20k for March is Complete!

I did it! I've gotten the 20k for this month down.

 Yes!

 And that means that I am now free to Not Write until April rolls around, if I feel like it.

 Which of course makes me feel like... I have an idea....

Scrivener Report

Okay, so here is the promised Scrivener report.

 I'd heard a lot about Scrivener for several years, but

1. being easily intimidated by super-techy things, 
2. as well as dubious of "takes the work away" claims, 
3. coupled with a budget of zero, 

  I didn't get Scrivener.

But after finishing NaNoWriMo 2013, I decided that I had heard enough good things about the program to give it a try. The lovely folks who make Scrivener ran a 30 day trial for WriMo's, so I took advantage of that, and by the time Nov. was over I was convinced of it's benefits!
 Being a NaNo winner, I had a 50% off deal, which I exercised.

Scrivener gives a huge amount of flexibility in arranging a work space that fits you best; it has multiple screen options as well as different ways each option can be displayed, so it's super easy for formatting your thoughts and getting a good look at the big picture for your project.

 It also has places for reference material, in the form of photos or articles or just about anything. You can keep them right there in the program to refer to them at any point during your writing, but they won't be counted among or mess with your actual manuscript. It's pretty neat.

 I have only really scratched the surface of what it can do, but it's been a great leap forward in my writing tools department.

Being a "pantser", I leap right in and jot scenes hither and yon, and build and build until I've got a story that I then must stick into a structure-type frame. This has always been a highly difficult task in Word, and has really slowed my creativity down while I cowered in the face of the monumental task of rearranging everything. (I usually took the passive-aggressive track of avoidance, during which period, I got no writing done, of course.)

  Scrivener makes it super easy to rearrange things, and I have to say I'm totally in love with it's Project Targets aspect!
 This allows me to set Word Count goals for the overall project, each Scene I've created, and also to keep a Session Target, (I've set it to 2k, and shoot for that each time I sit down.)
 This ingenious aspect makes it easy to keep track of how much I'm getting done, and the feeling of accomplishing stuff makes my creative muscle happy!
   A happy creative muscle creates better, stronger, faster, and I get a lot more accomplished!

  So it's basically a beautiful cycle that keeps feeding upward momentum.

 One thing, I wish it had a smarter spell-check… my Word program had gotten to be a genius at correcting my typos; so I get a little miffed when I accidentally transpose the letters in “to” and Scrivener suggests “oat, at, OT”
 Not sure how much it “learns”, either… though I’ve only had it a few months now.
(I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Word “learned” my habits, ’cause it got scary good at suggesting the very word I wanted when typo’d. )


 Do you have any questions about Scrivener?
   Have you heard of Scrivener before?

Self Publishing Successes, Clickable Links!

It's always interesting to see what is going on recently, and as well as the fact that as people, we are nosy as all get out! Right? ;-)

Self Publishing Success Stories

 Here's a whole list of authors deemed to be self publishing successes, ranked by selling  over 200k or 50k... and they're click-able links! So feel free to snoop and gain insight, or whatever you do best... just don't let it get your high hopes dashed and put you in that wretched little boat named "Comparison is the Thief of Joy".  You hear, now?

 This post made in 2012, so it's a little out of date, but not so much that the info isn't useful! ;-)

Monthly Writing Goals

Even though everybody talks about them all the time, daily goals have NEVER Worked for me, at all. After several years of doing NaNo, I finally got the epiphany to set a low-ish Monthly goal for all year around. 

  Now working in Scrivener, (NaNo goodie! I should have got it long ago!) this is easier to do, 'cause I put my different projects into “chapters” and work on whatever appeals at the moment. This way I can easily have an accumulative word count, and I’m progressing on something all the time.
 (I am going to have to write up a post on the experience of Scrivener, it's different but good!)

   Monthly goals work particularly best for me, because I am a “bursts” writer, so I can rack up the words one week, and then lie fallow the next. And I don't risk feeling depressed because "I'm not getting my writing done!"
 Instead I can remember that I already did it.
 YahoooO! Love that feeling.
 
I’ve set a trial goal of 20k per month, and have hit it well so far. In fact, I finished my 20k for Feb. by the 16th, which made me very happy! I’m definitely on a creative high at the moment.
  So... if I am able to get in 20k per month, that is 20k x 12 =  240k words in a year! That is two major length books, or four shortish novels, or three medium ones.
 
    Yes! That would be progress!!!

 What do you think? Would monthly goals make sense for you?