Tag Archives: Writing

Tools for Writers

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Posted by Craig on September 1, 2010 – 6:10 pm
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Yesterday a most tragic event happened.

I lost all my writing.

Well, I lost what I had done that day, 1,942 words. And I have no idea how it happened. I keep backups, and incremental versions of each file I use. So when I begin my writing for the day, I make a copy and rename it. IE: Noah Vale v1.08.odt would become Noah Vale v1.09.odt. Then I go about my writing for the day. I use both my PC and my Laptop, so I regularly copy the files between them, and haven’t had a problem until now.

Somehow, my V1.09 disappeared completely. The only possibly explanation I can think of thus:

  1. I copied the latest files to my laptop
  2. I updated the version numbers
  3. I did my writing
  4. I forgot that I did my writing.
  5. I copied the files to my laptop again.
  6. I remembered that I did my writing, but couldn’t find it.
  7. I paniced.

Of course, this makes no sense, as I’m very careful about my writing. But this mishap made me thing more closely about the software tools I use when I write.

For the actual writing, I use a combination of OpenOffice.Org and Q10. Q10 is a nifty little program that removes all distractions when you write. All you get is a black screen, and text. Nothing else. It even replicates the sound of a typewriter, which strangely enough, helps immensly. I heartily recommend it if you have trouble being distracted by the internet. Q10 is my program of choice when writing the first draft, because I can just pump the text out with no thought of anything else but the story.

When I’m doing the second draft, I want more formatting abilities, so I use OpenOffice.org. I used to use MS Word, but I truly hated the latest version, when they introduced the horrid ‘ribbon’. Open Office Writer is what Word used to be, a simple easy to use word processor.

My programmer friends would have be use LaTeX. It’s a document markup language, and if you don’t know what that is, think HTML for writing books. And I tried it, I honestly did, but what they don’t understand is there’s a difference between programmers and writers. I don’t care what is working behind the scenes when I write my book, I just need it to be as easy as possible so I don’t need to stop and think about how to do things. LaTeX is good if you have a scientific mind, or if you care about how the software treats your files ‘behind the scenes’. But if you just want to write easily, then forget about it.

Another piece of software my programmer friend tried to get me to use was GIT. It’s a version control system, meaning it handles revisions of documents, keeping every version of the file as you make each change – which basically means it would automate what I was doing manually. On the surface, this sounded great, but when I tried to use it I found it was immensely complicated, and not designed for writers at all. It’s programmers software. I want something easy and simple, because I should be concentrating on writing my book, not trying to remember how to commit the changes I made.

As long as I’m talking about tools for writers, I want to mention one more that is extremely useful for planning out your story.

yWriter is a great program for planning a novel. It helps you break up your novel into chapters and scenes, plan out the timeline, flesh out the characters… it does pretty much everything. I used to use this a lot. Now, I just write everything out in office documents, but if planning a novel is confusing to you, check out yWriter. It’s great.

A self-doubty kind of feeling

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Posted by Craig on August 24, 2010 – 7:30 pm
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Today, while searching for something that doesn’t really matter, I came across some old writing I did about ten years ago. The first book I actually set out to write was called “Roovantis in Mesunoc” (which,by the way, were just words I made up).

I’d forgotten all about this. It was an extremely lame story about a guy who was kidnapped from Earth, taken to a fantasy world and given an epic quest. But it got me to thinking, so I went back and re-read a lot of other things I’ve written as well.

And it led me to one conclusion. I was a really awful writer when I first started. The text was full of cliche’s and one-dimensional characters. The plot meandered all over the place, with no clear direction or focus. It was abismal.

And now, the trouble is, reading that has left me with a depressing, self-doubty kind of feeling. When I wrote that stuff ten years ago, I thought I was good. I had no idea how bad it was.

What if that’s still the case? What if I’m wasting my time writing, when I should be doing something completely different? What if I’m like those horrible people on Australian Idol who think they’re amazing singers, but end up being incredibly bad? They had no idea.

I know some people would say, write for yourself. Therefore it doesn’t matter if you’re good or not, but I disagree. I write so that other people can read it and be entertained. I’m already a writer, but my goal is to be a GOOD writer.

Am I wasting my time?

To be honest, I was perfectly happy until I read these old writings a few hours ago. Maybe its just a bad mood. Maybe it’ll blow over, and I can go back to being blissfully ignorant.

I really wish I had something published. That’s like professional validation that you have reached the next level of writing skill. If writing were an RPG, then I feel like I’ve been grinding for years and have never levelled up.

I hope tomorrow brings happy thoughts.

What I’m Writing

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Posted by Craig on June 29, 2010 – 7:38 pm
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As of recently I was writing Milaan of the Mind, which is the sequel to The Spiral Dilemma. ‘Dilemma’ is the completed fantasy novel that I am currently sending to publishers and agents (which is a whole other post).

The trouble is, ‘Milaan’ just refuses to come together. I like to have everything planned out before I start writing. Its like going on a holiday, I need to know where I’m going and how I’m going to get there before I begin to pack. But I just can’t get the ending worked out! I know everything that will happen in Milaan, up to the ending, and that’s where I stall. It’s like there’s some mental wall in my head stopping me from thinking anything related to a great ending to this book.

So to give myself a break, I’m putting ‘Milaan’ aside and writing something completely different. If and when ‘Dilemma’ is published, I will pick up Milaan again and write the second book. But the way I see it, it could be a while before anyone publishes it, so I can take my time and write some other things.

So the new ‘What I’m Writing’ is Noah Vale. Noah Vale is a story about a troubled man who hears voices. While out on a picnic with his sister’s family, his niece goes missing. It is set in Sydney, Australia, with supernatural elements (everything I write has supernatural elements :D ). The way I see it, I could write a whole series of books about Noah Vale, but unlike fantasy novels, there doesn’t need to be any over-aching storyline. I can just take one story at a time. I’m not sure how long this first story will be, but I’m trying not to worry about it. Quality not quantity, as they say.

The Half Draft

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Posted by Craig on May 29, 2010 – 7:39 pm
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I’ve been writing the sequel to The Spiral Dilemma for a few weeks now, and finding the first draft pretty hard to write. I think its because I’ve been revising The Spiral Dilemma for so long, I’m still in that mode of changing what’s there, rather than writing completely new stuff. I know that once I have something finished, no matter how good or bad it is, I can work on it, and mould it into something good.

So instead of working on the first draft, I’ve decided that what I’ve been actually doing is writing the ‘half-draft’. At the moment I have a list of the scenes, and details (in point form) of what happens. So I’m basically taking those points and writing a sentence or two, in some cases a few paragraphs, about what happens. Then once I get a sort of simple narrative of what happens, I can work on it to produce a proper first draft.

I think at the moment I’m placing too much importance on the words I put down. The quality of my writing, at this point, doesn’t matter, because I will be revising it two or three times anyway. For me, its easier to change what’s there rather than write new material.

Hence, I’m writing my half-draft. It’ll flow more quickly since its only a half-draft, because I won’t worry about it so much. Also btw, I’m just past chapter 3, and planning on 20 chapters. I’m doing just about a chapter a week, but hoping to increase that a bit as time goes on.

But first, I’ve got to in the ‘write-new-material’ mode.

Getting back into the swing of things.

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Posted by Craig on May 2, 2010 – 2:03 pm
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I haven’t blogged in a while, but to be honest, I don’t think anyone noticed. I don’t get that many visitors :p

Anyway the reasons for not blogging are long and boring, so I won’t bore anyone with that. Let’s just say that things are getting back to normal, so I’m getting back into the swing of things.

I just printed out my book, getting ready to send it in to a literary agent. Well, I have a cover letter, 2 page synopsis, and chapters 1, 2 and 5. The synopsis was hard to write, as it is a very plot-heavy book and so many things are integral to the main storyline. Hopefully I have captured the heart of the book in these two pages.

Finally sending my book out is a little scary. On one hand, I’m preparing myself for the inevitable rejection. It always happens, writers have to send their book out to lots of places before finally getting accepted. But the trouble is, there aren’t that many places in Australia that will accept:

  1. A manuscript from an unpublished author
  2. A manuscript from an unrepresented author
  3. A science fiction/ fantasy manuscript

At the moment I only found two places that I could possibly send to. What next? Can I send to international publishers/ agents? I’m not sure how that works. I guess I’ll have to investigate.

Due to my previously mentioned boring personal stuff, I haven’t really been writing later, so I’ve got to get back into that. I have most of the second book mapped out, but there are still a few small details to work out before I set off to write the first draft. I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be a good book.

Meanwhile the thing I have been doing is Papercrafting. It’s addictive, and become a hobby I do every day. I have always seen random posts on different places about cool paper models people have made, but never got around to exploring it until now. It’s great to have something to do while watching shows, or grinding skills in Haven and Hearth. Plus, they look great when finished. It’s like making your own action figures. Currently I’m working on Zora Armour Link, and Mario’s Head. I’ll post more about them when I’m closer to finishing. I was also planning to do Young Link from Ocarina of Time, but I stuffed up when I was attaching the hat to his face, so I’ll have to redo that one.

Anyway, my blog should be much more active from now on. I hope it’s interesting to you all :)

To publish or not? That is the question!

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Posted by Craig on April 13, 2010 – 8:39 pm
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I’m at the point where I don’t think there’s anything else I can do with The Spiral Dilemma. It’s completed, and it’s a great book even if I do say so myself. I love it.

So now I’m at the point where I need to start looking for publishers/ agents. The trouble is, in Australia there are very few of them that will accept fantasy from a new author. Not only that, but I’ve been reading about everything that else that happens even after you get a publisher, and its really depressing me.

The reason why I write is that it’s fun. But part of the writing process is having people read it. Now I realise that technically I don’t need to be published to have people read my book, but sure would help.

The other thing I’ve been worried about relates to the fact that currently I’ve been taking care of my Dad. Now at the moment that’s fine, it gives me a lot of free time to write and I get Carer’s Allowance. But one day the time will come when Dad is no longer around (hopefully a LONG time from now), and at when that time comes I will need a way to make money. If I have some books published by them, I may not need to find a regular job. That’s the plan anyway.

I really don’t think I’m cut out to work in an office. It was fine at first but gradually it was sending me quite insane. If I have to go back to work in an office again, I don’t know if I’d cope. Plus working full time cuts into my writing time dramatically.

So I should get published! The trouble with that is I’ve been writing about all the hoops you have to jump through, and that even after you get published, most authors won’t be very successful anyway  and will never make enough money to live off. It almost doesn’t seem worth it.

I just want a lot of people to read my book and enjoy it! That’s not too much to ask is it?

I realise I could just put it up here on my website for free, but then that dramatically cuts down on the number of people that will actually see it, plus I’d make no money so I’d have to eventually get a job at some point.

I know I sound like I really don’t want to work – but it’s not working in itself that I’m dreading, it’s the type of work. The only real skills I have are for boring office work that I absolutely hate, and even then I’m not convinced that I was any good at it to begin with. Writing is what I’m passionate about, but can I make money from it?

I suppose time will tell.

The tangle in my Mind

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Posted by Craig on April 4, 2010 – 2:15 pm
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The Tangle in my MindNow that I have finished my first book (well, almost), I’m taking a well earned break from it, and putting some thought into the plot for the second book. It’s a series books, so the second book follows on from The Spiral Dilemma, and introduces a new character named Milaan.

The problem I am having is that at the moments, all my thoughts about this new book are like the jumble of cables in this picture. I have lots of ideas about different characters and different plots all tangled together in a confusing mess.

My goal now is to extract each idea one at a time and arrange them in a nice neat pile. Then once I have that, I can begin to piece them together, so that I’ll end up with one long, smooth line.

The trouble is, it’s harder than it sounds. I’ve been writing the last book for so long (4-5 years), so it’s been a long time since I actually worked out the plot for a new book. I’m confident that I’ll get it in the end, but when that end will come, I have no idea.

I know everything that needs to happen in this book, I just need to work out when and where, and make sure it paces nice and smoothly. Also there is one character whom currently isn’t doing much of anything at all. I really need to think of something for him to do, or think of a reason to get rid of him all together. It’s no good having him tag along just watching and not participating in events.

Stephen Donaldson once said “writers don’t get ideas; ideas get writers”

Well Ideas, come and get me!

The Spiral Dilemma: Second Draft Complete!

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Posted by Craig on April 2, 2010 – 11:23 am
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First of all, I haven’t blogged in a while because I had a bad stomach bug. I had no energy for anything except sitting around and doing nothing.

Since then I’ve been catching up with my writing, and I finished the second draft of my novel! This is the fourth book I’ve finished, and I’m aiming for this one to be the one I get published. I’m very proud of it, and its the best thing I’ve written so far. I love it.

So what now? I need to spell-check it a bit, then I’d like to get some constructive criticism. Then I guess I can start sending it around to places. Exciting stuff!

I’m going to start planning the second book pretty soon. I know what needs to happen, but I don’t know how or when exactly. I need to plan out the plot so I know where I’m going before I begin writing the first draft.

I also would still like to write more of Diary of a Survivor, but because I’ve been sick I haven’t done anything about it yet. It’s good to have something I can write that isn’t Dilemma related. Although I like the book, it’s okay to have a break every now and again.

What are your writing goals?

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Posted by Craig on February 5, 2010 – 12:15 pm
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A few weeks ago I started keeping track of how many words per day I write.

WHEN TOTAL AVERAGE
Week 1 6226 3113
Week 2 7559 1080
Week 3 5656 808
Week 4 7821 1564

I’ve been trying to work out a suitable goal for my writing. I don’t know whether I should make my goal X words per day, or XX words per week. I’m leaning towards a weekly goal, since then I can do more on one day, then take a break another day. I like variety in my schedule, and I don’t want to feel locked doing something every single day, even if I don’t want to.

And the fact is, I feel that if I force myself to write at times when I really don’t want to, then that writing won’t be so good, so there’s no point in doing it. It’s best to be flexible, and write when I feel like writing.

I think, if I make my goal a weekly total of 6000 words, that would be a good starting place. Then, once I achieve that goal regularly, I’ll up it to 7000.

How do you guys write? Do you set daily/weekly goals? Do you meet them?

Use version control!

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Posted by Craig on January 27, 2010 – 1:19 pm
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I lost part of the second draft of my book. :(

It was my own fault really. As you can see from my last blog, I wanted to put up a preview of my book. I opened up the second draft, deleted some of the chapters so it was only the Prologue, First and Second Chapter, then I must have accidentally saved over it. I intended to save it as a different name, which I did. But I didn’t realize I also saved over the top of my proper second draft until I went to do some writing the next day and half of it was missing.

So now I have to re-revise a few chapters of the book. I can vaguely remember what I did before, but it’s not going to end up the same. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or a good thing. Perhaps revising again isn’t so bad, but it’s annoying.

Now I’m using version control. Each day I do some writing, I’m going to make a copy of the file. I’m on v2.3 now, so when I do some writing later, I’ll make a v2.4. I might end up with v.2.34221 but so be it!