Poet Progressing to Prose

Poet Progressing to Prose

Changing view - Changing Mind

Isabel Storey on whatever takes her fancy this day.

Beyond the pen and pencil: best tools for crafting novels

November 11, 2017 0 Creative Writing, My thoughts on , , , , , , ,

Finding that which suits both the writer and the writer’s times.  

Writing a novel? Trial and many errors while fumbling round to source those writing tools which best suit the way my fingers and mind works – therefore the following are no more than my personal preferences. For the now, my flow chart will be going with each in turn. One day, there may be a program which incorporates the best of each, but until then …

This works for me

or – should I say – these work for me

Novel Factory forces one to think the novel through to the end. Synopsis, extended synopsis, generate scenes.

WriteItNow with the scenes generated by Novel Factory, it is a breeze to create a timeline of events and detailed relationships between characters. At this stage, all the general outline and some details to pantser one’s way and have a bit of fun.

Atomic Scribbler lightweight, simple, uncluttered, handy bits with a friendly feel such that I find I can have some fun when writing.

 Then import into Scrivener  for this is where I get serious! Take a snapshot of each scene/section and ponder improvements.

When that as good as it is going to get, compile into a Word document

 to run it through SmartEdit then Stylewriter then PerfectIt.

I know this sounds convoluted but it seems to be working for me (at the moment?) The beauty of several approaches somehow leaves me able to think of several potential stories/novels whatevers, taking ideas from the back  burner of my mind/memory into a form I can later shape into something. One month away from my 78th birthday, my main regret is that, when 18 and wanting to be a writer, I thought writer’s needed to draw on Life experiences so I went out to get some. For some reason, I never imagined using imagination! 

NOTE: Over the years I have purchased the above linked programs after having first used the free trials. I don’t think I have any recommendations from this site linked to a reward for anyone to purchase. If so, it was from a different site and any reward would not outweigh the distraction of sorting out referrals.

I am reconciled to never making money from my writing – enough if I can cover any outlay and continue to convince the ATO I am deserving of my ABN for the site http://izabellazbooks.com/

 

Belated

October 30, 2017 0 Health, Novel - BREAKING HEARTS , , ,

With Facebook nagging me for not having posted for so long a time, I feel I must ask forgiveness from those 115 viewers in the last week who may not have found something more recent to read than than their last look.

Excuse? Excuses? None. Unless you count forgetting to turn off the kitchen tap until the whole apartment was flooded, and, finding it so, looked out into the hallway to see if that was also affected. Yes. with door still open, came into bathroom to collect towels to begin to soak up, closed the door and locked myself out.  7:15am. Property manager’s office unattended until 8:00. She alone and me in my nightdress in neighbour’s apartment – neither able to see way clear to getting a taxi for the spare key. Evidently I sounded frazzled enough for the lass in the property manager’s office to have her send an ambulance! Reassured by their prompt – unwarranted – arrival – nice to know they can access the building and enter the secured lift to my floor.  Last resort was calling in a locksmith who had some difficulty but eventually repaired with some thingymgbob which reached under the door, snared the handle and opened from the inside.

Days spend drying rugs on the patio – had intended lifting them for the summer – now most stored in storage cage in garage level. Every piece of furniture pulled out and floor mopped till dry. All clean. Behind the fridge not as bad as I would have expected.

While waiting in my neighbour’s apartment I was able to take in a differing furniture arrangement which gave me ideas for shifting around my own. Only needed the purchase of far longer aerial cable for TV so it can be moved to the other side of the room. Now able to fall asleep in front of TV from either bed or recliner. and falling asleep often is my main ‘excuse’. Seems my mojo is taking a long time to recharge. Nevertheless have made some progress on new novel using both Novel Factory and WriteItNow. Playing about with both, having recently acquired NF and having had WiN on my computer for years without ever having fully explored. Within an NF forum, read that WriteItNow is regarded as the top writing assist program. Novel Factory forced me to fully think and create a complete plot line from the start. and now I have it all time-lined in WriteItNow is about as far as I have managed so far.

On waking these days, I surface with either a whole new idea OR find myself ‘reading’ a story which has me captivated – trouble being when the ‘page’ turns the earlier stages disappear. Am having so much fun entertaining myself to a point of total self-indulgence.

Forgive me?

That done! On with the next project.

October 8, 2017 0 Creative Writing, Novel - BREAKING HEARTS, Novel - MIXED FORTUNES

Now to find a blank template to unpick and place my thinking for BREAKING HEARTS – now researching transplants. This now possible as I pressed he SUBMIT button to send MIXED FORTUNES off to a literary competition; results out in February.

Had a wonderful day yesterday when my eagle-eyed friend and her mother called in on their way home to Norseman from Sydney via catching up with me in Adelaide.  Huge event – the return of a printout with lots and lots of red marks! Many picking up on proof reading, others on content and rescue from an enormous plot hole. Checked, double and triple checked every skerricking mark and correction.

No point in worrying about cover design until being informed of the result of the competition. Either the publisher, if I am successful, or myself next year if not.

Meanwhile, on with BREAKING HEARTS.

Sourcing new project

September 27, 2017 0 Creative Writing, My thoughts on, Novel - MIXED FORTUNES , , ,

The only thing I can do about MIXED FORTUNES just now is WAIT. Leaves my mind in limbo and coming up with snippets of ideas for another project – but what?

I use the array of hexagons as tool for plotting, but what to plot?

Wandering about the internet in the last few days and came across a post* with links to Novel Factory and Kindle Writer.

Although I am a huge fan of Scrivener I decided to take a free peek at these.

 

The person posting the recommendation also uses Scrivener on a second screen when using Novel Factory. And I can see why. Switching between screens far more preferable than switching within a program’s internal links. Novel Factory is well up on my list of intended purchases. So far, this morning, I have created a file for three potential novels. Will let them sit on my mind’s back-burner then tease out onto the hexagonal array – who, what, where, when, why and how.

Kindle Writer also has much going for it, but more for playing around with ideas for book covers and general tinkering.

In trying to locate the link to share I am confronted with the humongous number of sites bookmarked within several folders. Sorting those out will keep me busy for a while! Filling in the waiting time – proof-reader’s report, whether one competition has been won – if not by me then everything set to go to enter another which will mean more waiting until February, by which time I should (hopefully) be putting flesh on the bones of another book.

Roll on October to find out what kind of country the High Court has us living in.

Roll on November to find out what kind of country Australians want to be living in.

  • If I can find the post I will share in comments.

Birthing a Blurb

September 17, 2017 0 Uncategorized

This has been the process in my attempt to craft a blurb for MIXED FORTUNES. Think I have it nutted out now, following help and suggestions from within FB groups, FB itself and responses to replies to email question.
The major stumbling block, it seems, is not being able to identify my market. Some love but not romance, some sex, but not erotica, some mystery, bits of violence but not much. In other words,
slices of Life.


Have adopted a strategy of taking a very close look at the blurb and cover, including fonts and colour, of books I take out of the library and which I enjoy reading. Eclectic mix. Then thinking back to the fictional but based on fact story most enjoyed. Came across the book by sheer luck as that paperback was the only book available to me when cooking on an outback sheep station. Don’t remember the name or that of the author, but can recall the story and the effect it had on me.
So, can I identify my target market as being folk who will be in the right place at the right time to find a copy of my book to hand? Too much in the lap of the gods?

We take what we can get and am grateful.

Activating the Passive Voice

August 29, 2017 1 Creative Writing, My thoughts on, Novel - MIXED FORTUNES, Uncategorized , , ,

The more I attend to this, the more cheerful I find myself. Leads me to wonder if, when most if not all, instances of passive voice is changed to reflect the active voice whether I will internalise the feeling as a permanent feature? I find it difficult these days to type the word ‘just’ when that used to be just about the most frequent and unnecessary word used.

 

When amended over 1,000 passives to actives and uncovered about sixty hidden verbs will I self-edit out the passive voice in future?

Watch out World!

A more positive Isabel is possibly about to poke her head over the horizon.
One tenth of the total manuscript attended today.
There may be those of you who think “What the heck is all the excitement about?” I was about ten years old when given the last grammar lessons in school before leaving school at barely fourteen. When Stylewriter kept pulling me up with ‘prefer active verb’ my reaction was “What the!” I have read how to recognise the rule – chased by a zombie – but it was only when making an individual note on paper the notion finally took hold. It was a fat notepad anyway and I wondered if ever I would fill its pages.


Feeling chipper and cheerful.

Needless Panic.

August 28, 2017 0 My thoughts on, Novel - MIXED FORTUNES

There is light at the end after all. My earlier assessment on the number of pages was based on my cack-handed efforts to emulate a copy on printed page BUT Google had the answer – wipe brow with relief.
Aim to complete editing by the middle of September so I can hand it over to a pair of eagle eyes in the head of my Norseman friend, Laurene.
End of September will likely come with the result of not winning one competition and that will be in time to enter another, the answer to which will be known in early February. Leaves time to obtain professionally designed cover and interior design before the April release.
Huge sigh.

Back to Square One

August 25, 2017 1 My thoughts on, Novel - MIXED FORTUNES, Short and Sweet

THIS IS ME TODAY.
Set page size, font size, etc as it would appear in actual printed copy. FAR, FAR TOO MANY PAGES.

Back to the drawing board.

 

One book, severely pruned? Two thirds of original

OR

Three very skinny books?

 OR

Expand to create a decent sized trilogy?

While I think this all through, my present plan is to save a copy of the most already edited version in Google Drive, Dropbox and on a USB. That done will revert this laptop to factory settings and load and reinstall only those programs I find really useful. I have a tendency to try out interesting looking things which, even when uninstalled, can leave their little footprints.

If I don’t pop-up in Facebook, Google Plus or emails you will know why. Not Missing in Action, but transferred to Rehab.

 

 

Tightening Tenses

August 23, 2017 0 Uncategorized

While finding all the missing ‘t’s I came across some tenses of which I need to be sure I have down pat. While current action is in present tense, anything thought of reflected most likely to be past or future or varieties thereof. Have already corrected a few ‘was’ to ‘is’ when scouring for the ‘t’, so that will be the next global search throughout the whole document.

Search for the missing ‘t’ before ‘he’

August 22, 2017 0 Short and Sweet

In order to locate the ones I missed while typing story, I trawled through 1,990 instances of ‘he’ to locate 5 missing ‘t’s. Other typing mishaps of late is the appearance of an errant ‘m’ in front of a word, but that is easy enough to see on the screen as I read recent input. I am SO looking forward to getting MIXED FORTUNES up and out there – off my desk and computer. It is a story which was hatched from events back in the 70’s which grew until I could no longer ignore it. At first I thought it a trilogy but total word count would mean three very thin books or, as I have now decided, one very long book. I say, very long, but about the same length as 20000 mLeagues (see what I mean) Under the Sea and less than The Two Towers.
Am waiting on my power bills to come in so I can see if there is any left over from my Utilities Savings to transfer to my Book/Website account. Then onto professional cover design after deciding on blurb for back cover.
Sitting on my mind’s back burner is the next book while I tinker with the notion of a series. As I derive great pleasure from plotting I am assured of fun times ahead.