Thoughtless Banter – John Bellone

Writing

Mar

Life Up Until This Point

Posted by JB at 11:09 pm

Today was a very long day, and I expected tonight to be quite the norm lately (uneventful) but spending a little time tonight reflecting actually has turned out to be something, at least that I think, will make me better in the short term. The past couple of months have been a wild ride for many reasons (there really are many) stemming from relationships, to work and even friendships dwindling and being replaced by other, more important social relationships. I usually write my thoughts in a little black book that hopefully will be burnt in the not-so-distant future, but I’ve told myself lately in order to promote Type Aloud I need to do a little more to get people to be interested in the person behind the website, if that sounds like a crock of shit or not.

One thing that I have not (ever, really) been afraid of is to state my opinion. I don’t pride myself in being an idiot; I know when to keep my mouth shut even when I shouldn’t, but I also know when people need to hear what I have to say. Just more lately the person on the other end of my verbal sparring tended to push back without realizing that I was merely giving advice and not trying to start World War III. There are just times in life that you need to hear the bitter, brutal, honest truth and sometimes you really only listen to it from people that you trust. There are other times that you are too stubborn to listen at all, and then you tend to get bitten in the ass.

I have been called several names by people that do not really know me. Some people call me a nerd, a geek, very few people call me a genius, but I tend to hear the utterance of asshole more than all of them. I know that I can be an asshole if I want to be, but I believe that it boils down to people not quite understanding where I am coming from. My view on the world is quite abysmal; I am not what I would describe as religious person, and I generally do not really have any faith in the human race as a whole. Really, how could I? The world is full of death, famine, war and generally a bunch of unhappy people that are content with being exactly that: unhappy.

If I am bothered by something I am damn well going to voice my opinion. Now, I am lucky enough to live in a part of the world where I am not going to be castrated for doing so, but even those around me tend to complain and bitch more often than not. My commute home from work I hear (and see) people that have given up on life. They are tired, hopeless, shell of human beings who go through the motions because they feel as-if there is nothing left for them to live for. This is the kind of shit that makes me sick. I think one of the only things I enjoyed about not being in the city landscape is that there are generally less people, and a smaller sample of people meant that you saw a less amount of unhappy souls.

This is partially the reason why I started Type Aloud; some of the best memories I have are those where my nose was stuffed in some book. I can also admit that I did what most kids do and leafed through the pages until the end because I did not want to read the whole book if it bored me. Shit, I still do that with novels that I purchase because I realize three-quarters of the way through that it is a piece of crap. There is just a part of me that needs to know the ending of a story in order to sleep at night.

For me, Type Aloud represents a place that all of these sad souls can come home and lose themselves for a few hours in reading. Despite the people in my life that are causing problems, think that I am an asshole, or otherwise have ill feelings towards me and mine: I always have the people who spend their time and effort writing their pains, wonders and dreams onto digital parchment. That’s the kind of life that I hope for.

Dec

Delaying Type Aloud Private Beta

Posted by JB at 9:16 pm

I decided to take some long needed rest away from the computer and enjoy my Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family. This has put some of my development initiatives on the back burner. I am aiming to gear up this weekend and hopefully be able to release a little tidbit at the end of this weekend just for the special someones who sign up for the service early. The current goal is to have story and chapter submission, viewing and commenting up by the end of this weekend.

I will continue the remaining work and slowly release the bits out to my testers. I expect (and hope) those of you that have signed up are ready and willing to start writing some short stories, and eventually, poems!

Nov

The Difference Between Subscription and Being A ‘Fan’

Posted by JB at 8:52 am

I have arrived at one of the bullet points for Type Aloud where I must implement the ability for one user to follow another user, similar to being a friend on Facebook or exactly the same as becoming a follower on Twitter. But I came to a dilemma that needed to be solved: What if someone only wanted to follow one particular story from an author?

The first thing that came to mind (and ultimately stuck) was to have two different type of subscription models – the first would allow you to physically subscribe to a story and be notified when a new chapter was posted by said author. This subscription would keep track of reading point on a particular chapter as well as what chapter was the last one that you read. This may seem very trivial for web browser users but when you plan on handling Amazon Kindle traffic this becomes very important. The second subscription model would be a “Fan” and this is where you want to hear absolutely everything from the author – if they decide to post a new story, you hear about it, or if they decide to write a poem, the same deal.

When thinking through this I was trying to take into consideration user interaction. How would the button placement work for these two particular types of subscriptions? If someone wanted to cease being notified from said author, how exactly would that work? And finally, if someone subscribes to another author’s story and then becomes a fan what happens if they eventually cease the fanship – do we maintain the original state of subscription?

I would be interested what you all have to think.

Nov

Type Aloud Development Progress – 11/11

Posted by JB at 6:44 pm

I have had a few people asking me the progress on Type Aloud, my brand-spanking-not-yet-released-but-still-new writing (and reading) community on the Internet. The past couple of weeks have been hectic regarding personal obligations, but I am still on track for having a beta release by the end of the month. Here is what you can expect for the totally awesome beta release (for those of you that sign up for early access):

The ability to create stories (with chapters) and poems.
Discussing stories and poems in an organized fashion with the rest of the community.
The ability to become a fan of an author and get notified about what they are reading, writing and commenting on.
Categorizing and searching stories and poems via genre specific tags, e.g. Fantasy and Sci-Fi.

I am about 70 percent finished with the initial release candidate (the above features are all included). I am hoping to hit a December 1st beta release date for early access and a January 1st beta release date for everyone else. I will be turning off early access sign ups during the initial beta period but will allow each user that has signed up to invite a select number of other users before the January 1st launch.
You can follow @typealoud on Twitter to receive the most up-to-date information as I write it. For the launch of the service we will be raffling off an Amazon Kindle, but there will be more information about that as the time grows near!

Jun

Finding Time To Write #iamwriter

Posted by JB at 10:38 am

At certain points in my life I tend to take long breaks from writing as it generally takes a good deal of time for me to get into the mood to pen something, anything, after a long day of work. I understand how you feel: the whole week seems to be filled with work; after your day job maybe you volunteer, go to classes or even have siblings or children to take care of. These responsibilities, even if minor, add up during the course of the week and you are left with, at best, mere hours a week to dedicate to hobbies. What I find unfortunate is serious writing takes effort. You must be in a creative state of mind, relaxed and focused all at the same time. For some of us this zen-like state is nearly impossible to get to late at night when all you want to do is go to sleep an hour early.

I have personally solved this problem in two steps. The first step is to always carry around something to write with. For me most of my creative ideas come when I least expect it. I may be zoning out on the train ride into the city, listening to a friend ramble on about their day during lunch, or even waking up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea for a chapter or short story. The point is to always be able to jot these ideas down when they are fresh on your mind, in their most lucid form, because attempting to recall them later will be much harder than you may think! I suggest a cheap pocket-sized moleskin notebook that is available from Amazon or your local Barnes and Nobles store for under ten dollars. These notebooks tend to last being jostled around inside a jacket pocket, purse or sat on when in the back of your pants pocket.

The second suggestion I could give is to make a rule about writing. Every Wednesday, for example, add an appointment or notification on your phone to remind you to sit down and write for two hours. Be sure to add a reminder two hours before your writing period so that you can finish dinner, reading or studying. A notebook (or more likely, a computer) should be close at hand on this particular day, so be sure to choose a day when you are for sure most likely to be home from your other engagements.

A half hour before you are to write make sure you get yourself in the mood. Put in some relaxing music, distance yourself from any distractions like other people, television or instant messenger applications, and the most important piece to the equation – review the notes that you have been taking in your handy-dandy notebook. If they are related to a story that you are already working on be sure to refresh yourself with the previous couple of pages that you have written. Don’t get hung up on any spelling or grammar mistakes that you may have made, this is not the time to edit, but focus on the structure and layout of the story. A good editor will always go through your piece with a fine-toothed comb.

Remember that the most important thing is to enjoy what you are writing. Even though it helps to make writing a timed event, do not turn it into a chore, because it will that much harder to sit down at your computer desk and type away for hours. Get lost in what you are working on and enjoy the world that you are crafting. If you feel yourself getting bored with the story, do not be afraid to work on another chapter or entirely different story. Sometimes it helps to come back to a piece later to refine it.

Jun

Do You Want To Write Full-Time? #iamwriter

Posted by JB at 11:08 pm

I was reading a blog post today about how you’ll never become a full-time writer and even though I disagree, I find myself not enjoying the idea of needing to force myself to write hours on end in order to make a paycheck. For me writing is a hobby, it is something that I enjoy as it gives me a creative outlet, but I far more enjoy writing software as a day job. As the post points out many bloggers are “corporate suits” by day and “smartass bloggers” by night. Is this really a bad thing?

Sure you may have a small portion of yourself that wishes you could ditch your corporate job, sit at home all day and write opinion pieces for an online publication, but would you really be happy? For some of you that answer is a resounding yes, but for myself, the only way that I seem myself being able to be a full-time writer is if it were to be a novelist. As a blogger you are forced to have a shtick, either it being able to come up with witty one-liners for each and every post, be a complete and utter asshole to the point where people laugh at the obsurd shit that you put out, or be able to write a complete story that flows beautifully.

I am not a person that is consistant at any of those to be even considered an adequate candidate as a professional blogger. Of course I cannot say that I have ever tried doing so, but I think if that were my job I would end up falling back on writing software because that’s what I enjoy to do. For some people blogging (and writing in general) is a dream that may eventually become more than a hobby, but for others, it is something that we enjoy in addition to our daily work grind. If it becomes more than that then we may decide to go with the flow, because really, that is all we can ever do anyway, right?

Jun

Reading Brings Better Writing #iamreader #iamwriter #iampoet

Posted by JB at 9:25 am

In a lame attempt to actually promote my my lifelong dream of a project I have decided to write a few blog posts on how to become a better writer. I am not going to claim that I am an authority on writing, but somes kills that I have acquired over a very long career in amateur writing. As I go along I may incorporate my thoughts on some other blog posts as I completely believe in taking advice from people who are more informed on a particular subject matter than I am.

A Google search regarding reading and writing will bring up millions of search results that explain exactly what I am about to summarize – the more that you read the better of a writer you will become. The two cannot be separated from each other. A blog post on writetodone.com gives some suggestions on how to use reading to improve your writing skills. The first is quite obvious – develop a habit of reading and make sure to stick to it. If you are like me, a public transportation commuter, pick up the daily newspaper and read through all the articles that you can on your trip. If you happen to stroll by the cheap novels go find one that interests you and make a habit of reading a few chapters each day while on your subway grind.

The more that you read the more you will want to read, but make sure to choose something that interests you. One particular suggestion that is made in the aforementioned blog post is that you should read great writers. While I absolutely agree with this statement I do not believe it is a prerequisite to building a reading habit to foster a writing desire. Because I have been a reader most of my life there is rarely a book that I won’t at least attempt to read, but I have found that most of the “classics” bore me. I am not a person that is drawn to reading romance, drama or anything in between. I often find myself picking up young adult novels because of the interesting story aspect. When you are first embarking on this journey read what you believe will keep you interested. If you happen to stroll across some great novels at the book store, give them a whirl, you can often find them for about five dollars at Barnes and Nobles.

After spending a couple of months becoming a frequency reader you’ll quickly notice that your comprehension, vocabulary and reading speed have all dramatically improved. The fact of the matter is the more words that you take in the more you are likely to recall when you are writing. Please remember that Words Are Power. If you have a few minutes watch this short YouTube video with Morgan Freeman. When you are reading keep your mind open because inspiration for writing may come from the words in front of you as well as the life you’re walking to everyday.

If you want to help me out with my writing movement, whenever you write a blog post, story or newspaper article be sure to reference the #iamwriter, #iampoet and #iamreader hash tags on Twitter. The more writers, readers and poets we can inspire the better off the world will be.