tagging Star Log – Test Post – Please Ignore – Thank you!

When starting a new blog, I like to set up all the “possible” tags I may use over the years to come, and so I have them in the clickable drop down menu of my dashboard, I put them all on the first few posts of the blog – This is a very old post, copied from Star Log, to put my tags on this blog. The only thing this post contains is a list of every tag I have every used on Star Log. As each tag list can only contain 200 characters, there well be several of these posts, until all tags have been inserted into this blogs drop down feature. So, you can just ignore this post as it is only useful to me the blogger and not you the reader.

Book of Shadows,Book Sales,Book Title,Book Writing,Boondocker,Boonies,Books,Book Review,Book Reviews,Boondockers,Boondocking,BoS,Boycotts,Brian Froud,Brothers Grimm,BurdaStyle,Business,
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This post was written by Wendy C Allen aka EelKat, is copyrighted by The Twighlight Manor Press and was posted on Houseless Living @ http://houselessliving.blogspot.com and reposted at EK’s Star Log @ http://eelkat.wordpress.com and parts of it may also be seen on http://www.squidoo.com/EelKat and http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com  If you are reading this from a different location than those listed above, please contact me Wendy C. Allen aka EelKat @ http://laughinggnomehollow.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile and let me know where it is you found this post. Plagiarism is illegal and I DO actively pursue offenders. Unless copying a Blog Meme, you do not have permission to copy anything appearing on this blog, including words, art, or photos. This will be your only warning. Thank you and have a glorious day! ~ EelKat

RE: BurdaStyle: Where do you find sewing inspiration?

Well as is one of my usual habits, I was zipping around BurdaStyle checking out the new stuff, when I found THIS. Well, as not my usual style I decided to comment. I rarely ever say anything over there, so no one even knows I’m there half the time! LOL! Anyways, here is my answer:

***Where do you find sewing inspiration?***

EVERYWHERE! My mom was a seamstress, sew I was already sewing at age 6. I was 16 when I graduated from a fashion design college. In the 20+ years since, I have created tons of patterns and sew all my own fashions.

I not only create my own patterns, but I also design my own fabrics as well. I paint up watercolors and than get short runs of the fabric printed up. I get ideas for a lot og my designs from nature: birds, cats, the sky, waterfalls, trees – everything inspires me to paint. Than the fabric made from the paintings inspire the flow of the dress pattern as well.

Erte is my biggest inspiration. Much of my designs are reinterpretations of his designs. I just love his art deco and flapper styles.

Also, Japanese Kimono, esp those from the Momoyama period (1500′s). I love sewing kimono, because the lines are simple and allow for display of big bold fabric prints, which thus allows me to create huge print fabric designs as well.

***What magazines, websites, books do you look at for project ideas?***

Dover Books are my #1 source of inspiration. You see, I’m a life actor, which I means I CosPlay 24/7/365 and have for years. My daily wear consists of recreations of garb from the 1500′s – 1800′s as well as the 1920′s. Dover reprints tons of French, fashion illustrations, vintage paper dolls, Goody Lady, etc. Of course they are the ones who reprint Etre’s fashion prints as well.

National Geographic and Smithsonian Museum books are huge sources of inspiration as well. I get lots of ideas from cultural photos and antique paintings. I enjoy creating ethnic and historic bases patterns.

And than of course there’s my #1 source of inspiration: comic books. Yep, you heard me: comic books! I’m a huge fan of comic books, manga, graphic novels, super heroes, etc, and well, like I said, I’m really big into CosPlay, so of course a lot of what I design was inspired by comic books.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Obsessed? I’m Not Obsessed… REALLY, I’m not!

When Next You See Me I’ll Look Like This:

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

All about Lord Sesshomaru’s garb & Making a Lord Sesshomaru Costume. Plus, Sesshomaru & Rin and making Rin’s Costume; and this is for anyone who needs help Creating Character Profiles for their stories or for their SCA persona.

Categories: About me · Anachronism · Anachronist · Business · CosPlay · Gothic · Life · Lifestyle · Maine · Old Orchard Beach · SCA · Wendy C. Allen · comic books · cosplay in public · costume making · costumer · costumes · creativity · cross dressing · crossplay · drag queen · dressmaking · fabric · fashion · fashion design · fun things to do · inspiration · interesting facts · life blogging · medieval · my thoughts on… · painting · pattern making · patterns · sewing · sewing a costume · sewing a kimono · sewing advice · theater

Tagged: About me, Anachronist, Black Bobcat Fashions, BurdaStyle, CosPlay, cosplay in public, dressmaking, EelKat, Erte, inspiration, Japan, kimono, pattern making, Purple Peacock Patterns, sewing, The Rabbit Hole, Wendy C. Allen

Waiting for Emmett to come.

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Script Frenzy RE: What am I doing?

In responce to: RE: What am I doing?

Script writing is pretty easy. FAR easier than novel writing actually, because it is straight up dialog and zero descriptions. Pretty much all you need to do is have two characters talk to each other for a while, have a third character wander in and talk to them. Have a few other characters stroll in and say a few things every now and again.

All you got to do is keep them talking. And if you can’t think of anything for them to talk about, drop a dead body on the stage. Nothing gets your characters gossiping faster than a dead body. They’ll all start speculating who the killer was and start blaming each other and having arguments in no time flat. And if the dead guy is a total stranger, than they’ll really get going, not only trying to figure out which of them killed him, but trying to figure out who he is besides! LOL!

And remember – “It was a dark and stormy night” may be cliche, but it’ll get character conversations going. They’ll sit around complaining that it’s too dark or too wet to go outside, they’ll talk about what they would be doing if it was sunny, they’ll talk about how in their childhood they loved to play outside in the rain, and they’ll be reminded of other wet stormy days to talk about too!

Writing a script is all about keeping your characters talking their fool heads off. So, yeah, unless you are one of those writers who really loves writing long descriptions (like Stephen King, JKRowlins, and Tolkien all do) script writing is by far easier than novel writing.

Another thing is, 100 pages really go by really fast, because of the format of the script. There is an empty line between every character and what they say. So, yeah, once you start writing you’ll see just how fast you go through pages.

Format is nothing to worry about. Basic format can be quickly adapted to any other format when you edit your draft, so it’s best to just write basic format in your first draft, and that’s a piece of cake.

The basic general format of a script is this:

DAVE:
(walks into room)

MARSHA! What are you doing here?

MARSHA:
(slaps DAVE on face)

I know about you and that hussy.

(throws wedding ring on floor)

We are through! I want a divorce!

:CAMERA: Close up on DAVE’s face.

DAVE:
(stares speechlessly)

And that’s about it. A stage or radio script wouldn’t have the camera focus points, but TV, movie, and comic book scripts all do. Did you see the descriptions? Yeah. THAT’S what descriptions actually look like on a script.

The first thing you need to remember during Script Frenzy is this: Dialog.

Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog.
Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog.
Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog.
Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog.

and oh, look at that . . . more dialog!

Like I said, script writing is pretty easy. It’s basically: open your mouth, say something, write it down. There is no need to worry about describing what things look like, how things work, what your characters look like, or what your characters are wearing.

All you have to do, is keep your characters talking, because a script is just that: a script. (Some thing you say.)

So as long as you can keep your characters talking to each other, you’ll have no problems at all.

If you are not good at writing dialog, than you will have a tough time at script writing, because script writing it straight up, no stop dialog. Nothing but dialog. Dialog and ONLY dialog. Dialog here. Dialog there. Not a word of description in sight. Just lots and lots of dialog.

There is no prose in script writing.

There is no narration in script writing.

There are no long descriptions of scenery in script writing.

There are no mention of what characters are wearing in script writing.

There is no pretty and plentiful purple prose in script writing.

Script writing is dialog. Only dialog. Nothing but dialog. Dialog and nothing else. Period.

Script writing will do wonders at teaching you how to cut out adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and pretty much every thing else you would use when writing a novel, as you won’t be using those much if you use any at all.

But yeah, you guys have absolutely nothing to worry about. NaNo is by far much, much harder to do than Screnzy is, so if you can survive a month of NaNo you can survive a month of Screnzy.

Incubus: Fear the Night!

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Script Frenzy RE: Dirty tricks

RE: Dirty tricks

@@revallyson http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/470121

[quote=revallyson]But I admit, I find myself asking, if you're cheating, why bother playing? There's no major prize for getting to 100 pages, and I know that I would feel like dirt if I submitted an empty pdf and claimed it was 100 pages.
[/quote]

Did you read ALL of that person’s post? I think not. She didn’t say she was submitting a blank PDF as a way of cheating. She said that she was writing her play out longhand in a notebook and needed someone to make a blank PDF of her finished page count for her, so she could submit her longhand script. That is NOT cheating. She still wrote the script.

[quote=revallyson]As to fonts and spacing and such, you can't really "cheat" with those. A proper script has special formatting, and if it isn't in the correct format then it shouldn't be handed in. Since the format includes font size and type, page size, margins, etc., it's almost impossible to "cheat" the counter.
[/quote]

Yes, I agree with you there. And not all scripts are created equal either. For instance, the format for a TV Soap Opera is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the format for a stage play, and let’s not even get started on comic book scripts, because not only do they look NOTHING like any other type of script, but each company has their own format!

I write for small stage (school/college/local) and for comic books (Disney) so, my own script writing style leans heavy in those areas.

First off, a lot depends on the type of script you are writing. Not all scripts are created equal. The basic types of scripts are:

Movie Scripts

TV Scripts

Radio Scripts: DJ/Talk Show, News Broadcast, or Live Show/Play

News Report Scripts

Animation Scripts

Talk Show Scripts

Musical Scripts

Stage Play Scripts

Advertisement Scripts

Comic Book Scripts

Each of those is different and each is written in it’s own unique formate and style, and depending on the one you plan to write, you’ll will have to use a completely different style and format. So a person who writes movie scripts may be lost when it comes to attempting to write a comic book script or vise versa.

So, the first thing you need to figure out is: What type of script do you want to write?

To answer that, ask yourself, where do you see your script being published? Here are so things to think about before starting your script:

Will it be a meteorologist’s report on the latest storm read on the nightly news or will it be the next episode of Pokemon?

Are you writing hoping to be accepted by BBC for the next season of Doctor Who or are you writing a play for your local collage drama troupe?

Do you want to write the words Oprah will say in her next show or would you rather write the next episode of Days of Our Lives?

Are you writing a script for The Price is Right or are you going to write the next big screen movie Johnny Depp will star in?

Is your script the next Broadway hit or a modern day remake of the Orson Wells War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast?

Are you writing the next local cable advertisement of Jolly John’s Used Cars or the national broadcast of McDonald’s new flavor milk shake?

Do you want to write a comic book? If so, will it be for Marvel or DC or Dark Horse or Disney? Did you know that each of the four comic book giants has their own specified script format, each extremely different from the other three and that none will look at an incorrectly formated script no matter how well written?

Before you can start asking for advice on how to write and format your script, you first have to determine, what exactly your script is going to be, and than you need to direct your questions to a script writer who writes the same type of scripts you plan to write.

For Script Frenzy, it is safe to assume that you are planing either a movie, tv show, comic book, or stage play script, as 99% of the scripts written during Screnzy are one of those.

But I was astounded, reading folks “cheats” here and noting that a lot of you are talking about adding lengthy descriptions. I have to step back and ask you guys: Uhm . . . have you ever, like, actually read a script before? You know, a REAL script, the one the directors and actors read, not that pimped up stuff English teachers have you reading in paperback, but a a REAL authentic actual script.

Yeah, I guessing for about 90% of the posters on this thread the answer is a big fat “NO”. And I’ll tell you what triggered that thought for me. The answer is one word: DIALOG.

The first thing you need to remember during Script Frenzy is this: Dialog.

Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog.
Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog.
Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog.
Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog. Dialog.

and oh, look at that . . . more dialog!

If you are not good at writing dialog, than you will have a tough time at script writing, because script writing it straight up, no stop dialog. Nothing but dialog. Dialog and ONLY dialog. Dialog here. Dialog there. Not a word of description in sight. Just lots and lots of dialog.

There is no prose in script writing.

There is no narration in script writing.

There are no long descriptions of scenery in script writing.

There are no mention of what characters are wearing in script writing.

There is no pretty and plentiful purple prose in script writing.

Script writing is dialog. Only dialog. Nothing but dialog. Dialog and nothing else. Period.

Script writing will do wonders at teaching you how to cut out adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and pretty much every thing else you would use when writing a novel, as you won’t be using those much if you use any at all.

The basic general format of a script is this:

DAVE:
(walks into room)

MARSHA! What are you doing here?

MARSHA:
(slaps DAVE on face)

I know about you and that hussy.

(throws wedding ring on floor)

We are through! I want a divorce!

:CAMERA: Close up on DAVE’s face.

DAVE:
(stares speechlessly)

And that’s about it. A stage or radio script wouldn’t have the camera focus points, but TV, movie, and comic book scripts all do. Did you see the descriptions? Yeah. THAT’S what descriptions actually look like on a script.

The only time in the script where you see any descriptions, is in the BEGINNING of the script BEFORE the script starts. In the section where every thing is listed.
Cast List, Setting Notes, Playwright’s Notes, etc.

The list of characters/cast will tell the basics:

JANE is a young woman late twenties to early thirties. She is homeless and so wears a mix and match of ragged cloths she found in people’s trash. She wasn’t always homeless, she used to be an average housewife, but a massive flood took that all away. Her family died in the flood. Her house was washed away. She has nothing left and has given up on life.

STAN is a college professor. He is ten or twelve years older than JANE. He remembers her before the flood. He loved her than and he still loves her now. He wants to find a way to show JANE life is still worth living.

That is what a typical character list looks like.

Notice the age range is given, not the exact age? This allows for a range of actors to play the part.

Notice no hair/eye/skin colors are mentioned? This allows more actors to play the part.

Notice how costume descriptions are limited and only generalized at? This allows theaters to work from what they have and helps their budget by not demanding a whole new wardrobe that can only be used in a single play.

The only type of script that DOES have detailed descriptions of character’s physical appearance and costume, is the comic book script. Radio, stage, TV, and movie scripts, do not have them.

The setting notes will tell the basics:

This story takes place in a small fishing village on the coast of Maine.

ACT ONE takes place outside, late evening, on the dock. LOU has just returned from a week long deep sea fishing job. STEVE and JENNY were there to meet him.

ACT TWO takes place in the front parlor of STEVE’s home which has a window over looking the shore. It is late at night. LOU sits in a rocking chair smoking his pipe and reminiscing about his young days as a sailor. STEVE listens while standing looking out the window. Every one else has gone to bed already.

ACT THREE takes place early morning, on the shore. STEVE and JENNY are watching as LOU sails away once again.

Do you see a pattern here? Like the CAST LIST the SETTING DESCRIPTION is sparse and left open to the interpretation of the director and the producer and their budget.

I’m going to quote something I posted a while back on Script Frenzy:

How much stage direction is reasonable?
[quote=]
Hey guys!
How much stage direction do you think is reasonable? I'm just trying to figure out what would be too much...
Thanks![/quote]


I’d say it depends on the play write’s personal style as well as the style of the play in question. I think of stage direction in a play, like the choreography in a ballet. If every player knows where to be when and what to do at what moment, than you don’t have characters falling over each other and messing up the play.

For example a one person play may not need any directions at all, simply relying fully on the actor’s personal movements as he speaks. With only one or two actors on stage, the play would be more open to actor interpretation. Two actors could guess each others movements and act accordingly.

Whereas a full two hour production with intricate (setting, lighting, costume, etc) details, and 20 or 30 actors on stage at the same time, would need quite a bit of stage direction to prevent it from turning into utter chaos. I mean, if you have 20 actors on stage, each one “doing his own thing” when it comes to interpretation, you’d have nothing but a huge uncoordinated mess.

So, when I’m writing a play, my personal style is: the bigger the production, the more detailed the stage directions need to be, while the smaller production can go with little or even no stage directions.

So in the end, what it boils down to is this: “Cheating” by adding descriptions and creating “unique” formates, is not going to get you any where in the business of script writing. Now if you are just writing a script for the heck of it and no one but your family and friends will ever read it, than, it doesn’t matter what you do.

HOWEVER, if you are planning on making a career of being a playwright, a comic writer, a screen writer, etc, than knowing the guidelines and following the rules now, will save you a lot of time, heart ache and unnecessary revisions later on.

In other words, it is unwise to add lots of long detailed descriptions, because you will only have to delete ALL of them, before you can get your script produced. And by deleting them, you will lose all those extra pages, meaning you’ll have to write that much more dialog for your script to bring it back up to being a full length script. Which means, by cheating and adding descriptions, you only cheated yourself out of getting your film/play made.

Remember, you want to write an actual producible script here, not a bunch of empty filler. Filler is nothing but tasteless sawdust. Sawdust gets thrown away. Don’t fill your script up with something that gets thrown away. You’ll thank yourself later.

Every unnecessary thing that you don’t add today, is one more thing you will not have to remove before you can submit your script to a director/publisher.

Remember, when is comes to script writing: less is more.

Incubus: Fear the Night!

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Authors want publishers to buy their manuscripts off Amazon??? What the hell?

I was just reading the blog post: How not to sell your book on Robert J. Sawyer’s Blog, in which he tells of an author who sent him this request:

A few years ago I sent you an email to see if you were interested in publishing my first novel. You were interested but I did not follow up because I was still working on it. Finally it is complete, and I will soon have it posted on Amazon.com.


If you would be interested in reviewing this work for me I would be extremely grateful. If you would be interested in publishing it, I would be even more grateful.

Well, I have to say I have never heard of that one before, and I agree with his answer and comments about it.

OMG! For starters I’m shocked that the query and the mss were separated by *YEARS* not *WEEKS*.

And secondly – I don’t even know where to begin here – I think I could go off on a hundred page rant over this. Secondly, how can any one in their right mind expect a publisher/editor/agent to actually PAY money to read your MSS?

I mean, I could see having a printer print up one single bound copy of your book, so you could doing the editing directly on the pages, before typing up the final MSS to send in, sure. Why not? An expensive way to edit your book, but whatever. But to PUBLISH it and than list it FOR SALE (on Amazon no less), and than ask a publisher to BUY the MSS and than REPRINT it?!?!?!?! What the heck?

***Here I printed up a sample of my manuscript and it’s for sale on Amazon. If you want to publish my book, please buy the manuscript off Amazon first.***

Yeah, I can just see Amazon starting a section for authors to list *unpublished manuscripts* for publishers to buy. LOL! Where do people come up with these ideas anyways?

Incubus: Fear the Night!

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NaNoWriMo RE: What Fish Could You, uh, Fish for in the East Coast?

What Fish Could You, uh, Fish for in the East Coast?

[quote=Bootscooper]In the East Coat, around the tri-state area, what edible fish could you get to eat?

[/quote]

Tri-state – my homeland And me living right on the ocean, I’m surrounded by rifle toting lobster man, and get to see the lobster war shoot outs all the time. Fishing is our # one source of income, and it’s big business. If you are not a fishermen, you are related to one, married to one, work for one, or at least know some one who does. Maine is 73% water and has the longest coastline of any other state. Yeah. Every one around here has fish on the brain.

You didn’t say what type of fishing you plan on using so I’ll list both:

Off the coast/deep sea:

Lobster is #1 (the #3 source of income in Maine, after Tourism and Blueberries. Potatoes and Milk are 4 and 5.) Marlin Shrimp Sea bass Atlantic Salmon Pollack Sea Urchins Halibut Flounder Eels (big ones) Skate (what we call Sting Rays) Octopus Squid Manta Rays (big ones – big, big, big ones – 8 foot wings are not uncommon) folks don’ fish for them, but once in a while one will get caught in a net. People don’t eat them, btw. Shark (lots of types, Sand, Nurse, etc, keep in mind though the Great Whites are extremely rare, so you can mention them, but it would be a fluke to see one around here) Humpback Whales, if your story is set before the anti whaling laws. Whaling was a big business around here in the 1700′s ish. and also Scallops, Clams, Mussel, Crab, and several assorted snails but technically that’s not called “fishing” it’s called “digging”. Also, we are in the “Man o War” region. Man o Wars are giant killer jelly fish, that can get 30 feet long. In warm summers they get washed in along the coast, by the gulf stream. People don’t fish for them, but fisherman do once in a while get killed by them. Areas have to be closed down if any Man o War are sighted, and wait until they head back out to sea again. This only happens once every few years though, and is not that common an event.

Inland – river/lake/pond/stream:

Eels (small ones) Brown Trout Rainbow Trout Catfish Salmon

Sorry, afraid I don’t know many inland fish, I live right on the ocean and rarely leave town.

I’m afraid I can’t help you with any details or specifics. Ive never been fishing in my whole life! LOL! My boyfriend is a hobby fisherman and my neighbor is a lobster men (every one’s neighbor is a lobster man around here.) and these are the fish they commonly catch and or mention seeing, or have known others to catch. They are the ones I just always hear getting mentioned around town and such.

Also, Harbor Seals are every where, and commonly get caught by mistake, and have to be released. But if your story is set old enough, like before the 1950′s, fisherman used to shot every seal they saw on sight, hundreds and hundreds of them, because the seal attack the nets and traps and lines and steal the fish.

Pretty much every one eats fish, most every meal, every day of the year.

Here in town we have fishing shacks on every street corner. A fishing shack is like a dinner that is run by the wife of some local fisherman, and all they serve is fresh fish. The Clam Bake, Bailey’s, WormWoods, and Ken’s Place are the biggest ones, and attract tourists from all over the world. The Clam Bake is a giant restaurant now as a result.

Hey – why don’t you just read what they sell off their menu? Or ask them on their FaceBook page? Plus all those actual picture of what the stuff looks like cooked should give you plenty to work with. That should help you out:

http://www.clambakerestaurant.com/ or http://www.clambakerestaurant.com/dinners.shtml

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scarborough-ME/Kens-Place-Seafood-Restaurant/64297093127?v=info (2009 was their 82nd year in business)

These two are right across the street from each other (more or less) and I live right behind them on the beach.

and this one is right next door to Ken’s

http://bayleysseafood.com/ and is the one I personally like to eat at most often. I like their Seafood Platter, which is a little bit of everything that got brought in that morning. Usually it includes Haddock fillets, scallops, shrimp, clam strips, etc.

and they make the best Lobster Rolls in Maine. You can’t visit Maine with out trying a Lobster Roll and drinking Moxie.

and here’s one from Portland:

http://www.portlandlobstercompany.com/menu.html

and Moxie btw is this:

http://www.moxiefestival.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moxie

your Maine readers will think your Maine characters are weird if they are NOT drinking Moxie.

You know, you might want to head to the Maine Regional Forums and ask there. Some one might have more info for you.

And writing this list up for you . . . wow! You just gave me some great ideas to add to my story, which, happens to be set in a fishing villsge off the coast of Maine – couldn’t imaging why. =P

Incubus: Fear the Night!

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NaNoWriMo RE: Who publishes?

The question and my answer:

Who publishes?

[quote=Esmeralda_m]Do any of you go on to publish your books later? [/quote]

Always. I started writing short stories in 1978. All of them published via indie-press chapbooks. Though most never had more than 12 or 15 copies made. =P I moved on the adding novels in 2006, and started writing non-fiction stuff in 2003, but didn’t start pubbing the non-fiction stuff until 2007, which I publish both in print format and online.

[quote=Esmeralda_m] Do you self publish or go through a company? [/quote]

Both. It depends on how you look at it. Some would say I self publish, others would say I don’t. Explanation: I own a publishing house (The Twighlight Manor Press). I publish my own work through said publishing house. Therefor my work is being published via a company, but it is also self published because, I just happen to be the owner of that company. =P

I submit some of my work to the big publishing houses too (Harlequin, Scholastic, etc.) but not very often. Usually I just stick with my own publishing house.

I also am under a work-for-hire contract to write scripts for copyrighted characters (The Duck Family aka Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck) through Edgmont (Disney Comics). This means technically I work for Disney and can write Disney “fanfic” so long as I follow Disney’s really rigid super strict guidelines and send every thing I write to them.

[quote=Esmeralda_m] Has anybody considered it but not followed through? Why not?[/quote]

I always consider EVERY THING I write as publishable. My theory is there is a market for every thing and every thing that is written, can be edited to make it marketable. (Some stuff just needs more editing than other stuff.) With that thery in mind, every thing I write eventually gets published some where, some how, though in some cases it may take several years of editing to make a piece publishable.

[quote=Esmeralda_m] I’m curious what the statistics are. Who goes “further” than the 30 days of writing and does a 2nd, 3rd, and final draft? Who takes that to a publisher and says “Lookit what I got!” and either gets turned down or accepted. Who opts to Lulu their book, and who takes it to the copy machine at kinkoes. [/quote]

My stuff usually goes through 4 edits, before reaching the final draft. This process can take a few weeks for shorter works, to a year or more for longer works.

Where I send it and how it gets published depends on what it is I wrote.

I taught myself bookbinding and so from the 1970′s through 1980′s my books were hand bound. Papers hand cut. Pages hand sewn, with olde fashioned needle and thread book binding stitch. The words themselves hand done in calligraphy. That’s why there were usually less than 15 copies of each book. It took about a month just to make a single copy. I was like a 15th century monk or something! LOL! =P

I went the desk top printer road in the 1990′s. Quality sucked.

Tried a local print shop once. eeh. Quality still sucked.

In 2005 I switched over to using http://www.LuLu.com for my publishing house’s printer. Quality has skyrocketed. I love it, and will likely stick with them as my printing house from now on.

As for where do I send stuff when I do send it out to an outside publisher?

Well, right off the bat, EVERYTHING I write with a Disney character, gets shipped to Edgmont and from there it’s Disney’s problem. Getting published with Disney, let me tell you – NOT EASY! Pay sucks. It’s not worth it unless you are mega super obsessed with whatever character you are writing about, which I am, so it’s not like I’m going to stop writing Duck stories any time soon. =P

My Harlequin quality stuff gets shipped off to Harlequin for consideration.

Short stories head out to various random magazines depending on genre.

My unagented attempts with Scholastic continue to fail; yeah, I know, I need an agent for Scholastic. Someday when I can afford an agent, I’ll hire one.

What I am most well known for however is my trademark long running, banned, M rated series. My Twighlight Manor series, has since the 1970′s been sent to various publishers, and I get back lots of nice rejections, telling me that my unique writing style is wonderful and they’d really love me to write a different book for them, but my subject matter is just too outside of what can be published main stream, could I tone it done a bit, try to be a little bit more politically correct, use a little less gore, make my teenage rape victims over 18, make my rapists not always elderly men, and could you TRY to write a Happily Ever After ending . . . just once? Hey! I write what I know. Older men rape teenage and preteen girls. Been there. Done that. I was the teenage girl. I’ve known others. It happens. It happens a lot. These girls don’t get peach scent happily ever afters with rose colored glasses. I write about it. I write about it a lot. I write it like it is in the real world, older men, 8 year old girls and all. I’m not going to glamorize it and make it into some pretty happy romance story because that’s what people want to read. This is not romance, this is a girl traumatized for life in a world that would rather look the other way and protect the false integrity of their beloved church leaders. You know what? Life for these girls is hell, in a world that doesn’t care, why should I tone it down and make it more digestible for the reader when it isn’t digestible for the real victims? No! I won’t do it. Some one has to speak out for these girls, and I’m not changing these books just because you don’t like it.

And so, my Twighlight Manor Books, continue on published via indie press and remain to date, still not mass produced. And I am being excommunicated from my church for writing them, because well, it’s a big No-No to say anything against one of their priests.

Actually, I’m being excommunicated for writing my autobiography, the 433 page story behind the story of the Twighlight Manor books. My autobiography was what I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2008. It took a year to edit, went through 4 drafts, and was edited online with the help of some of my online friends. The draft had been posted on my blog, which, unknown to me, my bishop reads, and when he read what I had to say about several of the leaders in our local church building, he just flipped out, and called me into his office and DEMANDED that I not publish this book or else. Or else? He’d rather hide his head in the sand and protect the criminals in his church, than stand out in the open and protect the innocent victims????? Well, that book got published a month ago, and so I got called in again and told I was being excommunicated from the church. Oh well. Such is life. My NaNovel 2008 has become some what of a local controversy, and really, I don’t see why my bishop is going all freak out like this, but whatever.

As for this years NaNovel, yep. It’s being published. At the moment I’m planning on going through my own publishing house. (Which currently PODs books via http://www.LuLu.com btw, no more hand bound books for me! LOL!)

[quote=Esmeralda_m] I’m just kinda curious since I’m thinking of persuing more than a one month fling with my characters. I have a professional artist, willing to do the cover, and a professional editor even, but I’m intimidated by the prospect of tranforming a nanobook into a “real” novel. Can a nano even BE a real novel?

[/quote]

Every year, about 3 or 4 NaNovels get accepted through Harlequin. They even have a place to submit special NaNoWriMo submissions to them. (Check out their web site, info changes each year). If you are writing romance, Harlequin is very open to reading NaNovels.

and one word: Eragon.

Look up the Hal Spacejock series. Long running series of best sellers, every volume was writing right here on NaNoWriMo

Every year hundreds of NaNovels get published. A few through mainstream big publishers, but most through small press, indie press, and self published POD (LuLu and CreateSpace).

So, yeah, a NaNovel can be a real novel. All you got to do it edit, edit, edit, polish, polish, polish, and submit, submit, submit! EVERY THING you write, can be published, it’s all in the amount of time you are willing to put into editing it after you write it.

There are probably a lot more mainstream published NaNovels out there than we realize too, because a lot of authors, don’t tell you here on NaNoWriMo who they are and just come on here, write their draft, and never tell any one they wrote it via NaNo. Besides, when you submit it to a publisher, there is no reason to tell the publisher where your wrote the book. The publisher couldn’t care less wither you wrote it on NaNoWriMo or in an igloo on top of Mt Everest. All they want to know, is will our readers want to read it?

You will only need a cover artist if you plan to self publish. Authors have no say or control when it comes to cover art on their books, unless they are self publishing the book.

Incubus: Fear the Night!

http://twitter.com/EelKat
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http://eknano.blogspot.com

NaNoWriMo RE: First Person Tense Issues!

The question:

First Person Tense Issues!

[quote=Adjective]“Okay, yeah I was really thin. I had kids that randomly walked up to me and asked me if I was anorexic. But I ate really badly. I should be morbidly obese, but I’m not, I just have a super fast metabolism. Which people say is good, but you are always hungry and you always have to pee. 

Then again, I like being able to eat whatever I want whenever I want and even if I didn’t get any exercise; I would still look like this. “

Do you want to COUNT how many times I switched tenses in that paragraph! Which one do I use? It’s not *really* a retelling of anything, so present? But aren’t they usually in past?

AHHH!

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[/quote]

My answer:

[quote=Adjective]“Okay, yeah I was really thin. I had kids that randomly walked up to me and asked me if I was anorexic. But I ate really badly. I should be morbidly obese, but I’m not, I just have a super fast metabolism. Which people say is good, but you are always hungry and you always have to pee.
Then again, I like being able to eat whatever I want whenever I want and even if I didn’t get any exercise; I would still look like this. “
[/quote]

One thing stood out to me:

But I ate really badly.

Badly means – to be doing something that is bad, wicked, or otherwise criminal — in other words she is eating while getting ready to rob the bank;

or to not do something well, to do it poorly — in other words she rarely eats at all and may go days with out food, which seems to be the opposite of what you are intending to say here.

This implies that your character is some sort of evil villain because s/he eats something or that she does not eat anything at all. Changing the word “badly” to a word such as “a lot”, “more than I should”, etc. will sound much better and make more sense.

For example:

But I could never stop eating.

But I ate so much more than I should.

But I ate a lot, really, I did.

But I ate like a horse. I just couldn’t get enough food.

Each of those not only reads better, but it actually means that your character is over eating, not getting ready to rob a bank or hiding in a closet not eating for days on end.

Your excerpt would sound better like this:

Past:

“Okay, yeah I was really thin. Kids would randomly walk up to me and asked me if I was anorexic. But I ate so much more than I should. I should have been morbidly obese, but I wasn’t. I just had a super fast metabolism. People say that is good, but I was always hungry and I always had to pee. Then again, I liked being able to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and even if I didn’t get any exercise; I would still be thin. ”

. . . OR . . .

Present:

“Okay, yeah I’m really thin. I have kids randomly walk up to me and ask me if I’m anorexic. But I eat a lot, really, I do. I should be morbidly obese, but I’m not. I just have a super fast metabolism. People say that is good, but I’m always hungry and I always have to pee. Then again, I like being able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want and even if I don’t get any exercise; I can still look like this. ”

Yes, it does make a difference which you use in your story and where you us it.

In the past tense, your character sounds like an adult reminiscing about her teen years, and mournfully wishing she was as thin as she was so many years ago..

Whereas in the present tense, she sounds like a 14 year old trying to justify her physical appearance to a school guidance counselor, who has just told her she needed to see a psychiatrist to find out why she isn’t eating.

Changing the tenses, changed the reader’s mental image of the girl. In one tense she is a young girl, while in the other tense she is and older woman. In one tense she was speaking in self defense, in the other she was thinking about things that happened years ago.

So, is your story about a teenage speaking about this past week, or a woman talking about way back when? That will determine which tense you are writing here.

All Hail Bela Lugosi!

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http://eknano.blogspot.com

RE: How the hell did some of you people get to the word count you’re at? (NaNoWriMo)

how the hell did some of you people get to the word count you’re at?

My history with NaNo has been somewhat dramatic and for years I have been known as one of the site’s yearly returning over achievers. To reach 50k was never once my goal, heck, I write more than that in a normal month anyways, 50k is nothing (for me at least.) My word counts each year have soared through the roof, and by my past history I should have reached 50k several days ago. (Last year I hit 50k on day 3 – which inspired an inbox full of flaming NaNoHateMails).

My goal this year was simple: To beat my word count from last year (which was 238,135). To make things simple, I just said I’ll aim at 250k, but than I added, I’d really like to double that and go for 500k this year.

Well, that was in October. Than October 20th I had a stroke. Nothing big, but enough to slow me down and make me lose a bit of my coordination skills, which are slowly returning, but still, I’m having difficulty with some things I previously had no problems with. Than to make things just a little bit worse, due to my being in the doctor’s office on the 21st, I ended up coming down with H1N1 flue on the 23rd, and was out of sorts for the next 14 days, bed ridden from the worst flue I’ve ever had in my entire life.

Long story short – my first week at NaNoWriMo this year was cut drastically due to my health not being at it’s peak, and now instead of being in the 100k range I should be at by the end of week one, I’m ended with first week of NaNoWriMo with a miserable 30k.

I’m feeling much better this week, so hopefully I well get back on track. In any case, seeing how I’m so far behind, I don’t think it’s a realistic goal for me to be aiming at 250k any more. I could probably do it if I pushed myself, but I’m still not 100% over the flue yet, so pushing myself is not really an option this year. As a result I changed my goal. My new goal is to end at some point between 100k and 500k. I figure I’m still in the running to hit 100k before the end of the month, and as long as I do that, I’ll be happy, but than once I hit 100k, I plan to keep right on going, just to see how far past it I can make it before the 30th.

As for, how I do it? Well, this year, of course my health has slowed me down, but even so, I’m still getting a pretty high word count. There is however a simple answer to your question:

I am a professional writer. I don’t have a “regular” day job. Writing IS my day job. I wrote my first book in 1978 and haven’t stopped since. I write fiction, non-fiction, how to books, short stories, articles, chap books, children’s chapter books, novels, novellas, and I write an average of 7k words per day, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year, for the last 31 years.

I’m an “older” woman. In other words, I finished school many years before most of the other NaNoWriters were even born. Thus I have no school work to worry about either.

I am single. No husband or children under feet. I do however have 19 cats.

I do not have a TV. I can write during times when other NaNoWriters are being interrupted by their Soaps, News, Sports, whatever.

I suffer from Agoraphobia and PTSD. I’ve left the house less than a dozen times in the past 30 years.

My day goes like this:

I get up at 7AM and start writing.

Around noon I cook lunch, and than check the forums (which is why I’m here at this very moment.)

From about 2PM to about 7PM I do whatever needs being done around the house/yard. If I have time I read during this time too.

Between 7Pm – 9PM it’s time to cook and eat and read. At 9PM it’s back on the computer to write until Midnight.

Five minutes before Midnight I update my word count that cruise the forums for a couple of hours.

I go to bed around 3AM, sleep 4 hours and start over again the next day.

That is my schedule all year long – not just during NaNoWriMo, btw. As you can see, my days are spent pretty much doing nothing but writing all day long each and every day. I average 8 hours of writing per day. Just as others spend 8 hours a day at work, so too do I spend 8 hours a day a work, it’s just that I work at home and my job is to write.

What that all means is, I am at home 24 hours a day, and thus I am writing morning, noon, and night. And NaNoWriMo or no NaNoWriMo, I would being writing 100k to 200k this month anyways, so I might as well do it here with you guys rather than do it alone, like I do the rest of the 11 months of the year.

So, when you look at those of us who are way far ahead of the rest, think of it this way – most of us, have done NaNoWriMo many years now, and most of us are profession full time or part time writers who would have written this much anyways, even if NaNoWriMo did not exist, AND once upon a time, long ago and far a way, we were like you, trying to figure out how others found time to write. We didn’t always write like this. It took us many years of practice to learn how to make time to write.

If you have time (like 4 or 5 hours) to read a really long, really detail explanation about how I do it, you can read this: http://www.squidoo.com/The13StepMethod which I wrote specifically for NaNoWriters who ask this question to me dozens of times every single year.

Think of it as playing the piano – you don’t start out at Carnegie Hall, it takes years of practice to get there. You can’t do it over night, but if you stick with it and devote years of your life to practicing, you will eventual reach your goal and become, the writer with high word counts. Slow and steady wins the race, so, don’t worry about it. Just write what you can, when you can. If you have to, get up an hour earlier and go to bed an hour later and write while eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Oh yeah – and Moxie – seriously – lots of Moxie. I drink two cases of Moxie a week during November. The caffeine high has me writing at super hyper speeds, even when I had H1N1 and shouldn’t have been able to write a word. Forget RedBull giving you wings – Moxie gives you jets packs!

Moxie btw way, for those who never heard of it: http://www.moxiefestival.com/

All Hail Bela Lugosi!

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Why Is Everyone Protesting the CPSIA?

Was just reading up on the CPSIA law that’s going into effect in August, and wondering why people are have such hysterics over it . . . Maine has actively enforced testing of all handmade products since the 1970′s. (I know because my mom owned a craft shop and Maine required all sorts of testing done on her stuffed animals and dolls before letting her sell them to the public.) I just assumed every state did the same.

In fact I’m shocked to find out that most states DO NOT have such a law in place and required this national law to go into effect. It’s only good business practice to test the contents of your inventory before you make products for sale to the public, esp if said product is intended for children. Why are thousands of crafters and home sewers protesting this law? I’m a crafter. I’m a home sewer. I’ve lived with this law my whole life, because Maine already had it!

I’m confused here. Did I miss something? I can’t figure this protest out. Can someone please explain it to me? Thanks!

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

. . .

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
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Why Is Everyone Protesting the CPSIA?

Was just reading up on the CPSIA law that’s going into effect in August, and wondering why people are have such hysterics over it . . . Maine has actively enforced testing of all handmade products since the 1970′s. (I know because my mom owned a craft shop and Maine required all sorts of testing done on her stuffed animals and dolls before letting her sell them to the public.) I just assumed every state did the same.

In fact I’m shocked to find out that most states DO NOT have such a law in place and required this national law to go into effect. It’s only good business practice to test the contents of your inventory before you make products for sale to the public, esp if said product is intended for children. Why are thousands of crafters and home sewers protesting this law? I’m a crafter. I’m a home sewer. I’ve lived with this law my whole life, because Maine already had it!

I’m confused here. Did I miss something? I can’t figure this protest out. Can someone please explain it to me? Thanks!

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

. . .

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
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Why Is Everyone Protesting the CPSIA?

Was just reading up on the CPSIA law that’s going into effect in August, and wondering why people are have such hysterics over it . . . Maine has actively enforced testing of all handmade products since the 1970′s. (I know because my mom owned a craft shop and Maine required all sorts of testing done on her stuffed animals and dolls before letting her sell them to the public.) I just assumed every state did the same.

In fact I’m shocked to find out that most states DO NOT have such a law in place and required this national law to go into effect. It’s only good business practice to test the contents of your inventory before you make products for sale to the public, esp if said product is intended for children. Why are thousands of crafters and home sewers protesting this law? I’m a crafter. I’m a home sewer. I’ve lived with this law my whole life, because Maine already had it!

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

. . .

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
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>Why Is Everyone Protesting the CPSIA?

>

Was just reading up on the CPSIA law that’s going into effect in August, and wondering why people are have such hysterics over it . . . Maine has actively enforced testing of all handmade products since the 1970′s. (I know because my mom owned a craft shop and Maine required all sorts of testing done on her stuffed animals and dolls before letting her sell them to the public.) I just assumed every state did the same.

In fact I’m shocked to find out that most states DO NOT have such a law in place and required this national law to go into effect. It’s only good business practice to test the contents of your inventory before you make products for sale to the public, esp if said product is intended for children. Why are thousands of crafters and home sewers protesting this law? I’m a crafter. I’m a home sewer. I’ve lived with this law my whole life, because Maine already had it!

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

. . .

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
.
.

.

Why Is Everyone Protesting the CPSIA?

Was just reading up on the CPSIA law that’s going into effect in August, and wondering why people are have such hysterics over it . . . Maine has actively enforced testing of all handmade products since the 1970′s. (I know because my mom owned a craft shop and Maine required all sorts of testing done on her stuffed animals and dolls before letting her sell them to the public.) I just assumed every state did the same.

In fact I’m shocked to find out that most states DO NOT have such a law in place and required this national law to go into effect. It’s only good business practice to test the contents of your inventory before you make products for sale to the public, esp if said product is intended for children. Why are thousands of crafters and home sewers protesting this law? I’m a crafter. I’m a home sewer. I’ve lived with this law my whole life, because Maine already had it!

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

. . .

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
.
.

.

Why Is Everyone Protesting the CPSIA?

Was just reading up on the CPSIA law that’s going into effect in August, and wondering why people are have such hysterics over it . . . Maine has actively enforced testing of all handmade products since the 1970′s. (I know because my mom owned a craft shop and Maine required all sorts of testing done on her stuffed animals and dolls before letting her sell them to the public.) I just assumed every state did the same.

In fact I’m shocked to find out that most states DO NOT have such a law in place and required this national law to go into effect. It’s only good business practice to test the contents of your inventory before you make products for sale to the public, esp if said product is intended for children. Why are thousands of crafters and home sewers protesting this law? I’m a crafter. I’m a home sewer. I’ve lived with this law my whole life, because Maine already had it!

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

. . .

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
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.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
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Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts
Custom Designed Postage Stamps
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More Info On My Business Plans

I was just posting a comment on some one else’s blog and it got so long that I’m copying it to here:

I have been mulling a similar idea of my own… I even had a blog I started just for randomly posting my “start my business” ideas on, so I could see them on screen and sort out what I did and did not want to do. I think I made like 5 posts on that blog and than never went back! LOL! I need to go back and throw some more ideas around.

Well, I got my own “business” to the point where I had written up a basic business plan, not very detailed though, I need to rewrite it. And I have a portfolio of my designs that I want to do. Plus I have the business name all set up and a logo. But that’s as far as I got.

What stopped me? Well, money for one. I had originally planned on opening a shop and selling direct to the public, of both custom made costumes and the patterns for said costumes to those who wanted to make their own instead of buying ready made, but after doing research into the cost of a shop rental in Portland’s theater district, that was going to require a minimum of $200,000 (more if I wanted a shop on Main street instead of a side alley) because rent for a store is so high and they required a 3 year payment up front! So I temp. changed my idea from a store selling costumes and patterns to just selling patterns online, at least until I had enough money to do the store thing.

My next problem, was I had no idea how to get my patterns printed up so I could sell them! I checked with local print shops, but none of them did this sort of thing, and I couldn’t find any online either. So I was sunk for a while and have not yet found a way to do this. I’m still researching my options though.

While I am stuck on the pattern making part, I’ve still been working towards my goal in other ways. Firstly I’ve been researching “my target audience”, trying to figure out, who they are (age group, lifestyle, income, etc. etc. etc). For me, my target audience falls into the 18 – 40 age group, and are in the Goth, CosPlay, or Historical Reenactment lifestyles.

Secondly, I’ve been doing marketing research… where do my target audience types hang out in real life and online? How do I get word of my product out to them? How much are they gonna be willing to pay for my product? Who are my competitors? How are my patterns/designs different from theirs? How are they the same? What can offer my customers that no other patterns comp offers? etc. etc. etc.

I’ve got a big binder filled with my notes and ideas, and research, and stuff… about 300 pages filled so far. I’m trying to plan out every aspect I can think out, so that I can be prepared once I get started.

(I would love to hear what others, who have started their own pattern comp did to get their patterns printed and envelops made and stuff, like that, if anyone has any tips or links they could share, it’d be a big help. Cause I’m really stuck on that and Google has NOT been helpful at all. Thanks!)

I’m not planning to go big and compete with the likes of Simplicity or those guys. Though I would like to get, say about as big as Folkwear Patterns. I plan to start out with 12 or 15 patterns, and than slowly expand over time, until I have a collection of say 200 designs.

Another aspect of my goal is, I would like to do a line of books with patterns, (aimed at CosPlayers, mostly), plus a couple on embroidery.

Well, lets see what I can answer of your questions:

My proposal:
– Patterns would be in english and french.

great!

- They could be printed as booklets, because the papers never want to go back in the envelopes anyway.

ugh! fighting with paper vs envelope is such a nightmare! I like the booklet idea

– The steps would have to be clearly explained and illustrated.

always good… I often find illustrations easier to understand than the instructions, so the more illustrations the better, I say

What I still don’t know:
– Should they be basic designs to be modified by the user, or artsy personal designs?

maybe you could have a line for each? one line of simple “create your own style” patterns, and a second line with the designer originals created by you?

when I’m using a pattern I never stick with the pattern no matter how simple or hoe fancy it may be, cause I like to add my own personal touches to everything.

- Should I focus on styles that are not usually represented by major pattern brands (gothic, lolita, punk, etc.)?

If that is the style design you have a passion for, than: YES! YES! YES! OMG! It is sooooo hard to find patterns for these styles. It’s the lack of patterns for these style that resulted in me making my own patterns in the first place! With the “business” I was planning my goal was to design patterns for Gothic, Lolita, and CosPlay because those are the patterns I end up designing because no one sells them.

My advice is, do styles that you would find yourself wearing, sewing, buying, because if you would use it yourself, you’ll be more likely to “get behind” your product and really go all out with the sale pitch.

- Should I include a few costumes as well? Historical or fantasy (or else)?

It can’t hurt. The more the merrier I say. For me, my focus would be largely costume and fantasy, because I planned the patterns I wanted to sell to be aimed mostly for CosPlayers and LARPers and SCAdians, all of whom are into the whom fantasy costume thing, so those were the target audience I was aiming for.

Again, however, only add these types of things, if it is something you really believe in and feel good about having in your collection. It’s no good selling a product that you added just because you thought it would help business, but you didn’t really believe in the product yourself.

And most important: do I have any chance of selling any? I’m aware that I do not have any example of my apparel work on the net, but do you think the concept could work?

I don’t have any of my apparel work on the net either.

I think it would work (otherwise I wouldn’t be planning to do the same thing! LOL!) I think there are enough folks out there who can’t find goth type patterns who would love to buy them once you had them listed for sale.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

All about Lord Sesshomaru’s garb & Making a Lord Sesshomaru Costume. Plus, Sesshomaru & Rin and making Rin’s Costume; and this is for anyone who needs help Creating Character Profiles for their stories or for their SCA persona.

Thank You for reading my blog’s RSS feed. Don’t forget to come to my blog and check out the links in my blogroll too!

More Info On My Business Plans

I was just posting a comment on some one else’s blog and it got so long that I’m copying it to here:

I have been mulling a similar idea of my own… I even had a blog I started just for randomly posting my “start my business” ideas on, so I could see them on screen and sort out what I did and did not want to do. I think I made like 5 posts on that blog and than never went back! LOL! I need to go back and throw some more ideas around.

Well, I got my own “business” to the point where I had written up a basic business plan, not very detailed though, I need to rewrite it. And I have a portfolio of my designs that I want to do. Plus I have the business name all set up and a logo. But that’s as far as I got.

What stopped me? Well, money for one. I had originally planned on opening a shop and selling direct to the public, of both custom made costumes and the patterns for said costumes to those who wanted to make their own instead of buying ready made, but after doing research into the cost of a shop rental in Portland’s theater district, that was going to require a minimum of $200,000 (more if I wanted a shop on Main street instead of a side alley) because rent for a store is so high and they required a 3 year payment up front! So I temp. changed my idea from a store selling costumes and patterns to just selling patterns online, at least until I had enough money to do the store thing.

My next problem, was I had no idea how to get my patterns printed up so I could sell them! I checked with local print shops, but none of them did this sort of thing, and I couldn’t find any online either. So I was sunk for a while and have not yet found a way to do this. I’m still researching my options though.

While I am stuck on the pattern making part, I’ve still been working towards my goal in other ways. Firstly I’ve been researching “my target audience”, trying to figure out, who they are (age group, lifestyle, income, etc. etc. etc). For me, my target audience falls into the 18 – 40 age group, and are in the Goth, CosPlay, or Historical Reenactment lifestyles.

Secondly, I’ve been doing marketing research… where do my target audience types hang out in real life and online? How do I get word of my product out to them? How much are they gonna be willing to pay for my product? Who are my competitors? How are my patterns/designs different from theirs? How are they the same? What can offer my customers that no other patterns comp offers? etc. etc. etc.

I’ve got a big binder filled with my notes and ideas, and research, and stuff… about 300 pages filled so far. I’m trying to plan out every aspect I can think out, so that I can be prepared once I get started.

(I would love to hear what others, who have started their own pattern comp did to get their patterns printed and envelops made and stuff, like that, if anyone has any tips or links they could share, it’d be a big help. Cause I’m really stuck on that and Google has NOT been helpful at all. Thanks!)

I’m not planning to go big and compete with the likes of Simplicity or those guys. Though I would like to get, say about as big as Folkwear Patterns. I plan to start out with 12 or 15 patterns, and than slowly expand over time, until I have a collection of say 200 designs.

Another aspect of my goal is, I would like to do a line of books with patterns, (aimed at CosPlayers, mostly), plus a couple on embroidery.

Well, lets see what I can answer of your questions:

My proposal:
– Patterns would be in english and french.

great!

- They could be printed as booklets, because the papers never want to go back in the envelopes anyway.

ugh! fighting with paper vs envelope is such a nightmare! I like the booklet idea

– The steps would have to be clearly explained and illustrated.

always good… I often find illustrations easier to understand than the instructions, so the more illustrations the better, I say

What I still don’t know:
– Should they be basic designs to be modified by the user, or artsy personal designs?

maybe you could have a line for each? one line of simple “create your own style” patterns, and a second line with the designer originals created by you?

when I’m using a pattern I never stick with the pattern no matter how simple or hoe fancy it may be, cause I like to add my own personal touches to everything.

- Should I focus on styles that are not usually represented by major pattern brands (gothic, lolita, punk, etc.)?

If that is the style design you have a passion for, than: YES! YES! YES! OMG! It is sooooo hard to find patterns for these styles. It’s the lack of patterns for these style that resulted in me making my own patterns in the first place! With the “business” I was planning my goal was to design patterns for Gothic, Lolita, and CosPlay because those are the patterns I end up designing because no one sells them.

My advice is, do styles that you would find yourself wearing, sewing, buying, because if you would use it yourself, you’ll be more likely to “get behind” your product and really go all out with the sale pitch.

- Should I include a few costumes as well? Historical or fantasy (or else)?

It can’t hurt. The more the merrier I say. For me, my focus would be largely costume and fantasy, because I planned the patterns I wanted to sell to be aimed mostly for CosPlayers and LARPers and SCAdians, all of whom are into the whom fantasy costume thing, so those were the target audience I was aiming for.

Again, however, only add these types of things, if it is something you really believe in and feel good about having in your collection. It’s no good selling a product that you added just because you thought it would help business, but you didn’t really believe in the product yourself.

And most important: do I have any chance of selling any? I’m aware that I do not have any example of my apparel work on the net, but do you think the concept could work?

I don’t have any of my apparel work on the net either.

I think it would work (otherwise I wouldn’t be planning to do the same thing! LOL!) I think there are enough folks out there who can’t find goth type patterns who would love to buy them once you had them listed for sale.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

All about Lord Sesshomaru’s garb & Making a Lord Sesshomaru Costume. Plus, Sesshomaru & Rin and making Rin’s Costume; and this is for anyone who needs help Creating Character Profiles for their stories or for their SCA persona.

Thank You for reading my blog’s RSS feed. Don’t forget to come to my blog and check out the links in my blogroll too!

More Info On My Business Plans

I was just posting a comment on some one else’s blog and it got so long that I’m copying it to here:

I have been mulling a similar idea of my own… I even had a blog I started just for randomly posting my “start my business” ideas on, so I could see them on screen and sort out what I did and did not want to do. I think I made like 5 posts on that blog and than never went back! LOL! I need to go back and throw some more ideas around.

Well, I got my own “business” to the point where I had written up a basic business plan, not very detailed though, I need to rewrite it. And I have a portfolio of my designs that I want to do. Plus I have the business name all set up and a logo. But that’s as far as I got.

What stopped me? Well, money for one. I had originally planned on opening a shop and selling direct to the public, of both custom made costumes and the patterns for said costumes to those who wanted to make their own instead of buying ready made, but after doing research into the cost of a shop rental in Portland’s theater district, that was going to require a minimum of $200,000 (more if I wanted a shop on Main street instead of a side alley) because rent for a store is so high and they required a 3 year payment up front! So I temp. changed my idea from a store selling costumes and patterns to just selling patterns online, at least until I had enough money to do the store thing.

My next problem, was I had no idea how to get my patterns printed up so I could sell them! I checked with local print shops, but none of them did this sort of thing, and I couldn’t find any online either. So I was sunk for a while and have not yet found a way to do this. I’m still researching my options though.

While I am stuck on the pattern making part, I’ve still been working towards my goal in other ways. Firstly I’ve been researching “my target audience”, trying to figure out, who they are (age group, lifestyle, income, etc. etc. etc). For me, my target audience falls into the 18 – 40 age group, and are in the Goth, CosPlay, or Historical Reenactment lifestyles.

Secondly, I’ve been doing marketing research… where do my target audience types hang out in real life and online? How do I get word of my product out to them? How much are they gonna be willing to pay for my product? Who are my competitors? How are my patterns/designs different from theirs? How are they the same? What can offer my customers that no other patterns comp offers? etc. etc. etc.

I’ve got a big binder filled with my notes and ideas, and research, and stuff… about 300 pages filled so far. I’m trying to plan out every aspect I can think out, so that I can be prepared once I get started.

(I would love to hear what others, who have started their own pattern comp did to get their patterns printed and envelops made and stuff, like that, if anyone has any tips or links they could share, it’d be a big help. Cause I’m really stuck on that and Google has NOT been helpful at all. Thanks!)

I’m not planning to go big and compete with the likes of Simplicity or those guys. Though I would like to get, say about as big as Folkwear Patterns. I plan to start out with 12 or 15 patterns, and than slowly expand over time, until I have a collection of say 200 designs.

Another aspect of my goal is, I would like to do a line of books with patterns, (aimed at CosPlayers, mostly), plus a couple on embroidery.

Well, lets see what I can answer of your questions:

My proposal:
– Patterns would be in english and french.

great!

- They could be printed as booklets, because the papers never want to go back in the envelopes anyway.

ugh! fighting with paper vs envelope is such a nightmare! I like the booklet idea

– The steps would have to be clearly explained and illustrated.

always good… I often find illustrations easier to understand than the instructions, so the more illustrations the better, I say

What I still don’t know:
– Should they be basic designs to be modified by the user, or artsy personal designs?

maybe you could have a line for each? one line of simple “create your own style” patterns, and a second line with the designer originals created by you?

when I’m using a pattern I never stick with the pattern no matter how simple or hoe fancy it may be, cause I like to add my own personal touches to everything.

- Should I focus on styles that are not usually represented by major pattern brands (gothic, lolita, punk, etc.)?

If that is the style design you have a passion for, than: YES! YES! YES! OMG! It is sooooo hard to find patterns for these styles. It’s the lack of patterns for these style that resulted in me making my own patterns in the first place! With the “business” I was planning my goal was to design patterns for Gothic, Lolita, and CosPlay because those are the patterns I end up designing because no one sells them.

My advice is, do styles that you would find yourself wearing, sewing, buying, because if you would use it yourself, you’ll be more likely to “get behind” your product and really go all out with the sale pitch.

- Should I include a few costumes as well? Historical or fantasy (or else)?

It can’t hurt. The more the merrier I say. For me, my focus would be largely costume and fantasy, because I planned the patterns I wanted to sell to be aimed mostly for CosPlayers and LARPers and SCAdians, all of whom are into the whom fantasy costume thing, so those were the target audience I was aiming for.

Again, however, only add these types of things, if it is something you really believe in and feel good about having in your collection. It’s no good selling a product that you added just because you thought it would help business, but you didn’t really believe in the product yourself.

And most important: do I have any chance of selling any? I’m aware that I do not have any example of my apparel work on the net, but do you think the concept could work?

I don’t have any of my apparel work on the net either.

I think it would work (otherwise I wouldn’t be planning to do the same thing! LOL!) I think there are enough folks out there who can’t find goth type patterns who would love to buy them once you had them listed for sale.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

————-
If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

All about Lord Sesshomaru’s garb & Making a Lord Sesshomaru Costume. Plus, Sesshomaru & Rin and making Rin’s Costume; and this is for anyone who needs help Creating Character Profiles for their stories or for their SCA persona.

Thank You for reading my blog’s RSS feed. Don’t forget to come to my blog and check out the links in my blogroll too!

testing tags

having a problem getting posts to show up… testing to see if tags are working yet

My Website ranks at 32!!!!!

OMG! My Squidoo lense now ranks in at 32 on the Squidoo top 100 list! 32 out of 220,000 lenses! I can’t believe it!

Here it is if you want to check it out:

http://www.squidoo.com/PublishingMethods/

Making Money Online

The following article was copied with permission:

Things to keep in mind when to make money
online

Ever heard the phrase : build and they will
come?

On the web, it’s more like,build it, promote it consistently,
distinguish yourself in some way, and maybe they will come. There are millions
upon millions of websites. It’s simply not possible to slap together a website,
dump it online, and wait for the money to come rolling in. Making money online
can be done, but all of the people who did, have worked hard to achieve what
they have.

If you be honest to yourself you know you will have to do
something to make money online. Are you also tired of all those programs that
promise you big money without any investment of time, money or work? It is no
breaking news if I tell you those programs don’t work. let’s be honest! If you
could make big money by doing nothing. Why aren’t we all millionaires then? Why
are they still advertising and working their program? I think you can
guess.

They Tell you that you can be rich very quickly. This
should put you on high alert! If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
While we would all like to be able to make $ 500 a day, starting from our first
day and continuing into infinity, it isn’t very likely.

You’re told
that you don’t need to do any work-they do it all for you. You cannot be
successful without putting in a lot of hard work

You’re told that
anyone can make money. Again, not true. If that were true, we’d all be rich.
The internet is a goldmine of opportunity, no doubt about that…..but it’s like
any other opportunity: some people will do well, other’s won’t. The internet
only gives you the home based work opportunity; you have to shape that
opportunity. Being told that anyone can get rich off their program is
misleading.

You’ll have to be comfortable with your computer You
will do everything with your computer. You will have an Email program. Online
Business reports. With a good program an online training program. etc etc. You
don’t have to be a wizzkid. You will get coaching and training to learn. But you
must feel comfortable with your computer and ready to learn some
tricks.

You must be willing to make a time commitment Without
doing any work you make $2500 the first month! Do you really believe this?
Again, we would all be millionaires. The internet is like the real world; you’ll
have to work to make money online. Don’t be fooled into thinking that home based
business opportunities are an easy way to make money online. It is true 99% of
the work is done by the company. As an affiliate you’ll do 1% of the work. But
you’re doing the hardest part of the work. Sure, your only job is to advertise-
but that requires a great deal of learning and effort. It’s not as simple as
throwing a banner on your website. You have to put forth a effort in order to
make money online; if you’re not motivated to make your home based business
opportunity work, you won’t do well.

You’ll have to spend a little
money to invest Did you ever hear of building a business without investing
any money? On the other hand we don’t want to spend much, so better spend it
wisely.

Computer system – You don’t need a top-of-the-line
machine. Get a good computer that will serve your current and your projected
short-term future needs well. Be sure to get anti virus software and a firewall
as well.

Reference books – I do think investing in a few good
reference manuals are well worth the time, effort, and money they save you. And
they do save you money in the long run-you can learn from other people’s
experiences and avoid making same mistakes.

Email software – Most
computer systems come installed with Email software.

HTML editor -
You don’t need an HTML editor; you can create your web pages using Notepad if
you like. Beginners often like WYSIWYG editors. WYSIWYG stand for : What you see
is what you get. All this means is that you’ll be able to drag and drop items
using this editor so that you can immediately see what your web page looks like.
In other words, you don’t need to know HTML.

Domain name
registration.

Website hosting

Internet access
fees

Mailing list
management

Advertising

SE/index reviews. You can
get a great deal of targeted traffic to your website from the major search
engines and indexes.

To get anywhere in life you”ll have to work
hard. Here are a few tips to help you work on your business:

Drop the
negativity – for example, instead of moaning about how you still haven’t made
any money, focus instead on how great it will be to make your first sale.
Believe me, that first sale is an incredible feeling! It will energizes you in a
way that’s hard to describe.

Take it one small step a time – There’s no
point in setting a lofty goal, only to fail at achieving it. A bunch of small
steps will eventually lead to the achievement of a larger
goal.

Re-prioritize – There is no way that anyone can do everything. Let
small things go while you concentrate on your business.

Be willing to
make a few smart investments – While we would all prefer to spend nothing and
make millions, it’s simply not realistic.it takes money to make
money.

Force yourself to do a little most days – sometimes it is hard.
You will have to drag yourself to the computer every single day to do 5 small
tasks-and not having seen a single sale. But in the end it will pay off; there
will be a point where you quit your job and make money online.

Stay 100%
focused on what you want – Keep your final destination firmly in mind: do you
want to be able to spend more time with the kids? Do you simply want to leave
the stress of the corporate world? Do you simply want the independence and sense
of achievement that comes from running your own business? Imagine what it will
be like once you achieve it. Focus on why you want the business in the first
place; it will help to keep you motivated.

Only you can change the course
of your live. So what are you waiting for? Get going!

“You have
permission to reprint what you just read. Use it in your ezine, at your website
or in your newsletter. The only requirement is including the following footer
with it.”

*article by Ruud Boer visit Ruud’s

Discount Shopping Mall
to profit the free Bonus and start your own Internet Business Today

or
visit the Dutch version Kopen met Korting.

Reprinting this article is
permitted with this footer included.

About the Author

Ruud Boer is a home business entrepreneur who gets
hundreds of visitors who subscribe to his free

Discount Shopping
Mall

He likes to help people to start their own home based business
and

make
money online .

Keywords:

Article
Source The Write Market

Making Money Online

The following article was copied with permission:

Things to keep in mind when to make money
online

Ever heard the phrase : build and they will
come?

On the web, it’s more like,build it, promote it consistently,
distinguish yourself in some way, and maybe they will come. There are millions
upon millions of websites. It’s simply not possible to slap together a website,
dump it online, and wait for the money to come rolling in. Making money online
can be done, but all of the people who did, have worked hard to achieve what
they have.

If you be honest to yourself you know you will have to do
something to make money online. Are you also tired of all those programs that
promise you big money without any investment of time, money or work? It is no
breaking news if I tell you those programs don’t work. let’s be honest! If you
could make big money by doing nothing. Why aren’t we all millionaires then? Why
are they still advertising and working their program? I think you can
guess.

They Tell you that you can be rich very quickly. This
should put you on high alert! If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
While we would all like to be able to make $ 500 a day, starting from our first
day and continuing into infinity, it isn’t very likely.

You’re told
that you don’t need to do any work-they do it all for you. You cannot be
successful without putting in a lot of hard work

You’re told that
anyone can make money. Again, not true. If that were true, we’d all be rich.
The internet is a goldmine of opportunity, no doubt about that…..but it’s like
any other opportunity: some people will do well, other’s won’t. The internet
only gives you the home based work opportunity; you have to shape that
opportunity. Being told that anyone can get rich off their program is
misleading.

You’ll have to be comfortable with your computer You
will do everything with your computer. You will have an Email program. Online
Business reports. With a good program an online training program. etc etc. You
don’t have to be a wizzkid. You will get coaching and training to learn. But you
must feel comfortable with your computer and ready to learn some
tricks.

You must be willing to make a time commitment Without
doing any work you make $2500 the first month! Do you really believe this?
Again, we would all be millionaires. The internet is like the real world; you’ll
have to work to make money online. Don’t be fooled into thinking that home based
business opportunities are an easy way to make money online. It is true 99% of
the work is done by the company. As an affiliate you’ll do 1% of the work. But
you’re doing the hardest part of the work. Sure, your only job is to advertise-
but that requires a great deal of learning and effort. It’s not as simple as
throwing a banner on your website. You have to put forth a effort in order to
make money online; if you’re not motivated to make your home based business
opportunity work, you won’t do well.

You’ll have to spend a little
money to invest Did you ever hear of building a business without investing
any money? On the other hand we don’t want to spend much, so better spend it
wisely.

Computer system – You don’t need a top-of-the-line
machine. Get a good computer that will serve your current and your projected
short-term future needs well. Be sure to get anti virus software and a firewall
as well.

Reference books – I do think investing in a few good
reference manuals are well worth the time, effort, and money they save you. And
they do save you money in the long run-you can learn from other people’s
experiences and avoid making same mistakes.

Email software – Most
computer systems come installed with Email software.

HTML editor -
You don’t need an HTML editor; you can create your web pages using Notepad if
you like. Beginners often like WYSIWYG editors. WYSIWYG stand for : What you see
is what you get. All this means is that you’ll be able to drag and drop items
using this editor so that you can immediately see what your web page looks like.
In other words, you don’t need to know HTML.

Domain name
registration.

Website hosting

Internet access
fees

Mailing list
management

Advertising

SE/index reviews. You can
get a great deal of targeted traffic to your website from the major search
engines and indexes.

To get anywhere in life you”ll have to work
hard. Here are a few tips to help you work on your business:

Drop the
negativity – for example, instead of moaning about how you still haven’t made
any money, focus instead on how great it will be to make your first sale.
Believe me, that first sale is an incredible feeling! It will energizes you in a
way that’s hard to describe.

Take it one small step a time – There’s no
point in setting a lofty goal, only to fail at achieving it. A bunch of small
steps will eventually lead to the achievement of a larger
goal.

Re-prioritize – There is no way that anyone can do everything. Let
small things go while you concentrate on your business.

Be willing to
make a few smart investments – While we would all prefer to spend nothing and
make millions, it’s simply not realistic.it takes money to make
money.

Force yourself to do a little most days – sometimes it is hard.
You will have to drag yourself to the computer every single day to do 5 small
tasks-and not having seen a single sale. But in the end it will pay off; there
will be a point where you quit your job and make money online.

Stay 100%
focused on what you want – Keep your final destination firmly in mind: do you
want to be able to spend more time with the kids? Do you simply want to leave
the stress of the corporate world? Do you simply want the independence and sense
of achievement that comes from running your own business? Imagine what it will
be like once you achieve it. Focus on why you want the business in the first
place; it will help to keep you motivated.

Only you can change the course
of your live. So what are you waiting for? Get going!

“You have
permission to reprint what you just read. Use it in your ezine, at your website
or in your newsletter. The only requirement is including the following footer
with it.”

*article by Ruud Boer visit Ruud’s

Discount Shopping Mall
to profit the free Bonus and start your own Internet Business Today

or
visit the Dutch version Kopen met Korting.

Reprinting this article is
permitted with this footer included.

About the Author

Ruud Boer is a home business entrepreneur who gets
hundreds of visitors who subscribe to his free

Discount Shopping
Mall

He likes to help people to start their own home based business
and

make
money online .

Keywords:

Article
Source The Write Market

Making Money Online

The following article was copied with permission:

Things to keep in mind when to make money
online

Ever heard the phrase : build and they will
come?

On the web, it’s more like,build it, promote it consistently,
distinguish yourself in some way, and maybe they will come. There are millions
upon millions of websites. It’s simply not possible to slap together a website,
dump it online, and wait for the money to come rolling in. Making money online
can be done, but all of the people who did, have worked hard to achieve what
they have.

If you be honest to yourself you know you will have to do
something to make money online. Are you also tired of all those programs that
promise you big money without any investment of time, money or work? It is no
breaking news if I tell you those programs don’t work. let’s be honest! If you
could make big money by doing nothing. Why aren’t we all millionaires then? Why
are they still advertising and working their program? I think you can
guess.

They Tell you that you can be rich very quickly. This
should put you on high alert! If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
While we would all like to be able to make $ 500 a day, starting from our first
day and continuing into infinity, it isn’t very likely.

You’re told
that you don’t need to do any work-they do it all for you. You cannot be
successful without putting in a lot of hard work

You’re told that
anyone can make money. Again, not true. If that were true, we’d all be rich.
The internet is a goldmine of opportunity, no doubt about that…..but it’s like
any other opportunity: some people will do well, other’s won’t. The internet
only gives you the home based work opportunity; you have to shape that
opportunity. Being told that anyone can get rich off their program is
misleading.

You’ll have to be comfortable with your computer You
will do everything with your computer. You will have an Email program. Online
Business reports. With a good program an online training program. etc etc. You
don’t have to be a wizzkid. You will get coaching and training to learn. But you
must feel comfortable with your computer and ready to learn some
tricks.

You must be willing to make a time commitment Without
doing any work you make $2500 the first month! Do you really believe this?
Again, we would all be millionaires. The internet is like the real world; you’ll
have to work to make money online. Don’t be fooled into thinking that home based
business opportunities are an easy way to make money online. It is true 99% of
the work is done by the company. As an affiliate you’ll do 1% of the work. But
you’re doing the hardest part of the work. Sure, your only job is to advertise-
but that requires a great deal of learning and effort. It’s not as simple as
throwing a banner on your website. You have to put forth a effort in order to
make money online; if you’re not motivated to make your home based business
opportunity work, you won’t do well.

You’ll have to spend a little
money to invest Did you ever hear of building a business without investing
any money? On the other hand we don’t want to spend much, so better spend it
wisely.

Computer system – You don’t need a top-of-the-line
machine. Get a good computer that will serve your current and your projected
short-term future needs well. Be sure to get anti virus software and a firewall
as well.

Reference books – I do think investing in a few good
reference manuals are well worth the time, effort, and money they save you. And
they do save you money in the long run-you can learn from other people’s
experiences and avoid making same mistakes.

Email software – Most
computer systems come installed with Email software.

HTML editor -
You don’t need an HTML editor; you can create your web pages using Notepad if
you like. Beginners often like WYSIWYG editors. WYSIWYG stand for : What you see
is what you get. All this means is that you’ll be able to drag and drop items
using this editor so that you can immediately see what your web page looks like.
In other words, you don’t need to know HTML.

Domain name
registration.

Website hosting

Internet access
fees

Mailing list
management

Advertising

SE/index reviews. You can
get a great deal of targeted traffic to your website from the major search
engines and indexes.

To get anywhere in life you”ll have to work
hard. Here are a few tips to help you work on your business:

Drop the
negativity – for example, instead of moaning about how you still haven’t made
any money, focus instead on how great it will be to make your first sale.
Believe me, that first sale is an incredible feeling! It will energizes you in a
way that’s hard to describe.

Take it one small step a time – There’s no
point in setting a lofty goal, only to fail at achieving it. A bunch of small
steps will eventually lead to the achievement of a larger
goal.

Re-prioritize – There is no way that anyone can do everything. Let
small things go while you concentrate on your business.

Be willing to
make a few smart investments – While we would all prefer to spend nothing and
make millions, it’s simply not realistic.it takes money to make
money.

Force yourself to do a little most days – sometimes it is hard.
You will have to drag yourself to the computer every single day to do 5 small
tasks-and not having seen a single sale. But in the end it will pay off; there
will be a point where you quit your job and make money online.

Stay 100%
focused on what you want – Keep your final destination firmly in mind: do you
want to be able to spend more time with the kids? Do you simply want to leave
the stress of the corporate world? Do you simply want the independence and sense
of achievement that comes from running your own business? Imagine what it will
be like once you achieve it. Focus on why you want the business in the first
place; it will help to keep you motivated.

Only you can change the course
of your live. So what are you waiting for? Get going!

“You have
permission to reprint what you just read. Use it in your ezine, at your website
or in your newsletter. The only requirement is including the following footer
with it.”

*article by Ruud Boer visit Ruud’s

Discount Shopping Mall
to profit the free Bonus and start your own Internet Business Today

or
visit the Dutch version Kopen met Korting.

Reprinting this article is
permitted with this footer included.

About the Author

Ruud Boer is a home business entrepreneur who gets
hundreds of visitors who subscribe to his free

Discount Shopping
Mall

He likes to help people to start their own home based business
and

make
money online .

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