LATE LATE LATE!
NaNoWriMo 2011 Progress (Day 15)
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Author Archives: Nathalie Hamidi
No Plot? No Problem!
After freaking out a little on October, 31st at 11:59 p.m., because I still had no plot or story whatsoever, I finally got in the NaNoWriMo mood at midnight sharp, and lauched myself into the sequel of last year’s novel: NightmarZ (not available anywhere yet).
As of now, I still have almost no plot, just an idea for a possible story with the same characters. Of course, not everything was resolved to my satisfaction during the first novel, so it is also a means to close some loose ends as well.
Last year, all plots I decided on were lost when, at the last minute, I decided on a brand new idea. It’s almost like, having already thought about where the story was going, I did not have to write it anymore. So this year, I decided to not decide on a plot until the last minute – which is practical, but stress-inducing.
After a few lines, however, with some recap and narration of the events following the end of my previous novel, the story began to write itself. I can call the lightning at will and my Muse will answer and provide ideas.
I don’t know where this story is going, but I know one thing: I’m enjoying the journey.
NaNoWriMo 2011 Progress (Day 1)
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Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo
It’s that time of the year. The anticipation and stress are building as I get ready for NaNoWriMo 2011. I surrounded myself with my trusted tools, and I’m trying to relax waiting for those eight hours to pass.
I have my mobile around, but I don’t plan on using it much during November, because I’ll be writing. I have upgraded my netbook in order to be able to write from anywhere inside the house, but I plan to work mostly from the couch, in from of the TV. I have prepared a long list of movies to play in the background for inbetween word wars. My DSi is around too, for a well-deserved Pokemon fight once in a while.
Also reachable are my Kindle for a quick reference of dialog, punctuation or book-related question, or for a longer reward reading after a successful writing day. Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem! will accompany me during the whole month too.
Last but not least, my lucky mug, the one I gifted myself last year after winning NaNoWriMo 2010. The caffeine intake is gonna go through the roof.
How are YOU getting ready for NaNoWriMo?
Fix for XML Parsing Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity
I have been having a lot of the same problem lately on almost all of my blogs: the RSS feed would stop to work on WordPress. I proudly use WordPress, which is the greatest CMS I have ever used, and I enjoy its features and community. But this problem was really getting on my nerves, and a lot of people seemed to have no solution to that.
I was having this error:
XML Parsing Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity
The support forums on WordPress.org had some suggestions:
- Check your theme’s functions.php file for blank lines outside of <? and ?> bracketed section (actually, I had to manually check many files: wp-config.php, wp-settings.php, wp-rss.php, wp-rss2.php, wp-feed.php, wp-atom.php).
- Use the fix-rss-feed plugin (that did a lot of mess in my files, leaving behind lots of backup junk, but did not correct the problem).
Then, I found this solution, which worked perfectly for me: WordPress leading whitespace fix. You just have to place the file in the root directory of your blog, and edit the index.php file there to include it.
This is but a temporary solution, as WordPress will overwrite index.php at the next upgrade, but it’s not very time-consuming to put it back in place afterwards. I wish someone would find a way to make this into a plugin, so that it would be included automatically.
Do you have the same problem? What solutions, if any, did you find? Please share in the comment section.
Inventory, One Week After
One week has passed since my decision to become self-entrepreneur. Where do I stand?
My collaboration with ebookers goes well, many of my articles are published, which will be useful when I will have to check the financial results at the end of the month.
I have done a rewrite for a friend’s website. For now, the estimate was accepted, and I await patiently the results. Logically, if my work was pleasing, I should have other proposals for the same work site. I will get back about that as soon as I know a little more.
I thought I had a little difficulty getting back in shape for work, but apparently it’s like riding a bike, you never forget! It remains to see if it’s still as easy in the days to come.
My professional website is progressing well, the most important pages are done, it is presentable. I’m going to keep working on it, but slowly now. I relocated my personal blog here too, for those who want to hear from me more than my business. Not much over there for now, but it will happen soon!
Why a Minimalist Design for My Professional Website?
I noticed that, when building websites, the simplest ones are the best ones to really concentrate on content.
Unlike a more personal site where you can afford more imagination and fantasy, a professional website must first have good content, be simple to navigate, and should facilitate information sharing.
Soon, I’ll put up a personal blog, where I’ll just do what I want, but this site – which will talk about self-entrepreneurship, my professional activities, a showcase of my activities – has to remain clear and legible even for those who are not accustomed to the Internet and blogs.
I will try to keep my number of categories and tags to a minimum, use clear titles and minimize the scattering. I will use minimalism to keep focus on the important things.
Finding New Prospects
Selling myself has never been my thing. I don’t really know how to sell myself, and so far it’s never been an obligation, because people have always chose me to work with them based on what they know about me and the quality of my work
For my first “real” job, I met my future employeur on IRC. We were talking in italian because he was of Roman origin. So when he had the need for a secretary, he immediately thought of me (it was an Italian company based in Toulouse, and with a lot of phone calls to do with the other italian branches).
When Stephanie approached me to work for ebookers, she knew that my writing style was appropriate since we’ve known each other on the net for some years. I had also written a personal blog for some time, so she knew what I could or couldn’t do.
Two or three people I know told me they would probably give me some work, which is super nice. But the question is: how do I find customers outside of my friends’ range?
I’ll have to do a lot of research, and will need to find someone confident enough to let me prove that my work is worth it. I won’t let go, I know it will turn out OK!