Worrrds? We don’t need no steenking words!

Yeah. Well.

I got my big birthday present a couple of days early.

A Sony Reader. Red. Spiffy. WAAAAY spiffy.

And instead of being a good and faithful writer and getting my words, I’ve been sitting here working my way through the user’s manual and discovering that, yes, I CAN put the entire Think Sideways course on my e-reader, and yes, it is readable if I bump the text up one size.

And looking through the Sony bookstore, and though the Gutenberg Project e-book library and squinking along trying to find other sources of good e-books…

It’s an awesome present.

No words, though.

How about you?

image_pdfDownload as PDFimage_printPrint Page

By Holly

Novelist, writing teacher, on a mission to reprint my out-of-print books and indie-publish my new ones.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

36 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Clare K. R. Miller
13 years ago

Ooh, I’m jealous! But I can’t hate you too much, because you used a Blazing Saddles paraphrase, and because our birthdays are in the same month 😉

620 words for Tuesday. Coming along nicely.

PolarBear
13 years ago

I guess this means Sony is speaking Mac now? When I looked at earlier Sony Readers, they weren’t Mac compatible (which seems kind of dumb since you’re just transferring files to the machine via a USB port).

Gabby
Gabby
13 years ago

Happy birthday Holly. That’s the coolest gift. I would also be glad to hear how you end up liking it. Also, if you ever have a chance, are you still liking the dvorak layout. Are you still pain free?

Anyway, 1843 today. Shaved a few days off my expected end date–gotta love that 😉 yay

Gabby
Gabby
Reply to  Gabby
13 years ago

Forgot to mention that my muse handed me a couple of lovely twisties. Still working my way out of my current scene. I was able to set off one of my muse bombs early. I was afraid before that it was going to seem like an afterthought (because I thought it would go off in the end). but now, earlier in the book, I think it rewards careful readers for paying attention. Of course, I’ll be better able to tell once the WIP is done.

Rabia
13 years ago

600+ words last night. I’m taking tonight off to read and get to bed decently early. Happy birthday, Holly!

Ann
Ann
13 years ago

Happy Birthday, Holly!

Don
Don
13 years ago

Happy B Day did 590 today another good day.

red_dot
red_dot
13 years ago

Past three days no words just zombies and grand baby.

Today 478 words.

Sandy Jensen
13 years ago

When I declared Holly Magic Day, I had no idea it was your birthday season–how does she do it, boys and girls?

I thought I wanted a Kindle. Is a Sony Reader a better buy and/or a better mechanismo?

800 words for me this morning, and I could keep on going if I didn’t have to friggin’ work.

This is a project I’ve worked on over twenty years, so I have a lot of pieces written (and published); however, when I review the old, unpolished stuff, I see that my style has clarified. My early work suffers from imitations of my favorite essayists, and an arch, witty voice I am going to accuse Mary Stewart of giving me, although it’s not her fault I got addicted to her literary adventure/romances at an impressionable age.

Good, clear style takes integrity at the level of the sentence. My bullshit detector picked up on some doo-doo-quack-quack sentences I had the good sense to catch now at the drafting stage.

Onward!

Kait Nolan
13 years ago

547 yesterday through a series of microsprints.

Larkk
Larkk
Reply to  Kait Nolan
13 years ago

Microsprints?!
Sounds fun, I will have to try that!

Lisa R
Lisa R
13 years ago

675 words. I enjoyed the writing. More was discovered and the pieces are starting to fall into place for the MC even though she doesn’t want to accept the extent of her destiny. Very soon, the climax is going to hit and I am hoping for it to be a ride!

Tami
13 years ago

Congrats on your eReader! That’s awesome. The Sony bookstore is a bit of a jungle yet, but the eReaders are so very incredibly handy.

I like the Baen free eBook library (there’s even a book or two of yours up there) and Harlequin has a beautiful habit of offering free eBooks every now and again, if you like romances.

I’d be really interested to hear if you use it for your own manuscripts or if you feel it helps you as an author and not just as a reader.

As for writing, I edited and posted the newest Choose installment (the original didn’t have a description of the ship in it and I needed my engineer/husband to remind me of the fact that it looks like a rusted lemon dropped into a bathtub.

Jessica
Jessica
13 years ago

Early happy birthday Holly!

No words for me either. My cold has gotten worse again and by the time I got home I just crashed into bed. How sweet though that my mom drove over (on her birthday) just to give me some home-made chicken soup! Time to see the dr. today I think.

Debora
Debora
13 years ago

250 words exactly. Brainstormed the next scene using my notebook and pen, then transferred it to SuperNotecard, including one very fine muse bomb and five, or was it six?, LUCs.

Fun!

Happy Birthday, Holly! (Will it be the big 50?)

Gabby
Gabby
Reply to  Debora
13 years ago

what is an LUC?

Debora
Debora
Reply to  Gabby
13 years ago

Sorry, that is Think Sideways jargon. A very helpful technique, called the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Gabby
Gabby
Reply to  Debora
13 years ago

Thanks!

Peggy
Peggy
13 years ago

715 for Tuesday.

Tuesday night, I didn’t sleep well at all, so we’ll see if I can focus enough to get any words or not.

Good writing to everyone else!

Khena
Khena
13 years ago

325 words for me. I didn’t spend much time writing, since I hurt, but I had to finish up the thought I had. It took me a little farther than I planned, but I;m not going to complain =)

As of right now, NaNo is out of the question, again, unfortunately. I refuse to abandon this book I am writing to start another, and I don’t think I’ll have time to work on two at the rate NaNo requires. I think this is my forth year of failing… =/ No babies this year though, so I was really hoping…

Jessica
Jessica
Reply to  Khena
13 years ago

You don’t necessarily have to start a new story for NaNo. A couple of years ago I was 15K into a story already when November 1st came and I just continued from there to add 50K. I won, narrowly, but it ended up in a pile of forgotten things that I never got back to.

I’ve won 3/4 years of NaNo (the time I lost is because the house complex beside ours was in a 5-alarm fire and I was too freaked out to write). The trick, for me at least, is to get a good head start early on – have a buffer against unexpected non-writing days – and to give myself a good 3-4 hours writing time every night.

Khena
Khena
Reply to  Jessica
13 years ago

Actually, one of the rules in their FAQ is to start a new novel, not bring an old one in. An arbitrary rule, they admit, but they have good reasons for it, ones that would cause me a great many problems. I’m 80k words into my novel, and if I went at it with the abandon I would need to for NaNo, it would hurt me, a lot. I’ve spent so much time working on this novel now, I don’t think I could. Maybe if I had less time and words into I could, but not now. I’m considering doing 250 a day on my current, and then switching to a NaNo one, but I don’t know if I have the stamina for that =)

Thank you for the suggestion though!

HannaBelle
HannaBelle
13 years ago

Happy Birthday. Nice, a Sony reader. It is on my list of things I want. I used to read books on my Palm and it was surprisingly easy. Plus, I loved traveling with 5 books or more that fit in my pocket rather than having to carry an extra bag just to hold the books. 😎

No words. Still getting settled after vacation. Have a job interview today so that will eat up a big part of the day.

Larkk
Larkk
13 years ago

1486 words starting to answer the question, “Was there a girl?” It wasn’t his sister who, thinking she had seen a ghost, chased after him when slipped away into a dark alley. It was the girl.

Also, starting to plot out some scenes for the nano novel that are starting to tug at me, begging to be written. The challenge will be to PLAN out the whole thing and wait until Nov. 1, and not just plunge in. About 500 words planning out a scene, or actually a series of smaller scenes in one setting.

Jeff
Jeff
13 years ago

Making the switch from 3rd person omnipotent to 1st person narrative. I was able to finish changing the first scene and added a couple new ones. The MC is far more witty and it is much easier to inject a sense of mystery when to reader is not receiving the whole story while the characters are in the dark.
Tuesday’s Count.
New words = 352
Old words made new = 791

Clare
Clare
13 years ago

1,424 words on Tuesday. Finished the second scene and did a short, aftermath scene that hints at one of the character’s fears. That also brought me to the end of the first chapter. It’s going to need some serious cleaning up in the revision phase, but I MUST NOT do it now!

Greg
Greg
13 years ago

D&D: 549
OFL: 1002
RFW: 1026

KQ
KQ
13 years ago

1507 to report, still in the game.

Have fun with your reader, Holly!

Treelight
Treelight
13 years ago

205 for me, and I don’t feel too bad for not reaching the minimum.
I had to start working on a birthday present for a friend, which has to be ready by weekend.
And I was watching a documentary about New Zealand in cinema, which sent my thoughts quite in another direction.

Besides, I still haven’t decided how exactly Jheyrien is going to find or stumble over the hint that will show him the way to Cathrine.

Joyce
13 years ago

Ooh, toy surprise! Excellent. I’d love to hear what you think of this particular reader. I’m not exactly in the market for one (need to spend money on that like I need a hole in my head), but I’m curious. The comparisons I have heard between the Sony and the Kindle have mostly ragged on the Sony for their limited number of available titles. What made you choose the Sony?

632 words for HoC. The little engine that could needs to pick up the pace, but at least I’m not still stuck at the bottom of the hill.

Charmaine
13 years ago

1623 words for Dog Show Detective, I now have 8 chapters. In this chapter Kitty is assessing the clues so far: half a ransom note, a missing dog, a mystery dog, the wrong microchip, a missing vet’s nurse and an old lady’s will. All this, plus she has a show to prepare for.

Close to my necessary wordcount for NaNoWriMo. Now to do some work on The Pirate Girl.

I hope you have a lovely birthday when it comes, give yourself a day for play.

Leah
Leah
13 years ago

579 words today. This scene goes perfectly here, but it is so odd. I have had such experiences, where I find myself consciously awake while sleeping and find strange things about my body and mind, and dreaming all at once. Yeah, like I said, weird. But it works. The Muse gifted me with it while in the shower nursing sore muscles this morning.

Leah
Leah
Reply to  Leah
13 years ago

Oh, by the way, I WANT A SONY READER TOO!

Patricia
Patricia
13 years ago

2,652 words, and another beautiful night when words are magic at my fingertips. Ryan has decided to be noble, and he is racing against time to try and bring Growmr to the village before the venom spreads (dragons are venomous), but I have a sinking feeling that Growmr is going to die. Ryan and Growmr’s struggles together over the past few days have brought them closer, almost like a father-son relationship. It’s not fair!

Teri
Teri
13 years ago

Thank you, Holly, for inviting us to write our books with you. I didn’t want to write today, and didn’t “need” to because I’m a little ahead of schedule, but neither did I want to have nothing to report. So I thought I’d just throw out a hundred words or so, just to have done something. Final total: 284 words! It’s the getting started that’s the hard part, and your invitation really helps with motivation.

Most of my words were Taskh refining his argument, and me discovering that he does actually a pretty good point. There is a good military reason for taking out the patrol. The company comander is slowly being convinced.

Ieva
13 years ago

Ahhh. You must be soooo happy now 🙂 Happy birthday!

I wrote 1400+ words despite a horrible spell of melancholia, and I did one of the key scenes of the book. I think I’ll have to spice it up in rewrite.

36
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x