The 12 Stages of Physical Intimacy – What Are They? Gustav Klimt ~ The Kiss The day after Valentine’s Day seemed like the perfect time to clue y’all in on a secret the romance writers have been keeping to themselves.
Since a good portion of the ladies out there probably curled up with a sexy book last night, I’m going to explain what makes these hot tamale novels so dang satisfying. The most popular post I’ve ever run on More Cowbell was Using the 12 Stages of Physical Intimacy to Build Tension in Your Novel. Linda Howard, romantic suspense author extraordinaire, used to give a very popular talk on the subject based on the work of Desmond Morris.
Note: My favorite Linda Howard book? Below is the physical intimacy chart Linda taught me — use your new knowledge wisely! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Why do so many romance authors spend time and tension on the kiss, breaking it off or prolonging it? 8. 9. 10. Writing Empathetically vs. Sympathetically and Sentimentally. Several weeks ago, I read a story that had a passage like this: "My parents never really cared about me," Allie said.
"All my life they saw me as a disappointment, a waste of space. I was always the butt of their jokes. And no one really noticed. I was always last place, as far as they were concerned. Presentations. Tagul - Word Cloud Art. Mapping Out Your Knowledge. How do you keep track of what you’re learning?
When you have to tackle a complex new subject, how do you figure out how its parts hang together? One tool worth trying for these learning tasks is mind mapping. Mind Map Defined A mind map is a visualization of some piece of knowledge. Mind maps start with a central idea or topic, then have branches extending to display its significant features. Click to enlarge. Pearltrees: Social Media that Doesn’t Waste Time. I tend to have a rather dim view of social media.
Usually, what I gain from browsing social media doesn’t feel worth the time spent. I mean, how many silly dog/cat/baby videos can you watch? Meanwhile, Facebook, Google+, and their ilk are tracking our every move and selling data about our likes and dislikes. Hype 3. Pricing — CartoDB. Desk - Love Writing. Does Sponsoring Daring Fireball Actually Work? Slickest outlining tool for Mac. Simple and efficient text editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Desk - Love Writing. Desk: A simple way to write and blog. The Theme Foundry team is pretty serious about productivity and it’s exciting to be able to feature helpful tools and apps we like.
This week, we’ve been talking about Desk, a writing app for Mac that makes blogging a breeze. I’ve been playing with Desk for a few weeks now, getting to know it, establishing a workflow, and testing it out with WordPress and our themes, and it’s been an overwhelmingly pleasant experience. It’s also on sale through Thursday in the App store, so hurry and grab a copy for yourself! Desk was designed to help make you a better, more prolific, and more productive writer. By cutting through all the junk that regular text editors use, adopting a minimilast design, and making it effortless to publish. Write your posts in markdown or use the tastefully uncluttered WYSIWYG editor. I tested Desk with Make, to beautiful results (a page created with the Post section on the left, the draft in Desk on the right): It’s worth noting that Desk just edits posts, not pages.
About. Desk has received the incredible honor being selected as one of the “Best Apps in 2014” via Apple!
Desk has also been Featured Worldwide as a Best New App as well as a Top Blogging and Writing App! Heck, we’ve even been selected as one of the best apps for becoming a better version of yourself and a global marketing event called “Get Productive“! Yikes! In addition to that, here are a few things that have been said about Desk: “Desk focuses on what matters most: Writing.” — John Gruber, Daring Fireball. The Best Desktop Publishing and Blogging App. When I first started blogging over 13 years ago I had very little intent and couldn’t possibly imagine that it would be something that would “stick” with me for years.
I started small and there wasn’t any method or “strategy” or science to it in any way, shape, or form. It was raw, unedited, and brutally honest. Over the years I lost some of that honesty as I started trying to be a “real” writer, a “real” blogger if you will, and I got lost in the mix of what I would suppose were attempts at becoming more “legit.”
I downloaded every widget, gadget, tool, app, and devoured “tips and tricks” from the real “pros” – I lost the love for the art and it became what we all dread will happen with the things that we love; it became work. Ever so slowly I recovered. In other words, I came back to the basics and I realized what I had known all along to be forever true: Writing requires nothing more than an active mind, a pen, and paper. None were up to the task. 20 Distraction-Free Minimal Writing Apps to Help You Focus. [This is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series.]
Update – I’ve built my dream desktop publishing app: Desk PM So you’ve decided that you’re not someone who wants to draft directly in WordPress because of the possibilities of losing data and you’re not interested in blogging in one of these top blogging apps that sync to your blog because of the cost or complexity. The Best Blogging Apps for Windows, Mac, and More. [This is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series.]
Update: I’ve built my very own desktop publishing app: Desk PM! Great content is born out of your head, your hands, and the apps that you use. Many of us choose to draft directly into our blog applications (which can be dangerous) while others choose to use a number of different applications to draft and write in.