SnapIt Screen Capture Review

Dear Readers,

As a writer, there are times when you are doing some research online and have a need to immediately capture what you're seeing.  It usually isn't enough to "cut and paste" because something isn't going to translate into Word or whatever other place you're "pasting" it to.

SnapIt is a program that allows you to quickly and easily capture a screenshot of anything that is on your desktop, save it to a file so that you can use it later.  I've been asked to try this product and write a review of it.

Because I don't use a lot of technology in my line of work, I found that using SnapIt wasn't as intuitive as perhaps it could be.  I had hoped that by downloading the software and installing it, it would open up a Quick-Start window or a Tips page that would tell me right away how to capture a screen shot.

Fortunately, I found this information on their FAQs page of their website. Once I realized that the "hot-button" was the print screen button on my keyboard, immediately the cross-hairs appeared and I managed to capture a shot of the product from SnapIt's website.  By drawing with the crosshairs, I could outline a rectangle of what I wanted to capture.

Here is the screenshot of SnapIt's Overview of the product:

By taking quick screen shots, I have found that my research into particular writing topics has improved because it saves me a great deal of time.  Any tool that saves time is well worth it.

Would you like to get this for free?

If you create a review in any blog/forum/twitter/facebook, etc. and contact julia.taylor@digeus.com with a link to the review, she will issue a registration code and name for you.

Just think how much time this tool could save you when you're putting together your projects.

If you'd like a chance to try SnapIt for free, click here:

http://www.digeus.com/products/snapit/snapit_screen_capture_3_5.html

Try this and see if screen capture saves you time.

 

Looking for Writing Markets?

Periodically in this blog I will provide links to pertinent markets that, as a writer, you may be interested in.  Here is one that specializes in the personal essay.  As a follower of memoirs, the personal essay falls well within this market, however it is a much shorter narrative.

Participate | The Pedestrian

The above link will send you to their current publication calendar, complete with themes, deadlines, and links to their essay contests that will pay up to $500 for the winning essay.

Your Blogging Personality

On the topic of blogging...

You need to develop your blogging personality. 

This is basically a combination of you, what you believe in and represent...and your audience.  Consider who is going to be "listening" to your rantings.  Your audience is who you're writing for.  If you didn't think you'd be writing for an audience, you wouldn't be writing on the web, you'd be scribbling away in your private notebook or journal in your garret, and no one would ever know you'd penned a word until one day, long after your death they discover your "writings".

Back to your blogging personality...

You want to consider who is going to be reading your blog, and address your posts to that audience.  Generally speaking, you'll be addressing like-minded people who are interested in what you have to say, what you have to share with them.

In the case of Auntie Kit and Cousins, she is blogging to a community of people who hold family life, homespun goodness, and simplicity above all else.  With that in mind, she needed to "decorate" her blog to reflect that audience.  When people land on a blog that makes them feel "at home" they tend to linger a little longer.  There are many ways to get your viewers to linger, but the very first is to make sure their initial exposure to your blog will keep them there.

This means you have to decorate it appropriately.  In "Auntie Kit's" case, she needed to reflect the warm glow of simple yet elegant living with an appropriate wallpaper.  She was able to find one from among the myriad of free offerings available on the internet.  Once she incorporated that wallpaper, her hits began to increase dramatically.  Her first two weeks she got about 50 visitors.  By her third week she was up to 150 visitors.

While I know that she's actively trying to direct more traffic to her site, she is now getting responses based on how her site "feels" to the people who land on it.

If you don't keep your target audience in mind, you're doing no more than scribbling into a notebook.  If you really want your blog to be read, you need to make it visually appealing to the people who land there.  If they're your target audience, make 'em feel comfortable!

Who Should Blog?

This is an interesting post.

I'm currently working with a young woman who has decided to use blogging as an outreach to augment her resume for job applications.  This young woman wants to be in the Hotel/Restaurant industry and dearly wishes to get another job in this area.

She had once worked in a small cafe and was quite successful in her position.  She had to resign because she was under-age and her family was relocating to another state.  Once in that new location, the economy tanked and no one was hiring.  In order to fund her college aspirations, she has taken a job at a day-care where she is doing very, very well.  However, this is not the industry she wants to pursue for her career.

In order to make her resume look more attractive, this young woman has decided to approach her new life in a new city as an opportunity to discover new places to go.  One of her pet passions is a coffee shop.  Not long ago she compiled a short list of small, unique coffee shops.  Once a week she would visit a shop on her list, order something that is "what they're known for" and evaluate it.  If she has people who accompany her, all the better because they all order something different and give an even more broad assessment of that establishment.

To the point of blogging, this young woman has started a blog where she identifies the shops she has visited and makes notes about her experience.  How will this help her in her job search?  She will list her blog as something to reference for her future employers.  They will be able to see that her approach is unique, that she truly does have the intention of pursuing a career in the hospitality field, and that she is telling the world about her experiences.

Every person has the right to their opinion, and blogging is one to express that opinion.  When someone takes a blog and uses a laser focus as this young woman is doing, it makes the purpose of a blog even more important.  People who discover her blog will use it as a reference for places they would visit when they come to her town.  Her future employers will see that she has a deep-seated interest in the hospitality field and one of them is going to recognize the initiative that she is showing and snap her up because she is going places!

In answer to the question posed in the title: Who Should Blog?

The answer is:  Anyone who has anything substantial to say.  If people are interested in what you do, you should blog.  Blogging is one way to fight the uniform mediocrity that comes from standardizing our society. America was founded on originality...long live blogging as a way to highlight and celebrate that originality!

Branding a Name

What's in a name?

In some cases absolutely everything.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I am following a new blogger who is writing under the name of Auntie Kit and Cousins.  She said she purchased the domain name about four or five years ago but couldn't find any information about getting that domain name set up into a web site. 

Fortunately, she was able to contact the company (GoDaddy) who she purchased the name from and they are in the process of establishing her identity.  She originally paid for the domain name on a recurring purchase agreement through PayPal.  Unfortunately, she had an identity issue and had to close all those accounts and name new ones.  In the meantime she moved from one state to another.  By the time she decided to use that name, all the documentation from that original web-domain name purchase had been lost.  She couldn't access the information.  Fortunately, a reputable site for purchasing domain names will work with you to establish your identity and verify that you are the correct individual. 

In Auntie Kit's case, she was nearly out of luck, but because she DID own the domain name and actually remembered it, she is currently in the process of re-establishing her identity so that she can legally re-obtain the information so that she can eventually set up a website with the same name as her blog.  We'll continue to follow her escapades because the Branding of a Name is ever so important in today's world of internet commerce.

People may have no idea who you are, but they will certainly remember your name!

Acreage - October 2010

Acreage - October 2010

You might like to see my latest articles in Acreage Magazine...truly a magazine for a rural lifestyle!

This is one way to drive traffic to a blog site.  Linking to other sites. In this case, I'm linking to some of my own articles under the name Kathleen Birmingham so that I can see if it directs traffic to my blog.

The only way to determine this is to try it, test, test, test, and then evaluate the results of the testing.

Blogging - What's all the Fuss About?

Sure, I'm on board with the blogging phenomenon, I'm writing here, aren't I?

The real trick is to figure out what the point of blogging is.  Initially, I wanted to share my ideas on writing in general in this blog, but I'm realizing that blogs need to be more personal.  They  have to have a personality as unique as your own.

To this end, I'm following a brand new blogger. She started her blogging site about two weeks ago.  She had a really neat name chosen years ago because she thought at that time she might make a business out of it.  The blog is called Auntie Kit and Cousins. Cute name.  Brings to mind family, homespun feelings, country, apple pie, and a big warm kitchen where everyone gathers.

Her life isn't quite that, but because her life is missing some of those elements, she decided to blog about things that gave her great pleasure once upon a time, and in this way she wants to continue to find pleasure in her daily living. It's a good lesson, that we can often overlook wonderful things that are happening to us just because life circumstances have changed dramatically.

She had a name and an idea.  Her first blog was about sharing the story behind the name about a group of people she met over a common idea and ideal, and how that impacted her life.  The name grew out of that experience, but it became more than just that experience. The experiences almost grew because of the name.

Interestingly enough, Auntie Kit decided to get the domain name from Go Daddy. She didn't have a defined business idea yet, but the concept was there, and concept is absolutely everything in marketing.  She believed so much in the idea all those years ago that she purchased the domain name and continues to pay for it even though she has not created a website based on it yet.

The first blog is just that, a foray into the unknown cyber world of blogging. You never know who is going to read it.  Actually, unless you tell someone about it, for the most part, it won't be read.  Some blogs go entirely unread.  Others get only a few hits a day and can sometimes go weeks without any hits, especially if there are no new updates.

My next posting will talk about that...how to direct traffic to your blogsite. But FIRST! Creating the personality of the blog is essential. That's the next blog...traffic will be one or two after that.

Mashugana

I recently heard the term "mashugana" when my husband was in the hospital after sustaining a badly broken leg after a motorcycle accident.  His cardiologist's associate visited with us and called him "mashugana", which she said was Yiddish for crazy.  

Now I just read that Tony Curtis died and his daughter, Jaime Lee Curtis called him:

 

"a little mashugana" - Yiddish for crazy - but always full of life.

 

Maybe being "mashugana" isn't such a bad thing...

Nostalgia

‎"Nostalgia is the disease which causes us to miss the truly great days in front of us for the idealized ones behind us." 

-D. Megill

I just read this quote, and it got me to wondering...is nostalgia really bad?

Trust me, I thought about this for quite some time, and I have to say the quote has its merits.  But I, for one, really do like nostalgia. It helps to forget past hurts, and remember past joys.  Is that such a bad thing?

I've recently been going through a difficult time.  We moved 18 months ago from a rural home in the middle of a beautiful area to a beautiful house in the midst of the 5th largest metropolitan area in the U.S. I'm suffering from culture shock, loss of friends and a way of life I grew to love.

Since I've been here, I've focused mostly on working and the other day I looked in the mirror and saw my father, who literally worked himself to death because he just couldn't get enough done.  He did make time for fun, but the rest of the time, he worked.

I'm losing sleep because of work, I'm not as fun (according to my kids) because of work, and I am moody (according to my husband). I blame work.

The problem is, I LOVE my work.

So, maybe that's not the real problem.

I think the real problem is that I miss some of the things I used to do to "feed" myself.  Things I haven't started in my new life because I don't have friends and companions who have similar interests, and just "make" me do things.


Nostalgia. n. 1. A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past. 2. The condition of being homesick; homesickness ...

It's true, then. I'm missing people, things, and situations from my past.  That is NOT bad.  It reminds me that I need to reincorporate things that were important to me.  In order to return to my former self, I have to return to some of those activities, and nostalgia helped me to realize it.

I'll still be working long hours, probably deep into the night.  But, I'm also focused on the changes I need to make to find a happiness that I thought was lost.

No, nostalgia is NOT a bad thing.

Medical Journaling

Writing things down can save you huge headaches.  You make a list before you go to the grocery store, you write down what you want to take on vacation or that week-long back-packing trip.  Without a visual reminder, we tend to forget little things that end up being very important.

Writing about your health does the same thing.  All too often I hear about people who have some sort of weird, mysterious illness.  They don't remember when it started, they don't know what makes it better, or what makes it worse.  They go to the doctor, expecting to be cured in a single visit with a single prescription, and when they continue to suffer, or their condition gets worse, they blame their doctor.

What a shame! Granted, doctors go to school for a long time to learn about medicine and how to heal illness. But no doctor knows everything, has seen everything, can read minds, can scry into the future, and they certainly can't look back into our past unless we give them some way to see into it.

This is where a medical journal comes in handy.

Let's say you notice that when you eat out at a certain restaurant, you end up with the trots. Just about every time. This happened to me, and I was pretty upset because it was a pizza place and I LOVE their pizza.  I tried to figure out what could be the problem.  Was it the sauce?  I tried pizza without sauce.  Was it the crust?  I tried just eating the toppings off the pizza and filling up on salad.  The next time I settled for a sub.

It seemed that no matter what I ate off their menu, I had a big problem when I got home.

I decided to be more scientific about it.  I took a small notebook with me (you see, I didn't want to stop eating there because I really did love the place). I would write down everything I touched, everything I did, even to the point of noting where I sat.

After a couple of visits, it finally hit me.  At that time in my life I had recently stopped drinking soda.  I didn't need the sugar, and I certainly didn't need the caffeine.  However, whenever we went to this particular pizza place, we'd get a pitcher of soda for the family and I would treat myself to a glass.

I was reacting to the sugar in the soda.

Imagine my delight when I discovered that I didn't have to stop eating at our favorite pizza place.  I just had to switch to iced tea or water. (no diet drinks for me...I won't even start with what those chemicals can do to you...)

Without taking detailed notes about the situation, I would never have figured out that a small change would allow me to continue to enjoy our monthly outing at the pizza parlor.

This experience made me realize that whenever people have an ailment that they can't seem to figure out, take notes about it.  Copious notes!  Your doctor will be really relieved that you can provide such a detailed history about your condition without trying to rely on an imperfect memory.

The next time you have a problem that doesn't seem to want to respond to a course of treatment, journal about it.  Many times you will discover something that seemed really insignificant, but can make a huge difference in the outcome!

Write on!

Stick With It

Writing can be a love/hate relationship.

Sometimes you love it...and other times it becomes your master, you dream about it, you have nightmares about it, you discover you have written pages and pages of material that has absolutely nothing to do with your current project. These moments can be discouraging because you really are working hard, you've got your butt in the chair, you're producing material, and yet it isn't what you want.

What do you do then?

Put the material that you feel has nothing to do with your current project and stick it in a file folder, label it, and put it away for a week or more.  This will accomplish two things:

1. It will acknowledge to yourself that you value what you have done and your mind will be at rest.
2. You will now have material that may be good for another project at some point in the future.  

You see, I don't believe that ANY writing is worthless.  Your brain comes up with material for its own reasons.  Sometimes it creates material because you've told it to do so...other times it comes up with things all on its own and you may not understand why you wrote it.  No matter. Put it away.  Keep it. Go back later and look through it.  You'll often discover that the writing isn't half bad, in fact, it might even be really good material.

Unfortunately, that doesn't handle the problem that what you're writing on now still needs to move forward.  Refocus.  Start asking yourself some questions.  What does your reader need to know right now?  Rather than being egocentric and writing only to please yourself, try getting into your reader's head.  What does he/she want/need to know?  How can you move them along in the process?

This is where you jump back into your project and move ahead.

By getting into your readers' heads, you'll become a much better writer overall. I don't care if you write for magazines, if you're a copywriter, or if you specialize in web copy...by understanding the purpose of your writing and knowing your audience, you're going to become a much better writer.

Trust me on this...stick with it. Writing comes easily at times and at other times it is work.

Most of the time, when it's work...it's because you haven't gotten into the head of your reader.

Go on, you know what to do now...WRITE!

To your writing success,

Kathleen

Renewal

Isn't it interesting how different seasons of the year become a time of renewal?  For me, September is my time of greatest renewal.  Perhaps it was because I loved school and in those days school started the day after Labor Day.

I love the smell of paper and pencils, of glue and erasers. To me, these are the tools of creativity and when they are brand new, their potential is limitless.

Whenever I get stuck on something, I find a way to renew myself.  Sometimes, a project that takes longer than expected can feel old, musty, overworked, sometimes even useless.  However, most of the time I can't really afford to just toss it in the trash can.  I have to figure out a way to renew the project so that it feels new, so that I can recapture that feeling of excitement that got me started on it in the first place.

Recently, I have been working on a book with a doctor in Australia. Initially, we expected the book to only take us two months to write. At first, we made significant progress.  Then, as we ran into some roadblocks, one or the other of us had to attend to other matters, and the book began to languish.

In order to refocus and reinvigorate myself for the project, I decided to just change the formatting of the book, putting it into a book template so that I could see what it might look like in its final form.  Just seeing the book in that way changed my feeling about the project significantly.  Once again I felt that old enthusiasm for the project begin to bubble up.  The audience was one step closer to getting information that would ease their suffering.

Taking time to renew can mean the difference between life and death of a project.

What do you do to renew yourself?

To your writing success,

Kathleen

Outline Your Book or Article

Why outline your book or article?

Everyone’s groaning.  I can hear you!

It’s too bad your English teachers in high school and college made outlining so complicated and painful. They had the right idea, outlines really DO help you to figure out where you’re going in your writing.  I love the idea of free-writing, especially when I’m trying to get thoughts out of my head.  But, I also love the idea of using an outline, because once the structure of my writing project is out there in front of me, I can then return to my free-writing style to fill it in and meet my deadlines.

Too Structured?


I have heard all the reasons NOT to outline:

• ·         It’s too structured.
• ·         It doesn’t allow any creativity
• ·         It restricts my writing

Most of the people who use these excuses don’t write for a living. When you write for a living, you know that your next paycheck depends on meeting your deadlines, and you don’t write only when you’re feeling creative or when the muse strikes you. Writing is a job. You get paid when you sit down and work. By outlining your articles and books you will maximize your time, you’ll write efficiently, and your end product will be high quality.

Breaking it Down – One Piece at a Time


By outlining, you breakdown your project into smaller pieces.  That way you can approach it one piece at a time.  When I’m working on a big writing project, I create the larger outline, then I put each smaller section on a 3 x 5 card and carry it with me in a notebook. That way when I am waiting somewhere, I can write for five minutes and get a section done. Doing this several times will allow me to finish a 1200 word article almost without even realizing that I did it.  By fitting the writing of your book into the nooks and crannies of your life, you will make daily progress toward your goal.

The Easiest Outline

When I outline, I don’t create the complicated Roman Numeral I, Capital A, the number 1, etc. of the traditional outline.  (If you DO outline this way, keep it up, you’re probably more structured than I am, and this could be a good thing). I break down my article or book into manageable pieces.  In an article, I break it down into sections. A book is obviously broken down into chapters.

For each chapter or section you’ll have a title, this tells you what you’ll be covering in that section.  Underneath that title, you’ll write each topic or component that needs to be included in that section. By evaluating each section, you can rearrange them until you have a good flow to your idea. This way, when you go to write, you will not be jumping from idea to idea, sounding vague and scattered. Each section will be approximately the same size.  For a book, this is a really great idea, it will keep you from having chapters that are only two pages long next to chapters that are 70 pages long.

Try this for outlining your book.  Decide how many pages you want in your book. If this is your first book, shoot for about 150 to 160 pages.  Divide this number by 10, which gives you 15 or 16 chapters. Under each chapter title, write about ten ideas that you intend to cover in that chapter. For each idea, you need to write one page.  That’s it.  Write ten pages, you’ve completed a chapter. Write 15 or 16 chapters, your book is done.

It doesn’t really get much easier than that!

Try it, again and again. It will get easier as time goes on, and you'll write faster and faster.  And isn't that the idea?

Kathleen

Memoir - Truth or Fiction?

It is said that writing one's memoirs is much like writing a piece of fiction.  In order to make your story come alive, you need to populate it with characters that are individuals; well described and round.

Are all characters in a memoir absolutely true to life?

Not necessarily.

There are times when you'll want to disguise your character in the interest of preserving their privacy.  You may also want to save your own skin, especially if you're revealing a secret that you promised long ago to keep. You can write a truthful memoir, and still change names, ages, even sexes of certain characters for these reasons.

Most writers of memoir try to stay as close to the truth of the situation as they possibly can.

But what is truth?

Truth is in the eye of the beholder.  Truth is a matter of perspective. Truth can be different for different people.  If I were to write a memoir of my childhood and my siblings were to do the same, it makes sense that some of the stories would be the same.  What would be different, however, is the perspective of those stories.  My brother and I could write about the very same event, and we could both tell the absolute truth about that event.

The interesting point of this exercise is to demonstrate that truth is different for each person. Our stories would be VASTLY different!

So, when you go to write your memoir, write it as truthfully as you can.  You may know a LARGER truth now that you are older, but in the interest of keeping your perspective in your memoir, try to retain the truth that you knew of the event at the time. This will also help you to determine if you are writing from the perspective of age and wisdom, or if you're re-entering yourself at a younger and greener age, and expressing the truth of the situation from that perspective.

Interesting point of view, isn't it?

Write on,

Kathleen

What's a Blueprint?

People are always looking for a process for writing. Or, rather, if you're trying to get your writing going, having a process can be one of the ways around that thing called "Writer's Block".

Blueprinting is another word for an outline, only it's a really, really special outline.

Blueprinting the process of your writing project is looking at it from beginning to end. You need to know at least 80% of what you're going to write about. Each chapter or portion of what you're writing needs to be thought out, planned out, and blueprinted. 

How do you blueprint?

You ask yourself what is the single most important thing your reader needs to know at this point. Then you begin the process of filling in all the details.  Ask yourself the "who, what, when, where, why, and how" questions for each point. That's right...you're creating questions.

Why?

Because your brain likes to answer questions, and there is little chance that you will develop "writer's block" when you're answering the questions.

That's the secret behind blueprinting your writing project.  Every point you want to cover, you turn into a question.  Then you answer that question in as much detail as you possibly can. Suddenly you're turning out a great deal of writing almost without effort.

What's even greater is that while you're developing the blueprint for your project, you can see where you're going and you can keep things in the right order.

I hope this helps your next writing project.

Best,

Kathleen

Changing Horses

As a ghostwriter and a freelance writer I spend a great deal of my time writing for other people.  It feels really great when we discuss the project and we both know where we're going with it. Work begins, and it seems like smooth sailing.

Then you get a call.  "I think we're off track."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I think we (meaning me) have lost focus."

Me..."How so?" I'm thinking I've already written over half the project...this is sounding like a lot more work.

We talk, and yup, the client has changed her mind.  But who am I? I'm the writer. It's not my project. It's her project.

You have a couple of choices. You can either panic and realize that you're going to have to do a complete rewrite, or you can re-discuss the idea and see what you can salvage.

When you write for yourself, you can write anything you want.  When you write for someone else, you need to keep their needs in mind. The more you work at this kind of job, the better you'll get at understanding the needs of your clients.

Remember this, when you really take the time to understand the needs of your client, the less rewriting you'll have to do.

Best,

Kathleen

Myth #1: Writing is Hard

Here's the myth: Writing is Hard!

Take a piece of paper and a pen...or sit down at your computer.

Write this down:

The last time I was absolutely furious was...

...and go on from there.

We've all had a time when we were furious. I'll bet if you gave yourself five minutes, you could list a number of circumstances that made you furious...how about the guy who cut you off in traffic on the way home from work yesterday, or the woman in front of you at the grocery store who insists that she rifle through her three inch stack of coupons because she just knows she has one for that box of macaroni.

You name it...we've all had times when we had a very strong reaction to something, and usually we tell several people about it. If you were to record yourself telling people, then type up the story, you will have written it.

Did you hear me? You just wrote something!

See...it's a myth.

But it is a myth that most people believe! I suspect that there is some kind of conspiracy out there that promotes that myth. Perhaps those who do make their living by writing are afraid of the competition. Or, it could be that if too many people figured out that it isn't that difficult to write they would have to give up their act of being completely exhausted at the end of eight hours and they only have a single paragraph to show for their efforts.

(Personally, I suspect they spent a whole lot of time surfing the internet, answering email, lurking on Facebook, or playing killer games of Spider Solitaire...but I'm not right there, so it will remain just a suspicion.)

Our job is to dispel that myth and prove to you that getting your book written isn't as hard as a lot of people make it sound.

You hear about the writers who slave away up in their attic garret eating nothing but a single red apple for days at time...oh, wait, that was Louisa May Alcott when she wrote Little Women. She really did write that great long book in a very shore period of time, and she did it up in her attic, and I do remember something about those red apples.

The point is, when you have something to write about and you have a direction, a blueprint, or a road map, it's actually pretty easy to get that book written. So please stop believing the myth that writing is hard. It's really as easy as talking to your friend over coffee.

Best,

Kathleen

Everyone Wants to Be an Author

 

That's almost correct.

Actually, according to statistics, 4 out of 5 people want to write a book, which translates to 80% of the population.  That's a pretty good number of people who want to write a book.

As a writer, I would say that about 80% of the people I talk to say they want to write a book when they hear that I am a writer.  So, I guess it is safe to say that there are a whole lot of people out there who either want to write a book, are writing a book (and have been for years and years), or have several manuscripts lying about, but they haven't figured out what to do with them.

America's Author Maker is designed to help all you folks come out of the closet.  Our goal is to guide you step-by-step through the seemingly dangerous and treacherous (OK, it's actually not that bad) path to getting your book written and in print.

The next post is going to deal with some of the reasons people don't ever get their book written.  Look for it!

Best,

Kathleen