Let me explain: I write fiction, and I do read it and have my favorite authors (among them Isaac Asimov, Spider Robinson, Elmore Leonard and Mark Twain) but while I’m writing I don’t read other fiction. The reasons are many. First off are to avoid plagiarism. When I’m trying to keep my own voice in […]
Category: Writing Craft
In Praise of Mark Twain
This is later than I planned initially, so I’ll end up posting a few days in a row to compensate. I planned this post for Monday: I’m a great admirer of Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens. Biographies here and here). He was a prolific author, a witty humorist and a man of many great quotes. […]
Scrivener for Blogging, part 2
My first attempt to write this disappeared — which is why there was a long delay between the last post and this one — so I’ll write this over from scratch. (This is part of the benefit of writing a blog in Scrivener: you have another copy of things available. I had begun this post […]
Blogging with Scrivener
I haven’t updated this blog in a while. Hopefully using this app will help. As I’ve stated here a few times, I use a program called Scrivener for organizing my writing in non-fiction and fiction. What I didn’t think of was another aspect of non-fiction: blogging. Now thanks to research on the Web and on […]
My Use
As I promised here’s how I use the note-taking apps, and I do use both: Evernote I use for all research for my fiction, and I start a new notebook for each category. For example, as I mentioned in the previous post, I created a separate notebook for my research on Boston for my current […]
Evernote vs. OneNote
I know: I haven’t updated this blog much this year… mea culpa. I’ve been writing other things, and I won’t fill this post with excuses… I’ll just go right into the content of this post: Evernote and OneNote: Compare and Contrast Both programs have use for writers as you will learn. Evernote https://www.evernote.com This has […]
Writing a Series (How to Sustain It)
I intend to keep Rigger, Mortiz and Shivver going as a series as I’ve said before. How I plan to do so in part has to do with the “worlds” of the characters. They each bring a different dimension to stories, and as a result different approaches to the stories and avenues to explore: Rigger […]
Re-doing my Mind Map
As I’ve said before, I’m writing fiction for the Kindle platform. Right now I’m trying to get my artist lined up… but I want to start the novel before the Indiegogo project gets underway. To get started I’m trying to get my mind map for the first book done on a new tool: I began […]
Arcs, Not Arc of the Covenant
(I’m likely dating myself with a reference to the first Raiders of the Lost Ark…) I’m currently reading an advice book about writing a series (appropriate. I’m hoping that my Indiegogo project will be the start of one). The portion that I’m currently reading talks about the differences between story- and series arcs. A story […]
More on Mind Maps
One of the benefits that I’ve found to this process: as you brainstorm a story, ideas don’t come to you in linear fashion. As they do, you just go to that idea node, open it, add the idea then collapse it and move on to the next one. The results may surprise you. Due to […]