Ahhhhh. . . beach.

This weekend is Fall Break which means no school for the kiddos on Friday or Monday.  What a perfect time to sneak in a little beach trip!

I am fortunate enough to have a generous aunt with an empty beach condo this weekend, so we're heading down this afternoon.  My poor husband is in the financial biz, and I think it will be good for him to be out of the office for a couple of days (although, he's a little worried about being gone right now . . . okay, he's a LOT worried, but we will have telephones and wi-fi).  My dad will also be there with his boat, and he says the redfish are biting.  

I know I'm probably being a little too hopeful in thinking of doing some writing this weekend, but I'm going to try.  I'm still working on my WIP with the help of Scrivener.  By putting synopses of each chapter on notecards and getting to stand back and look at my work as a whole, I have discovered tons of plot holes.  But, I think I've found a really cool way to fill these holes, and I've been doing lots of strange, kooky ebay research.  My favorite thing about Scrivener is that I can look at my research file--pictures, text, web pages--in split screen while I'm typing my manuscript.  No more back and forth clicking between different files and bookmarks--it's really cool.

I think Katie's even a convert to the Scrivener way of writing . . . 

Scrivener... is making me looney!

Yep. That's me - freaking out on my roof! Wait! Don't panic. Let me give you a little history. For the last few years, I have plugged along on my adorable little Mac ibook. However, lately, my precious laptop has been acting a bit wonky and the operating system is just, well, OLD.... Which led to me start shopping for a newer, cooler laptop.

BUT, since the economy is behaving badly, I just can't afford a new one right now. This realization made me very, very sad as I watched SF going to town on the seemingly fabulous new program - Scrivener. (Scriv won't work with my dumb OLD operating system) After whining to SF and my family for a few days, I remembered that my daughter has a brand new Mac in her room!!! It's a desktop though, which means I can't carry it to conferences and the coffee shop. Sigh... But I thought that I could def. download Scriv onto it and just type my book up in her room. she has a big desk and three large windows. I mean, what could be more relaxing?

So, yesterday, after I returned from a glorious trip to Atlanta (which I will blog about next) I went out and bought a new yummy candle to set the mood (I really did) and a gigantic iced tea, and headed over to SF's for a pre-work tutorial. She glided effortlessly through the explanation and I was psyched to go home, light my candle and get to work.

Let's just say that actually using the program by myself, without help, almost made me lose my ever lovin' mind. And I finally busted out of Kate's window to de-stress on the roof. SF called and counseled me some more and I have gotten a bit further, but dang if new software isn't hard to figure out?!! And I am IMPATIENT!!!

So, I have had to take a chips and salsa break, take a shower, make a few phone calls and vent to my hubby for a bit - and now I am back at the computer (but obviously I am blogging rather than scriving. ) Oh well. I can tell it's gonna be great! As soon as I get comfortable with it. Pray for me....

P.S. When we built this house, I was excited for my daughter to have a rooftop lounge area 'cuz I had one when I was a kid and we sunbathed on it. So it's not quite as scary as it looks. It is now officially the Rooftop Spa and Calming Room. Come on over!

Scrivener--where have you been all my life??

I just downloaded a free thirty-day trial of Scrivener on www.literatureandlatte.com  (sorry all you PC users--it only works on a Mac), and I am in LOVE!  What a great writing program!

I was a little skeptical when I began to use this program--I often find things like Scrivener to be more trouble than they are worth.  For example, I have tried using a palm pilot for scheduling, but I prefer carrying around a small dayplanner in my purse, and I (gasp!) write things on it with an actual pen.  I love the pen-to-paper exercise and the ability to circle things and to physically mark them off.  So, I approached Scrivener with the expectation that it would be a procrastination tool, at best.  Boy was I wrong!

I watched the video introduction that is offered on the website, and then I went through the guided tutorial a couple of times.  It took me an afternoon to really get comfortable with the program and to figure out what all it would do for me.  It really is an easy program to use--and I really mean it.

Scrivener allows you to put an entire manuscript into a virtual binder which you can divide up into chunks of text.  You can easily manipulate these chunks of texts around, view them together, and merge or separate them.  You can write synopses of these chunks of texts which Scrivener will put onto color coded index cards for you--and you can view them on a virtual corkboard.  The program will also put these synopses into an outline form for you. Manipulating and experimenting with text is simple (and, the program allows you to take a "photograph" of your text before you switch things around--so if you change your mind, you can restore it to its original layout).  

I have exported my middle grade novel into Scrivener, and I am going through each chapter and writing a synopsis for each one.  I am color coding my chapters based upon which plot line is developed.  I am about halfway through, and it is unbelievable how many plot holes were revealed to me through this exercise.  When I read the notecards in order, there were some very noticeable gaps that I needed to fill.  Plus, I noticed four green cards in a row--four straight chapters that dealt with one certain character, so I quickly realized that I needed to break up these chapters with some different storylines.  I finally feel like I am making some real progress!

Scrivener also has a place for you to write plot notes and research notes or files.  You can view these pages in a split screen form which is incredibly helpful.  For example, one of my characters is bipolar, and I had several research files bookmarked and downloaded in my computer.  I was able to drag all of those files into my binder, and I could look at that information while I was typing away on my manuscript without opening another file.

I do miss the physical pen-to-paper revision process a little, and I have run into a few problems because I'm working with the rigidness of a computer program (some chapters deal with two plot lines, for example, and I'm not sure what color to make the card).  Overall, though, it is an incredibly efficient way to plot and revise, and when my thirty day trial is over, I'll be forking out $39.99 to own this gem of a program forever.

Sarah Frances