Writing About Mental Illness

Mental illness has become a serious issues in many countries. Many writers know nothing or very little about mental illness. Research is important when a character of yours has a mental illness. With so many illnesses out there you must be precise about the affects and the way mental health affects someone's life. It is important to be accurate. Though not all mental illnesses affect everyone the same.

Research is difficult with all the websites out there that say they are legit but aren't. Make sue you find ones that are. It is hard to find them. Try out mental health clinic sites, university sites, old school reference books (yes I know, that takes forever), see if you can speak to a mental health therapist, someone that has a mental illness (Twitter is a good source), or a mental health physician's assistant. These are all great sources.
When approaching someone with a mental illness please ask if they are willing to talk. Many try and hide it. Those I found on Twitter are usually open about it and are willing to help. Make sure they understand that you are only looking for information for your writing and not writing about them in particular. If they believe you will be writing about them it may scare them and not want to help.
Another thing to remember, that two people can be diagnosed with the same illness but very different symptoms, medications, therapy and daily life.
Here are the three I like and know are legit.
National Institute of Mental Health,  Mayo Clinic and Science Daily There are more just look and be careful about what information you use. If someone with mental health reads your book, misinformation could possible upset them.

 The main mental health issues I find in novels are: anxiety, bipolar disorder and narcissism. Antagonists are usually the narcissists, which is good.

Now that you have some information get to researching!

@jesdeh2o on Twitter is open about her anxiety, mild OCD, rage and bipolar disorder. Feel free to contact her (aka ME)

Book Bibles... Yay or Nay?

Over the years I have found that many authors use book bibles. At first I thought it was just for novel series, I know better now. So, this post is going to explore BOOK BIBLES.

What are Book Bibles?

A book bible (also known as a story bible, show bible, series bible, or pitch bible) is a reference document used by novelists, screenwriters for information on a television series' characters, settings, and other elements. Basically it's a handbook of information that allows the writer to create a consistent universe over a number of events or even years/centuries of events.

Why a Book Bible?

The primary goal is to make finding what was said or described in other books in the series, in order to achieve consistency among the books in the series and to save time researching past work.  To that end, it is useful to separate the written words of the books produced (content) from the supporting material.

So if Jane was wearing a purple dress in chapter 1, the description will be the same in chapter 2, 5, 8, etc. if it comes up again.

Things That Might be Included in a Book Bible

I, myself use mine for character, place and item descriptions. I use Aeon Timeline to track dates of events that happen from day to day and century to century. Lately I have been trying out Scapple to see if it'll work for me in my book bibles.

To learn more check out Hallow Land's, A Writer's Blog by Karen Myers It's a blog I follow and learned how to use Scrivener & Aeon Timeline together.

Here are things that are sometimes included in a book bible...

• The overall concept
• Ongoing characters - main, supporting, villains
• The setting
• The rules of the world you're creating
• Gadgets and gizmos [if any] and how they work
• What CAN'T happen in future storylines
• Format
• Series tone
• Series theme
• An opening story
• Story suggestions

Here are some timeline programs I found besides Aeon. 

Timelines

Plotlist

Capzules

Preceden

Tiki-Toki

TimeGlider

Timeline 3D

Time Toast

Word Processing Programs

Microsoft Word

Scrivener

Google Docs

WordPerdect

Pages

All writers have their preference when writing and they will have a preference for timelines and mapping programs as well. Only the writer herself/himself will know what works for them.

In short, a book bible is a great thing to keep track of everything. Whether it's for a single novel, screenplay or a novel series, it'll help (in my opinion). 

I am not paid for my opinions or referrals to programs and/or websites. All my suggestions are my opinions alone.

Time For Prepping for NaNoWriMo

One month from today we start a 30 day writing frenzy. Are you ready? Have you tried any new apps or programs for your writing? Well I'll start off with ones I know about. If you know more post links in the comments section.

Scrivener by Literature and Latte

Literature & Latte ©

Scrivener is an all in one program for writers. Available for iOS, Mac & Windows. Keep notes organized, outline, write & edit.  Export your finished document to a wide variety of file formats, including Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF and HTML—making it easy to share your work with others. Or self-publish by exporting to ePub or Kindle* formats to share your work via iBooks or Amazon, or for reading on any e-reader.
Another feature I love is the word count option/tracking.

Photo from Literature & Latte ©

I auto-save to Dropbox which means I can open my file from any computer that has Scrivener installed and it'll save the new version. I know others sync with cloud services.
Tutorials:
Windows
Mac
iOS
Check them out and see if you might like to use Scrivener. BTW- Scrivener usually offers an extended trial version for NaNoWriMo, normal trial period is 30 days of use...NOT 30 days on your computer. NaNoWriMo version usually ends Dec. 7th of so.

Scapple © by Literature and Latte 

Many think of it as mind-mapping. It isn’t exactly mind-mapping software—it’s more like a free-form text editor that allows you to make notes anywhere on the page and to connect them using straight dotted lines or arrows. You can nest them, so if you move one you move all that are connected. I haven't used Scapple much but I am not a planner.
Since it was created by the same people that created Scrivener you can drag your Scapple notes right into Scrivener. Here is a short tutorial on Scapple. 30 day trial... 30 days of use not 30 days on your computer.

Aeon Timeline

You can model not only the events of your story & the backstory of each of your characters. Keep track of relationships between events and your characters, locations, and story arcs. Visually group events by character, location, or arc (some events may appear in multiple groups), and change this selection at any time. Automatically calculate character ages for every event, allowing you to see how key moments would have affected and shaped your character (this is the one thing I love the most).
Find plot-holes or inconsistencies in your story. Create a custom fantasy calendar if your story takes place off-world, have more than 12 months, 7 days a week, etc. Nested events are there so you can zoom in for a detailed view of individual scenes, or zoom out for a contextual overview of your entire story — or further still for a contextual view of your entire world history. Add your images, external links, notes and research to your events. Filter events by almost anything. Add bookmarks within your story and backstory so that you can easily jump between key moments in time.

Another great feature is...  You can drag documents from your Scrivener project into your timeline, or events from your timeline into Scrivener, and keep the two in sync so that your timeline is always up-to-date with your writing.

Check out the videos to see if you might like this. Click HERE for videos.

Evernote

This is one I'm not familiar with. Evernote is a cross-platform app designed for note taking, organizing, and archiving. Though here is a link to learn more about it. Evernote.

Prepping Food for NaNoWriMo

Here are a few things I do to make meals quit and easy during November... Well I do it almost every month but November is a must. Plan meals ahead of time. I do it for a month but most people I know usually plan for a week at a time. Do it when it works for you.

On the 28th or 29th of October

• Cook up meat for spaghetti & goulash & freeze it
• Make up a meatloaf or 2 & freeze it
• Cook up taco meat for 2 or 3 meals & freeze it
• Make up freezer meals for my crock pot (slow cooker) Usually I do Sweet-n-Sour Chicken, Beef stew, chicken fajitas, beef fajitas, BBQ chicken, Mongolian beef, Applesauce BBQ chicken, flank steak, and Pre-packaged roast & veggies. Freeze all meals in gallon size freezer bags. Most of your favorite crock pot (slow cooker) meals can be made into freezer meals. If you have questions Tweet me @GetWordies 
• Make cookie dough balls and freeze them for fast cookies

Cleaning-October

•  Make sure all rooms are at least picked up to vacuum
• Clean out refrigerator
•  Vacuum
• Dust everything so you won't look at it and get distracted
• Clean the bathroom thoroughly
• Wash bedding, curtains and anything you normally don't. 

A clean place leaves you feeling good and you can write more, usually. I do a total Spring/Fall cleaning every year so October is my Fall month.

On Fridays in November

• Make up snacks: brownies, cookies, dips, cut veggies, spinach/artichoke dip
• Make sure kitchen is clean so it won't distract me
• Get kids organized and plans for the weekend
• Plan you writing times for the week
• If you have kids, make up snack cups/lunch box style snacks and lunch ahead of time (each day)

You can get a sink full of dishes done in 10 minutes, I use 10 minute writing breaks for that. I also fold laundry, skim social media and check in with kiddo-2. You'll find you can get tons of household things done in 10 minutes. It gives you that break from writing and you get stuff done.

Evernote, Literature & Latte, and Aeon Timeline are all .

CampNaNoWriMo July

It's that time again where we start prepping for a month's long writing and/or editing session. Whether you are cleaning and/or organizing your work space, meal prepping so the family can be fed while you loose yourself in your work; it is stressful. Take a five minute break and breathe.

Prepping:

• Take time to look up recipes that will make your life easier while you are being creative. Check out our "Writer's Food" page and our Pinterest boards. 
• Prep all foods once a week or even for the month. Freezer slow cooker meals are the best way I have found to do this. 
• Organize snacks for your family & yourself.
• Plan activities for your kiddos that you don't need to supervise totally. For little ones use activities in highchairs. 
• Clean your house as if spring cleaning. Well, maybe not that thorough.
• Clean your writing space and organize your notes and apps.
• Set up or look over your timelines and character bios to remember it if it's been awhile or you're just starting a new project.

During Camp:

• Set times to write and stick to it.
• Use Twitter for encouragement and sprints.
• Talk to your cabin mates every day.
• Remember to breathe
• Get up and stretch every hour.

Now that those ideas are out there I hoe we all have a great Camp and enjoy our cabin mates!

March is Here

As March starts we prepare for Spring and everyone's writing times may change, nice weather. We also look forward to CampNaNoWriMo starting April 1st (You can sign up now!). It's also time for Spring Cleaning...
Go through all WIPs and check out if you want to pull them from the 'vault' for CampNaNoWriMo.

Organize:

All notes
Scraps of paper
All note cards
Desk & other writing areas

Stock up on:

notebooks
pens
note cards
printer ink
printer paper

This is also a great time to check out some new writing tools & software. Scrivener, Scapple, Aeon Timeline, Dragon, Ulysses, Focus Writer, Evernote, LibreOffice, and Hemingway.

I personally use Aeon Timeline 2, Scapple & Scrivener. Need help ask and I might be able to help you.

Another great place I like is myWriteClub and of course Twitter!

NEWS!

@FriNightWrites has returned. Fridays at 7pm CT they hold word sprints for several hours. It's called #WriteClub. Check them out on Twitter.

New Grabbing Schedule

I have changed the wordie grab schedule a bit. I am trying to leave open times that The Sprint Shack runs theirs. It is not complete as of this moment. I will be adding a few more to it. I am having a personal issue that most Mondays I am busy. I'm hoping this will be resolved as soon as possible.

 New Grabbing Schedule is for Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays for now. We will never have grabbings on Fridays. That is the day I encourage you to join @FriNightWrites for their #writeclub. I do my Friday grabbings with them. To find their times check out their site here.

On another note:
Have you checked out your CampNaNoWriMo April 2015 WINNERS'S GOODIES?
You need to. There are several great offers. I loved that Scrivener is half off with the winner's code.

April 2015 CampNaNoWriMo is Over. Now What?

Camp has ended. What now? You have several options. You can keep working on your Camp WIP, edit it, set it aside or even lock it in a vault.

 Many of you who won will continue to work on it in one way or another. Finishing a WIP is rewarding. Continuing it, if not finished, will give you a complete work to publish.  Editing is the second step, if you begin you can see the advantages to having a time restriction on you wordie count goal. Yes there are going to be several errors, add ins, and out-takes. This is natural with speed writing. Don't be afraid to hack it, change it drastically or even start completely over.

Your Winner Goodies can help with all of these choices. Make sure you check them out (go to you Camp dashboard, click on CAMPER PROFILE, then Winner Goodies.) and take advantage of them. If you already have Scrivener you can give your code to a fellow writer who wants it but doesn't want to spend the money. (50% off is a great deal.)

As we wait for July's CampNaNo, our wordie grabbings will change. Please vote on the poll to your right so I can set them up when they are needed most.  This first full week of May is a hit and miss for grabbings. I will be out of the house the majority of the time. Watch for announcements. I will give 30 minute warnings. May 9th I will update our grabbing times on this site; also letting others who post our times that they have changed.

You can always use #wordgrab and hold your own wordie grabbings with others even if we aren't available.

Wordie Counts for Your Work!

Ever wondered how many wordies make a novella or novel?

I've been searching every web page that has a list. let me tell you, it got confusing. Finally I took all the amounts and found a median for each type of book. I found that Writer' Digest and How-To-Write-a-Book had the most average of all the ones I read.

Here's the jest of it (averages):

Pic Books : 350-600 wordies
Tweens: 20,000-55,000 wordies
Chapter Books: 5000-10,000
Young Adult:55,000-90,000
Short Stories: under 75000
Novelette: 7500-17,500
Novella: 17,500-40,000
Novel: 50,000-109,000
Epic Novel/World Building: 90,000-110,000
Western Average: 50,000-80,000
Memoir: 80,000-89,900

Writer's Digest broke it down a bit further. 

Adult Novel:
70,000-79,000 might be too short
80,000-89,000 Good
90,000-99,000 Usually safe
100,000-109,000 Might be too long
110,000 & over Too long
100,000-115,000 World building

I hope this gives you some idea as to the wordie counts you set.

The Start of a New Year!

As a writing or an aspiring writer you probably set goals for 2015. Whether it be wordie count goals, chapter goals or even scene goals Now Is the time to start a new tradition...... writing every day. Getting into the habit of writing every day is a tremendous help in achieving goals.

• Having your writing time the same time every day (if possible) helps to get that habit going.
• Use word sprints for writing and editing.
• Join The Write Chain Challenge to motivate you to hit your goal.
• Set aside as much time for Writathons and Fridays. (Fridays are #writeclub day/night)
• Carry notebooks & pens at all times. Or even use your smartphone for notes. 
• Take part in CampNaNo in April and July.
• Do NaNoWriMo in November.
• Plan meals ahead of time. Check out our Pinterest for meal ideas.

Those are just a few I have put into practice. There are many other groups that have contest type goals for the year. Just look around and ask others on Twitter or your current writing group.

If you are looking for help organizing and having everything in one place for 2015, Scrivener might be right for you. I have everything from pictures to research with everything in between. I am working on a series... Scrivener has an easy drag and drop from one project to another. This helps with transferring character bios, places, and timeline to the new project.

As you can see here, it's easy a making scrambled eggs. Looking at the yellow box on the right, you can see that I have a picture in the inspector area. The corkboard where the red box is shows the notecards and you have the ability to move them around. I have them in order of pack rank. You can use this mode with the manuscript as well. This pink box shows the title of your scene, this will show at the top of your note card as well. I don't name mine until I'm ready to edit the 2nd time. The orange to your left is the binder. This is where all your folders are. I have my 3 sections and then I put in the scenes into those folder. You can see all the characters, definitions, research and all that are also there. and last the green box is you word counter. You can set it for total count and a count for each session. My session target is my daily goal.

Okay that's enough about my lovely writings. If you use Scrivener or another word processor yell and tell us why?

Tell us what your 2015 writing resolutions are.

All pictures in this post are my original work. Do NOT copy or publish. (copyright 2015)

U.S. Holiday Sprints

With our U.S. Turkey Day our sprints will NOT be scheduled for Thursday the 27th or the weekend. I will be jumping from time to time to run a few here and there. Yes, I know that sounds strange. I just wanted to be sure you understood. If you are wanting wordsprints on Friday hop over to @FriNightWrites for #writeclub and grab wordies with them. Saturday is up in the air for me. If you are wanting tons of sprints to get you across the Nano finish line tweet @GetWordies or @jesdeh2o with the request.

Have a Happy Turkey Day my fellow U.S. Wordlings. The rest enjoy the weekend and be blessed with wordies galore.

We Start NaNo!

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). 

National Novel Writing Month

Here we go, off on an adventure that is going to test us beyond belief. There will be days where you will want to bang the computer with a hammer, through pens across the room and even think about quitting. Remember this 1 thing...

YOU CAN DO IT!

All you need is a little motivation and support from others. We are here for you as many others can be. NaNo Buddies on the NaNo Web Site is a great place to start. Then there is the Region message boards. Of course there are 10k Writathons that help push you to hit that 50k. We ourselves are having 2 this month and @FriNightWrites will have 1 as well...
#WriteClub NaNoWriMo Marathon
Midnight Friday morning in Sydney Australia, Nov. 7th
through
Midnight Friday night on the US East Coast, Nov. 7th.
(basically almost forty-eight hours)
So, that is 3 10kWritathons. Nov. 2nd, Nov7th and Nov.8th!
Look at that a whole weekend of sprinting!
Plus many of our Twitter friends will be having sprints all the time. There should be at least 1 going at any time. @NaNoWordSprints runs sprints during NaNo. Times are often but I couldn't find you a schedule. They do 20, 30, 1k30min minute word sprints.

Time management helps too. Plan your writing times in accordance to your life. (Family, friends, meals, and those kiddos of course) We have ideas for meals and kiddos foods, managing time and lists of sprinting Twitter friends for your peace of mind. 

Here is what a few of our followers suggested.

NaNoWriMo? What is IT?

National Novel Writing Month, shortened as NaNoWriMo, is an annual internet-based creative writing project that takes place during the month of November. NaNoWriMo challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel in 30 days. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to get people writing and keep them motivated throughout the process.

The website provides participants with tips for writer's block, local places writers participating in NaNoWriMo are meeting, and an online community of support. The idea is to focus on completion instead of perfection. NaNoWriMo focuses on the length of a work rather than the quality, encouraging writers to finish their first draft so that it can later be edited at the author's discretion.

NaNoWriMo's main goal is to encourage creativity worldwide. The project started in July 1999 with just 21 participants, but by the 2010 event over 200,000 people took part – writing a total of over 2.8 billion words.

Writers wishing to participate first register on the project's website, where they can post profiles and information about their novels, including synopsis and excerpts. Word counts are validated on the site, with writers submitting a copy of their novel for automatic counting. Municipal leaders and regional forums help connect local writers with one another for holding writing events and to provide encouragement.

Rules

Participants' novels can be on any theme, in any genre of fiction, and in any language. Everything from fanfiction, which uses trademarked characters, to novels in poem format, and even metafiction is allowed; according to the website's FAQ, "If you believe you're writing a novel, we believe you're writing a novel too." Starting at 12:00 am on November 1, novels must reach a minimum of 50,000 words before 11:59:59 pm on November 30, local time. Planning and extensive notes are permitted, but no earlier written material can go into the body of the novel, nor is one allowed to start early and then finish 30 days from that start point.

Participants write either a complete novel of 50,000 words, or simply the first 50,000 words of a novel to be completed later. Some participants set higher goals for themselves, like writing upwards of 100,000 words, or completing two or more separate novels. To win NaNoWriMo, participants must write an average of approximately 1,667 words per day. Organizers of the event say that the aim is simply to get people to start writing, using the deadline as an incentive to get the story going and to put words to paper. This "quantity over quality" philosophy is summarized by the site's slogan: No Plot? No Problem!This is also the title of Chris Baty's book of advice for NaNoWriMo participants, published in late 2004 by Chronicle Books. There is no fee to participate in NaNoWriMo; registration is only required for novel verification.

No official prizes are awarded for length, quality, or speed. Anyone who reaches the 50,000 word mark is declared a winner. Beginning November 25, participants can submit their novel to be automatically verified for length and receive a printable certificate, an icon they can display on the web, and inclusion on the list of winners. Novels are verified for word count by software, and may be scrambled or otherwise encrypted before being submitted for verification, although the software does not keep any other record of text input. It is possible to win without anyone other than the author ever seeing or reading the novel.

Sponsors of NaNoWriMo

Some of these sponsors offer specials just for NaNoWriMo. Check them out and see what you can get! 

CreateSpace, Scrivener, Fast Pencil, Storylist Software, BookBaby, Swoon Reads, Aeon Timeline, Zoetic Press, Scribophile, Story bundle, Ulysses III, 4 the Words, JukePop, BiblioCrunch, Inked Voices, Kobo

Another resource for motivation and inspiration is Twitter. There are many who hold word sprints and writathons, especially during NaNoWriMo. Check out our Sprint Schedule for info.

Writing Break

Get Wordies wants you to take the next 23 days off from writing. Use this time to research, brain-storm or outline your NaNoWriMo project. There will be NO sprints until November 1st. You can also use this time to plan your meals and snackies and get them ready if you are going to use freezer meals.

For freezer meals and snackies for NaNoWriMo click here for our list of yummy goodies. I am in love with the spinach/artichoke dip and tostitos for my NaNo snackie.

Get the kiddos' activities and snackies ready and planned. This will help a lot.

For research, outline and time line help check out Scrivener and Aeon. They made my 1st NaNoWrimo a success. Right now you can try Scrivener for 30 days but NaNo version will allow you to use it to December 7th.

We will start off NaNoWriMo on November 1st for 1k1hr runs for a few hours. Then November 2nd is our 1st of 2 10kWritathons. That's 10k wordies in a day. This should give all of you a great head start on your wordie counts. Remember only 1,667 wordies a day are needed. If you participate in a 10kWritathon that drops you to 1380 wordies a day. If you participate in both it drops you to 1072 wordies the other 28 days.

Camp is About Here!

As July 1st approaches many of us writers are getting ready for CampNaNoWriMo. 

Finishing up...
research and organizing the last of the many notes we have laying around, not to mention all those thoughts that just jump into our heads when we least expect it. I just a few days we will begin the hard part, putting it all together and making sense of it.

I know I have touched on many of the things I will this post but it is always good to know everything you can, especial before a month of stress and intense writing.

This week you should...
not only be preparing for a month of wonderful writing but also meals, handy snacks and quick drinks. Click Writer's Food tab at the top for tons of great ideas.

If you are looking for a new program to write with...
 check out Scrivener's free 30 day uses (not 30 days but 30 days you open the program). Grab it at Literature & Latte. Need help with keeping the time line in order check out Aeon Timeline at Scribble Code. This free trial is 20 days of use (as with Scrivener it's the days you use it.).

Keeping your blog readers up to date...
on your word counts are made easy by Sarra Cannon with her counters. Sarra's Word Meter is great to update multiple blogs with a click or two. She also has many other Indie Writer's Resources. Language is a Virus has a great NaNo word counter widget.  Writing for Your Supper has many word counter links for you as well.

As for the writing process there are many resources on Twitter. 

Get Wordies for example. We run 30 minute wordsprints Mon-Thurs and and during July we will be having more than our normal schedule and tossing in some 1k1hr to help you along. July 26th is out 10kWritathon (10,000 wordies in 1 day(12 hours- 10 hours of writing). Check out our Sprint Schedules for our times among many others that have sprints. Don't forget #writeclub with @FriNightWrites and @Sprint Shack on Twitter.

Scrivener: Why I Love It!

Scrivener has made my life much easier as I achieve to be a published author. Before, I was lost. I had note cards scattered throughout the house, notebooks (about 50) laying around the house and always screamed when I couldn't find the one I needed at the moment.
I am a free writer, as in I never do an outline per-say. I get my characters, some idea of what I want them to do and write. Usually my characters never do what I thought they would. Scrivener has changed all that ciaos of tracking my characters mind-changing events. Example: I had planned on two certain characters to get together but in the current WIP the girl is liking a different guy than I intended.

Reasons:

1.) Scrivener allows me to import research, photos,  MS Word docs. This helps with organizing it all in one place. You don't have to have 50 million screens open and bounce between them.

2.) Cork-board mode is my best friend. Here I can have my note cards and move them around. In Scrivener, every document is attached to a virtual index card onto which you can jot a synopsis; moving the cards on Scrivener’s corkboard rearranges their associated text in your draft. Mark common themes or content using labels, or stack cards, grouping related documents together. I have folders for each wolf pack with all their pack members. I can click on the folder and see everyone's photo I have suggested for them. You can also move you chapters and scenes around to re-order them in corkboard mode.  I can just drag the notes cards to re-order them. As mine are in order of rank at the moment. It would be easy and take less than a minute to change that to age. I have the definitions is alphabetical order but had them in order they appeared at first. It took me 3 minutes to move the note cards around.


3.) Ease of moving things around. As I said it's easy to move your notes, research, chapters, scenes and characters in cork-board mode. It is also easy to move them around in the binder. All you have to do is drag what you want moved and move it! It's that simple.

4.) Being able to have photos on your note-cards has me jumping every time I open the screen. Having them to jog my memory as to what someone or some place looks like is easier than opening up my pictures on my computer. They are right there. And the split-screen makes it quick work to look up a fact on a note-card.

5.) I love the fact that I can color code everything in my binders. As you can see below I have changed their look. It makes it easier the click the correct one without reading the names.  You can also code your note cards. The coloring can be all of it or just some of it, like I have. Or it can be just the outside border.

6.) It makes it easier for me to start another novel in my series by dragging the info from one project to a new one. I don't have to retype it all in. Everything is there with a click or 2.

7.) I love that it tracks my word counts for each session and the whole document. It keeps me on track with my daily word counts. Below is my current WIP. As you can see it allows you to set the whole document goal and the session goal. AS you progress the bars turn color. When you get really close to your goal it turns green!

8.) The name generator has been a big help. I can set it for regions of the world and click 'generate' and is comes up with a list of names. Settings can be male/female, first/last names, meanings, and you can import others.  I usually use this for last names rather than first of middle and I change the spelling if it's for a current character.

9.) The full screen makes it easier for me, personally, to edit. It blocks out all the distractions of windows I might have open.

10.) Compiling into e-pub for makes it easy for me to proof-read it anywhere. I have done it while waiting for the kids to get out of school or at the doctor's office. All I do is upload it to my NOOK.

There are many other things that can be done with the program but I haven't learned everything yet. Learning everything I can do may take years but as I go, I learn a little more and the more I love it. Windows version is a little behind Mac but they are working on it. I have been working on Binders but haven't had a need for them yet. Some use it to track all their blogging, not me; at least not yet. 

If you prefer a more traditional planning environment? View and edit the synopses and meta-data of your documents in Scrivener’s powerful outliner. Organize your ideas using as many or few levels as you want and drag and drop to restructure your work. Check word counts, see what’s left to do using the Status column. Scrivener’s outliner is easy on the eyes, too, making it ideal for reading and revising an overview of a section, chapter or even the whole draft.

Others I have talked with say,

' It's a must for me.  Keeps everything all in one place.'

' I adore Scrivener - it allows me to visually order scenes & keep everything open. Plus character & research tabs.'

' I have full versions for both PC & Mac! Still hoping for iOS.'


Get a free 30 day use version of Scrivener at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/index.php
If you're not sure watch the tutorials and get more of an idea of how it can help you with your writing.

*All screenshots are mine. The photos are from Literature&Latte's website.
**This blog is my opinion and mine alone. I am not paid for my views on the product.