Need names for your novel’s cast of thousands? Unled has you covered. Visit the page and you’re presented with 4 random names drawn from, as I understand it, census data (or maybe phonebooks, or maybe even Google — in any case, some suitably large database of actual people’s names). You get two men’s names and two women’s […]
PDF, the Portable Document Format, is a standard created by Adobe for circulating formatted documents over the web. Using Acrobat Reader or some other PDF reader (I like Foxit Reader, which opens much faster than Acrobat Reader and seems to work just as well), the recipient views your document exactly as it appeared on your […]
I’m playing around with Social|Median, an as-yet-not-public social network that allows you to create and administer topic channels. Like other social networks such as Digg or Reddit, Social|Median lets you vote stories up and share them with your network (they call it “clipping”). They also send you a daily round-up of thetop stories in […]
Job Profiles has a huge list of 50 open source programs, from word processors and spell checkers to weblog editing software and submission trackers, that online writers can download and use free of charge. Open source software is created by volunteers ranging from employees at huge corporations (like Sun Microsystems, which directs the development of […]
If you’re as busy as I am, chances are you’re not always at your own computer when the urge (or need) to write strikes you. Although I try to schedule uninterrupted time to write at home, there are always projects that I can work on whenever I have a spare moment while I’m out and […]
It’s generally not a good idea to post your email address “as is” on your website. Spammers use programs called “bots” to scour the web and collect email addresses, to which they then send massive amounts of spam email.
Instead, create a separate “Contact Me” page and add a contact form where your visitors can […]
q10 is a minimalist, full-screen text editor with several special features for writers. When you run it, it takes up the whole screen (including the space usually reserved for the start bar), allowing you to focus only on your writing.
Lower left corner of q10; click for full screenshot.
q10 keeps a running word, character, and page […]
There are a number of top-quality blogging systems available today, many of them for free. There are hosted solutions like Blogger, WordPress.com, and TypePad, and there are install-it-yourself software packages like Drupal and WordPress. Although the hosted services are easier to get up and running with, I recommend you use the free WordPress software installed […]
Do you ever do group writing exercises? Are you co-authoring a novel? Do you want to put together a compilation of essays, short stories, or poems?
The web makes working with other writers and/or clients easier than ever. Gone are the days of posting typescripts of chapters back and forth between co-authors — now you can log in […]
photo credit: spcummings
These days, you can’t go anywhere without seeing people typing away on their laptops. In coffee houses, parks, airports, trains, college campuses — anywhere you go, people have laptops out and are, ostensibly, getting work done. (Or, more likely, playing Desktop Tower Defense.)
Good for them. They’ve got maybe two hours before their battery […]
