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Hello everyone, Hannah here!

Recently, I have been contemplating what it means to serialize a novel. We wouldn’t have Charles Dickens without serial publishing – nearly all of his novels were serialized back in the day, when magazines published a chapter from stories like A Tale of Two Cities or Bleak House every week or month. Though we moved away from that form of novel publishing, websites like Wattpad have created a resurgence, particularly with YA stories.  Writers are able to publish one chapter or segment at a time and obtain reader input as the story progresses, quite possibly changing what the narrative may have otherwise been in a traditionally published format.

I was lucky enough to have Heather Demetrios, author of Something Real and I’ll Meet You There to name a few, answer some of my questions regarding her experiences with this form of publishing, based on her  serialized novel, The Lexie Project. If you’ve read Something Real by Heather then you’ll recognize some of the characters in The Lexie Project. Anyone considering launching a serialized or multi-platform project should take Heather’s answers to heart – she has put a lot of work and thought into the story and the social platform, and is ready and willing to share her lessons and expertise. Check out her interview below!

Me: First, tell us about The Lexie Project!

Heather: The Lexie Project is a young/new adult multi-platform story that is being written in real time with crowd sourcing. It’s a satirical look at reality TV and fame: think The Lizzie Bennet Diaries meets Clueless and Keeping Up With The Kardashians. My readers send me comments about what they hope Lexie will do in the future and I take that into consideration as I write. I also incorporate real life current events into the narrative, which takes it to unexpected and interesting places! I’m posting a chapter a week on Wattpad and on The Lexie Project website in addition to blogging as Lexie, tweeting as Lexie, and engaging with readers on Lexie’s other social media sites. I’ve hired an actress to play Lexie in videos and on Instagram. Lexie’s roommate is a YouTube star and so I’ve also hired another actress to play her and post videos. There’s even a podcast interview series with Lexie and “famed” celeb podcaster T.J. Maxxx. As you can see, the story very much incorporates our real life connection to social media and other forms of online media. All the social media and blogging is extra—the story reads as a complete novel on Wattpad itself, so for readers who don’t want to be online too much, they can still have full access to Lexie’s narrative.

Me: Something Real was traditionally published. The Lexie Project is a serialized web novel. What was it about a serial web platform that allowed you to tell this story in a way you couldn’t with traditional publishing?

Heather: I wanted the narrative to have the feel of reality TV and reflect the real-time life of a young celebrity. A novel takes lots of time to write and at least eighteen months between the time it sells and appears on bookshelves. Lexie is nineteen, very much enmeshed in our world of instant gratification fame. I wanted readers to get a sense of what her life is like, how she responds as things happen, whether that be an angry tweet using a hastag that is trending right now (like #SingleBecause) or selfie posted on Instagram. Lexie isn’t going to wait two or more years to tell you how she feels about something—she isn’t even going to wait an hour. In a way, we’ve all become our own biographers, curating our life story as we live it via our social media. Lexie’s doing the same.

Me: What should writers consider before choosing to serialize their own novels on a forum like Wattpad, versus attempting traditional or even self-publishing?

Heather: The first thing is that you don’t get paid writing a story this way and there’s no guarantee it will get picked up by a publisher down the road. Macmillan (my publisher for Lexie’s companion novel, Something Real) has been super supportive, but this project is not under contract with them—and I don’t know if it ever will be. I’m taking a risk here. Of course, I want the book to be published traditionally after I complete the online aspect of it. I think it has potential to do really well in that arena, as well. Not all readers are going to want to access Lexie’s story online. Plus, there’s the benefit of fun extras and editing and the other important things that go into a traditionally published, vetted book that readers who’ve already accessed Lexie online would like to have, as well. But I also see multi-platform storytelling as a part of publishing’s future and I want to get in on the ground level, be a maven of sorts.

Another major consideration writers should think about is the time a multi-platform project takes. Spoiler alert: it’s taking over my life. I currently have five books under traditional publishing contracts for which I receive advances to live off of. If I didn’t have those, I wouldn’t be doing this right now. Having those and Lexie…well, you can imagine how much sleep and free time I get.

Finally, your story has to work for a multi-platform project. Some stories aren’t best told this way. I mean, would you want to read M.T. Anderson’s Octavian Nothing this way? No. But you might want to read Feed like this. I have plans for a multi-platform sci-fi, but it’s going to look very different from Lexie. And I have plans for other novels—both adult and young adult—that are only going to be found in book form. You’ve got to do right by your story and characters first and foremost. The rest is gravy.

Me:Do you think the fact that you have been traditionally published provided the foundation for this project? Or is this something you could have done without first being traditionally published?

Heather: Frankly, I think starting this way would be a waste of time for any writer who hopes to be traditionally published and make a living off of their words. You do hear stories about publishers picking up books by Wattpad writers with a huge following, but the return on that investment—from what I’ve heard—isn’t always paying off for the publisher. That’s not to say you can’t break into publishing this way—I just wouldn’t bank on it. I think the fact that I’m traditionally published gives me an immediate fan base and readership. But even for me, it’s slow going. That’s part of why you can access the story both on Wattpad and Lexie’s website (which is a Tumblr platform). I knew my adult readers weren’t really on Wattpad and wouldn’t be super keen on learning how to navigate yet another social media site.

Me: What is the most important thing you have learned from this process? The biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?

Heather: I’ve actually started a blog series called Lessons From Lexie, because I’m really interested in tracking this experience. It’s, as I often say, both the Wild West of storytelling and YA on crack. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that it’s going to take five times as long to do it as you think it would. You have to be on point like nobody’s business. There are so many things outside the story to keep track of, so if you’re not careful, it can be very easy to let the writing get lazy or to just go with the easiest or most sensational plot choices. My biggest challenge, then, has been not losing sight of crafting Lexie with the same care and attention on all story levels as I do with my other books. So far, so good—but it’s a lot of work.

Me: Finally, If you could give a writer planning to serialize his/her novel one piece of advice, what would it be?

Heather: Plan as much as you can and never put any writing out there that isn’t stellar. Usually, my readers don’t get to see my work until it’s been looked at by loads of readers, copy-edited, and vetted by gate keepers and my agent. My books go through a writing and editorial process that takes years. The chapters I post for Lexie—since I’m crowd sourcing and incorporating current events—get less than seven days. When you work this way, you’re putting your first draft out there, no matter how many betas you have or how much you revise your weekly installment. That takes a lot of hubris. You need strong, solid craft and experience. You also need to be deeply grounded in your story and characters. I had a whole novel—Something Real—to get me to where I needed to be with Lexie. So there’s a lot that has to happen behind the scenes before you get online. Multi-platform storytelling is not for the faint of heart or anyone who isn’t a perfectionist—so be warned.

 

All of Heather’s advice and wisdom is spot-on, so I want to thank Heather for taking the time to talk to our readers about serial publishing and The Lexie Project! You can find more information about Heather and her books on her website, listed below, or read The Lexie Project on Wattpad. Let me know your thoughts below!

About Heather: When she’s not traipsing around the world or spending time in imaginary places, Heather Demetrios lives with her husband in New York City. Originally from Los Angeles, she now calls the East Coast home. Heather has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a recipient of the PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award for her debut novel, Something Real. Her other novels include Exquisite Captive, the first in the Dark Caravan Cycle fantasy series, I’ll Meet You There and the multi-platform serial novel, The Lexie Project. She is the founder of Live Your What, a project dedicated to creating writing opportunities for underserved youth. Find out more about Heather and her books at www.heatherdemetrios.com, or come hang out with her on Twitter (@HDemetrios) and any number of social media sites.

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I’m so excited by these books, I have to pass them along.

First of all, right now you can get for the incredibly low price of $20 this entire story bundle of writing books. I would have bought just one of the books on my own–the horse one by Judith Tarr, since I’m writing a lot of horse scenes these days for The Bradamante Saga and yes, I’d like to make sure I get them right–but then once I saw all the other awesome craft books in this bundle: SOLD. Because every writer can get better, and it’s such a pleasure to read a great craft book by authors who are experts in their field.

And speaking of authors who are experts in their field, the great young adult author Tom Leveen now has a new book out on writing dialogue. Before turning to novels, Tom spent many years in the theater as both an actor and director. I’ve taught writing workshops with him, and his tips for writing great dialogue are always FANTASTIC. Treat yourself to this book. You’ll learn a ton.


That’s it for now, gang. Happy Writing!

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Still in the revision cave. The middle is a rough place to be but there is light at the end of the tunnel of this current novel project. Still on track to be finished with this particular novel this summer.

Currently I’m reading The Writer’s Guide to Persistence by Jordan Rosenfeld. She’s also the author of one of my favorite craft books Make A Scene , which I also highly recommend.

This book is for writers who want to start and preserve a writing practice. Persistence is the key along with finding ways to balance writing with the rest of your life.

I’m really loving the book so far. When I’m finished, I’ll be sure to share any gems that may also be helpful to you in your writing practice in another post.

For those of you on Twitter, you can follow the author @Jordanrosenfeld. She has a great hashtag #WritersGuide2Persistence where she gives great motivation and advice for keeping your writer’s practice on track.

Hope everyone is writing and that life is treating you well.

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In truth, I have more time for writing right now than I have had in a long time. This scares me. It scares me because the more time I have for something, the more I fear wasting it. And the more I fear something, anything, the less productive I am. So instead of spinning off into […]

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by

E.C. Myers

—

It’s harder than ever to become a writer.

Not because of all the doom and gloom about the death of the novel, print vs. electronic books, big publishers vs. self-publishing, or Amazon vs. everyone. The problem is that many kids today (girls and boys) not only aren’t reading, but they don’t have access to books. Good writers are born from a lifetime love of reading.

It’s not a matter of kids and teens choosing to play video games, or watch TV, or go online instead of picking up a book — books simply are not in their lives as much as they should be. I was recently invited to talk to a couple of English classes at my old high school about my writing. I was honored, and even more so when I discovered what a hardship it was for the school to afford an author visit and books on their limited budget, which does not include much money even for school books. Or for a school newspaper or literary journal. Or a full-time librarian. These kinds of budgetary cutbacks in school and public libraries is an epidemic.

Back in my day, we had all those things. (Although one committed English teacher did sometimes have to resort to photocopying Marlowe, in an early form of book piracy.) I’m a product of every school library, every book we studied in class, every librarian who either recommended good reads to me or quietly looked the other way while I explored on my own. I’m a published author because of English teachers like Mrs. Fein, Mrs. Post, Mrs. Halpern, Mr. Riti, and Mr. Valk.

My author bio says that I was “raised by a single mom and a public library” for a reason: I was lucky enough to live a 10-minute walk from my local library (and I’m not exaggerating when I say I had to walk home up a huge hill in 100-degree weather carrying an armload of books, but it was worth it.) I was lucky because I had family and teachers who nurtured my love for reading and gave me the tools to turn that love into something else: a desire to write books of my own one day.

I was also fortunate to have other positive influences in my life like Reading Rainbow, which reinforced reading as a good thing; even at the time, I stood out for reading so much. Many people of a certain age remember the show’s theme song fondly. It talks about the amazing and varied experiences readers can have in the pages of a book, but the lyrics are also motivational for what readers can accomplish in life: “Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high.” “I can go anywhere!” “I can be anything!” Those are important messages to give young people. Happily, Reading Rainbow is making a comeback and will be able to reach new generations via computers and mobile devices.

At my former high school, where kids no longer have a creative outlet or writing instruction, one student asked me if I needed a college degree to become a writer. Though I was a little embarrassed, because college is important to getting most good jobs these days, I was also truthful. “No,” I said. “I learned how to write by reading books.” By reading, you naturally gain a knowledge of proper grammar (even if you don’t know the names of the rules or how to parse a sentence) and story structure and pacing, and you begin to develop a prose style and your own voice. Yes, you can take classes and join workshops or critique groups, and I think those are useful things. But to build a solid foundation with words, an active imagination, and a lifelong devotion to consuming and creating stories, you have to read.

So my best advice, forever and always, to kids in school, aspiring writers, and published authors is READ. Read anything. Read everything. Read genres you love and books you think you’ll hate. Read young adult and middle grade and books intended for adults, even if you aren’t meant to understand them. Pick up literary bestsellers and mysteries and science fiction. Try urban fantasy and new adult. Read non fiction and fanfiction, comics and read magazines — and yes, the internet. Read for pleasure. Read for research. Read for inspiration. Read to learn how other authors write well, and to learn what you shouldn’t do. Just read.

So… What are you reading now? (Other than this blog post.) Me, I’m finishing up my friend Rajan Khanna’s excellent debut science fiction novel, Falling Sky, out in October from Pyr. In the comments below, tell us about what’s on your eReader, in your bag, or on your night stand.

—

E.C. Myers was assembled in the U.S. from Korean and German parts and raised by a single mother and a public library in Yonkers, New York. He is the author of the Andre Norton Award–winning young adult novel FAIR COIN and its sequel, QUANTUM COIN; his next YA novel, THE SILENCE OF SIX, will be published by Adaptive in November 2014. You can find traces of him all over the internet, but especially at his blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.

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Do you try to impress your readers with fancy-pants words? Do you use “arachnid” instead of “spider”? Or perhaps you’ll throw out a phrase like, “wandering eight-legged spinner” instead of “spider.”

It’s a lovely phrase, “wandering eight-legged spinner.” But most of the time, using the simple term will keep your reader focused on your story, rather than your pretty writing. Packing your writing with purple prose phrases and fancy-pants vocabulary is a sure road to rejection. So why not just use spider?

Yes, there are times when our writing should have an impressive slant. But it should never be so impressive that a reader gets lost in our words. For most of us, writing in the everyday world, that means we need to keep our words and sentences clear, simple, and focused. We need to think about readability.

That’s where readability tools come into play. Once you enable these gems in your writing tools options on a Word document, I’ll bet you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them. With one click, you can see whether your text is highly readable—or not so much.

The basic statistics (like words per sentence) will give you a good idea of whether you’re over-writing. I tested a couple passages from a contemporary best-selling novel, Angels and Demons, using paragraphs packed with dialogue to those heavy on description. The average count came to 14 words per sentence. Fourteen words per sentence seems like a good standard. I mean, if it’s good enough for Dan Brown, it should be good enough for the rest of us, right?

Next, I thought it would be fun to try an experiment, to compare my writing against a best-selling novelist’s writing. So I used passages of similar word counts (300-ish) from Angels and Demons and my humble blog post here. Let’s see how I did, shall we?

The words per sentence came to 12.2 in the Angels and Demons sample. And my blog post? 13.9. That’s in the Dan Brown ballpark, so I’m happy.

Next, I can see whether I’m overusing that pesky passive voice. Dan’s passage weighed in at 4%, and my lowly post came in at 0%, thank you very much.

Now it’s time to check out the Flesch Reading Ease score. The higher the score, the better the readability. High scores (A long-ago editor of mine required scores in the 70’s) mean that your fancy words are few, that your sentences don’t run on, and that your text is broken into a couple paragraphs.

So, let’s take a look at Dan’s passage: 69.4 (Impressive). My blog post: 69.6 (So there.).

Finally, I checked the grade level. Brown’s novel sample comes in at 6.6, while my blog post sample comes in at 6.8. I think sixth grade is a good target for any adult market, and 6.8 is pretty close.

In fact, my numbers, overall, are pretty darn close to best-selling novelist’s Dan Brown. And now it’s your turn. Compare your writing against work in the field you’re trying to break into and see how your numbers stack up. With practice and an eye to readability, your writing will improve for your readers.

And then together, friends, we shall take over the writing world. Bwahahahaa!

~Cathy C. Hall

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Hey everyone! It’s Clara Kensie again, with a new Question of the Week! Pretty much the only thing writers love as much as writing is talking about writing. So each week here at Adventures in YA Publishing, I post a question for you to answer. The questions cover all topics important to writers: craft, career, writers’ life, reading and books. Together we’ll become better writers by sharing tips and discussing our habits and practices.

My answer: I can write in silence, but I almost always have my earbuds in while I write. I use music to block out the world around me so I can focus on my manuscript. However, I am a singer, and if I know the lyrics, I will sing along. Therefore while I’m writing, I must listen to music without lyrics, or lyrics I don’t know. I often listen to the Sigur Ros station on my tablet's Pandora app. Sigur Ros is an ambient post-rock band from Reykjavik, Iceland. I love their music but I don’t understand the lyrics, so it’s perfect writing music for me. I also listen to the symphonic and classical music Pandora stations, as well as the Doctor Who station (I know, how awesome is that?), which plays movie and television scores. Scores are lyric-less, and they often have a sweeping, epic feel to them—perfect for writing romantic scenes—or they have a pulsing, urgent tone, perfect for writing action scenes.
I like the idea of making a playlist for each manuscript—a set of songs that match the tone of your story to put you in the right frame of mind to write it—but I’m reluctant to make one myself. Why? Because it would take me days, probably weeks, to select the perfect songs. And that’s time I’d rather spend writing!
YOUR TURN: Do you listen to music while you write? What do you listen to? Do you make playlists, and if so, how do you chose your songs? Or, do you prefer to write in silence?

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by Deren Hansen

I started playing with computers when green screen, character-mode displays were state-of-the art (I preferred amber over green, but that's another story). Then the original Macintosh (yes, that's what they were before they became hip enough to afford a three-letter name), splashed onto the scene with a full-time graphical user interface (GUI).

A few years later, folks from the English department at the University of Delaware published a study in which they argued that the quality of freshman papers written on a Macintosh was lower than those written on PC-class computers with character-mode displays. Oh, the papers produced on Macs looked better with well-laid-out text and proportional fonts, but (so the authors of the study claimed) the content of those papers was less well-thought-out than the papers composed without graphical blandishments.* They suggested that this was because the students tended to believe that their papers were good (and more importantly finished) because they looked good.

The study and its claims were controversial. But I think there was a kernel of truth in the observation that there's value in a writing system that gets out from between you and your words: that removes even the little distractions like formatting.

Of course, now that we all use graphical interfaces the point may seem moot or at best hopelessly retro. Perhaps, but there are several applications for various platforms that give you a full screen with nothing there but your words in a console font.

I use a package called WriteMonkey on my Windows systems.


Having an editor in which I can focus entirely on my words helps me use my limited writing time well.

You can, of course, achieve a similar effect with the Full Screen mode in your standard word processor. Perhaps it's the retro angle, but I enjoy the Matrix-like way in which the black background fades away and the glowing words float in prose-space.

Of course, life is never as simple as it should be and WriteMonkey has its drawbacks, most of which come back to the fact that it is a text editor, not a word processor. This means that you get plain double quotes instead of the nice opening and closing quotes that Word supplies as you type. Also, Write Monkey doesn't convert a pair of dashes into an em-dash (again, like Word).

I turned this liability into a feature: after writing about a chapter with WriteMonkey, I import the text into Word and use the fact that I need to correct the quotes and em-dashes as an excuse to edit the new material.

For those of you who prefer Macs, I understand that Writeroom provides similar functionality. There's also JDarkRoom, which is written in Java and should run on your platform of choice.


Deren blogs at The Laws of Making.

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Think about something other than writing for a moment. (It's okay to take your mind away for just a minute...NaNoWriMo doesn't start for another week or so!)

Then think about what tools you use to do that "something."

Since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, that's my something. I like to prepare fresh meals for my family every day. (Lately I have been trying to spend more time in the gym and less time in the kitchen...but, my luck my run out on that as the holidays near!)

Some of our shiny kitchen tools.

In my kitchen, thanks to a husband who knows how to cook, I have many cooking tools at my disposal. (see photo) Anyone for a mandoline? Or ramekins? These tools provide an entryway for me to prepare a range of foods: quick cold lunches to deluxe hot dinners, complex Asian meals to simple hamburgers.

I look around my kitchen and I know I can conquer just about any recipe thrown my way.

So, now, let's turn our focus back to writing. When I consider my writing, I often think of it as just my computer (and all that extends from it) and me. But in reality, my writing tools surround me wherever I am. I find comfort and support in them to continue my writing.

Here are my top five "tools"...again, not counting the computer and the Internet:

1. A piece of paper and a pen. You never know when an idea will strike, so be prepared and carry something around to write on, should the muse visit. I have dozens of old notebooks that I will dip into to re-discover ideas and may work now (even if they didn't work then). I feel under dressed without a notebook and pen.
2. Bookcases and the hundreds of writing books and magazines they contain. Most writers I know surround themselves with either great books to read or great books and magazines on writing. Many utilize both.
3. Family and friends. Just like the greatest chefs collaborate with the cooks in their kitchen, many writers find the community of friends and family to be a great asset. Just last week, I was at a writers meeting and one writer was discussing a story that another writer helped her re-focus--what a great asset friends, family and other writers can be.
4. A hot beverage. I'm a tea drinker and I can't remember the last time I sat down to write without having a cup nearby. (I used to insist on a particular cup, but that's another story.)
5. Music and noise. While I'm an instrumental/wordless music fan when I write, I find myself mining the lyrics of songs (when I'm driving) and searching for a nugget of a story in the songwriters words. Noises that surround me sometimes become the entryway for a story.

Those are some of my writing "tools" that I rely on regularly to cook up my stories or articles. With them, no matter what I want to cook up and write, my tools help focus me and provide me the support I need to get things written...and on the page. Any recipe that is thrown at me, I find a way in using my tools.

What are your favorite tools? How do they help you?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor living in coastal North Carolina. She loves to blog, but these days seems to only find time for tweets--follow her at @Eliz_Humphrey. Display Comments Add a Comment

by Scott Rhoades

I get the feeling when I write about software that many of your eyes (and just how many eyes do you have, anyway?) glaze over, while a small percentage of you feel the nerd node in your brain perk up and you get excited.

This week, though, I'm writing about something that you eye-glazers might really want to pay attention to, and most of you geek freaks already know about: I'm talking about Evernote, one of the most useful apps a writer can have in his toolbox this side of a comfortable word processor.

Imagine this: you're driving down the road and you see an old house or a bit of scenery that is exactly what you pictured for your work-in-progress. You hit the brakes, screech to a halt, and jump out of the car, smart phone in hand. You snap a few photos, then create a voice note explaining why the pictures are important. Because your phone has GPS, your pictures and note are tagged with the location where you took the pictures.

Or, you're sitting in some waiting room somewhere, perusing a four-month-old magazine, when a story sparks a story idea. You don't have your laptop, and you know how well you can trust your memory. But you do have your phone. So you open up Evernote, jot down a few notes, maybe even take a picture of the item in the magazine that set off the idea. By the time you get home, the note is already on your computer, waiting for you.

All of this good material is almost instantly available on every computer you own, plus your iPad and your phone, because you created all of them in Evernote.

Evernote is the Swiss army knife of electronic notebooks. You can create as many notebooks you need, each with as many notes as you need. You can attach sound files, photos, and several other kinds of files. (With the paid version, you can attach any file you want to attach.) You can use add-ons for most popular browsers to clip bits of Web pages that you want to remember. You can even synch up with some popular email and calendaring apps, like Outlook.

Everything you put in Evernote is automatically synchronized with your Windows and Mac computers (at home and at work), with your iPhone or Droid or Blackberry or Palm, and with your iPad, and is accessible on the Web. In other words, your notes are available everywhere, any time. You can even share notes with friends, even if they don't use Evernote.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

You can use Evernote to store to-do lists, notes and ideas for stories, even your manuscript draft. Need a good, convenient place to track your submissions, always a tricky thing now that most queries are sent in email so you might send them from both work and home, while your old query tracker was only on your home computer. And you can use Evernote's "ink note" feature on your computer to sketch a map or an idea for an illustration. I only wish ink notes were available on touch screen devices. That would be really cool. (OK, it kind of is, with a for-pay iPad app called Inkiness, but the reviews aren't that great and it's not native to Evernote.)

Oh, and Evernote is free. You can get additional space--although the free version provides 60MB per month, more than enough for most people, unless you want to attach a lot of high-res pictures--and a few other features by paying for a premium account, but everything most writers really need is available in the free version. You can get Evernote for your Mac or Windows computers at www.evernote.com, and for your mobile devices at whichever app store or market you use. You'll want it on everything so it's always there for you. The Web site also has documentation, videos, and other information that will help you get up to speed quickly, although Evernote is easy enough to use that the docs aren't really necessary. They might help you discover a use you hadn't thought of, though.

So what are you waiting for? We writers often have our heads in clouds, so we might as well keep our no

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I work in software technology by day so that part of my geeky life tends to bleed over into my creative life. While I do loves me a green pen and legal pad, I also use other writing tools for my novel project.

Here are the three that I use the most:

yWriter5

I first started using this spiffy tool about a year ago. I’m a big fan of spreadsheets and this software has a great outlining feature that is very helpful — especially if you write in scenes like me. You can switch things around, create writing schedules and goals — this is what I used for my Operation 50/50 project. What I like most about is that in addition to typing prose text, you can assign setting, characters, and even objects and track them for each scene. Best of all, it isn’t based on any operating system, so you can put this program on a thumb-drive and plug it to use on a laptop or computer. Even better, it’s free! But I’m seriously thinking about giving a donation to this fellow software geek for making it easier for me. Yeah, I know all about Scrivener but I don’t have a Mac and I’ve tried the Windows version for awhile but came back to this. I loves it!

Dropbox

Speaking of thumb-drives…it can sometimes be a pain carrying them around and if you’re paranoid like me then you’re always afraid that you’ll lose them. And then it’s sort of a pain to download the newest changes to your main computer or laptop. This is when I came across this cool sync tool. Basically, you can download data to one central location (what us software geeks call “The Cloud”) and then it automatically syncs to every linked computer. I have uploaded my yWriter software and my current writing project to Dropbox. No matter which computer I use, every time I make a change to any file, it gets synchronized everywhere. Your data is encrypted and the first 2 MB is free. So that’s more than enough space for a novel-in-progress. Plus a good way to backup work.

Kindle

Ah, this cool e-book gadget isn’t just for reading books. It can read your own work-in-progress too! I’ve learned the beauty of having someone else read my work so I can hear what’s wrong right away. The Kindle has a “text-to-speech” feature that can read your WIP aloud to you. It’s not a sexy voice but it’s great for proofreading and catching errors or issues. My writer friend Medeia Sharif also uses this feature. You can use the Mobipocket eBook Creator free download to convert WORD or text documents for use on the Kindle.

So these are my top tools that I use to help me with my writing. What about you guys? Use any cool writing tools? Or are you strictly a paper and pen writer?

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Like me, you probably love the convenience of keeping your writing world straight through various methods such as online calendars, spreadsheets, maybe even your phone. I rely on my MacBook’s iCal and my phone’s calendar myself. Still, there’s an appeal to seeing my daily plans, schemes and dreams written out on the page. As a result, I’ve returned to A Working Writer’s Daily Planner, a helpful resource I first came across last year.

Of course there’s a calendar with space to set up yearly, monthly and weekly goals, but there’s much more. Between the pages you’ll find a selection of upcoming contest deadlines listed on calendar pages, and expanded lists with more detailed competition info. Glance at the reading lists, including the monthly “Read Around the World” list of international writers for your next selection. There’s a easy submission tracker to keep your records in order. And if you need ideas on what to write, try some of the prompts or exercises. All accompanied by attractive, black & white and full-color photos.

Yeah, it’s definitely low-tech, but for me, it’s a nifty way to rein in my writing life. Check it out for yourself here.

So, what ways do you keep your writing world straight? Please share them!

By Jill Earl

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Yesterday an author friend of mine Peter Reynolds, told me about this great computer program that he helped to develop that children and adults will both love. It is called Stationary Studio and it helps children (and adults for that matter), even the ones who do not like writing, to see that writing can be a lot of fun. The program includes an easy-to-use word processor, decorative elements that Peter created for the program, an easy-to-use layout tool, and more. You can try the program for free and there is no expiration date either. If you like the program and what more templates and bells and whistles you can purchase upgrades. Take a look!

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JUST saw this Public Service Announcement on television. Sponsored by the Ad Council for Fatherhood.gov
Cheer, baby, cheer!
I am enchanted. Great commercial. Good job, guys. Let's get R-O-W-D-Y!


What writing pads am I drooling over? See idaho_laurie's latest Live Journal entry
and take a look at these cheerworthy babies from the Levenger website (aka A Writer's Worst Nightmare when you Are Low on Spare Change).


A-homina-homina-homina...Must resist, must must resist, must must must resist...

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