#MyWANA

*someone comes by and pats me on the shoulder*

Yes, I know everything will be fine. I’m not crying though, I promise!

#MyWANA is a Twitter hashtag that I saw flutter by on the Twitter-sphere today. It was started the other day by @KristenLambTX with this post on her blog. Go take some time to read it, as she explains it much better than I will.

So MyWANA is a place for writers to gather and encourage each other on, with the idea that through the hashtag, a community for discussion is formed. My is the possessive my. That is MY book, not yours. The rest stands for: We Are Not Alone,

The process of writing is a very lonely process. Ideally, there is no distraction, which means there aren’t others around that you are talking with. So, most writers aren’t around other people. So if we want to communicate with others, and there is no-one around, that makes it hard. That is why the internet is so useful, specifically Twitter. You can go on, search for the hash tag, and now you can communicate with others in (semi) real time.

Now, I know there are other hash tags for writers: #amwriting are #writing are two that I know and use sometimes. So, I don’t know what the difference is with these and #MyWANA, other than the name. In any case, there is a community forming there. Hopefully you’ll find me there sometimes.

And if you want a quick link, here you go!

Why I Write?

It’s a question (or statement) I’ve seen going around recently: Why I write? It’s a great question, and made me wonder myself, so I thought I’d try and give an answer.

I have a few reasons that come to mind. The first two are kind-of default answers for me, and I don’t want to cheapen them. Unfortunately, I think they will come across that way. But, they are part of my answer so, here we go, anyway!

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Scrivener for Windows

I’m done reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but I need to do my writeup. I am planning 2 blog posts for that. Maybe more if I feel like expounding more. Today, I want to talk about Scrivener, though.

I heard of Scrivener when I did NaNoWriMo in 2009. It looked interesting, but as it was only for Mac, I couldn’t do anything with it. I may be in IT, but I haven’t been able to justify getting a Mac yet.

Then, as NaNo 2010 was gearing up, I heard that there was a Windows Beta starting. Great! Except that I do most of my writing on a Dell Mini 9 netbook with Ubuntu Linux. As NaNo progressed, I noticed that they had a Linux version! Great! But I didn’t want to take the time to figure out how to get it to work during NaNo, so I waited till afterwords. As I look back on it, I wish I had noticed that Linux port from the start. Its features make it a lot easier to work in for writing, as compared to Word or OpenOffice.

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