by inserting myself into NaBloPoMo Blogroll with a commitment to blog every day in November. Not interested in writing a Na…whatever it is that writes a novel in a month, I have jumped into blogging every day for a month. Along with finishing The Memoir.
I didn’t even know about NaBloPoMO until this morning, November 1st, when I opened the page to pass on information on two writing tools I’ve come to love and use. And then I saw it and then I signed up. Ya gotta wonder.
So, in order to get at least two days of blogging planned, I’ll do them one at a time.
From the site: “Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to your own desktop to use as you wish.” http://www.wordle.net/
The above image is a cloud from this particular blog post. Using “word” often I understand, but did I really write “really” often enough to make it stand out?
You will need Java, so if you don’t have it, get it first.
Here’s what you do. Go to the site. Click on Create. Paste in a bunch of text, I use as much as thirty or forty pages at a time, click Go.
Wordle creates this most amazing word cloud of the most used words, the really really most used jump out at you, and you can then paste that word into find and rewrite all the sentences in your manuscript that contain that too-used word. Fabulous.
I found “home” a lot. That’s reasonable since the memoir is about finding where I fit. Another word, came, was not as useful. Nor was went or turned. I won’t bore you with the list of words but you get the idea.
The cool thing is being able to SEE one sentence at a time and the sentences around it and revise. It’s helped to focus on one sentence rather than a paragraph with meaning.
Test it out. You’ll be glad you did.
Tomorrow, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll remember I committed to this, a tool from Princeton.
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janetsunderland.com 
Good for you for tackling the every day blogging. I’m back to teaching rather busy so my 4 posts a week will have to do. I did post every day from January-May and it was challenging! You will do great and I look forward to reading!
Thanks, Terri. I’ve no idea how this will go! It’s three days down and ….. oh, however many more that is. Thanks for reading!
Today’s post was something I’d considered for quite a while re: G.M.O.s and then read another article this morning. I’ll look forward to hearing what you think.
I wish you good energy and fun inspiration in your task. I look forward to reading your results. 🙂
Thank you! Writing as I am every day on the memoir, it’s nice to have something to switch on for a challenge.
Bold and courageous in challenging yourself !! Sometimes you just gotta do it
We have a desire to write but just don’t stir ourselves sufficiently to do what we want to do most. Am sure this would be a great motivation for you to ‘summon the discipline’ as shoreacres has aptly described it.
And thanks for the wordle tip. Look forward to following you naplomore … whatever it is 🙂 adventure.
Good for you, Janet. I’ve been blogging every day for over 3 1/2 years and I still haven’t tired of it, although there are days I think about taking a break. But I can’t. It’s too much fun and the people I’ve met are a big part of that. 🙂 That includes you.
Thanks Janet. It’s finishing up this memoir that’s so time consuming. But we’ll see what happens.
The wordle thing is fun. Give it a shot. It’s interesting to find I have so many go-to words when with some thought and rearranging I can write a more descriptive sentence! Ah, mercy. This obsession with writing.
I got introduced to Wordle some time ago. I can’t even remember the circumstances, now. I did play with it some, and enjoyed it. In fact, I just went and looked, and found the bookmark in my files. Thanks for reminding me that it’s there!
I can’t even imagine a post a day. I can conceive of it for a photo blog, or for some very specific purposes, but I just can’t imagine being able to summon the discipline — or the time — it would take. I’ll be very interested in how you handle it. I’m looking forward!
Thank you!! I’m wondering how I will handle it, myself. At least I know one for tomorrow although remembering I have one in my head for tomorrow might be the task!! LOL. We’ll see how this happens together. It probably will be more freewriting than polished pieces, but we’ll see what happens. One time, doing one of these exercises for some Blogging U course, I learned how to use my sense of humor in words. THAT was major. Maybe this time I’ll just find my sense.
‘summon the discipline’ …. I like that thought. Its what I have to do to do what I love to do most !!
And am sure a wordle on this comment will throw up DO !!!
Glad you thought it through and commented again. Yep. Writing is certainly discipline. But it also doesn’t have to beat you over the head. Have you ever read The Artists Way by Julia Cameron? You might want to look at it. Writing morning pages as a discipline got me going.
did you look it up on Wordle??? LOL