 Aeon Timeline - A software that's all about making a timeline of what's going on in a story and which characters are present at each event. The software started as a genealogy software which means it has a lot of features that are wonderful for writing a story since a story emulates life. Just one example of how useful this tool is; if you put in the birthday of your characters then it will calculate how old they are during a particular event! Think about the math you're saving yourself!
4thewords - I've been having a major resurgence in gaming, which has distracted from my writing. But there is one known way to distract from a game, and that's by having another game. 4thewords is a writing related video game, where you have to defeat monsters by writing a certain amount of words in a time limit. Boss monsters get defeated by writing more words. While the concept is kinda simple it's just enough motivation to sit down and keep writing, let alone the fact that they have a streak counter which I've always found to be a great motivator! If I'm at day 100 there's no way I won't get in at least 150 words! There are also the classics, which never age out! Scrivner - Make flash cards that attach to your scenes. It makes it easy to look at the summery of your novel and rearrange as quick as a flash! Google Doc's - This deserves an honorable mention, I don't like it as much for writing but for the editing it's wonderful! It makes it particularly easy for sharing one document with multiple people who can then comment on it. Everyone can see everyone else's comments and respond to them if they particularly disagree. The discourse can be one of the most valuable parts of the beta reading comments.
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 If you're going to be the best in your craft then you have to keep on top of the newest information. If you're a doctor you have to do continuing education classes every year in order to keep your license.
Should everyone else do the same when they aren't required to? Yes, absolutely! One never knows when a new software might make life that much easier or when a new way of creating magic systems comes out that is eons better for you and your writing style. Not only that learning about a new way to help get good feedback from a beta reader or write up instructions for doing a task might not work for you, but will be a perfect fit for a friend who needs advice down the road. Having a variety of ways to approach the same problem is helpful because you never know which one will be the best fit for the job. Let's say you need to replace the batteries on a toy. The battery holder is held there by a + screw. You always use a - screwdriver because that's what you can easily find in your house, and it will totally work. It won't be as easy and it might strip the screw, but you will get those batteries replaced and hand the toy back to the child. The process would be easier with a + screwdriver. Even though you might say 'I already have a screwdriver' and avoid having to get and learn how to use something new, it could save tons of time and effort in the future. Just like learning about a new screwdriver that's a better tool for certain situations, learning new ways to perform your craft is absolutely something that everyone should do. If you're ambitious then trying out one new thing a month would be great way to expand, though one every three months could work too. It depends on you and your speed of learning, and how much time you have to dedicate to your craft in the first place. What will you be learning next?  I present to you Eight Sentence Sunday, a blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. I finished National Novel Writing Month in November, so you'll be seeing parts from that for the next couple of months as I expand and edit the rough draft. A while later she was on the other side of town, knocking on Lorenzo Baldocinetti's door. The sign above the door said "Inventor." Pages from the local printing press were plastered on the window for all to see and read. Only one new one since last week, and it just looked like an ad for hiring new experts to help on the latest invention.
"Looks like an alchemist, circus performer, young man to work hard, and a smart child." Sounded like a riddle. Must be something Lorenzo put together himself. The door opened and the hunched man smiled. "I was hoping you'd show up today." I present to you Eight Sentence Sunday, a blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. I've been trying my hand at free writing lately, and this is my favorite piece from this week. Battling against a mermaid is not as straight forward as one might think. The first and foremost issue is that they live in the water and it's easy for them to retreat back into the water whenever their heart fancies. Yet that is not the only problem, not at all. They often go on land and can be surrounded there. No the main problem is the fact that puts men to sleep. We don't know how, which makes it that much worse. It cannot be avoided. Therefore this terror of the sea, mermaids who hunt whales and are successful at it. Those who hunt our own ships so that they might take our tableware's as treasures, they must be fought by women. Check out more at http://www.wewriwa.com/.
I present to you Eight Sentence Sunday, a blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. I've been trying my hand at free writing lately, and this is my favorite piece from this week. The rough worn man looked glum as he wrote in his diary. She didn't know any other man who wrote in his diary in the early afternoon, nor did she know another who wrote in one in the middle of town, nor one that was a bootlegger. Yet, she supposed, that was the reason that he stood out, and the reason that she was paid to seduce him. Eileen know she looked a particular kind of small town beautiful as she walked over and accidentally blundered into Dakota. "Oh I am so sorry. Clumsy me, are you alright?" She put on a southern drawl, making sure that her word choices portrayed her as a bit naive. He looked off into the distance for a moment, before realizing the cause of his interruption was right in front of him. "Ah hello, no bother at all for a pretty little thing like yourself." Like a gentleman he took of his hat and bowed. Check out more at http://www.wewriwa.com/.
I present to you Eight Sentence Sunday, a blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. I've been trying my hand at free writing lately, and this is my favorite piece from this week. Last night it happened, but they do not realize the truth. The elephant demons of my homeland, known criminals, attacked. Yet the police here are ignorant. They believe that I, a person of the knife, defected. They are wrong. If they will not give this investigation serious thought, then I will have to be the one to avenge my friends and family of choice. If they get in my way they will rue the consequences, if they survive long enough to think anything at all. For I am of the last of the knife in this country, the best of the knife before that, and a knife on a mission is the most terrible thing. Check out more at http://www.wewriwa.com/.
I present to you Eight Sentence Sunday, a blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. I've been trying my hand at free writing lately, and this is my favorite piece from this week! "Lets get right to it then." I opened the lowest drawer and took out the cloth wrapped item, placing it on my desk. With tender fingers I removed the cloth, revealing a plate, slightly larger than one from a tea set. The piece was covered in diagrams and symbols on both sides. The woman took gloves out of her pocket and put them on, then picked up the plate, looking at it closely. Slowly taking in each symbol on top and bottom before speaking again. "The top speaks of ferocious acts taken by humans, defying the wishes of a higher being. However. The bottom speaks of forgiveness." Check out more at http://www.wewriwa.com/.
 1) Finish MM – Still behind. This is my MAJOR focus this month! I’ve planned some write-ins and accountability times with friends and it’s already helped make slow, yet steady, progress. (I think that might be my mantra for the year. “Slow and steady progress is perfectly fine.”)
2) NNWM Plotting – I’ve been doing online research. I have a couple more books that I should read soon. Ideally I’ll be doubling down on this once the first draft of MM is done. 3) Short Stories – Been a bit distracted. I’ll be back at it this month! 4) Critique Group – I’m caught up, though people haven’t been submitting often. I think we’ll need a discussion about everyone’s vested interest levels again soon. Until then I have a friends novel that’s ready for a full beta read, so I’m working on that currently. (In turn she said that she would be happy to beta read MM when it’s ready. A worthwhile trade.) 5) Author Visibility – Totally dropped the ball on this. Gotta post more cat photos! How are your goals going? I present to you Eight Sentence Sunday, a blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. I have some lines from my Moon Murder rewrite. A little dialogue heavy, hopefully next week has some more action! "How did the trade deal go?" "As my report said, it went well." "You and I both know that you didn't actually make that trade." Alexander looked down as his feet. "16 took over." "I did use his notes. They were excellent," 16 said. "What did I say?" "That this was my assignment and that I shouldn't get help." Check out more at http://www.wewriwa.com/.
 My adorable writing companion. How do you save and sort information when doing research for a novel?
In the past I used OneNote. This allowed easy copy and pasting of pictures and ideas when doing research. It has lots of functionality and free with the Word Suite. It was a good choice when I was in high school/college (due to the free part) and it was simple to use, with an overall small learning curve for those already used to Office. I can see using it again in the future. I've tried Scrivner but that distinctly didn't work for me. All of the features that are supposed to save a writer time seem to take up more time for me. (Both for the research and writing phases.) I knew plenty of writers who love this software, but it's not for me. Recently I used DokuWiki to make my own Wiki for the world. There's an extra time allotment needed to get the level of formatting that I want but it's the easiest at showing off holes in world development, or ties between a character and the world. As long as I have time this is worth the investment. Aeon is my newest experiment. It's a timeline device that was designed for writers. It's great for keeping track of dates and it'll automatically tell me how old everyone was during specified events. So far it's worth it's weight in gold just for that, but I'm sure I'll post again with a thorough review after playing with it some more. What software do you use when researching a novel? |
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