Dumbledore
Great Ideas Come to Town
27/10/09 19:38 Filed in: Writing
It's been an interesting couple of days. First, my
sister, Lynn, and her partner, Gavin came to town
from Toronto for a visit. We've been having a great
time. And, as an added bonus, they are both extremely
computer and internet savvy, so I've been picking up
a lot of tips for my website.
For example, I've added a new page to the website entitled "Video". This page allows me to embed the videos I've posted on Youtube so that people can simply access them from this webpage rather than having to find them on Youtube itself. It's pretty cool. I don't know if any of you will take advantage but I like the idea.
Second, and arising out of that first item, Lynn and Gavin have also suggested that I think about videotaping myself reading sections from my creative writing. I can post the videos on Youtube, then add a link to them on this website. That way, you can read my writing or let me read it to you. Sounds like fun. Of course, it will take a lot of planning since I'll have to make sure everything looks and sounds good. I'm also now feeling some self-inflicted pressure to revise the earlier Phillip Gold books before I do the reading. Or is that just a delaying tactic?
I'm quite interested in trying it with The Way Forward, my in-progress Rowling-world novel featuring Minerva McGonagall, Aberforth Dumbledore and the surviving Weasley twin. I wonder if I'll have the guts to do voice characterizations for each.
Third, Gavin showed me how I can put more photos on my website without making the computer file too big. It seems Rapidweaver saves each picture in its original size, even though what you see on the website itself is a much smaller version. By the press of a button, however, I can tell the program to shed the massive versions of the photos and just keep the smaller ones. So the size of the website dropped from about 15 MB to just two and a bit, without any loss of quality on the web. Cool. It means I can get back to putting more photos on the site and not worry about overloading my computer.
Best of all, I actually broke out of my slump, at least for the day, and wrote an entire scene for The Silent Goodbye. I'm pleased about that since it had been a while since I had been able to get myself to sit down and write. As so often happens when you start writing after a long absence, I had to leave a gap between where I left off in the plot and where I started up again; that way I can simply write the bridge section later, rather than having, say, two versions of the same scene to reconcile.
I wish I had a better memory, though. I have already forgotten some character names and many of the physical descriptions. That's really bad. That's why I've had to create the character and setting outlines: so that I can maintain consistency throughout the Phillip Gold collection, in spite of my bad memory.
A good day all around, thanks to Lynn and Gavin.
For example, I've added a new page to the website entitled "Video". This page allows me to embed the videos I've posted on Youtube so that people can simply access them from this webpage rather than having to find them on Youtube itself. It's pretty cool. I don't know if any of you will take advantage but I like the idea.
Second, and arising out of that first item, Lynn and Gavin have also suggested that I think about videotaping myself reading sections from my creative writing. I can post the videos on Youtube, then add a link to them on this website. That way, you can read my writing or let me read it to you. Sounds like fun. Of course, it will take a lot of planning since I'll have to make sure everything looks and sounds good. I'm also now feeling some self-inflicted pressure to revise the earlier Phillip Gold books before I do the reading. Or is that just a delaying tactic?
I'm quite interested in trying it with The Way Forward, my in-progress Rowling-world novel featuring Minerva McGonagall, Aberforth Dumbledore and the surviving Weasley twin. I wonder if I'll have the guts to do voice characterizations for each.
Third, Gavin showed me how I can put more photos on my website without making the computer file too big. It seems Rapidweaver saves each picture in its original size, even though what you see on the website itself is a much smaller version. By the press of a button, however, I can tell the program to shed the massive versions of the photos and just keep the smaller ones. So the size of the website dropped from about 15 MB to just two and a bit, without any loss of quality on the web. Cool. It means I can get back to putting more photos on the site and not worry about overloading my computer.
Best of all, I actually broke out of my slump, at least for the day, and wrote an entire scene for The Silent Goodbye. I'm pleased about that since it had been a while since I had been able to get myself to sit down and write. As so often happens when you start writing after a long absence, I had to leave a gap between where I left off in the plot and where I started up again; that way I can simply write the bridge section later, rather than having, say, two versions of the same scene to reconcile.
I wish I had a better memory, though. I have already forgotten some character names and many of the physical descriptions. That's really bad. That's why I've had to create the character and setting outlines: so that I can maintain consistency throughout the Phillip Gold collection, in spite of my bad memory.
A good day all around, thanks to Lynn and Gavin.