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Showing posts from March, 2011

No writing today

I'm sure I'll hit an extended session on the plane tomorrow.  I can't help it.  Something about the confined space, the humiliation of the TSA and the utter lack of control nearly forces me into the creative realm.  I know I'm just escaping into a world where I have complete control, and am therefore happiest while writing on a plane. My solution for teeny-tiny seat space is to write on the iPad.  PlainText is my editor there and I use Dropbox in conjunction with Scrivener's sync functionality to keep the manuscript sorted.  I had a little problem with that on my last trip and have learned to keep only one copy of the Scrivener project file around.  Otherwise it gets too confusing and you might accidentally sync with an earlier version of the project.  (I did this.  It was bad.  I ultimately sorted it out but it took precious time.) Backups provided by both TimeMachine and Dropbox.  Back up early, back up often.

Lunchtime Session

Bagged 576 words from the ether.  Boo-yah.  One more chapter and act one is in the bag. Now that I've been writing regularly I've been thinking about time compression in a novel.  You can do some truly magical things as an author.  You can make a single day last 80 pages, or even an entire novel .  You can also span 1000 years in a few sentences.  So far that has been the most amazing feeling - the ability to completely control the dimension of time for my potential readers, something I know I'll have to experiment more with in the future.  ;-)

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Ebooks and Self-Publishing - A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Ebooks and Self-Publishing - A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath This conversation is particularly motivating. It inspired a set of excel spreadsheets that could only be described as a "business plan."

My Arsenal

Of course I'm writing on a Macbook Pro, that should go without saying.  However, I'm also using Dropbox  to sync my iPad for on-the-go edits and writing.  My main text editor is Scrivener   and it is flat-out amazing.  Nearly every time I sit down to write I find another feature that I know will not be able to live without in the next session.  I don't know how much I should go into the technology I'm using for my process until I've actually published, but you never know what is going to be interesting to people. Right now I'm working towards having a complete manuscript by May 1 and a self-published novel live on the Kindle sometime in June.  It's my own private NaNoWriMo , but I'm not following any of the rules.  Wrong month, I'm all ready well into the novel, and I'm going to publish it when I'm done.  Just to be clear,  I'm not trying to write a novel in a month.  I've been outlining and planning since last year and now I...

Not a super-productive session.

198 words. However I discovered the manuscript and session target functionality of Scrivener and also downloaded the Kindle ebook generator and preview too. Amazon really couldn't make it easier unless they wrote the damn books for you.

Progress for 3/28

631 words at lunch. My main character's day is finally getting a little brighter.