Archive for writing

Announcing Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, 3rd Edition

A mere hour ago I delivered the manuscript for Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, 3rd Edition to my publisher. That’s right, there’ll be a third edition of my WordPress book and I hope you’re as psyched about that as I am. Probably not, but still.

I’ll get back to you with more on this book, along with the cover and a table of contents, some PR talk and stuff like that. For now all I can tell you is that it is a fairly substantial update to the second edition, fully updated to the 3.3 branch of WordPress. I’m pretty happy with it, especially some new examples and ideas to get your minds spinning.

Look for more later. For now, I’ll just sit back and relax, feeling bloody happy of yet another manuscript delivered.

My focus mode

While I can struggle to get started writing stuff, no matter if it is a book, an article, or code, I am extremely focused when I actually write. I love fullscreen when it makes sense, otherwise I just keep one app open (on the space I’m in) to keep me focused. Distractions are a thing of evil, so no Twitter apps open, no alerts, no inbox folders on the desktop that might draw my attention.

I don’t stop there. Continued →

What I use the iPad for

I’ve had the iPad since the US wifi launch. I bought the 3G version when it came out, and I upgraded to the iPad 2 with 3G at launch. When Apple releases iPad 3 I’ll get that too. In the short lifespan of the iPad it has gone from web browser to reading device to an actual tool.

Or to put it more plainly, the iPad is by far the most used device, for both work and pleasure.

So what do I really use it for, and how well is it working out compared to the almost always more fully fledged Mac alternatives? Continued →

The MacBook Air, redux

I have owned three MacBook Air models. Luckily I skipped out on the first one, which had serious issues with heat and sudden crashes. The minor update that led to the second MacBook Air was the first one I got, and then it struck me. This is the perfect typewriter, way beyond any laptop I had ever owned, and those are numerous I can tell you that.

I loved that Air, all its 1,6 GHz of low voltage processing power, the touchpad and even its awkward two buttons, the whole package. It was underpowered with its 2 GB of RAM and the 4200 rpm hard drive, combined with heating issues that firmware updates and some sensible usage sorted out for me personally. Still, best typewriter ever, thanks to its wonderful keyboard and the form factor. Love it. Continued →

Changes midstream

I need to come to a decision and I figured it would be easier to do that by writing a few words about my reasoning. Here’s the thing: I’m writing a novel, it’s been outlined (more or less) for the past three years or so. The story interconnects with other stories, which I intend to write as well (have already started, actually), and the sole reason I started writing the novel in the first place was to get off my ass.

You might say I started in the middle, in medias res, of the larger picture. It seemed a good idea at the time. Continued →

Using different fonts when writing two stories at once is a nice way to keep things separated in your mind. A nice little mindhack you can steal from me, as well as Joelle Charbonneau who wrote about it recently. It is the same principle as writing different things on different devices, or even using different mediums.

Just the iPad

I’ll be out of town for a bit, visiting friends and enjoying some hard earned vacation, which is to say that I won’t be working this weekend. It’s not a long trip or anything, but I won’t be home for a little while.

So what will I bring? I’m thinking just the iPad, to keep me from getting some real work done. No designing, no editing, no serious writing – that sounds pretty great to me actually. But how will it work out? Will I feel limited and regret my decision, or is the iPad powerful enough to sate my needs.

We’ll see. After all, I still feel that there is something beautiful over the “writing station” below. I haven’t decided whether to bring the bluetooth keyboard though, we’ll see how well it fits in my bag.

I’ll report back and let you know how it worked out, and if I actually got something done. There are, after all, quite a few possible tools for me to be productive if I really want to.

The blank screen

The blank screen. Just the cursor blinking, mocking you. Painful, oh so painful, and yet full of potential. That’s what makes it so hard to start filling the screen with words, sentences, and things that make at least some sense. Things that are worthy of publication, of sharing, and of your reader’s time.

The blank screen scares me. It didn’t use to though, and I wonder if I ever will feel the same amount of confidence and possibilities as I did as a teen. It’s a shame that same confidence didn’t adhere to all parts of my teenage years, but I’m happy for what I got. Continued →

Flash fiction

Flash fiction, take that word in your mouth and taste it for a little while. Sounds awfully cool, doesn’t it? For those of you who doesn’t know, flash fiction is another word for a short story, or rather, a really short story. How short depends on who you ask, but the consensus seems to be shorten than 1,000 words. That would be some 5,000 characters, assuming the average word in the English language is 5 characters, which it is according to Google.

I’m a big fan of short stories and I think it is a shame they are generally seen as commercially unsound. If they weren’t we’d see more of it, obviously. Money talks, even for writers. Or especially for them, perhaps, what do I know.

I’m in a short story mood, so as soon as the mammoth gig Odd Alice is doing for an exciting company is done I’m bound to let out some steam by pursuing some of the ideas I have.

Flash fiction. I like it.

The grab and go iPad setup

What if you didn’t need a fully fledged computer all the time? Let’s face it, most of the time we’re just browsing the web, checking in on Facebook, send tweets and write emails anyway. Not exactly tasks that merit a powerful computer in your home.

Does this merit a workstation at home? Do you really want one? Wouldn’t you rather do these casual things from the comfort of your living room couch, for example? Sure, you can bring a laptop but it won’t be ideal for longer periods of time, and sometimes you have a ton of things you want to read up on. Continued →

Write every day

Want to become a good writer? Want to battle writer’s block? Want a serious challenge?

Then write every day.

I’m not talking about twittering or posting comments on blogs, I’m talking about original pieces. If you want to be an online journalist (aka “blogger”), then you should blog every day. If you want to write fiction, then write some fiction every day.

It doesn’t have to be much. A lot of it might not be good. The whole idea is to get used to writing, to do it in regular intervals, and to make it less of an obstacle when you really need to perform.

So write every day if you want to be a writer.

I’ll write four books this year, see four books published

If you’re following me on Facebook you saw this a few weeks ago, but I figured I’d put myself under some additional pressure by publishing my book writing goals for ~~2010~~ 2011 here as well.

I’m going to write four books this year.

I’ll also see to it that four books get published this year. Continued →

Look for the second edition of Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog in April

Today I delivered the last part of the manuscript for the second edition of Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog. The first edition, which came out in late January last year, have sold well (we’re talking tens of thousand books here) and my publisher (Wiley) are obviously happy with it.

The second edition, which should be able for pre-order from Amazon and other fine online retailers, is due in April this year. It is fully updated for WordPress 3.1, with lots of new examples, concepts and whatnot. I’m pretty happy with it actually, and I believe you will be too. While time and space was limited, I do feel that it adds a lot of value, hopefully enough for fans of the first edition to want to pick up the second edition. At least that’s how I’ve written it, and I hope you’ll agree that it merits a second buy. Continued →

Depressing

The image above is depressing for several reasons.

It’s Microsoft Word.
It’s Microsoft Word on a Mac.
The document is empty.
Empty documents is usually a source for angst.
It is still Microsoft Word.

Time to wrap up the last chapter of my “new” secret book which I’ll tell you all about next week, and forget about Word for a while.

This post is guilty to my first contact with my publisher for the tech books I’m writing. Had to dig it up in order to answer a question for an interview, and thought I’d share it. I just wish the site utilized the design a little better, it used to be clean and balanced, now it feels cluttered with ads.