Ready to Rock? NaNo2018 is only seven weeks away and this time will fly by, so – if you are keen to use Scrivener for NaNo2018 – now is the time to start learning how. What is NaNo? NaNo, short for NaNoWriMo, is the National Novel Writers Month. Writers all over the world spend the 30 days of November writing the first 50K words of their novel. Some aim higher. 80K. 100K! The NaNoWriMo website doors are already...
What’s a ‘clean’ manuscript? By clean, I mean no typos (typographical errors): incorrect spellings, missing or misplaced punctuation … As well as reading it through, out loud preferably, you could use an editing tool such as ProWritingAid to polish your words. Or, there’s AutoCrit or Grammarly. By clean, I also mean well structured and formatted. Check out this post for more on that. Creating a clean manuscript: Fixing incorrect spellings Finding your own spelling mistakes is hard work. You need to...
Everyone needs an editing toolbox Yes, an editing toolbox. You have your first draft. It's complete - now it's time to polish your words. Out comes the editing toolbox? What's in it? The editing toolbox You have three options. Learn how best to self-edit your manuscript Use (non-human) software tools Pay someone else to edit your manuscript Actually, I recommend you do all three. Let's consider them in reverse order ...
From idea to final draft Having spilled the beans about my modus operandi regarding my devices, this time, it's my process of using Scrivener from idea to final draft. My Scrivener process: from idea to final draft Writing a novel is not easy. It takes forever and it's easy to lose heart. I have a simple, straightforward, process which helps me to reach the endpoint with my sense of humour intact. Briefly, there are ten...
Horses for courses I'm often asked about syncing between devices, and how it works ...
Spotlight on style Writers, we each of us have our own voice and a style of writing that we employ for particular types of material. What do I mean by style? My writing style varies according to what I am writing and my intended audience. In an email, I might be formal, giving only facts eg of a forthcoming workshop. In a letter, or on a postcard, I might be informal, sharing anecdotes...
TASK RESEARCH The keywords TASK RESEARCH included in a comment indicating that I need to spend time, probably on the Internet, gathering more information. As with other tasks, I set up a collection. When do I tackle the Research tasks? I tackle research tasks when my circumstances dictate that other - maybe more important or pressing - tasks would be impossible or impractical. For example, I save the research tasks for when I'm too...
Every story needs an information highway Within a story, information travels to and fro between characters and, as a witness to these interactions, to the reader. Add to this, the narrator's contribution and you should have a story, one that works. How does logic fit into a story? Whatever your premise, there will be some logic in how you took that premise and turned it into a story. You dreamed up a plot. ...
The Devil in the Detail In the previous blog post, I focused on the global 'Big Picture' tasks. Now it's the turn time to address the 'Devil in the Detail'. Global 'Devil in the Detail' tasks Global 'Devil in the Detail' tasks affect the whole manuscript but lend themselves to being addressed piecemeal. For example: Overuse of a particular word eg very, always Lack of variety in sentence starts eg overuse of 'It...
Global tasks affect the whole manuscript Hence the term. The issue is not confined to one sentence or one paragraph or one scene or one chapter. I have to address all of the manuscripts, from start to finish. Categories of global task Global tasks also fall into two further categories: Big Picture Devil in the Detail Global 'Big Picture' tasks These are tasks that affect the whole manuscript and have to be addressed, preferably, in one hit....
