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Hannibal from the A-Team always loved it when a plan came together. Unfortunately, the Writer’s Knowledge Base (WKB) didn’t emerge from some well thought out plan. While I’m not a believer in destiny I’ll admit that sometimes it does seem like a real force and the WKB could be an example. In this post I’ll describe how the WKB came to be, how it works, and why I’m doing it.

When I started following writers on Twitter I quickly realized that the excellent links they posted had the lifespan of a gnat. Actually, gnats live a lot longer. It seemed like a shame that the links had such a short shelf life. The actual page at the other end of the link was still there, of course, but finding it is a lot trickier when you don’t have a human curator separating the good from the bad.

While writing this post I dug through my notes to find what I wrote about the idea I had for fixing the problem. I found a less-than-eloquent entry on September 30, 2010, that says:

“Monitor writers’ tweets for links to writerly subjects especially on the craft of writing. Then, user could search for “characterization” and get links to all kinds of articles.”

While those two sentences clearly foreshadow the WKB as it is today, back in September it was just another idea in a bucket full of them. While I suspected it was a good idea I decided to continue focusing on Hiveword which is the fiction organizer I’m developing. In fact, the idea itself was intended to be part of Hiveword at some point. That’s the context I was in at the time.

Now keep in mind that @elizabethscraig is one of the Twitterers I was following and while she is not the only one to post links I think we can all agree that she is by far the most prolific one. So imagine my surprise when I saw her post on December 13th where she was exasperated about the difficulties of making all of those great links findable.

Well.

The problem was she had content and no technology and I had technology and no content. Isn’t that how Reese’s peanut butter cups were born?

This smacks of destiny, I thought. So, I slept on it and on the next day sent Elizabeth an email outlining my proposed solution. After running a background check on me she decided that together we could provide a compelling free service to writers everywhere. Bloggers would benefit, too, since they would have another source of traffic. There was little downside.

With Elizabeth on board I set off to work. From concept to implementation it took under a month to do on a part-time basis since I have a day job. Part of the reason it was so fast was that I was able to leverage the platform I already had for Hiveword. Another reason is that I had an appendectomy in early January and the doctor said I should stay home for a week. How convenient. 40+ hours of work on the WKB. w00t!

Of course, telling you how it works would spoil some of the magic, no? I think you’ll find that it’s actually fairly mundane. But if you insist…

The WKB automatically checks Elizabeth’s Twitter feed once an hour, pulls any new tweets since the last time, and stores them in a holding area in the database. Each day I manually process each link by copying and pasting the article content into the search engine component. The search engine indexes the content and makes it fast to search. That’s where all the magic is, of course.

You might be wondering why I do the manual part when I could have the computer do it. I’ll tell you, that’s a mighty fine question given the number of links Elizabeth tweets! The answer is simple, though, and it’s about search quality. If I index the entire article the search engine component will consider the whole page including header, footer, sidebars, ads, comments, etc. That can obviously throw off the relevance score when you do a search. If bloggers would agree on a standard way of marking content I could pull it automatically but there’s not enough consistency for me to do that.

Then there was the fact that Elizabeth already had approximately 5,500 links on her Twitterific pages. Those links were just sitting there daring me to get them indexed. I’m pleased to say that I corralled those rascals but I didn’t process them manually, of course. Rather, the entire page of each article was indexed which, unfortunately, has the drawbacks mentioned above. That’s why you’ll sometimes see strange snippets under a result. Sorry about that. However, there are now more than 6,000 articles in the WKB for you to learn from and enjoy.

Finding articles is rather easy because the interface is intentionally simple a la Google. Searching is an obvious way to find articles but you can find plenty of gems by trying the Random or Popular links. Random is self-explanatory and Popular would perhaps be better named “Top 100” since that’s what it’s really showing. Give them a try if you haven’t already; I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

You might also be wondering why I’m doing this. There are actually a bunch of reasons. For example, as a programmer I’ve benefited greatly from the work of others on the Internet who gave freely of their time and skill and I’ve wanted to contribute something back for a while now but hadn’t been able to hit on the right thing. I always assumed it would be something for programmers but giving something to the writing community is like paying it forward. That works for me.

Also, the WKB amplifies the work that Elizabeth is doing for writers so that’s a win, too. As mentioned earlier bloggers will get more recognition and traffic and users of the WKB will hopefully learn something from their time spent using it. That means four distinct parties can benefit from the WKB — how great is that?

I’m elated by the reception the WKB has gotten from the writing community and I’m pleased that so many get value from it. I enjoyed creating the WKB and of course it wouldn’t be as useful as it is without Elizabeth’s help. She does a huge amount of work digging up the content in the first place.

That said, the WKB is not done. Would you believe I have a bucket full of ideas for it? Stay tuned!

———————–

Mike Fleming is a software engineer who can’t seem to get enough of his craft. Give him something to do by suggesting some features for the WKB. He also maintains the WKB’s Facebook page which he considers a place for insiders to stay informed about WKB news and tips. You can also sign up for the Hiveword email list if you want to be notified when the fiction organizer is ready.

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week.

I’m delighted that now we have an efficient method of locating resources on writing topics when you need them—via the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine and software engineer and writer Mike Fleming’s ingenuity. The links I tweet (which are writers’ blogs, agents’ and editors’ blogs) all are added to the engine to make it easier for you to access the information you’re looking for.

Hope you’ll come back tomorrow when Mike talks a little about how he came up with the idea for the Writer’s Knowledge Base and how it works.

Why Write a Novel—Your Reason is the Right One: http://dld.bz/M5wn

What Kind of Writer Are You? Career Themes: http://dld.bz/M5wh

Setting, POV, Backstory & Characterization: http://dld.bz/M5wf

Style Sheets: A Tool for You and Your Critique Partners: http://dld.bz/Mmme

If You Build it, They Will Read: Plotting With Layers: http://dld.bz/M5vU

Top 5 Things Writers Should NOT Do: http://dld.bz/M5vN

Reasons why today’s crime novelists should read the classics of the genre: http://dld.bz/MxHY @mkinberg

Honing your dark hero: http://dld.bz/MmkR #amwriting

Youth *can* enjoy verbal storytelling: http://dld.bz/Mj7k and http://dld.bz/Mj7m @kevincordi

Do lit mags have the same chance for survival as popular titles? http://dld.bz/Mjz4

Expose Your Writing Sins: http://dld.bz/KVqM

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: The Food of Love: Spaghetti and Meat(less) Balls http://bit.ly/hBosGb @CleoCoyle

One author’s life in writing (Guardian): http://dld.bz/MmhG

10 Tips to Ensure a Productive Writing Day: http://dld.bz/Mjy4 @elspethwrites

The Ancient Editor Goes to Lunch: http://dld.bz/Mjyz

A Feedback Format for Critiques: http://dld.bz/Mmkx

Tips for Avoiding Crime Fiction “Road Hazards”: http://dld.bz/MxH4 @mkinberg

Nice wrap-up–Creativity Tweets of the Week: http://dld.bz/Mu7N

An author with a POV Q&A: http://dld.bz/MxCe @authorterryo

Dialogue Tags: How to Kill Off Some Of The Little Buggers: http://dld.bz/MxYz @SharlaWrites

The 10 Essential Grammar Rules—of Life: http://dld.bz/Mu7E

4 tips to prepare for your book launch: http://dld.bz/Mxq2 @hopeclark

An agent’s post: How to Get Published (The Definitive Post): http://dld.bz/Mu77

Using Advertising Lessons to Make Your Story: http://dld.bz/MxpW @hopeclark

Need tips for plotting? http://hiveword.com/wkb/search?q=plot #amwriting

10 Ways to Promote Your Book in Your Own Backyard: http://dld.bz/Mmkp

Computers vs. longhand–and an interesting study on the pros and cons of both approaches to writing: http://dld.bz/Mu6n

Coincidences in writing: http://dld.bz/Mmjf #amwriting

Six Steps for Approaching Potential Critique Partners: http://dld.bz/MmgR

Critique Groups as an Unreliable Narrator: http://dld.bz/MjxJ #amwriting

The Most Important Thing A Writer Can Do (Other Than Read And Write): http://dld.bz/MwpS @ajackwriting

When Hiring a Publicist Make a Real Connection: http://dld.bz/MjtG

10 great places freelance writers can find story ideas: http://dld.bz/Mjtk

How to Be a More Effective Author Online: http://dld.bz/MbU9

SFF and the Classical Past, Part 4—Legions of Gladiators: http://dld.bz/MjsH

Handling Your Word Count: http://dld.bz/MjsF

Fantasy Writer’s Use of History: http://dld.bz/MjrF

Talking about the novel you’re working on: http://dld.bz/Mjqb #amwriting

The hero’s journey: http://dld.bz/K8qS and http://dld.bz/K8rb

An editor’s thoughts on pacing: http://dld.bz/K8q8

Improving Your Fiction: 246 Rules from 28 Modern Writers: http://dld.bz/KVqF #amwriting

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Chocolate Covered Strawberries! http://bit.ly/gvLirS @CleoCoyle

Platform–Why We Need One: http://dld.bz/MehS

Does your story involve language change? Some tips: http://dld.bz/Mehn

Examples of Sensory Details in Writing: http://dld.bz/Mek6

A trend toward present tense in YA? http://dld.bz/Mekk

3 Things the Novelist Can Learn From the Copywriter: http://dld.bz/MejU

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Week: Word Counts: http://dld.bz/MehK

Is your book’s setting ho-hum? http://dld.bz/KNYg #amwriting

10 Reasons Novel Manuscripts Get Rejected: http://dld.bz/MehD

Query Writing Troubles? It Might Be The Story, NOT The Query: http://dld.bz/MegF #amwriting

Storytelling–tips for crafting a verbal story: http://dld.bz/Mjnt @kevincordi

Character habits and other identifiers: http://dld.bz/Mjmk #amwriting

10 ways to make editors fall in love with your work: http://dld.bz/Megp

Top 10 love poems, in time for Valentine’s Day (Guardian) : http://dld.bz/Mjxe #amwriting

On business cards for writers: http://dld.bz/Meg5

What your agent doesn’t want to hear you say: http://dld.bz/Megz #amwriting

Writers react to AOL-HuffPost deal: now what? http://dld.bz/Mefj

6 Fiction Writing Techniques to Improve Your Blog: http://dld.bz/Med7

An agent says, “It’s not my job to be your BFF.”: http://dld.bz/Mjv6 #amwriting @gatekeeperspost

7 Tips for Using Hyphens with Adjectives: http://dld.bz/Med6 #amwriting

Why Adverbs Will Really Probably Always Mostly Suck: http://dld.bz/MjnR @charissaweaks #amwriting

An agent explains remainders: http://dld.bz/Medv

A Storyteller dives into Digital: http://dld.bz/MjmK @KevinCordi

The Subconscious In Writing: http://dld.bz/Medn @joanswan #amwriting

10 ½ Tips for Being a More Effective Author Online: http://dld.bz/MbU9

Behind the Scenes with a Literary Agent: http://dld.bz/MbPA #amwriting

Character-Driven/Plot-Driven: http://dld.bz/K8qq #amwriting

Writer’s Tools: Worksheets & More: http://dld.bz/cXmN #amwriting

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: Like Cheddar for Chocolate http://bit.ly/eDUj26 @CleoCoyle

Travel Writing Tips for Writers Who Can’t Write Description: http://dld.bz/MbP2 #amwriting

Using (Or, Preferably, Not Using) the Subjunctive Mode: http://dld.bz/MbPx

Urban Fantasy and the Elusive Male Protagonist: http://dld.bz/MbNY #amwriting

What Your Query Says About Your Book: http://dld.bz/KVet

Tips for switching POV characters: http://dld.bz/Menb @authorterryo

There are no original fairy tales: http://dld.bz/MbNd

SF Editors & Authors Discuss Future of Publishing: http://dld.bz/Mema

How to Start On Twitter (Or Open a 2nd Twitter Account) Without Looking Like a Newbie: http://dld.bz/MaAU

Can Book Critics and Authors be Friends? http://dld.bz/MaA3

Want to create vibrant characters that pop off the page? http://dld.bz/KNXX #amwriting

Lighten Up! Cutting Down Your Word Count: http://dld.bz/MaAx

Bulking Up: Fleshing Out a Too-Short Novel : http://dld.bz/Ma9B #amwriting

Thoughts on when to follow your beta readers’ advice and when to follow your gut: http://dld.bz/MaNq

The Scene Conflict Worksheet – Developing Tension in Your Novel: http://dld.bz/KVpB

How To Avoid Becoming Another Boring Writer’s Blog: http://dld.bz/Ma8P #amwriting

7 Ways to Attract Attention to Your Book Sales Page: http://dld.bz/MbM2 @victoriamixon @thecreativepenn #amwriting

Three Places Where You Should Tell Instead of Show: http://dld.bz/Ma8r #amwriting

Cutting Overwhelm Down To Size: http://dld.bz/Ma7T #amwriting

The Future of Agents: http://dld.bz/Ma7A #amwriting

Learning to write from fruit: http://dld.bz/KVpa

How to copy and paste your Kindle highlights and notes into a Word file or email: http://dld.bz/KZE5 @galleycat

To Produce & Protect: 5 Things That Creators Can Learn From IT Geeks: http://dld.bz/KVf4

Want More Copywriting Clients? Here’s a Surprising Way to Find Them: http://dld.bz/KVeM

Deciding When to Show and When to Tell: http://dld.bz/KUWM @4kidlit

One editor lists the marks of an amateur: http://dld.bz/K8qd

Shades of Gray: A Somewhat Liberating Spin on Story Structure: http://dld.bz/K8pk

The value of pausing for a critique: http://dld.bz/KNRj #amwriting

The Three Dimensions of Character Development: http://dld.bz/K8pa

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: A Valentine’s Day Cocktail http://bit.ly/eBOdOh @CleoCoyle

Working Together to Renovate Publishing–The WANA Plan: http://dld.bz/KNQV

10 Radical Ideas for Getting Kids to Read: http://dld.bz/KNPM

Listen to Full Audio of AWP Social Media Panel (Writer’s Digest): http://dld.bz/KNQD #amwriting

Neuroscience for writers: http://dld.bz/KVkG

The Misleading “Research” By McSweeney’s: http://dld.bz/KNQ2

A weekly roundup of informative agent tweets: http://dld.bz/KVhR @HeatherMcCorkle

10 dialogue musts for scriptwriters: http://dld.bz/KPf8

Are You Totally Missing Out The Heater Syndrome In Your Writing? http://dld.bz/KNPm #amwriting

Is Your Low Social IQ Dooming Your Blog? http://dld.bz/KNPc

What’s popular on the WKB search engine today? http://dld.bz/KNNc #amwriting

Self-publishing–a checklist to see if it’s right for you: http://dld.bz/KNMz #amwriting

How social media sells books: http://dld.bz/KNSV

How Much Editing Does a Contracted Book Need? http://dld.bz/KNMf #amwriting

7 Steps to Writing Success: http://dld.bz/KNKD #amwriting

Story-specific Words—Fitting Word to Story: http://dld.bz/KNKp #amwriting

Writing monsters–Part I http://dld.bz/KNJw and II http://dld.bz/KNJx #amwriting @ajackwriting

Descriptive Passages: Character: http://dld.bz/KNHF #amwriting

Tools for writers–to help brainstorm, write and, promote: http://dld.bz/KPgS #amwriting

Building writer karma: http://dld.bz/KNHm #amwriting

Pre-Submission Checklist: http://dld.bz/KPcS @4kidlit #amwriting

Plotting Made Easy – The Complications Worksheet: http://dld.bz/KPbX #amwriting

It’s Time To Finish Your Book: 9 Productivity Tips for Writers: http://dld.bz/KNGk #amwriting

For those just getting started with online promoting–social media 101: http://dld.bz/KNSJ #amwriting

7 Surprising Things About Blogging: http://dld.bz/KNDh

Top Ten Reasons the editor doesn’t love what your critique group loves: http://dld.bz/K8pZ

Tips for creating distinctive characters: http://dld.bz/KMEV

The Second Plot Point: http://dld.bz/K8nF

Advice for playwrights starting out: http://dld.bz/K7gr

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: My Guilt-Free Chocolate Bliss for Valentine’s Day from Cleo Coyle http://bit.ly/hlsXGo @CleoCoyle

Writing Screenplays vs Books: http://dld.bz/K6RM

Batman Noir: http://dld.bz/K24K

Writing sex–thoughts on the “how”: http://dld.bz/K24R

6 Types of Twitter Tools That Come in Handy: http://dld.bz/K247

Too Fast, Too Furious, and Way Too Much: http://dld.bz/K246

Why Agents Get Snarky: http://dld.bz/K24s

How to Learn Story Structure in Two Minutes or Less: http://dld.bz/K8pm

Is It Your Manuscript or YOUR Manuscript? http://dld.bz/K24g

How to write a spec for TV: http://dld.bz/K6SP, http://dld.bz/K6SQ, http://dld.bz/K6SR

10 Laws for Author Self-Promotion: http://dld.bz/K23N

Author Janice Hardy on the importance of first lines: http://dld.bz/Kqf8

The Unreal, and Why We Love It, Part 4: Laughter: http://dld.bz/KqeW

Publishing Options Series: The “Traditional” Route: http://dld.bz/KqeH

YA Fiction-Style & Content-Part II: http://dld.bz/Kqe7

Harper’s Magazine: The Exit Plan Cometh: http://dld.bz/Kqe5

10 Marketing Strategies You Can Implement Today: http://dld.bz/Kqee

Challenges and hurdles women writers face when submitting work: http://dld.bz/KCwZ

Conflict, Tension, and Stakes on Every Page: http://dld.bz/KqdZ

Running on Autopilot: Working With Unconscious Goals: http://dld.bz/Kqd2

A Left-Brained Approach to Revision: http://dld.bz/K6mW

Writing for the Emotions: http://dld.bz/KmNS

The Writer’s Knowledge Base–now with 6000 links (and constantly adding more): http://hiveword.com/wkb/search @hiveword

The Critique Partner from Hell, or One Hell of a Critique Partner: http://dld.bz/KmN8

Lessons from the screenwriters: http://dld.bz/K6m5

Links of associations, guilds, and professional organizations for screenwriters: http://dld.bz/K6MG

Setting up tension: http://dld.bz/K6kx

Advice on Selling Screenplays: http://dld.bz/K7aV

The Difference Between Lit Agents & Script Agents and between a script manager and script agent: http://dld.bz/K7ar and http://dld.bz/K7a4

Talking Script/Screenplay Managers: http://dld.bz/K6ZX

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: 10-10-10 Pork Tenderloin http://bit.ly/elCYU9 @CleoCoyle

Misused Words—Common Writing Mistakes: http://dld.bz/KmMZ

Tips for Fighting Writer’s Block: http://dld.bz/KmMU

Defining story arcs: http://dld.bz/K6jY

What happens if an agent says yes? (After the celebration dies down, that is.): http://dld.bz/KmM6

The Writer’s Knowledge Base–now with 6000 links (and constantly adding more): http://dld.bz/Hnnn @hiveword

TV scriptwriters–links for conferences and festivals: http://dld.bz/K6Mm

Feel the Rhythm of the Words: http://dld.bz/KmMs

Writing: The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion: http://dld.bz/KmMq @4kidlit

List of the most commonly used YA cliches: http://dld.bz/KmMM

Using foreshadowing: http://dld.bz/K6jC

Why realism does not equate to adult (or even good) fantasy: http://dld.bz/KmKZ

How writing software changed one writer’s life for the better: http://dld.bz/KmJH @JustusRStone

Writing a TV series (5 parts): http://dld.bz/K6T3 , http://dld.bz/K6T4 , http://dld.bz/K6T5 , http://dld.bz/K6T6 , http://dld.bz/K6T7

Screenwriting Software & Filmmaking Tools: http://dld.bz/K6Ku

9 Techniques to Delivering a Speech with Confidence: http://dld.bz/KmJS

Twitterific…the week in tweets and the WKB: http://dld.bz/K6gy

Writing, Publishing And Book Marketing Tools For The Mac Lover: http://dld.bz/KmJ2 @thecreativepenn

Tips for writing description: http://dld.bz/K5Y4

Seven Tips To Beat Eyestrain: http://dld.bz/KmHb

Once upon a yawn…what makes a story boring: http://dld.bz/KmGW

5 Steps to Captivating Readers with Your Secret Message: http://dld.bz/KmF9

Clichés–Are They Really That Bad? http://dld.bz/KmFu

Taxes and the freelance writer: http://dld.bz/KmFe

Myst. Lov. Kitchen: It’s Super Sunday! http://bit.ly/eJ9KuS @CleoCoyle

Running Our Races & Becoming Winners: http://dld.bz/KmEd

Finding Commas in All the Wrong Places: http://dld.bz/KmET

How To Create a Writer’s Resume: http://dld.bz/KmEH

Format Your Novel for Submission: http://dld.bz/KmE8

How to Choose a Search Friendly Domain Name: http://dld.bz/KmEn

A popular question on panels is “Are you anything at all like your protagonist?”

It’s an interesting question, I think, because each writer feels differently about incorporating themselves into a story.

Reasons I’ve heard why writers write parts of themselves into books:

Some writers view writing as a therapeutic process, working through problems or tragic events through their characters.

It can be easier to get into a character’s head or make the character pop on the page if the character is based on the writer.

The writer’s own background, skill-set, or professional knowledge can be used in the book for a realistic touch. (The protagonist may share the writer’s occupation or hobby.)

It can give the writer an opportunity to change the outcome of a situation they were in, through fiction.

Reasons I’ve heard why writers don’t write themselves into books:

They’re private people.

Their lives don’t seem interesting enough to write about.

Also interesting to me is the way that many writers I’ve listened to will use an absolute on the subject. “No, I’m not like my protagonists,” or “Yes, I’m similar to my protagonist.”

I’ve done the same thing—I usually say, “No, I’m nothing like my protagonists.” Because, honestly, if I wrote myself into a book—no one would read it. This is why I make things up. Besides, I’m not the kind of person who is protagonist material. I don’t make things happen…I like to observe them happening.

But it’s not true that I’m nothing like my protagonists. There are bits of me in them. One protagonist is an insomniac. Two protagonists are impatient. One protagonist is distracted and forgetful. Most of the things that get a small mention are actually my shortcomings.

I’d not thought about it, but when I write my shortcomings into books, I’m poking fun at myself. It’s a good way to blow off tension because my shortcomings tend to stress me out.

So I think, that most writers will use a combination approach. If they are consciously writing themselves, then they leave some material out (at least, I’d imagine they would. I sure wouldn’t be able to let it all hang out there.) If someone thinks they never write themselves into a book…maybe, like me, they don’t even realize they’re doing it.

How much of yourself goes into a book? How much is complete fiction?

I grew up writing reports for school in longhand. When I really wanted to make a report fancy, I used a typewriter.

Computers in high school and college were rare. The odd Apple IIE was in the county library or the school’s lab. The computers bombed a lot and the printers were unreliable. I stuck with my Brother typewriter that had the capability of remembering a line of text. I could look at the line and correct it on the tiny screen before it printed out.

When I was an intern at a London magazine in college, I was given the assignment to report on spring fashion. The editor wanted it later that afternoon. There was no internet then (no internet that was accessible to regular people, at least), so I looked out the window at what people were wearing and wrote it into the story. I jotted it down in longhand on paper, then typed it up.

In fact, that’s how I wrote everything—on paper before copying it over on the typewriter.

When I started novel writing, I naturally gravitated to paper. I found it very disorganized, though—I wrote out of order sometimes and there were scenes that needed to be in other parts of the story. And frequently I knew I was writing stuff that was helping me know a character better, but it was material that was going to get axed before the last draft. I used lots of highlighters and actual scissors to help me organize my scenes.

It didn’t take me long to realize that to write faster and reach the deadlines that were starting to mount up, I needed to switch over to a computer. Besides, I’d frequently lose the different pieces of paper that my story was on.

I learned how to be creative on the computer. But I kept revising on paper. I’d print out my manuscript (which is a lot of paper, if you think about 270 or so pages, single-sided) and then I’d take the manuscript with me everywhere. I’d pull it out of my huge pocketbook and edit it while waiting for school to let out, etc.

I do think that sometimes reading on paper can help find errors that reading on a screen can’t. But still—it was a really slow process. I’d have to turn pages on the manuscript, find the change on the page, find the spot on the computer, make the change…and then make sure I’d marked that I’d made the change or else I’d forget where I left off. It was also expensive and a waste of resources to print out that much paper…and I’d keep printing new versions of the manuscript to reflect changes. I switched to revising on the computer.

My struggle and eventual switch to mainly-electronic writing made me especially interested in a post on A Brain Scientist’s Take on Writing. It involved a study (VANWAES, L., & SCHELLENS, P. (2003). Writing profiles: the effect of the writing mode on pausing and revision patterns of experienced writers Journal of Pragmatics,) on typing vs. longhand. You can read the study yourself, but I’ll quote a few of the findings (directly from Livia Blackburne’s blog:

1. The computer writers took half as much time to write the first draft than pen and paper writers.
2. The computer writers wrote texts that were approximately 20% longer.
3. The computer writers had a more fragmented writing process than the pen and paper writers.
4. Computer writers made 80% of the revisions in their first draft, as compared to pen and paper writers, who made only 50% of revisions in the first draft.

The authors observed that pen and paper writing seemed a more systematic and planned out process. This makes sense because it’s harder to make a change on pencil and paper. With computer writing, you can just start writing and make changes as you go along.

This was similar to what I’d found with my own writing. It might have been nicer to write on paper (in many ways, I find it more enjoyable), but it sure is a whole lot quicker to write on the computer.

My writing friend, Hart Johnson, ran an informal survey on her blog a while back. She was curious about the ages and backgrounds of writers who wrote longhand, vs. those who wrote on the computer. She found that the writer’s age was a factor (anyone who grew up on a computer was obviously going to find writing on a computer more natural) but also what else the writer did on a computer—if their day job was really uncreative, they might associate the computer with the non-creative day job and write longhand instead.

Do you write longhand? On computer? Or both?

Although I live in a good-sized metro area (Charlotte, North Carolina), my suburb of Matthews is fairly small. It’s small enough that, when I go out running errands, I have a couple of errand-running mom friends and acquaintances wave at me as I drive.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I decided to switch out our cars. I do most of the driving and his car makes fewer funny noises than mine does.

After making this switch, I’ve noticed that I’m getting a lot fewer waves. And I don’t think that everyone I know is mad at me. :)

But to them, part of who I am is a Honda minivan. I’m not a Honda Pilot to them. Their gaze just skips right over the car.

As I was out driving the other day and being ignored by my friends, I started thinking about habits and identifiers that can help establish characters in our readers’ minds.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’m reading a book, I have a hard time immediately placing a character. The author, obviously, thinks that this character is someone that they’ve already established and they haven’t provided anything additional to jog my memory.

Because I find it frustrating as a reader, I try to make sure to somehow tag my supporting characters if they haven’t been onstage for a while.

One way to do this is obviously to say something like: Jane’s hairdresser, Sheri, opened the door.

Or: Sheri walked in. “Long day at the beauty parlor, y’all. Three customers didn’t show up!”

The first way is a total ‘tell,’ but fairly unobtrusive for the reader. The second way is a little more ‘show’ but still gets the job done and establishes the character for the reader.

Another way is to give the character a trait of some sort to identify them. This would need to obviously be a detail memorable enough so that a casual reader could tie the trait and the character together to remember them. This could either be a physical trait (an engaging dimple; cold, hollowed-out eyes, messy hair) or a habit or action (shifting from foot to foot, avoiding eye contact, looking at their reflection in every mirror, etc.)

The purpose of this identifier is really just so the reader isn’t wondering who the heck they are. But you could make it serve double-duty and have the identifier point to something that gives a little insight to the character: Jane thought again how odd it was that a manicurist would have nails bitten down to the quick. Actually, I think some of the actions I used in the example above can give some insight into characters, too.

Obviously, these identifiers can be overdone. If the secondary character is on stage fairly frequently, it would get annoying to have them reintroduced each time. The trait could get annoying, too, if done too frequently.

We also need to be mindful of clichés when making these identifiers for periphery characters. It’s easy to tag a supporting character with quick and easy tags that are stereotypical (awkward nerd, lady of the manor, dumb jock, etc.) I think that sometimes that a stereotype is a quick way to have our reader “get” a character…if the character isn’t very important to the story. If the secondary character is more important, then it’s probably worth it to flesh him out more and give him more dimension.

How do you help your readers keep supporting characters straight?