by kalbzayn on May 6, 2009
I downloaded some new novel writing software to help with a kids chapter book that I started the other day. I decided that it could be helpful to use it to transition from plot idea, to outline and then to finished draft.
Good novel writing software lets you do neat things like track which characters, locations, important items are going to be in which scenes. That’s a huge perk for me. I have trouble keeping track of things like names for the minor characters and where I left those characters if they are left out of a couple chapters.
The software that I’m using (yWriter5) is lets you keep track of each scene in a chapter as it’s own entity. That’s a little overkill for me in this early chapter book because pretty much each chapter is just one scene but would be very helpful in a more complex plot.
The really cool part of using novel writing software is that it lets you keep track of all of your notes, easily bounce from scene to scene, keeps track of word counts of each scene and chapter but then when you are ready to mail it to people to read, you can easily export it to a format that Word can read so that you can email it to your proofreading buddies.
Something like this would be awesome for NaNoWriMo where you have to keep track of a lot of things on the fly as you rush through the first draft.
Have you tried using any novel writing software before? What did you like or not like about it?
by kalbzayn on April 28, 2009
I read The 4-Hour Work Week recently. It’s a pretty light and kind of strange read.
Pros:
- Light read. Fast and relatively short.
- Inspiring. It really does make you want to start your own business and live the new rich lifestyle he preaches in the book.
- Great personal touches. The book lives within Timothy Ferriss’s world. He gives very real examples of his very real life. I have no idea how real any of that is but it definitely comes across as authentic and personal.
- Tons of resources listed with websites, phone numbers, emails. If you decide to follow his pattern, you definitely will not be lacking for people to call to get started.
Cons:
- Very targeted business model. Ferriss made his money selling things online running a drop-shipping type of business. It seems a stretch to extrapolate a lot of the information outside of that model.
- First phase is getting your job to let you work away from the office which is not realistic for very many people…unfortunately.
- Just seems too easy. This isn’t really a knock for the book but it makes it hard to take seriously. He almost comes across as too confident that it will work for anybody.
If you are considering buying The 4-Hour Work Week it is available at:
Please visit Amazon’s site for more information about the Kindle 2
.
by kalbzayn on January 2, 2009
I’m reading Rabbit, Run
these days. I’m also thinking about my own writing pretend plans. I started wondering why nobody seems to write Literature (with a capital L) set within the framework of made up worlds.
All of the sci-fi/fantasy seems to be so over the top, action/suspense based that the characters are often pushed into the background while we get wowed by the tech, magic and world building.
I’ve got to believe that characters in fantasy settings have other personal issues other than their parents died when the hero was a baby leaving him with mysterious origins. Shouldn’t these characters be people struggling through divorce or raising kids or losing their full time job or trying to balance their jobs, hobbies and midlife crises.
That seems like it would be a fun thing to write.
I remember reading a Tad Williams interview where he says that he wrote his fantasy series because he didn’t really like what was out there and figured that he should write something that he would like to read. Maybe I’ve finally find my calling.
by kalbzayn on November 3, 2008
I started reading eBooks a few years back. I used to have a Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld
which was a great device for reading eBooks. Eventually, I dropped the device a few to many times and the screen broke. My fault, not the devices. I’m pretty clumsy with things like that.
Earlier this year, I bought an ASUS Eee PC
which has just been incredible for basic web browsing and story writing.
Back in the good ol’ Palm days, I used to buy my books from Fictionwise.com. They are not only still in existance but they have bought up some of the other eBook sellers over recent years.
I decided to look into getting myself set up to read eBook on my Asus EeePC and ran into a quick problem of not being able to install the eReader software that supports the main format that most of the Fictionwise books that I buy comes in. If you happen to buy the Windows XP version of the Asus Eee PC
, this isn’t an issue. The eReader software runs perfectly on Windows.
If you have the Linux version, however, you can run the eReader using a layer of software called Wine. Wine is an easy to install Linux program that allows you to install and run Windows applications. The eReader software works perfectly under Wine. It took me less than 2 minutes to install the eReader software.
So now, in addition to having a great little laptop to browse the internet, check my emails, and write stories, I can also read eBooks which I actually prefer over reading paper books. One of my favorite features is the auto scroll feature which is not available on the Kindle and other pure E Ink devices because of how those readers preserve battery by not refreshing the page except when the user tells it to change pages which leads to amazing battery capabilities.
I expect the Kindle, Amazon’s eBook Reading Device
, to become immensly popular over the rest of this year and next. Oprah is starting to promote it and it seems to function pretty amazingly as an eBook reader. I considered going this route but decided that for me, the Kindle was not the best option.
The Kindle does do an amazing job of displaying text and handling all of the functions of being an eBook reader but that is all it really does. For the same price, I can get a fully functioning laptop that would let me read a lot of the same books. I am very excited that the Kindle is about to gain some common acceptance, though. As people grab ahold of any eBook reader, the demand for eBooks in general will increase which will hopefully encourage more publishers to release more of their books as eBooks.
Sony also has an eBook reader. Their Sony PRS-505 Portable Digital e-Reader System
will probably not be as common in America as the Kindle but any push for competitors for the Kindle will be good for the eBook industry in general.
by kalbzayn on August 25, 2008
My target of 50,000 words by the end of the month has completely fallen apart. Extra hours for a work project and a couple freelance WP consulting projects took priority over the last week or so. I’ve decided to start a little business do WordPress theme modifications, plugin configurations, installations, upgrades, etc. So when a couple projects fell into my lap, I had to spend time with them.
Anyway, where does that leave my book.
As of last night, I’m around 21,600 words with a week to go. I spent some time yesterday writing one sentence descriptions of each scene that NEEDS to be in the book to get from where I am to writing “THE END.” Then I wrote a couple of those scenes.
I have about 12 more of those to go. Each will be between 250-1000 words. By Sunday night, I will write “THE END” but the ending will be quite a bit rushed. I should be between 30,000 and 35,000 words which is short but not too shabby.
In the end, I’ll be left with something that I could reasonably edit into a decent novella or spend some time doing some real rewriting and adding to convert into a novel. I’ll let it sit for a couple months before I decide whether to try to clean it up or just leave it as a finished first draft.
Once thing I am learning is that I can reasonably write a rough draft of a novel in a month or two which is just amazing to me. When I done with the project on Sunday, I write a post with all the things that I’ve learned about my ability to write a story and a novel.
