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Posted on 12 June 2017
In RedPen Mentoring

A Monday is as good a day as any for planning decisions: for the week ahead, or further into your future. Ideally, whatever you plan, your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. There are other suggestions as to what the five letters of SMART might represent: S - sensible, significant, simple, strategic, stretching M - maintainable, manageable, meaningful, motivating A - acceptable, accountable, achievable, action-oriented, agreed, ambitious, assignable R - realistic, reasonable, recorded, resourced, results-oriented,...

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Posted on 6 June 2017
In Guest blogpost, Scrivener

Amazon best-seller writer, Kay Kukoyi, was my guest in January 2017. Since then, a lot has happened! Both of Kay’s first two books have become Amazon #1 best-sellers in multiple countries. Don't Hire a Software Developer Until You Read this Book has been #1 in six countries: the UK, US, Germany, Brazil, Australia, and Canada. And, Develop Your Idea! reached #1 in four countries. Congratulations Kay! So, how does Scrivener fit whilst working on...

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Posted on 29 May 2017
In Guest blogpost, Scrivener

My guest today is Rosemary Kind. Rosemary Kind set up the short story download site Alfie Dog Fiction, providing an opportunity for authors to submit their work for publication, and for readers to enjoy an affordable short story online. There are also a number of short story collections, published by Alfie Dog Fiction. This month the site celebrates its fifth birthday and has lots of special offers. How did I meet Rosemary...

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Posted on 23 May 2017
In Scrivener, Training

In this next series of posts, I'm focusing on how to use folders and documents within Scrivener to create a meaningful structure for a writing project. Although my initial reason for using Scrivener was for writing novels for NaNoWriMo - and we will look at how the structure works in fiction in subsequent posts - I now use Scrivener for all my writing projects. So I'm starting with my most recent 'use' of folders -...

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Posted on 17 May 2017
In Scrivener, Writing

If you've never considered using Scrivener for writing your blog post, think again! Scrivener is not just for novel writing; I use Scrivener for EVERYTHING, especially for my blog and social media engagement. Here are my 5 top reasons why. 1: All in one place I have just one file for each writing project. Neat. Tidy. There's one for my RedPen book: EDITING The RedPen Way: 10 steps to successful self-editing - and one for each of the three...

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Posted on 11 May 2017
In Scrivener, Short story writing

Today’s post continues to explore the short story strategy and, in particular, how to set up a header line for each page. As per my blog post of 23 April, you will have used the Scrivener short story template to set up your project for a short story destined to be a competition entry. From my blog post of 29 April, you know how to control pagination within the Compile options, so that...

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Posted on 5 May 2017
In Scrivener, Short story writing

Today's post continues to explore the short story strategy And, in particular, how to control line spacing. As per my blog post of 23 April, you will have used the Scrivener short story template to set up your project for a short story destined to be a competition entry. Then, from my blog post of 29 April, you know how to control pagination within the compile options, so that your entry is anonymous. Today, in...

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Posted on 29 April 2017
In Scrivener, Short story writing

A flash, a short story, a novel: Whatever you are writing, and especially if for a competition, it makes sense to have a strategy. I've been asked to judge the Erewash 2017 Open Short Story. So, in this series of posts, I'm focusing on what strategy you might use to enter such a competition. Short story competitions: why enter? Entering short story competitions - and winning! - is one way to gain recognition as a...

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Posted on 17 April 2017
In Novel writing, Scrivener

Recently, I was interviewed by Wayne and Leah of JoinedUp Writing for their podcast series and one of the topics we discussed is how Scrivener can be used from blank page to published manuscript. Blank page to published manuscript: the commissioned route If you are commissioned to write a book, the publisher employs an editor and a proofreader and a typesetter and a cover designer, etc and 'all' you do is write...

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