Time

This month I'm participating in the A to Z Blogger's Challenge, found here. Every day of April (except for Sundays), we are posting a blog with the theme of A to Z.

T is for Time.

"More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have a talent that's special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina."

John Irving 

Everyone has a limited about of time in their life. Some of this goes to responsibilities, some to hobbies. Some to plain ol' fun. It all comes down to how we spend our time.

I don't know about you, but when I waste an entire day watching TV or running around doing errands, I don't feel productive in the slightest. It may have even been a fun day, but it wasn't productive unless I did something worth doing.

We can go through life and have a great deal of "fun," but not end up leaving something behind. As a writer, I want to accomplish something. I want to leave something of my writing behind every single day. So I was thinking about time, and how there's a limited supply of it, but also about what I do with the time I spend writing.

I can break my writing time into three parts: 
1. Planning
2. Writing the First Draft
3. Editing

But where does the majority of my writing time go? 

1. I'm not a huge outliner, so my planning stage tends to be brief, and usually mental (as in, unwritten). However, for the sake of argument, I'll include the mental outlining time in my calculations, because it is time on the novel. I'd say this is maybe 10% of my time.

2. I can type pretty fast, and NaNoWriMo helps me to put a first draft on the pages in about a month, month and a half. I spend from 1-3 hours a day on those days pounding out the first draft words.

3. Personally, like John Irving, I believe two-thirds of my time on a novel is spent editing. 

Allow me to rephrase: at least 66% of my time is spent in the editing phase. Perhaps this goes back to my perfectionism (see post here), and my desire to get every sentence perfect before sharing it with someone. That can be crippling. 

So it leaves me with a dilemma of when to stop. I could spend a lifetime editing and re-editing a novel (and, who knows?, maybe I will). But where's that moment in time when you stop doing good for the novel and start doing harm instead? I wish there were a timer on each of my novels. They would be just like those little plastic pop-up timers on the turkeys you cook every Thanksgiving. When the novel is prime and juicy, ready for consumption, the little red sphere pokes out and says, "Bing! I'm done. Send me on to a publisher, I'm not getting any better than this!" 

Okay, that's a bit unrealistic; let's get back to time. 

I think most of our time working on a novel should be spent in the editing phase. A first draft is crap.

For example, every NaNo month, the NaNo supporters and the NaNo haters pop up with their blogs, either encouraging or discouraging people to try their hand at writing a novel. Both have valid points. 

A first draft is crap. It's inedible swill, it's raw turkey. Maybe half-baked. And consuming it will give you food poisoning. Beginning writers must remember this. It's something that has taken me many years to learn. Looking back at my first novels, ones that I chose not to edit much, I know a first draft is not ready for a reader's eyes.

So the NaNo haters have a point: don't write a first draft and expect it to be awesome. Unless you're willing to do the work editing, you aren't going to make it as a writer. "Everyone has a novel in them," is an oft-quoted bit of encouragement for the wannabe writer. Yes, everyone may have a novel in them, but not everyone has the perseverance to make that novel the best they can make it.

A writer must accept that writing a novel is not just putting the words on the page. Writing a novel is rewriting. And that, my friends, takes times. And it's hard, sweaty work.

"There is no great writing, only great rewriting."Justice Brandeis 

Hemingway

H is for Hemingway

"…All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." -- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Ernest Hemingway. Even if you've never read one of his books, you admit that he's written classics. 

As I struggle with week 2 of the A to Z Blogger's Challenge, I feel like I'm hemming and hawing simply to come up with something that starts with the letter "H." (And believe me, "G" was a challenge! Yikes. I waited until the last minute with that one, and wrote a few different posts before I finally settled on writing about Galahad.)

Anyways, back to Hemingway. I've procrastinated enough on writing this post.

I've had the honor of visiting Hemingway's house in Key West, Florida. The thing I most remember about that visit? The cats. I think most visitors remember those the most. Well, I also remember the warmth. It was December, and I was wearing a tank top. For a girl from the Arctic, that's pretty unusual. Usually, I'm bundled up in a down jacket, scarf, hat, boots and mittens. Oh, and it's about 120 degrees colder than Florida in December. 

Right, Hemingway. Hemingway Home. 

This is Hemingway House. It's full of cats. 

If you know nothing else of Hemingway, know that he liked cats. And, he made his home a haven for polydactyl cats—i.e., cats with a sixth digit on their paws (some have six digits on only two paws, others on all four).

But back to writing. Hemingway had a lot to say on writing, on many subjects. Here are some quotes of his speaking to different aspects of writing well.

1. Writer's Block

"I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it."

Ernest Hemingway 

Hemingway's clear method of avoiding writer's block is to stop writing before it happens. I've tried this technique and found it to be true. Essentially, stop writing for the day when you know what's going to happen next. Then, when you return to your WIP, you can pick up with confidence. Usually writer's block is avoided when you can get started writing. This is a technique that I am especially attempting to use this month as I partake in Camp NaNoWriMo.

2. Knowledge

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."

Ernest Hemingway

I think this is most obvious when a writer tries writing about something that he or she does not know. Often, those are the books so bogged down in unnecessary detail that the reader starts skipping pages. It's important to know where factual information is needed and where it can be skipped. Is that bit of explanation on which paintbrush a character chose and how he mixed the paint really necessary? Or do we just need to know that he chose the red paint?

3. Characters

"When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature."

Ernest Hemingway 

"The hardest thing in the world to do is to write straight honest prose on human beings. First you have to know the subject; then you have to know how to write. Both take a lifetime to learn…" 

-- By-Line: Ernest Hemingway

This must be one of the thing a lot of writers struggle with. How do you create a character that is real, one that has flaws and strengths just like real people? How about one who speaks and thinks realistically? I think it's especially tempting to create "perfect" heroes and heroines in romance novels, but that's not reality.

4. Craft

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."

Ernest Hemingway 

"There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges."

Ernest Hemingway 

"For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can."

Ernest Hemingway 

"When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea."

Ernest Hemingway 

Ah, Ernest. Wise words from a master of the craft. Or should I say "apprentice?" 

5. Editing

"…After you learn to write your whole object is to convey everything, every sensation, sight, feeling, place and emotion to the reader. To do this you have to work over what you write." -- By-Line: Ernest Hemingway

Editing has to be the single most important thing to good fiction. Certainly no rough draft ever became a masterpiece.

~I.E.

Dusting Off That Old Manuscript (Or Revising Your NaNoWriMo Novel)

It's been nearly three full months since NaNoWriMo 2012. 

Which means, it's past time for me to start editing this novel, which I'll dub "WIP 2012" for the moment.


So that brings me to a question:  When do YOU edit your NaNo Novel?

My NaNo (and writing) philosophy is to keep writing and edit little on the first pass during November. If I do have a hard time getting started one day, I will go edit the prior scene, or return to another scene which I wanted to change anyways. That way, my Muse gets awakened, and the editing acts as my warm-up.

However, now, my first draft is completed, and I've been ruminating on it since the beginning of December.

By my estimates, it's past time for me to get working on edits. 

My biggest challenge will be in using this first edit to attack the main storyline of this novel, and ignore the grammatical errors. I have a horrible propensity towards constant line-editing.


My goals for my first edit:

1. Are there any any inconsistencies? Including those in setting/description, story threads and characters from page one to "the end."


2. What is my overarching goal of telling this story? Determine what it is and make sure it's smooth from beginning to end.

3. Does every scene have conflict? Is it left unresolved until later? Or do I resolve it too soon?

4. Does every scene have a purpose? Does it advance the plot?

5. How is my story different from every other one out there?

NaNo Challenges:
Because this is a NaNoWriMo novel, and NaNoWriMo clearly has an emphasis on quantity over quality, WIP 2012 is in especially rough shape. There was little that I cut during the month of November in order to have the most words possible at the end of thirty days. However, this should make it even easier to recognize what is filler and what isn't.

Goals:
1. Cut all the filler. 
2. Focus the plot.
3. Make every word count.

I hope to, by the end of April 2013, have a second draft ready for consumption by some beta readers. 

Getting Over Your Fear of Feedback

If you had told me when I first started writing that I would share my writing online with strangers and ask them to tear my work apart, I probably would have laughed at you.

The first few months (okay, years) of posting my work for feedback was, well, terrifying. My first real interaction with peer feedback was through F2K, a free fiction writing course given through Writers' Village University (WVU), where the slogan is "Writers helping writers."

I don't think I first realized just how much that slogan is true. But now that I've gone through F2K and joined the parent site, WVU, the words resonate with me. Giving your WIP to a friend to read is great, but if your friend isn't a writer or editor, they are going to miss a lot of things. Conversely, putting a chapter of my WIP up on an online forum of other writers guarantees that they are going to see something I missed. They aren't just going to tell me "I like it," or "I don't like it," but they're going to tell me why. That's how writers help writers. They explain what works and what doesn't work. And most importantly, how it can be fixed.

As I continued posting my work, first through F2K, and then finally screwing up my courage to begin posting a WIP that I'd worked on for years, it was tough. Tougher than tough. 

Every time I went to post a new chapter, I would spend hours and hours upon those 2000-4000 words. I would take a fine-tooth comb to them, and I would rewrite the same sentences dozens of times. I would doubt my characters, the actions the characters made, my plot... I would doubt that I could even write, that I could ever make it. I would think no one wanted to read this. The list goes on. Every writer's insecurity about their work, I probably had.

But my challenge didn't end with pressing the "post" button. I would finally find the courage to post, and then I couldn't bear to look at the feedback! *insert shamed face here* I'd thought I'd conquered my fear of posting--then it would seem so much more terrifying to read others' thoughts about my writing! I would be afraid it would be less than flattering, it would destroy the little confidence I had, or that others just "wouldn't get it." 

I was unable to face the truth about my work and preferred to live in my bubble where it was "safe."

This went on for months. Literally, months.

I still have some of those early scenes, unedited from some of the most useful feedback I've probably received, because I just can't screw up the courage to look at my faults full in the face. (And yes, there were most definitely faults in those scenes, some obvious and certain, others more subjective.)

It took me a long time before I finally realized what was happening. 

I was letting myself get too close to a scene.

It happens to all of us. We love our "darlings," we love our scene, our plot (or lack thereof)... We have embraced this story inside of us until it demanded release. Then we release it and think there could be nothing wrong with it--simply because we like it. And there certainly couldn't be a structural issue, or a flood of typos which make reading it a chore rather than a pleasure.

But when I couldn't bear to look at the feedback other writers had so graciously given me, choosing rather to ignore the most valuable tool in my writer's handbook, I had to do some searching. Searching inside myself, not online, not in books, not anywhere else. 

Where did this fear of feedback come from?

Well, for me, I think it's perfectionism. That dreaded desire to be infallible. Pride, to put it bluntly. Instead of acknowledging that I was still growing as a writer, I chose to shut my eyes to the very thing that could help me grow.

You see, by trying to have a "perfect" piece of writing, I failed utterly. Every time I posted, there was always something I had missed. Sometimes big things, sometimes just small things. But always something. 

This started to wreck my confidence.


It's been a long time coming, but I am finally starting to realize that I am more blinded to my own work than I think.

I admit it. I have a critical eye--of both myself and others. Yet I may read a sentence of my own creation and think it makes sense because I know what I want to say. Then I pass that sentence to someone else, and it doesn't make sense at all. In fact, it may be a sentence that I'm immensely proud of for the specific word choice I used, or the metaphor I so majestically laced through it (ha ha). Then the feedback comes in telling me to cut that sentence because it distracts or doesn't make a lick of sense. *sigh*

You see, I need those other sets of eyes to tell me, "I don't know what you are trying to say here." Or, "This has potential, but it's not fully developed." Or, "I need more description here. I can't see the scene you're describing." Or even, "I thought there were only two people in this scene now there's three?"

You get my point. Each writer knows what they are trying to show. But only by sharing your writing with someone else can you see what you're actually showing. And if it works.


Pride is no easy thing to turn your back on.

I can say the right words, acknowledge my shortcomings, but when someone blatantly (even if kindly) points them out to me, it wounds my ego.

I haven't completely conquered my fear of feedback yet. Not by a long shot. But I have been able to distance myself from my scenes much quicker than I did a few months ago. 

Instead of spending days editing 2000 words so that they might be "acceptable" to post, I spend a few hours and hit the "post" button before I can stop myself. I've accepted that there WILL be something wrong with it. 

Absolutely, definitely, most certainly, something will be wrong.

I've realized that every single time I spent days and days and hours upon hours editing the same scene, those were the scenes that came back torn to bits. Those were the scenes that everyone had found something big wrong with--sometimes each seemed to find a different thing wrong. Those were the scenes that needed a total rewrite. How frustrating, embarrassing, debilitating!

Lately, I've taken the tact of admitting straight up: "Here's my next chapter. I'm not really liking it. I don't know why. Help." Or "I have to post this before I tear it up and start all over again." I'm taking my pride down a notch. And although my pride doesn't like, I do. There's no place for pride when you want to grow.

When you go in with less pride, less ego, you have more room to grow. 

You can see what needs work, and you can take it to heart. You can improve. 

When you think there's nothing wrong with your work, you undermine yourself. You hinder yourself from growing. Even the best authors need a reader's feedback. Even the best authors need an editor.

So how do you get over your fear of feedback?

My answer for this is two-fold.

1. Throw pride out the window where it belongs.

2. Bite the bullet and press that post button--it will never be "perfect."

12 Things I Learned During NaNoWriMo 2012

1. NaNo is not about quality, but quantity.

2. There's no time for writer's block.

3. Coffee only gets you so far.

4. Life WILL get in the way.

5. Setting reasonable goals makes progress seem attainable.

6. Turn off the Internet.

7. Do NOT delete a word. (Just strike thorough it, and it'll still be counted when you validate your novel on November 30th.)

8. Prepare ahead of time.

9. Write now, research later.

10. Do NOT allow yourself to go back and edit.

11. Take notes of changes or ideas that occur to you throughout the month. (You will forget them if you don't.)

12. Never, ever, give up. Even if you're 10,000 words behind on November 30th, a 10,000 day can happen!

NaNoWriMo Day #29

Dun dun dun!! 

No, that would not be machine-gun fire, but the sound of victory you hear.

For today, at about noon, I passed the 80K mark. 

That's right, I have completed my goal of pounding out 80,000 words, good or bad, this month. (Mostly bad.)

It's been a long, arduous war filled with at least twenty pots of coffee and probably around 66 hours of typing. The enemy came on strong with everything it could throw at me in November: Thanksgiving, migraines, house guests, sick dogs...

And it's for those reasons that I savor the joys of my victory. It's a powerful feeling to know that you've beaten the demons trying to keep you from your goals. To know that, despite the odds, you can do what you set your mind to. 

It's encouraging to know that I can meet goals which seem daunting. To know that when the tough days come along, I don't give up and surrender to my desire to just climb into bed and sleep until December first.

My NaNo novel may not be a polished draft, and it may never be worth publishing. But I do think there are paragraphs that have promise. Maybe there's just one sentence on one page that is a diamond in the rough. And I'll have to wade through three hundred pages just to find it.

I'm okay with that. Because I know that editing is where you really write a book. That's where threads get untangled, character arcs get properly aligned, gaping plot holes are filled, and sentences are polished.

So I'll be moving on soon from writing to editing. And we'll see if I still feel the same about my NaNo 2012 novel when I emerge from my editing foxhole in the spring.

NaNoWriMo Day #28: Seeking After Perfection

Today took me completely by surprise. So far, I've pumped out 8,570 words. 

Out of these 8,570 words, I'm sure that only about 5% of them will remain when I edit this NaNo novel. But that's not what NaNoWriMo is about. It's about getting the words out, getting them on the page, and not worrying about whether they are perfect, or even passable. 

Quantity, not quality. Definitely not the way I run the rest of my life.

This picture  should say "winner," but I have yet to validate my novel. I'm waiting until the last minute because I have an addiction to updating my word count and like to see it posted on the NaNo site.

The past few scenes of my NaNo novel have been what have pushed me over the "goal" edge towards "above the goal." The characters are continuing to come alive and the scenes are flowing naturally from my fingertips. This means my scenes have gone a lot longer than originally planned, and I have a dozen scenes left to write as I near the end of my 80K goal. (I've always been a long-winded writer, and this novel is no different.)

I can only thank God when my scenes are flowing like this, even if it means I have to cut out multiple scenes when I edit later. And I know that a lot of what I've written will be discarded as imperfect, unwanted material when I enter the editing process.

I've been struck today by just how much easier it is for me to write new scenes than to edit a novel I've already written. To me, the writing process is easy (at least, easier than editing). Just sit down, and type out the words--even if they aren't what you really want the pages to say, you can always fix it later.

It's the "fixing it later" part that I get hung up on. A dozen drafts later, and I still feel it's not perfect. 

Perfection. 

That's what I want. 

And yet, that's what I know I can never, ever obtain. 

No matter how many times I revise, no matter how long I stare at the page, I will always, always want to change something. I will always doubt, I will always correct. 

And there will always be someone else who thinks that my sentence, or metaphor, or entire plot, is less than perfect.

So why do I seek perfection when I know it is unattainable?

NaNoWriMo Day #20

Two years in a row now, my November has been controlled by NaNoWriMo. I sleep, eat and dream of NaNo. The novel I choose to write holds the reins to my life for the entire month.

Well, I've come to the point of the month where I have conquered my demons. I've won.

Today, I passed the 50K mark. 

*insert cheer here*

It's a strangely anti-climactic feeling, knowing that the novel I'm working on is far from complete. 

What really happens at the 50K mark for me is that I have the urge to go back and edit what I've written. There are things I've changed, locations and specific details, which I need to go back and edit. But I know if I begin doing that, I'll stop writing new scenes and will instead focus on making all the scenes I've written up until now as good as I possibly can. The problem with that scenario is that I know as I write new scenes, more things will need to change, and more edits will need to occur. It's a sick cycle, really. A cycle I must postpone starting until at least December first.

So this is the point where I bite my lip and continue typing new material, willfully ignoring the almost unconquerable desire to edit. Instead, I make a note of what needs to be changed, lest I forget somewhere between the caffeine-induced, novel-writing frenzy of November. 

On December first, I'm certain I won't be taking a day off. I'll either be finishing my NaNo novel (word count and deadlines ignored), or I'll be diligently beginning my editing process. 

I guess we'll see which it is in ten short days.

NaNoWriMo Day #10

Ten days in already. Time definitely flies when there's an agenda.

In fact, life has a way of getting in the way when there's an agenda.

Really, my laziness is my own worst enemy. I'd much rather veg out and not think when I feel overwhelmed by things, and this novel has had a way of overwhelming me. 

Thankfully, there's a Starbucks nearby, and when I go to Starbucks, I get things done.

I'm sure others have similar problems: while at home, no work can be done, but if you go out to a coffee shop or park, you can accomplish great things.

Starbucks is my main work place. I've spent many hours there editing and writing, and observing people. 

Oh, and drinking coffee. We can't forget the coffee during NaNoWriMo.


Day 10 Word count: 29,002
Day 10 Goal: 16,670

Apps for Writing a Novel

I typically write my novels in Scrivener (on a MacBook Pro), but often, when I'm "on the go," I want to have my novels at my fingertips to edit. I've found a few apps which help in that task, and I thought I'd share. I'm not a techie or even presume to be one. I also hate to spend money on an app that I haven't experienced before, so most of these are free apps that I have found useful in daily editing and writing.

1.) Evernote

Although this is not an app that syncs with Scrivener (maybe one day), it is awesome for impulsive note-taking and jotting down ideas. The app syncs over multiple devices, iPad, iPhone, iTouch, even Mac and PC. You can sync voice memo notes, or save an entire webpage (on your computer), separate your notes into notebooks. These notebooks, you can make into "shared notebooks" or "offline notebooks." (Note: offline notebooks are a "premium" feature, which costs $4.99 a month or $44.99 a year to utilize.) 

You can also tag your notes, and later search by tag if you've forgotten what you've called the note or even if you made a note about it--as long as you tagged it. Also, you can "favorite" a note, which I like to use for those notes that continually come back to, or something that needs attention.

As a non-paying Evernote user, I get 50 MB of syncing/storage per month. For my uses, this is plenty. The only times I've even come close to using this is when I upload a lot of pictures or Internet pages.

In the two years I've used this app, I have yet to pay for this service, and have found it invaluable in making notes for later novels, works-in-progress or keeping track of research.

2.) Dropbox

This is not actually a word-processing app, but a storage app that you can also download to your computer. Then you save your document into the Dropbox folder and can pull up the document on your iPad, iPhone or iTouch later. There's some overlap in iCloud's abilities for a Mac user, but overall, I've found Dropbox to be simpler and, at times, more dependable. If I save a document into Dropbox, the document shows up in the app and I can download it, then "open in..." Pages or Index Card (more on that later).

Now I do physically have to put my files there and keep them updated--Dropbox doesn't do that automatically. At least, I haven't found it to do so, unless you're keeping the original file there, which I don't. I prefer to keep backups or copies on Dropbox and work from them when I'm on the go. I'm still a laptop writer at heart, and that's my preference, as I can type a heckuva lot faster on my MacBook Pro than on my iPad (even though I love it).

3.) Simplenote

This is one of those I-love-but-hate apps. I've found a ton of difficulty in dependability in syncing Scrivener to Simplenote (although it's simple to do.) 

To sync Scrivener and Simplenote, go to "File," then "Sync" and select "Simplenote." From there, you'll need a Simplenote account and password, which you set up online. Then enter your information and give the project a "keyword." This can be anything, but it acts like a folder and tag, so you can compile the entire document in Simplenote on the web or on your iPad. Click on "Continue" and it will talk with the Simplenote server to download your notes on there already, and then it will give you an option to select which files to sync. 

This is the point where I constantly get "Download Failed: There was a problem downloading the notes from the server." Sometimes, if I try again, I can get it to communicate, other times, it's not worth the effort.

If you get past that point, you can select which notes to sync with Simplenote, from all of them, to one, and you have the option to permanently delete files on the server which you choose not to sync at that time. Of course, make sure that you don't need those files, because once deleted, they're gone forever.

Even though I have problems syncing, I can access Simplenote on my computer, my iPad, my iPhone, my iTouch. I always have a backup at my fingertips, and should something happen to my computer, there's a backup in Simplenote. Call me paranoid, but I like having as many backups as I can--especially when they're free.

4.) Index Card

This is one of the few apps I've paid for that I enjoy (current price $4.99). Scrivener allows you to sync with Index Card via Dropbox, and allows you to utilize the summary you write on the card portion of Scrivener, unlike Simplenote. It also allows you to rearrange your scenes or chapters with a quick drag of the finger. Of course, you have to go back into Scriverner and "file," "sync with Index Card for iOS," to make sure you're writing on the same document, but it's nifty once you get the hang of it.

One downside to this is that syncing is not quite as simple as with Simplenote. Instead of syncing and being allowed to choose the documents you want to sync at that time, you have to create a "Binder" section in Scrivener with all the scenes or folders you want included in your sync prior to selecting "sync..." under "file." If you don't, you'll be syncing nothing or omitting some scenes that you might have wanted to work on. 

Case in point: if you create a new scene in Scrivener and don't immediately add it to your Index Card binder by right clicking on the title and selecting "add to collection" and then choosing the correct collection to sync, you're out of luck  when you sync later--the new scene has not been added, and you won't be reminded to do so, either. That's a huge downside for me--I often forget to add a new scene to my Index Card binder in Scrivener, and when I go to sync, I'm not given a list to compare old saves/syncs versus my new save/sync to, and I often forget about a scene. 

As a result, I've learned that you can keep several binders in Scrivener for Index Card purposes (or other purposes, but I don't have a need to at this point). I often create a new one when I'm trying to update my files for syncing because I don't want to scroll through and figure out which files are there and which aren't. 

Index Card on iPad is great though, and I've found it to be relatively bug-free with few crashes (i.e., loss of work). You can color-code your cards, edit the main text or the card summary or title. You can also jump through your text by "word," either forward or backwards, which is awesome to have when writing a novel or short story on the iPad, instead of having to use your finger to painstakingly put the cursor in just the right spot to add that "s" to "sync." It also gives you the quick buttons: undo, -, ', ", ., ◀ & ▶ (allowing you to cursor forward or backwards one character), a "+" button which adds a new scene in your file, and a forward delete button. All of these are great for writing a novel on your iPad, buttons that you'll soon wish you had in Pages or your Messages.

Index Card is a convenient app to have for writing on the go, and I enjoy it for what it is. Just remember to sync back to Scrivener when you've made changes on your iPad, otherwise you'll be working with an old document. 

When you return to Scrivener, you cannot have forgotten to export your Index Card edits to Dropbox, or else all your work will only be accessible via your iPad. You can do that with the nifty little arrow button on the top right of the screen--but it does kind of suck that you have to do this and it doesn't save there automatically. 

And when you go to update your files in Scrivener, you must select "update collection from Index Card file," and all your files are replaced in Scrivener with the newer documents from your iPad.

Although Index Card and Scrivener are tedious to use together, the backup is nice, especially considering how complete a backup it is from Scrivener.


In conclusion:

I don't like to use too many apps. I prefer to keep life simple with ones that work and work well. I familiarize myself with a few and stick to them until I find something better.

These four apps are the free or inexpensive apps which I've found myself returning to time and again for writing on the go. 

There are a ton of other writing apps out there, and I've certainly not tried them all. I've focused on ones that I can use in conjunction with Scrivener, since that's where I do the majority of my writing.

If there are more that I should be using, please feel free to let me know! I'm always up for trying a new app, as long as it's affordable. I'm a starving writer, after all. 

Compulsive Editing Disorder

Photo credit: Nicolas Karim

I'm always astounded by how long editing an entire novel takes me. I go through peaks and valleys of editing like mad and feeling completely apathetic (or worse freaking out about the state of my manuscript, despite having edited this thing ten times!).



But it never fails. As soon as I finish one round of editing, I immediately want to start the next. Although I know that I should let it sit and come back to it in a week or so, I feel that I never think so clearly as when I have recently completed an edit, I feel as though I am never more aware of my manuscript's flaws and never more able to fix them.


Sometimes, I think I need this "warmup" (i.e. first) edit to fully understand what the purpose of my manuscript is and how I should be editing it.


I struggle with this, since most writers and teachers of writing tell you to let a manuscript "rest" before tackling a new edit. Still, I recognize a lot more flaws when I've just edited as opposed to approaching the piece after a rest.


What I really should be doing is reading my novel and making notes, refraining from line-by-line edits until a second read-through. However, I find that I am such a compulsive editor, that I'm afraid my "perfect sentence" will disappear from all time if I don't immediately edit the sentence at the time of my reading. And although there's merit in that, I admit that I often change the "perfect sentence" when I later edit.


What a second edit does for me is allow me to see my manuscript with more critical eyes, even though I can be very self-critical on a normal day. A second, immediate, edit reveals to me the Big Issues. And although I realize this is backwards from what is recommended, it's made me realize: I am a compulsive editor.


So what I am going to strive to do is to take time to skim my WIP first, look at Big Picture Issues, and then, after fixing those, go line-by-line grammatically. Avoiding fixing grammar mistakes is a difficult thing for me to even imagine, but it is my goal for the next big edit!


What are some of your goals for editing? What do you need to work on?