Category: Publishing

Whether on Windows, Mac, or Linux, the Writer's Tools extension adds a useful new menu to the popular, open source office suite OpenOffice.org that bakes convenient tools like Google Translate, an online dictionary lookup tool, email backup, remote backup to an FTP server and more directly into the OpenOffice.org free software suite.

If you're using OpenOffice.org as your main word processor, the Writer's Tools extension is a must-have. Writer's Tools is free, works wherever OpenOffice.org does.

Another valuable to is OxygenOffice, also for Windows/Mac/Linux. It adds clip art, advanced PDF functions, and in-editor Wikipedia searching to OpenOffice.org. Along with adding roughly 3,400 clip art files and templates, OxygenOffice's extensions also add support for Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications in the Calc spreadsheet program and conversion tools for the Office Open XML format used in Office 2007. Combined with the Writer's Tools package, this gives OpenOffice.org a number of exclusive features.

I like this prayer I heard from the April 5, 2006 Pre-sanctified Liturgy. It is referred to as a "Prayer behind the Amvon":

Almighty Master, You created the universe in wisdom. By your ineffable forethought and great goodness, You led us to these sacred days for cleansing of souls and bodies, for subduing passions, and for hope of resurrection. For forty days, You shaped the tablets written with godlike characters for Your servant Moses. Grant also to us, good Lord, to fight the good fight, to finish the course of the fast, to keep the faith whole, to shatter the unseen heads of dragons and to show ourselves victorious over sin, and to arrive blamelessly, without condemnation, to worship also Your holy resurrection. For blessed and glorified is Your honored and magnificent name, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

This prayer at the dismissal is said before the icon of Christ. Commonly we see dragons in the LXX , and to shatter their heads is a very biblical theme. In the book of Job, in the LXX, the leviathan is 'the dragon' literally. It is stated later in the Old Testament in the Prophets that the creatures listed in Job are demonic beings, hence the icon of St. George slaying the dragon.

Here are some helpful shortcuts for those of you using Writely to compose your works.
FROM THE EDITOR MENU:

• Ctrl S to Save
• Ctrl K to Insert Link
• Ctrl M to Insert Comment

FROM THE BROWSER:

• Ctrl B to Bold
• Ctrl I to Italicize
• Ctrl-Z to Undo
• Ctrl-Y to Redo
• Ctrl A to Select All
• Ctrl C to Copy
• Ctrl V to Paste
• Ctrl X to Cut
• Ctrl Home to go to the top of the document
• Ctrl End to go to the end of the document
• Ctrl Alt-? to select the next word
• Ctrl Alt-? to select the previous word

OTHER TIPS:

Here is an interesting page-turner technique. James Patterson (www.jamespatterson.com), author of numerous best-selling books, has released the latest installment of the Young Adult series.

In this book (titled School's Out Forever) there are 142 chapters (yes, 142!). There are only 406 pages. Some chapters are three or five pages; others are only a paragraph or two.

Each scene gets a chapter break. You end up with a lot of white space, but I think this is on purpose. My theory is that by having each scene be a mini-cliff-hanger, and requiring the reader to glance over at a new page or turn to a new page, you create suspense.

A glance at some of his Patterson's books targeted to adults make me think he does this all the time.

Is this a new trend? A gimmick? Or a valuable tool for thriller writers to create suspense?

More importantly, what do you think publishers think of this technique? Should writers consider this technique when they are preparing their manuscripts?

Let me know your thoughts. Discussion is underway at the Faith*In*Fiction 'For Writers' forum where I have also made this post.

Need some help creating some character names? Check out these useful sites that have very interesting tools to generate names and do research on names:

• 20000-names.com
• seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php
• lowchensaustralia.com/names/generators.htm
• rinkworks.com/namegen

Trying to recall a magical quote from your favorite book? Wondering who else has used the character name 'John Hoggins'? Google's new Book Search feature allows you to do this and more.

Try it out at Google Book Search

A great resource for any writer. Common English language mistakes or misconceptions are included in detail. Some examples:

• oversee/overlook
• palate/palette/pallet
• ran/run
• sail/sale/sell
• taken back/taken aback

Much of the content is online here: Common Errors in English

Lot's of practical tips on becoming a writer, such as:

Stop talking about your novel or short story ideas and start writing. Get in the habit of writing for at least an hour every day, no matter what. One strategy is to get up an hour earlier than you have to, make yourself a cup of coffee and completely focus on your writing.

Read more at 52 Projects

Doing your writing on a Mac? Learn some of these shortcuts to boost your productivity:

Text
?A move to beginning of paragraph
?B move one character back
?D delete character to right
?E move to end of paragraph
?F move one character forward
?K delete text to end of paragraph
?N move to next line
?O insert newline
?P move to previous line
?T transpose characters
?? delete word to left
?? delete word to right

Text Field
?? move one word left
?? move one word right
?? move to beginning of line
?? move to end of line

Text View
?? move up one page
?? move down one page
?? move to beginning of line
?? move to end of line
?? move to beginning of view
?? move to end of view

Read other shortcuts Rixstep

Reading Shrunk's Elements of Style will quickly showcase how concise writing leads to easier reading. This Plain English Campaign link has a list of words to avoid, including:

• consequently (so)
• ensure (make sure)
• forward (send)
• in accordance with (under, keeping to)
• in excess of (more than)

And remember, 2nd Draft=1st Draft - 10%!

Read full list at Plain English Campaign: How to write in plain English