Tools Revisited

I've posted about writing tools here before. However, I found myself replying to someone else's post about differences between Scrivener and yWriter and it started to get a bit lengthy. I thought it might be time to multitask and revisit the subject with my current state of affairs. Admittedly a lot hasn't changed. 
 
I've used yWriter5 for several years now. I've completed several short stories and have several novels under way. I got yWriter originally because it was free, and yes, I'm a cheapskate. Free is excellent. yWriter does everything quite well. 

I started using it on Windows XP, then Vista and now Linux Mint 17.3. There is no native yWriter for Linux yet, however the instructions they give on the yWriter website for running it on Linux work very well. I keep several backups of my work on backup hard drives and flash drives. My main files stay on Dropbox. I have very rarely lost any of my work but it has happened. A sentence maybe, or even a paragraph once. My fault, usually.
 
I've looked at Scrivener for PC. I have the free intro and start it up now and then. It's very slick, but so far I haven't seen much that makes it worth paying for above yWriter. Scrivener does have a Linux version.  I have also tried Power Structure and Storyweaver (paid) software. They seem marvelous, but really don't seem to work intuitively for me the way yWriter does. (Side note: Storyweaver is worth the price almost just for the informative newlsetters and free lessons they will send you after you sign up.) 

Another one I have that has possibilities is Writer's Cafe. That is more like a suite of writer's programs that looks interesting and useful. It has free and paid versions.
 
I occasionally write plays, for those I use Celtx. They have a nice bundle of applications for scriptwork, mostly paid and online. However I use their free version locally on my laptop since I don't need to collaborate particularly. Check them out if you have interest in screenplays and film production, though.
 
I've also played with mind-mapping software. It intrigues me as a brainstorming tool, but I can't really seem to get into it.
 
For collecting ideas I like to use Evernote, since  it is fast and easy and works on all my devices. There isn't a Linux version, but there is an online version working through both Firefox and Chrome that works quite well when I'm on my laptop. That's okay because if I'm using my laptop, I'm usually on wifi, if I'm not then it's only a little less convenient to check Evernote on my smartphone.
 
For some of us, though, and I do mean me, the proliferation of tools often means we spend more time playing at organizing than we do actually writing. If you just want to get the story down, and especially if you're a pantser as opposed to a plotter,  then a regular word processor will let you do that. I still use Word a lot. I have Word 2000 that still works quite well and I run it on a Windows emulator on my Linux machine. I also have Libre Office, a free alternative that is much newer and compatible with Word documents. I just know Word the best and I'll keep using it as long as it works. I'm stubborn that way. Old dogs/new tricks and so on.
 
Beyond that, there are programs such as Zen Writer and Omm Writer and the like that give you an even simpler text editor with even less formatting options and buttons to get in the way. Just fire it up and write in a clean space with no distracting choices to keep you from composing. Some even offer quiet music for the background.
 
I've dabbled with all of these now and then, and still play with them a little. However, since my novels and shorts have been parts of series it really helps to have a tool like yWriter that keeps things like storyboard, characters, places, objects and so on easily available. 

On my Android phone and Fire tablet I love having apps that I can rely on to access my work whenever/wherever I want to. I have the aforementioned Evernote, Celtx Script and Index Cards, Google Docs and Hancom Office which serves to read/edit Word or other Office type documents that come my way. I also have The Brain. 

I also consider the ereader apps on those devices as  important tools as well. I have the Kindle app on every device for Kindle books and Moon Reader for any non-Kindles I may find (and I find a lot). Of course, the Kindle Fire tablet actually is a Kindle reader from the start. It took a bit of finagling to get a non-kindle reader to work on it, but nothing serious. Amazon has a lot of books for the Kindle, but there are lots that are in other formats as well. I ALWAYS have something to read!

Okay. There you have it. Two of the three "R's" covered. Readin' and 'Ritin'. One good EMP and I'm officially back to the stone age again!

What Brings You To A Screeching Halt?

 

Saw an old handgun advertisement on Bill Crider's excellent blog this morning. It started me thinking, as it often does. The reason will become clear in a bit.

The question is, when you're reading an otherwise good novel, hopefully lost in that world, what sort of things can eject you from that fantasy?

For me, it's firearms info. I do have some expertise in that area. I'm not an expert by any means, but I was fairly into guns for awhile in the past. I even spent a few years as a practicing and licensed Gunsmith. Some of the otherwise better authors out there can make the most basic errors concerning firearms. What are some of those?
     a. Revolvers don't eject shells, at least not automatically.
     b. Revolvers also can't be silenced very effectively.
     c. Handguns come in certain calibers, basically the diameter of the bullet. For the most part, those calibers are different from rifle calibers.
     d. Both revolvers and automatics are still pistols. 
     e. Pistols are not rifles, rifles are not shotguns, and vice versa. All are firearms, but they are not interchangeable. 

There are a lot more, but you get the idea. The most recent mistake I can think of was referring to an obvious shotgun as a 12 gauge rifle. Believe me, I was ejected from that high speed story forceably. It took a fair while to get back into it. Sometimes, I don't make the effort.

Now, I'm fairly certain that every book has the potential to piss off somebody about something. I guess the key is the readers exposure or expertise.

Are these things needlessly picky? You can decide. My personal feeling is that all books should have a truth, at some level they should educate. Sure, the story may be fiction, but when facts are stated they should indeed  be factual. You don't have to be an expert on everything, but if your plot turns on a set of facts, whether it's firearms, bullet trajectory, legalese, military terms, medicine our you name it, you as an author can always have some fact checking done by someone who IS an expert. Cultivate a few of those people, let them have a read of your opus in exchange for some acknowledgement.

The internet is always available for research. Writer's Digest has a wonderful series of books called the "HowDunit Series" each book focused on an aspect like Poisons, or Forensics.

The info is out there, use it! 

What yanks your emergency brake?

And, if you want some firearms expertise, I'm available! Cheers!

A New Tool: Music and Snowflakes

    I sometimes use an add-on toolbar for my Firefox browser called "Instant Writing Resources Toolbar". (The home page for it is here.) It has some interesting tools on it, though I admit some are more diversions than anything. One useful thing that it does have is a radio tuner to listen to online radio. I often enjoy having background music as I write. The playlist I use in my computer for that tends to be somewhat new age and ambient music. Gentle music without words is what I prefer. I also sometimes use the online players like iTunes radio tuner, Pandora radio, Fire.fm and so on. I think my favorite for this is Pandora. It more easily lets me customize my own stations to listen to, I've used it for a couple of years now and have already gotten several dozen stations there. My tastes can be pretty diverse sometimes. If I'm not writing, I enjoy blues, folk, and, in fact, almost any other type of music you can think of. 
    Okay, rap is out, and there is very little country I like, but bits and pieces of everything from Edith Piaf to Outkast, Raul Malo to Jason Mraz.
    One of the stations on the Writing Resources Toolbar is for a station called "Writers FM with Karl Moore." Occasionally I listen in to writer's interviews there. Today he was talking to  Randy Ingermanson about his "Snowflake" method of writing. Randy has a website explaining it here.
    It looks interesting. I admit I haven't delved far into it yet. He's also selling a software he developed to use the method, but he readily explains the basics, and it seems usable anywhere. 
    Check it out.
    He also wrote the book below.