Ellen Mulholland––writer, dreamer
  • Home
  • Blog and More
  • Words by Ellen
  • Words about Ellen
  • 10 simple writing tips
  • Writers to read
  • BIRDS ON A WIRE
  • THIS GIRL CLIMBS TREES
  • Book Reviews
  • Author visits, book signings, more
  • Shop
  • Young Minds

finding balance the techy way

7/28/2014

6 Comments

 
Picture
At best guess, I’m 6,000 words from completing my third novel. I’ve been at this point for the past three weeks. Beyond, at one time. I’ve added, deleted, revised, rewritten. I moved the fifth chapter to the beginning, deleted the entire third chapter, and combined two others.

I’ve mapped numerous bright orange post-its across a magnetic board near my workspace, rearranging events and inserting new characters and plot points. I’ve scribbled lines of illegible notes inside my marble composition book. My desk is a disaster of index cards and post-its. Reading over some of my notes, I wonder why I wrote them. What did I mean by she needs new shoes first?

So I caved. I admitted defeat. I joined the present day. See my post on Organizing.

I purchased the highly touted Scrivener app. (Hard to resist at 50% off.)

Good buy? After making my way through 30% of the 23-step tutorial, I’m wondering if the program can help my current project. After all, if I were to employ Scrivener now, I’d need to type up all these crazy notes. I’d need to discern which are about character, setting, theme, and so on. Not an impossible task, but still time-consuming.

Finish this book and save Scrivener for my next, you say? Perhaps.

In the meantime, here's what I like about the tutorial and some of what I've learned thus far.

1.     The tutorial is lengthy, but it's reader friendly.

2.     It employs the “I do, we do, you do” teaching method – gentle hand-holding and encouragement for you to try.

3.     You can make mistakes (in the ‘you do’ time, your practice does not delete the original tutorial).

4.     There are many bells and whistles, but you choose which to blow, ring, or ignore.

5.     The writer uses gentle humor and intuits when your cup has runneth over. In fact he encourages you to get a cup of tea at that point and have a break.

We’ll see how much further I get into the tutorial before next week. There’s always a struggle to balance writing and learning. I’m hoping Scrivener eventually provides that balance for me. Isn't that what its icon suggests?

Have you tried Scrivener? I'd love to hear your impressions. What do you like? What works? What doesn't?


6 Comments
Robert Bryndza link
7/28/2014 06:53:03 pm

Hi Ellen - I'm at roughly the same stage as you with my new novel! I tend to use Scrivener mainly for writing and a bit of planning. I like how you can import a Wikipedia page for research, but apart from that I haven't tapped or tried most of the cool stuff you can do with it. One thing I love about Scrivener is the way you can turn your project into any kind of file using just a few clicks, Word doc, PDF, EPUB and .mobi. I formatted all my ebooks using it, saving a fortune, and I send my work in progress to my Kindle to read.

Reply
Ellen Mulholland link
7/29/2014 01:58:20 am

Robert, I hadn't gotten to the part about sending a WIP to your Kindle. That's very cool. Hoping to move faster through the tutorial this week. We'll see about that. I think for now, I'll just spend time the old fashioned way and finish my book. Please share any other insights on Scrivener or other tools when you think of it.
Write on!

Reply
Chrissy
7/30/2014 02:56:52 am

I'm one of those people who purchased Scrivener but never really got in to it. Finally this year I decided to make an effort or delete it off my desktop. The best thing I came across (note: I am not in any way an affiliate) was http://learnscrivenerfast.com/ . I can't say enough good things about this program or the way it helped me get right into using the program. If you search Twitter #scrivener once a week or so you will probably come across a link to a free 20 min webinar to see if you'd like it.

Reply
Ellen Mulholland link
7/30/2014 04:04:43 am

Chrissy, that is a great tip! I just bookmarked it. I've been learning more about the program; re-read the steps I reviewed last week. It does take some time to learn it, but I do think it will benefit my writing. Very excited. It's so helpful to build community, too. I've learned much from people as yourself. Social networks have other purposes besides sharing pics of dogs cuddling cats. Thanks for stopping by!

Please share more when you think of it :)

Reply
Charli Mills link
8/1/2014 11:24:46 am

Love Scrivner! I geeked out with it on my second project and have my characters pinned to a board, was grateful for the name generator (I'm terrible at names) and love the ease of revision. But in panic-revision-mode at the moment and can relate!

Reply
Ellen Mulholland link
8/2/2014 02:12:17 am

Hi Charli,
I'm excited to find out more about the name generator. I haven't seen that yet. So much going on with Scrivener.
Right now, I'm loving the Composition Mode. I can't believe how much easier it is to write and edit with that spacey black background.
Thanks for sharing!
Ellen

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe to our mailing list

    * indicates required

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    December 2020
    December 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    January 2019
    July 2018
    November 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Antagonists
    Apps
    Authors
    Blogs
    Book Suggestions
    California
    Characters
    Childhood Memories
    Common Core
    Community
    Crime Novels
    Death
    Editing
    Endings
    Exposition
    Figurative Language
    Flash Fiction
    Friendship
    Genres
    Grammar
    Great Books
    Headlines
    Historical Romance
    Ideas
    Inspiration
    Magic
    Magical Realism
    Martin Luther King
    Music
    Mystery Novels
    NaNoWriMo
    Nature
    Organization
    Paris
    Peace
    Plot
    Protagonists
    Query
    Rain
    Reserach
    Resources
    Revising
    Seasons
    Secret Project
    Senses
    Sensory Writing
    Social Media
    Solstice
    Summer Reading Lists
    Survey
    Theme
    Time Saving Ideas
    Time-saving Ideas
    Twitter
    Twitter Chats
    Villains
    Weather
    Women
    Wonder
    Words
    World Events
    Writer's Block
    Writing
    Writing Challenge
    Writing Tips
    Writing Tools
    WWII
    YA
    Young Writers

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from francisco.j.gonzalez, jinxmcc, pedrosimoes7, vanhookc, mikecogh, Brett Jordan, Leonard John Matthews, NICSOLUCION, Jason Grote, FaceMePLS, Chris Parker2012, quinet, raffaespo, torbakhopper, shannonpatrick17, haru__q, Javier A Bedrina, ChrisL_AK, Brett Jordan, MIKI Yoshihito (´・ω・), liebeslakritze, aldenjewell, koalazymonkey, La Citta Vita, Barrett.Discovery, Javier A Bedrina, Leedman, 陈霆, Ting Chen, Wing, Creative Tools, ..Russ.., Sten Dueland, JD Hancock, The Marmot, Rose PT, Brett Jordan, Kim Bost, lublud, liebeslakritze, UNE Photos, Vassilis Online, Zahlm, Jahvoronok, kurafire, rodtuk, Shan Jeniah, manoftaste.de, Last Hero, torbakhopper, steveczajka, Fountain_Head, thewritingreader, Highways Agency, pawpaw67, Nicholas_T, Gwydion M. Williams, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, Canned Muffins, volkspider, peddhapati, DaveBleasdale, Keith Allison, TP studio, Drew Selby, stoneysteiner, WeGotKidz, mrsdkrebs, Kelly Short6, mkhmarketing, moria, WWYD?, Rega Photography, Brett Jordan, Creative Tools, numberstumper, symphony of love, Hub☺, chris kuga, PaoloPV, mikecogh, thewritingreader, Amanclos, Leo Hidalgo (@yompyz), JD Hancock, themonnie, Gwydion M. Williams, jennnster, Sistak, dno1967b, Gwydion M. Williams, Lohan Gunaweera, tsmall, Gustavo da Cunha Pimenta, Hometown Beauty, Charles Henry, Manchester Library, sheggy, Brett Jordan, chaskerr4, Javier A Bedrina, D&S McSpadden, DougitDesign.com / Doug Aghassi, State Library of South Australia, Max Goldberg, bjornmeansbear, juliejordanscott, rcmd_tagcoor_10_3, thedailyenglishshow, mpclemens, Daily Dose Of Champions, edenpictures, MoneyBlogNewz
  • Home
  • Blog and More
  • Words by Ellen
  • Words about Ellen
  • 10 simple writing tips
  • Writers to read
  • BIRDS ON A WIRE
  • THIS GIRL CLIMBS TREES
  • Book Reviews
  • Author visits, book signings, more
  • Shop
  • Young Minds