Alex Laybourne's Blog, page 99

Writing Software… What Is It, What Does It Do and Do I Need It?

I am not the most up to date of people when it comes to technology and advancements in products. Even if it is a product I already own, updates and improvements are not often installed or read about because… well, I'm not really sure why. I just never seem to do it. I don't need to have the latest version of something. If the one I have does the job then I'm happy with it.

Until now…..

I was just going through my emails the other day, reading the ROW80 blog updates that came by, and I stumbled upon a simple comment in the terrifically  talented Kait Nolan's post that just seemed to spark my curiosity. 

What is a Write Way Pro file?

At first me and my quasi Luddite mind thought it was just a trendy name that writers give their files, but a quick Google search proved me wrong.

Write Way Pro appears to be a software that basically helps a writer write novels. At this point I would like to refer you back to the link as I am not going to go through and review everything about this product as I don't own it and haven't every actually seen it beyond above link.

Looks good doesn't it… I thought so too.

Sometimes I have been known to be curious by nature, and today was no exception. A quick Google on a wider search topic revealed that there is an entire array of novel writing software out there. This got me thinking. What is it. Why do writers need software to help them write novels.

Surely making notes on pieces of paper and plotting things out in one pad of paper and then writing on another  (or on the PC) is enough right? OK, I realize that there is more to writing than just plotting on one piece of paper and writing on the other, but you get my drift.

Apparently not, and even I have been convinced that maybe I am missing out on something by not using a program to help keep me organized.

Until now I have done the majority of my planning in my head, and used notebooks and pieces of paper to jot down plans and primitive story arcs, but the more I learn about the craft, the more complex it becomes. That's a good thing. I like this fact. However, it is reaching the point where my innate ability to be untidy and disorganized in spite of my (very) good intentions in the opposite are going to hinder both my progress in terms of my work in progress and also with regards my own personal development and growth as a writer.

In effect, in the space of less than 24 hours I have gone from knowing nothing about writing software to knowing that it exists. It's true purpose and the extent of its usefulness remains a mystery, but the potential is clear.

One other thing that has come apparent is that (editing packages aside) there are two main types of software.

Information Management software :

Who are my characters
How are they linked
What traits and individual character has
What is their individual story arc and development
and the list goes on.

In this category I have narrowed it down to three pieces of software that all get good reviews (from what I have read) and appear easy enough for me to use. Write Way Pro ($49), yWriter5 (FREE) and WriteitNow4 ($59.95)

The second

Story Development Software:

Plotting the story
Splitting the story into the relevant events / chapters / acts
Plots
Subplots
Weaving all of the above together
and the list goes on.

From what I have seen the best software for this (and within my price range) is StoryWeaver ($29.95)

Great, so now I need two pieces of software to help me write. Right?

I guess I don't need them, and if I did, I certainly don't NEED both of them, but damn it if they don't look appealing.

 

Do you use any software packages to help you with your novel writing / plotting and planning? If so I would love to hear your recommendations.

 

 

 

ROW80: Quick Check In

I will keep my update short and sweet this week. Not because I forgot it, and am now writing this at 05.20 Thursday morning, but because I don't actually have that much to report.

I have continued my good pace from last week, and have managed to post some good numbers for the most part.

Sunday: 1113

Monday: 1522

Tuesday: 455 (I worked from home and so didn't get up at 5 and had to go to bed on time for work too)

Wednesday:1228

Once again I am more than happy with the numbers I am hitting, it is setting me well and truly ahead of my goal. I do have two weeks vacation coming up so my figures might drop. Yes it's crazy but I write less on the days I don't work. I don't get up at 5am, and with the kids running around I don't get the chance to write during the day. I write at night but would say I have about half the time. During those weeks I will ensure I write my 750 but doubt I will get much more. Unless I get on a roll and everything just flows.

That's about it really, on the sales front nothing has changed, and so Highway to Hell is still just happy being there.

My goal is still to finish the novel before the end of the round, and at this rate I will manage it, but I have now coming to a slower section of the novel. Not in pacing but in how quickly it flows through my mind. That being said I don't see it holding me back too much or for too long. I have a good basic outline, and if I stick to that everything will be fine.

There's More To It Than That

Being a writer is a multi-layered occupation. You are a writer, that kind of goes without saying, but you are also a salesman and let's face it a Business Owner.

These are clearly two different avenues of employment, and so it is important to master each of them if you are to succeed.

For some people sales comes easy. I have a cousin to could sell an ice machine to an Eskimo. Me on the other hand, I'd struggle to sell a movie idea to Uwe Boll.

What it comes down to is a matter of confidence.  Writing I have no problem with. Sure I have periods where I write nothing and then when I finally do I delete it all because it just wasn't right, but that isn't confidence that is just the craft at work.

I can happily sit down and write for hours without thinking or questioning myself. I'm not saying my writing is perfect, far from it, but I have the confidence in myself to make it good… great even.

My trouble is purely lodged in the marketing and business sections of the industry.

I have tax numbers to sort out, and forms to fill in and send away so that I don't pay tax in the US and then again in the Netherlands, and I am sure many other business like avenues that need to be sorted out. But then again, is that really necessary before I have sold enough books for it to become an issue? Not to mention the fact that I have to pay for the majority of these forms and I just can't do that. I have no savings account and at the end of each month we are counting the pennies for the essentials.

So what do I do? I write. I don't think about the business side of things. I am lost in the terminology, the forms I need the people who need to be notified. Not mentioning that my contract for my day job clearly says I will not undertake any other form of paid work while under contract for the company.

The other avenue I struggle with is the promotion of the book.  Sure I Poke, Like and Tweet my way around the social media scene, and I am very careful not to spam with link after link of shameless self promotion, but at the end of the day I never know if I am doing it right.

There is much more to writing a book than just putting words on a page, and at times I wonder. Was Indie the right route for me to take? I think, deep down that it was. I just need to have more faith in myself. Not my writing but in my ability to sell what I create. After all, even traditionally published writers have to promote their own work, especially given the current economic situation. I am a big believer that a large part of everything in life is being in the right place at the right time. Call it luck, call it fate, dress it up and call it Nancy if you want, it all boils down to the same key thing. You need to be out there. Whether it's sending work around agents and publishers, or forging your own path. Nobody will notice you if you never show your work.

I am proud of my novel, and will not allow my own fear of success to get in my way. Maybe I do need some guidance on the business side of things, maybe I am too naive or trusting, but that's just who I am. I will cross those bridges when I come to it, for if I get to the stage where I am selling enough books for it to matter where I pay my tax, I'll look to get someone helping me who knows the ropes and knows what they are doing. Until then I'm just me. I'm writing, I'm tweeting and I'm thrilled with every single sale I make.

 

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ROW80: Full Speed Ahead and Sod the Icebergs

This round is already shaping up to be my best effort yet.

I set myself the target of 750 words a day. This will have my second novel finished (the first draft) but Christmas. Thanks to some very impressive totals this week I am well and truly on target to meet this.

Monday: 1700

Tuesday: 750

Wednesday: 750

Thursday: 2017

Friday: 1936

Saturday: 537

Week Total: 7690

Granted, even I realize that the chance of me keeping that pace up over 11 + weeks is slim, but it has put me in a very good position, and I will be doing everything in my power to keep the weekly total high.

Of course not all of them will mak the final cut, and if I do not like the way a passage is going I will delete it and start again, so I am not writing words for the sake of hitting the target – As demonstrated by my 10,000 word deletion a few weeks ago.

On a side note, I was shocked last night when writing as all of a sudden, one of my characters died. Even I didn't see that one coming. I'm still not even sure how she died, all I know is that she lost a large portion of her head along the way.

With regards Highway to Hell, the paperback has been reviewed and approved, so any day now all 338 pages will be available from Amazon and via my createspace shop. I am so happy with how the final book looks. The price is $12.99 which is a little high but nothing too exterem in my opinion. Plus, from speaking to other writer friends the sales of paperbacks only makes up a very small percentage of the overall sales figures at the end of the month.

How are you doing so far this round?

 

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Do Not Fear Change But Embrace It

A lot of people, myself included have a strange phobia with regards change. Some have it worse than others, I can happily change my dinner plans of an evening should things pan out differently than I had expected, but the prospect of changing jobs – and my own current job it one I do not enjoy at all – terrifies me. If I have to change my drive into work for road works or diversions I feel ill at ease for the whole day, and don't get me started about having to part in a different parking space than normal…. I'm not crazy really… swiftly moving back to the topic at hand.

Until recently my own personal pride and joy had been my DVD collection. Not because it was great, far from it, the majority of the films were watched once and haven't been seen since. But the total, 1700 was what I loved. It was something about me that was different, and for a while it was an obsession of mine. Buying movies. Not necessarily watching them, although that phase came too in the form of a 4am alarm so I could watch one maybe two movies before work.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, and in a way many of those movies sparked conversations with an (ex)colleague who was an even bigger movie lover than me led to a number of story and novel ideas. Yet as the children came, so diminished the DVD time, and this coupled with my sudden move towards series. I blame the writer in me for this, the character development in a series is much more reflective of a novel arc than all but the very best of movies (of which there are few and far between).

However, sometimes, things must change, and this week (in me and my wife's never-ending quest to find the right interior layout for out flat – that is a post for another day) it is the turn of the DVD's. They are taking up too much space and are used so rarely that we have decided to sell them. We have already found a buyer and have agreed a price that is startlingly low, but these are harsh times we live in, and we really need the money could use the money for more important things.

This was a big step for me. There have been several times in the last 18 months where we have talked about selling them, but I always found an excuse not to do it. Not this time. I have taken out the movies that I love. Those that I can watch over and over again without it loosing that special appeal, and I'll tell you something that surprised me. I am even prouder of my collection now. It is smaller, but it is filled with movies that mean something to me. Either because they are great films, or because they hold some sentimental memory for me. (Santaclaus: The Movie – 1984)

In spite of my often pessimistic comments (which is the way my sense of humor developed over the years, I just can't help it), I truly believe that we can learn something every day. Whether it is a fact of the world or some inner knowledge about ourselves. Who we are and what we can do. Today I learnt that change is good. It may not always seem it at the time, or after, because with changes comes the need to adapt, one without the other will not work.

So I will end my post with a quote that I love and have often recited to myself at various moments of my life.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

I hope you are having a great weekend, and wonder, what is it you have learnt today?

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Going It Alone Is Not A New Concept

It is easy to believe that writing has always been a process that involved agents and publishers. A golden chain of command in place to protect the sanctity of the written word.

Well guess again.

I was bored at work curious as to the real history behind self-publishing. Who really started this movement? I know it wasn't John Locke or Amanda Hocking. While these two are arguably the biggest success stories in the Indie world, they were not the pioneers of it.

Did you know that people have been self publishing their work since the 1800′s and I am more than confident to say that there are many writers before this date who also decided to forgo publishers and agents.

Many Authors who we now consider to be invaluable literary icons were forced to travel the Indie route, including all of the following:

Remembrance of things Past – Marcel Proust

Ulysses – James Joyce

The Adventures of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter

A Time to Kill – John Grisham

The Wealthy Barber – David Chilton

The Bridges of Madison County- Robert James Waller

What Color is Your Parachute – Richard Nelson Bolles

In Search of Excellence – Tom Peters

The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield

The Elements of Style – William Strunk, Jr. (and his student E. B. White)

The Joy of Cooking – Irma S Rombauer (and Marion Rombauer Becker)

Robert's Rules of Order - Brig. Gen. Henry Martyn Robert

(Thanks to http://www.simonteakettle.com/famousa... for this info)

With a list of such great names all being part of the Indie family, there is no reason for a writer not to stand on their own two feet and meet the literary world head on.  They are a living (in the literary sense) testament that you can succeed by going alone. Who are we to assume that every agent and publisher knows what it is they are reading, or gives our submissions the recognition and thought that they deserve? I mean these people are inundated with submissions and requests from all ranges of literary ability. Sure this means they develop a feel for a writer's abilities from a quick peruse through their work. Yet, this does not make them infallible. There are a great many writers out there who have suffered the heartbreak and humiliation of rejection, and I am talking repeated rejections like the geeky kid in any teen high-school drama.

J K Rowling – I am sure everybody is aware of the struggle she went through to get Harry Potter on the shelves. It is only thanks to the 8-year-old daughter of the Bloomsbury CEO that she got the chance she did.

Jack London - It is believed that Mr. London suffered the indignity of over 600 rejections before his first story was published.

Frank Herber – Dune was rejected over 20 times before someone finally saw the potential in this Science Fiction masterpiece.

event he master himself Mr. Stephen King received a plethora of rejections before Carrie was finally picked up.  According to research I have done, one publisher even offered the following advice to King.

"We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."

If these great names and so many others like them can be rejected, then come one, surely we can take the odd put down on the chin. Read the rejection, file it away and plough onwards, and then maybe in a few years time our names will be the ones certain publishers and agents cannot hear without a shudder of regret.

I will end this post with two more entertaining examples of rejection.

The first being an interesting fact that Joseph Heller's novel Catch 22 was rejected …. (you guessed it) 22 times before finally being accepted. Now there is a symmetry that you don't normally see in life,

The second I think should qualify as the *facepalm* moment of lifetime. When a young Author by the name of John Le Carré submitted his manuscript for The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, one nameless publisher cast it aside with a comment to his competitors of  "You're welcome to le Carré – he hasn't got any future."

ROW80: The First Weigh-In

Well the first weigh-in of the round is upon us and I have to say I am smiling from ear to ear.

The paperback proof of Highway To Hell is on the way and if all is good could still make it for Halloween. I haven't added it as a goal as the artwork was the only issue and all I needed to do was upload it and order the proof.

On the writing front I have been on fire and find myself ahead of schedule by quite some way.

I set myself the usual target of 750 words a day. So far I have hit:

Monday: 1800

Tuesday: 810 (I was on track for 1000 + but my parents called to talk about their holiday and I lost 45 minutes. Still a good total)

Wednesday (Today): 706 (as of this very moment) so I should hit at least 800-900 for the day which I am more than happy with. As a post posting comment, I hit the 1000 words for the day.

If I can keep this sort of tempo going then I am in good position to finish this second novel before the end of the year. That would be idea, as I can then spend the last few weeks of the year resting and reading, ready to start editing in the new year.

I have received my first three review of Highway to Hell now, and all have been positive, by why believe me, I am bound to be bias right? Feel free to read the reviews for yourself and make up your own mind

Writing Unhooked - A Book Blog run by the wonderful Marina Scott

Anything Horror - A horror site run by Scott Shoyer one of the biggest horror enthusiasts that I have met.

The third review was left on my Amazon page.

I feel that for a first time novel these reviews are nothing but positive and have given me the comfort in my own ability that I sometimes lack. Now, if you excuse me it is time to dive right back into Hell and see if I can bring all of my characters through this damned cave without them being skinned or eaten.

Highway to Hell COMING SOON in Paperback

I am so happy and excited this morning. I have just ordered my proof copy of the Highway to Hell paperback.

I am smiling from ear to ear and bouncing around with anticipation. It should be with me by Friday. (It did cost me $28 in shipping but that is the subject of a later post) This is perfect because it means that the book should – providing the proof has not issues – be available for purchase in time for Halloween.

So watch this space for the big announcement within the coming weeks. I have set the paperback price at $12.99 because that was pretty much the cheapest I could go with a 338 page book and make it worthwhile for all parties involved.

ROW80: Round Four – Seconds Out

Well, as the season changes so begins a new Round of Words.

At the start of this round I find myself asking two questions, the answer to both of which will have a profound affect on the coming weeks and the goals that I will set myself.

I do not want to set myself too many goals, and so have narrowed it down to two options.

I set myself a target of 750 words a day, this over the course of 80 days means 60,000 words. If I add that to the 41,000 I already have on my current novel Highway To Hell – Trials and Tribulations, then that will either put my very close to the end of possibly even at the end in time for a quick Christmas break ready to start editing in the New Year.

 

I set myself the same target of 750 words, but take a detour along the way to take part in NaNoWriMo.  This has two impacts. One my word count will need to seriously increase. Now this would not be a problem as I like to be conservative with my goals as there are many things that can intrude. However, to do NaNoWriMo will mean moving onto a different project entirely. I have more than enough ideas to give me something to write. Something different too. The question is, do I want to stop mid novel and mid flow?

Luckily I have the next month to make my mind up with a view towards the NaNoWriMo participation and so I will set my current goals as being 750 words a day and come November I will have a better idea of how I will spend that month.

I will leave the post here, as I will keep to the Wednesday and Saturday (Sunday) posting schedule for this round also.

 

Water Babies

Well today was the hottest 1st October in Dutch history (according to the teletext reports). I checked out the temperature at 16:00 and it had reached 31 Celsius. We didn't get temperatures that hot ONCE in the Summer.

It supports my theory that the world actually stopped spinning and now is running the other way. So we get spring and Summer in what used to be our Autumn and Winter. I really can't think of a more logical explanation. Anyway, I digress.

Because of the unseasonably hot weather, and a limited number of option in my town (Katwijk) – There is a nice beach but the kids are a bit young, as they don't realize the dangers and just scatter in all directions – we decided to go to the swimming pool.

I love swimming but my wife not so much. The last time we went we only had two children and out eldest hated it. He spent the whole time standing in the baby pool, in ankle-deep water with an expression on his face that read pure terror. (He did adjust but it wasn't his thing, and he never left the baby pool.

Nevertheless we packed up and off we went.

Three kids shared between two adults was a daunting prospect but it is a situation you get used to.

We went straight into the baby area, thinking this would be the area we spent most of the time in, but half way there my youngest son (who is only 2) stopped and charged into the large pool you see in the image.

Within 10 minutes he was standing on the edge at the 1.9 meter mark jumping in with a smile on his face that wold have made the Cheshire Cat jealous. It was great to see and really, after seeing that face, and how happy he was, nothing could have ruined the day.

Remarkably, when we got out and went to visit my wife and the other two kids by the baby pool, my eldest asked to go in the real pool. I took him, expecting to be out again in a short time, but to my absolute surprise he loved it. He was jumping around and having a great time. There was in fact, no more getting him out of the water. Ok, he never quite built up the courage to jump in, but he wasn't scared by the arm bands this time, and actually enjoyed himself.

This is just the latest in a long line of changes, or should I say adaptations in my son. He used to be afraid of everything, even getting out of the car was scary for him because it was too high. Now he is climbing and jumping from things, and generally enjoying being a kid. He even asked to start playing football again, but that is another story entirely.

Not only was it great to have a nice family day out without any fighting or crying, and the kids behaved themselves too (see what I did there ) – I jest – but we also learnt that all three kids love the water, and that is great news. The swimming pool is the one single place that is open on a Sunday in my town, and even that happened only last year and with a lot of protest. But it means that we now have to least one more option to keep us busy on a Sunday besides a walk through the park, which has become our first (and hopefully not last) family tradition.

What really inspired me to write this post is the speed and the certainty with which kids can change. They adapt, they overcome and seemingly forget there every being a time when they were afraid of the water. (Shame it works the opposite for vegetables, they never remember the one time they ate it and found it tasty)

It got me wondering, about adults. What if we could change that quickly, and with such certainty. Gone would be all the to-ing and fro-ing. Ok, I know that as adults we have a much clearer idea of the consequences of our actions and are accountable for them, but the principle of changing ourselves in small measures, on a personal level.

Take writing as an example. When it comes to writing I am totally neurotic, I write and I get afraid that if I don't write with every spare second I have I will fail, because success means total dedication. I can never like my work, I always think it awful, and if left to my own devices would never publish anything and would spend the rest of my life editing the same piece of work. Now I overcame this to an extent when I published my novel, but I have never felt as ill at ease as I have since it came out. I dread reviews coming in because I cannot convince myself it is any good. I think it could even boil down to a complete fear of success. Again my physiological profile is subject to another post I am sure.

Why can I not just change my way of thinking, and just forget I was ever fearful or uncomfortable by the concept of others reading my work? Maybe it is time I just ran up to the deep end and jumped in. Smile on my face and the world and other people's views be damned?