Tag: Android

EditZone: It’s on the tip of my tongue…Give me a minute…It’s…

Editing, Kim Koning, Notes on Wrestling The Muse, Red Pen, Tools

How many times have you had a word on the tip of your tongue but it won’t come to you? As a writer, I have to find new words and synonyms all the time. The worst thing you can do is keep on repeating the same words through a manuscript. But sometimes it is harder than one thinks to find new ways of saying the same thing. It can also be difficult putting an action into words. Sometimes even us writers just draw a blank when it comes to “that perfect word”.

 

I am in the middle of editing one of my manuscripts and I cringe at how many times I have overused certain pet words. Yes I use a dictionary and yes I use a thesaurus but sometimes even these great reference tools are not enough. What about those times when you can’t think of the exact word but you can describe what you are trying to say. Then what? A dictionary nor thesaurus won’t cut it at these times.

 

Well recently, I found the perfect tool to solve my word issues. I came upon it quite by chance and it was a fortunate chance indeed. Realising I needed an updated dictionary and thesaurus, I thought I would search for one in the App store (Apple) that I could download onto my iPod Touch. So I entered a search term for dictionary & thesaurus. There was a whole list of various dictionary&thesaurus combinations but one app stood out to me…

 

 

 

The Reverse Dictionary

Cover of "Reverse Dictionary (Readers Dig...
Cover of Reverse Dictionary (Readers Digest)

 

 

Never having heard of a reverse dictionary, I opened it up and read the description:

 

Reverse Dictionary is a great way to explore words, definitions and concepts.

Have you ever had a word on the tip of your tongue but just couldn’t get it out? Then this app is for you! Reverse Dictionary can also help you expand your vocabulary in many ways.

For example, you can:

• Find a word if you only know its definition or a phrase describing the idea
e.g. 1000 years, museum guide, search for food, plastic thing over end of shoelace, ceremony to crown a king…

• Find related terms
e.g. baseball, clouds, coffee…

• Generate a list of words related to a category
e.g. large birds, green fruit, outdoor sport…

• Solve crossword puzzle clues, or find words if you only know some of the letters
e.g. ??lon:synthetic fabric, pi??apple:fruit…

Special thanks to OneLook® for providing data services.

This app is free, and will remain free so enjoy!

– quoted from iTunes App Store

I couldn’t believe my luck. This is exactly the application I had been searching for. It took me less than 10 seconds to download it. I have been using this application for about 2 weeks and it has changed my world! Now if I want to say something is green I have a whole list to choose from to describe green. The application also works a bit like a word association game. If you type in a phrase, it comes up with all the synonyms associated to the words in that phrase as well as the actual phrase.

 

Wildcards can also be used in the search terms to customize the results…

Find words that start with bl and have a meaning related to snow >

bl*:snow

Find words and phrases that start with blue >

blue*

Find any words related to snow >

*:snow

(These are just some of the more specialized ways you can use Reverse Dictionary. All info quoted from the App’s store’s app.)

The great thing about this application is that it also contains a number of full dictionaries and thesauruses. So if you have found a word but you want an expanded meaning of it then you just click on the “more definitions” and it will take you to a list of dictionaries and thesauruses: Everything from Dictionary.com to the Oxford Dictionary. There are also a couple of useful dictionaries for fiction authors: Rhymezone, Mnemonic Dictionary, Idioms and the Urban Dictionary and for Word Nerds – The Online Entymology Dictionary.

 

The good news is that this application is available in both Apple and Android.

 

Apple: Reverse Dictionary

 

Android: Reverse Dictionary

 

(For those without a smartphone/ipod: Reverse Dictionary – Desktop Version)

 

All downloads are FREE.

 

So if it’s on the tip of your tongue and you just can’t find the exact right word… If your manuscript is covered in red pen from your editor with large “Please find another word!” all over it… Don’t waste time. Download the Reverse Dictionary. This little app will change the way you write and make your editing life super-simple. Your editor will love you and your manuscript will shine.

 

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No money to hire a secretary…Here is the next best thing…for free

Kim Koning, Notes on Wrestling The Muse, Tools

Ever felt like this….

Do you desperately want/need someone/thing like this?

I love being a full time writer. This is a dream come true and wish fulfillment. Do I miss the EDJ? (translated=Evil Day Job) Short answer = No. Longer Answer = Sometimes. Hang on, didn’t I just say I love being a full time writer? Yes I did and Yes I do. But I would love it even more if I could do only that, just that: FULL TIME WRITING. The realities of life as a full time writer in this age is that I only get to write 50% of the time on a good week. You see what I miss about my EDJ is that as a Manager I had secretaries, employees and amazing assistant managers. In other words I could get on with my job of being a Sales Guru Manager. I could multi-task the priority tasks because someone else would be delegated those pesky daily must-do tasks. The reality of my life as a full time writer looks a bit like this…Except in my reality, Johnny Depp lives in my fantasy world…

Johnny sums up my quandary. Life as a full time writer without employees, secretaries, social network secretaries,  personal assistants or assistant managers means that I don’t have 100% time to JUST WRITE. Sometimes the daily tasks overwhelm me so much that I want to throw my hands up in frustration or find a local wall to bang my head against. In a perfect world, I could lock myself away in my hidden writer’s cabin in a place far, far away from the evils of modern distraction including all and any of the following: telephone, mobile, email, blogging, twitter, facebook, website ect. Not mentioning life in all it’s weirdness. But unfortunately the reality is that I can’t lock myself away in that dream cabin. (Now the current dream and wish.) I need to be accessible. I need to be up with what is happening in the world of publishing and social network. I need to blog at least once a week so that I keep my audience. I need to update my website. I need to retweet/reply to tweets on twitter. I need to update facebook. I need to answer emails. I need to complete this ms by such and such a deadline. I need to…I need do…. I need to… Which leads me to not having 100% time to JUST WRITE.

As much as I bitch about life in the modern digital world where information is on hyper overload, I believe you need to keep your friends closer but your enemies even closer still… So I am all about finding great online digital tools that help make my life as a full time writer more manageable…

Today I would like to share my latest find with you…in the hopes that should you find yourself looking more like the first picture in this blog than the writing writer you thought you were meant to be…this little gem of a tool may just make your life a little more manageable.

Available for Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch 4th generation, Android, Windows

Price: Free. Free. Free. Free. Free.

  • Organize tasks and projects to get more done
  • Access, interact, and update from anywhere
  • Perfect for small projects, or larger collaborations
  • Tight E-Mail and IM integration
 
“Listen…What’s that? That’s the stress-free feeling of having everything under control. Tame the Beast with the only task management application that is designed to work the way you do. = Producteev“


So that is what the application home page has to say … This is what I have to say.
 
I love this application/program. I have been using it for about 2 weeks and for the first time in months I feel on top of things. I love how this application synchronizes in real time on all your devices. So when I enter a task or tick off a task as done on one device it lets all my programs know. It e-mails me when I have a task due or when I have forgotten a task. One thing I totally love it for is that you can use it in groups too. I have not used it in this way yet but could see the advantages. For instance you could sync your schedule with your editor’s or cover artist’s schedule so that you are on the same page. Likewise you could use the group function to sync tasks with your writing group/ critique partners. It syncs beautifully with your calendars, your email, your reminders and your notes. Best of all I love this app because it is F.R.E.E. and available for most of the digital platforms. The great thing too is that if you do not have one of your devices near you, you can log onto the web application of this app and all your tasks will be there for you. So it may not make coffee for you and may not answer your emails or post your blogs for you but it will put you back into the control seat in your task management. An organized mind writes and edits more clearly.
 
My Overtasked Desk before Producteev
 
So get organized. Click on the Producteev logo in this post and download this app onto all your devices. You won’t be sorry. It won’t cost you a thing but it will save you so much time by putting all your must-hatch eggs into one neat basket. Unclutter your desk from the mountains of sticky notes, filofaxes and calendars. (Save some trees by using less paper.) In the words of the Producteev guy, Tame the Beast that keeps you from being a Writing Writer.
 
My Desk after Producteev... The Writing Writer
 
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