I Entered NanoWriMo

So I finally entered NanoWriMo 2015! Hooray!

 

What is NanoWriMo?

 It's an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month.

Here's a better visual (flyer) explaining it's magic sauce:

 What Is NanoWriMo About?

It's a sort of writing marathon that takes place every November 1-30. A race to meet a total of 50,000 words (about the size of a novella). It pushes wannabe authors to  quit screwing around and finally get around to at least write an ample sized book.

Why Should I Enter NanoWriMo?

Since I just entered today, I've been discovering lots of interesting features. Features such as help forums, advice, adding friends (called 'buddies'), finding mentors, becoming mentors, following forum threads, etc. You even get an inbox for private messages between buddies.

 How does NanoWriMo work?

Well, basically: http://nanowrimo.org/how-it-works

Or I can sum it up for ya:

You pre-write your story on whatever software you use on your computer, then upload it to your NanoWriMo profile. Every time you upload bits & pieces, you can hit the ol' Validate button to tally your word count. The whole thing is to motivate you into writing your book. The aim is for 50,000 words, but it's not a requirement. It motivates you into (hopefully) half completion of your novel. No more excuses!

 How do I Enter NanoWriMo?

You just start a profile on their website. That's all. There's people of all ages entering. It's a very G rated website, and they have rules of conduct about not using profanities and such.

Your profile shows a dashboard with stats on your writing progress as you upload more words.

Who Reads My Novel On NanoWriMo?

Nobody reads your uploaded novel, at least that's my understanding of their website:

"To protect your privacy and rights to your work, none of the novels submitted to our site are read by another human. The text is submitted to our server, run through our word-count validator, and then immediately deleted."

The entire point of NanoWriMo is to reach a word count, it's not for critique purposes. When I submitted my 50k words, I used a word scrambler just for added security like the one they suggest.

It's not hard to join, and the forums are very easy to post in. I found it quite helpful to read through the forums, as there's other writers there (from novice to expert level) sharing the same struggles and challenges of getting through finishing their books. There's a vast 'help each other out' mentality, so racing to the finish line with that word count isn't the only motivating factor.

Here's a short video I made on the process further illustrating just how easy it is to enter NanoWriMo:

CONTINUE READING

My First Story Is Finally Up On Wattpad - Read Now!

My first published #fiction for a collection of  stories for my #TheFrails book series. 

Click the link below the image to read my story:

The Frails Stage 1 - The Nutpunch.

Already uploaded Act 1 & 2. Will upload more next week. Stay tuned!
#A #NA #S #T #GF #H

CONTINUE READING

Distractions!

It's hard to keep an organized household when one has adult ADHD and isn't medicated.

Not shown is the probiotic I swallowed shortly before this pic was taken.

 This is how I spent my day:

• Woke up @ 11:45am and put eyedrops in
• Blinked to the dreary landscape of rain and cloudiness all around
• 
• Made coffee
• Doggie cuteness distracting me
• Thunder & lighting making dog curl around my legs
• Turn on computer
• Turn on fan/s to stave off nightmarish humidity (frizzy hair hell not pictured)
• Cannot follow simple conversation as I drone off to father's chit chat
• Cannot string thought sentences, so off to the internetz!
• THANK YOU INTERNET FOR NOT MAKING ME THINK STUFFS
• I take all those supplements there (see above pic)
• Drank regular Lipton tea cup with vanilla soy milk
• Did dishes
• Drank a full bottle of water; feeling strangely dehydrated these days
• Went back to my desk to sort thru inbox (appox. 1hr cuz 5 email accounts)
• Went back for coffee
• Back to internetz, where I opened 3 tabs from 1 email I got, about getting paid by sites for stories, including price per word and word count, such as this one
• And this one
• And this one too 
• More rain, now comes in torrential!
• Went to kitchen to make a banana/coconut milk/chia seed/peanut butter /spinach smoothie 
• Oh look, Imgur  (drinking smoothie)
• Delete that beeyotch spam!
• Should I play that electronic trip hop music from yesterday? hmm...
• (36min later) 6hr. meditation music??! Yes please!
• 2hrs later...I finally figured out how to shut off auto docking of windows on Windows 8!~~ *self-hi-five
• Rain's easing up
  
  
• Doggy chillin' on mat beside me. He can't be bothered to give any fucks today
  

• My mother can be hear slamming drawers in her room (an everyday occurrence/ has Alzheimer's)
• My father let me know a friend of his is visiting today, out of the blue (he put his dog down last week so we're gonna cheer him up)
• My ADHD is going especially haywire today, grrr
• when is food?...
• Blog post! blog post...right...
• Rain is getting worse-er. It makes me jumpy and nervous because this is exactly how the flood happened last year. The one where FEMA was called to our street and I gave them the grand tour :-P

 

• Better txt msg my tenant to let him know that the car he put a buncha money on restoring is sitting in water half-way up the tires 
• Friend dude gets here; I offer my condolences, he asks me to please hook up his new bluetooth speaker to his Samsung tablet
• I  make the hookup and install an app to boost his tablet's memory too, free of charge (trying to be nice)
• My best friend whom I hear of once every several months calls; we trade sick family stories and finally friend ea. other on facebook (he just got an account not long ago; he is planet Earth's only non-tech-savvy Asian)
• Well, THIS hot mess
  
  
  

•  Finally calmed after the rains receded 4hrs later (leaving trash n floating debris on our lawn for the umpteenth time) so crisis averted!
• I put on 3" flip flops and partially opened one of the gates cuz in the middle, it was exactly 1 foot underwater. The water at it's worst was half-way up the driveway. I had 4" water reaching above my ankles
• um, blog today? Any day now?
• was offered food n wine by the boys who also dined on Klondike bars. Checked in on my mother and we spoke a bits, as she appeared lucid now (she has Alzheimer's)
• they all left for church choir practice
• I bathed the dog as his scent was a tad on the pungent side, then I showered too
• they got home, then I once again sat down with another cuppa coffee, for a grand total of 4 today
• FINALLY typing out this blog post!

 My constantly changing environment, my senile father springing new projects on me without warning, my mother's feverish/random mood swings, and my wandering mind = a cocktail of 'Fuck my life!'

Side bar: Hate it when teens casually use this phrase...wait 'till you get out in the real world sweeties. You won't be able to handle getting your wifi cut off because you can't pay your bills. And let's add terrible people to the mix, shall we?

 I'm not sure how normal authors handle their day-to-day, (especially with small children!) but my life is plagued with randomness. So much that I cannot plan a goddamned thing. Now I don't have kids (yet) but my elderly folks are currently my dependents. And we always have one crisis or another around here, including things breaking, busting, leaking, rusting, etc. I don't have help, because I am the help around here.

You accomplished authors with small children...how the heck do you get anything done????


 I read an article somewhere stating that some beloved famous authors of all time had been plagued with illnesses and addictions. Who knows what other hardships...I think Jane Austen was the sole caretaker of her mother and sister? Oh no wait, her brothers chipped in. Wish mine would.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I wrote the aforementioned some 2wks. ago. My mother's moods hit sky high and we had to 'watch her' for her safety. Kinda hard when she was giving me the stink-eye, like I was Satan's butthole. Ah well. At least my ADHD finally calmed da fuck down. I can power-up my brain- hooray!

Then I went on my once-a-year sugar binge, of Raffaello coconut trufles/ Flan/ and brownies. My stomach...officially so full of regrets!

One more thing...
I finally got around to uploading my first story to Wattpad; go read it!

CONTINUE READING

Writer's Music

Music For Writing Books

Sometimes you need to chill. You can't write with all this damn noise buzzing about!
Shut off that annoying vibrating cell phone.
Turn the tablet OFF.
In fact, now's a good time to charge these devices. 
Shut off the Xbox. Playstation. Nintendo DS.
The TV.
Dim those lights. Keep desklight on.
The only thing that should be turned on right now, is your computer, notebook, wordprocessor, typewriter, or whatever you use to type out those stories.
Last but not least, put on noise-cancelling headphones on. Not earbuds, but headphones. Trust me, you don't want to hear the landscapers buzzing outside your window, or the ambulance or squealing kids playing outdoors.






Next, you need a warm cup of tea, something soothing perhaps. Or decaf coffee. Nothing overtly caffeinated, unless you're on deadline of course!

Below, a few of my favorites:

And one more thing...
I highly, HIGHLY, recommend a beverage warmer. Because what's gonna happen is that you're so engrossed with your typing, you forget about your beverage. And it sits there getting cold.
As you can see, I have one. It's a tad worn. Had it since 2012 and it only cost like $8.00 so definitely a great purchase. Especially on snowy cold days.

Ok, you got your beverage, now for the tunes...

Where To Find Music For Writing

There's plenty of places on the internetz. There are easy ways to find them. Here's a few:

• Free web radio
• streaming music playlists
• your own digital music collection
• YouTube playlists. Here's one I usually listen to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWfLasDNONI
• iTunes, Amazon App Store, or Google Play. Look up apps with the following words: concentration, meditation, mood, relaxing, radio
• The new Youtube Music app that came out in 2018: https://www.youtube.com/yt/music/index.html?locale=US

How To Find Music For Writing

Simply put into a search engine (Google, or whatever you use) the following 3 words:  

writer's music playlist

And you'll see all the fun stuff that comes up. Wowee!

Recommended Websites For Free Writer's Music Streaming

So here's a couple of FREE websites that work for me:

1. http://tunein.com/
2.  http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/
3.  http://bandcamp.com/#discover
4. https://soundcloud.com/
5. http://openaura.com/
6. http://8tracks.com/explore/writing_playlist
7. http://www.reverbnation.com/main/charts?genre_geo=global&genre=indie&page=1
8. http://mentor.fm/index.php?f=show_home&from_default_url=1 (only works outside U.S.A.)
9. http://songza.com/concierge/focus-enhancing-soundscapes/50536cb15325bf72ec000784/52e6eff7cf02c775474aa415/
10.  http://www.stereomood.com/
11.  http://hypem.com/latest
12.  http://appcrawlr.com/ios-apps/best-apps-alternative-to-pandora (apps for music)

So when you click the links, always look for the type of genre of music that you like to listen to. Or put keywords within the website's search. Enjoy, and happy writing!

CONTINUE READING

How To Copyright On Ebooks Wattpad

 

When You Copyright Books Or Stories

There are several things writers need to know about copyright when it comes to writing books. I'll briefly run down the list so you can understand the basics, but you'll have to do the in-depth research yourself. 

*Please read the disclaimer at the very bottom of the post before you read on.

1. Copyright limitations vary from country to country

Don't kid yourself into thinking that if you copyright your book in the United States, that it's protected elsewhere. Some countries honor United States copyright, some don't. Every country has a copyright variation with different restrictions. For more info, read  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory

2. Copyright typically lasts 70 years before it becomes public domain

That's about when most authors people outlive their mortality. (morbid, I know)  Some folks set up an estate for this, to handle the re-registration process, or leave it to loved ones to continue the copyright. If not, the work ends up going to public domain.

A good example is J.R.R. Tolkien's estate. Had the copyright not continued, his works would've gone to public domain, free for all to read. So today, you have to pay to read his books, where the book rights are controlled. 

3. What can be copyrighted

 According to the copyright.gov website, basically the following:

• Literary
• Visual Arts
• Sound Recordings
• Performing Arts
• Motion Pictures

And click on this link for further details:  http://www.copyright.gov/eco/help-limitation.html

4. Copyrighted works created after January 1, 1978 are protected for 70 years after the death of the creator

For more information in detail, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

 

5. Copyright infringement

The reason to get your work officially registered with the copyright office, is in the case of litigation, where somebody plagiarizes your work, then you can provide authenticated proof of registration before a court of law. So you can sue for damages. Or, they lie and claim that you stole the story from them. They can counter-sue you; it's rare, but it can happen. 

Infringement begins when it it discovered. One must file within the 3 years after infringement, lest you risk getting awarded for damages. But this rule varies from state to state.

If you win, most state courts award statutory damages in “not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just.” 

You can publish without actual official registration of your copyright, but without registration, cases like those are mighty difficult to prove.

For more info on copyright limitations, you may want to read this: http://law.freeadvice.com/intellectual_property/copyright_law/copyright_statute_limitations.htm

6. Copyright registration fee costs $35

There's different fees for the type of copyright you need, but the minimum starts at $35.00. http://www.copyright.gov/docs/fees.html

  
And that's the basics. Unless you're ready to upload to a self-publishing platform, this step may be overkill for now.

Posting Copyright On Wattpad

The Wattpad community seems loyal and quite insular. They seem like they got each other's backs. Case in point, the plagiarism of Ancient Guardians book series (go here to read about the kerfuffle) where some anonymous person uploaded the entire free ebook to their Wattpad profile and passed it off as their own, only to be outted by a loyal Wattpad reader, who in turn notified the actual author. 
 

Did you think you were gonna get away with plagiarism?  You fool!

But such cases are rare, and one should never be apprehensive of putting their material out there for the world to see. After all, how the hell are you gonna get noticed if you don't display your work?

I've got a few Wattpad stories to read in my account. I've noticed that some do and don't bother putting up a copyright disclaimer. My guess is that, because once you post a story, Wattpad puts the little ( C ) symbol on the right-hand side for you. But still, some folks put the disclaimer up regardless. I suppose I'm one of them. Anyway, here's an example:

 Here's the other thing about Wattpad. You can create a story in it, but you cannot copy & paste text. The platform does not allow for it. I suppose that's to deter infringement from trafficking out, which is awesome. But like the above case of plagiarism, it does not prevent it from coming in.

So if you reeeeeeeally like that story of yours, write it in your computer's text editor software and make a backup copy before uploading to Wattpad, preferably to a cloud drive or an external hard drive. Because shit happens all the time, and computer get virus' and malware, and inevitably crash to irreparable oblivion.

Wattpad doesn't really have much information on copyright, which I found strange. I had to search the site with a fine toothed comb, and all I came up with was titled:

How to create a copyright for your story :)

 It's a Wattpad read, submitted by a Wattpad user named Ariel. It's written in 4 parts. (which are 4 pages to the non-Wattpad person) That direct link will only show up for registered users, so sign up if you plan on using Wattpad. Or sign in if already a member.

 

Now, the easiest way to find a copyright disclaimer is to Google the following 3 words: copyright sample disclaimer

Or look it up in whatever search engine you use. I personally prefer DuckDuckGo, but that's just me. 
Now there are several variations on these disclaimers, simply because they are all tailored to the subject matter. 


So a fiction book with have a section talking about 

'similarities to any real persons is purely coincidental' 

whereas a self-help book will have a section like  

'neither author nor any other person be held liable for any damages that may result from following counsel of this book'. 

One must seek the best fit for that books' genre and/or subject matter. 


Things that should be inserted within the disclaimer (as told by Ariel):

1. valid email address
2. company name if you have one, or your name with the trademark symbol
3. valid website address of author and/or publisher
4. the actual copyright and/or trademark symbols;
   © and ™, and if trademark is registered, then ®

 And that's pretty much what I know thus far. I already made my own custom template for my brand of stories. Happy Googling everybody! 



*The text posted above was strictly for entertainment purposes only, not to be purported to qualify or substitute any real legal advice. Please seek legal counsel regarding any serious questions about copyright and intellectual properties, as the author and writer of this blog/website has no actual legal background or any such legal credentials. The author and writer of this article and bog/website does not take any responsibility in the actions or decisions regarding any one person's  acquisition and posting of a copyright disclaimer; you agree by reading this article that you the reader, claim sole responsibility when you choose to put any disclaimers in your authored works. By reading the article posted above, you agree not to indemnify or hold the author of this article responsible in any way, legal or otherwise, and you agree to assume all responsibility regarding the posting of any copyright disclaimers to any such works that you create.

CONTINUE READING