Miscellany and Search Terms

Well, I don't have much else to report.  My beloved and I are hammering out the plot for Witch Hunt tonight -- not just the overview, which we completed last night, but the actual nitty gritty of the phases of the story.  Once that's completed the writing will commence.  Actually, I have enough to go on now.  I could probably write at least one more installment as it is, but I may wait because I don't feel terribly inspired.

That being said, I thought a search term leading someone to my blog was interesting and thought I'd share:

how to narrative write "stephen King

Isn't that an interesting search term?  I don't know what someone would be looking for unless they wanted to find a copy or excerpt from Stephen King's On Writing, which has come up a couple of times here in my blog.

To that person searching for Mr. King and his narrative: Hey, if I knew how to write narrative like he does, I wouldn't be sitting here blogging.  I'd be collecting my royalties checks and cranking out more stuff for you to read.  Sorry I can't help, but you might enjoy my writing.  I'm not Stephen King, but then, he's not J.K. Rowling, either, so we all have our shortcomings.  If you'd like to read some of it, check out the links at the top of the page.  I have a few different things there, but Ghost Hunters and Witch Hunt are sequential, just FYI.

Okay, shameless self-promotion now behind me, check out some of these other terms:

darkroom vs jdarkroom
"like pagefour"
what happened with cartoonsmart
Noterrific review
jdarkroom vs writeroom

First off, let me address the "darkroom vs jdarkroom" person: been there, done that.  If you're using Windows, I feel DarkRoom is better.  Others, like Bryce Beattie, disagrees; he likes JDarkRoom better, although he confesses he'd like to get the source code so he can tweak it.  You can download both for free, so why don't you just try them both yourself and see which you prefer?  I did a comparison here; hope that helps ya.

For the "like pagefour" person -- there's a lot of software "like" PageFour, but I really like it.  It's a notebook setup, with pages within the notebook, so you can keep track of a lot of stuff.  I like to keep a notebook for each of the writing projects I'm working on, and make each of my chapters a new page.  It will do some nifty back up and disaster recovery steps for you, and allows you to not only save but take a "snapshot" so that your editing isn't committed to stone.  It's a nice, feature rich package that does a lot, and I use it most often for my writing.  It's also really nice journaling software, and if you'd like, you can password protect it.  Very cool.  Check out their website here for more information and current pricing.

But, for something "like" PageFour, I would recommend WriteItNow.  WriteItNow is a great package with a lot of features, including a story and character generator built in, a word processor, character tracking, event tracking, a timeline tracker, and a whole lot more.  It's really cool, and if you have the spare change, it's one of the more complete writer's software tools I've seen.  You can pay hundreds of dollars for software that even tries to get you to write a particular way (can you say "Dramatica?" -- I knew ya could), but this one will just keep everything you need in one place.  It has a bunch of features missing from PageFour, but I can't fully recommend it just because their demo doesn't let you do any saving.  It was hard to test, but check it out.

As an alternative, try looking at Liquid Story Binder XE.  Another very complete, very cool package.  You might like it.  I sure did, but again -- I couldn't do a thorough test without having to buy it.  Just as an aside on both, I probably will buy them when I can and let them decide for me which one is better.  When I do, a complete (or as complete as I can get it) review will be done right here on this blog.

Hope that helps.

For the "what happened with cartoonsmart" person: Nothing, as far as I can tell.  I went to the website (here), which looks like it's operating just fine.  If you want some really good training in making pretty complex productions from web pages to cartoons to games in Flash, check them out.  It's a great resource.  Just make sure you've got Flash enabled on your browser (DAMHIKT).

For the person seeking a "Noterrific" review -- can I suggest you try Text Tree instead, by Bryce Beattie of Baby Katie Media?  It's a powerful note and outlining software, and it will export into Noterrific if you'd like.  It's inexpensive, and very nicely done.  A clean, easy-to-understand and streamlined interface makes for an intuitive note and outlining package that is second to none, really.  Check it out; there's even a free demo.

And finally, for the individual wondering about "jdarkroom vs. writeroom" -- I can't help ya.  Sorry, I'm not a Mac user, and WriteRoom is a Mac-only product, so ... *shrug*.  Good luck with all that.

Well, y'all, I'm off to do some writing.  I hope.  I think.  That's my intent, anyway.

God bless, all!

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: reviews, software, search terms, random thoughts, writing

More Search Terms and Traffic Whoring

Well, after having a huge spike in traffic last week, I let myself drop off the blogosphere. I guess being a traffic whore just don't pay, especially when you're in an emotionally-draining situation that doesn't allow a lot of room for being funny, creative or interesting. My hit count is back to where it was before I started counting them. I'll miss you, readers.

So, I'll check the search terms that bring people to my various blogs and find interesting ones and post those from time to time. I'll try to do some software reviews, IF I can get a free copy, and I'll write fiction. Really, I will. I'm poised now to be able to complete the plotting and start outlining the course of the much-requested Witch Hunt. That looms large in my future, but I can't guarantee how often I'll post. I just want to do some writing before I forget how.

Search terms? Well, on the upside, someone did a search for List of Six, I believe, the program for managing priorities and to-do lists, written by my buddy Bryce Beattie. I did a review on it recently, which you can check out here. That's good; anything I can do to help out Bryce means a lot to me, because he's been a good friend, is one of the most generous individuals I've ever met, is a fellow writer, a father and just a plain ol' nice guy. Oh, and he writes very good software, too, so if you aren't checking out Baby Katie Media, you should. I love Text Tree, and would love to see that go mainstream production, making him wealthy. I think every writer should use it.

Anyway, here's another search term:

i darcness

Okay, not sure about that. When I do the search myself, I find ... well, myself. A lot. I named every blog I had "DarcNess", which is a play on part of my wife's name and part of my name. I spelled it with a "c" instead of the standard "k" because when I originally requested the handle "Dark Knight" it wasn't available. I got creative, and ... that's why I'm the DarcKnyt. Why the affiliation with Batman? I don't really know, honestly. I identify with the character ... a lot. He's a product of tragedy in his life ... me too. He's brooding, dark and is about a quarter of a tick from being a psychopath. Me too. He's trying to do good in a world of evil and help those overwhelmed by it. Me not so much. He's a billionaire. Me not so much. He's tall, handsome, strong and tuned to physical human perfection. Me not so much. He's got a really kick-ass car. Me not so much. He has a plane. Me not so much. He has a boat. Me not so much. He ...

All right, I guess other than being psycho and a product of pain and anguish, we don't have that much in common. Still, he's my favorite comic book character. It used to be Spider-Man when I was a lad, but now, it's the Dark Knight. Why?

Because there's nothing superhuman or supernatural about Batman except his bank account. Other than that, everything he does is done within the realms of his human capabilities. I admired that he made the most of what he could be, and I always identified with that.

I guess I'm still more in-line and in-kind with Frankenstein's monster. More on that in another post ... maybe.

So, for that individual searching for "I, DarcNess," well ... you found me. If you meant "I, Darkness" -- Google should have helped you out with that. If not, then leave me a comment and say "hey". I'd love to hear from you. :)

Have fun over your remaining weekend, everyone.

God bless,

-JDT-

Technorati Tags: life, random thoughts, search terms, software