An Ode to Scrivener

If I were asked which tool I find most important for writing, my answer would be my laptop. Duh, right? But my second most important tool, the one that makes it possible for me to happily plan, outline, draft, and revise, isn't such a duh.

It's Scrivener, a word processing program from Literature and Latte.

Scrivener is for writing, first and foremost, but it's also a management system for research, notes, and drafts. Like many people, I used to make notes and outline on paper or on my computer and then type my pages and do my editing in Microsoft Word.

Now my writing process has changed. I do all of my drafting in Scrivener, and then I export my work to Word.

Scrivener has virtual notecards, so the first thing I do when I outline a new story is to enter a brief description of each scene. Here's a screenshot of the notecards for my current novel:

From this screen, I can move the cards around and check out the flow of the novel before I start writing a word.

Then comes the writing. Scrivener lets you break down the draft into bite-size chunks or scenes, which works fantastically well for me. Each scene has its own notecard (visible on the right side in the drafting view), and each scene can be grouped into a chapter folder.

I find this chunk-by-chunk method a great deterrent to writer's block. Knowing I'm sitting down to write a finite scene is so much easier than trying to face endless blank pages.

Scrivener is also great for editing. Before, I would save each new draft with a name like "LongTimers v3.28." I ended up with dozens of files and the job of remembering which one had that descriptive paragraph I cut but wanted to put back. But Scrivener has this awesome feature called snapshots. When the little camera button at the bottom right of the screen is pressed, it saves a draft that's linked to that scene. I can switch to other incarnations of the scene easily from the same page.

The program also has folders and files set up for notes and research, which is fantastic for speculative fiction writers. I have all of my character and worldbuilding notes organized in one place--alternate timelines, character bios and backstories, continuity notes, and science notes. I even have a file of ideas for possible future books.

My Notes section of the current novel. I've got a lot of stuff in here!

There are tons of features I haven't mentioned (the ability to set word count targets for daily writing, outline view, flags and markers that can be used to indicate character arcs or multiple POVs, to name a few).

But in the interests of space saving, I'll close with this: Scrivener is only $45, it's available for both Mac and PC, and there's a free 30-day trial offered on the Literature and Latte website. I don't have any affiliation with the site, but I'm a very satisfied user. Try it. I have a feeling you'll like it.

More Lessons from LA SCBWI - Confident Writing

While attending the LA SCBWI there was one theme that continued to percolate for me – confident writing.

I’m not talking about confidence in your actual writing ability (although every writer needs to be confident in their story telling craft to be successful.) I’m talking about having confidence in your reader, and letting that trust shine through by what you don’t say in your story.

How often as a writer do you feel the need to explain something to the reader? Perhaps it’s an emotion you want to share with the reader, so you tell them how your character is feeling. Or maybe there’s a recurring theme you want your book to have, so you tell it to the reader. Several times. Because you really want to make sure they get it.

Often times it’s referred to as telling, but it’s also a perfect example of a writer that doesn’t trust that their reader will figure things out on their own.

A confident writer believes in their reader. Confident writers trust that if they paint the details, the reader will be able to see the whole picture.

Take The Golden Compass as an example. In the first few chapters we are introduced to Lyra – a curious little girl. But Philip Pullman never actually says “Lyra is a curious little girl” so how do we know she’s curious? We know because he shows us.

In the first scene we see Lyra snooping around the dining and retiring rooms of her school. It’s in her simple actions that we start to uncover Lyra’s curious nature, not in the explicit words Pullman uses. She flicks a glass. She studies the table setting. She explores her surroundings. She eavesdrops. These are all actions that demonstrate curiosity without once ever using adjectives associated with the word curious.

Pullman very easily could have used a dialogue tag to explicitly tell readers about Lyra’s nature:

“What d’you think they talk about?” she whispered curiously.

But he never does this, because he never needs to. He has confidence that his reader will pick up on her character traits through her actions.

Another fantastic example of confident writing can be seen in the first chapter of The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins never expressly tells us that Katniss is a survivor, or that she feels responsible for taking care of her family. Instead, she shows us Katniss’ hardened persona when she describes her reaction to the cat. What kind of person wants to drown a kitten so they will have one less mouth to feed? What kind of person spares a kitten’s life because her sister begs her not to drown it? It is through these actions and reactions that we come to see who Katniss is as a person, not simply through adjectives, adverbs and explicit explanations.

The next time you’re reading through your manuscript, ask yourself – what am I explicitly telling the reader that they can figure out on their own? Is there a way I can showcase that emotion or character trait through actions and reactions versus explanation? Are there explanations I can take out that won't take away from the story?  If so, you may be over-telling.

Go back and reread the first chapter of your favorite books with an eye for confident writing. The more you can develop an eye for what works in other stories, the more you'll be able to apply those tactics to your own writing.

Most importantly, have faith in your reader. Give them a beautiful story, and trust that they will be able to read between the lines. (Pun intended!)

Happy writing!

From Book to Screen (and back again): Let's Roll!

Young Adult fiction continues to be a hit with kids and adults alike and with the success of The Hunger Games, Twilight and Harry Potter, entertainment companies are quick to option new properties in the young adult space. 

The LA Times recently published a list of newly optioned young adult and middle grade fiction.  These include Veronica Roth's Divergent, John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, and Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky.  It's great to see the variety of projects that are being optioned and should the one's I've mentioned make their way from development to production, they show great promise because they are after all, based on great books. 

I've had the pleasure of interviewing a number of bestselling authors for Thinking to Inking's From Book to Screen (and back again) series including D.J. MacHale, Holly Goldberg Sloan and Lauren Kate.  All have been gracious with their time and provided thoughtful and informative answers to my questions. 

This Fall is gearing up to be no exception. I'm excited to announce that I will be posting From Book to Screen (and back again) interviews with authors Lesley Livingston, Lissa Price and Jay Asher prior to the New Year.  

All have had their first published novel optioned and are currently in the process of transforming their babies from the written word to the big screen. 

This is an especially busy week for two of these authors as Lesley Livingson will be launching her new novel Starling in the U.S. (launched last week in Canada) and Lissa Price will be at Chicon's Sudden Inspiration Panel - How Do You Get Your Ideas?  If you're there, be sure to check it out!

Industry Month In Review: Back To Basics

It's been a great August so far with sun, surf, and the SCBWI LA Conference and with everything that's going on, it's easy to forget about the little things ...like reading a good book on a lazy summer day.  

Wrigley's LFL, Toronto

If you don't know which book to read, good news, the NPR just released their favorite 100 best ever teen novels list.  It's filled with classics like The Catcher In The Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, and The Hobbit, fan favourites like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter as well as contemporary gems like Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (whom I'll be interviewing later this fall for a my Book to Screen interview series).  Take a look at the list and see how many you've read to date.

Don't have a library within walking distance to borrow that book you just read about on NPR's website? There may be a little free library in your neighbourhood.  I'm proud to say that in my home city of Toronto we have quite a few.  Cute little wooden boxes (some built to mimic the bricks and mortar libraries nearby) that generous home holders have placed on their front lawns and filled with an abundance of reading material for kids and adults alike. 

The other fun thing to do this summer - write, write, and more writing of course!  What all the novels on the NPR list have in common is that they're all written by writers who've done what F. Scott Fitzgerald told aspiring young author Frances Turnbull to do: they sold their hearts.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald

For those of us who aspire to be great writers and are inspired by great writers, this letter is a reminder of what it takes to be just that.  We need to push the boundaries of our writing, dig deep into the characters and bring out emotions, experiences and actions that aren't easy.  Fitzgerald puts it best when he writes "you wouldn't be interested in a soldier who was only a little brave."

The nice thing about enjoying the little things is that we can do them all year round.  Next up: curling up on the sofa beside a warm fire with a good book.

Writer's Resource: Write or Die

A few weeks ago, I talked about programs like LeechBlock, Freedom, and Anti-Social and how they could increase your productivity by forcibly removing you from social media sites.

Here's a program that takes it a step further: Write or Die.

From their website's About section: "Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences."

The consequences can be toggled from Gentle--a box pops up when you haven't written for a little while, reminding you to keep writing--all the way to Kamikaze, where the program will start unwriting the words you've written if you don't keep typing!

Their tagline ("Putting the 'Prod' in Productivity") says it all. The website touts WOD as the best cure for writer's block around, and I have friends who swear by it. To be honest, I don't suffer from writer's block much--writer's extreme wordiness and need of editing is more my problem--so I haven't tried it.

But if you're someone who often sits in front of a blank screen, wishing you had some motivation to make the words come out, WOD might be just the thing for you.

The program costs $10 and is available in both desktop and iPad versions. If you've tried it before, or you decide to give it a shot, come back and let me know how it went!