#not being paid by scrivener I swear

[amewinterswriting]

Seconding Scrivener as a one time paid tool. I'm fairly certain I'm not even using half the features it has, but I've been using it for years for both fanfic and original fiction.

In Scrivener, you can write each scene/chapter as it's own mini document within the project, and use those as notecards to adjust what order they're in or just get an overarching view of the plot and it makes it really easy to change what order events happen in or write out of order.

Using a fanfiction project for an example (no sneak peeks of original fic here!):

You can add a synopsis for each scene/chapter which I largely use to make notes and outline what needs to happen. If you leave it blank, it populates it with text from the chapter (the grayed out sections). If you move them around in notecard view, it'll move them around in the project, too.

You can also have two documents side by side which is super handy for second drafts - you can reference the original while you rewrite, which is something I've been doing a lot for my current original WIP lately. The original drafts were very very messy (changing tenses, viewpoints and a combination of script and prose) and I knew it wasn't going to be a simple 'tweak some phrases and correct grammar' but more an entire rewrite. I haven't seen anything else that lets you see two documents side by side inside the same programme before and I just think it's really neat.

You can also customise the layout a lot - both sides are collapsible if you want a distraction-free workspace (I just like having notes available right there at all times, same with the chapter names - I jump around and double-check details from previous chapters a lot).

Also, Scrivener can compile projects to multiple formats (.pdf, .rtf, .doc, .odt, every major ebook format and a few more niche programme uses like Final Draft) and you can choose what to include and exclude and it makes it look really sleek and professional. I mean, look at this! This is just fanfic!

I also think they are very unlikely to implement AI features because a) their customer base is a lot of writers who are vocally against AI features and b) they announced they were working on an Android app years ago and still seem to be nowhere near to launching it, so I get the feeling that they're just focusing on keeping Scrivener up to date and stable on the platforms they already have (Windows, MacOS and iOS) and don't have a lot of spare time to mess around with adding new and unpopular tools.

I can't speak for the iOS app since I'm on Android phones, but the idea is that you can sync work between desktop and phone, which I would love and I might be slightly bitter that there's no Android app yet. But desktop Scrivener is great, 10/10, definitely recommend.

i have always used MS Word for writing, but my laptop wheezed and went into a coma last fall and took my MS 2007 with it.

i carefully switched some projects to Google Docs, but now it's promoting its "AI" software to me.

so i just downloaded LibreOffice and moved my GDocs over to that.

anyway, if anyone has bad news for me about LibreOffice, tell me now, please, thx

[oliverphisher]

Josh Donellan

J.M. DONELLAN is a writer, musician, poet, and teacher. He was almost devoured by a tiger in the jungles of Malaysia, nearly died of a lung collapse in the Nepalese Himalayas and fended off a pack of rabid dogs with a guitar in the mountains of India.

A Beginner's Guide to Dying in India By Josh Donellan

His debut novel A Beginner’s Guide to Dying in India was released in 2009. Josh was a state finalist in the 2012 and 2014 Australian Poetry Slams and a national finalist in 2015. His play, We Are All Ghosts, was performed as part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival in 2014. He also co-wrote the Theory of Everything, which completely sold out its entire season at the 2015 Brisbane Festival. Josh has spoken and performed at numerous festivals around Australia including Sydney Writers’ Festival, TEDxBrisbane (twice), the Wonderland Festival, and various not-entirely-legal warehouse parties in an array of secret locales.

His children’s fantasy novel Zeb and the Great Ruckus was described by one child as ‘the best book ever, but it should have had Dr. Who in it.’ His most recent novel, Killing Adonis has received rave reviews from numerous magazines and newspapers, both here and in the USA, including a Kirkus starred review. His poetry collection Stendhal Syndrome was released in 2016 and will soon be followed by his forthcoming collection of poems for kids entitled 19 ½ Secret Spells Disguised As Poems, which is definitely not a book of spells (unless you are a kid reading this in which case it is definitely a book of spells). In 2018 he collaborated with choreographer Liesel Zink to create the spoken word/dance performance Inter. Josh also writes and directs the podcast fiction series Six Cold Feet. He’s done a bunch of other stuff as well but honestly this bio is long enough already and no one likes a braggart.

What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? 

1.    I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy as kid and I have a distinct memory of thinking ‘Well, that’s it for me. I want to be a writer. Why the hell would you do anything else?’

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Pocket Boxed Set By J.R.R. Tolkien

2.    I read Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart at university and I loved the way it completely obliterated my previous notions of how a story should work and reinforced the very important idea that a book really can be whatever the hell you want it to be.

Sputnik Sweetheart: A Novel By Haruki Murakami

3.    More recently, I read Jennifer Egan’s ‘Look At Me’ and it felt like stepping into another world. I think about that novel at least once a week. It exists on a whole other plain of reality for me.

Look at Me: A Novel By Jennifer Egan

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?      

I bought one of those armbands to put your phone in while exercising and recently got back into running for the first time in years. I forgot how happy it makes me, for someone who sits on their butt staring at the screen a good chunk of the day exercise is hugely important, not just for the body but for creativity and mental health. I think of depression as a physical nemesis I have to fight to keep at bay, and running feels like wielding a magical sword at the great black dog. 

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? 

I think the first time you really crash on stage is such an important learning experience. Once you’ve lived through that you know what it looks like and you realise that while it’s not fun, it’s also nowhere near as bad as your anxiety was promising it would be. Even better if you have a truly catastrophic public appearance early on, because then all subsequent failures aren’t as bad in comparison.

Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?

A long time ago my friend and I went to see a local play where the audience was forcibly pulled on stage and made to feel really uncomfortable. I love immersive theatre, but this was a very unpleasant and unwelcome experience. Afterwards she said to me ‘I don’t think that director loves his audience. You have to love your audience.’ I think about that every time I sit down to write. Bear in mind, love doesn’t always mean doing the easiest or most immediately satisfying thing, it means ultimately doing what you believe is best for someone, even if it’s difficult in the short term.

What is one of the best investment in a writing resource you’ve ever made? 

Scrivener. I am weirdly evangelical about that program. I swear I’m not getting paid endorsement money or anything, even if I do occasionally grab a megaphone and run around writers’ festivals yelling “Oi! Are you lot using Scrivener? It’s the BEST!”

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love? 

My favourite animal is the mantis shrimp, the most absurd and beautiful creature to ever walk the earth. It looks like a technicolour hellbeast and it has the most complex eyes of any living organism. It’s weird how much I love that animal.

In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life? 

I used to think that the ultimate form of writing was a novel, and that everything else was just auxiliary formats. These days I’m writing across theatre, podcasts, video games etc. and I’ve really learned to love the nuances and possibilities of each medium. The novel is ideal for exploring a character’s inner world; the podcast is perfect for drawing the listener in with subtle, non-verbal sound cues; theatre has an incredible capacity to tell the same story in a whole new way with each performance. I’ve really enjoyed learning to embrace that.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven aspiring author? What advice should they ignore? 

I think the main thing is to realise that figure out what your process is going to be is a good chunk of the job. So many writers make the mistake of trying to study the process of their idols and replicate it verbatim, but it’s really about finding your own path. Maybe that means going on a vision quest, maybe it means drinking six cups of coffee and listening to Mogwai on repeat, maybe it means writing in your underwear while the sweat cascades down your fingers and hoping it doesn’t fry the battery in your laptop (that one might be Queensland specific, it’s very warm here).

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession often? 

There’s a weird idea in the writing community that if you don’t study creative writing at university you’re not taking it seriously, which is not only a heinously privileged perspective but also one that seems anomalous compared to other art forms. So many directors, actors, musicians, painters etc. are self-taught or learn from a mentor or take private courses and I think for many writers this can work as well. If you want to study creative writing at university, that’s fine and it might be great for you,but I definitely don’t think it’s a necessity. In fact, David Foster Wallace (himself a creative writing teacher) once pointed out that some MFA programs churn out students whose writing is impossibly pristine, complex, and elegant, while also being utterly indistinguishable and thoroughly forgettable. 

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? 

I’m still not great at saying no, in general. I think being a curious person is an important quality for a writer, or any human. However, I have gotten better at saying, “I’m really interested, but maybe give me a month to wrap up this other project I’m working on,” and that’s been a really helpful improvement. Doesn’t always work out though. The other week I went straight from a conference in Melbourne to the launch party for Six Cold Feet season 2 on a Thursday, then the theatre premiere of a dance show I wrote some poetry for the following night. I am now actually dead from exhaustion and it is my ghost writing this.

What marketing tactics should authors avoid?

Branding should apply to two things; products and cattle, but apparently people can now have ‘personal brands’ and corporations can have the same legal rights as a person. You’re a writer, you’re telling stories, not making bespoke booties for chihuahuas. Make art, not book-shaped pre-landfill.

What new realizations and/or approaches have helped you achieve your goals? 

I try and have at least two projects going at any one time, I work intensively on one and then when I start to get bored and/or overwhelmed, I flick straight to the other. The grass always looks greener on the other side, and this way I’m jumping from one patch of very green grass to another. Instead of moving between writing and procrastination, I move between two types of writing.

When you feel overwhelmed or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? 

There’s a little reservoir up in the mountains about fifteen minutes drive from my house. I like to go out there and stare at the water until one of our famously bloodthirsty Australian birds attempts to swoop me and peck out my eyeballs. The transition from serenity to extreme adrenaline is very stimulating.

Any other tips?

Be part of your community. Writing can be a very hermetic practice, which is fine at times, but it’s important to go to people’s readings, buy their books, write reviews, share recommendations, and just be nice to people. I know that it sounds obvious to remind people just be generally friendly and kind to each other, but you’d be surprised how many writers can’t manage this basic benchmark of human interaction and end up burning bridges before they’ve even been built.

________

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source https://www.thecommunitywriter.com/blog/josh-donellan

[oliverphisher]

Josh Donellan

J.M. DONELLAN is a writer, musician, poet, and teacher. He was almost devoured by a tiger in the jungles of Malaysia, nearly died of a lung collapse in the Nepalese Himalayas and fended off a pack of rabid dogs with a guitar in the mountains of India.

His debut novel A Beginner’s Guide to Dying in India was released in 2009. Josh was a state finalist in the 2012 and 2014 Australian Poetry Slams and a national finalist in 2015. His play, We Are All Ghosts, was performed as part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival in 2014. He also co-wrote the Theory of Everything, which completely sold out its entire season at the 2015 Brisbane Festival. Josh has spoken and performed at numerous festivals around Australia including Sydney Writers’ Festival, TEDxBrisbane (twice), the Wonderland Festival, and various not-entirely-legal warehouse parties in an array of secret locales.

His children’s fantasy novel Zeb and the Great Ruckus was described by one child as ‘the best book ever, but it should have had Dr. Who in it.’ His most recent novel, Killing Adonis has received rave reviews from numerous magazines and newspapers, both here and in the USA, including a Kirkus starred review. His poetry collection Stendhal Syndrome was released in 2016 and will soon be followed by his forthcoming collection of poems for kids entitled 19 ½ Secret Spells Disguised As Poems, which is definitely not a book of spells (unless you are a kid reading this in which case it is definitely a book of spells). In 2018 he collaborated with choreographer Liesel Zink to create the spoken word/dance performance Inter. Josh also writes and directs the podcast fiction series Six Cold Feet. He’s done a bunch of other stuff as well but honestly this bio is long enough already and no one likes a braggart.

What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? 

1.    I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy as kid and I have a distinct memory of thinking ‘Well, that’s it for me. I want to be a writer. Why the hell would you do anything else?’

2.    I read Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart at university and I loved the way it completely obliterated my previous notions of how a story should work and reinforced the very important idea that a book really can be whatever the hell you want it to be.

3.    More recently, I read Jennifer Egan’s ‘Look At Me’ and it felt like stepping into another world. I think about that novel at least once a week. It exists on a whole other plain of reality for me.

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?      

I bought one of those armbands to put your phone in while exercising and recently got back into running for the first time in years. I forgot how happy it makes me, for someone who sits on their butt staring at the screen a good chunk of the day exercise is hugely important, not just for the body but for creativity and mental health. I think of depression as a physical nemesis I have to fight to keep at bay, and running feels like wielding a magical sword at the great black dog. 

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? 

I think the first time you really crash on stage is such an important learning experience. Once you’ve lived through that you know what it looks like and you realise that while it’s not fun, it’s also nowhere near as bad as your anxiety was promising it would be. Even better if you have a truly catastrophic public appearance early on, because then all subsequent failures aren’t as bad in comparison.

Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?

A long time ago my friend and I went to see a local play where the audience was forcibly pulled on stage and made to feel really uncomfortable. I love immersive theatre, but this was a very unpleasant and unwelcome experience. Afterwards she said to me ‘I don’t think that director loves his audience. You have to love your audience.’ I think about that every time I sit down to write. Bear in mind, love doesn’t always mean doing the easiest or most immediately satisfying thing, it means ultimately doing what you believe is best for someone, even if it’s difficult in the short term.

What is one of the best investment in a writing resource you’ve ever made? 

Scrivener. I am weirdly evangelical about that program. I swear I’m not getting paid endorsement money or anything, even if I do occasionally grab a megaphone and run around writers’ festivals yelling “Oi! Are you lot using Scrivener? It’s the BEST!”

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love? 

My favourite animal is the mantis shrimp, the most absurd and beautiful creature to ever walk the earth. It looks like a technicolour hellbeast and it has the most complex eyes of any living organism. It’s weird how much I love that animal.

In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life? 

I used to think that the ultimate form of writing was a novel, and that everything else was just auxiliary formats. These days I’m writing across theatre, podcasts, video games etc. and I’ve really learned to love the nuances and possibilities of each medium. The novel is ideal for exploring a character’s inner world; the podcast is perfect for drawing the listener in with subtle, non-verbal sound cues; theatre has an incredible capacity to tell the same story in a whole new way with each performance. I’ve really enjoyed learning to embrace that.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven aspiring author? What advice should they ignore? 

I think the main thing is to realise that figure out what your process is going to be is a good chunk of the job. So many writers make the mistake of trying to study the process of their idols and replicate it verbatim, but it’s really about finding your own path. Maybe that means going on a vision quest, maybe it means drinking six cups of coffee and listening to Mogwai on repeat, maybe it means writing in your underwear while the sweat cascades down your fingers and hoping it doesn’t fry the battery in your laptop (that one might be Queensland specific, it’s very warm here).

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession often? 

There’s a weird idea in the writing community that if you don’t study creative writing at university you’re not taking it seriously, which is not only a heinously privileged perspective but also one that seems anomalous compared to other art forms. So many directors, actors, musicians, painters etc. are self-taught or learn from a mentor or take private courses and I think for many writers this can work as well. If you want to study creative writing at university, that’s fine and it might be great for you,but I definitely don’t think it’s a necessity. In fact, David Foster Wallace (himself a creative writing teacher) once pointed out that some MFA programs churn out students whose writing is impossibly pristine, complex, and elegant, while also being utterly indistinguishable and thoroughly forgettable. 

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? 

I’m still not great at saying no, in general. I think being a curious person is an important quality for a writer, or any human. However, I have gotten better at saying, “I’m really interested, but maybe give me a month to wrap up this other project I’m working on,” and that’s been a really helpful improvement. Doesn’t always work out though. The other week I went straight from a conference in Melbourne to the launch party for Six Cold Feet season 2 on a Thursday, then the theatre premiere of a dance show I wrote some poetry for the following night. I am now actually dead from exhaustion and it is my ghost writing this.

What marketing tactics should authors avoid?

Branding should apply to two things; products and cattle, but apparently people can now have ‘personal brands’ and corporations can have the same legal rights as a person. You’re a writer, you’re telling stories, not making bespoke booties for chihuahuas. Make art, not book-shaped pre-landfill.

What new realizations and/or approaches have helped you achieve your goals? 

I try and have at least two projects going at any one time, I work intensively on one and then when I start to get bored and/or overwhelmed, I flick straight to the other. The grass always looks greener on the other side, and this way I’m jumping from one patch of very green grass to another. Instead of moving between writing and procrastination, I move between two types of writing.

When you feel overwhelmed or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do? 

There’s a little reservoir up in the mountains about fifteen minutes drive from my house. I like to go out there and stare at the water until one of our famously bloodthirsty Australian birds attempts to swoop me and peck out my eyeballs. The transition from serenity to extreme adrenaline is very stimulating.

Any other tips?

Be part of your community. Writing can be a very hermetic practice, which is fine at times, but it’s important to go to people’s readings, buy their books, write reviews, share recommendations, and just be nice to people. I know that it sounds obvious to remind people just be generally friendly and kind to each other, but you’d be surprised how many writers can’t manage this basic benchmark of human interaction and end up burning bridges before they’ve even been built.

________

Enjoyed this Q&A? Want to discuss in more depth? Join Community Writers. You'll get access to 100+ exclusive writing tips. Q&As with successful authors, an exclusive ebook on building an audience and much more. Sign-up for free as a community writer here

[walkawaytall]

I paid for Scrivener some decade ago I think and I cannot go back to anything else. I didn't buy it for fanfic; I was working on a novel at the time and had heard good things. Then a few years later, I paid for the corresponding app for my phone so I could write when I was out and about like I used to when I was a weird teenager who saved up for a Palm Pilot specifically so I could work on fanfiction while being dragged to gatherings I didn't want to attend. It requires you have cloud storage of some kind to make the application and the phone app talk (I use Dropbox for the storage, but I know Scrivener interfaces with a couple of different storage sites), but in my experience, they update one another pretty seamlessly.

I love it. I love the zillion features it has, the way I can have several layers of folders all in the same project (like, all of my fanfiction is in the same project; I just have a folder for one-shots, a folder for multichapters, and each of those multichapters has their own folder for individual chapters, etc.). I love that you can do a "Copy special..." command and have it copy the story text with the proper HTML tags inserted for AO3. I love that I can search the whole project for a particular word, which comes in handy for those fanfic challenges involving posting a sentence or paragraph or whatever containing a particular word. I love that it's a one-time purchase and not a monthly subscription. I love that, when I had to switch computers, transferring everything over was super simple and didn't require a new purchase. I love that some people who work at the company lurk around the subreddit, ready to answer questions if people have them.

It's not the cheapest software. The license for macOS is like $60 and the license for the iPhone app is like $24 (they make software for Windows machines as well, but I don't think they have non-iPhone phone apps, unfortunately). But that's all I've ever paid (okay, technically I originally paid for Scrivener 2, I think, so I had to pay an upgrade fee for the current Scrivener 3, but I chose to do that. And they offered the new version at a discount for people who had the old version). There's no monthly fee. It's just software the way we used to buy software, it works well, you can use as few or as many of the features as you want and I don't think it takes away from the experience. It's just really good writing software.

Also, they offer a free 30-day trial of the full application for the computer application! You get access to every feature during that trial period! And that's 30 days of use, meaning, to quote their own website, "If you use it every day, it lasts 30 days; if you use it only two days a week, it lasts fifteen weeks."

I know I sound like a shill, but I swear, I really just love Scrivener that much. I am receiving absolutely nothing for recommending this. It's just a thing I've used for close to a third of my life, and I love it.

Fellow fanfic writers what apps and or websites do all of you use to write?

I only yesterday finally became "comfortable" with my set up. It's weirdly difficult to find something that works cross platform, is available offline and doesn't steal your work or use it for AI training like google docs. (Tbh i just hate google in general)

I am currently using Zoho writer and Reedsy (REEDSY PLEASE MAKE MOBILE APP PLEASE) I started off with only Reedsy but wanted to type on my phone sometimes so I got Zoho and as far as I know Reedsy also doesn't have an offline mode .

Also does anyone use Novlr? How's your experience with it?