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Posted on 13 June 2016
In RedPen Editing, Training

Editing is a systematic process: finding flaws and fixing them. In step 1-3 of my Red Pen Editing cycle, I draw attention to the need to create distance from your writing, and to be in the right frame of mind, before you even think about picking up your red pen to start editing. I also suggest, at step 8 'Time to use the red pen!', that you challenge yourself with the hardest editing...

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Posted on 12 June 2016
In Scrivener, Training

ProWritingAid This was recommended by one of my RedPenners and it's been on my Recommendations page for some time. Within the Red Pen Editing cycle, step 9 is DRILL DOWN where, having addressed all other issues of structure, voice, tense, etc., we focus on paragraphs, sentences, words, and punctuation. It's the final sweep before sending our precious manuscript to our beta readers for feedback. Step 9 relies on our understanding of spelling, grammar, and...

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Posted on 6 June 2016
In Scrivener, Training

Bigger the better? During the Simply Scrivener Special webinars, I share my screen so that I can demonstrate various features of Scrivener. One issue that arose early on was visibility.  Consider this view of my Safari Supper novel.  Shared across the Internet, with my attendees watching on screens of various sizes, immediately the cry went up: 'I can't read the words.' Changing the size of the text within the Scrivenings pane is easy enough. Notice...

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Posted on 27 May 2016
In Novel writing, Scrivener, Training

Another question, from a recent session of the Simply Scrivener Special webinar series: How do you pull material into the Research folder? Easy! The blog post of 9 October 2015 introduced the concept of collecting Research resources within the Research folder. However, let's look at this feature of Scrivener in some more detail ...

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Posted on 10 May 2016
In Scrivener, Training

As a writer, I think it's essential to meet with other writers. We are a weird crowd. We need to stick together! For many years, I belonged to a number of online writers' groups. The BBC GetWriting was the first and, when that folded, many of us moved to WritersDock and/or MoreWriting. And then there was Chapter79 which, sadly, closed its doors (portal?) recently. When I first moved to Salcombe, I set...

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Posted on 6 May 2016
In Scrivener, Training

This question came up during the April session of the Simply Scrivener Special webinar series. Which project template should I use? The developers of Scrivener anticipated many different types of material an author might want to write. For each, there is a separate template: Blank, Fiction, Non-fiction, Scriptwriting, Poetry & Lyrics, and Miscellaneous. If you choose Fiction, there are then three more options: Novel, Novel (with Parts), and Short Story. For a novel, the Manuscript part...

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Posted on 29 April 2016
In Novel writing, Scrivener

I'm delighted to have as my guest today my friend, Dee (AKA Donna D Vaal), the author of The Living Miracle - A Love Story. Dee One of the early followers of this blog and also subscribes to my (free) Red Pen newsletter. When I saw that her novel had been published by Barnes & Noble, I had to ask the obvious question: Did you use Scrivener for 'The Living Miracle - A Love...

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Posted on 22 April 2016
In Scrivener, Training

I'm delighted to announce, starting on Monday 25 April, I will be hosting a series of free monthly online training webinars. We kick off at noon BST and, in the 60 minutes that follow, I'll be providing a live presentation of features of Scrivener, supplementing this ScrivenerVirgin blog series. It's an AMA session - ask me anything - so come along with your questions ready to copy and paste into the Q&A...

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Posted on 19 April 2016
In Novel writing, Scrivener, Training

In Joseph Michael's free video series of Scrivener Secrets, his third video on publishing and exporting Secrets explains how to print, compile, share and export your work. Scrivener covers all angles The choice of templates provides for every eventuality: fiction, non-fiction, scriptwriting, etc. If you choose fiction, which is where I usually start, then all the 'normal' pages for the front matter are set up for you within the binder. All you have to do is fill...

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