Shelby K. Morrison's Blog, page 2

You Are Only Responsible For Yourself

If religion and society told you that you were responsible for the actions and feelings of others, you need to read this.

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Setting Healthy Boundaries After Religion

Women in religion are trained to put themselves last, having very unhealthy boundaries So once we leave, setting them and holding to them is very difficult. Difficult, but not impossible.

The post Setting Healthy Boundaries After Religion appeared first on Shelby K. Morrison.

Being The Black Sheep

Are you the black sheep since leaving organized religion? Having a mind of your own hurts sometimes. Let's rethink it.

The post Being The Black Sheep appeared first on Shelby K. Morrison.

Into the Storm Cover Reveal & ARC Offer

Hooray! I didn’t make you wait over a year for the next book! That’s right, Into the Storm is ready for ARC readers! And to get you all titillated, because you know how I love that (seriously, who doesn’t love being titillated?) I wanted to share the cover with you! I hope you enjoy it! If you’ve read books 1-2 and want the 3rd book for FREE in exchange for an honest review, contact me or comment!

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Among the Flames Release & Giveaway!

Among the Flames is live! And in honor of this awesome day, I'm running a giveaway! But even if you don't win Among the Flames, if you enter and sign up for my  newsletter, you'll automatically win a copy of From the Ashes! What have you got to lose? Tell your friends!

 

Among the Flames & From the Ashes Giveaway

Among the Flames Update

Alright, I’m a little late on this update. But Among the Flames is officially off to ARC readers! Yahoo!! I had this book finished a couple years ago, and took a little break to go to school. But I’m back in full swing.

And with Among the Flames going to ARC readers, that means a publish date has also been decided. Are you ready? April 25, 2017! I wish there hadn’t been such a gap between From the Ashes and Among the Flames and I apologize deeply to any readers I left hanging. But I can make this promise. Not only will Among the Flames be released this year, but Into the Storm will be released this summer, and Through the Mist this Winter. That’s right. The rest of the series will be coming this year!

Lastly, in case you missed it, or like me, just like looking at it. Here is the cover reveal for Among the Flames.

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Into the Storm Progress Update

I just made progress on Into the Storm! So far I’m 55% complete on the First Draft phase. 23 Days remain until the deadline.

Into the StormPhase:First DraftDue:3 weeks55.5%Get Book Updates

Best Writing Software for Authors

I can’t even tell you how long I’ve spent researching the best writing software for fiction authors. It had so many requirements. I wanted a one-stop-shop when it came to my software. What does it need to have?

1. Affordable – Yes we all love free things, and in this day in age, many things are free. But we should also learn that better things cost some money. It’s about finding the thin line between value and getting a rip off.

2. Planning/outlining – I don’t want five different programs to write my novel. I want one program to do it all. So it needs to have tools to plan and outline, take random notes, have character sketches, hold research, organize scenes in a big picture way, and more!

3. Act/Chapter/Scene Breakup – I need to break my writing into scenes (and you should too!) It makes organizing soooo much easier! And it helps navigate and improve your writing easier. This was mandatory!

4. Compile feature – I needed to easily be able to produce a full-length story with all of my scenes. I wanted multiple export options as well.

5. Customization – I wanted to make it work for ME. I want my own labels, my own status updates, my own tracking, my own folder names, my own colors and fonts and everything! I don’t like the same thing.

6. Distraction free writing – This is soooo crucial. I need something to help me. I may end up getting another software that locks me out till I finish or something to keep me from ADHDing and going online. But if you have the strength, this will be enough. Full screen writing, choose your own background and paper color, put on some music, and get into the writing zone.

7. Series writing – This is my latest discovery. I had a separate file for each of my books in my series and planning was becoming annoying and time consuming opening up various documents, checking old projects for details, and keeping everything straight. Then I learned some people were writing all of their books in ONE Scriv project! What the what?? So I did it too.  Now finishing my Legend of the Liberator series is going to be so much easier! So worry not – this is an awesome perk of if you write series.

Alright, there are probably more things I wanted, but those are all I can think of right now. And if you’ve read past posts, you know I’ve tried them all. Ywriter, write way pro, liquid story binder…. (enter other writing software) and I even looked into Novlr (but that price, are you kidding me??)

So what has it all???

Scrivener! If you’ve looked at all into writing software, you’ve seen this. And for good reason.

Get it. Seriously. Stop researching writing software and just get Scrivener. It’s only $40. That’s it. None of this subscription garbage that seems to be trending nowadays. And boy is this baby full of features. You don’t need to use them all or learn it inside and out to begin using it. I’m pretty sure I only know a tiny portion of it. I’m trying to learn more to make it more advantageous to me. There are tons of books on it too! I’m not an affiliate or getting compensated in any way to write this, that is just the link to the Windows version but they have a Mac as well. In fact, Mac was what they started with so it is a bit better so lucky you. I purely want to share my experience with authors like me!

So stop wasting time researching writing software. Just go get it. Join the crowd of real writers. I’m sorry it’s taken me forever to update you on what I use for writing but I’ve been using it for years. Get writing!

Found a different software you like? Share it in the comments? Love Scrivener? Share the love for it and convince other writers!

Best Writing Software for Authors

What's the best writing software for authors?  I can't even tell you how long I've spent researching the best writing software for fiction authors. It had so many requirements. I wanted a one-stop-shop when it came to my software. What does it need to have?

1. Affordable - Yes we all love free things, and in this day in age, many things are free. But we should also learn that better things cost some money. It's about finding the thin line between value and getting a rip off. 

2. Planning/outlining - I don't want five different programs to write my novel. I want one program to do it all. So it needs to have tools to plan and outline, take random notes, have character sketches, hold research, organize scenes in a big picture way, and more!

3. Act/Chapter/Scene Breakup - I need to break my writing into scenes (and you should too!) It makes organizing soooo much easier! And it helps navigate and improve your writing easier. This was mandatory!

4. Compile feature - I needed to easily be able to produce a full-length story with all of my scenes. I wanted multiple export options as well. 

5. Customization - I wanted to make it work for ME. I want my own labels, my own status updates, my own tracking, my own folder names, my own colors and fonts and everything! I don't like the same thing. 

6. Distraction free writing - This is soooo crucial. I need something to help me. I may end up getting another software that locks me out till I finish or something to keep me from ADHDing and going online. But if you have the strength, this will be enough. Full screen writing, choose your own background and paper color, put on some music, and get into the writing zone.

7. Series writing - This is my latest discovery. I had a separate file for each of my books in my series and planning was becoming annoying and time consuming opening up various documents, checking old projects for details, and keeping everything straight. Then I learned some people were writing all of their books in ONE Scriv project! What the what?? So I did it too.  Now finishing my Legend of the Liberator series is going to be so much easier! So worry not - this is an awesome perk of if you write series. 

Alright, there are probably more things I wanted, but those are all I can think of right now. And if you've read past posts, you know I've tried them all. Ywriter, write way pro, liquid story binder.... (enter other writing software) and I even looked into Novlr (but that price, are you kidding me??)

So what has it all???

Scrivener! If you've looked at all into writing software, you've seen this. And for good reason.

Get it. Seriously. Stop researching writing software and just get Scrivener. It's only $40. That's it. None of this subscription garbage that seems to be trending nowadays. And boy is this baby full of features. You don't need to use them all or learn it inside and out to begin using it. I'm pretty sure I only know a tiny portion of it. I'm trying to learn more to make it more advantageous to me. There are tons of books on it too! I'm not an affiliate or getting compensated in any way to write this, that is just the link to the Windows version but they have a Mac as well. In fact, Mac was what they started with so it is a bit better so lucky you. I purely want to share my experience with authors like me!

So stop wasting time researching writing software. Just go get it. Join the crowd of real writers. I'm sorry it's taken me forever to update you on what I use for writing but I've been using it for years. Get writing!

Found a different software you like? Share it in the comments? Love Scrivener? Share the love for it and convince other writers!

Legend of the Liberator UPDATE

If you've been following me on Facebook, you likely already know my latest decision. I was still putting off searching for an agent, mostly because of the dreaded query, summary, and all the other things a writer must put together for an agent. The other half because I just wanted to write. After some thought and recalculating, I've decided to step back into the self-publishing game. 

The crowds just went wild right? Alright...maybe not. 

Still! It is true. I'm going to try to use what I've learned and do things differently this time around. The number one thing I'm changing is speed. Therefore, since Among the Flames is ready for publication save for a cover, I plan to put out the entire Legend of the Liberator series this year! Which means finishing Into the Storm by July and Through the Mist by October.

Now will the crowds go wild? Hey. Where are my crowds? (Oh yeah...I went off the map for a while.) 

So I hope to keep you updated and share cover reveals, release dates, and more here soon! If you watch my progress bar on the right, I've updated them recently. Into the Storm, book #3 of the series, is 27% written in the first draft! Dance party!

Well I've got to get back to writing. But I wanted to share the good news. Are you excited? I'm excited. 

Let's do this.