Tools – Page 3 – Publetariat

Author Tools: Formatting Your Book With Scrivener

August 29, 2016 by Publetariat

Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

More help for Scrivener users! Katrina Archer at Fiction University shares her tips on how to use Scrivener to format your script.

**~ * ~**

Formatting Your Book With Scrivener

June 16, 2016
By Katrina Archer, @katrinaarcher

Part of the Indie Authors Series

Are you about to indie publish a book but can’t figure out how to get the formatting right? Do you already use Scrivener and don’t have the budget to shell out for a high end design app like InDesign or to splurge on Vellum? Then Scrivener’s Compile settings may be the solution for you. While not for the faint of heart, you can turn out a nicely formatted book for both print and digital entirely within Scrivener. The focus here will be on print, because it’s typically trickier, but the same techniques can be used for ebooks. (Note: this tutorial uses features available in the Mac OSX version of Scrivener. YMMV with Windows.)

Set Up Folders for Your Front And Back Matter

The first thing to do is get organized (boring, but you’ll thank me for it later). Each edition of your book may have different front and back matter, for example, to list different ISBNs or calls to action. In the Binder, add folders for each edition. I usually place my back matter folder beneath the main manuscript folder, whereas Scrivener’s manuscript format template provides an existing folder for front matter. In the examples below, I’ve created folders for ePub, Print, and Kindle editions. Within each folder, I’ve added files specific to the edition in question.

Read the full post on Fiction University

**~ * ~**

If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Save

Author Tools – How to Write an Epic Story Using the Hero’s Journey [Infographic]

August 22, 2016 by Publetariat

Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

Writing a heroic story? Then this infographic from Lifehack is a good place to start and has examples from popular epic adventures. You can follow the classic pattern or use it to bridge off of for your own amazing tale.

**~ * ~**

How to Write an Epic Story Using the Hero’s Journey [Infographic]

by Sara McGuire

The concept of the Hero’s Journey isn’t a new one–in fact, it’s as old as storytelling. The Hero’s Journey, known in literary circles as the Monomyth, is an archetypal plot structure that can be found at the core of stories across multiple genres and mediums.

1. What is the Hero’s Journey?

Think of your favorite story: does the protagonist face an obstacle? Do they experience a change in character or a shift in perspective? Then your favorite movie follows, at least to some extent, the Hero’s Journey.

There’s a reason for that: the Hero’s Journey is a plot structure that works. It centres on a protagonist overcoming a great obstacle and undergoing a profound change. Those driving forces of conflict resolution and change makes for a compelling plot where the readers/viewers root for the protagonist.

Read the full post (and get the free worksheet!) on Lifehack

**~ * ~**

Author Tools: Craft Your First Story With This Creative Writing Reference Chart

August 19, 2016 by Publetariat

Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

Lifehacker‘s Eric Ravenscraft shares a great chart he found to help writers plan their story.

**~ * ~**

Read the full post (and get the free worksheet!) on Lifehacker

**~ * ~**

Author Tools – Character Development Worksheet (Free Printable)

July 20, 2016 by Publetariat

Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

Oooh freebies! Who doesn’t like them? Especially if they are as useful as the one from Janalyn Voigt on her Live Breathe Write blog. Janalyn has created a Character Development Worksheet to help you develop and remember the details of your different characters.

**~ * ~**

Character Development Worksheet (Free Printable)

Janalyn Voigt

The hero of your story gazes at the heroine from…now what color did you make his eyes? A minor character crops up again, and you rack your memory for words to search so you can find out what you named him. And you catch two of your characters making the same defining gesture.

Does any of these scenarios sound familiar? Trying to carry too many character details in your head can tax a writer..

To stop losing track of the large cast of characters in my epic stories, I put together a character development cheat sheet. I used this to create the Live Write Breathe Character Development Worksheet, which you are welcome to print for your own personal use (only*).

Read the full post (and get the free worksheet!) on Live Breathe Write

**~ * ~**

Author Tools: I wrote this review of a Freewrite on a Freewrite

June 22, 2016June 19, 2016 by Publetariat

Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

I don’t know that a first draft only mobile word processor is for everyone, but if you want to what one is like head on over to Boing Boing where Jason Weisberger reviews his.

**~ * ~**

I wrote this review of a Freewrite on a Freewrite

Jason Weisberger

Jun 3, 2016

I jumped on the Freewrite/Hemingwrite kickstarter ages ago. It took so long for the single purpose, first-draft-only word processor to show up, I’d occasionally forgotten it was coming. I’ve had it for a few weeks now, and last weekend I typed a review out, on the unit itself.

Thing is, you can’t edit on the unit. The review below is the raw output of my clattering away at the old-timey keyboard.

If there is elegence to be found in simplicity, the team at Astrohaus have done their damnedest with the Freewrite, their single-purpose, distraction-free word processor. Originally billed as the Hemingwrite, I bought into the kickstarter on this years ago, hoping it’d help me focus on some short stories I never get finished while working on my laptop, or bother to transcribe from my notebooks.

I waited a long time for this unit, so I’m a little less forgiving of the problems than I might be with another kickstarted piece of kit. I have absolutely no complaints about the fit and finish. The device is pretty lovely in its gaudiness. It is supposed to resemble a typewriter, I think of the 1920s-1930s generation of my Remington Rand Deluxe Porta 5. It sort of does, the selector switches are mounted in a way to resemble the reels for ribbon, but it more closely feels like a mid to late 1990s portable wordprocessor. It weighs slightly, but not much less. It works about the same, and part of its charm is that it throws back to a mechanical keyboard like they would have used back then.

The keyboard is pretty much heaven, if you come from the days of yore, as I do. It feels like I am jamming along on a Commodore Vic20, or a WYSE terminal. While the e-ink isn’t vac green, its about as slow as the old led based screens would have been. You get just enough text on the screen to let you read back 1-3 sentences. You can’t edit at all, aside from erasing with backspace, so watching as you type and not looking at your fingers on the keyboard is really critical. I find that if I miss a typo by more than 5 words, I try to leave it and not go back.

Read the full post on Boing Boing

**~ * ~**

Author Tools: Is Patreon the Way Forward for Publishing?

June 20, 2016June 18, 2016 by Publetariat

Author Tools – things to help you get your writing done

Patrion is a crowdfunding source for artist. Fans, called patrons, pledge support allowing the artist to have money to live off of while they are creating. Teresa Preston at BookRiot wonders if this is a viable way forward for authors.

**~ * ~**

Is Patreon the Way Forward for Publishing?

Teresa Preston

05-26-16

This week, fantasy author N.K. Jemisin used Patreon to raise almost $4,000 in monthly pledges so that she could quit her day job and write full-time. I really enjoyed Jemisin’s debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and although I haven’t gotten around to reading more of her work, I was impressed enough with her writing to be happy that she’s able to devote more time to it.

NK Jemisin's Patreon Page Header

The Patreon model involves creators asking fans to pay a monthly dollar amount to the creator, usually in exchange for some sort of reward. Jemisin, for instance, will send a monthly picture of her cat to $1 patrons; $2 patrons will get the cat pics and access to patron-only blog posts; patrons at the highest levels, such as $50, will receive signed copies of her new books as they’re released. Creating these perks will take time, but the assumption is that they’ll take less time than a full-time day job.

Read the full post on BookRiot

**~ * ~**

Writing Tools: Ulysses Is the Plain Text, Evernote-Style Writing App I’ve Always Wanted

May 25, 2016 by Publetariat

Writing Tools – things to help you get your writing done

Thorin Klosowski at Life Hacker reviews Ulysses, a plain text writing tool. What are some of your favorite apps or tools to help get your writing done?

**~ * ~**

Ulysses Is the Plain Text, Evernote-Style Writing App I’ve Always Wanted

Thorin Klosowski

5/12/16

Work In Progress Sign Held By Construction Worker

I’ve long been a fan of plain text for everything from notes to general writing, but it wasn’t until recently that I found my holy grail: An app that could sync with multiple devices and handle multiple output types. Ulysses. It’s the plain text version of Evernote I’ve always wanted.

There are a couple of catches with Ulysses I want to mention up front: First, it’s only available for Apple devices (Mac/iOS). Second, it’s pricey: $44.99 for the Mac app (though you can check out a trial version for free) and $24.99 for the iPhone/iPad app. Both the iOS and Mac apps have the same feature set, so you can switch between the two easily.

Considering apps like Evernote are free, the price tag is definitely asking a lot, but it’s also the only app of its kind that clicked for me. Scrivener was close, but its ugly design and lack of mobile options prevented it from being my only tool. Ulysses doesn’t have that problem, which makes it worth the price. Now that Ulysses has cemented itself in my workflow, I figured I’d share a few tips for how I use it.

Read the full post on Life Hacker

~ * ~

Formatting Your Book With Scrivener

Part of the Indie Authors Series

Set Up Folders for Your Front And Back Matter

~ * ~

Share this:

~ * ~

How to Write an Epic Story Using the Hero’s Journey [Infographic]

1. What is the Hero’s Journey?

~ * ~

Share this:

~ * ~

~ * ~

Share this:

~ * ~

Character Development Worksheet (Free Printable)

~ * ~

Share this:

~ * ~

I wrote this review of a Freewrite on a Freewrite

~ * ~

Share this:

~ * ~

Is Patreon the Way Forward for Publishing?

~ * ~

Share this:

~ * ~

~ * ~

Share this:

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**

**~ * ~**