Book Update

It is now over halfway through National Novel Writing month. At this point, I should have 25,000 words written out of 50,000 by now. Unfortunately, I've only written 7,915 words for my goal, way short of where I'd hoped to be by now.

How did this happen? For me, writing is a much lengthier process then I expected. While it may seem easy to keep all of the details about your characters to paper in your head, in reality, it's very hard to be able to recall all of the minor details that make up the story. I'm sure most authors have a system in place to assist in this, but I certainly could use such a system to manage everything in my head.

In addition to being busy and unorganized, I've also found that I have difficulties focusing long enough to decide what to write and type the words on the screen. By the time I recall the necessary points of the story, I often have a distraction which prevents me from writing. Part of this is due to my desk setup at home, and partially because I'm easily distracted.

Finally, I wanted to reflect on my tool of choice so far in this project, Google Docs. The standard web version of the application works pretty well, especially in Chrome. Occasionally in Firefox I've been unable to enter text. Refreshing the page usually resolved this issue, but I've just made the switch to Chrome to edit the book chapters.

But, the Android app is a little awkward to use. It highlights the entire row you're editing, even when that row is word wrapped. For some reason, this reminds me of vim, which is not something I want out of a tool to write a book. For programming, this might work, but as a general purpose text editor, it doesn't work.

Additionally, the up and down arrows scroll the text in the window instead of moving the cursor up and down rows. This is much tougher to work around than the purely aesthetic issue with the row highlight. On a slower Android phone like the one I use, it can take a while to load ta document to edit it. Yet, when you select a document, it opens it up for viewing. If you want to actually edit your document, you have to press an 'Edit ' button to load another screen which contains the edit elements on it. Performance wise, it took about 20 seconds to load the application, about a minute to load one of my chapters in the application, then about another 15 seconds to load the document again to edit it. A slow phone and a slow network exacerbate the performance issues with the application and the architecture around it. In the end, I've typed only a small portion of the book on my phone and done the rest of the writing on a desktop through the browser to Google Docs. Its still a good way to write a novel, even if its not as easy to write on-the-go as I was hoping.

Labels in Football and Software Business

It's been a tough year of football in my neck of the woods. As an IU alum, its painful to watch the slow progress the football team is making this year with its 1-9 record. There have been some games against opponents in lesser known divisions that have made a mockery of the team this year. But that is in some respects expected from a school that has never had a strong football program. What truly stings this year is that the Indianapolis Colts, without Peyton Manning, have gone 0 and 9 so far this year. From a team that has hadn't had a losing season in over a decade, its a stinging blow.

But when you break down the Indianapolis Colts, in hindsight, it becomes obvious that without their lynch-pin player, the system falls apart. Over the last decade, so much emphasis of the Colts has been placed on Manning. Manning of course is a stellar player, but he's just one player on the team. From a morale and recruitment standpoint, a stellar player can inhibit recruitment in other areas. If you describe your team as a power offense, it will be tough to recruit the best defensive players in the game, the best special  teams players, and the best running backs.

I've seen this happen in businesses too. A company that makes and sells software or hardware might change its language and begin to call itself a 'Services' company. This has the effect of preventing recruiters from bringing in the best and brightest developers or hardware engineers, as its clear from the language that the companies focus and emphasis is on the Services department. Likewise, its tough to hold onto the best and brightest developers and engineers as they are no longer appreciated to the level they once were.

In business, as in sports, its dangerous to become labeled. Any labeling has to be done consciously and with the realization that there will be negative consequences to the other groups in the organization. In the case of the Colts, This decision seems intentional. Over the years, its been discussed that the Colts defense is built to be light and play with a lead, with the hope that Manning and the offense can build up a quick lead and force the opponents to pass the ball. This has worked well for the Colts over the years, but remove the key player, Manning, and the system collapses in on itself. The same thing can happen to a business though. If the emphasis is placed on one department that implodes due to anymore of reasons (such as internal politics, turnover, a failed project, etc.), the other departments may be too weak to carry the additional burden.

National Novel Writing Month

It seems that most people I know aspire to write a Novel at some point, including me. Writing is a lofty profession and a book or novel is a path to immortality. How many people today know of Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens? These writers have achieved a sort of immortality through their writing, as they have written books that even today we read and analyze.

That is why when I found that November is National Novel Writing Month, I signed up to participate. The goal of the site is to write a short novel of about 190 pages within 30 days. While I'm no R.L. Stine or Stephen King, I still think a short novel can still be written in a short time. I'll know for certain in 30 days.

To foster my writing, I've drawn up a short outline of the novel that I'm going to write. It's based on some of my and my wife's encounters while living in a small town in Southern Indiana while I was going to college. Its one of a few stories that I've had bouncing around my head for the last few years. A National Novel Writing Month is just what I need to get one of the stories out of my head.

Writing a novel in a month on top of a busy work schedule will be a trick. In order to facilitate this, I've decided to write the novel in Google Docs, so I will have access to the novel from my laptop, either of my desktop computers, and my phone. I've used Google Docs for some writing before, but never for something as long or complex as a novel. It should prove as a good test to see just how far Web applications have advanced.

Do you have a few story ideas bouncing around your head? Would a National Novel Writing Month help to transfer those ideas to paper?