writing a book

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writing a book
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Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 13 10:39 am Post subject:
Is the material all stored on your own computer - or is it backed up to a secure area online? I wonder with all the enforced rest I've had to take if I might pick up the metaphorical pen again......

gleefulgoat

Joined: 14 Feb 2013
Posts: 17

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 13 6:22 pm Post subject:

Sally too wrote:

Linky to your book GG? What type of book have you written?

It's called "a Diary Of The First Years Smallholding - Warts an All!"

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diary-The-First-Years-Smallholding/dp/1471696952/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361297289&sr=8-1

And its basically that....a diary of how we coped as first time small holders, it should have been called "how not to run a small holding"

I wrote a diary most days, of the antics of chasing goats, falling over in pig...er...poop, the fun with chickens, and also the hard ship we had when my husband lost his job and we were snowed in for 3 months....the people who have read it said its very funny...wasn't really the intention hahaha but i am glad it made them laugh.... its a little crude in the making, but its my first one and i am now on the second one

It's okay that its a little crude in the making though 300 people like it so far, and I enjoy making it, and if it gives someone a laugh at my expense well its good, thats what matters.

So give your writing a go... read it and proof read it as much as you want or feel happy....THEN look for publisher

toggle

Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 13 6:31 pm Post subject:

toggle wrote:

'The first rule of writing is to apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.'

i prefer this:

ust because Mr or Ms Bottom is paying a trip to Chair Town it does not always follow that productive work is being done. If you give yourself the whole day to write, you will spend the whole day writing and, in the process, drive yourself bat shit crazy.

alongside a recomendation of not trying to write for more than 2 hours or work on something that is research based for more than 6 hours in a day.

toggle

Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 13 6:40 pm Post subject:

Gervase wrote:

vegplot wrote:

An excellent piece of software which can help with layout and organsiation is Scrivener - it's designed for the task.

Wholeheartedly agree with Scrivener; it's a superb piece of software that makes writing much easier, and has the added advantage that at the end you can compile a manuscript and format it as an ebook for Kindle, iTunes or any reader/distributor and have the finished product on your desktop in minutes, ready to upload. It can also import from almost any format - doc, docx, pdf, rtf, html etc - and has a very intuitive 'notes' section where you can store your research.
It seems to be becoming the software of choice for a lot of writers now, both in fiction and non-fiction, and is certainly hard to beat for features or ease of use. It's also a lot cheaper than Word!

i'm using scriviner as a combi writing tool and database for my thesis. the ability to write chunks of text and throw them about without risking deleting them, or throw them into the 'junk' file to rewrite for later or turn into an article for soemthing else. and i can link text to pdf files, so i can easily check my quotes and confirm my intrepretation when i go bak for rewrites.

combine it with somethinbg like a dropbox account, throw the save files into the dropbox.

only thing for me is the lack of formatting, like the arsey thing with footnotes or lack of endnote integration, i'll have to export into word to do that. but it's better than anyhting else i've played with. Might try playing with latex at some point. but it looked a bit scary and i think it's more than i actually need.

Pilgrim1975

Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 149
Location: Here And There

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 13 7:12 pm Post subject:

toggle wrote:

Might try playing with latex at some point.

Kinky.

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 13 7:53 pm Post subject:
I'm another Scrivener fan .

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 13 8:08 pm Post subject:
I can't imagine how I missed this thread the first time round. Off to look at Scrivener now.

Selkie

Joined: 03 May 2013
Posts: 7
Location: Highlands

Posted: Sat May 04, 13 9:32 am Post subject:

I'm thinking of writing a book if that counts.
My husband is always telling me to write. Trouble is there are lots of books out there saying much the same thing. I have been teaching swimming for many years and many local council lessons are done very badly. I stopped working for councils after one decided that controlled epilepsy was a reason to send me to 4 doctors in a year (last doctor said he had no idea why I was there.), for the last 10 years I've taught swimming privately and trained other teachers.

My husband complains that there are many kids that would benefit from a private instructor but cant afford it - hence the book idea. I rekon I could write a book now that would help parents teach like a swimming teacher, get round sticky issues and most importantly have fun teaching their child to swim....and possibly save money on lessons.

I do wonder how some of the books out there on 'teach your child to swim' got published...

I guess I'm asking everyone here who are parents if you think its a good idea. Waterproof pages essential!

Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Sat May 04, 13 10:35 am Post subject:
Sounds a great idea.... Type of book I might have bought back when they were all little and couldn't swim!

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Sat May 04, 13 10:42 am Post subject:
Just do it - write a book - that is the hardest part, commitment to finish it. The rest will come when you have a completed manuscript/print out.

Selkie

Joined: 03 May 2013
Posts: 7
Location: Highlands

Posted: Mon May 20, 13 8:55 am Post subject:

Sorry for not replying I've been applying for a job - heavens knows how many times I have re-written my CV or the covering letter. It will likely still go to someone in performance swimming or who has coached at a successful club.

Anyway I was thinking of submitting an article about teaching swimming as practice for the book. Has anybody got any particular problems or issues with their or a child's swimming - anything? I've taught adult & child classes, complete beginners of all ages, improvers, stroke/competitive development.
I'm happy to give advice.

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Mon May 20, 13 9:05 am Post subject:
How to help build confidence in the water Safety aids for children Dangers of swimming in open waters. I am sure others will come up with more - An article would be great.

arvo

Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Posts: 3321
Location: Somerset

Posted: Mon May 20, 13 9:12 am Post subject:

Selkie wrote:

Definitely submit an article on here, it'll give you a chance to see what your writing looks like on the page and see what style you have. It sounds like you have *loads* of expertise and a different take on what to write. Don't worry about what everyone else has written. A mate of mine says 'only you have got your voice, only you can tell your story'.

FWIW it sounds like we'd buy it already (one very active 5yo Leo and one 4yo Nenna to teach to swim).

Good luck

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Mon May 20, 13 12:18 pm Post subject:

Defiantly interested here, we have a 2yo boy who we took swimming a couple of times in his first year but he dint really like it, we are going away this year so we have been taking him every week and in 6 weeks have gone from big floating ring seats through rings and now he is happy walking and splashing with no buoyancy but we need to get him to take the step from slashing and playing in depth or holding on the side to actually swimming....
That might be a bit specific actually but I think an article would he great lol.

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Mon May 20, 13 3:50 pm Post subject:
Yes please Selkie! That would be very well recieved.

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