Writer Tech: Ambient-Mixer.

Have any of you ever found yourselves daydreaming about being able to teleport yourselves into the perfect setting for your writing project, complete with great wifi service and a printer? I know I have. Unfortunately, that's not always possible, and we have to make do with family-filled houses or noisy coffee shops. Or at best, …

Plainly Told.

Portrait of William Shakespeare from the title page of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays; copper engraving by Martin Droeshout, 1623. One of the earliest portraits of Shakespeare. (Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images) "An honest tale speeds best being plainly told."Shakespeare, Richard III William Shaxper, serving the best writing advice since 1592-ish.

Writer Tech: 4thewords

You guys. If there's one website that single-handedly got me through NaNoWriMo last year, it was the brilliant website 4thewords.* It's basically a quest-type game (sorry, I don't know any of the technical terms, I've never been a gamer) and a word-sprint challenge built into one. You get to design a character and send them …

Success Is Simple.

"Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time."- Arnold Glasgow And maybe use your noggin a bit so you'll know what the right thing to do is. Carpe diem, folks.

Writer Tech: Poe.

Yikes, it's been a while since I announced this series. It's power outage season in my neck of the (literal) woods. Every time there's a puff of wind, a tree falls over and takes out the power lines. If I was smart, I'd be batch-writing my posts and queuing them in advance. Who knows, maybe …

Be Astonished at Nothing.

"To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus."-Enid Bagnold That's what we writers do, isn't it?

You Spend It.

"Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you."Carl Sandburg Can we all shake on this in the new year?

Writer Tech: A New Series.

I love writing longhand. I just think better when I'm holding a pen, you know? Obviously, all my work has to get typed at some point, but for first drafts in particular there's something about the feeling of a smooth piece of paper under your hand, the faint resistance of the pen's nib as it …

Good Madness.

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness."Neil Gaiman Happy New Year, everyone! I'm not a huge believer in making resolutions, because I believe changes can be made whenever you realize you need them. That being said, there's something about a fresh start, isn't there? Carpe annum.