Category: imovie

Getting Started

Leave a comment

First things first:  here’s a link to the CLN annotated list of ALA winners from yesterday, in case you haven’t seen it yet.  There are many books here that I’m looking forward to reading, especially the Michael Printz winner and honor books!

Second things second: yes, I have finished the new book trailer for April Fool, Phyllis! but no, it isn’t up yet because there is a sticky part that isn’t playing correctly and I can’t figure out why.  If there are any technological geniuses out there who understand the nuances of imovie please feel free to share your expertise in the comments and up your karma quotient for the day 🙂

Now, on to today’s important topic: getting started.

I told you I was taking a writing course.  It officially began yesterday.  My assignment for the week is to either rewrite a scene from something I’ve already written, or write something new.  I think I’m going to go for option B – write something new.

Which leads me to “getting started.”

There are a lot of “getting started” moments in a writer’s day.  There’s getting yourself started – not so easy at 5:30 AM when it’s dark and 9 degrees… again… 🙂  There’s getting the coffee maker started – that one is easy 🙂  There’s getting the Dog Mobile started to meet the school bus – always tricky because a) the Dog Mobile is unpredictable and cranky and b) we live 6/10 of a mile from the bus stop (so no visual contact), the bus driver is unpredictable and cranky, and when it suits her (like yesterday) she leaves without us…  This in turn can affect getting the work day started by as much as an hour and a half.

Then there’s getting the coffee maker started again in order to fuel getting work started which involves
     a) computer on, butt in chair
     b) a strict self-command to stop checking email and stop reading other people’s interesting blogs and get inspired for the day, and
     c) actually getting started on writing, which involves either getting started from where I left off yesterday or getting started from scratch on something new.  (BTW, I think they call it “starting from scratch” because of the amount of time spent staring into space scratching your head (literally or metaphorically) while you try to think up something to write :))

For many writers, the blank page is intimidating.  Luckily, I am under strict orders from myself to “be inspired at 9 o’clock every morning” (see yesterday’s post:)) so I have no excuse!  I confess, though, that on many days I am not that inspired at 9:01…  When that happens, I just write.  Anything that comes into my head.  It’s like priming the pump.  If I can just get the words flowing, I have a hope of directing them where I want them to go.  Eventually.  Some days it works out, others I do a lot of deleting.  But as David Eddings said, “A writer’s apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin.”  This helps me convince myself that no writing is wasted – it takes a long time to get to a million words!

Today, for my course, I’m going to get started on something new.  I wonder what it will be?  I’m pretty interested to find out!  I hope it’s good!

What are your “getting started” moments?  Which are hard and which are easy?  How do you deal with the hard ones?

Technology 101: Book Trailers

Leave a comment

I told you I was off to work on the book trailer for April Fool, Phyllis!, and I am.  But let me assure you, it is uphill work!

I read an article or a blog post somewhere (sorry, no idea where) which described people as falling into one of two categories: digital natives and digital immigrants.  My children are digital natives – they have grown up with computers and other electronic devices of all kinds and seem to have an innate understanding of how they function.  They also have no fear whatsoever of experimenting with said devices to see what they can do.  I, on the other hand, am most definitely a digital immigrant.  Technology of all kinds eludes me.  I require large amounts of handholding to try anything beyond Microsoft Word, and I am afraid to experiment lest I cause my computer to spontaneously combust, thereby costing me my ability to check my email 4,000 times a day and play Sporcle.

So you can see how creating a book trailer could be uphill work!

There are some famous authors out there whose publishing houses get their book trailers made by professionals.  I am not one of them.  There are other slightly less famous authors out there who do well enough to pay a professional to make book trailers for them.  I am not one of them either.

I use imovie and badger my computer-savvy children with endless questions until I hack my way through the trailer.  Possibly not the most efficient or popular method, but it gets the job done.  If you’re interested in viewing my hack jobs thus far, please click this link: SLHILLYouTubeChannel

(While you’re there, please feel free to subscribe to my channel, “like” the trailers, and/or write glowing reviews marveling over the creative and technological genius clearly at work behind both books and trailers :))

This is how it works.  I turn on imovie (I can do this because all I have to do is click on it.)  Then I can’t remember what to do next, so I shriek loudly, “HELP!” at which point one of my long-suffering children comes to my aid.  This happens a few more times while I import images and color blocks for text.  This is followed by a long period of pondering exactly how I want to use the images and what I want the trailer to accomplish.  Some confuse this period with daydreaming or playing TextTwist, but I promise you, it is all about intense thinking.

Once I decide where I’m headed, I just have to put it all together.  This, unfortunately, is a very nit-picky job requiring A LOT of patience, a commodity of which I am in short supply.  I am frequently forced to sustain myself with oatmeal raisin cookies and excessive caffeine in order to soldier on through.  I then make everyone in the house watch the result numerous times and give feedback, which is followed by more tweaking and the members of my household becoming mysteriously hard to locate.

But when at last the trailer is done, I love having it.

Opinions vary as to whether book trailers are useful in any way, but here is my theory: in this day and age of online shopping, consumers looking for books are not in a position to pick them up and leaf through them to get a feel for what the books are like.  A book trailer gives you a little of that experience.  Ideally, a person looking to buy your book can click on the trailer and get an experience similar to holding it and skimming through it in the book store.  I think that’s helpful, especially with picture books where the art plays such an important role.  So that is why I make them.

What are your thoughts on book trailers?  Do you watch them?  Do you find them helpful?  Do they influence your decision to buy or not to buy?

And now, back to work.  I’ll let you know when this one is done, but don’t hold your breath.  Any spontaneous and completely unsolicited mailings of sustaining cookies and/or chocolate will be much appreciated!