What about your word count?

What about your word count?

BLOG SESSION

April 10th, 2018

Welcome back Writers, Authors, Novelists, Memoirists, Poets, and all creative writers who are currently working on Writing Projects this month ~ For all new Followers and all Visitors, be sure to Bookmark this Blog by clicking on your bookmark or star symbol at the top of your pageview.  And be sure to sign up to "Follow by Email".  If you sign up over in the far right-hand column under my eyeball with your email address, be sure to also click the "Submit" button once you have entered your email address in full.  You will immediately receive each Blog Session as it is published.

Today's Session is about the word count of your novel and/or writing project for Camp NaNoWriMo this month.  For those of you who already have a word counter ~ great!  For those of you who are typing your Novel in Microsoft Word, you will find the word count by looking at the bottom of your document...

To View Your Word Count in Microsoft Word:

To see the word count in your document, look at the status bar at the bottom of the Word window.  Word can insert the word count into your document and update that information as often as you want.

Microsoft Word counts the number of words in a document while you type.  Word also counts pages, paragraphs, lines, and characters.  (2010, 2007)

(2016, 2013) Word Online

See the word count as you type. . .

Anytime you want to know the total number of words in your document, look at the status bar at the bottom of the Word window:

[As you can see from this example, this document is on page 3 of 6 and has a word count of 951 words.  You can see this information in the bottom status bar.]

Count the number of pages, characters, paragraphs, and lines:  To see the number of characters, lines, paragraphs, and other information, click the word count in the status bar to open the Word Count box.

To include non-body text in the word count, select the Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes check box at the bottom of the Word Count box.

Count the number of words in a part of a document:  To count the number of words in only part of your document, select the text you want to count, and then on the Review tab, click Word Count.

See the word count as you type

Anytime you want to know the total number of words in your Word document, look at the status bar at the bottom of the Word window.

If you don't see the word count in the status bar, right-click the status bar, then and click Word Count.

Should you have any word count tips, apps to suggest or questions, please leave your tips, suggestions, comments, thoughts, and/questions in our "Comments Section" at the end of this Blog Session.

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

What is your current word count?

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2018 - All Rights Reserved

The Writer's Comfort Levels ~ PART 19 ~ "Kindness"

The Writer's Comfort Levels

PART 19

"Kindness"

BLOG SESSION

February 16th, 2018

Welcome back Blog Readers, Writers, Authors, Novelists, Journalists, Poets, Followers & Visitors...

We're here for another great Blog Session, so you'll want to grab your Journal so that you can take notes about our emotion for this evening, "Kindness".

Journal Notes

All Writers here with us this evening that have been following along in our Sessions about The Writer's Comfort Levels should have plenty of good notes about the 18 previous emotions that we have covered already.  And, you should also have written some very good material in your Journal for our last Journal Exercise about the emotion of "Shock" in relation to the three babies and the cat pictured in our last Session.  [You will find our last Blog Session if you scroll down past this one, or you may find any of our previous Blog Sessions over in the far right-hand Column in our "Blog Archive"].

As we dive into the emotion of "Kindness", you'll want to take a moment to reflect on whether or not you consider yourself to be "kind"?  In case you are wondering what the definition of kindness is, I'll provide you with a short description below. . .

Kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

There are many descriptions for what you may consider to be a kind person other than what is listed above.  I'm sure you've heard people describe someone they believe to be kind like so...

"He really showed forth kind-heartedness."

"She sure was "warm-hearted."

"They really showed a great deal of tender-heartedness."

"They really showered us with a great deal of goodwill."

Other words that bring to mind people who know how to show kindness to others are:   affection, warmth, gentleness, tenderness, concern, care, consideration, considerateness, helpfulness, thoughtfulness, unselfishness, selflessness, altruism, compassion, sympathy, understanding, big-heartedness, benevolence, benignity, friendliness, neighbourliness, hospitality, amiability, courteousness, generosity, magnanimity, indulgence, patience, tolerance, charitableness, graciousness, lenience, humaneness, mercifulness, decency, bounteousness, and also, "loving".

You may find this hard to believe, but some people find it very hard to be kind to others.  Some people find it difficult to show kindness to another person.  In fact, there are people who take great pride in being hateful and unkind.

You have to wonder if people who are hateful and unkind were treated that way and learned just how to perfect that horrible disposition.  And you also have to wonder if people who are hateful and unkind are bitter about something that went wrong in their life?

Kind Acts are needful.   Good Deeds are welcomed.

Kindness comes from the heart

What is the latest "Act of Kindness" that you have done?  When was the last time you performed a good deed?

To assist others, be of service to others, to offer help to others, or to aid others in any way are all acts of "kindness".

An Act of Kindness

Children tend to emulate what they see their parents, adults or other children do.  Do you find yourself doing something that you witnessed as a child?

Is this a scene you'd like your child to emulate?

Do you ever wonder how many abusers have come from a family that practiced abuse on a daily basis?  This includes not only physical abuse, but also emotional and mental abuse.  Being unkind is oftentimes a "learned" behavior.  Unkind people are also very, very insecure.  Bullies are bullies because they feel so very small.  You'll also find that jealous and envious people are generally mean-spirited.  Also known as "back-stabbers" and "snakes".

Whatever the reason a person is unkind to others, there is no excuse for that type of behavior.  Remember, the things that we do come from the "heart" ~ the good and the bad.

Son emulating his father

Showing your children the right way, the best way, the smart way, and the kind way is much more beneficial than having your child learn the wrong way, worst way, ignorant way, and the mean way from others.

Kids tend to imitate other children . . .

Children tend to emulate what they see on TV

as well as what they see other children do.

As a parent, you must pay attention to what your child is watching on television, on the computer, on their tablet, cell phone if they have one, and what they are reading.  Who are your child's friends?  What type of parents do your children's friends have?  Do you know?  Do you care?

Also be aware:  Is your child being bullied at school, or is your child acting as the school bully?

Is your child learning how to talk on the phone?

What types of conversations are you having?

The answer will give you a good indication on the types of conversations your child will be having.

As we close our Blog Session for this evening, remember ~ Kindness has a lot to do with "manners" . . .

Have you ever seen a man not open the door for a woman?

~ Real men still open doors for ladies ~

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

Introversion (personality)

The Writer's Comfort Levels

PART 20

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2018 - All Rights Reserved

Do you find yourself discussing your Novel during your coffee break?

Do you find yourself discussing your Novel during your coffee break?

BLOG SESSION

December 4th, 2017

Greetings Novelists, Authors, Writers, Aspiring Authors, Emerging Authors and all Blog Followers ~ We're here today to discuss a topic that many of you can probably relate to.  If you are a Writer and you have a desire to write the Novel that has been on your mind and in your heart, then this is the Blog Session for you!

Many Writers have their stories rolling around in their head.  Let it be known that the best way to get those stories out of your head is to discuss them, write your notes about your story, record your thoughts on a recorder, and/or type up your outline.

If you love Coffee Shops, then you may have found yourself inside with friends discussing your Novel.  Whenever you have time to have a coffee break, then you also have time to think about your Novel.

Coffee Time!

A good cup of coffee will get your story wheels turning.  If you are alone in a coffee shop, be sure to have your notepad, tablet, laptop, or smartphone handy.  And, yes, there are apps that you can put on your smartphone that will allow you to capture your Novel Notes.

And, since we're all here, let's take a sharp turn and let me share an amazing story that you may not have heard before ~  Many years back, there was a Japanese woman who wrote a Novel in a series of text messages on her cell phone while she commuted back and forth to work.  And, what's even more amazing about this story is that the print version of her Novel sold 400,000 copies in the year 2008.  She apparently was neither the first nor the last person to thumb novel-length entries in tiny increments.  These cell phone novels, called keitai shosetsu in Japanese, are incredibly popular and abundant.  Typically the stories are hard-core crime dramas or sordid love stories rife with disturbing subject matter such as rape, murder, love-triangles, illegitimate pregnancies, etc.  Can you believe that!?

Ok, well, these stories described above are primarily written and read by young women, but not exclusively so.  Novels are uploaded to sites where users can choose a genre or story and have it sent to their phones, one text at a time, or download sections to their eReaders.  In the US, textnovel.com is the first of these sort of sites.  Now, I personally do not know very much about the site nor this type of novel writing myself, but I am sure someone does of course, because the site exists.  I just happened to hear about it, and I thought I'd pass this information forward to you.

Noveling in this type of way must present special kinds of challenges.  First, you must be very organized and definitely have a firm grip on your story and its plot.  While you may have plenty of time between texts to get the next sentence perfectly right, you must also maintain a very controlled flow of information.  Each sentence that you write must be very strong.  I seriously can't imagine readers staying with a story that has a lot of fluffy detail if they have to read it one sentence at a time.  Stories written in this way require action and constant movement of plot and characters to keep it alive.  Which leads to this very important point -- the novels written in this way are typically high drama.

Novels that are slow or have too much exposition could not possibly be written in this text novel way.  To write a Cell Phone Novel, a Writer must actively move the plot forward with every word and waste no time on minor details.

Of course, there is always the old-fashioned way of writing all of your novel notes in your notepad or notebook by hand while you are at the coffee shop or in your home office . . .

Novelist being distracted by phone calls

The thing about writing your novel notes is that you must not be distracted by phone calls or other annoyances.  This is why you must set a certain amount of time aside to do your novel note writing.  While some of you may enjoy soft music while you write your novel notes, many other writers enjoy quiet -- yes, complete quiet.  Try to imagine complete quiet in this day and age -- complete quiet.  Oh, how nice that would be.

If you like getting together with your novel writing coffee buddies, then you may find yourself inside a coffee shop with your writing friends discussing your novel.  You may want to take this fine opportunity to discuss your novel in great detail.  You may want to tell your writing buddies about some of the characters in your story.  Find out their thoughts about the personalities of your characters.  See what they think about the plot.

Alright, now lets take a trio of coffee shop writers and place them in another welcoming, slightly open air and scenic environment . . .

Writing Buddies

This trio of Writers can work on their Novels together by sharing notes and thoughts about their scenes, plots, characters, and storylines.  You may have already tried this with your writing buddies, but if you haven't you may want to check this method out at some point and see how it works for you.

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

Typing up your Novel

Until we meet again for our next exciting Blog Session ~

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2017 - All Rights Reserved

The Excited Writer!

The Excited Writer!

BLOG SESSION
December 3rd, 2017

Good Afternoon Blog Readers, Writers, Followers & Visitors ~ Today we are going to do one simple thing -- I'm going to share a very informative link that I believe everyone here will enjoy.  Not only is it a link that you can bookmark, I am also sure that you will get started right away by taking a look at all of the wonderful websites on the list.  You'll also want to tell your friends.  When I say, "friends", I'm talking about all of your fellow Writers/Authors/Novelists and those interested in writing a Book of interest.

For all interested literary people with pens and reading glasses here on the Blog today . . . Without further delay, here is the list, so get ready to ~ Get EXCITED! . . .

The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2017

(simply click on the above link, then enjoy your evening Writers!)

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

Do you find yourself discussing
your Novel during your coffee break?

[If so, join us for our next Blog Session!]

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2017 - All Rights Reserved

Novelist at work in a inspiring environment...

Novelist at work in a inspiring environment...

BLOG SESSION

November 25th, 2017

Novelists, I'm hoping that as you are finishing up the last chapters of your Novel that you are taking time to relax a bit in between running to your computer to click those keys!

It is always best to have a relaxed mind when you are working on your writing.  If you place yourself in a noisy environment to do your writing, you are adding extra pressure that you don't need -- that is of course if you are not one of those Writers that has to have a lot of activity and noise around you to get yourself worked up into a frenzy of writing which somehow gets you flowing better.  I smile at that as I think about the frustration that that would cause some of us.

The other thing that I'd like to mention tonight is that you should not get frustrated if your computer acts crazy and does odd things right in the middle of your best writing....

Frustrated Writer

If the above scene happens to you, just log off, take a break, then come back and restart your computer.  And, definitely be sure to save your chapters in your word processing program.  It is good of course to have your chapters written, but you must also type them out, and when you do, be sure to have a back-up copy.

I might also mention that in the excitement of writing, some Writers just get way too stressed and cause a mess~up environment to happen around them.  There is no use getting your environment all out of whack, and stressing out your computer with your crazy vibrational activity.  Just calm down, and take it easy . . .

Take a moment to go by the water to calm down if you need to.  Breathe ~ inhale, then exhale.  If you don't have any body of water around you that you can run to, then just sit still and focus on something calming before you head back to your keyboard...

Focus on a calming object dear Novelist

For those Novelists who are here with us this evening, if you need a little inspiration on one of your breaks between writing your Novel, take a moment to check out the NaNoWriMo Forums.  (Just click on the link to get there).

Once you have entered the page with all of the great Forums available to you, you will find Official Stuff like . . .

Special Offers & Greetings from NaNo Sponsors

NaNo Tips & Strategies

Reference Desk

Plot Doctoring

Worldbuilding

Tech Help & Site Bug Reports

All-Ages Coffeehouse

Reaching 50,000!

and much, MUCH MORE ~

You'll also find all the various Genres and NaNo Groups!

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

Relax Novelist, you're almost there . . .

2017 Novelists, until our next Blog Session...

Keep your Novel ideas flowing ~

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2017 - All Rights Reserved

Evening Discussion about National Novel Writing Month

BLOG SESSION

November 1st, 2017

Evening Discussion about

National Novel Writing Month

Welcome back Authors, Novelists, and Writers, we are back for our evening discussion.  If you are participating in National Novel Writing Month online, then you are in the right place!

We are discussing NaNoWriMo and getting set to complete our 50,000 word Novels.  If you have not yet signed up online yet, just pop on over to NaNoWriMo.org and get signed up ~ It is free to participate.  Most writers give donations to help keep NaNoWriMo going every year.  You can donate at any time.  Find out why Writers donate by reading the reasons participants gave for giving...Click here! 

If you have always been dreaming about writing a Novel, then now is a good time to get started.  You'll enjoy the online Novel Writing process because you will be connected to thousands of other Writers just like you!

Here is an inspirational image for you this evening...

WRiTER ~

...we know the writer inside of you is there somewhere.

You may have already written a Novel and published your Novel.  In that case, you can assist others who are trying to do what you have already done.  You'll find plenty of Authors and Novelists on the NaNoWriMo Site who can assist you with any questions you may have.  You can also click on the Forums link and find other insightful information like how to outline your Novel, and how to build your characters and/or your fantasy worlds.  You'll also find help on how to reach your 50,000 word count.

Believe it or not, 50,000 words is easy to do in 30 days.  In fact, many Writers go over 50,000 words writing their Novels on line during National Novel Writing Month, and you may just be one of them!

Tomorrow, here on the Blog we will start discussing various Genres.  It will help you to figure out which genre you'd like to classify your Novel as.  Knowing the various literary genres will also give you an idea of other areas you may want to take your writing in.  Some Writers start off with Fiction, and end up writing their next Novel in another genre like Romance.  You never know what area may interest you, so be sure to check back in the morning here on the Blog to find out more information.

Just keep in mind that when you are wandering around in a bookstore, books are usually arranged by genre.  Many genres, such as "mystery" or "fantasy," overlap in film and literature.  While other genres such as "romantic comedy" are specific to film; whereas the genre of "historical fiction" is specific to books.

Be sure to Bookmark our Blog so that you can make your way back here easily.  You can also sign up to "Follow by Email" by looking over in the far right-hand column here on the Blog and add your email address in the space provided, then click the "Submit" button to ensure that you will receive each Blog Session in your email box promptly when each Session is published.

Until tomorrow Writers ~ keep your Novel in the forefront of your mind!

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

Talking about Literary Genres

F R I E N D S

Until Our Next Blog Session ~

Keep your Novel on your mind

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2017 - All Rights Reserved