Answer: when they’re not writing!

I’m sad to say that for some time, that’s been me. It’s not writers block – if such a thing exists – just that I had to put my latest novel on hold when other things took over. First, I was so busy self-publishing, and then promoting, my last novel Moojara, that I didn’t have enough time to work on the new one. And then I was moving house. And not just house: I’ve moved all the way from South Wales to Shropshire. I can tell you that moving is definitely as stressful as has been reported. Stressful, and very, very time consuming.

The move is done now though, and despite being surrounded by still-to-be-unpacked cardboard boxes, I think it’s time to re-familiarise myself with the latest WIP (work in progress) and get back to work. And I’ve decided to try something new. While trying to find software for typesetting that doesn’t cost a fortune and require a masters in typesetting to operate, I came across a program call Scrivener. It’s really a writing aid, but I had hoped it might include some typesetting functionality (beyond the limited capabilities of MS Word). Having downloaded it for the trial period, I now know it doesn’t. But it does look as though it might be useful for the writing process.

Writing a book generates a  huge amount of information. Beyond the manuscript (which itself makes for a very large Word document) there’s notes and ideas for the characters and for plot development. You may need a  calendar to keep track of when things happen, to avoid continuity errors. For the locations you may have photographs, maps, train and bus times. I find myself switching from one Word document to another, then to file explorer to look at images, or Excel to check facts. The idea of Scrivener is that everything is kept as a set of documents within the same software, so you don’t have to keep flitting about from one place to another. Sounds good, but will it work? I’ve run through the long tutorial (they say it should take 2 hours, and it did). And now I’ve created a new project for my latest novel, and begun to load in text and reference material.

I’m a little bit lost at the moment, staring at the screen and struggling to remember what I learnt from the tutorial; trying to work out the right way to import text and images, and whether it’s actually possible to call in a spreadsheet. So far, the software is just proving to be a barrier between me and the writing, which is no good; no good at all. But it’s early days. Hopefully I’ll get to grips with the program soon, and  then I can properly assess whether or not it’s going to work for me. I’ll let you know how it goes…

Text © Graham Wright 2020
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash