The best software for writing your novel

February 1, 2011 By 2 Comments

Life used to be so simple for authors. A quill, some ink and parchment and you had everything to be the Shakespeare of your day. Only a matter of years ago a sturdy Remmington Typewriter and a ream of 80gsm would be sufficient to create a best selling paperback. But now, in the world of computers and apps there is simply too much choice.

Specialised software

If you want to write the next ‘Girl who did something a little bit strange’ series, you could use software specifically created for you. And, quite helpfully, the software divides itself neatly into Mac and Windows flavours. Almost.

Prior to this year if you had a Mac then de facto software was Scrivener.  This wonderful piece of software allowed you to plan your novel with a virtual reconstruction of a corkboard. It’s basically an index card system that allows you to research, collate and then add to text to your notes.

If you were of the Windows or Linux persuasion, then you could get a similar, if less pretty (but hey, isn’t that all that Mac software is?) piece of software called yWriter. I have used yWriter for years. The software was created by an author, so if you like the way he creates his novels, then you’ll like the yWriter.

Normally that would be a done deal, however, Scrivener is about to launch for Windows. I used the demo version to win NaNoWriMo 2010, so I have experience of both pieces of software. There isn’t much to choose between them. Scrivener does allow you to export to ePub format, but then MobiPocket creator is probably the better option to create eBooks.

Personally, I prefer yWriter, but that was the first piece of software I used. I’ll let you decide, because they are both great. And if you want to try Scrivener for Windows then follow this link.

Focus on writing

Another issue for writers is the need to shut out distraction and get on with the actual writing. One of the problems of computers is that they multitask. Unfortunately, whatever you have heard, we don’t!

Well help is at hand for you too. FocusWriter (available Win/Mac/Lin) is a sufficiently powerful word processor that’s main aim is to shut out distractions. I love the way this is light, portable and very simple to use. My only issues are that it doesn’t offer background music (or I haven’t found it yet) and that functionality is pretty much available elsewhere.

Word Processors

Any word processor worth its salt has a full screen option. If it has this then you have a distraction free environment. If it has an outline option then you also have a story planning piece of software.

What I am saying is that if you have a decent word processor do you really need any of the above? If you don’t then take your pick from those listed. They all work and are great at what they do. But, don’t overlook what you already have! Both Google and Microsoft offer very good online, cloud storage option for writing and saving your novel. My NaNoWriMo effort for 2010 was a collaboration between Scrivener and Google Docs.

The way forward

Start. It is easy to put off writing by taking too much time wondering what piece of software you should use. The software is out there. You novel is in there. It is time to mash up the two of them. I’ve given you a list above, it’s up to you to create. And if I’ve missed anything, please let me know in the comments. Over to you.

‘. a long time ago in a galaxy not far away.’

Filed Under: preparation, writing Tagged With: ,

The top ten ways to deal with a blank page

January 8, 2011 By 3 Comments
The black hole blank page

The Blank Page

You know the situation. It is there staring at you, teasing you with complete nothingness. Laughing at your impotent attempts to make a start. The blank page. Scourge of creative people everywhere. Okay this blank page may not just be a piece of paper. It could be a metaphor for paper, canvas, sound recorder… you name it. The thing is it is blank, you don’t really know what to do and it is there staring at you.

Being the loving person I am I don’t want this to happen to you. So here are the top ten ways to deal with a blank page that is refusing to accept any form of creativity from you.

  • Walk away – you really don’t need this sort of pressure right now. And you certainly don’t have to put up with the mocking blank page in front of you. So walk away. No seriously, walk away. The more you look at the page the more you’ll do nothing. So walk away and do something else. The page will be there when you come back and then you will be ready to deal with it.
  • Take a tiny step – often a project can seem too big for us. We see the beautiful end product and just can’t see how we get from the blank sheet to the point of completion. So think, what is the one thing I could do now to begin the journey? However small that step is, take it.
  • Fall asleep… almost – that twilight moment just when you are drifting off into dreamland is a highly creative time. Quite often if I’m stuck I’ll go and lie down and wait for that moment. When it comes it seems like the creative floodgates have opened and the ideas begin to pour out. The only problem is making sure you get up and don’t fall asleep and forget what has just revealed itself.
  • Make some templates – you know that blank page doesn’t have to be blank! One thing that helps a lot is to have some templates ready. I write music, I enjoy composing songs and recording them on my little computer sequencer. This is my blank page. But I have created a series of template files that already have some of the basics preloaded. You can do the same when writing poetry or prose, and preparing backgrounds for images is helpful as well.
  • Read – but not anything. Find a book that is not linked with the subject of what you need to create. Read and take in what it is about. Then take the subject, or the situation, and mix it with what you need to do. Do a little bit of creative surrealism. It’ll break the blockages that are stopping your creative energy and create some new and very interesting solutions.
  • Listen – put on some music and let it interfere with your stuck thought process. The music will take some of your mental energy away from the problem and while it is doing that the rest of your energy can focus on the task at hand, perhaps with a little bit of subconscious automation thrown in.
  • Run – any exercise could help but as Murakami says, we think about things when we run. Bjorn from Abba used to come up with a lot of the bands lyrics when he went running. Actually any exercise will be helpful, it gets the adrenalin running and if you’re staring at a blank page that is exactly what you need.
  • Rip it out - actually do you really need to do this, this way? Go on, just don’t do it. Grab the piece of paper and put it in the bin; the recycle bin of course.
  • Mind-map – perhaps the problem is that you see the blank page as part of the final product? However the blank page can be the place where you simply pour out your ideas for the project. Mind-mapping is a wonderful tool for doing this. Write a central idea in the middle of the page and then any write any words that relate to it radiating out. If you want to know more about Mind-maps then follow this.
  • Just start – to be honest you’re just delaying the inevitable. You know what you have to do and how to do it. You just need to make the first mark. Go ahead, go on. There is always an undo, delete or erase mechanism somewhere.

These are the top ten ideas that run through my mind when the blank page is mocking me, how about you?

Filed Under: creativity basics, inspiration, perspiration, preparation Tagged With: , , ,

2011 time to realise your creative potential

January 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The hiatus is about to end. I’m sure you thought I’d forgotten all about you, but no! I am so excited about what is about to happen here at !maginality.

We’ll once again be exploring how each of us can realise our creative potential. Whatever media we choose work in, there will be something for you here. Either general principles, or specific examples, sites or tips.

And all the above will be wrapped-up in the belief that each of us need to find our own balance in three areas; preparation, inspiration and perspiration. We’re all different, but we can all benefit from making sure we get the balance right for ourselves.

So take a seat and prepare, set out your pens, pianos or software, and seek inspiration, do a little hard work and perspire, as together we realise our creative potential.

Filed Under: inspiration, perspiration, preparation, site info

How do you capture your ideas?

June 29, 2010 By 1 Comment

By far the best way to capture ideas is with a pencil and paper. The fewer things that can hinder the collection of an idea the better. A tablet may come a very close second these days and I live in the hope that they may take over; hey I love sci-fi and the future for me is always bright, shiny and wonderful.

One thing I saw that seemed quite interesting was The Musician’s Notebook: Manuscript Paper for Inspiration and Composition (Parchment Journals).This book, and several others, take the next step from just a piece of paper or notepad. They give you some templates for you to use.

By providing you with a set form to plunge your creative ideas these pages take some of the load from your brain, allowing the creativity that little bit extra grey matter to play with.

If we don’t need these particular books we can always make our creativity that little bit easier by creating our own forms or pages. Any resources that we can prepare for when creativity arrives is of use. Personally I have tried many different pre-made pages to help. Some have worked while others have limited my creativity. When that happens the pages get a reworking or end up in the bin.

What capture tools do you use?  Or have you ever created your own?

Filed Under: preparation Tagged With: , , ,

How to find a colour / color and name it

June 23, 2010 By 1 Comment

I have, running in the background of my pc, a wonderful little utility, AdesClrPicker. This is a simple utility to tell me what any colour (color) is on your screen. A simple ctrl + alt +a and a pipette icon hovers over the screen, magnifies the area where it is to pixel precision and tells ne what colour / color it is hovering over. It imparts this information in glorious html format for me to slip into any new web design or idea that I have. But the program isn’t limited to html, it offers a range of outputs. It also remembers recent colours / colors and a whole lot of other neat little attributes. You can download the latest version from here.

If you’re in a browser though, and that browser happens to be firefox, you could use colorzilla. A little plugin that sits neatly at the bottom of the browser screen ready to be called into action. The latest version is available from here.

Both programs are nice and simple but come in very handy, if you don’t want to open up an image editor and use the colour picker from there after waiting ages for it to load… you know who you are.

These are two little tools that can save a lot of time and effort. A little bit of preparation and you’ll no longer be running around trying to find the hex value of that wonderful tone used on the front page of your favourite site. And one day we may all agree on how to spell colour… I live in hope.

Filed Under: preparation Tagged With: , , , ,

Prepare and trust in the muse

June 8, 2010 By 1 Comment

The premise of this site, well the thinking behind it, is that creativity is finding the balance between three things. Those three things are preparing, being inspired and a little bit of hard work; or preparation, inspiration and perspiration.

One problem that creatives face is demanding that the muse shows up on demand. There are ways to bring on the muse, and we’ll look at those elsewhere, but sometimes we need to accept that the muse is a way off. During these times we should use the space to do a little of our preparation work. And, quite often, this will hasten the arrival of the muse.

So what do I mean by preparation work? Preparation work ranges from sorting out your pencils to clearing the fog from your brain. It is anything to do with setting up your creative space. This is making sure you have the right tools, software and hardware. It is also making sure your brain is in the right place; you may need to shift stuff from your head onto lists, or deal with that pressing issue that is using up so much mental energy.

Get the preparation right and the inspiration will have space to do its thing. Anything you need to prepare?

Filed Under: preparation

Free e-book on getting free of the 9 to 5 for creatives

March 17, 2010 By 1 Comment

I’m not going to say much because following the link says it all. But, let me drop in a few words to make you want to scratch the itch: free, ebook, future planning, being creative, making a living… I’d best stop there for you to follow the link!

Flying in the face of convention… | Alexia Petrakos

Filed Under: books, links, preparation Tagged With: , , ,

How to deal with feeling like a creative failure

January 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There are times when we feel like a total and utter creative failure. Okay, confession time, I do. I don’t know about you but I am confident that some of you feel the same.

We may spend hours, day or even weeks being creative only to give up near the end, with feelings of inadequacy. The work that we have produced, despite the praise of our peers and friends, is deemed by us alone as complete rubbish. Our creative efforts are consigned at best to a hidden folder on Flickr and at worst to the delete button or the bin.

We are our own worst enemies. We go further than simply being critical of our work, we metaphorically and sometimes literally, tear it apart… and ourselves along the way too. But, and here it the big but, there is no reason to be doing this.

There is a great article at the Harvard Business Review that looks at managing your inner critic. While the article is aimed to help those in a business environment, the practicalities for dealing with this inner critic are transferable.

So, instead of ripping your work and yourself to shreds, have a read of the article below.

How to Manage Your Inner Critic – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review

And, over at Leo’s Zen Habits there is another post offering some similar advice, so I thought I’d add that here too.
How to Conquer Self-doubt
Filed Under: creative exercises, links, preparation Tagged With: ,

Five more ingredients for compelling writing

November 6, 2009 By 3 Comments

Writing can be seen as mix between a dark art and the pursuit of the unhinged. Sitting down for ages crafting words isn’t always as enjoyable as it could be. But if you approach your writing as a chef creates his signature dish, then this just might help.

I thought it only fair to return to the creative cookbook and find a few more ingredients you could add to your literary larder. If you haven’t seen the previous post of ‘Compelling writing ingredients’ then follow the link.

Remember, a good recipe doesn’t use all the ingredients you have all of the time, and sometimes the subtle flavour is more effective than the one that hits on the first mouthful. But enough of this extended metaphor, let’s get on with the post.

  1. Conflict – two or more characters, in disagreement, in any shape or form will draw the reader in! ‘No, it won’t.’ ‘yes, it will, your reader wants some kind of resolution… or the sequel.’
  2. Emotion – love, hate, joy and fear, if you can get the reader to engage with these emotions you’ll have them hanging on every word you write. Why do you think love and horror stories are so well read!
  3. Progress – a story, should move from A to B, it shouldn’t be static. Even waiting, as in for Godot, is progress; implied progress counts in writing if not in business.
  4. Variety of language – the use of passive vocabulary, which consists of words people know the meaning of, or understand in context, but don’t use everyday, is something to keep well stocked. Try eating the dictionary.
  5. Use your voice – all great cooks have a signature dish, or a specialty, as a writer you need to find an ingredient that is your own, unique to you. Sounds daunting but it is an ingredient you already have stocked, you simply need to use it.

So out with the utensils and start cooking. You have a story to write.

Filed Under: preparation, writing Tagged With: , ,

The top 5 Ingredients of compelling writing

November 4, 2009 By 5 Comments

It takes a little more than pure inspiration to write that killer content. Although the idea is the kernel to any great literary dish, you should always have on hand the following ingredients to lift your words to the writer’s equivalent of haute cuisine.

You may find that taking these ideas with more than a pinch of salt is just what you need.  But you shouldn’t assume that you need all these ingredients all the time, mix and match; experiment.

There are many more ingredients you could use, but these are my top 5:

  1. Nearness – The reader can be drawn in with any geographical or experiential situation that they can identify with, try and create the ‘I’ve been there’ factor.
  2. Consequence – Try to make the content deal with matters that have an effect; create consequence in what you write.
  3. Human interest – Go on you know you want to, go all out for the cute vote, the shaggy dog story at the end of the news keeps you hanging on for the weather report. Alternatively the opposite is also true, a report on the cost to life of any disaster can be a compelling read.
  4. Drama – Action and intensity… if you’re writing a story, this can be quite a good hook.
  5. Oddity – Pique that mind, interest that soul. Let eyes pour over your words, washing them into the bowl that awaits like open mouth – sometimes being weird works, trust me, I’m an editor.

Remember these are ingredients, it is up to you how you use and mix them, or even add a few more of your own.

And if you want more:

Five more ingredients of compelling writing

Filed Under: preparation, writing Tagged With: , ,
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