Pass it on…
Here’s a double recommendation for the New Year. First, the BBC’s writing site, and then an interview on the BBC’s writing site with Neil Cross, author of Mr. In-between. Cross turns out to be a fan of Scrivener, and discusses how the program was developed, why it works for him, and how he uses it. This recommendation will be a twofer, containing both the site and the interview together. Good reading. Love the Beeb!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/neil_cross.shtml
Oh, That was Yesterday
Okay, last post was a homage to “Orphan Annie” and today’s post is a homage to Paul McCartney (“Yesterday… yada-yada…”) Last visit, I was trying to think of software that would solve a problem(s) for me, a book’s start-up problems, nothing unexpected. There’s always difficulties at the beginning of anything, which is why I experiment with software. Here’s what I learned this time, starting with the situation. I had several programs open on the desktop. There was Word with the document I was working on, plus several open documents for reference; then, there was all 1.83 gigs of information in DEVONthink at the ready; and Scrivener, which I’m re-studying in my free time and finding increasingly interesting. Unfortunately I’ve allowed its system to fall into disarray. I had Tinderbox in waiting; Entourage in the background, just in case my ship came in; and, what else? Doesn’t matter. My focus was on Word and the chapter I had been working on, which had reached a decision point. Here comes the bad news. There was no obvious way that I could use my high-power software hanging in the background to help. My problem required a decision, not a decision-tree. Even if I white-boarded all the issues I faced all the way out to the edges, that wouldn’t be enough. I’d still have to make a leap of faith, and go beyond the frame. That’s not my style, however, and that raised a question. Was there a limit to what software can do for a writer? Or, for this writer? Logically, there are lots of things software can do. That’s the purpose of the blog. But software can’t make you write. It can’t create a best-seller, let alone a book that will sell. What it can do, I realized, is to alter thought processes, to re-train the mind, over time. As I labored forward on the chapter, making all those damn choices, I found that I employed a style of thinking that came from working with my software set. In other words, this cocktail of software on my desktop altered my logic; not its direction, but its application. The software had re-trained my mind. My logic had been atomized and ordered. So, while the software did not help me make choices, let alone directly effect the outcome of the chapter, it caused me to sift my choices down to their parts. Ironically, I turned to a pencil and paper to sort through the last bits of logic that I needed to get going. After that came the leap of faith.
