I love Scrivener! I just don’t use it anywhere near as often as I should D: gotta change that.
I just can’t get over how it makes my natural flow of thought work so well! as long as I’ve organized my pages in a way that makes sense when I come back to it, I remember where things are and when one thought begets another, I put it in its proper place.
because especially when worldbuilding for sci-fi or fantasy, it’s easy for designing a train to turn into a case study of the vicious beasts that occasionally hold up the train to the culture of the fearsome thieves who tame those beasts to a plot point where one of those thieves turns on his brothers to how that develops the main character…
and in Scrivener I can just hop from one document to another, attach pictures where visual inspiration is necessary, and piece it all together later with the fantastic organization structure.
EEEEE okay. I could nerd out about this all day.
Adventures in Scrivener
I’ve finally gotten into Scrivener! I’ve now set up my entire universe, including character cards, pictures I’ve saved for reference and inspiration, and all my notes from various devices. I can’t believe I haven’t used this software before. UGH. it’s incredible. it has every feature you never knew you absolutely needed.
my inner organizationy self is so giddy right now. and I can still use my little panda flash drive to transport my projects. YAY.
Index cards
my new favorite writertoy is index cards. I’ve played with them before, but never in quite this capacity. I’ve made outlines using half-cards before, so I could mix up events if I needed to…but now they’re straight up necessary.
I’m worldbuilding (as always) for an 8-book sci-fi cycle, which means that just a couple of weeks into serious planning, I have 21 character cards spanning 7 books. (we’ll see if anyone new gets introduced into book 8. that miiiiight just be too much.) I love that they’re tangible and that I can shuffle them around, lay them side by side at will, and take down spurts of notes as they come to me.
I was never much of a flash card maker, because by the time I’d written them down I had the items memorized. this, though – this is great fun.
Much ado about tools
It’s been like an episode of the as-of-yet-nonexistent reality show “Device Swap” around here this weekend! Jake graciously bestowed his laptop upon me, saying that while he’d love to keep it, I need it right now between starting up my consulting side business and writing so much. So now, with this beautiful Apple keyboard that truly compels me to type, I’m starting my editing of A God Grown Old. Slowly but surely I’m replacing all of the spots where I’d gotten lazy or couldn’t find an old reference and had to put questions marks in brackets, and going through my “Rough Draft 1” copy on my Kindle to find the highlights I’d made for awkward phrasing or concepts I need to look at again.
And seriously, this computer is awesome. I can type so fast on it. Between this generous gift and the inspiration that Bioshock Infinite has been, I should be producing volumes of work in no time…
Free Word Processor For Easily Distracted Writers!
Free Word Processor For Easily Distracted Writers!
Okay, so when I type on my computer, I get all sorts of distracted. There’s tumblr, and email, and stumbleupon. Sometimes it’s too quiet and sometimes it’s too loud. Sometimes I can’t find the right music to write to. Sometimes my screen’s too bright.
With OmmWriter, all of that changes.
It’s a full-screen word processor with several text, background, and music options. I tried the free version for about an hour before I decided I wanted to buy the full, which is dirt cheap. Less than five bucks and so totally worth it.
I suggest at least checking it out if you’re anything like me.
Happy writing!
PS: The only problem I’ve had with it so far is it crashed once when I double-clicked on the text. So just steer clear from double-clicking.
The perfect tools
My personal writersense tends to air on the technological side of things rather than the traditional. I think much faster than I can write by hand (I never took many handwriting courses growing up), so my 120-wpm typing speed is really helpful in that department. Yet there are times when hands-to-keyboard just doesn’t feel right. I can’t connect as well with the material if I don’t write it down by hand. (This holds true of taking notes and making lists as well.)
I went out yesterday and “splurged” on some perfect tools for my outlining process: a simple Mead college-ruled notebook (green cover, of course), a set of five different-colored highlighters, and two fantastic Pilot G-2 pens with gel roller ink. No strain on my hand for prolonged periods of writing and permission to be messy (i.e. no fancy journal cramping my style)? I think yes!
I’m well on my way to seven solid pages of handwritten notes in just one lunch break, one slow afternoon at the help desk, and one early early morning. I’d say this is a satisfying start.