Tag-Archive for » iPad «

Sticking to your world

06
Aug 2010
Kirin
I ran across a review by Kiki Howell, where she mentioned that
“To me, as far as world building goes, the challenge is not really creating the world as much as sticking to this world.”
I’m sure authors can debate which side of world building – creating or maintaining – is actually harder.  Either way, any SF or fantasy author understands the effort it takes to adhere to your world’s internal logic.  As your plots and subplots twist together into action-packed resolutions, it’s easy to mix up a detail or two.  It may seem trivial, but this is a big deal – even the tiniest inconsistency can jar the reader out of the story.
Keeping your research handy (and searchable) while writing is half the battle.  My style of organization has evolved over the past few years.  I started with PBWorks (PBWiki at the time), where I created a free wiki for each world and made a comprehensive entry for characters, places, plot points, and everything else under the alien sun.  As I could access the wiki from any computer, it was the perfect tool to allow me freedom to write anywhere.
About a year ago I switched over to another online system, Evernote.  The beauty of this service lies in its compatibility with mobile devices.  Evernote apps are available on many smart phones, iPods, and the iPad, and you can use it on your computer as well.  With my phone app, I can type out a note or take pictures and upload them directly to my account.  Files in my account are all accessible on the phone as well, so if I’m writing in a local park with no internet access, I can flip open my phone and check world-building details directly.  You can also use a web browser add-on to save clips from web pages with the push of a button.  See a web page with some crazy-good inspiration?  Clip it and send it directly into one of your Evernote folders.
Another program I use is Scrivner, a writing program for Macs that allows me to write my fiction and also create wiki-esque research folders in the same menu.  Sleek and a breeze to use, it’s the best writing program I’ve used.  Everything from Evernote gets cross-posted here for even quicker browsing when I’m actually writing my manuscript.
So what are your methods?  Do you used online databases or packed filing cabinets to keep everything straight?  In any case, it pays to have a system so you can stick to your world and still leave open plenty of time to write.
Category: Research, World Building  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment

Full-scale interactivity is on the horizon

16
Apr 2010
Kirin
Nathan Bransford’s excellent blog directed my attention to the Alice in Wonderland app for the iPad, which pushes past current e-book boundaries.  The visuals are beautiful and look outrageously fun to play with.
Alice For the iPad
All kinds of books would be enhanced with this technology, but I’d love to see this interactivity with a book like Ender’s Game.  Playing with formations in the battle room, anyone?  Speculative fiction is definitely going to benefit from more e-books like Alice as interactivity rises.
Category: E-books, Technology  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment

E-ink: Easy on the Eyes

06
Apr 2010
Kirin
Now that the iPad has officially launched, there’s lots of talk about how e-reader competitors will respond.  Their best bet seems to be addressing readers’ concerns about the iPad before Apple can respond with an updated model that takes advantage of the e-book market.  One of the main problems serious readers have with the iPad is the LCD screen, which is hard to read in direct sunlight and contributes to eye strain.  E-ink displays, like those seen on the Kindle and Nook, are much easier on the eyes and can be read in sunlight.  Skeptics say that despite these boons, the black and white screens are the soon-to-be-extinct dinosaurs of the industry.
But e-ink has already begun its evolution.  The black-and-white screens of the Kindle and Sony Reader will eventually be overtaken by the color e-ink currently being developed by Liquavista, Blio, Asus, and others.   It’s hard to say if Amazon or Barnes & Noble have considered adding color e-ink to the next generation of Kindles and Nooks; in any case, they will eventually need to add this feature if they want to compete with e-ink or LCD color screens that are flooding the market.  With color options, the industry-leading e-readers will be able to compete in the textbook market and possibly in the development of enhanced e-books.  Though it’s true that the iPad addresses a different part of the market with its internet capabilities, its dominance in the e-reader arena is not guaranteed, especially with color e-ink on the rise.
Category: E-books, Technology  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment

Show Me the Video: Novels and Videography

30
Mar 2010
Kirin
Adam flinched as something hissed in the dark hallway.  He grabbed a heavy stone pedestal and jammed it against the door, nearly unending the gargoyle statute sitting on top.
A video, nestled within the e-book’s text, begins to run with slow, grainy flickering.  It shows smoke floating under a thick wooden door, twisting upwards to wrap around a gargoyle statue perched on a low pedestal.  The statute slowly blinks and then grins widely up at you, the reader, before springing out at the camera.
Dream or reality?  On the dominant e-readers of today (the Kindle and Nook) this scenario is fiction.  Embedded video is not supported by Amazon’s AMZ-formatted books.  The Nook uses the popular ePub format – which can support embedded video – but does not support videos on the device.  Apple’s iPad offers a potential step forward, utilizing the ePub format while also possessing the capability to run videos.
It is not clear, however, if the iPad will make use of this capability.  Steve Jobs announced that there will be no Flash support on the first generation of the iPad.  This poses a problem to potential author/videographers, as Flash is the most popular format for videos embedded into ePub files.  Unless the iPad offers Flash in a later generation, it may be only another baby step toward fully-integrated collaborations between authors and other artists.
What if a device launches that does support embedded Flash video?  Would you, as an author, be interested in inserting video into your novel?  On one hand, the concept is compelling because video could add intense visuals to help establish and maintain a novel’s mood.  Add too many videos, however, and they could smother well-crafted description and take away the reader’s opportunity to imagine the story in their own way.  As we wait for new generations of the iPad and its competitors to provide a video option, it is worth examining the potential new art of mixing novels and videos, and how it would affect creativity and quality.
Category: Artists, E-books, Technology  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment

Evolution of the E-book

16
Mar 2010
Kirin
David Baldacci is leading the charge toward enriched content e-books with his new novel, “Deliver Us from Evil”.  In addition to a typical e-book format, “Deliver Us from Evil” will be available in an enriched format that includes audio and video interviews, deleted passages, and reference pictures.  The enriched e-book release coincides nicely with the April 3rd release of the iPad, which will bring new functionality to e-readers (though its current stranglehold on enhanced e-book capabilities may be challenged by HP’s Slate and Samsung’s slate in the coming year).  In any case, the e-book world is about to evolve as technology pushes it toward more and more sophisticated applications.
As much as I love my Kindle, I am looking forward to the new features on the horizon.  Author interviews and “deleted scenes” are definitely interesting, but what about the more collaborative aspect inherent in the new technology?  Now that the iPad and its competitors support other media forms, the artistic combinations are endless.  Short film makers or animators can team up with authors to create shorts that recreate or enhance the scenes of the novel; artists can create detailed interactive maps for fantasy novels or 3D renderings of futuristic cities that the reader can explore.  These possibilities lead to valid concerns about intellectual property rights and what the core essence of a book should be, but I’m looking forward to where future growth of the e-book will take us.
Category: Technology  Tags: , ,  One Comment