Contents under pressure!

How about this:
WARNING!
READING WARNING LABELS AND TAKING THEM SERIOUSLY CAN CAUSE EXTREME PARANOIA AND IN SOME CASES MAY LEAD TO INSTITUTIONALIZATION. UPON ENCOUNTERING ANY WARNING LABEL PLEASE CONSIDER THE RISKS OF READING IT AND REMEMBER THAT YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Since blog readers help you organize, they save time! You won’t have to go from website to website just to get the most current information — simply subscribe to your favorite sites in your blog reader and you’ll see the updates there — without having to visit each site directly. Take a look:

So what are you waitin’ for? Click on my SUBSCRIBE link (here or at the top right of the page) and get a FREE account with one of the popular blog readers. Once you sign up, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without it!

But I do want to say I’ve been coming back to their site for more advice ever since I first discovered them. Why else would I write a headline like the one that made you read this post? It’s #1 on the list from 10 sure-fire headline formulas that work.

Copyblogger is a blog that tells you how to become a better writer, especially if you’re writing copy or blogging.

Anyway, recently I discovered a post on Copyblogger that caught my attention: 20 warning signs your content sucks. Number 17 says, “You write less than 1000 words a day”. Well, if you read that post, you’ll discover there’s a lot of warning signs that apply to my blog; Augh! That’s another story, forget I mentioned it. Let’s talk about number 17 since it’s the one that got my attention.

I asked myself honestly if I write 1000 words a day. I don’t. I tried to add up all my daily emails and IM’s — those count, it’s writing — but it still didn’t come close to 1000 words. The only time I write that much is when I’m working on a special project, like a short story or article, etc. And I think what Copyblogger’s referring to when they say 1000 words — actual content; stories, articles, etc.

So, that’s my goal for the month of July: write 1000 words a day. I’m going to take the advice of Copyblogger and see if my writing improves. But hey, it’ll be our little secret okay, don’t tell anybody. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime so if you decide to join me, keep it hush and happy writing!

Actually, calling it a small victory may not be the best choice of words, since it felt like a pretty significant victory. It was tough to stay committed to this project. I thought writing a novel would be a far easier task than it’s turned out to be; one time through, hand it to an editor, be done with it! I was wrong.

I recently realized how wrong I was when I took a short class on writing a novel. The instructor was a published author who told me she had about 15 drafts before she was able to call it good. FIFTEEN!!!

Personally, I don’t plan to create 15 drafts, but I do anticipate several more drafts on my project. At least one, maybe two or more before I’m ready to hand it over to a select few people for feedback. Once I’ve got some feedback, I plan to do a couple more drafts — including an edit from a professional editor.

Right now, I’m going to put the project away for a short while and wait for inspiration to put draft number 3 in motion. I’m not sure when that will be, but I have a tentative goal to get it done by the next Nanowrimo 2010, in November. A month in which a new book will likely find it’s beginnings.

So, to sum up how I got to this point: when I did Nanowrimo 2009, I completed most of my first draft. I wrote all through November and about two weeks into December. I then harvested the high points from the plot/characters and put them on 3×5 cards that I stuck on a bulliten-board that remains a permanent fixture in my house.

My writing board and my muse

The breakdown:

1st draft – 2.5 months (Working daily, several hours a day)
2nd draft – 4.5 months (Working weekly, on a doable minimum schedule)

The above 7 months of work has actually taken me over 9 months with all the breaks I’ve taken on the project. Completion — if it sees the light of day —will easily take more than a year. I hope it sees the light of day, but I still may decide to shelf it. I reserve the right to shelf it! And if I do, well, all will not be lost.

Writing this novel has been fun, it’s been difficult, but it’s also been a great learning experience. One which I plan to do again and again!

I think if I was a professional author, working only on my project, then 4-6 months would be a reasonable time-frame to complete a novel. Since I work full time and write novels on the side — even though I haven’t finished one yet — I’d say a year and a half to 2 years would be reasonable. But that’s just a projection.

So… if you’re writing a novel, or planning on writing a novel, hopefully my experience will shed some light on the subject. Thanks for reading and keep writing!

Ideally, keeping important content “above the fold” will allow the user to understand what the website is about without having to scroll in their browser — a reasonable goal when laying out a webpage.

Anyway, I thought I’d share some of my results from the research I did. Defining an exact pixel number can be tricky, so I made this graphic to give an idea of heights in pixels. http://www.laughcard.com/hi.html

Go ahead and view the graphic on your friends, coworkers and neighbors computers. This will give you an idea of all the little things you have to keep in mind; toolbars, menu bars, window decoration, system bars, browser window sizes, etc.

There’s a lot to consider, but I want to define a number or at least a range in which to design for. I came across this website boxesandarrows that stated “the three highest fold locations were 570, 590 and 600 pixels—apparently from different browsers running on 1024×768 screens.” It was talking about another study conducted.

Based on my research, I would say less than 600 pixels tall is a good height to design for. If I was to give a range, it would be between 550 and 600 pixels tall. There is a lot to consider, but those are some pretty decent numbers for the time being, which of course is subject to change…

Also, here’s a cool tool I found for measuring the users browser size and placing content:
http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

Anyway, I did an experiment where I became a smoker for about a month. Actually, I didn’t set out to do an experiment, it just turned out that way. The more I smoked, the more I found myself craving cigarettes. I started with a pack a week and then increased my intake to a pack every 2-3 days. My entire involvement with cigarettes went on for about 30 days.

When I noticed my cravings for nicotine growing, I decided to find out what I was in for if I suddenly quit smoking. I didn’t use any “quit smoking” products, I just stopped — “cold turkey” as they say. Here is my story of how I gave up smoking.

Day 1 - Quitting pride is on my side.(Imagining this jingle) In the past, I smoked mostly in the evenings so that’s when my cravings are the worst. The cravings are on/off throughout the day but the evenings are the worst. My God, this is the worst! Not really though ’cause I’m going to be smoke free! It’s easy for me to be my own cheerleader at this point, a cheerleader that sings little jingles for myself. Rah, rah, rah!

Day 2 – Quitting pride is fading. Stupid cheerleader metaphor, just give me a smoke already. I picture myself smoking in my imagination, a persistent vision I can’t seem to shake. I don’t want to say my thoughts to smoke are like a broken record because that’s a lame metaphor, uh yeah, like something else I just mentioned. Glad you’re still reading!

Day 3 – Pride gone, I need to smoke. This is all just ridiculous. I go out for a walk and see discarded cigarette butts everywhere. People are smoking, even the people who aren’t smoking seem to be smoking. I wish people would stop doing things with their hands/fingers. I look away from them, anywhere I can. I look to the sky. The clouds above me resemble plumes of smoke.

“It’s all in your head,” as they say, but the problem is that you’re head is a pretty significant part of you’re body and you can’t get rid of it easily.

Day 4 – The urges are still there but not quite as bad as yesterday. At least not until the urges come back and they’re toting guns, smoking cigars, and pointing them at me (both the guns and the cigars). I can’t believe I committed to this experiment for 7 days! Really, I surrender, I’ll smoke a fucking God-damn cigarette already! But before I can get my hands on some, the psychic smoking gunslingers disappear and I’m off the hook.

If this blog post can be of inspiration to anyone trying to quit, one tip I have for you: Do not make cigarettes available at your immediate convenience. If you do, you’ll lose this game, I promise.

Day 5 – The urges to smoke are not quite as bad as yesterday. I guess I use that statement a lot to get me through this quit smoking experience; “Today’s better than yesterday”.

That said, I hear an arabic sounding jingle on the radio and it takes me back to the design on the box of Camel Cigarettes. I’m in a foreign land, enjoying the robust flavor of a fine, hand rolled tobacco product. The gunslingers are there, riding camels. We all shake our heads in approval of the cigarettes we smoke. The vision vanishes but my urge to smoke doesn’t.

“Just hang in there — two more days to go!”

Day 6 – Cashier in the checkout stand catches me eyeing the cigarettes behind her and asks me if I want some. I say I’m trying to quit. “Oh, good for you.” she says. “Whatever you do, don’t start up again after you quit.”

I gave her a curious look but had no comment. It was interesting advice, and I’m thinking she must have been a reformed quitter because earlier she mentioned she was a smoker.

I get home and sit on the back porch where I usually smoke. I have the thought that one puff would be nice. Just one and I’d put the rest of the cigarette out. If someone was standing near me with a cigarette I would do this and the 7 day quit thing would become a flop.

Day 7 - Okay, done with this little experiment — I’m leaving the house now to buy another pack of cigarettes! Actually, I’m having second thoughts about this because I don’t want to experience this “quit smoking” cycle again. It doesn’t seem worth it to me. Second thoughts are priceless.

And… I want to hold onto those valuable second thoughts because buying smokes is not priceless. A pack of cigarettes will typically go for more than $5.00 and the kind I took a liking to cost $5.89 a pack — yep, a jip!

Anyway, no cigarettes for me, not today. And as I write this in the evening, having reached my goal, I’m still craving a smoke. Addictive? Uh… Yeah. I have cravings today that rival day 3, even though the urge to smoke has subsided quite a bit.

I know it sounds cliche to say “be smart don’t start,” but if you’re still reading this then you probably don’t mind silly cliche’s and can hopefully extract some wisdom from all this. So while we’re on the subject, how ’bout “Oh shit, just quit!” when you’re thinkin about the costs of cigarettes. Go ahead, sing it if you want, I won’t tell anyone. I won’t even think you’re lame!

But seriously, I support anyone who chooses to quit smoking, or better yet not start. Of course you’ll need more than my support, you’ll need your own reasons to avoid smoking and that’s where things can get complex and personal.

As I mentioned before, I did not start smoking to do this “quit smoking” experiment. I started because I thought it would help me relieve stress. Smoking was helpful for stress relief in the beginning, but then I found it to be less and less helpful — It over promised and under delivered. Cigarettes gave me relief from my stress by offering me a brief feeling of well being. It’s a feeling of satisfaction that faded the more I smoked. I needed more, yet got less and less — yep, a jip!

Now, as far as dealing with my stress goes… I still haven’t solved that problem. Unmanageable stress is a personal issue for me. That’s another blog post though. Until then, “be smart don’t start” and “oh shit, just quit”! Here’s another web article that I thought offered some good tips on how to quit smoking.

And please, I want to hear from you! So feel free to leave a comment if you liked or didn’t like my story on how to give up smoking.

(At least the snow didn't stick on the sidewalks)

I’ve put my snow shovel away for the winter (also my proverbial snow shovel). But mother nature could give a shit!

— Hey man! We're tryin' to grow here.

Yes, you’d think we Utahn’s would be used to this by now. Every year it seems like winter is over in Feburary… but no! I wish I could have taken a photo of the guy I saw on a motorcycle with snow piling up on his helmet and tops of his shoulders — the highlight of my commute yesterday morning.

Reach for the sky... April Fools!

“Would you like to try our Sumatra? It’s the only thing we have right now.”
“Sure, thanks.” I said.
“Would you like to have a grande size for 20 cents more?”
“No thanks.”
“Would you like room for cream.”
“That’d be great.” I said thinking this would be the last question, but she had more up her sleeve. Her piercing dark eyes staring me down.
“Would you like a cookie or a cupcake?”
“No, that’s okay.”
“Would you like to use your discount card today?”
“No, I don’t have one and don’t want to buy one, thanks.”

A few minutes passed before the woman behind the counter handed me my coffee. I felt like I had really earned this cup, it was not handed over easily. I dubbed it my cup of “5 question coffee.” I would enjoy it, just like I enjoyed thinking about how I might annoy this woman the next time she sells me a cup of coffee. I would have 5 questions for her:

1) “Would you like me to take out my wallet now?”
2) “Would you like to choose a bill denomination? I have a 1, 5, 10, and 20.”
3) “Would you like exact change? (I could again recite the coins from my pocket, penny through quarter.
4) “Would you like to smile when you sell me coffee?” (She didn’t smile the whole time, not once)
5) “Would you like me to smile?” (because I feel like giving you the finger!)

I write this blog post with a smile because I can’t help but do so when I think of my own 5 questions. I also have to take a moment of gratitude to think about all the other simple $ transactions I take for granted. Sometimes it takes an experience like this to notice.

Ahhh… 5 question coffee.

The doable minimum involves setting aside a small amount of time each day to do a specific task. For example, if you want to create a giant quilt, devote an hour every other day to sewing small pieces of material together. Even if it takes a full year, you’ll eventually have something that covers a king size bed!

The doable minimum is a process that involves taking baby steps, much like what’s shown in the video I did here, how to rip a phone book in half. The idea is to break things down into sizable chunks and before you know it you’ve accomplished something significant.

Presently I’m devoting 4 hours a week to writing my novel as well as 4 hours a week to art. I do these activities in one hour sessions. Sometimes I enjoy it and want to go longer, other times I simply fill my time requirement. Either way, an hour is something I can commit to, a doable minimum.

Consistent commitment is key in this process. Through consistency over time, distance toward my goal is gained. For example, I’ve been doing the second draft of my novel for almost 2 months now and I’ve noticed a significant progress that’s been made. As of writing this, I am almost half way through round two, and I’m happy with that!

Having someone else keep you in check with a common goal can also help keep you going. For example Rachel Thomae, a professional writer and I did a writing contest called Nanowrimo this year. We are now motivating one another to take our rough drafts to the next level and get them ready for publishing. When talking to Rachel she had a few things to say about the doable minimum.

“Kinda like working out. I know I can get to the gym three times a week, but not five. Five would be great, but I’d quit!”

Rachel speaks a lot about diet and exercise on her blog. She also has a good article about setting goals.

So there you have it. Find your own doable minimum, something that is comfortable for you, and commit to it. An hour every other day works for me in most cases but everyone’s different. So if you have a goal in mind that you’d like to achieve, just make it… ya know, doable.