I have been reading a ton – a ton – of great articles by blogging authors and writers. I am caught between excitement for all of this great information and encouragement, and Brain Overload. Experts claim that you should read as much as you write, and that you should plan your course of action. Clearly, I am going to have to make a new plan, because I’ve been caught up almost entirely in reading. I need a schedule – not that I stick to schedules particularly well, but they do help me control my tendency to wander. Sometimes. Sort of… I do like how the last week of wandering has tickled my imagination, increased my knowledge, and inspired me to start putting some serious thought into revising my current novel-writing project.
Another thing that’s helping with the ‘thought’ part is the discovery of Scrivener. I’d heard about the application before and even visited its website. I hemmed and hawed, eventually clicked away, and ignored the thing.
Until recently.
All of a sudden the name was popping up everywhere. So I toddled back to Literature & Latte and whooooaaa… Maybe this is backwards, but if all of the wonderful reviews I’d been reading hadn’t been enough to convince me to give it a shot (they were), watching the video tutorials clinched it. It didn’t hurt, either, that my NaNoWriMo adventures provided me with a 50% off coupon. I downloaded the application and – went through the interactive tutor. I am a manual-reader, yes, I am. I may also be suffering from Brain Overload from that, too, but it certainly increased my excitement for what I can do in the program. I think that I will have to visit the tutorial (Interactive! How cool is that?) again once I’ve had a little practical experience, just so that I can remind myself of Cool Features I will surely forget.
Back to thinking about revision: In the process of breaking my novel down into chapters and scenes that I can actually see, parts that need to be changed are being revealed. My mind is churning with what ifs and how abouts, but – being a very linear thinker – I want to finish chopping up the whole before I start rearranging and revising. Impatience is gnawing at me.
Before I get back to that, I want to direct your attention to a few of the awesome things I’ve been reading:
I don’t know about you, but sometimes the whole ‘ UGE process of writing a novel knocks me end-for-end, and I find myself laying there in the rubble for a while, gasping and blinking. Nathan Bransford shows how to get your feet set before you start in How to Write a Novel.
Create Endings That Resonate with Julie Musil.
Donald Maass teaches us how to pack our current manuscript with more meaning in Symbolic.
And last, but certainly not least, writer’s block is the subject of much frustration and misunderstanding. Anne Rallen gives some insightful advice in Writer’s Block and Depression: Why You Shouldn’t Bully Your Muse.
Keep your stick on the ice… or your pen to the paper… or your fingers to the keyboard!
I'll be interested in hearing your opinion on Scrivener once you get going with it. I'm not sure anything will woo me away from notebooks and Word, but I'm always interested in the possibilities.
And I agree with you about Anne's post 'Why you shouldn't bully your muse' – very accurate in my experience.
Scrivener is certainly introducing me to a new approach for my writing, but I think I'm liking it. I gave up on longhand a long time ago; it's easier to edit/rearrange things in a computer document, and no more cramping hand!
Thanks so much for stopping by!