Tag: Scrivener

A New Year!

So I finished the Renew and Review Writing Challenge minus a few of the exercises I didn’t feel compelled to do. Very useful! I recommend Ms. Jepson’s work, at least insofar as the writing challenge goes. I haven’t read her book yet but I might look into it later this year. I now have a shiny new Writing Life Plan posted on the wall beside my computer so I can glance at it whenever I forget what the crap I’m supposed to be doing. Woo!

I had an awesome New Years Eve party with a ton of friends. Got a little networking done besides. Meeting creative people is awesome!

This year, I’ll be working steadily on the sequel to Blood of Midnight: The Broken Prophecy using Carroline Norrington’s Scrivener Template. It took a little futzing around to get it to work for me–being the amazing technomancer I am NOT–but once I got it downloaded properly it opened up a world of possibilities for me. If you don’t already have Scrivener, I totally recommend the investment. Even if I explain why I love it so much, you totally don’t understand its full worth until you try it for yourself. I actually use about 90% of the tools it offers.

So tomorrow’s my birthday. I’ll be 29. People keep asking me “for the first time?” I don’t get it. This year, I requested a kidless kid party. I want Kraft Dinner with ketchup, crayons, a colouring book, finger paint, Play Dough, and toys … and enough booze that I really do feel like I’m a five year old. Maybe my wife will buy me that Disney Princess cake and write something obscene on it? One can hope!

Novel Setting Template

Visualizing where things take place while we’re writing is just as important as visualizing our characters. I like to organize all the info I have on prominent locations in the story so that composing and editing are a lot less of a hassle.

Not only that, but I find that in the process of filling these templates out, I can squeeze a lot more info out of the novel concept than I knew was in there. It can be handy for dealing with writer’s block.

While I like to use Scrivener to keep all my stuff in order, you can totally do this without productivity software as well by simply keeping it in a file folder. So, just like I have my character sheets, I also have setting sheets and I’ve made this filled-out version available on Google Docs for you to make use of should you find it helpful. I like to give folks pre-filled templates so they can see how I make use of the fields and decide whether or not said fields are helpful, or if perhaps they might need additional fields.

If you’d like a blank one of this or my character template, just give me a shout and I’ll make it available.

Cheers!

Doc version of Setting Template.

Odt version of Setting Template.

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