Scrivener- A writing software program

Scrivener is a tool I learned about just a few months ago. In the past I used a scriptwriting tool that I wished was available for fiction writing. It allowed you to keep character information and I put location information used for my books under location information meant for films. Having to modify the program was a let down but I made it work. Recently I was made aware of a software that did all of this for writers of all kinds. Scrivener has a fiction, none fiction, and screenwriting format. You can even write short stories and poems. Heck I use it for all my word processing needs since I just purchased a new computer and it came with noting useful already installed.   
     This program comes with a free 30 day trial download, but do not panic yet, it is 30 day actual use, not calendar days from download. I love this because I was unable to use the program for about two weeks after I downloaded it because I had to work at my real job. I did not lose two weeks-my 30 day trial was still there for me.
     Scrivener is easy as pie once you get used to it. There is a hands on tutorial but I recommend that you do the video sections first. The hands on tutorial takes about an hour or more, but it is time well spent, but it can be daunting. Watch the videos first and get quick easy help in getting started on the program. Play with it and then tackle the hands on tutorial once you are a little more familiar with the basics. It goes into great detail and explains how to use all of the great features Scrivener has to offer. It can overwhelm you if you just jump right in.
     While downloading the trial version I did not even look at the price. I wanted to compare it to Celtx that I had used for years, but was only for screenwriting. Scrivener had all and more of what I wanted. I got caught up in the bells and whistles and slipped right past the price. When I was sold on the program and hit the buy now button I almost choked. It could not be possible. The program was just $40. Say what? After all I had learned that the program had to offer I expected to pay $150 to $250 and it was only $40. That made me even happier.
     There is a cork board or outline section for notes that turns into a Syllabus! You can keep track of information for each chapter of your book or section of your short story. You can split the pages to view two or more chapters and edit each one at the same time. There is a section that allows you to store your research, even links to online info so you don't have to worry about forgetting where you got that juicy tidbit you plan to use in your book. Then there is the compile tool. This will compile your book into a word document, epub, mobi or pdf with headers, page numbers and title pages. It does the hard work for you, just tell it what you want.
     There is so much more the program does that I have barely scratched the surface. I look forward to learning more about how to make this program work for me. If you are looking for a writing software program I highly recommend this one. I encourage you to get the 30 day free trial and see for yourself:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/trial.php

What is the Limit of Your Attention Span?

I noticed lately I have less and less interest in longer posts whether it is a blog, facebook or e-mail. It seems that I want to get-in and get-out quickly; less truly is more for me right now. I have no tolerance for lengthy verbiage.

Yet I can sit for hours on fb reading hundreds of  little posts from anyone. But let one of those posts break into a sermon and I am gone. The information they want to share could be something I might want, or need to know, but I have a hard time clicking that "continue" button.

There is no doubt that I am missing out, but will I be able to force myself to have a longer attention span? I think it is necessary. (See, some readers have already clicked out of my blog- it has gone on too long) I can still read books and informational web pages so I know I can still do it. But it is a choice. I have to choose to  s l o w  down and pay more attention because I can only expect that as time goes by my attention span will wittle away to nothing- a tweet: 140 characters or less- or worse- a mini tweet (yet to be discovered by anyone but me): 70 characters or less.

Perish the thought. I will be working on increasing my attention span daily. I cannot live in a 70 character or less world. I refuse. How about you?

Translation Please

I have just been contacted by Monica Ocana  who lives in Mostoles, Madrid, Spain! She wants to translate my book into Spanish. I have wanted to do this because we spent so much time in Phoenix, AZ and I feel like I am missing a market, not so much for the money as I want Spanish readers to have more choices and would love my book to be one of them. You will hear more about her in an upcoming blog interview I hope she is game for. This is a very exciting adventure. Thank you Monica.

Besides translating Monica is the personal assistant to author Rachel Carrington! Maybe I need one of those. An assistant could put her foot up my rear and make me get this second book done. Hmm. (I know someone locally and I bet she knows who I am thinking of. Wonder if she is up for it? )

Meanwhile not to take away from Monica, Welcome aboard and I hope you are ready for the ride. It will be a five ticket one for sure. ¡Muchas gracias for contacting me Monica!

A Writer's Life

The Life of a Writer
Everyone thinks that the life of a writer is so exotic. Maybe they think we actually live the lives of the characters in our stories. Let me tell you how a writer’s life goes…
Up at six a.m. with a need to write. Start the coffee. Cook breakfast while the computer boots up. Eat while I open the word program to my latest book. Sip more coffee and read the last few lines of what I wrote last.
A great idea strikes me! About the story I am writing? Brilliant.
No. My great idea is to go out and sit on my porch on this beautiful morning and write. Ah, good idea. As I go out on the porch I see the leaves have blown in and my hubby bought me the coolest slab of rock that matched the brick of our house and he made me a bench out of it. This looks so cool so I admire it for a while as I straighten up the porch so I can write.
Meanwhile my laptop is waiting patiently for me on the sofa.
As I clean off the porch I notice the recent winds have brought some trash into my yard. Now I am cleaning up the front yard. After that is done I take an extra lawn chair that I no longer need on the front porch because I have this lovely new bench, out to the back yard. Well folks, you guessed it. The wind blew out there too and there is trash to be picked up.
When I am done with the trash I pick up the extra shorts and t-shirts from the hot tub area and a few extra cups that have been left outside. You know what that means: I start a load of laundry and do the dishes.
By the time I get back to the computer the battery is dead. I had unplugged it to take it outside and spent so much time cleaning up that the battery died. So here I sit INSIDE my house finishing the story I had started hours ago.
Exciting isn’t it?

 

More on Procrastination...

For the past two days I have been off. During that time I wrote a reference letter for a friend. Send out a long over due email for a author spotlight in November. And send an e-mail update to someone I am writing an article on.
     Some how I managed to stay off of facebook. However I did watch a bunch of movies that were truly awful. All the while I looked at my laptop and reminded myself I could be doing something positive- writing. But yet I didn't. I went and took a nap instead.
     Before I went to napping I sat on my couch, surrounded by my writing team- a rotty and a golden retriever- who I scolded for not being busy writing by the way, and asked myself the million dollar question. Why are you not writing?
     The answer was part fear- and part not knowing where to go.
     Fear of what, you may ask? Fear that what I write won't be as good as what I imagine in my head. Once I started to write, on my last night off at midnight, was incredible and I hated myself for not jumping in sooner. I wasted two days, I could have been half the way through. But I got held up by fear of not being good enough, so instead I chose not to write. I think I may not ever get that feeling again after last night.
     As for not knowing where to go- I have an outline for the next five or six chapters, but the story writes itself some times. I didn't feel like I would come up with anything worthy so I refused to believe I had a clear and defined path to start with. It is not where I ended up, but it was enough to get me going. I don't think I will make that mistake again either.
     So, from now on the writer in me will have to come up with some new reasons not to do what I love to do so much. And one more reason to want a damn dragon!

The Opposite of Writers Block

I have the opposite problem from Lorne Oliver. What keeps me from writing isn't usually writers block. For me it is Procrastination. The first thing that keeps me from writing is facebook. This social media program is like a drug to me. Before I do anything I want to log on and see what everyone is up to today. Then I jump over to other peoples pages or to my groups and I find four or five hours have passed. So you would think I would be done here. No! Instead I have to rush back to my page to see what everyone is up to since I was there last. Night falls, my day off is over and I have accomplished nothing.
     Twitter has not quite taken over my life yet, but I think that is because I don't send a tweet every time I move or breath. I send a tweet when I have something to share. Yes, defeats the purpose of tweeting, I know. That is what facebook is for. I know. Trust me you don't want me to learn how to tweet and speak tweetspeak because your phone will be blown up with tweets in no time. Lets just leave it at that.
     Then there is netflix. Need I say more? Anyone who knows me knows that I am a movie hound. On my gravestone I want the words "And now for a Feature Presentation. Only old folks will know what that means. It dates back to pre-DVD and Blu-Ray. It was when the movie theater and the video tape showed you previews of movies yet to come out. Then as they lead into the movie you got that message. It makes me happy!
     One has to wonder with such a desire to write and a story in my head why I am not writing? It is not a block. I know exactly what I want to say. Yet I seem to avoid it like the plague. I allow constant distractions to get in my way.
     I even posted that pic of Ironman and his friends on my screen telling me I should be writing. Instead I just stare at them. How cute they all are pointing their fingers at me. Ahh....
     Oh, enough of that. I was writing something. Right.
     See what I mean?
     

Lie vs. Lay and other pesky words

You lay something down, but you lie down. That is easy enough. But then you get into laid down and lain down and I start to get lost. In my search to be a better writer I have encountered a few sites thanks to createspace blogger that I think might help.

First off is the createspace blogger page which probably requires a password, but I am not sure so I will include it.

Then they recommend the following:
http://www.confusingwords.com/index.php 
This is a word search for confusing words. Type in the word and there is your answer.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/
The list of information here is boundless! Check it out. Subscribe. Enjoy!

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
Oh the grammar girls! What can I say? They make correcting english fun!

And let me throw in this little gem found at Galley Cat:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/spot-cliches-spot-overused-words-with-free-writing-program_b53352
This is a cliche program and more. It points out cliches in your own writing and over used words. Ever wonder how those reviewers are able to point out how many times you used a specific word? This is one way.

Please, please feel free to add more in comment section that have not been mentioned here.

Guest blogger- Lorne Oliver

The Body Fuels the Mind

I have this bad habit of avoiding yard work and household chores by having to write. “No, no, I can’t mow the lawn.  I have to write.”…”I would love to help you weed the garden, but I’m almost done writing chapter ten.”  And then I sit there staring at the same sentence without having any clue where to take the story.  It goes nowhere. The lawn doesn’t get mowed.  The garden doesn’t get weeded.  And I don’t write.

Man, maybe I should go mow the lawn, weed the garden, paint the garage, take the dogs for a walk, do laundry, wash dishes, clean the cat litter, mop, go shopping, place chore here…but I can’t.  I have to be sitting here looking at the last words of the last sentence I wrote last Tuesday because the muse is about to pop up and the book will write itself.

Then day becomes evening, evening becomes night, night day, and still that damn cursor sits there flashing like your whole entire life is paused.  But it’s not.  The grass grows, the weeds overtake the vegetables, the dirty plates pile up, the dog pisses on the couch – you get the point.

Eventually I kick myself in the ass and get to doing something other than staring blankly at nothing.  Five minutes into doing something I remember back when I was a kid wanting to be this well-known writer.  I wrote and forgot more stories than I care to count while circling my parent’s lawn on the riding mower. 

I don’t know if the quote is from somewhere else, but I love books/movies/tv shows about writers so I will give Norman McLean who wrote A River Runs Through It all the credit.  “The body fuels the mind.”  Excellent book.  Excellent movie.  The body fuels the mind.  If you are blocked in your writing…get up.  Go do something.  Your fingers, the keyboard keys, your pen does not write the story.  Your brain writes the story.  Lucky for you it counts as carryon.

Do something.  Doing a job, any job, that doesn’t really take much brain power can sometimes let your creative side focus.  Just the other day I wrote two blogs in my head while weeding the garden.  I had to take a break to go get my notebook and jot down some notes.  My cardinal rule since I was twelve or so was to always carry a notebook and pen because you never know when inspiration will hit you.  The next time I go out I will have it with me.

A lot, A LOT, of Red Island was written while working the evening shift at the Urban Eatery in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.  I volunteered to work the evening pizza shift in the hopes that it would be slow and I could stand leaning against the door frame to the back prep room with my notebook resting on my hand and my pan in the other.  I wrote many pages in between making the most excellent thin crust pizzas.  The pizza fueled the body, but the body fueled the mind.

Lorne Oliver's Blog:  http://redislandnovel.blogspot.ca

A day in my life...

Today I am going to visit with Sharon Cornell Keyes and swap some ghost stories. She is making my favorite lunch (spoiling me)- chicken salad sandwiches. I hope to hear some wonderful tales and have some scary stuff to tell myself. I should share some of this here. Perhaps I will do that this weekend.

This is big stuff for me because I am a house bound person. I go to work and come home. Hate to talk on the phone because of a previous job that required HUGE amounts of time of the phone. Never go anywhere unless it is in a book I am reading. People tell me I have to get out more, but Sharon could tell you how long it has taken her to coax me out of my haven for an afternoon. Smart of her to think of ghost stories. I am always up for that.

If you have a good ghost story to tell, share it. We would love to hear it!

Thanks and be well.

Oh and anyone in the area - there will be a writers conference in Clanton next month. I will give details as soon as I have them. Hope to see you there!

Focus

I am taking a free 12 week course called Intentional Blogging by Jeff Goins. (You too can join here:  Goinswriter.com.)

This weeks course is on focus. My blog has not had a focus since I started it. I originally started the blog to talk about my book. And I have to admit I should do this since this is my books site, but I think people get tired of hearing me, me, me, more about me, oh did I mention me? So I believe the blog needs to have another focus as well.

For me, my passion is helping others who have the desire to be a writer embrace that and become the writer they always thought they could be. So my focus will be on teaching people how to write better, how to get published the indie way and how to FEEL like the writer they always wanted to be. I can do this by mentoring new writers- Like the amazing Alyssa Hottinger; getting others to guest blog about helping writers; and by giving as much information as I can about how to be that writer TODAY!

Yippie. I am so excited about this course and about my new direction. Thanks Jeff!

What I waited my whole life for...

happened to me the other day at work. I work 3rd shift at a convenience store by the highway. A woman walked in and up to the counter. I figured she wanted gas or cigarettes. Instead she told me that she had purchased my ebook (from info left on the counter at the store on a rack card) that morning.
"Yeah and she read it all day until it was finished," her husband added, kind of grumpy but laughing about it.
She said that she couldn't put it down! That just made my day- heck my life. I have always wanted to write something that someone could not put down. Being a huge James Patterson fan myself I had hoped to have that affect with my writing. Family and friends have said that they couldn't put it down, but when a complete stranger walks up to you so excited and wanted to read your next book. That was awesome stuff.
The readers name was Misty and I will always remember her and the day she walked into my store and made my day. Thanks Misty. I am so glad you liked it and that you felt compelled to share that with me.

Interview with author Veronica Miller

Curse on Tanner's Bluff:

"Addison bought the farm of her dreams only to find out others were still living there. Unable to leave the spirits were bound to the farm for their greed by a curse. It was up to Addie as her friends called her to break the curse freeing the spirits and solving a mystery that haunted her family for generations. Pony express riders, outlaws, bandits and con men all tried to get their hands on gold that was stolen from military payroll. A French woman scorn and a little voodoo let her even the score over a hundred years in the making. What does Addie find? Can she break the curse? Or will she be the next to be bound to the farm forever?"

LLM: Veronica, I understand you had a very specific reason for writing Curse of Tanner’s Bluff. Can you explain?

VM: At one point in time I was under medical order to do nothing. During that time the only things I could do to entertain myself were read and watch television. The reruns got old and all the books I read I figured out the end after just a few chapters. I even kept an index card with my guess on it as a book marker. I couldn’t believe these were best sellers and so predictable. I had to see if I could write a story that the reader couldn’t figure out before it was finished.

LLM: Veronica Miller is not your real name. What made you decide to keep your identity a secret?

VM: I live on a small state. Everybody knows everybody. I wanted the book judged by the story it told rather than the hand holding the pen.

LLM: Do you plan on letting readers know who you really are?

VM: I am thinking about doing a reveal. I would love to have it at an event that I am sponsoring

 this fall.  I will have to wait and see if they will allow me to ...crash their party so to speak.

LLM: That sounds interesting.  Will you contact us when you reveal your identity so our readers can know who you are?

VM: I'd be glad to.

LLM: I see that you are not profiting from the sale of this book. Why is that?

VM: I never expected to get the book published and now that it is I'm sure I will never become rich and famous because of it. So I am donating the proceeds from book sales to equine rescue efforts. So far I have lost nothing in writing this book, invested nothing but any time that I was bored with nothing else to do, and I have gained nothing except the satisfaction of knowing that I DID IT. That's enough. For now anyway besides I'm sure the animals need it more than I do.

 LLM: What got you interested in equine rescue?

VM: What got me into it was - a big heart and a life time of being round horses of all kinds and breeds and an intolerance for brutality against animals. Rescue is for horses that are malnourished/dehydrated/abused/neglected/ etc. These animals are either run through auctions headed to the slaughter trucks or just shuffled from sale house to sale house. Through rescue these horses are purchased or are donated to agencies that rehabilitate then to the healthiest state that they can achieve. They are worked with and handled in a gentle caring manner as well as given much needed veterinarian care. Many of these animals are already trained. Some animals are so depleted that they can only be given a half a gallon of water every couple hours so that the clean fresh water will not make them sick, because a simple stomach ache is deadly to a horse.

LLM: I hear you do not use the computer to write your stories. What is your process for writing?

VM: I carry around a note book so that whenever I am sitting still or an idea hits me I write it down. Later when the story is all together I type it from beginning to end on my laptop then reread it and edit it. But initially it’s all written in long hand.

LLM: You must go through a lot of pencils.

VM: Gel pens, and yes I do. About 6 pack’s per book if not more. I like the smooth writes with the finger grip.

Well I have read Veronica Millers Curse on Tanner Bluff and found this historical fiction to be delightful. And she was right, I did not predict the ending of the book and was quite surprised at the end. Pick up a copy at:  http://www.publishamerica.net/product44390.html http://www.publishamerica.net/product44390.html

You may contact the author at veronicamillerbooks@yahoo.com

Dream Fade

This is why you write it down as soon as you wake up:
I had an entire movie in my dream, all the plot twists and everything- from beginning to the bittersweet end. As soon as I awoke from this great dream I was racked with people problems. (The undream realm sucks sometimes) I had a cold and there was no moisture in the air because it was winter and I had just purchased a new heater. My mouth was completely parched, as in not even a drop of moisture to even swallow since my nose had been stuffed up by a cold and the only way I was getting any air at all was through my mouth, which was gaped open for hours while I slept.

So, I guzzle a drink from the tall glass of water I keep on my bedside table and guess what. Now I have this sudden urge to pee. But I have this incredible story to write down. But it will take so long to capture it all. I will just pee and then dash it off before I forget. I stumble down the hall in the dark; we only have on bathroom in our house, no on-suite, and I kept the light in the hall off so I didn't wake anyone.

Okay, so as I sit and do my business, I try to play back bits and pieces of the dream in my mind so I don't lose it.They were so clear upon waking, but they are starting to fade. Why did that movie take place in my head? What was so important about it? I have no idea, see I have already forgotten how it started. It is okay though, I can still remember the middle and the end. I can piece the beginning together later. Still okay. This will be a best seller. It is so awesome. Gotta get out of the bathroom and write it down. I know the beginning will come back to me as I write it down because I remember...ah...What? I remember...? Oh yeah, there was a woman at the end and she was important because...she...she...oh hell, it's all gone.

And that folks is what happened to the best selling thriller I never wrote!

Queries- Take your time

Once you have written your query, it is time to find an agent or a publisher. Which ever one you decide to go after, take your time and get to know everything you can about the agent or publisher before submitting your query. My first inclination is to have a cut and paste fest, copying my query from e-mail to e-mail trying to get all the queries sent out in one day so I can get back to writing. I have to force myself to slow down. http://agentquery.com, for example is one of my favorite sites. Fix yourself a cup of coffee and sit down with your computer and get to know the agents available for your genre.Take a deep breath and remember to relax. By now you should know your genre so select it and see how many agents pop up. Now I want you to think of this as a dating site. I want you to take it that seriously. Pick the best one as if submitting your query was the same as asking that person for a date. Are they your type(genre)? Do they seem interested in your style of writing (who else do they represent)? Do they look appealing to you (does the website look professional)? Open the first agents website and look around. Click about us or contact us and find out more about each agent. If you write horror and you submit your query to the agent in charge of romance that hates horror, you just wasted your time and hers and even if there is someone else in the agency that handles horror, you can bet your query will not be passed along. If you write romance and you find two or three agents in this office handle romance, check out what else each agent covers. Perhaps one of them is more suited to your story. Submit your query to this persons attention. If the e-mail for this person is not listed, try the first letter of their first name and their complete last name @theagencyname.com or however they addressed their query e-mail replacing info or query with the agents name. Check the site for submission requirements and follow them to the letter. Leaving out any portion of the requirement will mean throwing away your opportunity with this agent. If they ask for the first ten pages of your book, do not send them page eleven because your chapter ends on that page. The query itself can only be one page in length. This is very important. If they only accept snail mail submissions do not sent them an e-mail. If they only accept e-mail queries, do not call them with questions, follow the guidelines. Follow the same formula for publishers. Get a feel for them. If they don't sound like they want your type of story, don't submit your query there. Send your best query to the best possible match. If you both decide you like each other you could be together for a very long time. Enjoy your search and best of luck!