From the category archives:

Virtual tools

Great Virtual Resource for Writers: Twitter Chats

by Joan Kremer on August 25, 2009 · 7 comments

in Places for writers, Virtual tools

I used to have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. I loved it because I met fascinating people and learned things I’d never hear about otherwise.  I hated it because it could swallow whole every moment of my free time. But ever since this weekend, the “love” part has vastly overtaken the “hate” part.  That’s because I [...]

Tagged as: discoveries, Inkygirl's Haven, social networking, Twitter, virtual writing community, writers resources, WritingSpirit Resources

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How Second Life Helped Me Lose Weight, Fly Above My Fears, & Advance My Writing Career

by Joan Kremer on August 14, 2009 · 13 comments

in Adventures, Benefits of SL, Virtual tools

Introducing the newest scientifically-based weight-loss program (drum-roll, please):  Hanging out in the virtual world of Second Life! Before you laugh yourself blind, let me say I’m telling you this in all seriousness.  One of the recent news stories making the rounds of the mainstream media is an article reporting on a study that shows SL users [...]

Tagged as: authors in SL, creative visualization, discoveries, International Spaceflight Museum, Story Mountain Center for Writers, virtual worlds, writers resources

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How Writers Are Using Second Life to Find Audiences & Readers

July 24, 2009

Imagine this scenario: You’re an unpublished, unknown playwright and you’ve just written a play that you believe needs to be staged. Your income is commensurate with most writers’ – i.e., not a lot. And you don’t have rich friends or family who might fork over the tens of thousands of dollars needed to [...]

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How to Use Second Life to Support Your Writing Schedule

April 6, 2009

Every writer I know has a bag of tricks they use to motivate themselves to just sit their butt down and write on those days when it simply feels too hard — an excuse often couched in the disguise of the moment:  “I think I may be coming down with something,” or “it’s too hot/cold [...]

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Story Quest & More Exciting ‘Firsts’ for Writers in SL

March 13, 2009

I’ve been fighting that Big, Bad Time Monster lately — trying to juggle my income-producing work … with revising my novel … with attending an increasing number of great writers’ events in Second Life … with blog-writing … with everything else in life … blah, blah, blah.
And as they say in that great movie, Sordid [...]

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A Writer’s Guide to Learning About Second Life (Part 1)

February 17, 2009

“Why aren’t more writers flocking to Second Life?” I asked my partner one day.
“Because SL is pretty overwhelming at first,” my partner answered.
I laughed. “You should know! Remember how you wore two sets of hair for the longest time? Kept wandering off and getting lost?” (see photo below for example)

No verbal response [...]

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The Story Trail in SL: A Magical Experience for Creative Writers

February 1, 2009

When’s the last time you combined a walking meditation in a  lush, serene natural setting with a creative writing session?  Where you didn’t have to worry about cold, heat, rain, snow, mosquitoes, gnats, or any other bothersome aspect of nature. Where all you had to concentrate on was your writing and the gorgeous surroundings?
For most [...]

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‘Ketchup’: Updates on SL Writing Events, Resources, Contests

January 12, 2009

“Serving ketchup” is what members of my oldest email chat group call it when we write a post that tries to “catch up” with the conversations we’ve been neglecting.  So here’s the first WRITERS IN THE (virtual) SKY “ketchup” post!
Update on the SL Events for Writers Calendar
Slowly, but surely, all the busy writers who organize [...]

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The Start of a Central Information Source for Writers in Second Life

December 31, 2008

I confess: When I first saw the news item about Second Life in The Writer magazine’s most recent issue, I was a bit ticked off — and then my holier-than-thou self-righteousness took over and quickly sparked a full-blown exodus of all life forms from the room. (OK, that’s exaggerating a bit, but it still wasn’t a [...]

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Seven Lessons I Learned from Doing NaNoWriMo 2008 Virtually

December 3, 2008

Well, I was proved wrong once again:  Participating in National Novel Writing Month was incredibly more challenging and far more rewarding than I ever expected!
I herewith apologize to all my writer friends whose participation in previous NaNoWriMos I discounted — don’t ask if you were one; I’m too embarrassed to say — and now [...]

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NaNoWriMo & Second Life: A Powerful Combo for Novel Writers

November 6, 2008

It’s National Novel Writing Month!
(What???!! You’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo??!! Go directly — do not pass Go, do not collect $200 — go directly to www.nanowrimo.org. For the rest of you, read on…)
For years I’ve observed my fellow writers come together with other writers from all over the world and cheer each other on [...]

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One Writing Competition in Second Life You Can’t Lose

September 14, 2008

What writer’s toolbox does NOT include that basic implement we call the writing prompt?  For many of us, a writing prompt is equivalent to the common hammer or screwdriver.  It’s ubiquitous, useful for just about any construction or repair job, and often works better than a bucket-load of more sophisticated tools.

Entrance to the headquarters of [...]

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How Second Life Cured One Writer’s Allergy to Networking

September 5, 2008

We all have “those words”—you know, the ones we belittle as “manufactured” or “PC” or too trendy to do more than sneer at.  For some, words like maximize and impact, used as verbs, top their list.  For others, it’s terms like collateral damage to mean killing innocent people.  For me, a word that’s long topped [...]

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9 Inworld Writing Markets for Publication Credit & (usually) Payment

August 11, 2008

If you’re a writer of any kind or genre—fiction, poetry, journalism, creative nonfiction, etc.—you’ll be happy to hear about the many potential markets for your work in Second Life —way too many to list in a single article, in fact!
In this post, I focus on a periodical market that’s distinctively Second Life and the subject [...]

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The Twists & Trials of Reading a Book in Second Life

July 28, 2008

For a writer, books are as important as oxygen, so why spend time in a virtual world where I can’t pick up a good book, flip its pages, lie on the beach reading?
Those were some of my thoughts as I stumbled through the first few days as a Second Life newbie. Right away, I [...]

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Second Life Experiences: As Real As Your Brain Thinks!

July 15, 2008

“Joan, you’ve gone too far!” my First Life writer friend said after reading point 4 from my previous post. “You can’t tell writers they can learn to fly—or whatever!—by watching a cartoon avatar move around on a computer monitor!”
Thankfully, we were on that old-fashioned social-networking device called the telephone, so he didn’t see my [...]

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7 Second Life Ways to Give Your Writing a Boost

July 10, 2008

Yeah, I know—writers are supposed to chain their butts to the seats of their writing chairs if they want to achieve real literary success. But it’s the rare writer (Emily Dickinson is one of the few who come to mind) who can thrive solely in the airspace between the fingertips and the keyboard (or [...]

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