Monthly Archives: April 2008

The urge to go small

I’m not sure I understand the urge to “go small” with everything. I recently bought an Insignia 4GB MP3 player, mostly for music and audiobooks. But the thing has about a 1.6-inch screen and is capable of playing videos. On a 1.6-inch screen? Are you kidding me? About the smallest I could imagine going is …

April 25, 2008 – 12:38 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in late night writing | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Of typewriters classic and modern

The days in which I needed to worry about acne treatment are now behind me, but back in those days I remember buying my first typewriter. Growing up in rural Minnesota, I worked my first job picking rocks out of a field on a local farm; I was injured on that job (run over by …

April 25, 2008 – 12:28 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Memories of a scary moment

Have you ever had your head sat on in a swimming pool? I have. It was terrifying. I was probably not much older than eight and my sister, who did the sitting, was probably around five. I can’t remember a lot about how or why it occured; all I remember was the sensation of being …

April 20, 2008 – 10:37 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Why I appreciate Kapersky Antivirus

In this digital age in which we live, it’s important to have the right self defense products on hand to protect your computer (and thus your work) from outside threats. That’s why I like Kapersky Antivirus, which I recently picked up from Best Buy. In the last couple years, I’d tried and been disappointed in …

April 20, 2008 – 10:29 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in late night writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Blogging’s a great tool

Blogs are a great tool for aspiring writers. It doesn’t cost much and with the correct digital signage, you can attract an instant audience. And it kind of takes the place of journaling in the practice of writing every day. That’s kind of what I like about it. I was never big into journals and …

April 20, 2008 – 10:21 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in Tips on getting published, writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Strange words, strange minds

When we are young and still expanding our volcabulary, a child’s mind can come up with some pretty creative images. I remember once, when my family went camping and stopped at a grocery store for supplies. We’d picked up just about everything we needed, save for napkins. My mom asked me to go grab some …

April 20, 2008 – 10:13 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in creativity | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Variety is the spice of writing

Sometimes if you write too much about one topic, it can get to feel a bit stale. Let it go on like that long enough and it becomes completely uninspired drivel. (Kind of like most of Aaron Sorkin’s TV work.) So how do you combat writing fatigue? The only answer I’ve found that works but …

April 20, 2008 – 10:04 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in creativity | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

HD inconveniences

One of the things I don’t look forward to, even though I’ll enjoy it in many respects, is the eventual switch to HDTV. It’s not that I won’t like the improved resolution or anything; but I will be annoyed by just about everything costing more. For example, DirecTV adds a $10 premium charge in order …

April 18, 2008 – 7:50 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Weird thoughts

Have you ever looked at a daily household item, like say your vacuum cleaner or a hand towel or your wife’s designer jewelry, and wonder how it ended up in your house; and I mean your house in particular? Every once in a while I hear stories about defective products that have recalls done on …

April 14, 2008 – 11:42 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in creativity | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Real-life concerns

Except for those few writers fortunate enough to be employed directly by a company, most of us are freelancers, casting about to make a living and hoping to land on a project that goes over well enough to keep a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, and maybe even a bit of security …

April 13, 2008 – 1:34 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Avoiding distractions

It’s always tempting to get distracted from writing. For example, to combat the coming switch from analog to digital, my wife and I took advantage of a pricing special and made the switch t DirecTV. The package we bought includes a 100-hour DVR with the ability to either watch or record up to three programs …

April 13, 2008 – 1:29 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in Tips on getting published | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Writing for an audience

Research-based writing is one of the hardest, most time-consuming types of writing one can do, but I find myself drawn into it more and more. In addition to my recent article in Ripper Notes #28, which was a brief research essay in the true crime genre, I have been writing quite a bit in the …

April 9, 2008 – 11:42 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in creativity | Tagged , , | Comments (0)