Another Use for Scrivener
Posted: February 20, 2014 Filed under: Thoughts, Wicked Words Quarterly | Tags: Process, Scrivener, Thoughts, Wicked Words Quarterly, Writing Leave a commentI know we all (don’t we?) use Scrivener for our own personal writing. I also use it when I’m writing and researching a T.M.A. with the Open University, great for keeping all my notes together and for putting footnotes in a place to keep them out of the way.
My latest discovery (probably not the first to do so though) is that it is great for reviewing submissions to Wicked Words Quarterly.
The first task was to set up three folders in the Draft area; Submissions, Accepted and Rejected. Every time a new submission comes in it is placed as a text document in the Submissions folder. I then format the document to the same standard as all the others and as I want to final document to be compiled, this makes all the stories easier to read. With the Inspector panel open I start making notes, such as; name, address and contact details of the author.
Then I use the Comments & Footnotes tools to make notes on the story itself, these help me with the winnowing of stories, they also help with possible edit suggestions to the author. The other thing they help with is to make the rejection letter more personal, with concrete reasons for the rejection.
Once I’ve made suitable notes and comments on a story it can be moved to either the Accepted or Rejected folder.
The next step will be to compile all the accepted submissions into a document for exporting to Kindle, and as I’ve been formatting the stories as I’ve received them this should come out as a connected document with all the stories looking as though they work together as a whole.
I was going to use a spreadsheet to keep all this information in but using Scrivener instead means that the workflow is in place for making the actual book as I do the review of submissions, cutting out a couple of steps in the process of making the Quarterly, making my life easier 🙂
Three Days!
Posted: February 20, 2014 Filed under: Thoughts, Wicked Words Quarterly | Tags: Drabble, e-book, Fantasy, Flash Fiction, Horror, Prose, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, The Daily Post, Thoughts, Wicked Words Quarterly Leave a commentWicked Words Quarterly has now been open for three days, and in those three days visitor numbers to the site has exploded (thank you all 🙂 ), the magazine has received more than 10 submissions a day and the Twitter feed [@MyWickedWords] has started to gain followers…
This is all down to my resolution to visit The Daily Post and start writing, the writing is still happening but the Quarterly seems to have taken on a life of it’s own and I’m learning something new everyday.
The hard part comes now, I’ve set some time apart today to start reading some of the submissions and this is where I have to harden up a bit and write nice acceptance or rejection emails. The acceptance ones aren’t going to be too hard, but the rejection ones will be, right now I can see myself giving personal rejections but if it gets any more popular it may have toe be a form (which I really don’t want to do) with some personal comments.
This is fun, but hard work. I didn’t realise it was going to be such hard work, though when the first issue is done I should have all the tools and skills for the next issues.
So any horror, sci-fi or fantasy stories you want to submit there is still over a month to get them in for the June issue.
Quicker Than I Thought
Posted: February 16, 2014 Filed under: Drabble, Flash Fiction, Thoughts | Tags: Drabble, Flash Fiction, Novella, Short Story, Submissions, Thoughts, Wicked Words Quarterly, Writing 3 CommentsTwo days later and it’s done!
Wicked Words Quarterly is open for business (well submissions anyway) and hoping to get the first edition out by June 2014.
Here is the front page blurb:
Wicked Words is a new quarterly magazine on the Kindle that will publish short stories and flash fiction.
Wicked Words will publish science fiction, fantasy and horror themes and we are looking for high-quality stories that surprise the reader and play with the genres.
So if you have stories that fit these criteria why not submit them to be considered.
If you like reading short stories in this genre why not sign up to the newsletter where you will be kept up to date on how the project is progressing.
Wicked Words first edition is scheduled to be published at the start of June and then quarterly after that (September, December and March).
Each Winter Edition will also include a previously unpublished Novella alongside the usual flash fiction and short stories.
So if you know anyone with stories that would fit the criteria why not send them over my way 🙂
Scribophile
Posted: February 5, 2014 Filed under: Thoughts | Tags: Community, Critiques, Drabble, Flash Fiction, Scribophile, The Daily Post 3 CommentsAfter reading the recommendation at The Daily Post in the Need Feedback? Hone Your Blogging with a Workshop post. I decided to join Scribophile.
I initially spent several hours just exploring the different features, forums and aspects of the site.
From my initial overview the site and community seemed really friendly, supportive and constructive. A great place to post your writing and have it honestly critiqued by like-minded people.
So I started out by introducing myself on the forums and favouriting a few people, joining a few groups. This just let me get a better feel of the site.
I then though ‘bugger it’, I had nothing to lose and went to do my first critique!
The system of critiques built into the software at the site are relatively easy to use and help guide you through the complexities of giving a constructive and well-mannered critique. I’ve started by giving critiques to relatively short pieces of flash fiction as that is what I like writing at the moment.
The process was very easy and hassle free, and afterward the people that I critiqued were able to comment on how I had done, nobody seemed to get their knickers in a twist and all saw the critique as what it was meant. A constructive and helpful look from the outside on their writing.
The process of being able to upload your own work is that you have to earn Karma before you can post, this is done by making critiques, easy really 😉
After a few critiques I had earned enough Karma to upload one of my pieces, a drabble, 100 word story with a twist or unexpected conclusion.
Two of the three critiques I received were excellent and even pointed out problems with the tense that I hadn’t noticed even though I had read it several (hundred) times previously, the third critique didn’t understand the drabble form and therefore critiqued it as a short story. What he said was excellent for a different form, but wasn’t applicable to the form I used. I wasn’t worried as it was all meant to help.
Joining in the groups is also a good idea as this is where the more personal form of support can come in and you can get regular small reading group together to mutually critique work and join in together on discussions about writing and the industry.
Overall I’ve really enjoyed my less-than-a week there and have gone for the premium option as I think it really deserves to flourish.
Sunday Summary, 2nd February
Posted: February 2, 2014 Filed under: Photography, Poetry, Sunday Summary | Tags: Books, Daily Prompt, Open University, Poetry, Prompts, Reading, Sunday Summary, Tax Returns, Writing Leave a commentMost of the week has been taken up with sorting out my tax return at about as last a moment as I have had to do so. It was pleasing this year as I have finally made a profit after three years of putting myself out there.
I have made loads of notes and ideas on how to be more organised next year, which I know I will reiterate come January 30th 2015.
A lot of the rest of the week I’ve been reading and writing for my assignment with the Open University, so though I haven’t written much for my own goals I have still been doing a lot of writing.
Today whilst writing the assignment itself I discovered that writing poetry when I was having a break really helped focus when I came back to writing my assignment, started at 0 words today and finished with 1500 crafted words out of 3000.
Writing done:
Three poems, one was a Haiku one was a Landays and the last was a reflection on heartbreak.
Books read:
Glass Gods by Kate Griffin
Writing Flash Fiction by Khalid Al Hariri
Books started:
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Prompts responded to:
I used a photograph to respond to a Daily Prompt, the theme was Age.
Three poems
Posted: February 2, 2014 Filed under: Poetry | Tags: Haiku, Landays, Poetry, Romance, Scribophile, Writing Leave a commentAs a break from writing my assignment for the Open University I thought I would join in at Scribophile in the poetry group I’m part of.
The first poem is an entry to the Valentine Day competition
February
That look,
There,
In your eyes.
Those words,
There,
From your lips.
Your goodbye,
Here,
Knife in my heart.
The second is a Haiku in response to the Frantic Friday Weekly Prompt thread.
Blue haze distant hill
Evening falls stars awake
Bright night smiling moon
I had got the prompt wrong though through not reading good…
The current prompt was to write a Landays, a traditional poem form of Pashtun women of Afghanistan and Pakistan. There was a linked article http://www.poetryfoundation.org/media/landays.html and after reading that article I felt shamed that I was going to use such a strong part of their culture as a writing exercise and initially thought that I wasn’t going to write one but here is mine as a response to that feeling:
Bearded or not, the men take and hold
Steal the hearts, souls and bodies, give hate in return
Wicked Words 