Writing Programs: Help A Writer, Win an eBook!

Spring is all about new beginnings, and I love it. I’m a spring baby – born on March 21^st, the date many people consider to be the first day of spring, after the Spring Solstice. But it gets more confusing – the solstice can occur on either the 20^th or more rarely, on the 21^st, depending on time zone and year. And then there’s the differences between the Gregorian and the Julian calendars, oh my! Small wonder I get easily confused J

Here in the Great White North (rural Ontario, Canada) Spring is all about planning while waiting for the snow to melt. Yep, we still have plenty of the white stuff. So we browse magazines and catalogues to plan spring wardrobes, pore over seed catalogues and plan for fresh veggies and a riot of flowers.

The seed catalogues contain positively pornographic photos of gorgeous exotic new types of flowers, shrubs, and vegetables, plenty to keep a gardener warm in her dreams until the weather warms up!

Yes, I love the new beginnings Spring offers. But some new beginnings are there all year round. New novel ideas are waiting like gifts to be unwrapped. The secret is to know when the time for the great unwrapping has arrived!

With four new releases in the past four months: The No Sex Clause, Saving Maggie, Judgement By Fire, and Winters & Somers – I’ve been feeling exhausted and a bit jaded. The excitement that goes with a new release involves lots of exhausting promoting and talking about the books – at least, once the editing, formatting, and waiting are over – and all I could think about in the last couple of weeks was NOT writing. My DH and I went out a lot, visiting, shopping, exploring. Planning. I did a lot of catching up with friends who thought I’d fallen off the face of the earth. Reading. Housecleaning. Paperwork. Taxes. But most of all, playing and replenishing the creative well.
And daydreaming.

Then it happened. An idea popped into my head and held out its arms like a newborn to several other ideas that were languishing in a file on the computer. Every writer has a file like this – mine is named IDEAS – not very poetic but gee, it serves the purpose.

So, with ideas linking, characters began to step out of the shadows of my mind and introduce themselves. Considering I write romantic suspense, mystery, and comedy, I sometimes worry about what – or who – exactly is lurking in the shadows of my mind. But let’s not dwell on that!

Anyhow, during my ‘recovery’ time, I’ve been reading a terrific book on getting more written. It’s called 2kTo 10k: Writing Faster,WritingBetter,And Writing More ofWhat You Love. It’s by Rachel Aaron, a prolific writer herself, and well worth reading if you want to – well, if you want to do what it says on the cover!

So now I have a dilemma. I have this terrific idea for a contemporary mystery series leavened with humor, set in a country house in England. My fingers are itching to hit the keys without even an outline – chapter one is already done.

Then I took Ms. Aaron’s advice and downloaded a trial version of Scrivener (click the link for a trial copy). It’s a marvelous program that helps you keep track of, and easily access, everything in your manuscript.

Now I’m torn. Do I plunge into the writing , knowing I’ll face blocks when the plot or characters don’t gel and I’ll have to rework, revamp, or edit like crazy. Or do I take the time out and explore this new program and figure out if it really will work for me?  I know I’ve had problems sometimes (who hasn't?) with having to go back and edit for mistakes in simple details such as character descriptions and names, or chronology. This is a real pain that usually occurs if you have to stop writing for a few days and then try to get back into your manuscript.

So, learn the new program or fly by the seat of my pants into the writing? Any thoughts? Do you use a writing program like Scrivener? Do you outline? Are you a planner or a pantser when it comes to writing? There’s the gift of an ecopy of Saving Maggie from Amazon for the most helpful comment!

 Glenys O’Connell writes romance and mysteries laced with humor. You can read some of her first chapters at Romance Can Be Murder!

When Is Your Own New Year? (And book giveaway)

By Glenys O'Connell

I gave up on New Year's resolutions years ago. Good Heavens, I can disappoint myself any old time, why set myself up for more pain and humiliation by failing to live up to those nice, shining New Year's vows?

Mind you, I am attracted (like the moth to the candle flame) to all the hoopla that goes with the idea of a nice, shiny clean slate to start the year. Like the moth and the flame, the attraction has frequently ended badly.

Like the 25 extra pounds that still sit in all the wrong places, despite many diet resolutions. Like the exercise plans that have fallen by the wayside, nudged out of mind by pressing deadlines. The always tidy home? Regular notes to distant friends and family? The solid two hours a day of uninterrupted writing? Ha! All sunk without trace.

Being a bit of a contrarian, though, I've tended to celebrate two New Beginnings each year. Yes, you heard right - TWO New Beginnings a year. In September. And March.

September was when our four kids returned to school, leaving behind a summer's worth of chaos. The farm harvest was pretty well in, the garden produce jammed, jellied, frozen and canned, everything winding down to winter. Time to clean house, return to my job (journalism and freelance writing), catch up with friends, complete the house renovation projects, plan, dream....

Then March - Spring about to burst on us, pregnant with potential. Summer clothes out of storage, a cornucopia of new fabrics for little girls' summer dresses and fabric art. The camera primed and ready to catch the images that warm us in the winter months. And the seed catalogues - the excitement and anticipation of the new arrivals in the mail! Oh, my - the possibilities of summer!

Somehow, the conventional New Year's always seemed to pale by comparision to the fresh starts offered by September and March.

 
I have to confess, though, that this New Year's has been a little different. My very first Indie fiction publishing venture, The No Sex Clause, a romantic comedy, was released just before Christmas - and what a wild ride that's been! And on New Year's Eve itself, Crimson Romance published my Canadian set romantic suspense, Saving Maggie. After what seemed a long drought in fiction work, I was back in the game and loving it!

So what's up for the coming year? Two new romance books and a couple of non-fictions. Also, the Indie re-release of three books that are now out of contract with a publisher.

And I'm planning to return to practice as a counsellor and life coach.

Redecorate my home. Do some travelling. Dust off the sewing machine and quilting frame.

And oh, my - that pile of seed catalogues on my desk is positively glowing with happy thoughts....

So, there's my confession. What about yours? Does your new year really start on January 1st, or is there another time that gets your anticpation and creative juices flowing?

Leave me a comment, and I'll gift your choice of an ebook copy of Saving Maggie or The No Sex Clause to the one I like best!

Glenys O'Connell is currently frozen in place  by record breaking low temperatures and snow. She'll emerge briefly in February, like the groundhog, to test whether Spring is imminent or not. You can learn more about her and her work on www.glenysoconnell.com or  Amazon page