All posts filed under: Technology

Read an eBook Day

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When was the last time that you read an eBook?  Did you purchase it from an online vendor or was it lent to you by a friend/family member?  Maybe you subscribe to one of those websites where you can read an unlimited amount of eBooks per month.  That’s cool.  Have you tried eBooks at your library? Overdrive, a vendor that works with libraries to provide eBook access for their customer base, is launching a national campaign, “Read an eBook Day” and today is it!! They’re looking for feedback from eBook readers like you to learn more about your eBook reading preferences — what genres do you enjoy reading, which authors, what do you love about eBooks? Overdrive wants to know.  Visit their website at http://readanebookday.com/ to give feedback and also check out eBook recommendations in a variety of genres from: Fantasy Literature Children Science Fiction Historical Fiction Young Adult Tag your favorites with the Twitter hashtag, #eBookLove. I’ll be adding new recommendations from their list to GoodReads. Don’t forget, you can always check out my …

Liven Up Scrivener’s Composition Mode with a Background Image

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Hey ya’ll,  it’s Lauren Miller back with another Scrivener tip for today. Did Santa leave you a copy of Scrivener under your Christmas tree this year?  If so, you’re in for a lot of fun! Have you tried using Scrivener’s composition mode yet?  I don’t know about you but when I want to focus on a writing project (whether it’s a screenplay,  a poem, a college essay, or some other form of writing), sometimes, I just need a distraction-free environment. That’s what Composition Mode is great for! Last time, I talked about how you can add images to your Scrivener project.  Did you discover any great backgrounds while you were browsing through those photos? What about one you’d like to use as your writing backdrop?  Cool!  I’m going to show you how simple it is to set up your Composition Mode to do just that. To access the option, go to View – Composition Backdrop (see below). A side menu will open revealing all of your images currently in your Binder. Just select the one …

Adding Images to Your Scrivener Notebook

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Welcome back to another scrivener tip on Thursdays. Up to this point, we’ve already talked about using Scrivener as a word counter, how to import templates into Scrivener, and how to create tables for tracking productivity. Today, I want to talk about how to add your own images to your Scrivener project (or notebook). Images are an incredible resource that’s easy to use in Scrivener’s program and if you haven’t already figured out how to do this yet, then this is the tutorial for you. So go ahead, open that Scrivener project you’ve been working on, and let’s get started!

Tech Talk: Create Tables to Track Your Writing Journey (you’ll be thankful you did)

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Last month I talked about how to set up your word counter for Scrivener, especially for all you Wrimo peeps. How did you do this month? If you’re working with Scrivener software, you may want to consider creating a table (see below) with NaNoWriMo’s targets each day and include space for you to fill in where you’re at on your writing goals.  One year later, I can’t remember the details of each and every day of my journey but I am so grateful for the journalling “notes” I took.  It allows me to stop and reflect on what I was doing at the time, and what my productivity levels are. Side note: I would’ve sworn I’d had a 10,000 word day at some point but the numbers don’t lie. 😦 While I don’t recommend creating a table within Scrivener to cover a full 365-day period (check out my recommendations for year-round word trackers here), it can be a useful exercise for a short period of time. Creating tables in Scrivener can be a bit tricky …

Tech Talk: How to Import Templates into Scrivener

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Today I want to talk about expanding the use of Scrivener for your writing by incorporating templates into your writing project. At a glance, here are some of the Fiction templates that are included, or can be added as extras, for Scrivener: Some of the obvious ones that are not standard with Scrivener are the “Hero’s Journey Novel Template” and the “Mystery Novel Template”.  If you’re participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), you may recognize the “NaNoWriMo Novel” template that should be included with your trial version software of Scrivener. For the purposes of this tutorial, I am going to show you how to download the “Snowflake Method Template”, available at BelindaCrawford.com. This template is based on Randy Ingermanson’s “Snowflake Method“. When you download the file, it is going to come as a .zip so you will need some kind of software to unzip the package to your Downloads folder (Mac) or maybe your My Documents folder (PC). After you’ve unzipped the file, it’s going to appear as a .scrivtemplate file.  All Scrivener files …

Tech Talk: Setting Up Scrivener’s Word Counter

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  With your Scrivener project open, click Project – Show Project Target. The project word tracker will appear in the lefthand side of your Scrivener project. By default, the targets are going to be set to 0. “Edit” allows you to change the total word count (ex: 50,000 words), and “Options” will allow you to select the days you want to write and auto-calculate the words per day. You’ll want to leave “Count text written anywhere in the project” NOT checked.  Make sure you leave the top 2 options checked. This will only count what’s written in the Manuscript section of the binder and not any miscellaneous research, notes or outlines, etc. that you include elsewhere in the project. If you basically leave these settings alone, you’re going to end up with a useful word counter that turns colors as you get closer to your word count. Any questions?  Leave a comment and let’s talk.

7 NaNoWriMo Tools (Besides Scrivener)

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I’m absolutely lovin’ my new 2012 NaNoWriMo Word Tracker which comes in different skins over at Svenia Liv’s website.  She’s got pirates, forest fairies, evil-looking guys and more to suit your writing tastes.  Which one closest matches your character this year?  Check her stuff out. Okay, so I have to say something briefly about Scrivener too… If you’re a Scrivener user and you like to keep everything in-house, in a single session you can create a table like I did for your own word tracker (see below): I created mine to keep track of where I should be in my writing schedule and where I actually am at that point.  The notes section is to keep track of what I worked on that day (scene or chapter).