NEW YEARS WRITING RESOLUTIONS: BEING MORE ORGANISED
I haven’t made
too many writing resolutions this year, but one is working on being better
organized. I have so many disjointed notebooks with handwritten notes or
snippets in various Word documents. I know where everything is, but not always
in which form, so I end up wasting time searching, which can sometimes
frustrate me and interrupt my writing flow. Organizing notes can be difficult
and sometimes I’m left vaguely embarrassed by the shoddy state of my research
and outlines, and so this year I’m investigating writing software, a personal
wiki, and a Livescribe pen.
Until this point,
I’ve done all my writing and planning in Word. I tried to use Scrivener last
year but I just didn’t get on with it. But Word has severe limitations, and I
wanted something where I could combine my world-building, my outlining, and
timelines.
I tried a few
different types of software: Storybook, yWriter, and Liquid Story Binder. Storybook worked fine, but I didn’t like the
actual interface for writing. I couldn’t find full-screen and the window seemed
too small. It also had a bit too many bells and whistles that I didn’t need.
Liquid Story Binder was even flashier, and almost seemed like a procrastination
tool rather than writing.
The one that
worked best for me was yWriter, and so I’ve been using that while I draft
another project. This project is quite complicated so being able to take a step
back and get an overall view of scenes has been really useful. I’ve
prepopulated a lot of the later scenes with outlining and I keep changing as I
go. I’ve added pictures of locations and characters. There’s a separate section
for project notes so I can have background information on the setting, the
families that lived in the setting over the centuries, the rules for a certain
plot point, et cetera. Overall, it seems to be helping my organization and
productivity. Why didn’t I take the time to investigate these sooner?! I can be
a bit of a luddite sometimes.
Pantomime’s world is large and
complicated, and I have tons of scattered notes that this year I plan to
combine into a personal wiki and have an encyclopedia I can refer to and
populate as I write, such as the history of the royal family, the Snakewoods,
the political situations and culture of the other former colonies of the
Archipelago, and organize the detailed history of Ellada, which is the country
where Pantomime is set. This will stop me from going “now, where was that bit
of notes where I talked about Imachara’s layout again…?” and save me from
grinding my teeth in annoyance as I click through a bunch of folders. As I plan
to write several books in this world, having a cohesive history will be useful
and worth the time investment.
For Christmas,
my husband also bought me a Livescribe pen. When I suffer from writer’s block,
I like to turn to writing longhand. I find writing longhand soothing—it forces
me to slow down and think. I also am less distracted by things like Twitter.
Mainly, though, I’m not afraid of the initial words being ugly on a printed
page like I am when they are on a computer screen.
But transcribing
whatever I write longhand is annoying. It takes up a fair amount of time, and
as I work full-time and study part-time, I need to work as efficiently as
possible. Also, I worry about not having a backup of my written words. They
could get lost or damaged.
The Livescribe
pen works pretty well. The pen can be a bit thick and cumbersome, but overall
it’s easy to write with. After the computer syncs and scans it, I run it
through an application called myscript. My handwriting is not super neat, but
it’s not atrocious either. It does a decent job of transcribing, but I do have
to go through and tidy it up. The programme doesn’t seem to like my f’s or my
i’s.
So far, using
these skills have been so helpful. My drafting is more organized and I don’t
have ten Word documents lying around. I can still do longhanded drafting and
notetaking, but I don’t have to waste near as much time transcribing and then I
can paste that information into the project programme. These will hopefully
help me reach the main New Years Writing Resolution of 2013: write more than
2012, and write the best I can.
About Author Laura Lam
Laura Lam was raised near San Francisco, California, by two former
Haight-Ashbury hippies. Both of them encouraged her to finger-paint to
her heart’s desire, colour outside of the lines, and consider the
library a second home. This led to an overabundance of daydreams.
She relocated to Scotland to be with her husband, whom she met on the
internet when he insulted her taste in books. She almost blocked him
but is glad she didn’t. At times she misses the sunshine.
Laura Lam is represented by Juliet Mushens of The Agency Group.
I'm reading Pantomime right now!! I love Scrivener, myself. Can't do without it.
ReplyDeleteAllison (Geek Banter)