Friday, January 4, 2013

Updated how I write...

I am not going back to a regular schedule right now but I figured I should update with some of my latest techniques to keep writing.  My computer died in the beginning of December.  We are planning to revive it, or at least empty the hard drive.  In the mean time I've upgraded to a Win 8 machine and getting things set up lead me to some new tools.

I've continued to use Ywriter to organize my manuscript. I love a silly irrelevant feature that lets it sound like a typewriter when I type.  It's the little things.  It's not a great tool for editing the words but it is wonderful for organizing the structure.

For distraction free writing I've been using Edit 2.  I like the target word count feature and the count down feature on the bottom, and the fact that it does not check my spelling while I am writing.

Another online program I have been using is 750 words. This website encourages you to write 750 words a day.  It gives badges and points when you make those goals and it adds you name to it's wall of shame when you fail to meet them for a month.  It's surprisingly motivating and responsible for a good chunk of my current WIP.

My alpha smart is another great tool.  Having a device that I can take out to eat or to the library or a coffee shop has given me some freedom when the internet is too shiny and distracting.

I've also been writing longhand a little and transcribing it later, and occasionally using a manual typewriter.

For line editing I'm trying open office.  This is my first time using it, and since I haven't been doing a lot of editing I can really speak to it's effectiveness yet but it seems pretty straight forward.

One of the neat things about Ywriter and 750 words is that they track my productivity.  Unsurprisingly I am the most productive after my son has gone to bed and during nap times.  More surprising was that most of my word count seems to come out between 9-11pm.  I thought I was more of a morning person creatively   We'll see if this continues to hold true.  I'm trying to put the techniques from my earlier post to work.

Last year was my most productive year since I got pregnant.  This year I hope to blow those numbers out of the water.  We'll see how it goes.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Year in review....

I've fallen off the blogging wagon... but this time it was for a very good reason.... I was writing.  In 2011 and 2010 I doubt I put together more then a thousand words as any sort of story.  In 2012 I hit about 16,000.  It's a pathetic number if you compare it to most authors.  But for me it's so much better then it was.  Most of that was hit in the last part of the year.  If you charted my progress July and November had the most words. This year I am trying to keep it going.  I might not start churning out 10,000 words a month.... things might drop off for a bit if I end up with a crunch to my 2 year old munch.... but I'm still here, and the story is still coming out.