The Confabulator Cafe

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  • What’s Wrong With Asking the Crowd?

    When I was in library school, about half an Internet generation ago [0], we were warned, very specifically and repeatedly, against relying on Google or Wikipedia or any other online resource authored by “non-authoritarian” sources. Instead, we were directed toward proprietary academic and professional databases— EDGAR, Dialog, Lexus/Nexus, Westlaw, and the like.

    I chalked up a great deal of this propagandizing to existential angst amongst an older generation of library professionals. The unwashed public having direct access to raw information without the kindly and professional intermediation provided by suitably indoctrinated gatekeepers? Quel horreur! [1]

    I had been an IT professional for about 10 years by then [2] and had nothing but the deepest respect for the free-form conversation that is the Internet [3]. Sure, plenty of the information you find may be wrong, but if so, somebody else will be along shortly shouting at the top of their CAPS LOCK key precisely how wrong it is, with illustrative asides and digressions into the quality of the original poster’s intelligence, reading comprehension, research methodology, and parentage, including hyperlinked footnotes to, for example, the website of the guy who invented whatever the heck you’re talking about. If you have a high tolerance for alpha-geek posturing, the Internet can give you one hell of an education.

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  • Erowid, BME, & Little Details

    I like writing about addicts. I don’t know why. I suffer no addictions myself. No addiction more serious than cigarettes has touched my family. But there’s something fascinating about a character whose motivations stem from something dark and hard within them.

    Herein lies the problem: write what you know utterly fails me here. I lived with a friend who smoked pot when I graduated high school1; I have a handful of relatives and friends who roll that way as well, or used to. That’s it. Beyond my skin-deep understanding of the lifestyle of mid-twenties recreational pot smokers, I need research. For that, I have Erowid.

    I have a love/hate relationship with Erowid. The layout is ridiculous; it’s like someone designed it in 2001 and hasn’t looked back. But you know what? The information is great, and there is a lot of it. Psychotropic plants and legality and chemistry? Seriously, if you’re going to write about a drug, check it out.

    Body Modification Ezine (BME) is another interesting resource for writing about characters — and it feels significantly more modern! They’ve got a pretty solid wiki and there are lots and lots of photos and thousands of personal stories. I feel like it’d be a solid resource for character concepts., if you were writing about someone with heavy modifications or wanted to see inside the head of someone who does.

    My other favorite? Little Details on LiveJournal, which has the ever-so-awesome tag line “A Fact-Checking Community for Writers.” It’s not supposed to replace the basic Google/Wikipedia search, but rather to augment it with personal experience. Like, first the page (as of this writing) has posts about what to call a collection of dragons, help translating phrases into Chinese, how two semi-nolbes would refer to a Pharaoh in conversation, and my favorite post — wherein the author was convinced not to write the story in question: “Would mandatory gayness shrink Earth’s population?”

    To go a little more mundane, I couldn’t name characters without Seventh Sanctum. It’s got a generator for pretty much everything — there are fourteen different categories of generators, and sub-generators beyond that. If you just need a placeholder or if anything will do, it’s the place to go.

    1. And, you know, once in a while I helped. I’m not ashamed of it.

  • Math and iPads and other web tricks

    When it comes to the Internet, I admit it.  I’m a Wikipedia whore. Yup.  Ever since that monumental study came out revealing that Wikipedia was no more error-prone than Encyclopedia Britannica, with far more detailed information about every single season of Star Trek, I have used the great crowd sourcing marvel for everything from quick questions (who did invent phrenology, after all?) to finding the majoritarian impression of Salvador Allende’s death: suicide or assassination? (Suicide is the more common interpretation.  Not if you are at a museum dedicated to his memory, though.)

    I also find the plethora of open-source journals available online to be a huge boon to detail-specific research.  When I was researching my great-grandparents for a novel and wanted to find out what their lives as Norwegian immigrants would have been like, the Norweigan American studies journal was invaluable.  If you have a good library supplying your internet (I.e., you are a good KU student or employee), Jstor is the source of all scholarly goodness.
    My day job as math teacher also must enlighten you at this time.  If you are mathematically minded, you should check out Wolfram Alpha, which is a sort of search engine for data that has a computer algebra system built in.  It compiles numerical and other data from all over the place and responds to searches with graphs and tables and is an incredibly powerful engine.  The literary minded compare it to the computer in Star Trek or the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the struggling math student compares it to a magic machine that does all basic math calculations and a whole lot more.  But it is a great research tool that gives an alternate perspective to all kinds of queries.  The iPad app is also great.*

    And finally, I have to put a plug in there for Information is Beautiful, which highlights a magnificent blend of writing, data, and art.  (You could never guess that all my recent writing centers around curriculum for statistics could you.) I find the site to be the future of graphical creation.  It inspires my writing and also asks me how the web will lead graphic organizations of our future literary efforts.  

    *I have been writing on my iPad a lot recently, but I am not sure the definitive programs for writers using iPads have been written yet. Scrivener promises to be available soon, someday, and that would be a boon, but I do think you might want to stick with the laptop for a while yet.  Other writers, please inform and disagree with me!

  • Online Dictionaries FTW (for the win.)

    My favorite resources online for writing are online dictionaries. Love them, love them, love them. Here I will review my favorites: Google dictionary, urban dictionary, A Word A Day, and rhymezone.

    Everyone knows that google.com is a search engine. But it has many other features. For example, if one types a word into a Google search bar along with the search term “definition”, Google will return a dictionary entry for that word above the other search results. That is a feature I use every single day.

    Notice the synonym.

    I use urbandictionary.com to check the meaning of slang, but this website is not as useful as it could be. It allows anonymous contributors to add words. This leads to a situation where search results usually have multiple entries by different authors for each phrase, some of which are serious and many are jokes. Urban Dictionary is a good example of how allowing wide participation can drive down the value of an online resource. Another criticism I have of this site is that every entry has an option to buy a product attached to it, so why have a dictionary at all if the site is just to sell customized mugs?  The main value of this site is that I can always find the phrase I am looking for, even if it is in no other dictionaries.

     

    The antithesis of that same concept is A Word A Day available at wordsmith.org/awad. This site is a wonderful resource and an example of how narrow curation by a reputable editor increases the quality of an online dictionary. A Word A Day is not as easily searchable as other online dictionaries, but it is written with a high level of accuracy. As one might expect from the name of the site, there is a word every weekday. Every week has a unifying theme. In addition to the definition of the word of the day, there is etymology and thoughts from the founder, Anu Garg, about the word of the day.

    Rhymezone.com is my favorite online dictionary because in addition to searching for definitions, antonyms and synonyms one can search for rhymes as well as references in Shakespeare! The look of the site is kind of old school, but it functions.

    What about you? What online dictionary do you use?

  • Tools of the Trade

    This list will probably look different for every writer, but here are some of the tools that I can’t write without. These, along with several others, are linked on the right side of my personal writing blog, Prospective Writer. In this post I’ll explain why these resources are invaluable to me.

    Thesaurus.com and Dictionary.com

    When I’ve been using a word excessively, or if I use a word but I’m not quite sure if it means what I think it means, or if there is a precise word that I know exists for what I’m trying to say but I can’t seem to pull it out of the depths of my brain, I plug in variations until I find what I’m looking for.

    Wikipedia

    Probably not the most reliable source for information, but it gives me a starting point, a foundation, which I then build from. And actually, new scenes and plot twists have resulted from stuff I’ve read in Wikipedia articles.

    Babynames.com

    I am abysmal at coming up with names. At my job, I see a lot of names, so I collect the ones I like, but sometimes I exhaust my list and need a fresh supply. I often use this site to find names based on what I want a character’s name to mean, or if I know I want it to start with a particular letter. This site also has a brilliant section on Character Names, Tips for Writers, that I read through now and then to remind myself that not every one of my characters needs to have an exotic name.

    Pandora

    Sometimes I need mood music. And sometimes it’s a nice distraction if it keeps playing crappy stuff I don’t want – then I can spend time cultivating the perfect mood music station by disliking and skipping the stupid songs.

    Goodreads

    I include this because so much of what I write is influenced by what I read, and without Goodreads, I’d be lost in a sea of all the books I own, need to read, and have read. There are also author pages, ratings for books (which is useful when searching for a reputable book about writing), book summaries, and I can keep track of what books all of my friends are reading

    Youtube

    You can learn how to do anything on this site. Taught me how to pick a lock. I think I needed this information for a character once…honest!

    The Confabulators

    Last but not least: my writing friends. All those blogs you see linked in the corner on the right? Yeah, them. I’ve learned a lot about writing by reading their blogs, and they are especially wonderful to bounce ideas off of and to offer feedback on my drafts. I wouldn’t be the writer I am without these wonderful folks.

  • My digital reference shelf

    Pile of books
    By Jhodson (Own work) CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), via Wikimedia Commons

    When I was in college — this was back in the Dark Ages, before the Internet — my desk had several reference books I would turn to in times of need. Not surprisingly, I had a dictionary and thesaurus, as well as a worn copy of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style. At one point, I also had a Latin dictionary so I could pepper my scholarly papers with pretentious-sounding phrases.

    These days, the Web offers writers a number of reference tools for writing and blogging. Of course, Google and Wikipedia are my go-to jumping-off points when searching for information.

    I keep several bookmarked for repeated use. Depending on your needs, some of these tools may appeal to you.

    • Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus — Merriam-Webster is my go-to source for double-checking my spelling and word choices.
    • OneLook Dictionary — This online dictionary has some added tools. You can search using wildcards (great for finding words that rhyme) or use the reverse lookup using a definition to find a word.
    • Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips — Not a reference book, per se, but a great site for solving arguments about grammar and style. While I don’t always agree with her conclusions, nine out of 10 times, she is able to give a definitive answer to those annoying little grammar rules (like when to use “lay” vs “lie”).
    • AP Stylebook Online — If you need a good style manual, I recommend Associated Press. The online version is constantly updated, so it’s worth getting a subscription.
    • Wikimedia Commons — If you’re looking for media (images, video, sounds) that you can use without paying for them, check out this source. Wikimedia Commons includes royalty-free and public domain media.

    Of course, the best thing about the Internet is a never-ending supply of inspiration. From news to history to discussion threads (like this one about “glitch in the Matrix” stories), there is no shortage of great ideas to jumpstart a writer’s creativity.

  • Finding Your Online Peeps

    Let me go ahead and apologize in advance. The original draft of this blog was a lot more fun, but apparently it didn’t fit in with the vision that some of “us” have for the Café.

    As it was explained to me, not everyone’s idea of a “helpful online resource” involves gratuitous nudity. There was also some discussion about the appropriateness of promoting websites that depicted adults engaged in physical expressions of love that may or may not be legal in their various states of residence.

    Prudes.

    So here we are, my friends. Stand back. I’m about to go all mainstream on your collective asses.

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  • My Virtual Life

    Sometimes, I wonder how writers managed all of this prior to the Internet. Never has it been so easy to connect with like-minded individuals, to promote your own work, or to research any topic you can imagine.

    I use the Internet a lot. In fact, I would venture to say that I am connected to the Internet in some way a majority of my time. When I am just sitting, waiting, I am often connected on my phone. I demand instant access to information based on whatever activity I am involved in at any given moment. I am an information addict.

    I could write all day about the internet resources I love, but I will try to cut that down and share a few, and throw a few shameless plugs in a lot with them.

    Starting shameless plugs.

    There are the obvious ones. If you are a writer trying to promote yourself, you might want to get a few things. For example you could get a Twitter handle, like @jmcampbelljr. You can set up a Facebook page (separate from your personal Facebook profile), such as www.facebook.com/jackcampbelljr. LinkedIn is a good way to connect with other professionals with a profile such as www.linkedin.com/in/jackcampbelljr. MySpace has a very limited following, but there are still people out there, such as www.myspace.com/jackcampbelljr. You might also want to get a blog, maybe even your own url, www.jackcampbelljr.com, for example.

    Ending shameless plugs.

    The point of all of those things is to promote your writing and reach an audience you might not otherwise reach. The problem becomes that you have so many profiles to update, that it can become cumbersome. That is where you have to play smart. I use TweetDeck, available at www.tweetdeck.com in order to maintain Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn all at once. I highly recommend their desktop program. WordPress, which I use for my blog, can automatically publish updates to Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, MSN, and LinkedIn. I use that feature, as well.

    All of those things are great for self-promotion, but you still have to write something. For writer resources, other than the usual Google and Wikipedia, there are a few sites I like. One I visit nearly every day is www.litreactor.com.  There is a free site and a pay area. The free site has a magazine format, featuring news, columns, interviews, and a community forum. For a subscription fee, you can also get access to a library of writing essays by Chuck Palahniuk and other authors, and a writers workshop of other site members. There are also online classes available, but I’ll warn you now that they aren’t cheap.

    I subscribe to The Writer magazine, so I also visit www.writermag.com and catch up on whatever I have missed in the latest print issue.

    I also frequently enjoy www.fuelyourwriting.com. I’ve seen a lot of stuff I like there. One of my favorite things, even though it may sound corny, are the photographs of other people’s writing spaces. It’s comforting to know where other people work.

    Finally, you have to find someplace to submit. I use two resources for finding markets for my writing. One is www.writersmarket.com. You have to pay for it, but there are a wide variety of markets to peruse through for submission possibilities. You can usually find a promo code online to save a bit on the subscription. I also use www.duotrope.com. Duotrope is free, but runs on donations, so feel free to donate. Duotrope has a great search feature, much better than the one at The Writer’s Market. I highly recommend it. You can definitely find different markets at both of the websites, though. Both have submission trackers, as well.

  • Online writing resources (19 May 2012)

    Walk into any writer’s home, and you’ll find at least one bookshelf dedicated to a collection of reference materials. For some of the Confabulators, these libraries have been growing since our early days of high school or college. But with the invention of the World Wide Web, these books have grown dusty from disuse as we turned online for updated access to our favorite reference tools for writing.

    In the Information Age it’s not enough to have a dictionary and thesaurus handy. Encyclopedias are old school. Now there are search engines, wikis, grammar websites and a metric crap-ton of blogs about writing. (But seriously, when you have the Confabulator Cafe, why go anywhere else?)

    To help other writers, we thought it would be a good idea to ask the Confabulators to reveal their favorite online reference tools and go-to sites for writing. Each day, you’ll get some great tips on where to go for writing information. At the end of the week, we’ll collect all these suggestions into one big list for you to enjoy.

    And if you don’t see a website mentioned that you think deserves a little love, please let us know in the comments. We love discovering online writing sites we didn’t know about.

  • What are you reading?

    Writers tend to be voracious readers. Some of us even read multiple books at a time; I’m reading three simultaneously at the moment. What we read, as you may have seen in some of our previous posts, often influences what we write, and we all need that constant input. The more we read, the better our writing becomes.

    Because we all read so much, we like to check in now and then to share with each other what we’re currently reading.

    Ted Boone

    I’m currently reading the Mistborn trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson ( http://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Final-Empire-Book-ebook/dp/B002GYI9C4 ). Interestingly enough, the first book seems to be a caper story set in a fantasy world. Given that I’m in the (slow, agonizingly slow) process of reimagining my most recent manuscript, a sci-fi caper novel, this first book is decidedly apropos.

    Larry Jenkins

    There are currently three books in my “reading” rotation.  I alternate American Gods by Neil Gaiman and A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin on the Kindle.  When I’m taking a walk or doing housework, I listen to Annie Jacobsen’s Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base.  It’s my second time through the Gaiman and Jacobsen books.  Both warranted a reread.

    Muriel Green

    I am currently reading My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme. I was trying an experiment where I read only memoirs for a while, and this book is a capstone to that experience. It is well written and full of personality. The introduction describing how Prud’Homme helped his great aunt record the story of her life is very touching. The way Child describes Paris of the 1950’s you can tell she was really in love with that city. My mother told me once that people often fall in love with Paris. She said I should go there because it might turn out to be the love story of my life. I have not taken that on yet, but from reading this book it is becoming a very compelling idea in my imagination!

    Sara Lundberg

    When it comes to books, I have a bit of ADHD. For some reason, I can never read just one at a time. Usually I try to balance the books I’m currently reading by choosing something fiction or fun paired with something that’s either a classic or nonfiction, in addition to whatever we’re reading for book club. Right now I’m reading The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker (one of my favorite books and favorite authors), and The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (because I’ve really gotten into true crime lately). For book club, I’m reading The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens, which I’m enjoying more than I thought I would. Book choices for book club can be a little hit and miss.

    Kevin Wohler

    I’m currently reading half a dozen books, some in hardcover and some on my Kindle. I’ve been reading Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, taking in a chapter here and there for inspiration. And I’m reading George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones (which is a lot more time-consuming than watching it on HBO). I’m also working my way through a biography, a book of poetry, a cyberpunk novel, and an old mystery. Some day I’ll have “time enough at last.”

     Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I’m reading a few books. For a modern novel, I am reading Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr. For short stories, I am reading The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Conner. I also keep a set of books going on my Kindle. Currently, those are How to Tell a Story and Other Essays by Mark Twain, The Adventurous Boy’s Handbook by Stephen and Finn Brennan, and The Damned by Algernon Blackwood.

    Paul Swearingen

    I finished reading “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern today and was disappointed, even though the story is intriguing. The text is replete with comma splices, misused words, and even sentences with scrambled words. Evidently her editor is incompetent or under order not to change. It is one thing to purposefully employ experimental writing techniques; it is quite another to continually abuse the English language to the detriment of the story. Morgenstern crafted a fine, although ethereal story, and it deserves better treatment than found in the present version.