Experiments in Scrivener

     I first heard of the Scrivener programme when I was working

for the RLF. Another writer told me about it. The programme was, he said, the greatest example of writerly procrastination ever. Its creator, Keith Blount, allegedly, came up with it to help him organise his material for his 'big novel' - which still hasn't been written.
     Later I heard about it from Authors Electric's Chris Longmuir, who is a big fan - and will be writing about it for a forthcoming Authors Electric 'How To Day' on the 29th day of  some future month.

ChrisLongmuir

     My impression, after reading what Chris had to say, was: 'Well, I can do all of that in Word.' If I want all my research for a book in one place, I can make a Research File, and give it sub-headings with Word's 'Document Map' or 'Navigation Pane.' If I want visual references, I can insert them into the files. Another Author Electric, Catherine Czerkawska, was sceptical too. One of the features Chris mentioned was being able to write scenes out of sequence, store them in a separate file, and then, later, slot them in where they seem to fit best. 'I never write out of sequence,' Catherine said, 'so I don't think I'd find this useful.' We're not easy sells, me and Catherine.

Catherine Czerkawska

     But I'm between books at the moment - always a restless time. Sterkarm 3 is still with my new agent. I've finished the book about the boy walking across the Highlands with herd-dogs, and am letting it rest for a while. (A child at a school recently suggested I call it 'Those Two Dogs.')
     So I've dug out a couple of projects that fell by the wayside a while ago. One is partly written, but has no middle or end (but a lot of promise, I think.) The other is a pretty wild and woolly, futuristic, SF-flavoured idea which is still in the first sketchy stages of planning. (I abandoned it, not because of lack of enthusiasm, but because Life got in the way about a year ago. Oh, and the Scottish dogs came bounding into view.)
     I've been casting round for a way to plan out these books, so I can see clearly what I've got and where they might head. I wanted to use something like the Beat Sheet ideas set out by Roz Morris in 'Nail Your Novel' and also in 'Save The Cat!' by Blake Snyder.

Roz Morris

     Trouble is, these methods require lots of fiddly index cards, or big sheets of paper, and space to spread them out - space I don't really have. Was there some tighter - almost, you might say, virtual - way of doing it? And I remembered that Scrivener offers a free 30 day trial.
     So I went here, and downloaded it.
     First of all I read through the substantial - two hours! - introductory course that comes with it. It made my head spin, and I felt a bit overwhelmed - but I have to say it is very thorough. And interactive, so you actually get to try the tools out as it takes you through them. Okay, it takes two hours, but you do finish up with a very good idea of what Scrivener can do - and, I suppose, if you hate it, you can cut your losses right there, uninstall it, and never think about it again.
     I liked what I saw, so I decided to go ahead and load my work into it, and see how I got on. And after a night's sleep, I found it much less overwhelming, and quite easy to use.
     I've been working with Scrivener for a couple of days now, and I think I may be a convert. Scrivener costs $40, by the way, which works out at about £30 - which, considering everything it does, is pretty good value.
     So here's what Scrivener looks like on my screen.

     To the left is the pane which holds the 'Binder' for this particular project. Think of it as a giant folder to hold all the other folders.
     The staggered entries you can see down this panel are my entered chapters and scenes.

     At the bottom of this pane are folders for storing Research, Characters and Places - all accessible by simply moving your cursor to the left.
     And you can split the screen, either horizontally or vertically, so you can have your work on one side of the split, and a reference file, maybe a visual reference, on the other. (You can do this in Windows, but it's much easier in Scrivener.)
     To the right is another pane, which holds the 'index cards' which will show up on the 'corkboard'. Here you can enter a brief summary of each chapter or scene: who's in it, what happens, where it takes place, etc. At the bottom of this right-hand pane is a section where 'key-words' can be entered. These will help you find a particular spot or - if a key-word is a character's name, for instance - find every chapter and scene in which they appear and 'compile' them, so you can read through only those scenes, and check how they are working.
     In the centre is the edit box where you write - or copy in what you've already written. You can work through in order, from beginning to end, or you can write scenes here and there as they occur to you and fit them together later. Scrivener is designed to work with you, whatever your style.
     And say, for instance, that you wanted to take an overview of just those scenes featuring your talking dog. Use key-words to find them and 'compile' them in the Edit box - it's as if someone had sorted through your paper manuscript, found just those scenes and put them in front of you.
     Suppose, as you read through them, you make the odd change here and there - put in a better phrase, correct some typos, etc. At the end of your reading, these separate scenes return to their proper place in the 'manuscript' - but all the changes you made are retained. It's as if you took those pages out of a paper manuscript, checked through them, altered them, and put them back in their proper order. Only a lot easier to do.
     Right at the centre of the Edit screen, at the top, are three buttons. They are Pages, Corkboard and Outline.

     Pages, as you'd expect, shows you the pages you're working on, and you navigate through the different chapters and scenes by clicking on the headings in the pane to the left. This is also where any compilation you choose to make is read.
     But sometimes you get befuddled by all those words. You want to see the story simply laid out in front of you. At those times you click on Corkboard, and this shows you your 'index cards' notes from the right-hand pane - but shows you them all together. Like this. (You can change the size of the cards, and how many appear in a row.)

     I made my first 'chapter' a list of beats instead, to help me plot my story - each 'scene' or 'index card' is a beat in the story. Tiny pictures can be imported into the top left corner of the card, and differently coloured 'pins' can be added to the right hand corner (say, a different colour per character.) You can move them around, to see if your story can be improved.
     But I think I may find the third button as useful, if not more so. This shows you an outline. Like this:

      It's the index cards simplified, and gives you another way of keeping track of who's doing what to whom, and when.
     I haven't even talked about the research, character and place files, or what Scrivener will do for you when you've finished your book.
     I think this blog may run to two or three episodes...
     And I have a month to decide whether or not to cough up thirty quid to buy the programme. Scrivener promises that I'll be able to unload all my writing from the programme, without harming it, if I decide not to buy.
     But, at the moment, I am inclining towards buying...Or getting someone else to buy it me as a very early Christmas present.

A Peek Into My Work Room

          I've been working on the third book in the Sterkarm series, after The Sterkarm Handshake and A Sterkarm Kiss. In fact, I've been working on it for the past three years, amongst other things.
          Most of that work has been done on my laptop, in the corner of my sofa - partly because that suited me and partly because what I call 'my office' upstairs was in such a mess I could hardly get in the door.
          Housework has never been a priority for me - and then when both my parents were ill a few years ago, a lot of other things fell by the wayside. And since they died, a lot of things haven't seemed worth bothering about. The 'office' became a place to stuff oddments into and close the door.
          But the work on Sterkarm 3 is becoming increasingly serious. I felt the need of somewhere I could go that was away from my usual sofa-corner, a new place that would send my brain the signal, 'Time to work.'
          Like many other writers, I've often found it productive to get out of the house altogether, and go and work in a library, pub or cafe. I spent a lot of time trying to think of somewhere. The library was out, because personally, I find the grim silence in libraries distracting! I prefer somewhere with a bit of talk and coming and going. But the trouble with pubs and cafes is that you have to keep buying food and drink as 'rent'. This is perfectly reasonable - if I was trying to make a living from running a cafe, I wouldn't want the place full of free-loading writers either. But reasonable as it is, I still can't afford it.
          So I decided to clear my office of junk, generally tidy up, and see if it could serve as my change of scene. For the past week it's been working well. And I thought I should commemorate the tidy office, because it probably won't stay that way for very long.

           It may not seem remarkable to you, but those friends and relatives who have been allowed into the place over the past few years will be staggering with shock at this photo. There are places where you can put things down!
          I was too ashamed to publish a 'before' shot, but just imagine the desk and chair piled with archaelogical layers of papers, cds, books... And the floor littered with the pages of books ripped apart to make e-books.
          I had a lot of photos, cards and such that I wanted to display: and decided to tack them to the back wall instead of having them cluttering shelves and falling off in drifts.

           That male nude in the centre is a birthday card sent to me by my Mom and Dad. Obviously, that's the only reason it's up there - for sentimental reasons. Alongside it is the crashing racing-car card sent to me by my brother when I was learning to drive: 'Mirror - signal - manouvre - Oh !&%?!!' It still makes me laugh.
           Here's my own ghost-drum on its shelf, with its antler hammer, so I can summon the spirits - or Blott - when I need them.

 

          Here's a corner of one bookshelf -

 

          But now I have to get back to work, so I will hand you over to Blott...

          Weather Report: Friday 18th. Here, on top of the Black Country Plateau, it has been snowing gently but persistently all day. Kerbs have vanished, steps have become slopes, and my car is one big white mound. Don't think I'll be seeing anyone this weekend. Plenty of time to work!

              

The Next Big Thing

Susan Price

          I don't know who first had the idea for this, but it's become a bit of craze among on-line writers.

         First, you answer the ten questions below about your work-in-progress.

        Then you link to the blogs of other writers, about their work in progress.

          So, here goes -   

Q1. What is the working title of your book?

          I usually call it ‘Sterkarm 3’ because it will be the third Sterkarm book. But its official working title, at the moment, is ‘A Sterkarm Embrace.’ It’s also been called, ‘A Sterkarm Cure’ and ‘A Sterkarm Potion’. The title’s in progress too.

Sterkarm Handshake and Sterkarm Kiss

Q2 where did the idea come from for the book?

          The second book in the Sterkarm series, ‘A Sterkarm Kiss’, ended in a cliff-hanger. This one takes the story on from there.

Q3 What genre does your book fall under?

          The time machine makes it science-fiction or fantasy, but the realistic scenes set in the 16^th Century Border Lands make it historical. The love between 21^st Century Andrea and 16^th Century Per make it a romance. All the fighting makes it an adventure.

          Is there a Science-fictionish Historical Romantic Adventure genre?

Q4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

          That’s a poser.  I don’t think the film industry have it in them to cast my heroine, Andrea, because anyone in the film world would say, ‘She’s fat, so she can’t be a lead.’

          Andrea is a big, bonny lass, with child-bearing hips. It would kill the film industry to cast her properly. I doubt they’d even try – they’d go on auto-pilot and cast some tiny, bony waif. (I give my reasons for making Andrea big and bonny in this interview.) In character, she’s quite shy and gentle, but has a very strong sense of right and wrong, and is quite brave and determined in acting on it. I don’t know that she always gets it right.

          I’m equally clueless about who to cast as Per, the hero. He’s a tall, fair, blue-eyed Border Scot – his nickname is ‘The May’ or ‘The Girl’, so he is pretty, but there is nothing girly about his character. He has been raised since childhood to ride, fight and lead. He’s also been raised in the belief that it’s his family, the Sterkarms, against the world, and he recognises no authority except that of his family elders - and not always them. He thinks for himself. He has a lot of charm, but underneath the good looks and charm, I have to say, he is a dangerous thug. Don’t get on his wrong side.

Any suggestions for casting these two?

Q5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

          Love, war, poison and deer-hounds.

Q6 Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

          At the moment I’m hoping that my agent will find it a publisher for the new book, and for the two older books. But I’m not ruling out the possibility of publishing it – and republishing the first two – myself.

Q7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

          Three years. I started working on it in 2009, about the time I was appointed Royal Literary Fellow at De Montfort University. Throughout my three years at DMU, I worked on ‘Sterkarm 3’. It’s still not finished. I daresay that even if my agent can find a publisher, there will be rewrites.

Q8. What other books would you compare the story to within your genre?

          I almost stopped writing the first book, The Sterkarm Handshake, when my brother lent me a story called, I think, ‘Mozart in Mirrorshades’ by, I think, William Gibson. It described – brilliantly - a time-travelling future society pulling out of the 18^th Century in much the same way as the Americans pulled out of Vietnam. Marie Antoinette, who’s become the mistress of an executive, and Mozart, whose music has been influenced by the music he’s heard from the future, are desperate to be taken to the future too. For a while, after reading this story, I thought there was little point in writing my book. But I recovered.

Q9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

          I was fascinated by the history of the Border Reivers – and I’d loved the ballads since my teens. I’ve loved folk-lore and legends for even longer. I wanted to write about the reivers, but didn’t want to write a straightforward historical novel. I thought about bringing time-travel into it, so I could have characters from the 21^st and 16^th centuries interacting. I liked that idea – but the light-bulb above my head didn’t really light up until I thought that the 16^th century characters would think the 21^st century people were Elves from the Hollow Hills because of their ‘magical’ technology.

Q10 What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

          It features an unexpected use for plastic carrier bags!

          And here are the writers I'm linking to:-

          Cally Phillips - Scots playwright, screen-writer and novelist

          Joan Lennon -  An originally Canadian adoptive Scot, and warm, witty writer.

 

As He Would Draw It

 '...He falls to such perusal of my face

As he would draw it.'

The mask former

          Starting with a quote from 'Hamlet', eh? Sure to knock 'em dead.
          I was very struck by those lines when I first read 'Hamlet' as a teenager.
          I spent a lot of time drawing then, often from life. I knew that, although you might think you were closely observing something, you never really looked at anything until you tried to draw it. The relationships of one part to another, the density of a shadow, the texture, the angles, the precise delination of a curve...
         The curves of the Oseberg or Gokstad ships will break your heart. I know: I've tried to draw them.

The Oseberg Ship

          Was Shakespeare an artist, then, as well as a playwright?
          But what really brings on these thoughts is my Green Man project. I wrote here some months ago that I'd woken up one morning - without ever having any such thought before in my life as far as I can remember - thinking: 'You should make a Green Man mask out of papier-mache.' And then my brother posted that he'd had much the same thought at about the same time.
          Those sort of things tend to stick in your head.
           I've been busy, and haven't actually ripped up one bit of paper for the Green Man, but I have been thinking about him a lot. A lot. And one happy side-effect of this has been an increase in the intensity of my observation. When I go out for a walk now, it's not just a bit of exercise in the fresh air - it's research.
          I'm perusing things as I would make them.
          I'm noticing the different veinings and textures of leaves. Some have plump, pillowy leaves with grooves between the veins. Others are flatter and smoother, but grained. There are pinked edges and smooth edges. Hazel leaves are almost circular, not 'leaf-shaped' at all.
          I'm noticing the different ways they spring from their twig or stem; how they grow in rosettes or spirals.

          I'm studying, with great interest, the dead stalks and seed-heads standing in the hedgerows. I've always enjoyed the brilliant red berries, but now I'm seeing how many different shapes of them there are.
         I imagine botanists and gardeners enjoy this pleasure in just looking all the time. Perhaps people fascinated by other things do too - people who're enthralled, say, by the study of beetles and other small cattle. But it's a pleasure I'd mislaid somewhat since, all those years ago, I used to stare at things, pencil in hand, hard enough to bore a hole in them.
          Whether or not I can reproduce any of these leaves and things remains to be seen - but even if I can't, I'll still have enjoyed this renewed pleasure in just looking. Dying leaves, lemon yellow with splotches and spots of green. Bramble leaves of a deep, glowing maroon red, that you'd think could never be natural, but is.

          In the meantime, I'm approaching the Green Man with due caution, by having a trial run at something else, just to see what I can learn. I'm using a cheap plastic mask (top) as a form. Can you tell what it is yet?

          The big news of the week, as far as I'm concerned, is that my agent says that she's enjoying Sterkarm 3, and will be in touch soon, with notes.

          She also says she found it confusing, in parts. It's not just me, then. I'm hoping she'll figure it out, and explain it to me.

          And Blott's back! So's Ashteroth...

I Did It!

Friday 7th September 2012 

     I did it, I did it!
          Three years to the month since I started, I've finished Sterkarm 3 and sent it to my agent just one hour ago.
          Now what do I do?
          Whatever, it has to be do-able one-handed. The doc's anti-inflammatories have done wonders for all my other joints - I am bounding up stairs and hills with lightsome foot - but left the tendonitis in my right hand and arm untouched.  When I finished the Sterkarm book last night,  my right wrist was visibly swollen.
          Still, it's forced me to remember many tricks, such as:

Cntrl + C = Copy

Cntrl + V = Paste

Cntrl + X = Delete

Cntrl + S = Save

          A double click on a word selects it for copying or deletion.
          All these enabled me to do a lot left-handed - quite suitable for writing about the Sterkarms! - in one corner of the key-board.
          So I'm afraid that's all for this post - 
          But good wishes to all and any struggling with finishing a book! Be of good cheer! It does, eventually, end.

Sterkarm Report

      Well, I failed.  It's 7-30pm on Friday night, and I know now that I'm not going to have Sterkarm 3 with my agent by tomorrow, September 1st.
         I tried hard.  I finished the book.  I'm a lot further on than if I hadn't set the deadline - but I'm going to have to ask for an extension.  Wednesday 5th seems a reasonable goal.
          What I still have to do is a final read through, while removing all the headings which helped me find my way around in 138,000 words.  I'm about a quarter of the way through, on Chapter 10.
          What's held me up?  Well - violins, please - a flare-up of tendonitis has not helped.  I am pecking out this blog with my left hand.  My right arm in a sling because it's so uncomfortable and at least, in a sling, it aches a little less.  It hurts to pick up an envelope right-handed.
          This slowed me down - and I had to spend time at the doctor's, getting some anti-inflammatory tablets.

          Happier interruptions - I sold a book through my website's new book-store, and had to pack up the book and post it.  Thank you, kind person.  The book is on its way.
          Also my cousin phoned from Switzerland, to ask, could he book me to tell spooky stories in November, to the kids in his Swiss school - via webcam and Skype?  Now this is something I've been thinking about for a while, and Alan has given me a useful shove.  I shall resurrect my Skype account, get a webcam, and learn to use it.   And then I shall offer virtual school visits - and maybe one-to-one writing advice via webcam, instead of just e-mail.
         Get me - the virtual writer.

          And here, especially dedicated to all those of you out there wrestling with edits, is Blott.

WHAT TO CALL STERKARM 3?

The Sterkarm books by Susan Price

          Whatever I call it, there's not much chance it will come to heel.
       At the bottom of this post - below Blott - I shall put a link to the first chapter, in rough draft, of Sterkarm 3.
        People have asked, what is the book's title going to be?
        Well, how would I know?  I've only just finished the first draft.
         Some writers start with the title, but that's never worked for me.  In fact, I hate titles.  I find it easier to write the book than come up with a title.

The American cover

          I remember that 'The Sterkarm Handshake' came to me quite late in the writing and rewriting of the book.  It suddenly struck me that it's the name of their family badge, but is said by their enemies to sum up their treachery - and the whole book is about treachery of one kind or another.  So it seemed to me to be a title that summed up the book rather well - but I had doubts because it was such an odd collection of words.  Would it make any sense to people?  Would they remember it?
          My publishers were just as doubtful, and I remember drawing up a long list of other possible titles - none of which seemed quite right, even if more usual - and then I had a phone-call from the publishers saying that, on second thoughts, they'd decided that 'The Sterkarm Handshake' was the right title after all.
          Since the second book was 'A Sterkarm Kiss', it's been suggested that the third should be called 'A Sterkarm Cuddle' or, even, 'A Sterkarm Shag' - but since a Sterkarm handshake means a stab in the belly, and a Sterkarm kiss means a cut throat, I'd rather not even contemplate what a Sterkarm cuddle or a Sterkarm shag might be.

Ravens

          At one time I was thinking of calling the book 'A Kindness of Sterkarms', playing on 'a kindness of ravens', that ill-omened bird.  But it never felt right.  
          And then Kath Roberts suggested 'A Sterkarm Cure', because it sounded more like the other titles.  So, its working title at present - when I don't just call it 'Sterk 3' - is A Sterkarm Cure.
          Which, of course, is rather like the Emperor Caligula's cure for his nephew's cough.
           But I can't promise that it will still be called that when and if it is ever finished and - one way or another - published.

          And as I contemplate rewriting Sterk 3, here's Blot on rewriting - 

And here, for those who want is, the link to the first chapter of Sterkarm 3