- I’m sitting here on the sofa, curled up with my snuggie and another blanket, trying to stay warm while icing my neck. There’s a pooch curled up at my knee, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth moving from a comfy spot to actually get up and make my morning tea right this second. I suspect it is, but for the moment I figured I’d take advantage and write up this post.
- I’ve been doing routine stuff online this morning. Unspamming some of my fellow ROW80 peeps whose comments on assorted posts apparently got shunted into the spam folder. Queuing up the next week’s worth of check-in posts. Laying in my promo tweets for the week (which I totally haven’t bothered with in a couple of weeks). I’ve got a guest post I need to write here shortly that I totally forgot about until yesterday that’s due TODAY.
- I haven’t been writing. Whatever momentum I’d built on the ghosty romantic suspense I dug out of the previously abandoned projects pile, has totally been lost between vacation and neck crap. So instead I’m plotting. Which involves not actually a great deal of computer time and mostly a lot of cogitating. I love that word. It really kind of brings up this image of my brain as a washing machine, swirling around a load of ideas. What am I cogitating ON? Well, a new Mirus novel–not featuring anybody y’all have seen before. And a YA trilogy that I thought up during the last stretch of writing Red. I started a blueprint for it, dumped a ton of thoughts into the file and let it sit a while. Now I’m really starting to have things gel in terms of what it will be about and how things will unfold. I’ll keep working on that through the rest of this Round as my neck heals and I go through physical therapy. I’m working on viewing this as my body telling me in no uncertain terms that I need to STOP THE CRAZY for a while. I’m really bad about doing it otherwise.
- In honor of my plottiness–and because, let’s face it, I have an addiction to writing software–I downloaded the free 30 day trial of Scrivener. I’d been hearing about how awesome this software is for years, but of course it was Mac only forEVER. After going through the tutorial (which is kinda long, but do it anyway because the learning curve is a bit steeper than what you may be used to), I have to say, yeah it’s pretty darn cool. And they’ve got an educational license, which is even cheaper than the regular one, so I went ahead and bought it. I’m so excited that I could create a template that automatically has all my blueprint sections in there, broken down as I like them, a folder system for a manuscript already set up with a four act structure per Story Engineering, and that I can just DRAG AND DROP STUFF IN that I’ve done elsewhere. How cool is that? I’m not gonna do any kind of tutorial because others have done it better than I, and I haven’t figured everything out yet, but I will say, if you haven’t checked it out, it’s worth the 30 day free trial to play.
- Yesterday was all about the cooking. I made gluten free hot dog buns, gluten free sandwich bread, gluten free pretzels (which were not a total disaster but did not turn out as intended–pretty sure the dough was way too dry), German potato salad (coming up on Pots and Plots), and some lovely little mini quiches with bacon, mushrooms, asparagus, spinach, and smoked gouda (that’ll also be on Pots and Plots later this week). I’m making way in the fridge for the almost 14 pound turkey I’m gonna be brining this week, so the menu is apt to be rather strange while we eat stuff to make space. I’ve got a pound of cajun sausage to do something awesome with–there may be gumbo in my future.
7 thoughts on “Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Update”
Scrivener is awesome, especially for someone like me who’s got notebooks laying all around. I know what you mean about not writing. I’ve been bogged down in querying, etc. and just haven’t been able to focus on the new book. I’m hoping to refocus and jump into Row80 sprints tomorrow.
Hope your neck feels better. That’s some of the worst pain to deal with!
Scrivener on the Mac is my favorite application, besides the dictionary! Besides using it as a writing tool, I research favorite novels and populate project with character lists, analysis of various characters, expert analysis by various novelists, journalists, editors, and lecturers – amazing what you learn from these enjoyable tasks.
Enjoy the upcoming holiday – your cooking posts are awesome! I love gumbo!
FYI: under the Scrivener Help menu is a selection for video tutorials (Mac) hope the same for Windows…
Scrivener has changed the way that I write, and I will be forever grateful for that. And I love these nuggets of ideas that you’re working on. I can’t wait to hear more about them!
Like Kerry, your post has made me ravenously hungry. :p Clearly, I need to go and have some breakfast, and daydream about all the tasty food my parents and I are going to cook up for the Thanksgiving feast.
Have a great week, Kait, and I hope your neck feels better!
I didn’t know they finally made a PC version of Scrivener. Hmmm.
I can’t wait to see the next book you come up with! You have so many ideas percolating in that head of yours. 🙂
I love German potato salad. I’ll be looking for the post.
I’ve been playing with the Scrivener trial too. Loving it. Can’t wait to see what you’re working on 🙂
Feel better soon and have a great week Kait!
me to on scrivner – i tried it earlier this year beta version but my computer couldnt cope with the monthly updates and I left it now with the prospect of the shiny proper version with that amazing discount well am playingn – a lot to learn. I do hope your neck gets better soon- like the washing machine of ideas!
keep smiling and all the best for coming week
Yay, you got Scrivener!! Isn’t it awesome?
Tutorial? I still haven’t watched it. I suppose I must be missing a few tricks here and there. But I love just opening the programme and starting to write. No mess, no fuss, just a clean screen. And I love the organization!