Writers in the Storm

Gwen Hernandez

A few years ago, I ended a 15-year marriage to Microsoft Word and hooked up with a younger, sexier writing program: Scrivener. My graduate thesis took the shine off my romance with Word, but it was my foray into fiction that finally killed the relationship.

That’s because Scrivener understands my needs in a way that other word processors never have. Here are just a few reasons why I threw over the old standby for a newer model.

Scrivener remembers your spot. Every time you open a project in Scrivener, it takes you right to where you left off. Maybe not such a big deal when writing the first draft, but when you’re in the midst of revisions, it’s a lifesaver.

Your structure is easy to see. Scrivener lets you write in chunks—such as scenes or chapters—called documents. The Binder, where you view all of the documents in your project, gives you an at-a-glance overview of your entire manuscript and thus the structure of your work.

Change your mind about the order of scenes or chapters? It’s a cinch to move them around and play with a different story flow.

Saving epiphanies is easy. Got an idea for a future scene, but you’re not ready for it yet? Just create a new document, write out your idea, then ignore it until you figure out where it goes. You can also add notes right into the text you’re working on. When you can’t think of the perfect line of dialogue, or you need to do some additional research, simply insert an annotation or comment and get back to writing.

Color-coding. In Scrivener, you can color code your documents by whatever piece of data you want to track. For example, in the drafting phase I tag my fiction scenes by point-of-view (POV) character, using blue for the hero and pink for the heroine (original, right?). Instantly, I can see the POV of a scene and check my overall balance.

In the revision phase—and for nonfiction—I use the Label field to keep track of the status of each section (e.g. Not Started, WIP, To Editor, Author Review, Complete).

Auto-save protects your hard work. If you’ve ever faced the Blue Screen of Death, or lost power after writing 3,000 words without saving, you can appreciate that Scrivener saves your project every time there’s more than two seconds of inactivity. So while you’re pondering your next sentence, Scrivener’s committing your words to memory.

Scrivener is like Hermione Granger’s bottomless handbag. You can import research documents, web pages/links, and photos right into your project, so even when you take your laptop on the road, you have everything you need. You can also import any writing you already started in another program.

Plus, you can keep outlines, notes on ideas for changes and future scenes, and character and setting information all within the project. No more scouring your hard drive or that pile of sticky notes on your desk for a crucial piece of information.

Working without distractions. Scrivener’s full screen composition mode blocks out all distractions, making it easier to focus on your writing. Change the background color or image to suit your mood.

And there’s so much more! I could wax poetic about my fabulous writing partner all day. The ability to set word count goals and track your progress. The Corkboard where you can view each document as an index card (perfect for storyboarders). Advanced searches that help you find anything, anywhere in your project.

But one last thing…

Exporting to e-books is a snap. Scrivener is your one-stop publishing program. When your masterpiece is done, you can compile (export) it to an EPUB or MOBI (Amazon) file for easy self-publishing, or for perusing on your e-reader. You can also export to DOC, RTF, TXT, PDF, direct-to-printer, and other formats.

That’s just a small list of what makes Scrivener—available for Mac and Windows—too hot to resist. So, if you’re tired of your stodgy, inflexible word processor, hook up with a program that puts your needs as a writer first.

There’s no commitment with Scrivener’s free trial, but you just might find your happy ever after.

Hit me with your questions. One commenter will win free enrollment in one of my upcoming Scrivener online courses, or an electronic copy of my romantic suspense, Blind Fury (winner’s choice).

Bio:

Gwen Hernandez is the author of Scrivener For Dummies, Productivity Tools for Writers, and Blind Fury. She also teaches popular online Scrivener courses for Mac and Windows. The former Army/Navy brat is currently living in a hotel room while in the midst of relocating from the D.C. area to Boston with her Air Force husband, two teenage boys, and a lazy golden retriever. Learn more about her books or classes and get free Scrivener tips at gwenhernandez.com.

Susan Spann

For many writers, the author-agent relationship is confusing, and even frightening. Sometimes, authors forget that agents are people (just like us) instead of literary krakens who feed on authors’ hopes and dreams.

The author-agent relationship is a partnership. Like any business arrangement, it can lead to great success or crater into the ground at breakneck speed. However, an author can improve the odds of success by careful planning and proper choices along the way.

This summer, my guest posts here at Writers in the Storm will examine the agency relationship and offer concrete advice for writers seeking representation as well as those already working with agents. We’ll look at when to sign, when to ask questions … and when to release the kraken and seek shelter in calmer waters.

The first, and most important, part of creating a healthy author-agent partnership is finding an agent who matches your business needs and personal style.

The right agent match will complement the author on three important levels:

• Personality
• Business and Professional Habits.
• Expectations for the Agency Relationship

Lack of a match in any area causes frustration and tension on both sides. If the match is bad enough, the “breakup” can be messy and even result in litigation.

The key is trying to find the right match from the very beginning—something a surprising number of authors overlook in the agent search. Today, we’ll examine the first two categories of author-agent matching. (Next month I’ll return for a look at the third.)

PERSONALITY

Successful business partnerships are based on mutual appreciation and respect, as well as complementary personalities. If you don’t like your agent as a person, odds are you won’t work well together. A personality match does not require (or necessarily lead to) friendship outside the partnership. You and your agent don’t need to share hobbies or preferences—aside from a love for the kind of books you write. In fact, complimentary qualities often strengthen a partnership. However, it is vital that you respect one another as people and as professionals.

This is a business partnership, so don’t expect it to become too personal. Some authors form friendships with their agents; others remain on more professional terms throughout the partnership. By observing the way agents interact in public and on social media, you can learn a lot about the manner in which the agent relates to clients. Query the agents with whom you think you have a personality match.

Short form: if you think an agent’s a jerk (s)he’s probably not the one for you. And that’s okay. You get to make that decision. But do your research ahead of time, and don’t waste effort querying agents whose personalities clash with yours.

BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL HABITS

This refers to the way the agent—and the author—conduct their respective businesses.

At a minimum, your agent should behave in accordance with industry standards. This means:

1. Not charging the author for reading fees or anything else except appropriate, percentage-based commissions earned on contracts the agent negotiates. This is non-negotiable. Reputable agents don’t charge fees and don’t require authors to pay directly for services rendered (including editing). Writer beware!
2. Acting professionally in public and on social media. Investigate the way an agent behaves in public forums. Use the Internet. Go to conferences. Talk to other writers. Look at the agent’s website, social media pages, and interviews. Ask yourself if this is someone you want to represent you.

Remember: agents are people, and no one is perfect, but you want an agent who shows professionalism in business settings.

Note: the agent will expect the same of you—as well (s)he should. Make sure your social media and other public interactions look professional too.

3. Compliance with the agent’s stated procedures for handling queries (and correspondence). Standards differ. Some agents respond to all queries and state their response times in public. Others don’t. As long as the standards are reasonable, and complied with, the agent has the right to choose the manner in which (s)he does business.

Authors have opinions on each of these topics, and your opinion is relevant to your choices. If you think an agent should answer all queries, you’re not a match for an agent whose policy is “no answer means no.” You may prefer an agent who is (or isn’t) active on social media. That’s okay. It doesn’t make the agent’s policy “wrong” or inappropriate, as long as the agent is behaving professionally – it simply means that you and the agent aren’t a match on those points. Is that enough to pass on querying? Sure, if you feel strongly enough about it.

The key is remembering that the choice is yours to make—but only for your own career. Your dream agent might not suit another author, or vice versa, but there’s an agent match for everyone.

When evaluating agents, consider the following factors also:

Does the agent represent the type of books you write? Too many authors chase a famous agent for his or her name (and fame) alone instead of researching what the agent represents. Don’t be an Ahab, chasing a whale for the sake of fame (or vengeance).

How (and how quickly) does the agent communicate? You may not be able to learn about this before you query, but this should be high on your list of talking points when you get “the call” or an offer of representation. (Next month’s post will focus more on the other talking points for this conversation.)

If you prefer the telephone but your agent works through email (or the opposite), you’ll probably find the relationship unsatisfactory in the long run. You’re not the agent’s only client, and can’t expect the agent to change the way (s)he operates for you. However, it’s important to work with an agent whose methods match your—reasonable—needs.

Some agents respond to clients quickly. Others may take weeks to answer non-critical inquiries. You can’t expect your agent to jump whenever you snap your fingers (not even after you reach bestseller status) but you should try to work with an agent whose responsiveness meets your professional expectations.

Make sure your expectations are reasonable, given industry standards—and then find an agent who matches as many as possible.

Your agent should not be neglectful, or rude, or treat you like an inferior—but neither should you expect him (or her) to show up on your doorstep with a unicorn and a check for a million dollars. Look at your expectations (talk to a published author friend, if you can) and make sure you’re being reasonable, by industry standards.

There are plenty of other questions to ask of yourself and your future agent. We’ll look at more of them in next month’s post.

For now, remember: the author-agent relationship is a partnership, not a one-way street. It functions best when authors and agents have similar business habits, complimentary personalities, and compatible professional goals.

What’s most important to you in an agent? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section! 

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About Susan

Susan Spann writes the Shinobi Mysteries, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and his Portuguese Jesuit sidekick, Father Mateo. Her debut novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Minotaur Books, 2013), was named a Library Journal Mystery Debut of the Month. The second Shinobi Mystery, BLADE OF THE SAMURAI, releases on July 15, 2014. Susan is also a transactional attorney whose practice focuses on publishing law and business. When not writing or practicing law, she raises seahorses and rare corals in her marine aquarium. You can find her online at her website, http://www.SusanSpann.com, and on Twitter (@SusanSpann).

 

 

@OrlyKonigLopez

Show of hands … who’s had a recent stare-down with your computer, muttered politically incorrect things at the blinking cursor and blank page, then proceeded to clean the toilet, weed the garden and the neighbor’s garden, fill the car with all those boxes collecting in the garage for the past year and driven them to the dump, read and filed emails from two years ago, just to avoid writing?

Not judging … come on. :-)

Come on … I can’t be the only one! Can I?

*Clearing throat*  Well alrighty then … Moving right along.

Life and other priorities have sucked up much of my writing time lately. Okay, okay, I’ve let them suck up much of my writing motivation lately. Sometimes it’s just easier to clean toilets or answer emails than to make myself sit and write.

Maybe it’s years in the corporate world where deadlines drove every minute of my day, but I do better with external motivators. Here are a few tricks I use to get the writing done (and no, super-gluing my behind to the chair isn’t one of them):

1. Setting a deadline.

When I first sit to write on a new project, I don’t necessarily have a deadline in mind. But as soon as the story takes hold, I need to corral the loosey-goosey pantser writer that I am by putting some structure on what I’m doing.

There are any number of ways to come up with a deadline. Look for contests that you’d like to enter and set the opening of submissions as your target date. Or if you’re looking at querying agents with that manuscript, give yourself a deadline to have a polished manuscript done by a set time—perhaps before the post NaNo crunch, or before/after the holidays, or a respectable time before or after a large conference so that your manuscript doesn’t land in the post-conference frenzy.

Set a realistic deadline. Don’t expect to write and polish an 80,000-word manuscript in two months. That’s not to say that some people can’t do it, but the majority of us could use a bit extra time. Build in time for critiques and beta reads, give yourself a couple of weeks between drafts and before submitting to gain some distance.

2. Accountability partners.

I have two writing buddies I check in with regularly. Sometimes it’s a daily “are you writing today” or a “I accomplished this today, how did you do.” Some days it’s talking one or the other of us off a ledge or commiserating over bad writing, dirty toilets, cats with hairballs.

When I flip on the computer first thing in the morning, that’s the email I’m looking for. And when one of their emails or texts pop up during the day, it’s almost as good as a double espresso. ;-)

3. Joining a group challenge.

I love challenges. The extra push of being in the trenches with others is a nice little motivator. A few I’ve participated in:

• NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for those who can crank through 50k during November
• Camp NaNoWriMo is a more open ended version, with sessions in April and July and word-count goals between 10,000 and 1,000,000.
• PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) also takes place in November and is geared for picture book writers who want to build up a collection of ideas.
• The Women’s Fiction Writers Association puts on a Write-A-Thin challenge for members in January. Though the focus is on editing (hence the “thin” part), all goals are welcome and encouraged.

If you’ve been part of a group challenge that’s not listed here, please add it in the comments!

Another option is, of course, to create your own challenge. As part of the Power Writing Hour, Jamie has been cheerleading the group with several challenges recently. May was for creating a writing habit. June is one of my favorites—by far—the Finish Something Month. Oh baby do I need to finish a few things! The support and enthusiasm of these groups keeps my motivated even when it feels like someone has their finger over my snorkel.

[Note: if you didn’t read Jamie’s post on Monday about online writing communities, you can find it here. They are great motivators!!]

It doesn’t have to be a large group either. You can put out a challenge for your critique group.

4. Reminders, reminders, reminders.

I keep a sticky note above the computer with my target dates. First draft done by such-and-such date, first round of revisions done a month later, beta read or another round of revisions X amount of time after, final revision and polished manuscript on this date.

Once I have those deadlines, I print out calendar pages and mark what word count should look like in order to meet my goal. Doesn’t mean I always hit that mark, but it keeps me focused on moving forward. Even if I’ve fallen a bit behind on word count, there’s usually a section of the book that flows faster and I catch up. That calendar stays on my desk, in plain sight. Seeing the word count goal each day when I sit to write is a great motivator.

Play around with one or two or even all four of these. You might find a combination that helps you stay focused on the end goal of a finished, polished manuscript.

Your turn ... what’s worked for you?

About Orly

After years of pushing the creativity boundary in corporate communications, Orly decided it was time for a new challenge. Three women’s fiction manuscripts later (plus a handful of picture books), it’s safe to say she’s found her creative outlet.  When she’s not talking to her imaginary friends, she’s reading or at least trying to ignore everyone around her long enough to finish “just one more paragraph.” Orly is the founding president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

You can find her on Twitter at @OrlyKonigLopez or on her website, www.orlykoniglopez.com.