clues at the scene

clues at the scene

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Full Sun

Some things do best in full sun like these daisies from my meadow. I took the picture this morning with Louis in the tall grass.

I've finally read the Scrivener manual. Look. The program was made with the intention of being useful to anyone who has used any number of less useful tools.

My first full play was typed on a borrowed Remington. The next two plays and a handful of short stories I typed on an ancient electric Royal that weighed just under 40 pounds.

My first full novel I pounded out on WordStar running on a KayPro using CP/M. I almost did a little dance when I used my first "real" purpose built PC - an IBM x386 using Windows 2.0. WOW.

SO, cut me a little slack for using the basics of Scrivener after glancing through the documentation.

Now....tadum: The crow fork.

Bloody thing is even more marvelous AFTER you read the manual. I should have done so three years ago.

The draft I am working on now will benefit from the ease of electronic integration with MY methods and processes. Tonight, I'll construct a whole subplot arc in a separate section of the manuscript then integrate scene by scene at a future date. Wow. I obviously hadn't mastered that little feat before.

So, while I and Nabokov love index cards (he wrote entire novels on them paragraph by paragraph), I'll move to use my electronic note machine in much the same manner.

I am rather anal about multiple concurrent backups. You lose one WIP at any stage of your career, you get that way quickly. I keep four active immediate backups. I store two off-site (in case of fire) via Amazon and Google docs.

Paranoid he is. You earn it, folks. You earn it.

I hope daisies are blooming in your writing. Noir guys: I hope they're blooming on graves.

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