writing
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Amazon's new education tool helps students become better writers
Amazon's been ramping up its efforts in the education space since 2013, when it acquired TenMarks. The ed-tech startup helps teachers and parents create easy-to-digest curriculums for young students, which up until today were all about math. But now, Amazon is introducing TenMarks Writing, a cloud-based program designed to help 4th-6th grade kids become better writers. For students, there are features like Writing Coach, which guides them through the entire process of putting together a story, from the pre-write phase to editing in real-time with their teacher.
Medium snaps up Talkshow and its public chat app
Talkshow's namesake chat-in-public app never really caught on, but that doesn't mean the team's story has ended just yet. Co-founder Michael Sippey has revealed that Medium has bought Talkshow Industries. It's a tiny outfit, but it's important enough that Sippey will become Medium's Head of Product and help the service "evolve" its paid writing model. Sippey isn't providing any specific clues as to what he'll do next. However, he has confirmed that both Talkshow and Episode (an unfinished podcast discovery app) are shutting down.
Popular iOS notes app Bear adds sketching (and stickers)
Bear, a fast, lightweight and lovely note-taking app for iOS and the Mac, has been building a following over the past year or so. The app's excellent design, small but essential feature set and steady stream of updates have made it worth its subscription cost ($14.99 per year or $1.49 per month, though you can get most of its features for free). Today, a pretty major update is rolling out to the iOS app: Bear now supports sketching. In keeping with Bear's focus on essentials, the sketching feature includes two different brushes, each with three different widths and a variety of colors.
'Tomb Raider' writer Rhianna Pratchett says goodbye to Lara Croft
Rhianna Pratchett is a veteran video game writer who most recently penned the scripts for Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider, but today on Twitter she announced her amicable departure from the series. Pratchett helped usher Lara Croft, the franchise's legendary protagonist, into the modern era when Crystal Dynamics rebooted the series in 2013.
A computer program that can replicate your handwriting
Handwriting is a skill that feels personal and unique to all of us. Everyone has a slightly different style -- a weird quirk or a seemingly illegible scrawl -- that's nearly impossible for a computer to replicate, especially as our own penmanship fluctuates from one line to the next. A team at University College London (UCL) is getting pretty close, however, with a new system it's calling "My Text in Your Handwriting." A custom algorithm is able to scan what you've written on a piece of paper and then reproduce your style, to an impressive degree, using whatever words you wish.
AI-written novel passes first round of a literary competition
Researchers from the Future University in Hakodate have announced that a short-form novel co-written by an artificial intelligence also developed by the team was accepted by a Japanese story competition, the Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award. Though the story didn't eventually win the competition, its acceptance does suggest that AI systems are quickly becoming capable of emulating human-like creativity.
The smart typewriter is here
Find it nigh-on impossible to focus when writing on your computer? You now have a dedicated device to help you shut out the social networks and other distractions: after more than a year's wait, Astrohaus has started taking orders for the Freewrite (formerly the Hemingwrite). Plunk down $549 ($449 in the first 24 hours, or $499 through the end of March) and you'll get a smart typewriter that lets you cut out non-essentials while keeping the conveniences of modern tech. You only have an E Ink display and a mechanical keyboard to work with, but there's WiFi under the hood to sync your masterpieces with Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive and other cloud services. You also have onboard storage for over a million documents, in case you're particularly prolific, and the 4-week battery life will keep it running through an epic-length camping trip.
'Tomb Raider' and 'Witcher 3' snag Writers Guild nominations
The Writers Guild of America has nominated Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Pillars of Eternity, Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in its Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing category for 2015. (Yes, the Writers Guild still spells "video game" as one word). If these choices feel a tad mainstream, that's because the organization only honors writers who are also members of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus, which limits its reach. The WGA will present its awards during simultaneous events in Los Angeles and New York on February 13th.
Can a screenplay algorithm save Hollywood?
Hollywood may be full of focus groups and statistical analysts, but deciding which movie to back still comes down to the gut feeling of a cigar-chewing studio mogul. Now, a Belgian startup is hoping that its algorithmic script-reading software can know, with a far greater certainty, if a screenplay is going to be a success or not. ScriptBook is the brainchild of Nadira Azermai, who plans to unleash the software to the public for the first time at next February's Berlin Film Festival.
Amazon offers a free screenwriting tool to discover new stories
Amazon's original series have been on quite the run as of late, and the online retailer wants to help both aspiring and established screenwriters get their work discovered. To do just that, the company has Amazon Storywriter: a free cloud-based app for creating screenplays for movies and television. The software provides an alternative for requisite apps that can be somewhat pricey. Of course, Amazon isn't the first to offer a free option, with the likes of Trelby and Celtx already doing so. The Storywriter app automatically formats as you type and supports import/export of PDF, FDX and Fountain file formats. While writers are online, work is saved in the cloud as they go and a Chrome app for Mac and PC allows for offline productivity.
Dear Veronica: Self-promotion advice with John Scalzi!
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-503259{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-503259, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-503259{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-503259").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Happy Wednesday, everyone! We've got a few fantastic questions this week, starting with this question about self-promotion! #DearVeronica ,In this tech age, how should a novice novelist make an impression and promote his book to grab attention of a lot of people? — Rajat Joshi (@MrRajatJoshi) August 14, 2015 John Scalzi, author of some of my favorite books, is here to help Rajat out! In the meantime, I tackle some questions about my favorite audio ripping software, and the best way to clean a very "grody" Macbook Air screen. Keep those questions rolling on in to me by using the hashtag #DearVeronica on Twitter! See you next week.Subscribe in iTunes, RSS or YouTube!
Vibrating pen makes it easier for Parkinson's patients to write
The ARC pen pictured above might look laughably large, but it could be the perfect option for folks with Parkinson's disease. It was created by a group of students from UK's Royal College of Art and the Imperial College London to combat a Parkinson's symptom called micrographia. That's characterized by a patient's handwriting becoming smaller and more cramped as they go along, to the point that it's not readable anymore. This pen prevents that from happening by stimulating key muscles through vibration (it's equipped with motors to make that happen), giving users more control over their hands. Further, its large size makes it more comfortable to hold than regular pens.
Tumblr's 'big update' promotes essay writing, fewer GIFs
If we're honest, there isn't enough money in monochrome erotica and Benedict Cumberbatch GIFs to sustain a billion-dollar website. That's why Tumblr is doing its very best to become more of a publishing platform that can attract the sort of writing (and attention) you'd normally find on Wordpress and Medium. The site began this process a few weeks ago by enabling embeds of its pages anywhere else on the internet, and now it's ready to give users a much stronger set of tools.
Snapchat could be the new home of non-destructive journalism
Back in August, Snapchat introduced the Story feature, allowing users to contribute snaps to a live feed for major events like the World Cup. That same month, details of the ephemeral sharing service's news and ad plans feeds also surfaced. Now, Digiday reports that not only will there be news, but the app is aiming to be a bit more ambitious. According to that site, when the newsy Discover feature goes live, it'll include original content from Snapchat on top of the posts from other media outlets (around a dozen, according to previous reports). In recent months, the company has nabbed writers and video producers formerly of MTV, News Corp and The Verge. The app is pushing animations for holiday to users' feed already, but the new project is said to bring videos that are several minutes in length. And what about those ads? The report claims they'll appear as both pre-roll content and Snapchat's usual disappearing messages. While there's not much info on what Discover will look like when it arrives, it seems all that new content will reportedly start to rollout this month.
Assassin's Creed, The Last of Us, Alien get Writers Guild nods
The Writers Guild of America has nominated Alien: Isolation, The Last of Us: Left Behind, Assassin's Creed: Unity and Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry for the 2015 award recognizing outstanding achievement in video game writing. Winners will be announced during simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York City on Saturday, February 14. Note that to be nominated for an award from the Writers Guild of America, "credited videogame writers must have been or must have applied to become members of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus at the time scripts were submitted," meaning the pool of eligible writers is limited. (Yes, the Guild spells "video game" as one word). For reference, we had the following to say about the stories in Alien, Left Behind and Unity:
Play Elegy for a Dead World the write way on Steam today
Elegy for a Dead World is available now on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux, 10 percent off ($13.50) through December 17. Elegy for a Dead World is a game about writing and a lesson in British Romantic poetry – players travel to far-off, alien planets and complete phrases about the environment, typing in whatever they wish to craft their own stories. The worlds are created in the vein of famed poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and John Keats. The game offers 27 writing challenges across different landscapes, with a cast of characters ranging from archaeologist to thief. Players can share their completed stories and read other players' writings through Steam Workshop. Today's launch places Elegy for a Dead World ahead of schedule, as it was originally due to release in early 2015. Elegy for a Dead World is making its way into classrooms, featured in ESL, creative writing and game design programs at almost 50 institutions in 13 countries. The game comes from Dejobaan Games and Popcannibal. [Image: Dejobaan Games]
Draftback finds the hidden history of your Google doc epics
A good story is a very special incarnation of magic, and if there's one thing more interesting than seeing how it unfolds, it's seeing how it was put together. Thankfully, a terribly neat new tool called Draftback -- created by New York-based writer/programmer James Somers -- sort of lets you do just that... as long as the story in question lives in a Google document.
Ginger Page, keyboard offer a wealth of text, keyboard options
I collect text editors the way other people collect stamps. Do people still collect stamps? Let's assume they do, and in great abundance. When a new editor comes out I've got to see what it does. This week I played with Ginger Page for iOS (free, universal). This handy little app offers several features to make writing easier and more fun, including a built-in alternate keyboard for iOS 8. Here's my look at Ginger Page and keyboard. Ginger Page, the text editor, does several things. It corrects mistakes. It translates text. It can read your text aloud and share what you've written in several ways. There's a lot more, which I'll get to, but for now I want to emphasize how efficiently all of this functionality is packaged into the app. When first launched, Ginger Page presents a keyboard, writing area, toolbar and a button for reaching the advanced tools. The six options across the main toolbar are rather useful. You get: 1. Rephrase a sentence 2. Speak 3. "Star," or mark as a favorite 4. Copy to the clipboard 5. Clear 6. Send as a text. I'll go over these in a moment, but first a complaint. While helpful, these tools are not customizable. As you'll see, there are additional functions that do not appear in the toolbar, like translate and define. It would be nice to be able to customize which six functions appear in the toolbar, but that's not an option. For example, if I intend to use Ginger Page for a lot of translation, it's a hassle to leave the writing area and open the hidden tool preferences repeatedly. Now, let's look at the default tools. The rephrase option is interesting. Once you've typed a sentence or a series of sentences, you can use Ginger Page to suggest alternate wordings. In my experience, this was hit or miss. When I wrote intentionally convoluted sentences, Ginger Page did a good job of suggesting more efficient alternatives. However, when I wrote brief sentences, it offered questionable variations, some of which changed the meaning of the original. For example, I wrote: "I'm going to the market with Martha to buy ingredients for dinner. We'll be back around 4:00. See you then." Suggestions for the first sentence included "I'm traveling to the market with Martha to buy ingredients for dinner," which is fine. It also suggested "I'm conking to the market..." and "I'm blending to the market...", which don't make sense, unless it's using colloquialisms I'm unfamiliar with. If your writing tends to be verbose, Ginger Page can help. Otherwise, it just gets weird. The other default tools work as you'd expect. Starred items are stored in a list and can be reused. This is handy if you want a database of boilerplate text messages, for example. The speak function does what it says on the tin, as does copy and clear, which deletes everything you've typed in the current session. Finally, the text option opens a text window with your words all ready to go. Ginger Page also offers real-time, contextual spelling and grammar checking. Spell checking works great and has at least one benefit over Apple's solution, in that it lets you correct an error that occurred several words ago. For example, if I write, "I'm giong to the market with Martha," it'll recognize "giong" as wrong and keep the suggestion "going" available as I type the rest of the sentence. A single tap fixes it. The grammatical suggestions work well for the most part. I made several errors and it caught the vast majority, offering acceptable fixes. A few errors did slip past, but I was satisfied with the performance overall. Now for the additional tools. I was impressed with the translate function. To test it I busted out my best high school French and Ginger Page translated every lengthy, marginally useful phrase without a problem. The app's dictionaries are quite useful, especially the customizable personal dictionary, which you can fill with your commonly used, non-standard words. You can also search for synonyms of a given word and theme the keyboard to match your aesthetic leanings... which brings me to the keyboard. The Ginger keyboard features a tiny "G" key in the lower right. Tapping it brings up all of the tools I mentioned before in a non-obtrusive display. I like this a whole lot and plan to keep it installed for quite some time. Despite a few complaints, I'm happy with Ginger Page and keyboard. They truly do add to the experience of writing on the iPhone.
Microsoft Research packs stylus with sensors for grip-based tools
Believe it or not, there has been limited research into the way we hold a pen for different writing tasks. A team at Microsoft Research has taken aim at those fine motor skills with a prototype stylus and tablet combo. The duo packs in inertial sensors to track the position of each while in use. A multi-touch grip sensor wraps the outside of the stylus that not only monitors how its held, but can also initiate tasks with a mere finger tap. Sure, button controls have long been built into styli, however this effort investigates the grip as a means of swapping between tasks. During the test, holding the pen-like peripheral a certain way accesses a specific tool set or keeps a resting palm from prohibiting movement with the other hand. On the tablet, the sensors can tell when the slate is being passed off to another user -- swapping to that person's fine-tuned presets automatically. Of course, all of this is still in the research phase, but enhanced touch recognition for stylus-driven devices like the Surface Pro 3 would certainly be a welcome boost.
Thesaurus is a simple app for quick reference
Reference apps don't get much simpler than Thesaurus. The app, which requires iOS 7 and is US$0.99 in the App Store, does exactly what it says it does: provide you with synonyms – and nothing else. This minimalist approach definitely has its drawbacks. However, there are still things to like about it. The color scheme is refreshing and bright. As someone who stares at a white screen writing copy for most of my day, I appreciated the pops of color and clean interface. When you search for a synonym, you get a variety of options, some of which are really outside of the box. Unfortunately, there are not always a lot of words from which to choose. It certainly does not offer the broad scope of alternate word choices available in Dictionary.com's Dictionary and Thesaurus combo app. You can click on one of the synonyms to open up more words. But just as above, your choices are extremely limited and sometimes non-existent. For instance, if you click on "gaud," you get the exact same synonyms you get for "novelty." This isn't like Visual Thesaurus, which really digs deep into the English language to find the exact word that you need. The lack of synonyms won't affect most users, but the lack of definitions might be a major hindrance. People often look for synonyms to help them further understand the meaning of a word. If you don't know the exact definition of a synonym, Thesaurus won't help you in that regard. It ditches definitions in favor of its simplistic approach. If the app is going to throw out words like "gewgaw," it really should tell you what they mean. (In case you are wondering, gewgaw means "a showy thing.") Plus, not all synonyms can be used in the same context. You can say "mustaches are a novelty right now," but you wouldn't say "mustaches are a bauble." You need definitions for clarity. Thesaurus also lacks an in-depth look at the word itself. Similar apps have information on the origin of the word. This may seem extraneous to some, but if you are suffering from writer's block, things like this help to spur your creativity. As a writer, I need layers of options. This app looks nice, especially compared to Dictionary.com's cluttered appearance, but it is not robust enough for a serious wordsmith. Of course, not everyone is a writer. Most people do not need or want a complicated reference app with a lot of features. If that's the case for you, then you'll probably love Thesaurus.
