A month ago we reformatted our computer through the recovery partition. We backed up everything and thought we had everything covered. So we proceeded to set the computer back to factory state. Everything went well: the computer started up with no error messages or anything like that. Great! That was until we moved to reinstall the programs that didn’t come with the computer (like Microsoft Office and all our design and editing programs) and realised— “Argh, the product keys!” We threw those away when we threw away the boxes that contained them a while back.

    Fortunately, our programs were installed on another computer and there were programs that help us recover a few of the lost/misplaced program/serial keys. Programs like Product Key Finder and Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder are free and help retrieve Microsoft Windows and Office product keys. To retrieve keys to other programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, or Dreamweaver, you will need to purchase a product key finder program. If you think you can download a trial version or a demo of such program and retrieve the key, you won’t have any luck as these trial versions/demos only show a partial key. Some sites have also suggested going through the registry and finding keys there, but we’ve had little luck with this method.

    A very important note we must draw attention to: you must have the programs installed on the computer for these keys to be retrieved by the key-finding programs. So if you’ve uninstalled the programs from the computer and haven’t got them installed anywhere else because you decided not to install it on your second computer or simply don’t have a second computer, you won’t be able to retrieve the keys with the key-finding programs. Your only option then is to repurchase the programs.

    Fortunately for us, we had Microsoft Office on another computer and were able to retrieve the keys through the freeware mentioned above; and for the design/editing programs, we ended up finding the boxes and CD envelops they came in. We were able to retrieve the keys without having to purchase the key-finding programs or repurchase any of the software. That lapse in thinking could have cost us thousands of dollars. Lucky!

    So, learn from us. It is important that before you think about throwing those boxes or CD envelopes into the recycle bin, make sure you note these keys down somewhere for safekeeping. Even if you’re thinking of keeping the boxes and those CD envelopes, note them down so that just in case you forget that you shouldn’t throw them away, you still have a copy.

Browsing through some of the online fiction and fanfiction archives we noticed there are five things writers (generally young writers) do that really put us off from reading their story. So, this blog entry will be listing the five things we believe will, for sure, turn away most potential readers.

1. SMS/Text language
    Nothing will make people turn away from your story faster than one written in SMS/text language. Text language is very subjective. How you abbreviate a word may not be the way someone abbreviates it, making it difficult to understand and enjoy the story. No one wants to sit in front of their screens trying to decipher your text language. Writing in such an abbreviated form can suggest to readers that you can’t be bothered and aren’t serious about writing a good piece of fiction: if you were, you’d take the time to use correct grammar and spelling.

2. Multiple point of views in one scene
    This is in regards to the first-person viewpoint. Although multiple point of views can be used in a story or within a chapter, it’s not okay to do so within one scene. It is very disruptive to the flow of the story and confuses the reader. Readers don’t want to have to stop contantly to adjust their minds to the new viewpoint and figure out what’s going on and how they relate to the scene again and again to get your story. Stick to one viewpoint per scene, or better yet, per chapter.

3. Mostly dialogue
    The thing with stories with mostly dialogue is that it only ever focuses on information that comes out of the characters’ mouths. This means missing out on other important information which can affect a reader’s understanding and experience of your story. Things like scene and mood setting, character thoughts, body language, and tone of voice create a fuller picture of your story; and for readers who are looking for this, they may find dialogue-only or mostly dialogue stories to take a too narrow a view and exit out.

    What’s worse is if your characters are spitting out boring, irrelevant babble that drag the story along. Not only does the story not have descriptions to help readers visualise the world it is set in, now they have boring, uninteresting, characters to read about. If you do choose to write mostly dialogue, make sure your characters are interesting. Give them a unique voice, use their words to reveal information that moves the story forward. If readers don’t have interesting characters to read about, what else is there to keep them reading?

4. Low word count per chapter
    There isn’t an actual rule to how many words you should have per chapter (at least not one we know of): you write, develop a sort of rhythm, and you cut where you feel it a natural point to end the chapter. However, we do believe 300 – 400 words per chapter isn’t enough to build on a story and develop much of a scene let alone a full chapter. Short chapters most likely will give your readers the impression that your chapters are going to be underdeveloped, cut prematurely, pointless, and probably only out to get that feedback/review counter ticking over. Try to have at least a few scenes in the story—have events/problems for the characters to go through before ending the chapter.

5. “I suck at summaries” summaries
    What’s worse than not bothering to write a summary at all is when there is one, but it has been half-heartedly attempted with an “I suck at summaries. Please read” at the end of it. The only thing that comes to mind when we see these kind of ‘summaries’ is that the writer doesn’t really have a clear idea of the direction of their story. Even if that isn’t the case, that will be the perception. So try. If you have the energy to write a multi-chapter story, it shouldn’t take too much to write two or three sentences about your story.

There are so many articles on the internet that tell you how to sing, but not many of them are helpful to beginners like us with little knowledge about singing.

   We’ve gone through our fair share of looking on the internet for information to help us understand how to sing. Many of those sites have been enlightening at the beginning, but in the end a lot of them ended up confusing us with some providing information that are not as in depth as they can be, or too technical, and some even providing information that seemed strange.

   The vibrato, there isn’t much in depth information on it, but most singing sites out there have a section on it. Some say it’s a change in pitches and one just needs to waver between the two pitches to get the vibrato. Others say vibrato results from good breathing technique.

   We want to share one site that we believe provides good information on learning to sing. Sifting through hundreds of sites, this was the site that provided information that was understandable.

USEFUL RESOURCES:

Singwise – Breathing Exercises

The Singing Voice: Warm Ups