. I mean I understand algebra and how formulas work in general, and I can even grasp what certain formulas are trying to solve, but when the "why" isn't explained, I get completely blocked.

For example, in the physics DVD I've been trying to get through, it gives formulas for various things like adding vectors. Now, I understand the whole hypotenuse thing (a-squared plus b-squared equals c-squared), but when they throw in that such-and-such is equal to something times the log of the cosine etc., and then just give the answer without explaining how they got the log of the cosine (or even what it is), other than pressing that button on the calculator, I get lost. All I can think is that maybe there's a table somewhere with logs of specific cosines and they just neglected to mention that.

At least I don't need to understand that particular formula for anything (or any of the others I've come across so far), but what I really wish they would spend some time on is why these formulas work, which means explaining what each bit is doing. Since I have no intention of putting formulas directly into the story (other than maybe as a way to show how complicated the science is), in order to get certain bits of information across, I need to be able to explain the concepts behind the formulas. But if all I'm shown is how to get the right answer and not how that answer is arrived at, I'm not going to be able to get across the ideas behind the science because I'm not going to understand them myself.

But at least that DVD tried to walk me through it. One of the chemistry books I found simply said to ask my professor for a complete list of whatever the items were that they were discussing in the first chapter. This wasn't a college textbook, so in my opinion, they shouldn't have been relying on the reader being a college student. Granted, it was supposed to be used as a kind of supplementary handbook I think, but to not include something that's apparently necessary in order to understand the subject is kind of annoying (I put that one back on the shelf). At least I haven't spent any money on the books (just gas), since I'm checking them out of the library. But still.

So that stuff hasn't been a whole lot of fun (neither has the note-taking, which is just tedious when I want to move on to the next topic, but if I don't take notes now, I'm going to forget stuff and I most likely won't remember which book I read it in when I need to look up the information later), but the biology and astrophysics/quantum mechanics concepts have been really cool. I've always been interested in those subjects and have read plenty of books and watched dozens of documentaries on them over the years, but going back to the basics, the foundations, of those fields has helped me understand stuff I really didn't get before. And some of what I've learned has even given me plot ideas and helped me solve at least one plot problem.

But what I think I've really gotten out of doing all this research is a much better handle on my character. I have a much clearer vision of how she sees the world, how she thinks, what her first reactions to things would be, etc., not to mention that she really is a genius to be able to understand all this shit. :)

That was actually my motivation for doing the research in the first place. In my original outline, the scientist character was very roughly drawn. She showed up very late at about halfway through the story, and I had basically only worked out the romance stuff for her with just a few added "she helps here and there" sort of placeholder scenes to keep her part of the story events, which left her rather vague and almost irrelevant to the rest of the story. I realized that was a real problem since she's supposed to be one of the main characters. Her role should not only be important, but indispensable.

So that's what I'm working on, weaving her more securely into the story, so there's no question that she belongs, and I think it's working. With all the new ideas and material I've come up with, she's now one of the driving forces behind events, which puts her much more center stage with the other main characters, which is exactly where she should be.

Now, I just have to write it. :)

Setting a Daily Word Goal

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 6:13 AM

In between writing and living my life, I like to read books about learning to write better. A lot of times I end up disappointed, either because I don't get any new or inspiring information or because the information doesn't work for me. But sometimes I find books with really useful info, like techniques for looking at a particular creative process from a different angle or inspiration to keep me chained to my computer, especially when trying to come up with the next word, let alone the next line, is scaring the crap out of me. I've recently found several good ones, but one of them in particular has made me rethink my position on setting goals and keeping to a deadline.

Normally, I think of deadlines as these horrible things that loom just on the horizon and then suddenly are sitting right there in front of me, pointing fingers and making me feel like a failure since I of course didn't meet it when it came due.

Now though, I think I was just looking at them the wrong way and also setting goals that were way beyond my grasp. I found a really simple system laid out in The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell and his reasoning made sense to me. Instead of looking at the goal as this impossible thing I'm trying to reach, break it down into small, manageable bits, and when you reach the goal, you'll be able to see yourself making progress, day by day, so you can fight that voice in the back of your mind telling you you're not accomplishing anything. (That's not quite how the guy put it, but that's what I got from it.)

So, I've created a spreadsheet that calculates how many words I write each day. I'm fudging it a little, not with how many words I write, but with when, since my 'day' tends to cross the dateline, but so far, it's been going pretty well. The way it works is that I set a word goal for each day, multiply that for the week (5 days), then for the month (4 weeks). My spreadsheet not only tells me if I've met the goal for the day, but also the week and the month. Last week, since my sister and her two kids came to visit, I only wrote for three out of the five days, but I still managed to make my weekly goal because I surpassed the daily goals enough to make up for the two days I didn't write. And though I didn't make my goal for one of the days this week (I was revising and only added 78 new words), I still feel good because I can see that I at least got that much done. (Plus, I've written double my goal today, so I've already made up for it.)

I'm just really liking getting to see the progress I'm making on The Trine. It's also helping in that because writing can be really scary for me at first, but I calm down as time goes on, I'm sitting down to write with the idea in mind that I'll just try to make the goal, since it's not that high (650 words, about 8 solid paragraphs or around a page and a half), but then I calm down and just go with the flow and end up writing more than I thought I could.

It's not just the goal-setting and progress-tracking, though. The techniques I'm learning are really having an impact on my writing. I'm looking at things from more angles than I think I was before and as the ideas flow, I find I want to write them out, shape them, and just see what I can come up with. And what I'm coming up with, I'm really enjoying. Sure, I throw half of it out (maybe more), but what I keep I really like.

So anyway, I'm still plugging away at The Trine. I realize some people probably wish I would work on something else (according to the poll on the home page, the favorite appears to be The Vampire Hunter), but honestly, I'm trying not to think about it. I'm just happy I'm writing.

Working on the Site

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 1:24 PM

I got stuck on The Trine, so I switched to The Vampire Hunter, and then did a little work on A Bondage Primer, and then realized I really need to get the site finished. My stuff is just sitting out there and that wasn't the plan.

So, for the past ten days or so, I've been doing nothing but coding. I'm learning a lot, but it's a little grueling. However, things are coming along at a steady pace. The site is finally shaping up, but of course there's still a ton of stuff I have left to do.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let everyone know what I was working on in case you noticed I hadn't been writing for the past week, or that my last post was the beginning of last month, or that the site appears to have more content.

Take care.

Computer Troubles

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 2:00 AM

My computer decided to blow its motherboard last month, so I had to send it off to be fixed, but I finally got it back tonight (actually last night, since it's after midnight now) and everything seems to be working again (cross fingers, knock on wood, etc.). Thankfully, I didn't lose any story files (or anything else, for that matter).

Well, now that I'm done inspecting my computer, I think I'm going to try to get some sleep.

Taking a Break for the Holidays

Friday, December 10, 2010

Written by Kodi Wolf at 1:31 AM

In case anyone had noticed that it's been about a month since I worked on any story files, I just wanted to mention that I've decided to take the holidays off (Thanksgiving through New Year's). It's just been super hectic around here and trying to divide my attention between my stories, working on the site, and doing all the stuff I need to do to get ready for Winter Solstice/Christmas hasn't worked out. So, I'm putting the site and my stories on hold until the new year.

Not that I'm not still jotting down notes and ideas (I've actually got quite the backlog that I need to get into the computer), but you probably won't see any new Progress Reports until after January 1st.

Anyway, happy holidays everyone. Take care.