Character App for Writers: Mac Family Tree

I’ve tried several different methods for character sketching — keeping track of their relative ages and kinships -- and my current favorite is a Synium product, known as MacFamilyTree 7 for my laptop and as MobileFamilyTree 7 for my iPad and iPhone.

It is easy to use and generates several useful views and reports.  One of the most useful is an interactive chart that shows relationships but that also lets me click on any of these people to edit or add relatives.

The Timeline View lets me see the relative ages of the cast of characters.

The Person Report lets me keep track of individual characteristics and events as well as kinships to other characters.

Because it can be stored in the cloud, I can be typing away on my laptop and use the iPhone or iPad to keep an eye on characters.

How to view your Scrivener WIP on your iPhone or iPad

From the Scrivener File menu, choose "Compile".
Put checkmarks next to what you want to send.  I send chapters, not character notes etc.
Select "Compile for ePub."
Click on "Compile"

In the Export screen that pops-up, make sure the Folder is set to the Dropbox folder that your phone is linked to.
Click on Export.

On your phone, open your Dropbox app.
Click on the file in the dropbox.
When you get the "Couldn't Load File" message, click on the "Send to" icon in the lower left corner.
In the pop-up, choose "Open In . . ."
In the next screen, choose "Open in iBooks"

Writing Toys and Tools for the iOS environment

When I can't get my story to move forward (usually because I am writing a chapter from the wrong POV -- point of view -- and I haven't yet noticed that or because there are other people in the house making noise), I work on setting up my technology for the most efficient use of the wee writing windows I do have.

I do all the actual writing in Scrivener on my big home computer.  My arthritic fingers insist on its ergonomically correct keyboard and there is no way around this.  But I can't and really don't want to run to my desk whenever I get a thought.

No problem!

I just use the voice memo function on my phone to capture stray brilliant inspirations (rare) and/or crippling plot errors I just now realized (more common than I wish).  Then when I do get to the computer I listen to the memos and add to my running Manuscript ToDo list.

Another big happy discovery was Scriviner's ability to publish to iBooks.  I really dislike printing to paper as it is wasteful and cumbersome, but there are times that I really just want to read the story, or just that delicious chapter that fell from my fingertips last night, and I want to read somewhere other than my desk.

No problem!

I figured out how to send my work-in-progress to iBooks which lets it look just like a real book that I can read on my phone or my iPad.   As I read, if I find places to edit, I can make a note right in the book and then at the end of my session, I can email my notes, sorted in order of chapter, back to myself.  This gives me an ordered list of edits to make when I am next at my big computer.

Happy happy.

Mac Apps for Writers

Scrivener: My #1 just can't live without writing app is Scrivener.  It is amazing. I can't even begin to to it justice  -- in part because my head is in my story and in part because why bother? The Scrivener website will tell you all you need to know. I apologize that the link here takes you straight to check out. Just click on products and start toodling about.

Or check it out on the iTunes store: Scrivener. Or just take my word for it. Scrivener is the bomb.

Next up on the cool things list is Aeon Timeline - Scribble Code . This timeline generator helps me keep my storylines straight and keeps me from muddling my generations.  Best of all, it syncs with Scrivener!  You can get a trial copy at Scribble and here are a few discount codes just for fun: CAMPWRITER or SUMMERFEST





The last on my hit parade tonight (because I really should be writing: 700 words to go) is Snowflake Pro and if you leave a comment, I'll tell you how to get it for half-off.

It's a complete plot and plan application and I really should have started with this one 15 years ago when I started my story.  I'll be using it tonight to try to crumple up some of my flatter characters.

Five Day Writing Challenge

2,000 words a day for five days.  Can I do it?

Software for Writers: Scrivener, How I Love Thee.

I have found the Best. Thing. Ever.  Scrivener, by Literature and Latte is a writer's best friend.  I am using it for fiction, but had I known about it, I would certainly have used it for all those long grad school papers. It organizes drafts, comments, and notes, and I can even stash reader's comments in it.

 

I easily uploaded my working draft into it from MS Office and I can export my draft into pdf, kindle versions, etc. without any fuss at all.  Some of my favorite features are listed below.

The corkboard.  I make for each chapter a little synopsis and then they show up on the corkboard.  This is really helpful for looking at the big picture.

This screenshot is not of my story, but is one provided by the makers.

The compiler.  In my old word-processor, the whole novel was in one document.  A change that required backward revision required a lot of scrolling.  Yuck.  In Scrivener, I can divide the novel into parts, chapters, sections, etc. and view each discrete chunk, or the whole thing.  You can see in the above screenshot the outline on the left.  A click on any heading shows all the content below it.

The character list.  Also in the left sidebar is a list of characters.  As they reveal their personalities and characteristics to me, I can record these details in their character entry.

The comments. Just like in other word-processors, I can insert comments.  This is really useful when I am writing new material and realize that something I am writing now necessitates a small revision in a previous portion.  Rather than stop and go tend to it, I can just toss in a comment to remind me to take care of it later.  When I sit down to write, I can click on the whole manuscript and all the comments appear.  I can pick through them and decide what I want to work on next.  A click on the comment takes me to that section.

And since I am writing and home-school (aka frequently interrupted) I can use the commenting feature to dash off a quick note of what I was going to do prior to being pulled away.

The notes.  I can toggle that right sidebar to show either my own comments or the notes from other readers which I have cut-and-pasted in.  Sometimes reader's comments come in and I am not in the mood to deal with that section yet.  No problem! I just paste the comments into the Notes for that portion and they are there waiting for me when I am ready.

The back-ups.  It saves automatically all the time.  I can also take snapshots of it before I venture off in an experimental direction.  If I dislike my experiment I can revert to the snapshot.  Also, when I shut it down, it backs up everything.

The customer support. I had one small not-my-fault technical glitch and the customer support was prompt and personable and reassuring.

Scrivener runs on Mac or Windows and costs between $35 and $45 depending on platform and whether or not you qualify for the Educator's discount.  This is not a sponsored post, but if you do click on the links here and purchase, I get a small commission.  I'd be talking it up even without the commission though. 

Book Roast

Laurel's book is coming out today. Drop by and cheer with with her.

writing & gardening

Writing instruction is about error correction in the same way that gardening is about weeding. If a gardener spent all their time and energy weeding they would indeed have a clean garden: a clean and barren garden, plots and plots of empty dirt except for where the occasional wind-blown flower planted itself.

Instead, gardeners spend most of their time seeding and planting and mulching and fertilizing and admiring, then digging up and moving just this one plant, and maybe pruning another back a wee bit or quite severely. Gardening is about promoting and nurturing growth. Writing instruction is about nurturing growth in the flora and fauna of the mind. Good writing instruction requires energies directed towards the blossoming of intellects.

Yet, even the most fecund of gardens suffers if it is not weeded. My roses and herbs can’t preen when Japanese knotweed moves in. I must spend some time weeding, lest the weeds obscure my blooms. Similarly, when mechanical errors clutter up the page, we need to teach our students how to weed. “This! This here is the dread knotweed of tangled syntax! Yank it out! And watch out for effect/affect. You get them confused and you look like an amateur.” Though weeding isn’t gardening, it is part of the process; alas it is the part that most commands the attention of our students.

Think about a new gardener friend. When you tour your garden with her and wax eloquently on the proper mulch for peonies, is she listening? No. She is pointing at the pelargoniums and asking, “Is that a weed?” “No, you are thinking of buttercup,” you absent-mindedly reply as you redirect her attention to the peonies. Your friend keeps distracting you with weed questions. She finds comfort in getting a handle on what not to grow. It is learnable, approachable, memorizable. She wants to learn rules, while you are trying to teach beauty. You want to say, “Grow something! Anything! We’ll tidy it up later!” She is thinking, “I just don’t want any weeds.”

Somewhere in the process of being gardening mentors, we’ll need to address her keen interest in weeds. We can’t ignore it. We can, though, show her weeding’s proper place in a gardener’s timeline: dream, plant, fertilize, water, observe, transplant, prune, fertilize some more, plant some more. Weeding is done along the way, something to keep busy between these other tasks, and maybe one grand push before opening the garden for viewing. A gardener yanks the obvious weeds as she prunes, pulls out the knotweed as she fertilizes. Occasionally she will consult her Sunset Western Garden book to refine her weed identification skills, or merely ask a fellow gardener.

No one ever compliments a garden because it is weed-free. Yet our students often expect that a weed-free essay is their, and our, aim. When we can help our students see that good writing is about having fruitful ideas that play with light and shadow and color in an intriguing or charming way, that good writing is lush and redolent with suggestive aromas and implications, and that good writing results from rich and thoughtful fertilizer and a generous amount of time to allow for growth, then we will have done our job.

copyright 2008 Suzanne Chandler, M. Ed.

To print this page, visit the little printer icon in the footer line. Don't see it? Click on either the post title above or the permalink icon below to get to the individual page for this post. Voila! The -- recently tweaked and operating nicely -- printer options awaits you.

parts of speech

If you enjoy this sort of English teacher humor, be sure to check out the blogs and websites under my "Writerly Blogs" blogroll.

grammar

argh

I just heard a CBC Radio Two (Canada) broadcaster say that Clinton's lead over Obama is a mute point due to Florida's process of awarding delegates. MUTE point!? CBC!!!!!

moot

moot!

(sigh)


election 2008

apostrophe abuse

And more on the one I love to hate: apostrophe abuse.

apostrophe rantings & ravings

4 new x 2 meme

The rules: You have to share four things that were new to you in the past four years. Four things you learned or experienced or explored for the first time in the past four years. New house, new school, new hobby, new spouse, new baby, whatever. Then you have to say four things you want to try new in the next four years.

Four New -- chronological order:
I learned to blog: Jamie & Suzanne Go To Russia, at last (launched 4.3.2006) and Adventures in Daily Living (launched 3.29.07).
I gained a son (adopted 9.12.2006).
I gained a daughter (adopted 9.12.2006).
I'm learning all about paraplegia (as of 12.14.06).


Next Four:
I will start teaching face-to-face (vs on-line) again (fall 2007 - 1 3-credit Research Writing class).
My parents will come to dinner at my house again (this year I hope).
I will attend the winter Olympics ice-skating (Vancouver 2010).
I will publish my book (who knows?).

I do admit I asked for this meme tag posted over at (of course) HipWriterMama's.

Why? Because I still don't believe the two humungeous life-changes (9.12.06 and 12.14.06) we weathered in a 3 month time span. Really, how long am I going to be walking around feeling stunned and distracted? Is there a statue of limitations on shock?

Yes, yes. I know. Accept it. Get on with it.

I am! I do! But I still don't really believe my new life.

I watch my children play or sleep and I can't believe that the universe was so kind as to give them to us. I mean really, we got the best ones!

Then I look at my parents and all the changes and trials they are enduring and I realize that no matter how many afternoons I go over there, and how many errands I do for them, I can't provide all the help they need. It's a pickle, no getting around it.

Every time I arrive I am thrilled to see them. Every time I leave I nearly flattened by how surreal it is. Paraplegic. Who would have imagined this?

30-day challenge

Obligatory 30-day challenge check-in.

Accomplished:

• With Dandy's help, moved mountain of debris off one writing desk - neatly stacked it to the side.
• Continued with (pre-30-day-challenge) goal of writing regularly in blog to refine and revive writing skills.

That's all!

Maybe I should set a baking/cooking goal and then I will start writing. My kitchen has been busy - homemade yogurt, homemade bread, yummy colorful whole-foods meals from scratch. I'm looking into cheese-making. I'm counting it as research as the folks in my story make their own cheeses.

30-day challenge: true confessions

Vivian, over at Hip Writer Mama, is all sorts of trouble. You have been warned.

Here is how it started. A couple of weeks ago she posted her 30 day challenge and I, wishing for some progress on my manuscript, signed up, confidently asserting:

I'm going to spend 30 minutes a day with my manuscript.

Now unless I can consider "with" to mean that it is on the harddrive of the laptop and I am with the laptop, I have utterly failed.



Why am I telling you about it? Because part of the challenge is that we check in on Mondays. It's Monday.

Here is what I have done.

• Cleaned off a desk in preparation for writing.
• Moved another desk into the house, just in case the first one doesn't have good writing juju.
• Allowed mountains of debris to cover both desks.
• Resolved to write on-screen, rather than on-paper.
• Turned on 'puter with intention to write.
• Surfed blog-land.
• Thought my submission deadline for my writer's critique group was this past Sunday night.
• Spent 30 minutes picking out what parts of the manuscript to send.
• Submitted my selection this past Saturday night.
• Felt very proud of being a day early.
• Was graciously informed that I was TWO WEEKS early.

This means I have two more weeks in which 30 minutes a day could translate to meaningful work. Why am I dreading this?

Here is what I have yet to do:

• outline the sequel
• reread the whole existing manuscript with an eye to where sequel-seeds need to/can be planted
• attach sticky notes at places to come back to
• figure out a plan for character rehab - some of them are very bland, even frail
• (you don't need to keep reading; I'm just writing this for me you know)
• drum up some sideline stories to work in
• restructure the whole thing, moving from a 3-chunk model to a 3-strand model (from A1, A2, A3, . . . B1, B2, B3, . . . C1, C2, C3 to A1, B1, C1, A2, B2, C2, A3, B3, C3 . . .
  
• (honestly, you really don't need to read all this)

Why am I dreading this? Because it sounds like work!! And also because, once I start working, I don't even like to stop to pee or eat or sleep. How am I going to do this with little people in the house? I'm not allowed to teach them how to bake their own pizzas until they are 10 (I asked my sister and she looked bit horrified that I was even considering this.)

So, I'm quite wishing I had selected a more doable task for the challenge, like baking fresh bread every day, which I am actually doing.

Then, as if I didn't have enough to do, Vivian tagged me for a meme. My first tag, actually. You'll have to come back tomorrow for my memeness.

The Indextrious Reader: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a growing concern

The Indextrious Reader: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a growing concern

I'm not getting very far with my Animal Vegetable Miracle reviews, so you may want to go read the review linked above.

I've been busy preparing my manuscript for my first ever critique group. SCARY! I sent it off just now, before I lost my courage.

Poetry Friday: Michael Darcher

As the academic year winds down many of us are flailing against the inevitable essays.

From the teacher-side, we seek to provide enough direction to get our students started while trying to avoid providing a script for them to plod through. It is a tiresome balancing act; one that occasionally yields essays that make the whole quarter, or even year, worthwhile, but more-often-than-not lands students in office hours asking our collective least favorite question: what do you want me to do?

The Day I Became Charles Whitman

My genie uncorked himself the moment my favorite student asked my least favorite question:
What do you want us to do?
It was then I began my ascent to the highest point on campus, rising on an ethos no Scantron
might pattern, maddened not by her wish
to nail things down but her disinclination to open things up, her agility
at recognizing without knowing, and not knowing otherwise.
It's never the fault of the innocent bystander. My predecessors, and I am one,
have been thorough in our assessment, shrouding inquiry as distraction,
emphasis on the wrong reflection,
replication now its own reward.
We never named doubt a diversity.
Consequently, without doubt,
learning is no longer the journey,
rote becomes the destination, home thankfully, tucked in bed, prayers said,
lights out.

Steadfast, I issue my demands
to her and the dudes behind her
whose caps but not convictions
have been reversed. I insist they wield
a thesis statement that doesn't club the reader
like a baby seal, to bludgeon instead whoever
first sold them the notion that all thought
is precisely five paragraphs long that
Baskin Robbins sells only vanilla. I want them
to endanger every member of my species
who ferreted out Dickinson's metaphors as if
thumbing through a book of Where's Waldo,
who ended every rhetorical question
with an invisible, ringing Stupid.

I want my best student to rename every color
Land's End has, beginning with sea foam.
I want her to leave Tacoma, conceive
the day she will leave Tacoma and arrive
at her own land's end, the newest continent,
sighting at sextant's end the glint of all
her possibilities. I want her to regard me not
as the Simon who says, but as a tool,
envision a Black & Decker logo
embossed across my measured brow.
I want her to find words more melodious
than due date and assignment.
These are my demands, I tell the fearful,
she and the others who scramble for cover
behind book bags, notebooks open,
pens poised, waiting to commit to the page
their trust in me. Meet them, I announce,
from my vaulted position, and my cynical hopes,
or I'll take no more hostages.

~Michael Darcher. Published in Crosscurrents 2004 Whatcom Community and Technical Colleges Humanities Association.

If this poem did not make a lot of sense to you, go find out who Charles Whitman was, and then read it again.

:: this post is included in the Friday Poetry round-up over at a wrung sponge.

HipWriterMama: Inspiration Monday: Create New Habits for Success: 30 Day Challenge

Vivian, aka HipWriterMama, challenges us to take the 30 Day Challenge and make new habits for ourselves. I'm going to give it a go.

I have a full-on draft of a clever and entertaining MiddleYears story all written. It needs one or two more rewrites and then it is ready.

I've joined a writer's critique group to make myself have some deadlines and in addition, my new habit (I hope) is to spend 30 minutes a day with my manuscript.

You can read all details about the challenge over at:
HipWriterMama: Inspiration Monday: Create New Habits for Success:

I do have to ask though, am I the only one who stumbles when I try to say HipWriterMama out-loud? It keeps coming out HipWiderMama. Shhhh, my hips are wide enough as it is; don't encourage them.