Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

Programs related to writing

Nifty little mind mapping program

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As promised, this post is about a mind mapping program I downloaded onto my iPhone.  It is called Simplemind and is user-friendly and versatile.  I wanted something like Freemind, but for my phone for when I am away from my computer but want to map out an idea for a story, lesson plan or even organize my directory of teacher files which has gotten a bit cumbersome over the years.  I upgraded it from the free version and gained nice features, such as making folders for separate categories of maps. So my Student of Jump series maps are separate from my school stuff and my daughter stuff.

Because it is set up for the iPhone, it responds to finger action in a way I wish Freemind did, closing up sections and easy sliding whole sections about, or moving a set of ideas from one topic bubble to another if I decide I want a plot event to occur later or earlier than I originally planned.  (There are a lot of features it doesn’t have that Freemind does, which is why it won’t be replacing Freemind.) Of course, if the map is big, then it gets difficult to see on a small screen; however, the real point was to have access to this type of program when away from a large screen, which is why I like a second important feature it has: I can email myself a pdf version of the map.  I can also save it to an online web holding site for retrieval.

Since I just started the app to make sure I had my info correct, I have learned that it does come in a desktop version that apparently is governed by the phone app.  A link is created through a password and then one can exchange maps and edit in either location via a wifi connection.  Hmmm, that sounds promising, but appears to be a little more complicated on the purchase than I am ready to go, especially since Freemind meets my needs.   As for use on the phone, while away from a handy computer, it is great.  I sat in a field watching my husband mow down weeds, and I was able to outline a book.  Very handy.

I started reading about improving my writing, and then I started doing

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I downloaded an ebook this summer called 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes.  As I started reading it, I thought is was far too basic for me. After all, I teach creative writing.  Wouldn’t I know the basics?  But I kept reading it, and then I found myself applying the ideas mentioned in this book to the book I was redrafting for its final version.  And the more I thought about what each short chapter was referring to, the more I realized it didn’t need to give me the examples I was griping about not being there.  If I am a writer, I should be able to apply the advice to my writing and see examples in putting each suggestion into practice.  Really it is a book that gives brief insights in to writing without taking up a lot of my time, which I should be using writing.

Chapter 1 is about not starting, which explains why it is called “Not Starting.”  I remember reading and thinking:  Yeah, exactly, like I don’t know that to be a writer I must at least put pen to page or keyboard to word processing program.  But we all need a kick in the pants, and we all need the rather trite but accurate advice that we must simply sit down and write.  But I also realized there were several other things I wasn’t starting. I wasn’t looking into publishing my book which I told myself I was determined to publish. I had short stories hanging about unfinished, oodles of poetry and four unedited books.  I was not active at all on the internet even Goodreads and I read plenty.  So even Chapter 1, “Not Starting” applied to me.  So the chapters are short, a page, maybe a page and a half, but each offers some simple but essential piece of advice.  In the end, I started.  Not much has happened past my publishing my book, participating in Goodreads, starting this blog and seeing what is going on out there in the reading world.  But I did start and I am continuing as well.

Developing a foil character in yWriter5

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One of the bonuses that came out of finding yWriter5 (link in the Favorite Sites column to the top right) and then using it to develop my book, In Times Passed, was that as I entered some information into the program about the various characters present in my book, I got to know them better and developed them further. One character I had given little thought to but was using as one of the main reasons that my protagonist, Brent Garrett, was so unable to find direction and thus was the type to leap without looking began to take shape.  Much of what I learned about her, Vivian (maiden name still undecided) his mother, would not be used in the book, but I realized she was not a character to look over at all.  A new scene developed that showed at least a portion of the relationship she has with her son and how she has effected him directly and indirectly whether intentionally or not.

The second book in the series, No-time Like the Present, when roughed out had no mention of her at all. But after a stint in yWriter5, and my understanding of Vivian’s motivations, possible intentions (she has yet to reveal to me how much of what she does is intentional, good fortunate busybodying and the effects of someone else’s possible instigation) growing with the first book’s finish, she now plays a role in the second book and her underlying machinations become more interesting.  As I work through the series, I suspect that Vivian will call for a book of her own, perhaps to defend herself and all that seems to get laid at her door.   

So my point is, yWriter5 or anything that makes you have to supply detail or defend traits and motivations, can lead to a foil character getting unexpected dimension and even the opportunity to rise as a main character in a later work.

Now that I think about it, it was in having to write down the motivations, obvious and underlying, that caused Brent to make the choices he did, that forced me to look into Vivian’s involvement more and then develop her further.

Sorry about this not going in on Wednesday, my weekly blog day.  I promised myself and my nonexistent readers I would blog weekly and apparently failed in my third week.  I love teaching, but it is time consuming.  But I plan to work this habit into my life, come what may.

For users of WordPerfect who want to publish on Smashwords

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Since this is my first time having a blog, I have decided that Wednesday will be my scheduled blog day.  I still may enter other posts, but once a week I will definitely post.  Since writing is my focus for this blog, my posts on Wednesday will always relate to publishing and improving writing.

Smashwords.com is where I published my book, In Times Passed, and one thing that was very much emphasized in the formatting of a book to ready it for the meatgrinder (the program that turns the uploaded manuscript into several varieties of ebook format) is that it must be in Word, preferably 2003 or 2007 versions.  I have a preference for WordPerfect (WP), though I use Word at work.  All my writing is in wpd format.  So for those writers with the same preference as I, I wanted to share how easy it was to make the final preparation on the document that would be uploaded, while still using WP for the original document.  The writer does have to have Word for the final step, though. 

I completed my book in WP as well as put it through a final content edit.  Then following the Smashwords’ guide for publication formatting, I used the recommended “nuclear method.” The name sounds terrible, but the process truly is the easiest way to strip out WP formatting.  I used the select all menu choice in Edit, copied, and then pasted it into Notepad.  I saved the text in Notepad format.  Since I have the programs on separate computers, I used a flashdrive to transfer the new Notepad document to my laptop which has Word on it.  I then opened Notepad on the laptop, selected, copied and pasted it into a new Word document.  From there on, I followed the Smashwords’ guide on preparing the program to avoid it inserting formatting, and then I followed remaining instructions for fonts, chapter headings, scene breaks, styles, etc.

I put my book through one more final edit using a strategy I always tell my students.  I worked from the end of the document, sentence by sentence back to the beginning. This keeps me from falling into the story and losing track of the fact that I am looking for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.  Other things catch my attention that way, too.  If I ask myself, “Who said that?”  I recheck the dialogue and make sure it is clear who is speaking as I don’t always use tags.  Ultimately, I did go through the document with a close eye for formatting codes that were not allowed.  The guide is very clear about how to do this and what to look for, so I leave any writers reading this to read it.  My main point here is feel free to use WordPerfect when creating your work, as a quick trip through Notepad clears away any formatting which could have turned the whole endeavor into a nightmare.  As it was, I had no format errors to correct after the upload and made it into the Premium Catalog without issue the first time.

yWriter software is a tool worth downloading

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When I decided in the spring of this year to go through my books gathering digital mothballs, I knew I was going to have to find a way to visualize the plot better than I had in the past.  I tried to think of ways to use my word processing software but could not think of anything that wouldn’t be more trouble than it was worth. I searched my iphone for an app already existing but found nothing.  I searched for writing software and found a few, but they were spendy.  I decided to look and see what writers were saying about such software.  And that’s is when I learned about yWriter by Spacejock Software.

I don’t want this to sound like a paid ad, so let me just say, breaking my story into scenes and taking the time to enter the goals, conflict and outcome (for plot) helped me ensure there was purpose for each scene and know how each scene drove the story forward.  There is much more to the software, and most of what it offers has greatly improved my redrafting for content as well as time invested.  The writer can decide what she wants to use and to what extent she wants to use.  And it’s free but well worth showing gratitude by voluntarily sending in a monetary pat on the back to the developer.

It only took an hour.

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I decided to go ahead and dive into blogging.  I had no idea how to go about it, so with Robert Lee Brewer’s post on writers and when they should start blogging under my belt, I proceeded to run in circles on the site for awhile, an hour maybe. I am not certain of the time, but when I last looked at the clock at the bottom of my screen it was after 1:00 pm and now it is after 5:00 pm.  I hope it was just an hour.  I spent a lot of time reading blog responses to his post and looking at stuff to get oriented.  I am a writer, a closet writer who just opened the door.  Boy, it’s really big out here.  I think I will just gaze for awhile.