The Unofficial nanohelpblog

Scrivener is a writer’s best friend. 

It’s a word processing software created with unruly, complicated novels in mind. However, some writers stay away because its many features can be seem overwhelming at first. If you want to use Scrivener, but haven’t taken the plunge yet. Or if you already use Scrivener, but haven’t explored its many features, check out my three part guide to writing a novel with Scrivener, from planning to editing and all of the key smashing in-between. 

1. Planning with Scrivener

Scrivener comes with tools dedicated to outlining, researching, and brainstorming your manuscript. The first part of this series details everything you can do in Scrivener before setting that first line down in ink (or pixels.) 

2. Drafting with Scrivener 

The second part in this series covers the actual “writing” part of writing. It covers multiple composition modes (even making your screen mimic Microsoft Word!), writing in split screen, word targets, and more. 

3. Editing with Scrivener

The third part of this series gives advice on exporting your writing into a standard manuscript format, saving each version of your work as you go along, and the best tools for revising your manuscript. 

Download a free 30-day trial of Scrivener at its official site. 

I forgot how utterly amazing this software is, so I’m re-blogging my three Scrivener guides! 

The four features that are killing it for me right now are:

A separate text file for each chapter. The organization make it so easy to move around my manuscript, so that doing things like going back to certain chapters to find information I need isn’t an utter nightmare. Equally important, I try to make sure my chapters are between 1,500 and 2,500 words for consistency. Having a separate text file makes it easy to see how far away I am from that mark. Which brings me to feature two.

Targets! I can set manuscript targets, session targets, and chapter targets. This means I can tell Scrivener I want my novel to be 40,000 words long, my chapter to be 2,000 words long, and that I’d like to write 1,500 words today. I can even say I want to finish my book by August 1st, and it’ll tell me how much I need to write each day to meet it–adjusting automatically if I go over/under my daily goal. It’s motivational too, pushing me forward because I’m never far away from hitting a goal. 

Statistics! Scrivener goes above and beyond for manuscript statistics. I click one button and it tells me how many words there are in my book, how long the paragraphs and sentences are on average, how many chapters there are, the longest and shortest chapters, how many pages the document would be as a paperback, and even how long it would take to read!!!! I. Love. It. 

On the other hand, ‘winning’ NaNo is often misunderstood as some kind of binary. As if not officially ‘winning’ (getting 50k in a month and validating on the site) means you failed and may as well not have bothered. Chris Baty is probably rolling in his very-much-alive-but-you-understand-the-metaphor as I write this.

The point of NaNo is to encourage you to reach impossible heights, yes. It’s wonderful to reach 50k. And there are reasons for that number and for the month chosen and for the time constraint used.

But writing fewer words is not a ‘waste’. It’s not a negative. In no way did you ‘lose’ or ‘fail’ NaNo as a result, and it would be ridiculous to claim that. I have yet to see NaNofolk claim there is a way to ‘lose’ NaNo. There isn’t one. If you wrote 30,000 words, that’s good. If you wrote 1,000 words, that’s good. If you outlined a bit, then realized this wasn’t working for you and moved to January, that’s fantastic. You worked on your novel. And that’s the point of NaNo: to get something done.

The fact that people don’t win NaNo most of the time doesn’t really strike me as a bad thing, for that reason– how many people sign up each year aiming for different goals? So many NaNo Rebels, so many people ready to write some difficult-to-measure content or stick to a smaller goal for their own reasons. You will never find a decent person getting down on someone for choosing to aim for a different goal on the site– the forums have explicit rules against judging anyone else’s method of approaching NaNo. I wonder if the people who hate NaNo so thoroughly know that– that they could get on the site, say “this month I am working the same as I do every month; with no constraints and no specific goals” and people would applaud them.

Author Celebration!

Scrivener 3 is Now Available for Windows! Enjoy the amazing features macOS users have had for years.

Read more on my blog and see a screenshot of my NEW Scrivener 3!

Hi there!

First off, happy NaNo to anyone participating in any way/shape/form this year!

I think we sometimes forget that titles go through a process just like our actual writing. We get a little idea that turns into a big one but we end up scrapping it and twisting it into something else we’re not quite happy with but then we cute it and find something we like more….and the cycle goes on. Even if you come up with a title you love and it fits your story perfectly, it may not end up still working further on down the line due to a variety of reasons. So my first piece of advice is to not take the title too seriously. 

Titles can come from all sorts of places; it could be derived from your main character’s names or traits, it could stem from the conflict of the story, or it could be something more meta and/or abstract.

For example, Harry Potter. The series is just referred to as the Harry Potter series, but each individual book is “Harry Potter and…” followed by an object or person that’s important to that specific plot.

Then you have Twilight. Each of the books has similar titles (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, Midnight Sun) but those titles aren’t strictly tied to the content or conflict of the books. 

Sometimes your titles don’t always make sense until the end of the story. Take Tamora Pierce’s Tortall universe for example. Each of the quartets has an overarching title, and then each book has a separate title. The “Protector of the Small” series has an overarching title that makes sense from page 1, but also grows in depth and meaning as you progress through the books. Same with “Song of the Lioness”. 

Personally, coming up with a title depends on the project. My current WIP for NaNo has a title that probably won’t last once I start sharing it more because of how generic it is and how many businesses/other stories use it already. When I write fanfics, I try to be a little more dramatic/abstract and that means using a line from the fic itself or some sort of complex phrase that kind-of-barely-relates (titles of various things I’ve written, for example: Your Move, He Knows, Hesitation Lasts but a Moment, The Truths Plants Tell). 

Ultimately, it’s up to you how direct you want the title to be. Just don’t forget that the title isn’t permanent until you publish, and even then there’s room for an adjustment!

Plug that shit into your computer

Copy all your writing over onto it

Do this at least twice a month until you die

do you think this is a joke?

SAVE your WORK

Back! It! Up! 

To a USB, to the cloud, to a top secret extraterrestrial server buried in the dust of the reddest and raddest planet Mars, I don’t give a fuck

I have witnessed too much heartbreak and bloodshed and it’s time to fight back 

Be the legend I know you are

SAVE YOUR WRITING

It is not any sort of insulting name you call it.

It is a baby.  A young, inexperienced baby that might throw up on your shirt and cause you to lose sleep at night but you love it all the same and will patiently feed it and tuck it into bed at night with a kiss no matter what happens.

You do not call a baby stupid or awful because they are new to the world and do not have the ability or knowledge to function on their own.  Instead, you nurture and teach them so they grow up smart and strong and capable.

Such it is with a first draft.  A first draft is not bad because it needs care and attention. Don’t insult it because it is newly written down with ideas that are not yet fully formed.  In fact, that is the reason why it is AMAZING.  It’s a DRAFT!  The FIRST one for the story!  LOOK at it!  It exists!  It is ALIVE!  And it is YOURS, this story you made.  

It’s okay to participate even if you haven’t plotted out to the nines.

It’s okay to participate even if you think there’s no way you’ll “win.” (I hate that title, anyway, because anyone who gives it an honest try is winning, in my opinion.)

It’s okay to participate even if you’re writing fanfiction.

It’s okay to participate even if you aren’t setting your goal to 50,000 words.

And on that note…

It’s okay not to participate at all.

It’s okay not to participate because you’re too busy.

It’s okay not to participate because you don’t want to do it.

It’s okay not to participate because you’re not prepared, or you don’t like plotting and need legroom in your process.

With NaNoWriMo around the corner, I thought I might show you how I plotted my novel.

This is the story structure I used:

0% inciting incident

0%-20% introduction in the world, ends with a point of no return

20% first plot point: the hero receives his marching orders

20%-50% response to the first plot point

35% first pinch point: reminder of the nature of the antagonistic force

50% midpoint: big fat plot twist that changes the hero’s AND reader’s experience

50%-80% attack: the stakes are higher now

65% second pinch point: again reminding the reader of the antagonistic forces at hand

80% second plot point: the final injection of new information into the story to give the hero everything she needs to become the primary catalyst in the story’s conclusion (no new information past this point)

80%-100% resolution + final conflict + return home

I didn’t make this up. I think it’s by Larry Brooks, if The Internet informs me correctly. Fun Fact: once you pay attention to it, you’ll see this structure everywhere. Just take a look at any Harry Potter book, for example.

These points are the “bones” of my story. Next, I decided what “flesh” to put on them.

I simply made a list of things I like to read about:

Books about books and libraries

Magic

Quirky characters

Intelligent, fast-paced and sometimes silly

So, I combined this list and the structure points into a story that makes sense. Because I don’t want to spoil my plot / I am still to shy about my wip, I will make up a new plot for this post, so I can show you.

0%: The hero does something magical without knowing how she did it. She discards it, because everybody knows it can’t have been real.

0%-20%: We see the daily life of the hero: she is unhappy because all she wants to do is read, but she is not allowed to. She reads in the dead of night and is punished for it by her evil stepcousin. She finds a book on magic.

20% It all clicks together: she can do magic!

20%-50% The daily life for the hero changes. Instead of reading all night, she practices magic. She now loves books even more. She has little victories over her evil stepcousin, but hasn’t won yet.

35% The evil stepcousin finds out that she can do magic and takes away the magic book.

50% She discovers she can do magic without the book.

50%-80% The hero is not the only one who is bullied by the evil stepcousin. Her younger cousin is a victim as well, and he doesn’t have magic to defend himself. The stakes are raised, this is bigger than herself now. The younger cousin also wants to read, so they have several bonding moments over reading.

65% The evil stepcousin hurts the younger cousin, he’s in a coma now.

80% The hero discovers the evil stepcousin could do all these evil things because he knows magic too.

80%-100% The hero confronts the evil stepcousin, fights him off, nearly loses but wins in the end. He gives up and releases his power over the younger cousin who wakes up from the coma.

It’s not the most genius plot ever, but I literally made this up in minutes. So can you! And imagine the genius plot you can come up with if you spend more than a few minutes on it.

Then I calculated how many scenes I need in which part of the story. My wip is a YA or 12+ book, so I want it to contain about 75,000 words in total. I want my scenes to be around 1,000 words long to keep it snappy, so I need 75 scenes.

Scene number 1 (0%) is the inciting incident, scene number 15 (20%) is the first plot point, scene number 26 (35%) is the first pinch point, scene number 37 (50%) is the midpoint, scene number 49 (65%) is the second pinch point, scene number 60 (80%) is the second plot point and scene 75 (100%) is the last scene.

Some sidenotes on the 1,000-word scenes:

That’s more of a vague rule of thumb than a strict rule. If your scene needs to be longer or shorter, make it longer or shorter of course. My wip has some 2,300-word scenes as well.

Having 1,000-word scenes does not mean I have 1,000-word chapters, that would be really short. I will divide my novel into chapters after I’m finished writing my first draft.

For NaNoWriMo, maybe you could write scenes of 1,667 words, so you do one scene per day. A 50,000-word novel has 30 scenes of 1,667 words. Inciting incident is at scene 1, first plot point at scene 6, first pinch point at scene 11, midpoint at scene 15, second pinch point at scene 20, second plot point at scene 24 and scene 30 is your last scene. That’s just an idea, you got to see what works for you.

Then I made up in one sentence what will happen in every scene. For example: “They meet the dragon and he sends them on a sidequest.” Now my outline consists of 75 one-sentence scenes. This way, I prevent the problem of the sagging middle and other pacing problems and I still get to surprise myself when writing.

From those one-sentence scenes, I flesh out every scene into a first draft, using the process I described in my post How I never have to face an empty page when I write.

And that’s my first draft! I hope everything is clear. Feel free to ask me questions if it isn’t.

I’m gonna tag a few people I admire, who I hope are interested. If you aren’t, feel free to ignore me, or message me to take you off my tag list. If you would like to be added to my writing advice tag list, let me know.

It’s okay. Your desire to write will return. Your desire to do other things you love will come back, too. You’re not weak. You’re just having a hard time right now. Try not to add self-judgment on top of everything else. Depression is hard enough without blaming yourself for it.

We (in the US specifically) live in a productivity-obsessed, emotion-phobic culture which blames individuals for “failing” when they are anything but hyper-productive and relentlessly optimistic. This cultural narrative so pervasive that it’s difficult to see the high standards we set for ourselves for what they really are: Complete and total bullshit.

Despite the rampant cultural garbage that teaches us to interpret emotional ups and downs as an aberration, MANY writers and artists (and people in general!) struggle with depression and other mood “disorders.” It is not uncommon for us, among other things, to go through periods of hyperactivity followed by depressive episodes in which we get very little accomplished. I am not saying you shouldn’t try to alleviate your depression or work to find ways to minimize your suffering in the short or long term. I’m just saying there’s nothing wrong with you, and you aren’t alone.

I’m going to say that again:

If you’re having a hard time writing or enjoying writing right now because you’re depressed, you aren’t alone.

I wish I had some kind of magical answer. I don’t. But I do know that accepting your depression and loving yourself anyway beats the hell out of berating yourself for feeling like this. So, with that in mind, this might be all I have to offer:

I think you’re doing a great job. I’m sorry you feel like shit. I’m on your side whether you’re writing or not; whether you feel good or not; whether you’re being “productive” or not; whether you wanted to get out of bed this morning or not. You’re still a writer to me, even if you’re not writing right now. You don’t have to prove yourself to me or anyone else. I love you, and I hope you feel better soon.

//////////////

Okay, I know that a good majority of us read fanfic. And AO3 is quite popular, I love that site.

I recently just came across a site on my laptop while I was looking some klance fics to read. I found one and clicked on the link which said it was an AO3 fanfic. Norton Security prevented me from accessing the site because it ‘may be impersonating AO3 to steal your personal or financial information’

If you find a link to a fanfic and it has ‘www.archiveofourown.com’ run for the hills. The true AO3 is .org not .com. It may seem obvious but it’s pretty easy to miss. Just letting all my fellow fanfic addicts out there know that there is a scammer.

I’m trying to tag all the fandoms I’m in so that those people are aware.

What kind of person impersonates a well known fanfic site to steal information. Such a heinous crime. I will admit, this person was pretty smart. All kinds of people read fanfics, especially teenagers. Just think of that and how easy it would be.

Anyways I’ve been getting over 380,000 notes a month easily and now I’m getting supposedly less than 1,000 a day. The ‘best stuff first’ feature has downgraded this site a tremendous amount, not only is the feature destructive to smaller blogs, they also somehow fucked up the activity page, and is no longer accurate or useful. 

I know the whole of writeblr takes a sudden, thrumming turn at the cusp of October, becoming a screaming torrent of word counts and panic when November rolls around, and for those of you who don’t find NaNo helpful at all, I want to reassure you: It’s okay.

This one’s for all you non-NaNo-ers out there,

all you whose ideas need time to percolate

all you whose mental illness prohibits you from participating

all you whose physical disabilities don’t allow for quick typing

all you who don’t problem-solve in moments

all you who have moved past NaNo being useful

all you who’ve never “won” and quit trying

all you who got burned by the speed of the month and decided never again after 6 months of being unable to write afterward

all you whose stories don’t need 50,000 words to tell and don’t want to stretch it past what it needs

all you who never felt like you fit in with your community and seeing all the posts makes you feel that all the more keenly

all you whose style doesn’t allow for it

all you who hate the very notion of a quantity over quality race

all you whose time management has always led to failure

all you whose word counts are never where you want them

all you who can’t function under the competitive pressure and comparing that goes on

all you who don’t feel like what you write qualifies

all you whose process doesn’t fit into the neat 1,667 words per day algorithm.

This is for you. It’s okay that NaNo doesn’t work out for you. It’s okay that you don’t enjoy it. Not everything is for everybody. In a subjective world like writing, it’s all about finding what works best for you, and “popular” does not always mean “right.”

So, a lot of my old followers know this story— but a couple years back my PC suffered a hard-drive failure. I lost almost everything on it. I had managed to back up a few docs here and there (and I thankfully I had begun moving things over to Evernote), but I lost 99% of my computer files.

And that included a lot of my writing. It was a very sad and traumatizing experience to lose SO MANY stories I had written over the years. So, please don’t let that happen to you!

If you were waiting for a sign to back up your writing, and everything you care about, THEN THIS IS THAT SIGN.

Save it on a USB Flash drive

Upload it to the Cloud

Save it on Evernote

Email it to yourself

Whatever you need to do— do it!

While you are worrying about whether beta readers will steal your ideas, there is a more genuine threat on the horizon.

When offered a publishing contract, please do all your research before you sign. There are a number of fakes and scammers out there, as well as good-intentioned amateurs that don’t know how to get your work to a wide audience. I won’t tell the heartbreaking stories here - there are too many.

Being published badly is worse than being never published.

It can destroy your career and your dreams.

The quick check is to google the publishing house name + scam or warning.

But, to be sure, check with these places first. They aren’t infallible (nothing is) but they can help you protect yourself. They are written and maintained by expereinced writers, editors, publishers and legal folks.

Absolute Write: Bewares and Background Checks

Preditors and editors

Writer Beware

and the WRITER BEWARE blog

Keep yourself and your work safe.

Equally important to know is that you can SELF-PUBLISH through a number of platforms these days. @ean-amhran and I used Amazon’s CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing to publish both of our books. No editors, no contracts, no finagling with publishers who want to change your materials. Just direct-to-market material.

(Granted, it means you’ve got to do a LOT more work yourself with editing and formatting and cover art, but it’s worth it to miss the headache of trying to bargain with publishing houses or avoid scams.)