Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts

Monday 21 January 2019

Scrivener, Word or Open Office?

I decided I'd try out Scrivener to see if it would help me get my manuscript done.

There's a 30 day free trial and the days only count down every day you use it, so if you only open it a couple of days a week the free trial will last longer than a month.

When the trial is up you either purchase it or remove it.

Friends do say it is a learning curve but there's lots of helpful info available: YouTube videos, a user manual within the programme and instructional videos. Then there's Anne Rainbow's ScrivenerVirgin site.

At the moment it's all making my head spin...

Which programme?


I can import a Word document, but apparently Tabs are not good and muck up the formatting later.

Since Word 2007 no longer has technical support- no updates- I've found it creating glitches in my formatting of documents and I've had to use the tab key more.

I'd considered Office 365, but apart from having to pay monthly or annually, the version of Word would not read my much earlier documents; as I understood the info it would remove my 2007 version during the download.

I bought the Office 2007 disc when I purchased my previous computer and then had to reinstall Office 2007 when a Microsoft update created major issues with my current desktop (resulting in it having to be wiped) I am now on my third and final use of 2007.

I've downloaded Open Office and found it useful for a number of things, but I wasn't comfortable with it for the novel. So I've persevered with Word.

Now I'm trialing Scrivener.

As I'm mid-rewrite of Chapter 9 in Word 2007 I've decided to start Chapter 10 in Scrivener and see how it goes. If it works for me and I buy it, I can sort out the earlier chapters in Word and then import them in.

I like the ability to make your own templates so you can use them with every novel or use the pre-existing templates.

Like any new programme it's as much about learning where things are and how to use it.

The biggest advantage is being able to prepare the finished novel for being an e-book, in ePub for example. (Of course you still need an editor.)

Today I set up the title and the chapters, then tomorrow I'll try the cork-board bit...

I must admit that the last time I looked at Scrivener (about four years ago) I didn't like it, it confused me, but now I'm at a stage with my writing where it makes sense and I can see how helpful it could be.

Are you a Scrivener convert or a Word or Open Office user?








Monday 16 October 2017

Finding Treasure in Boxes...

Now I need to say at the start this treasure is not the archetypal pirate treasure- coins, jewellery and other goodies along with the odd skull.

This treasure is my past writings.

As a teenager I used a pen and pages of A4. I moved on to a portable typewriter, and from there to a Brother Word Processor- work was saved to floppy disks. (Yes we're talking 20th century...)

Then I moved onto my first computer (an XP) with a floppy disk drive in the tower, so I carried on using them.

When that computer eventually died Windows 7 was the latest operating system; but it didn't have a floppy disk drive anymore, so I had to buy an external version with the USB connection.

I was able to access some of the items, but others were unreadable. I left them in the storage box and resigned myself to searching for a programme that would enable my computer to read my saved work. It never happened and I packed the box away somewhere.

After all I did have some of the work printed out ...somewhere.

Then last weekend, clearing one of the shelves in the corner bookcase- it needs to be moved for the rewiring work- I pulled out a compact blue box from the corner. I knew what it was instantly. My floppy disks.

A box of treasure
Downing the small paintbrush (for dusting books) and soft cloth I went to my office and rummaged on the shelf for the floppy disk reader- would it even work on the Windows 10 desktop?

I plugged in the USB and nothing, it wasn't recognised. All my excitement at my discovery went pancake flat. As a final check before unplugging I opened File Explorer and there it was.


Floppy disk reader, old manuscripts
file box...


Reviewing the floppies I chose one labelled short stories 1, inserted it into the reader, listened as it whirred noisily, and then a box opened on my screen displaying numbered stories (SS1, SS2 etc).

Clicking on the first one, Notepad opened the story; I scrolled down and I immediately remembered writing that tale- it was one I'd wanted to rewrite, but thought lost forever.

Opening more,assured me they were okay, so I set about copying and pasting from Notepad into a Word document.

Then I found the disks from my first incomplete novel; I'd started writing it in 2000 and got to about 40,000 words where I'd reached my planned ending. That was when I realised that I'd only gotten half way, there was more story to follow- the possibilities had quickly started flowing through my mind.

 But I stopped there. I realised that I didn't have the skills I needed to complete it- I didn't know anything about writing drafts. I had to go and learn how to write properly. That was how I came to join the local writers' club.

So it was with some trepidation that I now slipped the novel disk into the reader, but all that came up was a box showing formatting and asking me what I wanted to display it in, there were three choices, and in my disappointment I didn't really take in what it was asking me.

As I tried the other disks the same problem, my disappointment grew until I stopped and read what was being asked. I chose an option but nothing happened; it was a frustrated turn of the mouse wheel that scrolled down the box a bit,  and there among the little formatting symbols was text I could read!

I began the copying and pasting again but accepted I needed to do this a bit at a time, so saved and backed-up everything I'd transferred.

That box isn't going to be packed away anywhere for some time.

So if I'm ever irritated by something Windows 10 does, please remind me that it helped me retrieve my early writing that I thought had been lost forever...

Thursday 14 April 2016

Patsy Collins Returns- E-books to Print Part 2

Welcome back to part 2 of e-book to print for the self-publisher. Today it's the useful 'how to' post.

(I'm taking notes for the future.)

Over to you again, Patsy.

Thanks for having me back again Carol, despite the cheeky way I mentioned my new short story collection, Through The Garden Gate and how the kindle version is currently on sale for 99p! (Gosh, but I'm subtle!)

It's also available as a paperback version, which is available now for £6.60

How I did it.

There are a variety of companies which allow you to self publish your own books. I use Createspace, which is a print on demand (POD) service. It's part of Amazon, which means the distribution is taken care of. There's nothing to pay in advance as they take their money from the sale price. If you don't sell any, you don't pay a penny.


Available now...
The work involved.

Createspace provide useful articles on every step of the process. For example, here's one on formatting. I suggest having a quick read of those first. There's also a forum where you can ask questions if you get stuck.

Everything you need to do the formatting is available in most of the software packages you're likely to have used to write the book. Word, OpenOffice and NeoOffice will all do the job.

1. You'll probably want to add page numbers and might want to include your name and the title in page headers. It looks best to start each chapter on a new page. Use section breaks for that.

2. You should select 'mirroring' for the page set up, so there's a slightly wider margin for the inside edge of each page than the outside one. Pages should also be sized appropriately for the book size.

3. If it's a short story collection or non fiction work, you'll want to include the page numbers in the table of contents, or index, if you're using one.

4. It's a good idea to use an ISBN. Createspace will provide this for free if you select that option and you may wish to add this to the front matter of your book - that's the bit where you put copyright notices, disclaimers and that kind of thing. Just copy and paste.

5. Once you're happy with the document, save it as a pdf. You're now ready to upload it. Select the 'guided' option and you'll be guided through each stage.

6. Once uploaded, you can view a digital proof online. Look through this carefully and if there's anything you're not happy with, adjust the document and upload the new version. Repeat until it's perfect.

7. It's a good idea to look at a physical proof too. You can order it at this stage.
This is one place I don't follow the Createspace guidelines as their proof is expensive and it'll take a long time to come through. Instead, I publish the book, buy one copy and immediately un-publish again. 

8. If you already have a kindle cover image this will need some tweaking. The resolution needs to be higher and you'll have to allow for 'bleed' - that's the bit which will probably be trimmed off when the physical cover is formed. The precise requirements are clearly given when you get to that stage.

9. Selecting categories, sales channels, adding the blurb and pricing are all explained and almost identical to doing this for an ebook. Again you'll be guided through. 

Top Tip

Allow plenty of time for formatting and uploading your book. It's better to do it a step at a time over several days than try to do it all in one mad rush. There's also a wait of several hours, or sometimes days, from when you click the confirm button to it appearing for sale.

Go on then – What are you waiting for?

Thursday 22 October 2015

Sci-fi Night Review...

If you saw my recent post about the Sci-fi night that was taking place at the writers club I attend, last night (21st), then you might be interested in a few things I learnt.

I haven't yet downloaded the photos I took- that's a job for the weekend when I have the time to go through and check each one- usually it's just a case of cropping parts of people or objects caught on the edges of the picture. And I promised a couple of the authors I'd send them a copy of those they appear in.

I found out:

That there is hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi; the former is the really technical stuff that requires a lot of research (and probably a lot of technical understanding). While the latter, soft version, is more about the story/characters, often using the issues of the current time on a futuristic scenario, but usually not needing research. 

(I'm working from memory here...)

World building; be consistent, even if you bend the laws of actual science. You can make your world do whatever you want, but you must be consistent.

Stephen Palmer (one of the guest authors) emphasised that for the mid-teen reader, plot and character were the things that mattered.

The good news is that sci-fi is no longer just male authors- as it was in the last century, and there are a few popular female authors in the genre.

Coincidentally 21st October 2015 was Back to the Future Day- the first film of the 'Back to the Future' trio.

There were lots of books for sale, and attendees had time to talk to the many authors who set up their table with their books. And every ticket holder got a goodie bag which included a couple of books.

Even though sci-fi isn't my thing, it was a good evening and I enjoyed it...


Sunday 22 March 2015

Domain Name Sorted...

Following on from my earlier post, all it took was a minor adjustment at the technical end and a short wait, and my new blog address is now functioning.

It does mean that I'm going to have to re-do my blog list, as that has disappeared, and if my blog is on your list I assume it may not be accessible now, so you might need to re-apply it - if you would like to. :-)

If you do have any problems accessing my blog do let me know, either via the contact form or via one of the other social media methods.

I'll be updating a few things on the blog, and making sure they work okay this week, and hopefully will be back to my normal posting routine of Sunday and Thursday...

UPDATE:

My blog list has been re-installed this afternoon, and there's a few more additions - hope you find them interesting and useful.

Monday 10 March 2014

Three...

Things breaking...
All three...

After losing my broadband a month ago due to damage to the line outside the house, once I was reconnected I found my printer/scanner/copier wasn't working.

It took changing all the inks and doing a few maintenance tasks to get it to photocopy, but printing from documents on the computer, no!

There are two chapters of my first draft waiting to be printed out...

So I thought I'd start looking at replacement printers. Choices, choices...

Then the mouse began being unresponsive- checked for faults, made sure the driver was up to date and it was no better...

It was only when I went into John Lewis looking for a new one that I discovered how techy the mouse had become, and everything is geared to Windows 8, even if you're still on version 7!

I gave up in despair- not enough staff and too many people wanting help to hang around, so I looked online. That was a case of too much choice...

And yes, you've guessed it, the keyboard went next.

One moment it was working, then I shut the computer down while I was off doing something else, came back, turned the computer on and I got a screen load of data, and at the bottom, the message that my keyboard was kaput! (Admittedly it didn't actually say kaput, but you get the idea.)

I'd been intending to get on with editing a short story, but without a functioning keyboard...

My personal knight-in-shining armour (my OH) responded to my phone call and went and got me a new keyboard on his way home from work.

(As I had to do the keyboard, I tried a spare mouse too.)

It's brilliant. Okay it cost a bit more than a standard keyboard, but it's worth it. It's curved, and the central area is raised- makes typing consonants much quicker- I'm a one or two finger typer, but even better, the shortcuts are marked on the edge of the keys.

Now I've never been able to remember Ctrl and whatever letter to do things quicker, but now it's there for me to see instantly.

As that's three items that have gone wrong, I'm hoping that's it and I can continue writing, and printing, without further troubles.

Technology, can't live with it, or without it...






Image courtesy of Stuart Miles: http://freedigitalphotos.net



Friday 20 July 2012

Milestones and Technology...

I've had a busy week with technology issues, so there wasn't a blog post Wednesday/Thursday.
So now you're getting two posts in less than 24 hours.

My writing life has been very constrained for many years- because triplets take up a lot of energy and time, so every year I've made an effort to do a little more writing as ages and resulting demands of my family have changed.

Today lots of schools finished for the summer holidays; and for my three teenagers school has finished forever, and the grown up world of college beckons.

In some ways it will give me a little more free time to write.
So the office area is even more important now. And if the weather is dry this weekend I'll be sorting more boxes and finally filling the bookshelves.

Technology wise the old phone is being replaced with a newer all singing and dancing type- okay it can't sing and dance :-) but I won't need a separate answer machine to record messages. I've got to wait a few more days for its arrival, but at least I know it's due soon.

The old router has come to the end of it's life- I can't tell you how many times I've just typed out a comment on another writer's blog post and the connection has gone just as I click submit... So hopefully the new broadband device will arrive tomorrow.

And in future I'm going to check for driver updates for my computer regularly. I hadn't thought about it since the new computer arrived last year, so there's quite a few to do, and I'm still working my way through them...

So I'm starting another phase of my development as a writer- being an up-to-date and organised one.