Writing – Page 5 – John's Random Thoughts and Discussions

Discovering the Right e-Book Format

As I start to get more involved in planning my first self-published e-book, I’ve been looking into the requirements for putting such a document together. When you write for a living, you get used to having a whole plethora of skilled individuals to help you put a nicely rendered document together. There are a number of editors to help, along with the production staff that takes the document from ethereal bits to actual paper. So, the thought of doing everything myself is a bit daunting because I really want the final product to look great.

There are several considerations and reading about self-publishing online usually fails to break these elements into manageable pieces. The first piece is the document itself. I’ve read a number of sources that suggest using HTML or a direct output format, such as EPUB. However, I’m starting to believe that while they leads will work, they aren’t necessarily optimal if you want to publish your work through a number of online vendors. The advice offered in Clearing Up Confusion About Self-Publishing seems to ring true-using the .doc format will work best. Actually, the article mentions both .doc and .docx formats, but I have good reasons to use .doc:

The format is used more often by third party products.
It’s easy to scan a file in .doc format using a utility such as FindStr.
There seem to be fewer glitches with the .doc format.
I have more templates that work well with the .doc format.

Of course, you can just as easily use the .docx format if that format appeals to you. The choice is one of personal taste in this case, but choosing one of the two seems to be best because it’s accepted by three major online vendors.

Another consideration is the actual content and formatting of the document. I have years of experience with the content part of the question and have a good idea about formatting. However, self-publishing and going exclusively after the e-book market puts a few twists into the picture. After reading a lot of documentation online about the issue of formatting, I found a lot of good material in Creating an e-book: Tips on formatting and converting your document. Although all five pages of this article are good, the best formatting information begins on page 4. However, what a lot of these articles fail to mention are the obvious sorts of things that some people fail to do:

Create a comprehensive outline for your book.
Actually stick to the outline as you write.
Format the outline when you put it together so that you can use the same formatting in the book.
Ensure you collect the resources needed to make your outline work and note them in the outline.

If you’re seeing a pattern here, it’s that outlines are important. The better you define the outline, the better the book will come out. Part of formatting your e-book is creating a good outline and then sticking with it.

After you decide on a document format, the formatting of the book content, and the content itself, you need to consider one other element-presenting your book to others. Of course, the presentation starts with a great cover. Most of the material I find online for creating covers is negative. For example, avoiding the use of book services. I’m used to thinking about how to market my books because it’s part of what the publisher asks me to provide, but I’m also having to start to think about the cover in more ways than simply the content the cover provides. Actually, it’s a creative process that I plan to enjoy.

I know that e-books aren’t for everyone and as a result you may be limiting your target audience, as many people either don’t have access to a computer/laptop/tablet or wouldn’t enjoy reading a book on one of those devices. However, you could always go online and have your ebook printed out as a physical book which you could then sell/give to those who want it but couldn’t access it as an e-book.

I’ll keep you updated as I work through these first several self-published book projects. However, for now, I’ve been putting some content together and thinking a lot about what I need to do to get the book out there and make it sell. Let me know your thoughts on self-publishing at [email protected].

Writing Letters

It seems outdated, old fashioned, archaic, and all the other superlatives you can attach to it—writing letters, by hand, and then mailing them sees like something that no one does anymore. Contrary to common belief, letter writing isn’t completely dead in this electronic world of instant communication using text messages. I’ve been writing regularly to five people. Yes, I actually get out writing materials, write the letter by hand, and then put it in the mail. Of course, the question is why I’d do something so insane in this modern world. People I tell about my letter writing ask what I might possibly hope to achieve by doing so. In fact, some might even doubt my sanity.

There is something to be said for taking time to properly compose a letter. The physical effort required to write one, tends to make the value of each word more. A well-written letter is a joy to send and receive. Taking the time to pick and choose each word, to consider what really is necessary to say, makes a written letter different from e-mail or a text message. As the value of each word drops, so does the quality of the content. It’s something that has struck a chord in me as I’ve read the written missives and compared them to some of the e-mails I receive. Not every written letter is a good one and not every e-mail is poorly written, but generally, the written letters contain carefully selected, well-written material.

However, quality of content aside, there is something special about receiving a letter in the mail. There is the anticipation of sending one and the anticipation of receiving a response. Each trip to the mailbox is no longer a boring collection of bills and junk, but a contemplation of something that is truly wanted. It adds excitement to my day. As I’m getting older, I find that instant gratification lacks excitement, anticipation, and pizzazz. In order to be worthwhile, anticipation needs time to grow and mature. Hand written letters bring something back that has been lost, a kind of hope that is missing from modern society.

Even more important, a written letter stimulates the senses in ways that an e-mail can’t. I opened a box of letters the other day from my wife. She wrote them while I was in the service and I could still smell her perfume on some of them. You can’t perfume an e-mail. Her fine writing reminded me of her unique way of approaching life—the letters were both dainty and artistic. They had a flow that reflected her way of viewing life. E-mail lacks any of that sort of feel. The paper itself varied from letter-to-letter. Some of it was quite fancy; other pieces contained interesting pictures. However, each letter was unique in its own way, making the experience of reading it unique as well. All these ways of transmitting information are lost in the instant gratification of e-mail and many younger people will never experience the joy of opening a mailbox and finding a letter, a unique transmission of thought from one person to another.

One of the main arguments I hear against writing letters is the cost of doing so. After all, postage is incredibly high. I started thinking about that the other day and it doesn’t wash. Consider the cost of your Internet connection. Even an inexpensive plan would pay for quite a number of letters each month. Given the plan I have (a low cost 1 Mb/s DSL connection), I could write 40 letters every month and still not exceed what I’m paying for Internet. Actually, the mail service is still a bargain when you think about it.

This morning I also listened to a radio program that talked about the importance of the hand written letter in understanding the past. Some historians spend considerable time reading letters and drawing information out of them that probably isn’t available in an e-mail. Of course, most people erase their e-mails soon after they’re received, so there won’t be much in the way of historical data for historians in the future to use. E-mail tends to be temporary—letters can last for hundreds of years (and many do).

Of course, social media, texting, e-mails, and the Internet all have a purpose to fulfill. There are times when quick communication with a large number of people really is necessary. However, there is still a place for the more personal communication provided by hand written letters. Take time to write a letter to someone you care about today. Let me know your thoughts about hand written letters at [email protected].

Power Words

It has been two and a half years since I wrote my Not Mere Words post where I explored nuances of meaning in word choice. Since that time, a number of readers have questioned whether word choice can really mean that big of a difference. When it comes to technical documentation, nuance is incredibly important. In fact, the reason you see so much jargon in technical documentation is to ensure clarity of meaning. Yes, you must learn what the jargon means, but the jargon usually has just one meaning, which means the use of that term is clearer than using other words to convey the same thought.

However, words also have a certain power of their own. What you say and when you say it have social implications that extend to books and to the pieces you write. Masters of fiction writing use specific terms to convey a character’s feelings, outlook on life, or point of origin. Technical writers often use specific terms to add emotional impact to what would otherwise be a relatively dry form of writing. So, it was with great interest that I recently read 19 Words That Will Make People Like You More. The article simply affirmed what I already knew—that saying things like “You’re welcome!” rather than an alternative (such as “No problem”) have significant meaning to those that hear them.

The words you choose both in personal conversation and in writing reflect who you are as a person. A discerning person can tell a lot about you just by the words you choose and how you use them. More importantly, the terms you use can affect you as a person. Saying “I can”, even when you’re certain that it’s more accurate to say “I can’t”, could actually change the situation from one of failure to one of success. Another interesting article on word choice is 10 Words That Can Make You More Powerful.

As always, the reason you use specific words is to affect those around you. Knowing that you can perform a task isn’t the problem, getting someone else to realize it is. Likewise, generating interest in a topic that is dear to you (and nearly unknown to everyone else) requires careful use of terms. Body language doesn’t translate through to writing, so word choice becomes your only tool for changing the opinion of others so that they see your point-of-view.

All this leads to the same conclusion that I made in my Not Mere Words post. In order to be successful in helping others see your perspective in person and in writing, you need to have a wide variety of words at your fingertips and understand the nuance of those words. It’s not just shades of meaning, but also how those words affect those who hear them. Power words are actually just ordinary words used in a specific manner. Let me know your thoughts about word selection at [email protected].

A Change in Blog Software

If anything is inevitable in life, it’s change. Some changes make us happy, but others don’t. My provider for this blog recently determined that the software I use for my blog is no longer in high demand. What this means is that I need to move my blog to different software. As far as I know, except for a few changes in appearance, you really shouldn’t notice any difference. The blog URL will remain the same as before: http://blog.blog.johnmuellerbooks.com/. You may have to update your RSS feed. If this is the case, I’ll provide instructions at some future time.

What I’d like to find out is whether you’d like to see any changes in blog content or structure. Since this move is inevitable, I plan to look at it as something that will help me correct any deficiencies, rather than an onerous task to be overcome. With this in mind, please write me at [email protected] with your ideas.

I’ll post another message once the update is complete. When the change is complete, I’ll be asking you for input on any problems that you encounter using the new blog setup. Updates don’t always go quite as smoothly as we’d like. Until the change takes place, I hope that you’ll continue enjoying the blog posts on the old software and that you’ll continue writing me with your thoughts and ideas. I’d especially like to hear from anyone who has had to make this sort of change. Your experiences will be helpful as I make my own transition.

Choosing an Example Type

It can be difficult to choose just the right kind of source code examples to include in my books. In fact, readers often write to ask why I didn’t choose a different kind of example for a book. For example, a lot of readers tend to prefer console applications because they’re:

Straightforward
Easy to understand
Easy to write
Demonstrate the code clearly
Don’t rely on any automation

Given these reasons, it would seem as if I’d use console applications for all of my examples in all of my books. In fact, these benefits (and others) are the reason I used console applications in C++ All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies. In fact, to this list, you can add the benefit of the same example code running on multiple platforms to the list. The same example code runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows platforms with the GCC compiler. Even with this book, however, I’ve had readers write to ask why I didn’t use a different compiler or IDE and why I didn’t include examples that demonstrate the ability to use C++ to create user interfaces in anything but Visual Studio (the new edition of the book won’t include the Visual Studio examples).

Some books don’t lend themselves to console applications. For example, one of the purposes of Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework Step by Step is to show how you can use the automation provided by Visual Studio to write your applications with less code and in significantly less time. Not everyone likes the automation and I’ve actually had a few readers ask why I couldn’t write the examples using a console application format. The problem is that few people use the Entity Framework with console applications and the automation is there to simplify things. I understand that other books may provide console application examples, but I chose to provide the examples in a form that the majority of my readers would use in a real world setting.

Trying to come up with a book that pleases everyone is simply impossible because everyone has different needs. It all comes down to people wanting the best deal possible in a book, which means seeing an example that uses their environment on their platform and demonstrating precisely the kind of code they need to write. It’s an unrealistic expectation for any book. My Getting the Most from Your Technical Reading Experience post explains how you can optimize the purchasing experience to obtain the best book for your needs. The caveat is that no matter how good the purchase is, the book will never answer all of your questions and most definitely won’t answer them in precisely the way you need them answered for fulfill an application development requirement.

Of course, I’m always open to your input. It’s the reason I run this blog and ask for your input in nearly every post. My purpose in writing is to answer as many questions as I can for as many readers as I can in the best way possible. Sometimes that means I need to take a step back and rethink a particular process I’m using, technique I’m applying, or perspective I’m pursuing. I encourage you to continue contacting me at [email protected] with your book-related queries. I always use your input to help create better books in the future.

Silent Conversation

He spoke not a word,
had nothing to say,
as we went out to work each day.

Yet he said it all,
revealed to me his mind,
that he was wise and humble and kind.

He spoke to me in riddles,
in sunsets and storms,
in billowing winds and still other forms.

We conversed in new born kittens,
using fresh mown hay,
and watching the birds so hard in their play.

The delight of a raindrop,
the rush of the wave,
filling a creek bed that snow melt gave.

In smelling the air,
odors both subtle and gross,
the churnings of nature that he loved the most.

And when the day was over,
he told me good night,
the only words spoken, made the day just right.

Understanding the Effects of REM Sleep on Writing

A lot of people wonder how authors sometimes make the creative leaps they do in books. Of course, part of it is natural gift. Writing does involve some element of innate ability-a requirement that has been proven to my satisfaction more than a few times. Another part of the creative leap is mindset. When you spend a great deal of energy looking for something, you’re bound to eventually find it. We can target how our minds process information and therefore, control the resulting output to some degree. Hard work also comes into play-the best authors research their topic heavily (even in the fiction arena).

However, the obvious factors alone can’t account for the creative leap. Something more is at work than these elements. Over the years I’ve come to understand that part of what makes me a good author is my subconscious. An ability to take information stored during my waking hours and turn it into patterns as I sleep is part of the writing process for me and most likely many other authors as well (whether they realize it or not).

Sleep alone isn’t enough to generate the informational patterns, however. Over the years I’ve read articles such as REM Sleep Stimulates Creativity and Sleeping on it – how REM sleep boosts creative problem-solving. In fact, because the topic interests me so much, I’ve probably read a hundred or so such articles and a few books as well (such as, A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative). Getting sufficient Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is an essential part of the creative process. In graphing my own productivity over the years, I’ve found a correlation between the quantity of REM sleep (and most especially, remembered dreams) and the quality of my output. Sometimes quantity is also affected by REM sleep, but the best writing I’ve done is when I’ve had enough REM sleep.

The onset of REM sleep usually occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep. The sleep cycle varies between light and REM sleep depending on the person. A number of other factors also seem to play a role in my own personal sleep cycle. For example, I tend to get more REM sleep after a day of moderate physical exertion, mixed with plenty of research time (non-writing time). Marijuana is also known for its ability to help users get some sleep. Keep in mind that the amount needed for successful onset of REM sleep will differ from one person to the other. That being the case, if you are searching for answers to how much is a nickel of weed or similar questions related to marijuana units then explanations provided in BuyMyWeedOnline might help with your understanding.

Eating no more than two hours before I go to bed is also a factor and I also try to create a restful environment conducive to sleep. In fact, more than once I’ve taken a two hour nap after performing research to overcome writer’s block. The technique works quite often. (Shorter nap times don’t appear to provide any advantage because the REM sleep cycle may not even occur or is of insufficient length to derive a solution to the problem at hand.)

As part of the dreaming cycle, I’m often able to employ lucid dreaming techniques (or what is commonly called directed dreaming). However, more often than not I simply wake with the answers to the questions I had when I went to sleep and quickly write them down. It’s a technique authors have used successfully over the centuries to great effect.

The point is that REM sleep is a required component for many creative endeavors. It’s not just authors who require REM sleep, but anyone who is involved in any sort of creative effort. A lack of REM sleep may be why engineers on a team are unable to create a useful solution to problems or why developers write buggy code. There is certainly nothing mysterious about the process, except why more people don’t employ it. I’ll admit, I sometimes struggle with my REM cycles which actually made me look into pages such as this overviewing how to get your Arkansas marijuana card, recently I’ve become interested to see how medical marijuana could impact my REM sleep and therefore lead me to a more energized healthy life too.

For some people, sleep as a whole, let alone REM sleep, can be difficult to achieve. Things like insomnia can mean that sleep is a real challenge, and therefore REM sleep is unachievable. Things like turning off electronics before bed or looking into new mattresses like the Best Latex Mattress Australia based can help. Hopefully, with these small lifestyle changes, you too can achieve REM sleep and increase your problem-solving skills.

What is your take on REM sleep? Do you ever stuff your head full of information and then go take a nap to solve problems? If not, would you be willing to give the technique a try after reading this article? Let me know your thoughts (and the results of any experiments) at [email protected].

Working with Procedures

Procedures, a description of how to perform a task, form the backbone of most non-fiction books and even appear sometimes in fiction books. The process of doing something is the reason that many people buy a book. It’s important to realize that most people buy books to fulfill a need—often to save time and effort. Yes, it’s important to present information in the most professional manner possible, but the accuracy and completeness of the information you provide is actually more important.

Some authors make the mistake of thinking that books only contain one type of procedure. This perception can be reinforced by books that follow a certain style in order to create a book brand that offers the reader a consistent experience. However, authors can actually choose from a wide range of procedure types:

Numeric Steps: Step-by-step procedures are the kind that most authors think about immediately. This type of procedure has the benefit of clarity and of a visual presentation that the reader will understand quickly. However, they lack depth and when an author needs to explain a process in detail, numeric steps can become cumbersome and difficult to use. In addition, numeric steps are often limited to just two or three levels and some processes may require additional levels.
Running Commentary: The author places each step in an individual paragraph. The first sentence normally provides an overview of a more complex process that the step must fulfill. This type of procedure allows the author to provide much needed detail and to emphasize information in ways that would be difficult using numeric steps. In addition, this kind of procedure is often viewed as friendlier and more accessible by the reader (especially novices who want to learn a process in detail). Unfortunately, the reader will have a hard time finding this sort of procedure because it doesn’t generally stand out from the rest of the text. In addition, this form doesn’t offer levels, as such. It’s basically a single level procedure.
Outline: A complex process could be explained using an expanded outline format. Each heading is an individual step. Depth is achieved through the use of subheads and the number of layers is limited only by the number of heading levels (generally between four and six) that a book design accommodates. Readers can usually recognize this sort of procedure visually, especially if the headings include numbers to indicate steps. The problem with this format is that it tempts the author to provide too many unneeded details, a wealth of asides, and even to get completely off track.
Graphic: Some processes aren’t easy to describe using a written procedure. It’s possible to use a flowchart or organizational chart format to describe many processes in a manner that the reader can grasp almost immediately. The down side to this kind of procedure is that the author must be extremely terse. There is only so much space for text in a graphic procedure.
Hybrid: Using links makes it possible to combine approaches when necessary. For example, a graphic procedure could include references to pages that contain detailed information. The pages could then employ any of the other procedure formats to enhance the detail offered by the graphic format. In fact, it’s possible to link multiple graphic presentations so that one flows into another.

These are just a few of the common offerings at an author’s disposal. There are many ways to format a procedure so that it conveys the information the reader needs in precisely the right way. Experimenting with procedural formats will help you hone your skills and to choose just the right form for your readers. Let me know if you have any questions about writing procedures at [email protected].

Possum’s Surprise

Little possum thought it best,
to spy out eggs in the chicken’s nest.
So in he swooped,
to the chicken coop,
to see what he could find.

The chickens took,
just one look,
a nod, a wink, a little blink,
and possum found trouble before he could think.
His tale is one of woe.

Before he knew,
just what to do,
the chickens came thumping down,
and broke his crown,
they pounced and pecked and tore.

Possum growled and hissed,
his exit missed.
As round and round he tore,
he missed the door.
The chickens pressed their advantage sore.

It was with relief,
the respite brief,
as the farmer came to seek,
the sounds of noisy chicken’s beaks,
and gave possum his chance to leave.

Never again will possum seek,
the eggs so sweet.
He’ll look for easier prey,
during the day,
in the woods he knows so well.

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