The Story on Six Minute Story

Gremlins and other not-so-mythical creatures

In the world of websites, every designer faces vile creatures called “Gremlins” — urchins who sneak into your code and muddle things up when you’re not looking.

Though I’ve not touched Six Minute Story’s code in weeks, suddenly users logging in are greeted by an apology and a smiling figure dressed in a very orange coat.

I’ve identified the glitch and am working on a cure.

For now, if you meet the orangecoat (which seems to be random) just go back to the main site and things will work as expected.

Sorry. Phase two is almost ready.

13 Words Not Found in the English Language

lovelikesummer:

These words do not have direct equivalents in English. Some of them would definitely be useful for us English-speakers, what do you think?

1. Waldeinsamkeit (German): the feeling of being alone in the woods

2. Ilunga (Tshiluba, Congo): a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time

3. Taarradhin (Arabic): a way of resolving a problem without anyone losing face (not the same as our concept of a compromise - everyone wins)

4. Litost (Czech): a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery

5. Esprit de l’escalier (French): a witty remark that occurs to you too late, literally on the way down the stairs…

6. Meraki (Greek): doing something with soul, creativity, or love

7. Yoko meshi (Japanese): literally ‘a meal eaten sideways’, referring to the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language:

8. Duende (Spanish): a climactic show of spirit in a performance or work of art, which might be fulfilled in flamenco dancing, or bull-fighting, etc.

9. Guanxi (Mandarin): in traditional Chinese society, you would build up good guanxi by giving gifts to people, taking them to dinner, or doing them a favour, but you can also use up your gianxi by asking for a favour to be repaid.

10. Pochemuchka (Russian): a person who asks a lot of questions

11. Tingo (Pascuense language of Easter Island): to borrow objects one by one from a neighbour�s house until there is nothing left

12. Radioukacz (Polish): a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain

13. Selathirupavar (Tamil): a word used to define a certain type of absence without official leave in face of duty

(via The Urban Recluse)

For all you writers, here’s a few words to enjoy!

Freeform Fridays are Fairly Fun

(Aaaand alliteration’s awfully annoying.)

Jessica suggested a while ago that some days be designated for freewriting, sans guiding prompt. Being a bit less of a challenge (in my opinion), Friday seems a perfect day — a day for purging the toil of the week into 6 minutes of art.

Granted, today is Saturday, not Friday, but I’m going to leave the freeform bit up for the weekend. New prompt on Monday, and hope against hope I’ll have facebook integration done by then, so I can get on to One Word Wednesdays and Multichromatic Mimeograph Mondays.

Noveling

Right, so I currently spend 4-5 hours a day upgrading Six Minute Story (part of phase 2, you won’t see it til it’s done). And about 1 hour writing on my novel. This is not efficacious.

Hence, until the novel’s finished, I’m only writing on the novel. Not another line of code til I’ve dotted the last period. (I’d say written the last sentence, but I’ve already done that. It’s the middle that’s so difficult.)

Still, send your suggestions, still, tell your friends, still, bard like mad.

6ms

Thanks! I use it now before I write on my novel each time, just to exorcise the editor in my head. To be fair though, I’m far behind you. Well done on reaching 25,000 words!

flowersonsticks:

6ms:

The idea for Six Minute Story arose a few years ago (but I just made it public recently) as a way to jumpstart my writing. It’s fun for the same reasons NaNoWriMo is fun: You’ve got a set amount of time to write as much as you can — six minutes in this case. The time limit removes the pressure of hypercritically analyzing everything you’re writing. That freedom, coupled with adrenaline, neutralizes the fear of writing and undams your imagination, so to speak. Try it out; tell me what you think! sixminutestory.com

flowersonsticks:

thanks for the follow, tell me a little bit about 6 Minute Story?

I definitely will as soon as NaNoWriMo is over, since that’s sucking up all of my creativity right now!

6ms

The idea for Six Minute Story arose a few years ago (but I just made it public recently) as a way to jumpstart my writing. It’s fun for the same reasons NaNoWriMo is fun: You’ve got a set amount of time to write as much as you can — six minutes in this case. The time limit removes the pressure of hypercritically analyzing everything you’re writing. That freedom, coupled with adrenaline, neutralizes the fear of writing and undams your imagination, so to speak. Try it out; tell me what you think! sixminutestory.com

flowersonsticks:

thanks for the follow, tell me a little bit about 6 Minute Story?

Minor Improvements

November is NaNoWriMo month. That means besides applying to master’s programs, pursuing future opportunities and fixing up Six Minute Story I’m also writing a novel. You can follow my lethargic progress at my NaNoWriMo profile.

Accordingly, I’m making minor improvements to Six Minute Story. Today and yesterday garnered an email system so when a user comments on your story or starts following you, you’ll get an email (next up: a setting letting you turn the emails off :P). 

Otherwise I’ve been tracking down some bugs and neutralizing them with large doses of laughing gas. One writer noted that occasionally stories don’t post. I can’t replicate the problem, nor are the logs explanatory. If you encounter a similar problem, please let me know. Stories actually submitting is … vital, no?

The next major upgrades will be to the login system (so you can login via facebook) and, most importantly, revitalizing the writing process with two spices to diversify the experience. Spice1: Freeform Fridays. Spice2: Photo based prompts. 

Of course, with the whole November-being-busy thing, it may be December before those ideas are implemented.

Keep writing, do.

update: No need to wait. Insomnia provided me plenty of time to set up email preferences. You can now manage your email settings via the “manage profile” link in your account.

Feeding you stories

We’ve implemented RSS feeds, in three flavors for now. You can subscribe to an RSS feed for the most recent stories, or to an RSS feed for the top rated stories. Most exciting to us, you can subscribe to a customized RSS feed composed only of stories from writers you follow (on your account page click the rss icon in the address bar).

For now we’ve set the feeds to truncate stories in the hopes of encouraging you to come out of your dens and interact by commenting on and/or applauding stories. 

Feel free to comment on the new feature.