Tag Archives: nano

Technique, Publishing

Will Scrivener work for you? (& NaNoWriMo Finale!)

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About to win Nano? Congrats! Don’t forget to verify your word count, or you won’t get your winner goodies—and one of those goodies is a coupon for 50% off the writing software Scrivener, which brings it down to $20 for Windows and $22 for Mac. On the Nanowrimo page, just click on My NaNoWriMo and select “Validate my novel.” Then cut and paste your text into the box.

On Scrivener, you’ll probably have to compile first. I had mine just output to an RTF file . . . and then I had to “adjust” it a little to match the word counts across Scrivener, Word and the Nano site.

Speaking of Scrivener, I tried it for Nano, and I’m honestly not 100% sure I’ll stick with it. Here’s what I thought—and we’ll discuss how to figure out if it will work for you!

What I like about Scrivener

I do like having character sketches and a little bit of my research (although there wasn’t much for this book) right there. Most of my research this time around was deep background, so it wasn’t worth saving. (Would this be enough X? Yes, great, moving on.)

One of the major features seems to be the ability to drag and drop a scene or chapter to a new location in the story, which I don’t really do with most of my books, probably because I largely write in sequential order. More often I have to move little parts of scenes, and then it’s still cut-and-paste. On the other hand, I decided I didn’t care for where my scene breaks fell in the last quarter of the document, so I merged the entire quarter into one file, and I’ll be able to split it up later.

I liked using the cork board and outline views to make sure I was going in the right direction, and to have my outline and notes integrated into the same program/document-type-thing? as my actual draft. It was also nice to be able to see the scene card and make notes on the scenes (and the whole project) in the same window as the writing screen. The full screen view was also nice for focusing, especially when I used my working timer.

I hear Scrivener also has excellent output for ebook formatting. Another great advantage is that if you’re writing a series, you can copy your characters, settings and research to a new project with ease, keeping things consistent.

What I don’t like about Scrivener

For me, the biggest problems with Scrivener were mostly software problems. I found a few “quirks” in the program annoying, especially that Outline view consistently forgot what columns and widths I meticulously set. It was a little slow on start up (perhaps comparable with Word there, though) and displaying the full manuscript in scrivenings mode.

Of course, I also didn’t like the feeling that I was only using a tiny fraction of the program’s potential—or, conversely, that I just had no idea how to use some of the features. (I still don’t quite get how the Collections are different.)

But really what it comes down to is: is this really that much better of a program than Word? As far as the word processing itself, I have to think the answer is no. Features like a decent built-in Autocorrect a decent spelling dictionary and more do make a different to me.

For me, I think the bottom line is Scrivener does more than Word, but it doesn’t do what Word does as well as Word can.

Will Scrivener work for you?

Some of deciding whether Scrivener will work for you depends on how you use your current word processor. For example, I use Word macros for editing my gesture & word crutches. To my knowledge, Scrivener doesn’t have an equivalent function, so if I use Scrivener long term for drafting, I’ll probably go to Word for editing.

Also, my critique partners use Word and I can be sure they’ll get exactly what I send them when I use the same program. If you do your editing online, or use the track changes and/or comments features on a lot of your editing, then Word might still be a necessity, too.

I used Scrivener on a new manuscript, and I think that helped my opinion. From what I’ve heard, importing an existing manuscript can be a challenge, and if you’re not yet committed to the program long-term, it doesn’t make sense to go through the effort.

The best way to tell if Scrivener works for you? Give the free trial a shot first.

Last year, the 50% off winners’ coupon was good through the following October. Of course, I didn’t get around to actually USING the free trial until November… Good thing I won again . . . if I decide to get it.

What do you think? Have you tried Scrivener? What do you like about it, and what don’t you like about it? Join the conversation—and tell me about your Nano!

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Technique, Marketing

Nano inspiration: Animoto

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This entry is part 15 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

Warning: if you’re not done with Nano (or don’t have a comfortable bumper), you might want to file this away to read and experiment with another day.

If you are done with Nano (or nearly so), I have a free plotting/revision roadmap which you can get just by signing up for my newsletter (which is also pretty awesome, if I do say so myself).

All right, with that out of the way, today’s little bit of inspiration comes courtesy of my friend Deanna Henderson. She taught a class on creating a book trailer for free using Animoto at an online conference from iWriteNetwork last month. It took me 45 minutes to an hour total to make trailers for this year’s and last year’s Nano novels—once again, I didn’t bother with the instructional video, and hunting down good photos takes time.

Here’s last year’s Nano novel trailer:

Animoto offers paid options, which let you make longer videos, download your videos to your computer and generally just more, but the free options will let you create a 30-second video with your own photos, music and script and share it on the Internet. Not bad for free!

Here are the instructions from Deanna’s blog, with [commentary from me]:

These can be for anything; book trailers, author profiles, blog tours etc… let your imagination be your guide.

Step 1: Register your account. Go to www.Animoto.com

Step 2: Choose a style/template for your video [Note that the templates marked “Pro” are not offered in the free plan. Stick to the ones without the “Pro” label. I used Water for the one above, and Inkwell for this year’s.]

Step 3: Click on the small type below the purchase button that says Make a 30 second video for free

Step 4: – OPTIONAL – Watch the Animoto tutorial video, or close the box, continue to step 5

Step 5: Add pictures and/or video clips **Only use pictures you own the copyright for** [Big, HUGE life-changing tip: you can find FREE, licensed photos on Flickr (and several other places). You can use the advanced search’s Creative Commons options, or you can simply to go this search link and type in your query. If this is a book trailer, be sure you’re using works that are licensed for commercial use. Some of the photos require you to attribute the photos; I do this in the description section of the video for all the photos in order. You’re welcome.]

Step 6: Add desired text. [I’m just full of the hints today! It seems you can get more “slides” if you skip the Header portion.]

Step 7: Drag text to desired location. [You can drag and drop the elements of your video.]

Step 8: Add music. [Seems like a lot of the music that comes with Animoto is super upbeat, so if your novel isn’t, may I recommend “Redrum” by Ugress? For the video at the top, I used a song I licensed for something else.]

Step 9: Preview your video, it will take a minute to buffer first, be patient. When you watch it this time, the quality isn’t as high as it will be in the final product, don’t worry.

Step 10: Title your video, and give a description. [Where I put the photo and music credits]

Step 11: Click the Produce button.

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Wait

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Wait

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Wait

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Step 12: Now you can watch your video!

On the video’s display page, there are also buttons and links to share your video via Facebook, Twitter, and email. If you want to embed your video on your site (like I have here), Click on the “More” button beside the other sharing buttons. From there you have options to share via Pinterest, Twitter and a few popular blogging platforms. You can also use the “Embedded video” tab at the top of the popups to get the code.

Last year’s video only took a few minutes because I only had to find 2 new photos, plus one I’d already Pinned. This year’s took much longer with all the image and music hunting. I’ve already shared this year’s video, but here it is again:

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

And the truth is: I totally watched this when my motivation was lagging as I was writing the MS. I think it’s especially helpful for that purpose because it gets down to the core conflict that made me want to write the book in the first place, so it was a great source of inspiration for me. I tracked down the song as well, since it had become linked with the book in my mind, and found it was free to download. So when that came up in my playlist, I was motivated all over again.

What do you think? Would you use Animoto for your inspiration video, or your book trailer? Come join in the conversation!

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Technique

Nano: Moving forward

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Ever get to that point in your novel where you know on a high, plot level what you want to come next (characters D & K turn to O for help, character X will actually turn out to be good, etc.), but you have no idea to get from where you are to there?

Yeah, story of my writing life.

As I was preparing for my Nano blog series last year, I saw a great post on tips for marathon writing by Kaye Dacus. I just might have to put one of her tips to use:

. Write Something . . . Anything

When you sit down for that scheduled writing time and you stare at that flashing cursor waiting for the words to come, and they don’t, DO NOT walk away from it and give yourself the excuse that you’ll just double-up on words tomorrow. Why do you think I’ve ended up writing the bulk of two of the last three novels I’ve finished in two weeks or less?

When I was writing what would become my first completed manuscript a little less than ten years ago, I got to a point at which (being a seat of the pants writer with no synopsis, only a vague story idea) I had no idea where my story was going. But I wanted to write. I needed to write. So since I’d just gone to the grocery store that evening after work, I wrote one of my characters doing the same thing. I had him get his basket. I had him pick out produce. I got him through the store all the way to the frozen-food section—where, surprisingly, he ran into another character; and, all of a sudden, I had a scene that moved the story forward again.

It sounds mundane and like bad writing (and it’s probably something you’d end up cutting most of in a revision), but not only are you working at that creative pump, you can also learn more about your character by doing something like that.

(Kaye has more great tips in her post!)

What do you think? What do you do to “prime the pump”? Aside from six round of Bejeweled on Facebook, of course. . . .

Photo by Polycart

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Technique

Nano tools: Write or Die by Dr Wicked

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Twitter can be great for sprinting with a writing friend. But sometimes, I just don’t feel up to publicly admitting my word counts, and other times I just can’t turn off the distractions.

When I just have to power through some words to hit my goal and the rabbit hole of the Internet keeps sucking me in, I turn to Write or Die by Dr Wicked. (I think the name pretty much illustrates the concept, eh?)

“Dr. Wicked” offers an online version and a $10 desktop version of his Write or Die app. The concept is pretty simple: it’s a text box and a timer. You can program it with a time goal or a word count goal, and then you get typing. You can also get it for the iPad for $9.99. To use the web app, go to the site, click on the Web App tab in the sidebar and enter your goal.

If you stop for too long (the exact length of time depends on what “level” of punishment you pick), the screen background turns pink, then red—and then an annoying sound begins to play (a crying baby, “Mm Bop” by Hanson—seriously). I’ve heard that in the strictest mode, if you stop too long it starts erasing your words.

It’s kind of a last resort when my mind is on the fritz, but looking at my outline to figure out where I’m going and forcing myself to get those words down is sometimes the kick in the pants I need.

The only drawback: the online version has to be formatted when you put it into your manuscript. Here’s how I do it. Since I’m writing on the Internet, I skip lines between paragraphs. I paste the words into Notepad, and make sure Word Wrap is turned off. Then it’s easy to take out the extra returns (and insert tabs if you’re putting those in). Then I paste into Word and Find and Replace the quotes (just use the plain quotes in your Find and Replace box; it turns them into Smart Quotes automatically) and apostrophes, and if you used em dashes (convert two hyphens to —). And voila! It’s pretty again!

What do you think? How do you force yourself to get the words out when your brain wants to wind down?

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Technique

Nano tools: Twitter

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Despite its reputation as a time wasting distraction, Twitter can be a great help for productivity during NaNoWriMo. This particular tool can be a double edged sword: it’s easy to get drawn into the time-suck that is Twitter, but if you’re careful about how you use it, Twitter can be a big help.

Twitter can be a great place to find little bits of encouragement, but my favorite use for Twitter during Nano is finding sprint partners—and better yet, partners for word wars!

About 20 minutes seems to be a good length for a sprint, and the faster your sprint partners, the faster you seem to go. At my writers’ retreat last year, I had periods where I’d struggle to get a couple hundred words written in an hour or two—and then with a twenty minute sprint, I’d pound out almost 1300 (almost: 1299). I didn’t win, but I didn’t care! That was a heck of a lot better than I’d done in the last hour! The sense of accomplishment from pounding those words out makes it all worthwhile.

Since most of us don’t live with twenty writer friends full time, finding sprint partners can be a challenge, unless you turn to a place like Twitter.

If you’re worried about using writing as a competition, note that I actually really hate competition and the feeling of competitiveness. It’s a rush, but for me it’s not a good one: usually. But when I’m sprinting with someone—especially someone whom I know can write a LOT faster than me—it pushes me to go faster, and gives me a productivity boost that’s pretty hard to beat. And yes, it’s just plain fun.

My friend Julie Coulter Bellon is doing her first Nano, and she’s hosted a writing sprint on Twitter and her blog from 8 to 9 PM MST for the last two Wednesdays. I’m really hoping to be ready to write and join in next week!

Do you sprint? How do you find partners?

Twitter image by Scott Beale

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Technique

Nano inspiration: Music

Music is another great way to recapture some of the initial inspiration behind your story. It does more than just soothe the savage beast! (Which is a misquote anyway.)

Music is a great way to get yourself in the mood to write a specific scene. I know, I know, that sounds like I mean you should be listening to “Let’s Get It On” when you’re writing love scenes. That’s not quite what I mean (but if that works for you, great)—or, rather, it’s not just what I mean. There are songs about other things, you know. Sort of.

For a long time, my favorite music for just about anything was classical. Even now, when I need to be creative on demand, I’ll pop in my James Galway (flute) album (Serenade). Sometimes, I have a perfect popular song or soundtrack I listen to on repeat while writing, either because it relates thematically, is directly mentioned in the story, or the beat is just good. A song with a driving beat is a great for a high-tension scene—or for a high-tension writer.

Need music without words? I hear you, and I’ve found something that I love: movie soundtracks. Think of a movie in your genre that you like, and pull up the soundtrack for it. The various songs are already designed to be the backdrop to the different types of scenes you might be writing.

You might already have a good site for listening to music, or maybe you actually spring for your tracks on iTunes or Amazon, but if not, I’ve found Grooveshark is pretty nice for individual songs and playlists. I’m still devoted to Pandora for building a radio station around a song or two (yes even with the ads). Apparently I’m flirting with growing up because I also (gasp) buy tracks off Amazon. I guess iTunes would work, too, but I don’t have an iPod, so . . . no thanks.

So what’s in my playlist? Last year, “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, the soundtrack to Indiana Jones and Queen headlined. This year, my new songs include:

  • “Adrienne” – The Calling—it’s about betrayal, and my MC’s name is Adrienne. Plus it takes me back to high school, which is where you kinda want to be while writing YA, right?
  • “Redrum” – Ugress feat. Christine Litle—discovered this when making the trailer for my book. Driving beat, evil lyrics. I almost feel like this set the tone for her voice. Also, free download from the band’s website.
  • “Little Talks” – Of Monsters and Men—heard it on the radio (again) 4 days before starting. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

Plus some old drafting favorites (Zep, Queen) and anything that seemed appropriate that I already had on my computer.

What songs do you write to?

Photo by Colleen Lane and unknown

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Technique

NaNo “Pinspiration”

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Hooray! It’s day two! I hope you’re going strong. Throughout the rest of the month, we’ll look at a few tools, tips and techniques to keep us going strong, including things we can do in about 20 minutes to help remind us why we started this story, and fall in love with it all over again.

One recommendation I’ve seen several places is to make yourself a collage of images that speak to you about this book. Several people say that you can look at these collages for inspiration when you find your writing lagging. I love seeing these collage posts on friends’ blogs, but today I’m talking about a different way to do this.

Have you heard of Pinterest? It’s a website where you can virtually “pin” (save) any image or video that inspires you. It also shares these pins with your friends and displays them all organized into separate “boards.” It’s pretty fun. I use it a lot for my craft blog, but every once in a while, I use it for writing.

Now, my friends’ collages are a little more abstract, it seems, but this is my interpretation: some images of character inspirations and major plot elements (okay, and at least one character quirk) in my Nano 2011 WIP:

(I edited out the pictures from the previous couple projects, but the pins are still in there if you follow the link.)

You no longer need an invite to sign up! You can also use your Twitter account or Facebook account to register at Pinterest.

Again, this year, I’m trying out Scrivener for Nano. I really love that you can save your research and even character and inspiration photos right in your project file. It’s also a plus for me that this is private, where Pinterest doesn’t offer private pinboards. However, I also like Pinterest’s one-click capability to add any picture to my boards. So we’ll see what I end up using long term.

How do you make collages for your WIPs? Or do you?

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Technique

NaNo inspiration: covers

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Happy Halloween! Let’s keep counting down to Nano with some more sources of inspiration!

Once upon a time, I was anti-mock covers. I thought it was a little weird to put up a fake book cover on your site for a book you’re drafting or trying to sell. Then I wrote up my projects page, and it looked . . . bare. So I made up some passable mock covers (some obviously more time consuming than others).

Usually, I’ve waited until I was done or nearly so to make these. But since October is a “planning” month for NaNo, and I was only doing 50,000 other things, I spent a day (or four) making the “ideal” version of the cover. Here’s last year’s:

Not 100% perfect (or, you know, licensed), but pretty dang good. Just looking at it gets me excited to write!

Obviously you don’t want to take off a day in the middle of NaNo to play around with a graphics program to make a cover no one else might ever see—but in about 20 minutes, you can throw together something that can inspire you.

Seriously, I tried it. I used a picture I pinned of one character, and Googled screencaps from a movie the other character was in (screencaps found here). Then I turned to Flickr for pictures of a rune stone (by Paul W. Locke). Some Magic Wand tool, cut/paste, resize, color balance, and add text, and voila! I put together a crude version of the above.

Inspiration in twenty minutes? That’s a bargain.

I’ll share the cover for this year’s Nano novel in December!

How do you find inspiration quickly?

Photo credits: Maggie Lawson by unknown (via listal), Garrett Hedlund from TRON: Legacy (found here), Viking coin by Ancient Art, Kensington runestone monument by Paul W. Locke

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