Chris Longmuir, Crime Writer: Scrivener

Monday, 25 September 2017

#ScotsWrite17 was a blast

Two years in the planning but the Society of Authors in Scotland conference ScotsWrite was a roaring success although now it’s all over I have to admit to being a bit knackered.

ScotsWrite team meeting to plan the day ahead

Decked out in our royal blue tee shirts and/or sashes we were constantly on the go. My Fitbit, which monitors how much exercise I take and how many steps and miles I walk, almost collapsed with exhaustion. And at the end of each day, I also collapsed into bed thinking I’d never make it to breakfast the next morning. But I always did. Plus I had to be bright and breezy for the morning team meeting where we did our planning to ensure all the delegates got an amazing experience.

I think we succeeded in providing that amazing experience because there was a definite buzz during the conference and many demands for us to do it again next year. However, there were no plans to make this an annual event. It was meant to be a one-off and given the fact this conference was two years in the making the logistics would rule out another event of this nature next year. But it has planted the idea that this cannot be a one-off and that there might need to be thought given to a repeat in the future. I, for one, certainly hope it can be done again.

The registration desk is ready and we're raring to go

The conference started on Friday afternoon, but we were all there from early morning to tackle the tasks that needed to be done prior to the arrival of the first delegates. There was registration to set up as well as display boards inviting comments and discussions. Some of the organising team assisted by student volunteers tackled the mammoth task of packing the goody-bags. In fact, there was so much to do I did wonder at one time whether we would make our deadlines. But writers are used to deadlines and this was a conference organised by writers for writers. So everything was completed in time and the conference got off to a good start.

Three of our keynote speakers

Our lineup of speakers was outstanding. Many conferences have one keynote speaker but because we had a keynote speaker each day of the conference and two on Saturday, that meant we had four: Joanne Harris the author of Chocolat and other books; Jane Johnson who has been a publisher and is now an author; Charlie Higson who wrote the young James Bond books; and Joanna Penn, author-entrepreneur, who is an expert on all aspects of publishing and marketing. I managed to see and hear them all except for Charlie Higson because I was manning the registration desk which remained open the entire conference for any queries that might arise.

Denise Mina presenting her breakout session

Apart from the keynote speakers, there were masses of breakout sessions (workshops) all of which were excellent, and I had the honour of hosting Denis Mina at her session. She’s a lovely person as well as being a brilliant writer. Did you know she won this year’s McIlvanney prize for best crime novel? Other breakout sessions were presented by Caro Ramsay, Emily Dodds, Mary Hoffman, David Bishop and a host of others. We also had two Scrivener sessions and got a sneak peek at the new Scrivener Three which will be launched within the next few months. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Westerwood Hotel - ScotsWrite venue

Our venue was the Westerwood Hotel at Cumbernauld and as far as I am concerned it’s one of the best conference hotels around. The facilities offered included their own golf course as well as a spa but, of course, we didn’t have time to use them. As always, the food was delicious and I think I’ll have to diet for the next month to recover. Oh, and I can’t forget the ceilidh we had on Saturday night after the gala meal. It was a blast as well. The floor was packed although I managed to avoid most of the energetic dances like the eightsome reel and strip the willow.

Whooping it up at the ceilidh

I’m exhausted after all that and I’m off to lie down to recover now. You may not see me for some time!

Chris Longmuir

https://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

Amazon: Author page

Monday, 27 July 2015

Writing a Novel with Scrivener

I am not a book reviewer and I don't usually review books in this blog. However, there are times when I read a book I enjoy so much I try to squeeze the time to do a review as a form of repayment for giving me pleasure, and then I post it to Eclectic Electric. So, this post started out as a review for Eclectic Electric, but like Topsy, it grew and grew, and that's because there was so much in this book I wanted to comment on. By the time I finished writing about this book it was far too long for a review for either Eclectic Electric, or for Amazon, so I've made a post out of it.

I'm full of good intentions and as a user of Scrivener I had been intending to read Writing a Novel with Scrivener, by David Hewson, but somehow or other I never quite got round to it. However, I have to admit it had been languishing in my Kindle for some considerable time. As I said, I'm full of good intentions. A long train journey gave me the opportunity to get to grips with it.

It was a relatively easy book to read and I was pleased to find it was not an in depth guide to the Scrivener programme, full of instructions on how to use the software. Instead it was more of an aid to understanding how Scrivener can work for the writer or novelist.

It does look at the various functions such as the Binder, the Editor, and the Inspector, which is an essential to understanding how to use the software, but this is not done in a technical fashion and is easily understood.

Hewson describes these functions as:-

- Binder = a filing cabinet of documents

- Editor = where you write, it’s like a word processor

- Inspector = synopses, notes, info, and annotations and other management tasks.

The Binder is on the left, the Editor in the middle, and the Inspector on the right

Hewson compares the use of Scrivener to how writers wrote in the days of paper and pencil, with sections, chapters and scenes which could be shuffled about, rather than one long unwieldy document. He says, in Scrivener you can write, delete, reshuffle and move things more easily, and says that “Scrivener sees books the way authors used to regard them before the computer was invented.”

The start of my new novel in Scrivener.

He talks about moving scenes around as a nightmare in conventional word processors, but a cinch in Scrivener, and experimentation is quick and simple.

One of the tools in Scrivener is the Corkboard, which Hewson considers ideal for outlining and brainstorming, a place where you can play with ideas, and instead of cutting and pasting you drag things around.

The synopsis of a chapter or scene in the Inspector, is duplicated in the Corkboard and the Outliner, which is another function of Scrivener, and the transfer of these synopses means the outliner can be used to produce a complete outline of the novel. I remember in the good old days of Word, a publisher asked for the outline of a novel I’d submitted and I had to burn the midnight oil to produce it. If I’d had Scrivener at that time I would simply have had to print it off from the Outliner.

The outliner shows each chapter which can then be expanded to see the scenes in each chapter.
I have expanded 2 of them and have chosen carefully so it doesn't give away my plot.

In the Binder the two main folders are a manuscript folder and a management folder. The manuscript one is where everything that goes into the novel is stored. And the management folder is used for themes, characters, places, research, and To Do folders. He also has an ‘Unplaced Scenes’ folder in this section which is useful if a scene pops into your head but you’re not sure where to place it. Everything in the management folder is not included in the book. The character folder contains forms as an aid to character description, however it is not essential to use these and the author decides how best to use the tools supplied. Like Hewson I prefer text based descriptions so the use of the forms is optional.

Another use of the Inspector is the meta data box. This has a status box which can track whether a scene or chapter is first draft, revised, or finished. This cuts down work at the final revision stage because it narrows down the scenes which require tweaking. The meta data box can also be used to track POV, and as I write in multi-viewpoint this can be very useful, particularly as you can colour code each POV a different colour. Another feature to track POV is the ability to create collections using the search function. By using this all the scenes from one POV character can be collected and run together without changing where they are in the manuscript. This is incredibly useful because it gives a linear view of each character, and it is easy to spot anomalies etc. This function can also be used to collate all the first draft scenes at the revision stage. Leaving behind all the scenes which do not require further work.

I am really glad I eventually got round to reading this book which, in Hewson’s words, is not a guide to the software, but is simply his description of how to use Scrivener to write a novel.