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Life’s a beach at OCC. Even in November.

by: Dana Belfry

Today is the day before Thanksgiving, the last day of sanity for 2007. Before you know it, diets will be buried under turkey, stuffing and promises of New Year’s resolutions. Retailers will step up their ad campaigns. And, as with any major event, today is your last day of reasonable commute time on freeways. Ack!

Every year I sit and wonder what it is about this season that makes Americans lose their minds. Is it the promise of glittering wrapping as a beacon of hope for good things to come? Is it the twinkle lights? (Religious affiliations aside I think we’re all suckers for twinkle-lights.)

As I type this blog, I am sitting at my desk wearing shorts and a t-shirt. One thing I know for sure, I feel really silly singing “It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas” while wearing beach attire.

One thing about Southern Californians though, we adjust. I may not be wearing a ski parka, but I know somewhere down the street a 15 year old is optimistic enough to suffer through wearing UGG boots. She’s probably wearing a Gap scarf too. After all, it’s November and therefore “winter.”

I raise my egg nog latte to you, dear reader, and hope you have a wonderful holiday season. Full of joy, happiness, and (of course) twinkle lights.

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A Slice of Orange: Writer’s Word

November 20, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Jenny Hansen, Writer's Word

A Slice of Orange: Writer’s Word

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Writer On The Verge

November 18, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Kate Carlisle, Writer on the Verge

A Cautionary Tale

Can I just say â€œDittoâ€ to what Maureen Child blogged about yesterday? Because if there was ever some good advice to be given to someone who has the desire to be a professional writer, itâ€™s that they absolutely should be writing every day.

Case in point: Me.

As a public service, I’ll tell you my story, along with some advice. Don’t let this happen to you.

A few months ago, I sent a revised proposal to my agents. Then I waited. Just a week or so. I mean, I’d busted my butt to get the proposal as perfect as I could make it, so I deserved some time off, right? Sure.

Well, the proposal turned into a three book deal and needless to say, I was thrilled. So did I jump right back into the project? Start right away on the next chapter? Um, not exactly. Come on! I had to celebrate, right? I mean, it’s been a long road for me. I needed to savor the moment! The moment turned into three weeks.

But finally I did sit down to write the next chapter. And I’m sure you can guess what happened. I’d literally forgotten how to write! I’d forgotten how to start a chapter, how to describe a character, how to write sparkling dialogue. All that stuff. Worst of all, I’d lost my confidence. I couldn’t do it. I’d lost my mojo. I was a loser. I’d have to give back the advance money.

I was pathetic!

It took me three weeks to get back into the rhythm of writing, not to mention build my confidence back up. So I stand before you now–actually, I’m sitting, but you get my drift–and hereby vow never to go more than two days without writing something, even if it’s just jotting down ideas and brainstorming, anything that will keep me immersed in the story, as Maureen says.

Okay, gotta get back to work!

Cheers!

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The Write Way (because there is no ‘Right’ way….

November 18, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives

Okay, maybe this woman had it a little harder than WE do!!

But when the holidays roll around and there’s family making all kinds of demands on your time, what’s a writer supposed to do?

Today, the plan was to finish my current chapter and get at least half way through the next one. What’s the old saying?? If you want to make God laugh, tell Her your plans??

Well, no writing was done today. And you know what, it’s okay. I’ll make up the pages. I’ll pick up the pace again later. Because as writers, that’s what we do. It’s who we are.

If you’re lucky enough to be making a living at this wonderful/miserable/fantastic/challenging career, then you just suck it up and do what you have to do.

Someone asked me the other day how I’d managed to write and sell more than 100 books in the last mumble mumble years. The answer? You keep typing. You keep imagining. You keep your butt in the chair and you do the work. If one proposal’s rejected, you do another one. When you finish one book, you move onto the next one.

Now, with the holidays upon us (and how did that happen so quickly??), my game plan will be to write when I can and do however much I can a day. Try to write at least a page every day. Keep yourself immersed in your story because after two weeks off, it’s hard to remember how to string a compelling paragraph together!

So remember that you’re a writer. When the family demands your time, remember to give yourself some time, too. To do what you were born to do. To tell your stories. To live in your imagination. Because, as my favorite old saying goes…….If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!

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Writer’s Word

November 17, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Jenny Hansen, Writer's Word

â€œReplaceâ€ the Tendonitis
by Jenny Hansen

At the November meeting our Esteemed Presidents plugged my column at the podium and invited anyone who had a question about Word to email me. One brave soul stepped right up and shared with me that her editing was giving her a BAD case of tendonitis.

Her question: I’d like to see the Find feature be enhanced in Word. When I edit, I use this to find my overused words like- she/her, was, “ly” adverbs, etc. I highlight them in different colors, then go back and edit them out. Problem is, I get tendonitis in my arm from working the mouse back and forth between the word and selecting the color! Is there any way to “hold” or “lock in” the color selection?

No one should have to deal with tendonitis from writing, especially with something like this that can be done so much easier. There are actually two fixes â€“ one is more manual and one is more automatic. I will share both of them with you, along with some of my thoughts about the beauty of the Replace feature.

Manual method:

In all Microsoft programs, the F4 button on the keyboard means “do that again!” So if you highlight the word you want and set the color, then the next word you highlight should allow you to hit the F4 key and give you the color again. I canâ€™t say this has a lot of finesse, but it will save your arm when it comes to changing the color of the words in the first place.

Note for those of you who do not know how to change the Font color in Word:
You can click on the Format menu and choose Font and pick a color from there (CTRL+D brings up the Font dialog box with no mousing) OR you can simply click on the last button of the Formatting toolbar. It looks like the letter â€œAâ€ with a colored line under it. The color of the line will most likely be black but, if youâ€™ve been playing with the colors, it will be the shade of the last color you chose.

Automatic method:

If the F4 method doesn’t work for you (perhaps you want your words to be bold AND purple), you might want to use the Replace feature instead.

The Replace command is located in the Find dialog box â€“ it is the second tab. To use the keyboard: Find is brought up with the CTRL+F keyboard shortcut, Replace is brought up with CTRL + H. I also know people who like to double-click with their mouse on the Status bar at the bottom of the screen in Word â€“ this is the one that says â€œPage 1â€ and â€œSec 1â€ and sits at the bottom to the left of the page numbers (these look something like â€œ2/12â€). If you double-click on the Status Bar, the Find/Replace/GoTo dialog box will pop up. Simply click on the Replace tab and you are in business.

In the Replace dialog box, there is a button called “More” with a double arrow on it. If you click on that More button, it will expand the dialog box to where you see an entire lower section that contains a bunch of nifty stuff. In order for you decide for yourself which nifty stuff you really like, I encourage you to click on the question mark in the upper right corner of this dialog and see what is here.

Now that you have expanded the â€œMoreâ€ section, that same button will read â€œLessâ€ to shrink things back down. Definitely take a look around here â€“ this is a jackpot for writers.

For example, if you wanted to find all the “she” or all the “her,” you could put the same word in both the “Find what” and the “Replace with” lines. Then highlight the word in the “Replace with” line and click on the Format button down in the lower section of the dialog – pick the font color and style you want. Hit the Replace All button. This will replace every instance of that word with the same word in the formatted style that you want. You can always do the same thing with a different font/color request to change everything back. There is no mouse involved in this, hence less tendonitis.

The unnamed Chapter Member who asked this question found a piece of “shareware” out there that I thought I’d pass along. It’s called Fore Words. It’s an add-on to Word, and will find repetitive words and phrases. It is priced at $14.95 and Iâ€™ve included the link: http://www.cro-code.com/forewords.jsp

If anyone thinks up another question that MUST be answered, just email me at jennyhansensmail@aol.com. Otherwise, prepare for a column on using Track Changes next month. By then, my Christmas baking should be all finished!

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