I've made some decent progress this weekend, but on the wrong novel, LOL. VN2 got sort of shouldered aside rather aggressively by Mark and his story of when he was in Vietnam- with Ryan.
So that's what I worked on this weekend because Mark started out nattering at me all week, then when I tried to ignore him, he started to get down right pushy. In the end, he won and Firebase October is now started and rolling. I will not let it derail VN2, that will remain my main focus. And yeah, I didn't make my end of October deadline but I'm still going to push hard on it. Maybe by Thanksgiving. We'll see.
So this is where we stand now:
Gwenna Project: VN2 (Nate and Ian)- Word count 64,110K.
Gwenna Project: Firebase October (Mark and Ryan)- Word count 4,436K.
If I were to set VN2 aside and focus just on Firebase October, I have no doubt I'd have it done in about two months or so, much as I had Lost and Found done. This one, for whatever reason, could write itself. But I'm going to finish VN2 first. Period.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Exhibitionism?
Lost and Found is now on the Barnes and Noble catalog- minus the cover art. I'm trying not to worry too much about this but I know how my luck runs and the cover art will likely never make it. Any way, as with Amazon and other places, the usual warnings come with it for language, explicit sex, m/m but this listing had an extra one- exhibitionism.
o_O
I admit, that caught me off guard than I laughed when I thought about it and yeah, Josh is all that. Now I just grin when I think about it. What the hell, right?
I stalled a bit on VN2 but that's more my doing than anything else. Firebase October on the other hand, my prequel to Lost and Found has been screaming at me all week to work on it. Mark is very insistant. So yesterday I sat down and wrote out the entire beginning. I've come to the conclusion that this particular story would write itself if I simply sat down and went at it. It's set entirely in Vietnam and that's what I know. But I've promised myself that I will finish VN2 first and I will.
o_O
I admit, that caught me off guard than I laughed when I thought about it and yeah, Josh is all that. Now I just grin when I think about it. What the hell, right?
I stalled a bit on VN2 but that's more my doing than anything else. Firebase October on the other hand, my prequel to Lost and Found has been screaming at me all week to work on it. Mark is very insistant. So yesterday I sat down and wrote out the entire beginning. I've come to the conclusion that this particular story would write itself if I simply sat down and went at it. It's set entirely in Vietnam and that's what I know. But I've promised myself that I will finish VN2 first and I will.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Why so complicated?
Okay, sort of a rant here to no one. This past weekend I spent the better part of an hour in a particular website looking for something and finally gave up, unable to find it. The website was a mess, with no rhyme or reason as to where you would need to go. It also has a complicated forum system of some sort that left me frustrated and bewildered.
So here is my question- Why do websites and/or blogs have to be so damn complicated and unfriendly? Seriously. Doesn't anyone subscribe to the old addages of "Less is More" and "Beautiful is Simple"?
So you are a rocket scientest of HTML. Your point being?
I don't see the point of having a webpage with a ton of content, if no one knows how to find the content they are looking for. The home page is a hodge podge of pictures, affliations, cute quotes, and any other piece of flotsam and for whatever reason, the webpage owner thinks this is attractive. I think it's a headache. The other part that goes hand in hand with this- it's delibrately designed to make you go through large portions of the site in a scavenger hunt to find a specific link to what should be right on the damned navigation bar to begin with. If you are so worried people aren't going to explore your website unless you delibrately hide content, it's time for a redesign in my opinion.
And okay, since I'm bitching here, let me add that a splash page with some fancy "Flash" presentation that takes forever to load is going to have me back spacing out and going somewhere else. Sure it can be spectacular. And a butt pain on slower servers.
This seems to be a problem with blogs as well, especially the clutter factor. Now I admit, I've got some links on the side of my blog, but my entire page isn't pictures, quotes, affliations and anything else I can cram on there because blank space seems to be offensive. I've gone into blogs and had a hard time finding the post for all the clutter on there.
It can be the most stunning piece of design out there, but if your audience can't navigate it- what's the point I ask? I applaud anyone who can keep it simple and clean and easy to navigate. If nothing else, have someone who is not that internet 'saavy' take a look. If they can't get around, it stands to reason a large part of your audience can't either.
So here is my question- Why do websites and/or blogs have to be so damn complicated and unfriendly? Seriously. Doesn't anyone subscribe to the old addages of "Less is More" and "Beautiful is Simple"?
So you are a rocket scientest of HTML. Your point being?
I don't see the point of having a webpage with a ton of content, if no one knows how to find the content they are looking for. The home page is a hodge podge of pictures, affliations, cute quotes, and any other piece of flotsam and for whatever reason, the webpage owner thinks this is attractive. I think it's a headache. The other part that goes hand in hand with this- it's delibrately designed to make you go through large portions of the site in a scavenger hunt to find a specific link to what should be right on the damned navigation bar to begin with. If you are so worried people aren't going to explore your website unless you delibrately hide content, it's time for a redesign in my opinion.
And okay, since I'm bitching here, let me add that a splash page with some fancy "Flash" presentation that takes forever to load is going to have me back spacing out and going somewhere else. Sure it can be spectacular. And a butt pain on slower servers.
This seems to be a problem with blogs as well, especially the clutter factor. Now I admit, I've got some links on the side of my blog, but my entire page isn't pictures, quotes, affliations and anything else I can cram on there because blank space seems to be offensive. I've gone into blogs and had a hard time finding the post for all the clutter on there.
It can be the most stunning piece of design out there, but if your audience can't navigate it- what's the point I ask? I applaud anyone who can keep it simple and clean and easy to navigate. If nothing else, have someone who is not that internet 'saavy' take a look. If they can't get around, it stands to reason a large part of your audience can't either.
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