Hypnagogic State

I came across Book Oven on Twitter (under the NaNoWriMo hashtag) and while I was skeptical at first, the more I’ve poked around at the site, the more I’ve begun to like it.

Book Oven has two main functions. Writers can upload a chapter/book/short story and set it either to private or public. The former would allow said writer to invite in their own team of friends/coworkers/etc. to read through and edit their work. The latter option allows anyone on Book Oven to access the work and provides material for the delightful Bite-Size Edits service described below.

If you don’t have a work you want to upload, you can still get involved by signing up to be a proofreader. Proofreading is done through Bite-Size Edits. You are randomly given one sentence of a public work to edit. A sentence before and after is given for context but not open for editing. You can edit and submit changes, skip that sentence, or approve it as is. There is also a spot for leaving comments to the author. Once you are done with that sentence, another is randomly assigned.

Book Oven is still in beta and they seem to have big plans for the future. Membership is free and the site is really simple to use. I played around in the proofreading section today and quite enjoyed it.

I used Twitter quite a bit when I was managing a politics/etc. blog but I’ve slacked off majorly on the micro-blogging since I left that position. I’m still familiar with the basics- the hashtags, the Tweetdeck, the tinyurls- but I wasn’t aware of certain aspects of the blue bird service. Namely, Twitter Chats.

It seems as though Twitter would be a chaotic format in which to stage a chat but so is any chat software if there are enough people involved. Via Booklife Now, I came across a blog post at The High Spot Inc. that provides the schedules for writing/reading related Twitter Chats. I’m going to check out the #followreader chat tomorrow between 4 and 5 pm (EST) and maybe the #writechat on Sunday from 12 to 3 pm (PST).