Carn, write!

An Insane Plan: NaNoWriMo!

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Sun, 30 Oct 11 10:40:00 UT

Cross-posted from my website:

Every year since 1999, thousands of writers around the world decide that a novel isn't something that should take many months or years to plan and write. It should only take 30 days! And to keep things consistent, they agree that a novel is defined as 50,000 words of fiction, from beginning to end. That's the premise behind National Novel Writing Month, held every November. While not all of these would-be novelists are successful, they have at least made the attempt to complete a noble and quite possibly insane goal.

I've known about NaNoWriMo as far back as 2003, although I've never seriously given thought to participating until this year. In previous years I've been content to write a little more than usual, focussing on short stories. This year? Well, I've finally decided it's time I threw my hat into the ring and to participate in NaNoWriMo for the first time!

Why would I plan to write a novel now? The truth is, my fiction writing efforts have suffered terribly over the past few years with my focus on writing apps in my spare time. I've spent well over one thousand hours writing code instead of fiction, and while it has been an enjoyable and sometimes frustrating experience, I've been wishing I had the time and energy to devote to my writing on a regular basis. This doesn't mean I'm not working on more apps in the future. I still plan to update my existing apps and to complete work on Story Tracker for Mac, as well as work on many more apps in the years to come. But for November 2011 I've decided I can spare some time out of my busy schedule to work on my first novel.

With November being a day and a half away, you'd think I'd have my novel all planned out, with detailed character studies, a cracking plot, and exotic locales at the ready. Do I? Not yet, but I'm sure it'll come to me in a hurry. This will truly be a seat-of-the-pants effort.

Will I make it? I have no idea. I'm simultaneously excited and terrified! Writing fifty thousand words in a month implies a daily word count of 1,666 words. This is far in excess of my typical daily word count when I was regularly writing fiction. It'll be a stretch for sure, but if there's anything I've learned about myself over the past few years, it's that I'm capable of surprising myself with tremendous bursts of productivity. This'll be an interesting experiment, if nothing else. I'm curious whether writing a novel in a month will spark an explosion of creativity thereafter.

I'm not sure if I'll be making many blog posts during the month, so if you're interested in following my progress, you can check out my NaNoWriMo profile, or follow along on Twitter - I'm @andrewnicolle.

Fifty thousand words, or bust!

Now available: Market databases for Story Tracker

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Thu, 22 Jul 10 23:18:00 UT

By popular demand, I've added a section to the site for downloadable Story Tracker market databases. These can be imported into your own Story Tracker database on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. First up: a small list of professional science fiction markets. Let me know what you think!

Story Tracker v1.6 update now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Sun, 27 Jun 10 15:24:00 UT

The Story Tracker v1.6 update is now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

This update includes the much requested CSV export/import feature, allowing you to export/import your Story Tracker database (via WiFi) to and from desktop spreadsheet applications like Excel and Numbers. The app itself includes the template file you'll need to format your database appropriately. With the arrival of the iPhone 4 last week, I've added iOS4 multitasking support and a high-res icon for the Retina display. All of the text and the built-in web browser appears much sharper with the iPhone 4. I've also improved the iPad interface and fixed some annoying bugs.

In case you missed my earlier entries, Story Tracker is a submission tracking tool for writers, available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. I'd been looking for such an app ever since I bought my iPhone, but alas, no one had written one, so I decided to fill the void myself :) This is basically a carry-everywhere database for all the story submission data you may have scattered across miscellaneous spreadsheets, Word docs, or buried in notebooks.

You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group.

Story Tracker v1.5 update - now with iPad support!

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Thu, 1 Apr 10 22:59:00 UT

The Story Tracker v1.5 update is now available on the App Store for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. The Story Tracker Lite v1.5 update is also available.

This version is a Universal binary, meaning it'll run on both iPhone/iPod and iPad at no extra charge. For those of you lucky enough to have pre-ordered an iPad or will be picking one up soon, the app takes advantage of the huge screen real estate available on the iPad, along with supporting new iPad user interface features like popovers, modal dialogs, and rotation.

I've posted a bunch of iPad screenshots on the Facebook group here.

If you've got an iPad, let me know what you think!

Six Months on the App Store

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Tue, 2 Mar 10 23:16:00 UT

Over the weekend I posted a blog entry on my website about my experiences on the App Store over the past six months. In the post I go into all the gory details about sales, revenue, and the marketing and promotion of the app. Check it out: Story Tracker - Six Months on the App Store.

Story Tracker v1.3 update now available for iPhone and iPod Touch

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Tue, 12 Jan 10 22:41:00 UT

The Story Tracker v1.3 update is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch.

This update has been a long time coming! I've been working on it since late October, but only really got stuck into it over the last two weeks, due to Christmas and our trip Downunder. Other than some bugfixes, it contains the frequently requested backup, restore, import and export over WiFi features. Not only can you backup your database to your Mac or PC, but you can also export your story and market databases and share them with other Story Tracker users, if desired.

The pending Lite version update will be able to backup and export your database, so it'll be possible to upgrade from the Lite to the full version and transfer all your data across. I submitted the Lite (free) version update to Apple today, so hopefully that'll be approved soon.

In case you missed my earlier entries, Story Tracker is a submission tracking tool for writers, available for iPhone and iPod Touch. I'd been looking for such an app ever since I bought my iPhone, but alas, no one had written one, so I decided to fill the void myself :) This is basically a carry-everywhere database for all the story submission data you may have scattered across miscellaneous spreadsheets, Word docs, or buried in notebooks.

What's new in the version 1.3 update:

Bugfixes.

Database backup, restore, import and export over WiFi to your computer's web browser.

Added a Facebook button on the information screen for Story Tracker news and to connect with other writers.

With this release, I've finally implemented the entire original feature list I envisioned for Story Tracker. I do have some ideas for future versions, but please feel free to send me an email with any feature suggestions and comments you may have.

You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group.

A look back at 2009

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Thu, 31 Dec 09 21:17:00 UT

So, 2009. There were some scary times at work and home, but we survived. A lot of cool stuff happened, including some long awaited travel. We managed to pack an awful lot into the year, so this blog entry will only cover some of the highlights.

The main focus of this blog is primarily my writing efforts, but there hasn't been much to report this year. As you may have noticed it's filled with a lot of Twitter traffic these days, and precious little about writing progress. Whereas before months would often go by before I'd post an entry, I usually manage to post at least one Twitter update a day, and often more. It seems I've finally found my blogging medium of choice! The downside is less substantial entries and a lot of apparently one-sided conversations with myself. Oh well. The automatic Twitter posts are more for my reference than anything else.

On writing, I started off well and began work on a story challenge in the New Year. That was derailed by some unexpected travel plans (see below), along with my change in focus to iPhone app development. I knew going into the year that my writing efforts might be a disappointment, so it was hardly a surprise when they fell by the wayside early on. The "Thing A Week" didn't even last past the first week! I also didn't do too well with keeping my stories circulating, other than a collaborative tale which continues to do the rounds. One of these days that thing's going to sell :)

I read a few more books than last year, but owing to a severe lack of spare time, these were mainly comics. The full list is in my previous blog entry. I also moved away from audiobooks, listening to far more podcasts on my commute and during workouts than anything else. I've been getting my comic podcast fix from Comic Geek Speak, Just Bill's Comic DrawerBox, and the Comic Book page podcasts (The Mayo Report and Spotlight episodes).

This year's stats are included below:

-----<>----- 2009 Stats:

2009 Word count:	1,204
Stories written:	0
Total submissions:	2
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	1
Total withdrawn:	1
Waiting for response:	1
Books read:	15
Comics read:	282

A big accomplishment in 2009 was the release of my first iPhone app, Story Tracker. After struggling for months with the iPhone SDK, I improved my understanding enough to contemplate writing an app for release on the App Store. It had to be something fairly simple (ha!) and do-able with my skills at the time, so I could have it completed within a few months. With my fiction writing background, a story submission tracking app was an obvious unfilled niche. Six months later and 300+ hours of late night and weekend design, development, and testing, I finally completed the app and submitted it to the App Store. The app was approved by Apple and became available on the evening of August 14th. So much for a quick and easy development cycle! The goal of this app was to help me learn iPhone app development and hopefully make some money in the process. While my expectations for the latter were low, I soon realized I had overestimated the market for such an app and felt a little disappointed with the results. I won't get into numbers in this post (perhaps a subject for another time?), but I've still got a long way to go to recover my development costs, let alone make any semblance of profit. My attempts at advertising had no measureable effect, possibly other than some advertising currently in progress through another developer's app. Still, I've been motivated enough to continue supporting the app with ongoing free updates, and I'm actually working on a fairly major update right now. The app is currently on sale, so if you're a writer with an iPhone or iPod touch, it might help out with some of your New Year's writing resolutions! I'm contemplating a change in pricing strategy in the New Year, but that's still up in the air at this point.

This year I continued to learn more about the art of Bonsai, joining the Midwest Bonsai Society and attending monthly meetings. I also attended 3 Bonsai shows (two at the Chicago Botanic Garden and one at Morton Arboretum) and 3 workshops (Trident Maple Shohin forest, Black Hills Spruce Cascade, Chinese Elm). I added some nice trees to my collection, including a Brazilian Raintree, Satsuki Azalea, Schefflera forest, and a Ginkgo Biloba, among others. I no longer feel like a total Bonsai novice, but I still have a lifetime of learning ahead of me! I won't discuss the cactus show or my growing collection here...

The travel madness started early this year when I was sent on an unexpected spur-of-the-moment business trip to Germany for two weeks. It would've been nice to get more notice, but that tends to be the way with business trips. Despite the long hours, I had some free time one weekend and was able to fulfill a life-long dream to visit the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles in the Bavarian Alps. I also had a whirlwind Grayline bus tour of Munich. I would've had longer to explore Munich if only it hadn't been such a struggle wrapping my head around the public transport system (straightforward in hindsight!). As usual we had several trips to Michigan throughout the year. In early November we were finally able to make the big trip to Australia we've talked about for years. I hadn't been back since immigrating to the US in October 2002! We spent 9 days in Sydney seeing the sights and catching up with an old friend, and a further two weeks sightseeing and staying with family in South Australia. We needn't have worried about how the little bloke would handle the long flights--he slept most of the time! He was a bit of a handful at the airports, though. Unfortunately I still have 1500+ photos and nearly 6 hours of video to sort through. That'll have to be a project for 2010 ;)

In addition to visiting family over the Christmas break, I've been working on the next update of Story Tracker. Rather than spending today working on that, I decided to see what all the fuss was about and went to the movies to see Avatar in 3D. The verdict? In a word: fantastic! This was the first movie composed mostly of realistic computer graphics where I was fully immersed and wasn't distracted by imperfections, or the so-called 'Uncanny Valley.' The CGI characters were totally convincing and the 3D added a tremendous amount of depth to each scene rather than merely being a gimmick. My only real quibbles were with some of the melodramatic scenes and obvious turns of plot. Despite Avatar being nearly 3 hours long, it didn't feel overly long. It ranks up there with the Star Trek reboot as one of the best movies I've watched in 2009.

As 2010 approaches, one's mind naturally turns to goals and resolutions for the New Year. Apparently I'm not much good at sticking to specific writing resolutions, so I think I'll go with a simple "write more" goal and leave it at that. Next year I'd also like to get back to reading more novels and short stories, in addition to my regular comic reading. I'll be finishing off the next Story Tracker app update in early January, but after that I'm still undecided as to what my next project will be. I'd like to work on another iPhone app or three, and possibly delve into Mac desktop coding. We shall see :) As for travel, we'll be sticking a little closer to home next year. Maybe a roadtrip to South Dakota?

I hope you all have a happy and productive 2010, and if you're already in the future, Happy New Year!

2009 Books Read

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Thu, 31 Dec 09 12:07:00 UT

Before my annual "look back" journal entry, I thought I'd do a quick post on books read in 2009, for later reference:

Heaven's Bones
Watchmen
Invincible Ultimate Collection, Vol 1
Y The Last Man, Deluxe Vol 1
Walking Dead Omnibus, Book 1
Walking Dead Omnibus, Book 2
Walking Dead Omnibus, Book 3
Walking Dead Omnibus, Book 4
Secret Wars
Identity Crisis (DC)
Northlanders: Sven The Returned
Chew: Taster's Choice
JSA: Thy Kingdom Come, Part 1
Irredeemable, Vol 1
Civil War (Marvel)

Noted without comment, other than to say there wasn't a bad one in the bunch!

Story Tracker v1.1 update now available for iPhone and iPod Touch

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Mon, 28 Sep 09 22:48:00 UT

The Story Tracker v1.1 update is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. The Lite (free) version has also been updated and is available here.

Ever since the first version of Story Tracker hit the iTunes App Store in mid-August, I've been hard at work on the next version, fixing bugs and adding new features. I submitted the Full and Lite updates the weekend before last, and earlier this evening I received the approval emails from Apple.

In case you missed my earlier entries, Story Tracker is a submission tracking tool for writers, available for iPhone and iPod Touch. I'd been looking for such an app ever since I bought my iPhone, but alas, no one had written one, so I decided to fill the void myself :) This is basically a carry-everywhere database for all the story submission data you may have scattered across miscellaneous spreadsheets, Word docs, or buried in notebooks.

What's new in the version 1.1 update:

Bugfixes.
Pick genres from a list instead of typing them in every time.
Record market word limits, pay-rates, and response times.
Record submission response due dates and withdrawn status.
Response due dates are calculated automatically based on market response time and submission sent date, or can be overridden.
Store notes for markets and submissions.
Track statistics for past due and withdrawn submissions.
Past due submissions are flagged with an exclamation mark on the story and submission screens.
More flexible app navigation: add stories, markets and submissions on the fly (limited in the Lite version).

Hopefully I've addressed at least some of the items on your wish-list that weren't in the original version. If not, send me an email with any feature suggestions and comments you may have.

You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group.

Story Tracker Lite promo code giveaway

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Wed, 26 Aug 09 23:58:00 UT

Per my Twitter post this evening, Story Tracker Lite users get a chance to win a promo code for the full version! Just post your review on the iTunes store (please be honest!), let me know at the Story Tracker support email address which one you posted, and enter the draw. On Saturday I'll be randomly picking two reviewers to receive a promo code each. US users only -- promo codes are for the US App Store.

As always, I welcome reviews, feedback, and suggestions from Story Tracker users world-wide. And if you already own the full version, please post a review on iTunes with your thoughts! Remember the full version does not limit stories, markets, or submissions, and you'll always get updates first (some of which will not appear in the Lite version), so please don't feel left out :)

Story Tracker Lite now available for iPhone and iPod touch

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Thu, 20 Aug 09 23:40:00 UT

Story Tracker Lite is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Earlier this evening I received the approval from Apple for Story Tracker Lite. This is the free version of Story Tracker that allows you to store up to 5 stories, 5 markets, and 5 submissions. The full version has no such limit.

You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group.

I hope all you writers out there find this app useful, and I welcome any feature suggestions and comments you may have. If you like what you see with the Lite version, the full version is also available here.

Story Tracker now available for iPhone and iPod Touch

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Sat, 15 Aug 09 17:30:00 UT

Story Tracker is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch.

As you may have guessed from my last post, I've been working on an iPhone app for the last 6 months. I submitted it to Apple about 2 weeks ago and late yesterday I received the long-awaited approval email!

The app is Story Tracker, a submission tracking tool for writers. I've been looking for such an app ever since I've had my iPhone, but alas, no one had written one, so I decided to fill the void myself :) This is basically a carry-everywhere database for all the story submission data you may have scattered across miscellaneous spreadsheets, Word docs, or something else.

You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group.

I hope all you writers out there find this app useful, and I welcome any feature suggestions and comments you may have.

Coming Soon...

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Thu, 30 Jul 09 21:36:00 UT

Beta testers wanted!

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Tue, 21 Jul 09 20:07:00 UT

Any writers out there with an iPhone or iPod Touch want to help Beta-test my submission tracking app? Email me AKNicolle at yahoo dot com. If all goes well, I'll start the Beta test this weekend, if not before. iPhone developers are also invited to give the app a try. Thanks in advance!

Twitter

AKNicolle@yahoo.com — Sat, 14 Mar 09 16:14:00 UT

I just joined the chattering hordes at Twitter. I have no idea if I'll use it much, but it can't possibly be updated any less than this place, can it ;) If you're already twittering, ping me at username andrewnicolle. Happy Tweeting!