This year I am going to write in the NaNoWriMo contest again. I know there are people who love and hate this writing contest, but I think it’s kind of interesting. Some kind of accountability is always a good thing. Here’s to a successful NaNoWriMo.

My profile: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/214284

• Kindle Is Convenient But Not Always The Best Choice
• 5 Pages Every Writer Should Consider
• The Galactic Writer Elevator Pitch
• The Challenge Of Writing A Book
• Joining A Writing Group

I know that’s a bold statement, not cost affective. Why am I saying that? Let’s look at a few things. Utah author Brandon Sanderson (who, by the way is finishing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series), has The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, Book 2) for sale on Amazon in paperback for $7.99. The Kindle version of this book is, $7.99. No savings, and I don’t get a physical book. Why is that important?

In my opinion the Kindle is a great Green appliance. It allows you to read a book without killing trees and eventually ending up in a land fill. However, I like the ability to resale, or even donate, a book once I’m through. With a Kindle book, you can’t. I’m also at the mercy of the Kindle having a power issue, and then I can’t read a book. And the Kindle doesn’t have limitless storage, which limits my library.

I guess I’m struggling paying eight bucks for a digital book. I believe the digital version should be a lot less. I know many Kindle books have a cheaper price than their paper counterpart, but those books tend to be older. Give us new releases for at least half the cost since it should only take half the effort to produce, stock and ship.

I really like the Kindle. In fact, I love the iPhone version (iTunes link). It’s convenient, and I find I’m reading more because I have the book with me all the time.

If you’re an Author, and I know this may buy me some heat here, urge your publisher and Amazon to reduce the price of your digital works. I know I will.

Share with us your view on Kindle books, and if you have one, either the Kindle device or the iPhone application and how you like it.

• Participating In NaNoWriMo 2009
• Reading On Grammar

You have to admit, with so many people blogging, millions of social network posts through Twitter and Facebook, it’s amazing anyone ever has time to read anything.

When you are at a social gathering, and there is a crowd of people, the volume rises as the number of people increase. Peoples voices get louder because they want to make sure they are heard. For some, the noise becomes unbearable and they leave the area, or for teenagers they put in their iPod ear buds.

Getting above the noise isn’t easy, but can be accomplished. Besides making sure your social network streams know you have a new blog post, making an RSS feed available; creating blog post titles that capture attention is going to be the key to being seen, heard, and then read.

If you can’t capture someone’s attention with your title, and you don’t deliver must read content every day, you’ll struggle to attract readers. And that’s what we want right?

I suggest you take as much coming up with a good title for your blog post as you do the post content. My second highest read post is one I wrote about using killer titles. Read it and let me know what you think here. What are some ways people can raise their blog posts above the noise?

• 5 Pages Every Writer Should Consider
• The Galactic Writer Elevator Pitch

Today I wanted to share what I think are important parts of a writers website. Whether its a  blog or a static site, I fell like these pages will give you the biggest return.

1. About Me One of the first things I look for when I visit a new site is an About Me page, especially if I’ve never met the person. Some things you may want to include are:

• Personal background
• Writing background
• Accomplishments
• Favorite things to do

Make it personal. Connect with the person reading. People want to relate.

2. Contact Me Give your visitors an easy way to contact you. Whether it’s a form they fill out, a simply email address, or phone number (or all of these), I think the most important piece is to have somewhere for the person to leave you a message.

3. My Books/Writings Give people a page they can see all of your writing. You can break it out into books, published articles, anthologies, poetry, what ever you are writing.

4. Writing Samples Give everyone a look at your style. It’s also a great option to have when someone wants you give them an example of your writing. If you write books, and have several published, create links for people actually buy your books. Yay! Make some money.

5. Tools One thing I really appreciate from a veteran writer is a list of tools that you have used, or you find useful. These can be software tools, writing tools, links to web sites, books to read, and other resource links. This can actually be an active part of your site if you update it regularly, and share what you find along the way.

6. Bonus: Blog Bonus page, is not really a page. But you should really have a blog. If you’re reading this blog post, you probably have a blog. If you don’t have a blog, let me know, I’d love to help you get started. It’s easier than you think. I believe its an invaluable resource and tool for every writer.

I need to incorporate 3, 4 and 5 better on this site. I have the pages, but they need a lot of work.

Thanks for taking time to read what I think are very important parts of a web site. Tell us what pages you think are important for writers to have in their web site.

• The Galactic Writer Elevator Pitch
• Participating In NaNoWriMo 2009
• A Tribute To Wayman Tisdale
• Pushing Your Blog Post Above The Noise
• The Challenge Of Writing A Book

Today starts a 31 day writing challenge from the ProBlogger Darren Rowse. I did this a few years ago, and one of the post, Writing Catchy Blog Titles, is my all time number two for traffic coming into my blog. To learn more or to get started, visit this link.

Today’s challenge is to crate an elevator pitch for your business, service or blog. Since this is a blog, not a business or service, my pitch isn’t going to entice you buy something, but rather keep coming back to read what I hope are funny, emotional and informative posts.

My elevator pitch for this blog is “Programmer by day, Writer by night. It’s my take on writing as a moonlight career.”

I originally started this blog to document my writing journey. I got caught up in a mountain of excuses why I stopped posting, and why I haven’t complete, or even finished, and of my prose writing.

It comes down to priorities. You have to look at them constantly, at least I do. Priorities change, and I need to change with them. Some times that means not writing, or taking pictures. But it doesn’t mean I have given up.

Honestly, I wish the writers in my area were as willing to share as the group of photographers I’ve come to know. Photowalking Utah, and the recent PhotoCamp, has really helped in building a great community. Maybe I should put on a Utah WritersCamp.

Back to the subject at hand, teh elevator pitch. Everyone should have an elevator pitch for their blog or business.

• 5 Pages Every Writer Should Consider
• Participating In NaNoWriMo 2009
• Pushing Your Blog Post Above The Noise
• The Challenge Of Writing A Book
• Joining A Writing Group

Today I wanted to give props to two people who need to be recognized as outstanding individuals.

The first is Tamera Tanner. I met Tamara through Twitter, mainly because we have a common interest, horses. Tamara runs an outstanding foundation, The Straighter Way Foundation, that uses horses in therapeutic settings. Basically, the foundation gives people who wouldn’t normally get the chance to have an opportunity to experience what its like to ride a horse.

I’m proud become part of this foundation, and they could really use your help. To learn more please visit the web site at http://www.tswf.org/.

The next person I want to give a shout out too is David N Wilson. It wasn’t a big thing, but it was much appreciated. David re-tweeted my request to talk to someone about conventions. I appreciate the effort David. And, did you know that David is a rock star author? Well then, hurry on over to his web site and learn more about his writing. And more importantly, buy some of his books.

• Props To My Peeps: Sundance Tweetup For Charity
• Props To My Peeps: Rachel Strate
• Props To My Peeps: Sylvie Veillet

As all of you know, there are a large number of challenges when it comes to writing a book. There are so many I’m not even going to list them.

A month or so ago, my friend Jason Alba challenged us to write our book this year. Doesn’t matter the subject, only to get started writing. He has a lot of great points. I’m up to the challenge of writing my book, because I have several that I’m working on. And that’s the problem. Completing one project before starting another.

I guess you could say I have multi-tasking disease. I like to have more than one fire burning at a time. Generally this isn’t a problem, but I can definitely tell when I have too many fires, I feel the heat. This is also true for my writing. Which is a problem, because I start on projects, then never finish them, or it takes me a long time to find me way back.

I’ve come up with a writing plan, sort of a To-Do list, or Next Action plan, and I keep track of these projects in Evernote. I want my list of unfinished projects to be staring at me all the time. This isn’t the same as writing something and letting it simmer for a while. This is starting and then moving on before finishing.

How do you manage your writing projects?

• Participating In NaNoWriMo 2009
• 5 Pages Every Writer Should Consider
• The Galactic Writer Elevator Pitch
• Joining A Writing Group
• Add Value In All You Write

Earlier in the week I attended the first meeting of what will become a local writers group. The group meets close tony house so that makes it real easy to attend.

Everyone shared the reason they were there, and I was surprised at the varied responses. Most were what I would call typical, and one was a little mystifying.

What I want out of the group is the occasional critique, how to write query letters and pitch stories, and the marketing of your books.

I think we will have a good time, but we will need some experienced published authors to join our group. I think it’s critical to our groups success.

So here’s to an interesting and exciting new journey.

Do you belong to a writing group? What are thevthings you like about your group?

• Participating In NaNoWriMo 2009
• 5 Pages Every Writer Should Consider
• The Galactic Writer Elevator Pitch
• The Challenge Of Writing A Book
• Add Value In All You Write

Today I put out a message on Twitter asking what people thought I should focus on with this new blog. The majority of comments suggested I have a focus and stay with it. Having a focus will allow visitors to know what to expect. And I couldn’t agree more.

My original intent with this blog was to document my journey as a writer, and I’ll still do that. But I also want to add some value to the readers.

While watching the streaming video of WordCamp Las Vegas this morning, Chris Brogan, someone who has a pretty good handle on social media and marketing, said something that was very prolific. His advice, quit writing about the tools (i.e. Twitter, FriendFeed), and start using them to enhance your world. Basically, get out from behind the wall and smell the roses.

I’m guilty of talking about the tools instead of using them to enhance my world. In fact, I deleted about 10 posts I had already started that were tool based. I thought telling you why writers should use Twitter or FriendFeed was the right thing too do. But I don’t think that way anymore. Rather than telling you about tools (which may happen from time to time), what I really want to do is talk about my experiences and how I got there.

For example, I’m a Twitter user. If you don’t know what Twitter is, I suggest reading this blog post. I use a tool called TweetDeck which monitors all of Twitters communications, and allows me to find information based on search criteria. I’m currently finding a lot of new writers, books, and websites via Twitter. The reason this has value to me is the information I’m tracking is relevant at this moment.

How is this going to help my writing? How can this help your writing? These are some great questions. I want to use the different streams of information to augment my life experiences, not be the experience. I think I spend more time than is necessary reading all this information. I’m not sure I really need that much.

• Do I Need A Sales Page To Succeed?
• Participating In NaNoWriMo 2009
• 5 Pages Every Writer Should Consider
• The Galactic Writer Elevator Pitch
• The Challenge Of Writing A Book

My focus for a long time has been writing fiction. I’ve never really thought about writing a non-fiction piece. But several months ago I was brain storming with a friend on a story I’ve wanted to tell for 20 years. Yeah I know, we all have a story that takes us 20 years to tell. But mine really did happen 20 years ago.

I have been hesitant to write this story only because I wasn’t comfortable with the writing style. And I wasn’t sure of all the facts 20 years later. However, my friend gave me a great idea. Take the elements of the story and write a fictional piece. And that was the answer. Right in front me this whole time.

I started putting the layout together:

1. Characters
2. Place
3. Time
4. Problem
5. Action
6. Results

I think over the next several days I’ll talk about these aspects of my story. Maybe you can help me along the way. Let’s tackle Characters first.

There are over twenty five people in the original story. Obviously thats too many for me to manage in this story. What I’m going to do instead is create one character who is the focal point, the protagonist. In reality it’s me, I’m the main character. But I’ll put my character in a situation I was never in. That will be the twist to the story, and allow me to write a fictional piece.

The next is my antagonist. In the real life story this character doesn’t exist. But I’m going to create one. Actually, it’s a group of characters with a very psychotic leader.

Next are the supporting characters. One is a very close friend of mine. Someone I work with, and trust. There are three or four more characters like my close friend only they aren’t in the story as much. My boss, who at times I think is playing both sides of the fence, but we’ll see. I thought about throwing in a love interest, but I’m not sure it would work in this story.

Some time ago I read that if you are not sure of the middle, but you have the beginning and the end already figured out, write those, then figure out the plumbing. That’s how this story will be written. I know the beginning, and I know the end. It’s the middle part that is made up and I still need to map out. Chris Brogan is a mind mapping Ninja. Learn more about it. It will make a huge difference in how you write.

• Participating In NaNoWriMo 2009
• 5 Pages Every Writer Should Consider
• The Galactic Writer Elevator Pitch
• The Challenge Of Writing A Book
• Joining A Writing Group