Review: 750words.com

I heard about this web app in an episode of Pat Rothfuss’ The Story Board. Deciding anything endorsed by the illustrious guest Mary Robinette Kowal is worth a try, I checked it out. 

Turns out the donation-funded 750words.com is one of a slew of tools designed to motivate writers through the raw wordcount-reward/carrot-stick method. Except this one has some cool twists. 

Its premise: 750 words = 3 formatted manuscript pages, a substantial yet manageable daily goal even for amateurs. Since a writer's brain is like an athlete's muscles, waning in strength without regular use, the site rewards day or month-long stretches of writing, and provides a juicy bundle of stats after each session to make you feel accomplished.

Why it makes my heart do happy somersaults

Badges! Sticking with the program earns you adorable cartoon animal pictures. On the first day you get an egg, which is of course “how we all start”. For writing for five days in a row you get a penguin with a bowtie! What could be better?

Why, stats of course! Oh yes, those are better. Creator Buster Benson’s ingenious program analyzes several dimensions of what and how you’ve written. Texts receive MPAA-style ratings. The program decides whether you were inward-looking; negative or positive; past, present, or future-oriented; even which senses you employed most. 

Here’s its partial breakdown of a scene where my protagonist frets over how to explain her abrupt disappearance to her loved ones.

Not too shabby.

Where it falls short

Text stays private but online. While sites like Written?Kitten! and WriteorDie reward you for what you type (or punish failure dearly) and send you on your way, 750words stores your text as a blog would. I find this feature fairly useless as I paste everything into my novel .doc anyway. It also ties into the site’s biggest drawback…

Limited explanation of “privacy” and no license agreement. Call me paranoid (go on, I won’t hear you) but I’m wary of storing my actual writing on the web. I’ve passed up the style, ease, and utility of cloud storage services like PangurPad and Yarny to avoid accidental theft or loss of my work. I’m not alone in this: the 750words thread “This site needs an official privacy policy” still tops popular topics list after three years. The site seems perfectly trustworthy, but stuff happens. I want my work, however rough or embarrassing, to stay mine.

Would I recommend it?

Most definitely, depending on your intentions.

If you want a web-based tool to unclog your writing process through stream-of-consciousness keyboard mashing, you’ll have a lot of fun here. It’s about to become a paid site, but personally, I think smartphone ownership has desensitized many of us to paying paltry sums for shiny app-style entertainment. If it sounds like your cuppa, try it for a few days. It might surprise you.

The State of the Magpie: Spring 2013

I love to talk about goals, accomplishments, and ideas (just ask my writing group). The first quarter of 2013 is nearly gone, so what do I have to show for it?

I published my first academic article. (HippitahoppitaWAHOO!)

I’ve made no secret of this fact, as many will know from Facebook. My Masters dissertation was published in February in Riocht na Midhe, the journal of the Archaeological and Historical Society of County Meath, Ireland. The kernel of the idea came from an early Irish law course I took six years ago, and it had been developing ever since. “Why did the Irish have such sophisticated and elegantly stratified laws to protect trees?” I had wondered. Perhaps they worshipped trees. After all, Tacitus tells of Germanic peoples who did. And incidentally, the chief population of my then-fantasy novel came to do the same. The quest to understand medieval Ireland’s (frankly adorable) love for trees led me to legends and pseudo-histories, annals and saint’s lives and assumptions of “Celticity” running decades deep. It all culminated in my Masters project, completed under the tutelage of the indomitable Prof. Thomas Charles-Edwards, about the context and evolution of the Old Irish word bile (“sacred” tree). This about sums up my position:

Yippee! Now I can quote myself!

Getting published was a tale unto itself, but that's for later. For now I’m honored and thrilled to contribute to the academic conversation with a long-standing and respected journal as my platform. I even had a former colleague, a postdoc specializing in place-names, request a copy for her research. Imagine that!

Another one’s in the pipeline.

This summer, Routledge will publish an academic book called Digital Gaming Re-imagines the Middle Ages. 

Wait. Just think about that for a second. Digital Gaming [check] and Middle Ages [check] in the same title. It's a marriage of the two nerdiest possible topics! And it's basically the story of my life.

Anyway, the book is packed to the gills with essays covering everything from game adaptations of medieval literature to "the Gendered Body in World of Warcraft". My chapter is on the texts in the Elder Scrolls series of computer games. You'll know that these games are littered with original books if you've ever played Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim. As a long-standing fan of the series, I chanced an exploration of just how medieval those texts could be, and made my way into the pages of Routledge's spectacular upcoming volume.

I'm writing a novel.

Of course! When have I not been? My current work-in-progress is what I've styled "supernatural semi-horror," my first major departure from fantasy. The idea came about last summer when I was pining for home, for all the special oddities that I didn't realize made North Florida cool until I'd lived it and left it. I missed the sounds of traffic and the smells of leaves and woods and humid Florida air. I though about all the aspects of America's history that had converged there. About how it's scattered with dot-on-the-map towns that move sluggishly through time. One part sentimental history, one part American Gods, my book entertains the question "What if conquest didn't kill off everything it intended to?"

The project has been eye-opening. I've had to do a lot of research outside my field, particularly on consignment businesses and first European contact with Florida. It calls for a delicate balance of fact and fiction, with caricature being the farthest thing from my goal. 

It's also got story elements that work. The protagonist must make life-altering decisions, small enough to be believable in the scale of her life, but big enough to drive a plot forward. Pacing this book and working towards the end doesn't feel like my usual random scattering of stones which, luck provided, might form a path across the pond. This time I've built a  bridge of action and reaction with deliberate care. I could not be more excited to see how it turns out.

I'm also aware that new writers fail. Often. I love this book, but I'm pleasantly objective about its future. It might amount to a "practice" book. Even so, it'll be some mighty fine practice.

More info on my CampNaNoWriMo profile. I'm attempting to add 25,000 words to the manuscript in April, with hopes of finishing the first draft before my birthday. I owe it to my teenage self and her big dreams to finish a book before I cross into the far end of my 20s.


Boy, that was a chunky post. Well, that's the jist of it! More updates the come. To see them you can join in one of two ways: click the blue "join this site" button on the top right of the page, or subscribe to posts by email. 

What are your current goals and projects, Readers? You know I love you for your brains.

Introductions

First posts are daunting. No blog wants to bust the door down with content overload, beating its chest and proclaiming, "I have validity!" But a rambling mission statement won't entice readers to so much as remember your name. Is it better if I bowl you over with a bearhug, or only stand as close as I need to to shake your hand? I find both approaches wanting. What is a magpie to do?

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De Natura Picae: a blog "On the nature of the magpie"

I am not actually a magpie. Though I did once live on Magpie Lane.

In reality I'm a wayward medievalist and English enthusiast residing where three countries meet. My dream is to have my fiction works join the published ranks of my academic ones. For now, I am still learning to echo, like the creatures Pliny the Elder endearingly described thus:

"There is a certain kind of magpie that can learn words; they become fond of some words, and not only repeat them but can be seen to ponder them... When they forget a word they cheer up greatly when they hear it spoken."

De Natura Picae, a fangirlish tribute to De natura rerum, is where I share my discoveries on the road to writing seriously. Here's hoping that the fun is in the journey.

So welcome. Have a hug and a handshake, and stay a while.