Digital Housekeeping – Update July 16, 2020

Bad news for WordPress.com users – the progress bar can only be installed by those using WordPress.org. The reason? Only the paid, hosted version allows bloggers to install plugins. And the progress bar is a plugin.

How do I know? This is a screenshot from the download site for the progress bar. It shows what the plugin looks like after it’s installed:

For newer bloggers, that’s the old Admin. Dashboard. With WordPress.com you cannot add anything to the Dashboard menu. Nothing. Zip. Rien. Therefore, the screenshot must be of the WordPress.org dashboard. And that means us Freebloggers can’t use the progress bar. -cries quietly-

<<end update>>

While looking for something else entirely, I discovered a WordPress widget called ‘Gallery’. And voila! There it is on the sidebar to the right. The images are a little small, but it’s nice to be able to do something useful with all those faces!

And the gallery provides a nice introduction to the price change for the Innerscape Omnibus. In line with most other bundles on Amazon, I’ve raised the price to $5.99. This price point makes it slightly cheaper than buying each book separately, and it allows me to do ‘specials’ every now and then without having to do an exclusive via KDP.

And finally a word about the widget I was actually looking for – a word count progress bar: https://abtoolz.alanpetersen.com/wip-progress-bar/

The instructions mention that you can get this app via the WordPress widgets. That’s not quite right. It is not available on the free, WordPress.com widget page. I assume it will be available to the paid WordPress.org sites. If someone could check that out for me I’d be eternally grateful!

Still on the progress bar, there is a manual way of inserting it into your blog but I haven’t tried it out yet. If I get it to work, I’ll post a mini how-to about it. Alternately, if someone out there gets it to work, please post some instructions, preferably with pictures so we can all start using it!

Ahem, and the reason I want that progress bar is because, as Robert Chazz Chute says:

‘The meters really get me amped and moving. I don’t want to see a static progress bar and measurement gives me a sense of momentum. That which cannot be measured will not be improved.’

https://chazzwrites.com/2020/07/13/two-simple-tools-that-work-for-writers/

Like Robert, I’m all betwixt and between at the moment. Once I sit down and start writing, I’m okay, but getting myself to that point has never been this hard before. I know what’s causing at least part of the problem – that miserable virus – but knowing and ignoring are two very different things. So, I’m hoping a progress bar will give me that little bit of extra incentive to ignore the outside world and escape into Vokhtah again.

Okay, I feel as if I’ve been productive enough. Time for some lunch. Cheers!

Meeks

Digital Housekeeping

While looking for something else entirely, I discovered a WordPress widget called ‘Gallery’. And voila! There it is on the sidebar to the right. The images are a little small, but it’s nice to be able to do something useful with all those faces!

And the gallery provides a nice introduction to the price change for the Innerscape Omnibus. In line with most other bundles on Amazon, I’ve raised the price to $5.99. This price point makes it slightly cheaper than buying each book separately, and it allows me to do ‘specials’ every now and then without having to do an exclusive via KDP.

And finally a word about the widget I was actually looking for – a word count progress bar: https://abtoolz.alanpetersen.com/wip-progress-bar/

The instructions mention that you can get this app via the WordPress widgets. That’s not quite right. It is not available on the free, WordPress.com widget page. I assume it will be available to the paid WordPress.org sites. If someone could check that out for me I’d be eternally grateful!

Still on the progress bar, there is a manual way of inserting it into your blog but I haven’t tried it out yet. If I get it to work, I’ll post a mini how-to about it. Alternately, if someone out there gets it to work, please post some instructions, preferably with pictures so we can all start using it!

Ahem, and the reason I want that progress bar is because, as Robert Chazz Chute says:

‘The meters really get me amped and moving. I don’t want to see a static progress bar and measurement gives me a sense of momentum. That which cannot be measured will not be improved.’

https://chazzwrites.com/2020/07/13/two-simple-tools-that-work-for-writers/

Like Robert, I’m all betwixt and between at the moment. Once I sit down and start writing, I’m okay, but getting myself to that point has never been this hard before. I know what’s causing at least part of the problem – that miserable virus – but knowing and ignoring are two very different things. So, I’m hoping a progress bar will give me that little bit of extra incentive to ignore the outside world and escape into Vokhtah again.

Okay, I feel as if I’ve been productive enough. Time for some lunch. Cheers!

Meeks

A bit of fun with Plotagon

Plotagon is an animation app that’s a bit like the SIMS, but you can get quite creative with the storytelling and editing. So here’s a scene using a new skill I just learned:

Jonathon Szabo interviews Peter McAlister, CEO of Innerscape

Enjoy. 🙂

Meeks

Filling in the gaps

This is the third video adapted from Miira, i.e. book 1 of Innerscape.

Chronologically, this video should have come before the Battle of Osaka Castle, but my subconscious has a mind of its own. 🙂

How many more videos I do for book 1 will depend on how well the pre-made backgrounds [in Plotagon] lend themselves to scenes in the book. I’m learning more and more with each video, but Plotagon does have limitations, and scenes that require ‘action’ are almost impossible to do. Still having fun though.

cheers
Meeks

Miira and Jaimie

I am working on another how-to post, really, but all work and no play isn’t healthy so…. tah dah 🙂

This one’s a little out of sequence, but those who’ve read The Godsend may recognize the scene it was adapted from. The core thing I’ve learned since experimenting with this kind of visual storytelling is that you can never reproduce a scene exactly. 🙂

I now have so much more sympathy for movie boffins who adapt much loved books to the visual medium!

Have a great weekend!

Meeks

A different kind of storytelling

I’ve always loved animation but never thought I’d be good enough to tell an animated story. Seems I was wrong. 🙂

Oh, and as an aside, I discovered that embedding Vimeo videos is a whole lot easier with Guttenberg than Classic. I’m starting to think that Classic is for words and Guttenberg is for graphics. Hmm…

Meeks

p.s. I’ve turned comments off.

Uploaded to Vimeo!

‘Take that, Google!’

I did start the account creation process with Google [so I could upload my videos to Youtube], but when I was asked to verify both my email address and my phone, I started to get goosebumps, and not in a good way. This is a small part of Google’s privacy [sic] statement:

It was about this point that my survival instincts kicked in again and I aborted the process, or at least I tried to. I very much fear that my phone number is forever in Google’s possession. Given that it’s an Android phone I’m very glad I have GPS turned off. 😦

Anyway, with Youtube no longer an option, I went looking for alternatives and discovered that WordPress.com allows Vimeo videos! Yay and double yay. 🙂

So here is my rather ambitious Plotagon video entitled ‘Prepare for Induction’:

Go on, you can laugh. I won’t mind. 😀

cheers

Meeks