Lines from Linda

National Blog Posting Month

For those who may not wish to embark upon the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) journey, where one sets out to write a novel during the month of November, someone has come up with an alternative challenge: National Blog Posting Month.

The blog posting rules are simple--post something on your blog every day, no cheating by using the time/date stamp in case you missed a day. To be eligible for the various prizes and drawings, register at the official site and follow the instructions for submitting your blog. If you've been a blog slacker like I have lately, it might be a good thing to get into the routine of posting regularly.

And for the really insane, I suppose you could commit to both programs! I'm considering it. I mean, for the blog post, I could simply write, "I did not meet my NaNo word count goal today" for 30 days straight!

Actually, I plan to take NaNoWriMo seriously this year. I have a novel plotted and ready to roll, just waiting for November 1.

How about you? Which challenge do you plan to attempt? Both? If nothing else, it can make us more aware of being consistent and work on that word that gives me more goosebumps than a Brandilyn Collins novel: discipline.

Blogathon 2007

The annual Blogathon is coming up July 28. This is a charity fund-raiser where bloggers write 48 blog posts within a 24-hour period.

No cheating by pre-posting with the date/time stamp, but you can plan your posts ahead of time. Some write fiction, others post about their respective charities. I thought it might be an interesting writing exercise as well as perhaps a way to promote Christian fiction on the web. Apparently this is a big worldwide event, even though I'd never heard about it until I stumbled across a link to it tonight.

Click HERE to read a Blog Herald article with tips on how to blog the Blogathon. The blogathon official site "opens" July 1, but the forum is open now if you want to browse through some of the prep talk. (http://blogathon.org)

Apparently, bloggers get sponsors to donate items for drawings during the blogathon and collect donations for their charities. I've never done this so I'm not sure how that works, but I guess the instructions will be posted when the site opens. Lorelle on WordPress (an excellent instructional site, BTW), has a lot of information about this event. Click HERE to read one of her posts about it. (She also wrote the Blog Herald article.)

I haven't decided whether or not I plan to participate, but I thought I'd pass this along.

A Little Bit of WordPress…

WordPress themes pop up every day, but many of them look alike. Unique themes are hard to find. I've found several that I really like, so I thought I'd discuss them from time to time. I also hope to discuss other things WordPress, such as plug-ins, a few basic "how-tos," etc. I may even get crazy and post a few times about Joomla! (See my LindaFulkerson.com site for an example of a Joomla!-powered site.)

Okay, I confess, I've been hanging out on some geek blogs, learning about cascading style sheets and .php and stuff. There. I said it. No way do I claim to know what I'm doing in geek land. I'm a lurker. I have modified code a few times. Okay, several times. Even successfully. I know just enough to get into trouble, as the old saying goes.

I really like the Spin Me theme from Geek Goddess Design. It is a clean design, yet unique and professional. It also looks fun to me. If you're new to WordPress, you'll quickly discover that most of the themes are categorized by their width style (fixed or fluid) and the number of columns. Spin Me is a fixed width, two column design. I'm currently using Spin Me at my HiredQuill Critique Service site if you wish to view it in action.

(If you wish to see an example of a fluid width theme, visit my Fiction Fundamentals site. I use Milo's New Yorker Theme on that site. Note: Milo's web site scares me a little, but his designs are unique and interesting, and he seems to be a pretty decent fellow. Had to e-mail him once about a theme issue and he answered quickly and in a friendly manner.)

Different WordPress users look for different things in a theme. Personally, I prefer light themes to dark. I also (since I'm not an XHTML wizard) like the convenience of widgetized themes. Widgets allow tech-challenged bloggers to produce sites with cool sidebar goodies.

The best part about WordPress and Joomla! is that they are both FREE, because they are Open Source. What that means is that a bunch of kids (usually college students who are bored with Calculus III) develop themes, templates, plug-ins, etc., and upload them for all of us to enjoy. Some are professionals who release free themes for PR purposes, other themes are sponsored. (Note: watch the links in the footer. Some theme sponsors are scary--gambling sites, etc. I don't use themes from sponsors if I'd be embarrassed for my readers to view their sites.)

If you have any questions about WordPress, Joomla!, or themes, I'm certainly no expert, but I've found a lot of sites whose owners are and can possibly point you in the right direction.

Breaking Bad Habits: Wordiness

Whether in fiction or nonfiction, conversational style contributes to good writing. However, it tends to be wordy. Once we've written a piece, our next job is to cut it. Separate the wheat from the chaff--and let the wind carry the chaff away. The first step is...

(read this post at FictionFundamentals.com...)