Writers in the Storm

Piper Bayard

It’s a simple fact. Any electronic item that transmits a signal can be intercepted and/or hacked. That means cybersecurity is an issue for each of us; therefore, unless we are writing historical fiction, cybersecurity is a potential issue for each of our characters.

Volumes can be written on cybersecurity issues, so rather than offer a comprehensive treatise on the subject, which would no doubt be obsolete before dinner time, today we’ll focus on common objects in the modern world that can be hacked to spice up our story lines.

The most obvious story lines involving cybersecurity are thrillers. So we’ll cut to the chase, so to speak, and look at the big picture first.

If our character is using electronics to find someone, that character’s capabilities will depend on their nationality and the power of their government or underworld contacts to assist them. Every ally from the NSA to Anonymous could be at their disposal. There are far too many variations to address in an article, or even a treatise, but suffice to say more than one government has the capability of scooping up every electronic transmission in a given area, and more than one hacker can access everything from a home router to the Pentagon. That means your character can discover as much or as little as your plot line needs.

To flip the coin and try to hide from government surveillance on the part of any country in the West, Russia, or China, a character’s best bet is to hide in plain site with a new identity. If that isn’t possible, they must go to an all-cash existence, never carry any electronics of any kind on their person, and avoid all cameras in businesses and on streets. Since this is pretty close to impossible in First World countries at this point, it’s also best if the character stays on the move in Third World countries. However, human intelligence will still be a threat, and they will most likely be found eventually.

But what about a smaller, more intimate picture? Most of us can look around our workspace and find items that can be hacked.

Computers and phones are the most obvious. My writing partner is a senior member of the Intelligence Community. He and I recommend that everyone put a sticky note over their computer camera, because entities from corporations to any number of governments to hackers can and will observe you without it being obvious to you. . . . I’ll pause a minute for you to cover that camera . . .

Thank you. I feel better talking to you now that strangers can’t see you in your pajamas. If you want to be particularly cautious, cover camera on your phone, as well.

Speaking of cameras . . . Nanny cams, doorbell cameras, security cameras of all kinds, and children’s toys are also regularly hacked by unscrupulous individuals and used by governments foreign and domestic to record information on private citizens.

I know what you’re thinking. . . . Why on earth would foreign governments want to digitally molest my nanny cam? I’m just not that interesting.

Not to promote paranoia, but you actually are that interesting. These are only a few reasons foreign governments want to spy on you:

• To spy on expatriates
• To monitor trends in society
• To improve training of deep-cover operatives
• To better design propaganda efforts in foreign countries
• To gather information on possible targets for covert action
• To identify blackmail targets
• To build files on important foreigners

Yes, foreign governments use Internet devices to collect information on regular citizens to tailor their enormous propaganda efforts, but that is an article for another day.

Most of us are aware that our computers are open books for governments—both domestic and foreign—as well as hackers. A hacker can get into a computer and do anything that the computer’s owner can do. They can destroy everything on the device, pilfer through everything on the device, or plant spyware that will record every keystroke. Computers are most vulnerable when connected to unsecured Internet networks, such as at coffee shops or in hotels, and hackers know this. . . . Great material for plot lines, right? . . . There are numerous companies that sell cybersecurity programs to help detect and protect from such attacks. Also, if a computer is turned off, it is safe from hacking.

Phones are also common targets of governments, local police departments, and hackers.

For example, everyone in the DC area can assume that all of their phone calls are being intercepted by the Russians and the Chinese. That’s true of several large cities in the US and Europe. In addition to stationary devices, foreign agents, DHS, and local police departments literally drive around the city with “cell site simulators,” or “Stingrays” in their vehicles that simulate cell phone towers and intercept phone signals.

There are two easy ways a character can protect the information on their phone. First, they can put their phone in a faraday bag, which is a bag made of a shielding material that blocks transmissions. Another way is cheaper and faster than shopping—tin foil. Yes. There is something to the tin foil hat, or in this case, tin foil envelope.

To protect a phone, a character needs three layers of tin foil. The first layer is smooth. They must be careful to wrap the phone thoroughly, leaving no open seams. The second layer is crumpled. They crunch up the tin foil, unfold it enough to make it useful, and wrap it around the phone. Again, the character needs to pay attention to seams. The third layer is another smooth layer over the crunched layer. Once the phone is wrapped, anything a hacker could get off of it would be so distorted that it would render the information useless. This tin foil trick works for computers and key fobs, as well.

Yes, key fobs. Vehicles with keyless ignition systems, such as pretty much all rental cars these days, can be hacked from outside a building.

This is called a “relay attack,” and it can be accomplished with cheap equipment found online or at an electronics store. One character holds a key fob relay box close to the outside of a building. The box picks up the signal from an unprotected key fob inside and relays it to a second device that a second character holds near the car. This fools the car, and the vehicle can be unlocked and/or started. Great for car theft, planting surveillance devices, or hiding in a back seat or trunk.

Deliciously creepy, right? If written well, though, this hack could be used in a romance, and a lover could leave a gift on their beloved’s dashboard. Or perhaps a comedic situation could arise where a character stashed something in a rental car, and they need to get it back on the sly.

Another source for plots comes from voice-controlled speakers such as Alexa or a Smart TV.

Yes. Numerous governments and corporations really are collecting everything said within range of these devices. Hackers can do the same. Everything said within range of these devices is collected and transmitted to servers to be analyzed for “search words.” Sorry. This article is too short to discuss what can happen to all of the conversations collected that do not include “search words.”

However, such devices sometimes make mistakes. Voice-controlled speakers have been known to transmit conversations to random individuals on a contact list. For example, a couple can be having a conversation in range of their Alexa or Alexa-equivalent, and it can accidentally be transmitted to some random individual on their contact list. Cross my heart and hope to die, this has actually happened in real life. The possibilities in fiction are endless!

Another type of personal digital violation is also becoming more common all the time. I’ll be as delicate as possible when describing this . . .

It’s called “screwdriving.” When couples fall in love and become intimate, or they just want a hook up or whatever, sometimes they like to involve certain electronic implements . . . Oh, never mind. Sex toys. I’m talking about sex toys.

Sex toys often now connect to the Internet. The Internet connection allows couples to express their passions, even when they are at a distance, whether across town or across the planet. Screwdriving is when hackers drive around and seek out these devices in the buildings around them. Hackers then hack the devices in the hopes of delivering a tingly surprise—a digital threesome of sorts. The romantic and comedic possibilities are endless!

These are only a few of the devices that can be hacked in real life and in fiction. Others are pacemakers, cars, fitbits, and any other electronic device that connects to the Internet or emits an electronic signal. Apply imagination, and any of these can be a source of comedy, romance, crime, or thrills.

Have you used hacking in one of your plots? What genre was it?

Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Their latest release, SPYCRAFT: Essentials, is designed for writers. It addresses the functions and jurisdictions of the main US intelligence organizations, the spook personality and character, tradecraft techniques, surveillance, the most common foibles of spy fiction, and much more. It is available in digital format and print at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.

Please visit Piper and Holmes at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing. You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard or Bayard & Holmes, or at their email, BH@BayardandHolmes.com.

 

 

Just a note first. I'm ready for more first page submissions!  If you've sent one in and I haven't used yours, there could be three reasons. 1. it's too good - people learn from mistakes!  2. It's not perfect, but there's not enough there to spend a whole blog addressing. 3. I've already addressed the problems in another blog, i.e. scene setting, POV, etc.  If you want personalized feedback, though, check out the end of the blog - I'm teaching a class on the first Five Pages! 

Thank you, brave soul, for trusting me with your work. I hope you find this helpful.

I chose this month's submission as a lesson in the finer points of POV. This is in third person, but we never really understand who the POV character is, and the scene reads more like we're watching a movie rather than experiencing it from inside of a person (well that sounded a little eeeewy). Pretty easy fix, and I love the humor in this piece!

Here we go:

My edits:

Black = original

Red = my thoughts/comments

Purple = text I added/altered

ORIGINAL:

“Just look at her,” Brenna said, nodding her head toward the librarian’s desk. “She considers her rack an investment, you know.” Start of the story - keep in mind, the reader doesn't know where they are, or who your character is. City library? Is this a teenager? And it's not really clear if Brenna is the POV character. Readers expect that the first person they meet to be the POV Character.

Does this give us more idea where we are?  

"Just look at her," I/she nodded to the Davis High librarian's desk. “She considers her rack an investment, you know.” 

“I wonder if they get any returns,” Hadley responded. We don't know who Hadley is, so we don't know what to make of her comment. Is she a teacher? A student? The principal?  See how hearing that comment from each of those people changes it? Also, since you made this a dialog line, we know she responded. You're missing an opportunity to tell us more - about setting, and who she is.

"I wonder if she gets any returns?" Hadley, my best friend and fellow teacher crossed her arms and tipped her head to study the issue from another angle. 

The implantee in question was Anise Blaine, a fellow English teacher who looked more like a mall-rat than an educator.

Hadley looked up at Anise, her yellow hair in stark contrast to the room’s dull interior. A few boys cocked their heads at desk-level as she bent over to retrieve a pen she had dropped.

Here's where it gets confusing.  Is it Anise's hair that is yellow? Grammatically, that is correct, but it's a bit unclear. We as readers are dying to know more about the setting, about these people. Hair color doesn't help us do that. I'd choose something more helpful. In the 'A few boys' sentence -- we read linearly; one word at a time. So it's confusing and a tiny irritation to a reader to read a reaction first, then the reason for it. It's not huge, but one of those things that, given enough little breaks like that - a reader will put down a book, not thinking it's bad, just that it's not engaging (learned this gem from the incredible Margie Lawson). Let me try to clear it up:

Anise's pen hit the floor, and though she tugged the too-short hem of her skirt before bending to retrieve it, the male heads in the room followed her down.

Hadley scanned the room and sighed. This was supposed to be a class full of college-bound students, she thought, but they still fell into the old ranks: the ones with the good-looking genes at one table, the geeks at another, and the outcasts on benches or in line for the restroom pass to smoke.

The reader assumes the first person they're introduced to is the POV character. That would be Brenna. But here, we see a thought of Hadley - which means she's the POV character. Or you're head-hopping.  It's disconcerting to learn this paragraphs into a story. You want the reader to settle in, right away, and trust the author.

Given the line above, I expected a thought about men in general. But instead, it goes to high school social strata. If she's a teacher, she understands this - so why the sigh? Does she wish it was different? That would be an opportunity for us to learn more about her, but you don't go there. 

Also, if there's no quotation marks, we know it's a thought; you're showing, and telling too. (hint: showing is almost always better).

“How many of them would guess we’re talking about Anise’s boobs and not English Lit?”

They're not talking where any students could overhear, right? That would be inappropriate! But we don't know, because there's very little scene setting.

Brenna stuck a No. 2 pencil in her jerrybuilt French twist. “Don’t flatter yourself. They don’t give a damn what we talk about.” She had been reading coeds as long as she’d been reading their essays.

I'd just move the last sentence before the dialogue line, so we have context for it. I think it's smoother. Love the 'jerrybuilt French twist' short succinct description that gives us a perfect picture.

Brenna stuck a No. 2 pencil in her jerrybuilt French twist. She had been reading coeds as long as she’d been reading their essays. “Don’t flatter yourself. They don’t give a damn what we talk about.”<

Don't take the volume of my comments to mean that I don't like it. This is a good scene, and I like your voice - but it could be great, with some scene-setting and POV clarification.

Do you have problems with POV? Scene setting? Any suggestions for us?

Laura is teaching a two-week class at Lawson's Writer Academy Entitled: Your First Five Pages - Reader Glue! It's like a college course, only using YOUR work!  You can get details HERE.

Laura's next release, The Last True Cowboy, is available for preorder (you know preorders really help authors, right?) Just click on the meme to be taken to retailers.

Carly Beauchamp has loved cowboy Austin Davis since first grade. Ask anyone in their dusty, backwater New Mexico town of Unforgiven, and they’ll say, “Carly and Austin” the way some say, “big trucks and country boys.” But after years of waiting for a wedding ring, Carly’s done with being a rodeo widow. She dumps Austin (again), but after a month she’s a pressure cooker, ready to blow. She heads to Albuquerque, where she’s not half of the C&A franchise. No heartbroken, “poor Carly.” Just an anonymous chick in a generic country bar. There she meets a man with ice blue eyes in biker leathers. They have nothing in common—except heartbreak. They pour out their pain while pouring the booze.

Horror hits when Carly wakes alone, but vaguely remembers she didn’t go to sleep that way. She calls around, to find that her mystery man never existed. He lied. About his name, his job . . . everything. She takes a morning after pill and goes home, determined to put this huge mistake in the rear view mirror. And she manages—more or less—until the doctor confirms her pregnancy.

Austin never meant to put his career on the circuit before Carly. She’s always been his future, his one and only. But now that she’s moved on, he’s beginning to see where he went wrong, and he’ll do anything to win her back. The only thing is, Carly’s suddenly acting differently, and she’s definitely hiding a secret—one that will test the depth of their love and open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Gwen Hernandez

In a perfect world, you’d remember every detail about your manuscript, and have a thorough book or series bible to back you up. In reality—if you’re anything like me—you’ve rewritten some scenes so many times you can’t remember which version of it you kept (did I mention the sister or leave her out?), and you definitely forgot to make a note of which type of gun your heroine carries (was it a Sig or a Beretta?).

Luckily, Scrivener makes it easy to search your manuscript, whether you “lost” a scene while trying to move it, or just can’t remember the details. Here are three easy ways to find what you need in Scrivener 3.

Using Project Search

In Scrivener 3, there’s a new Search button on the toolbar that aggregates several search-related functions, including Project Search (formerly a text box in the toolbar), Document Search, Synopsis Search, Find by Formatting, and Project Replace.

 

Accessing Project Search

To quickly access Project Search, click the magnifying glass portion of the Search button and a search box opens at the top of the Binder.

Type the word(s) you want to search for in the text box. The Binder changes to a list of documents that match your search criteria. When you select one of the documents in the list, you can scroll through to see any matches highlighted in yellow.

To clear the results and view the normal Binder list, press ESC on your keyboard, or click the X in the project search text box.

Changing the Search Parameters

Did you notice how the match in the example above was not the word I typed, but a word that contained my word? Sometimes that’s great. Other times not so much. In this section, we’ll look at how to adjust the parameters to get exactly what you’re looking for.

The settings for Project Search can be adjusted by clicking on the magnifying glass in the project search text box to change what elements Scrivener searches (e.g. All, Title, Text, etc), what type of search it performs, and which files it looks in. You can even make your search case sensitive, which is handy if you have a name that is also a word, like Bob or Trace.

Notice that project search text box displays the most recent type of search in gray text so you know if you need to make changes.

Determining Which Parts to Search

The “Search In” section of the menu allows you to narrow the elements Scrivener searches. You can only choose one option for this section. So, if you want to only search the text of your documents—as opposed to titles, synopses, notes, keywords, etc—you can choose Text. If you’re looking for a synopsis with a specific word in it, choose Synopsis.

TIP: If you choose All, and you don’t see a match in the text of the selected document, check in the synopsis, label value, title, etc.

Choosing What to Match

The “Operator” section is where you decide how specific the match should be. You can only choose one of the following options.

• Any Word will return a match if one or more of the words—or parts of the words (e.g. form in formed)—are found in the document, in any order (not necessarily next to each other).
• All Words will only return a match if all the words you typed in the search box—or parts of the words—are present in the document, in any order. So if you typed “big gun” Scrivener would return a match for a document that contains “the gunman was big.”
• Exact Phrase returns a match only if all the words appear in a document in the exact order you typed them, but will still match partial words. So, “big gun” would return at match for “big gun” or “big gunman.”
• Whole Word lets you narrow your search to exactly the word(s) you typed. So, “gun” would return a match for “gun” but not “gunman.” Keep in mind that while this is useful for names and words that are part of other words, you can also get tripped up by possessives. For example, “Bob” would return a match for “Bob” but not “Bob’” If you need both, try a different option.
• RegEx allows you to use regular expressions. If you’re not familiar with them, don’t worry about it!

Deciding Where to Look and More

The “Options” Section lets you further narrow or expand your search. You can choose more than one option for this section.

There are a lot of handy choices here, like narrowing your search to only your Draft/Manuscript folder, excluding files that are in the Trash folder, making your search case sensitive (great for names of people or locations), and ignoring diacritics (accents and other marks used in some languages to change the pronunciation of a letter).

Search “Included” Documents refers to those documents that are marked to include in Compile. “Excluded” documents are those not marked for inclusion in Compile. You’ll find the Include in Compile option at the bottom right of the Editor pane, or in the Compile window.

Invert Results displays the opposite of your search request (e.g. if your search is set up to find all documents with the word “phenomenal” in them, choosing Invert Results will display all documents that do not contain that word).

Creating a Collection from a Project Search

There’s an option at the bottom of the project search menu to “Save Search as a Collection.” Choosing this option creates a collection based on the current search criteria. Anytime you view the collection, it will run the search and display the results. Handy for finding documents labeled as “To Do,” those written in a specific POV, articles written for a specific blog site, or anything else you might want to view regularly.

To view your collections, click the View button and choose Show Collections (or go to View>Show Collections).

Searching in Context with the Quick Search Toolbar

For a quick search that displays the results in context, use Scrivener’s new Quick Search feature. I often find it more useful than a project search because it displays the surrounding text, making it easier to determine which result is the one I want.

Unlike project search, though, you can’t adjust the settings for Quick Search. It only looks for the exact phrase you type.

The Quick Search is located in the center of the toolbar. When not being used to search, it displays the title of the document you’re currently working on.

Here’s how to use it.

1. Click in the text box and type a word or phrase to get a list of files containing those characters, organized by where they were found (e.g. Titles, Text, Synopsis).
2. Click on a listed item to view the document in the Editor, or choose Full Project Search to access the Project Search feature.

Searching by Formatting

Have you ever wanted to find all of your italicized words? Or maybe you’re a fan of annotations like I am and you want to go through them one by one during revisions. Find by Formatting is your friend. Here’s how it works.

1. Go to Edit>Find>Find by Formatting.
2. In the Find dropdown menu, choose the type of formatting you want to search for. In the example below, I want to find italicized text, so I chose Character Format, then clicked the I button for italics (and deselected anything else). [IMAGE: 8WITS-FindByFormatting]
3. If you’re looking for a specific word in your italics or annotations, type it in the Containing Text text box. TIP: I use this to search for annotations containing the word “excerpt,” which I use to mark passages of my book I may want to use in marketing materials.
4. Click Next to find the first instance, and repeat as needed until you find what you’re looking for.

There are other search options in Scrivener, but these are the ones I use most. What questions do you have for me about searching, or anything else, in Scrivener?

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ABOUT GWEN

Gwen Hernandezis the author of Scrivener For Dummies and helps authors all over the world find the joy in Scrivener through her online courses, in-person workshops, and private training. She also writes romantic suspense (Men of Steele series).

 

In her spare time she likes to travel, read, jog, flail on a yoga mat, and explore southern California, where she currently lives with her husband and a lazy golden retriever.