DNP 03 - Software

• The forums are locked, the podcast is going stronger than ever


• Solo Segment: Conflict on every page, but what is conflict?


• Main topic: software for writers


• yWriter: novel creation software.


• Zim and WikidPad: wikified notes.


• Any number of tangents, among others about distrusting anything that puts info online.


• Closing things up: cut content


• yWriter doesn't do markup or layout.


• yWriter lacks an undo function, but backups saved by day may provide a work-around.


• yWriter does have spel czech, uh spell check. Just check yWriter's help under "Spell Check"; it will tell you where to download the external dictionary you need.


• Also other report getting yWriter to work with Wine under Linux, but I haven't been able to duplicate this. YMMV. Check this page for details.


• Next week: Outlines.

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DNP 02 - Characters

• I pass along some official news. We'll have to do without the forums for a while soon. Yes, it's tragic.



• This weeks solo segment, another big rule of writing: show don't tell. It's good, but doesn't apply as often as you'd think.



• The main topic: Characters, discussed with Erik (aka Frats). How are characters created and kept track off. The pros and cons of writing our character information.



• Promo: I Should Be Writing



• Closing remarks: I had a sore throat while recording much of this, I hope it isn't too audible. Next week's show should be about writing (related) software. A section of the main topic about character sheets has been cut and turned into the post before this one. Here's a link just in case.

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Character Sheets

As was promised, or rather as will be promised in the episode about to be posted, I'm posting an example of my current character sheets. It's been converted to HTML so you can easily view it in your browser. For my own use it's basically just a table in an OpenOffice Writer file, apart from the personal history which sits below the table. This is actually a minor character from the work I'm currently editing. I've filled in a few blanks before posting this, but the character's personal history remains incomplete.

My apologies for the huge scroll down, I'll try to get that fixed tomorrow, but can't currently work it out.

Constance Eveline Ballard
Born	03 May 2270	Profile Date	01 January 2317
Rank(s)/Title(s)	Commodore (Allied Space Forces)
Ethnicity	Mixed: Japenese, Egyptian, Inuit, Bantu and Caucasian ancestors.
Hair	Dark brown, wavy	Eyes	Grey
Height	184 cm	Weight/Build	79 kg
Other Physical	Complexion roughly a match for the darker side of the Japanese spectrum, but round eyes. Nails often bitten.
Background	Grew up in Japan and later North America. Both parents university educated.
Character	Ambitious, aggressively competent. Genuinely concerned about the public good, but does keep an eye on her own position at all times.
Speech Style	Somewhat slow to speak, a result of having to overcome a childhood stutter. Says less than she thinks. Tends to use long words and sentences.
Mannerisms	Still bites finger-nails at times, though she tries not to. Drums fingers on desk.
POV Style	Tends to introspectives. More likely to describe sounds than sights.

Personal History:

Constance was born near the top of one of the Tokyo harbour towers.
She was a quick study at school, but withdrawn because of a stutter.
Even after she overcame her stutter she remained withdrawn, more
likely to think than to speak.

It was Forester's Horatio Hornblower who first got her
interested in military service. The purposefully quiet hero held an
appeal for a fifteen year old girl of a quiet disposition. Her
family didn't approve though, and yielding to the pressure Constance
actually qualified as a psychologist, before joining the ASF after
all.

The space forces would have preferred her to be a psychologist
in the service, qualified psychological and medical personnel are
continually scarce, but she managed to get into the regular officer
training program.

DNP 01 - Worldbuilding

Technically posted late on Tuesday, but realistically Wednesday (CET).

• Yes, the podcast has gone live. New episodes every week on Wednesday, at least until the end of November.


• My first solo segment: write what you know, with a twist.


• Skype conversation with Tijs (aka Deus) about Worldbuilding and NaNo. Hopefully the sound-quality on Skype should go up further in the future, due to improvements on my end. But even with the present quality we had a nice discussion about our contrasting worldbuilding strategies. Hopefully the comparrison of advantages and drawbacks will help you decide what you want to do for NaNo this year.

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Episode Zero

The first or rather zeroth episode of The Dutch NaNo Podcast is here. Setting out the mission of this podcast: to help as many people as possible reach 50k words in November, regardless of whether they speak Dutch. A must for everyone doing NaNoWriMo.

Download the mp3 file or subscribe to the feed.