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I, however, cannot work like that. I know this, because I tried twice and belly-flopped like a whale dropped from a helicopter, from a great height. It wasn’t pretty.

The first 2 failed drafts I had written were done in yWriter. Since then, I’ve identified a couple other programs to help me whip my frenzied thoughts into submission and order. I’ll talk about the programs I use here – but please note that this is unique to the way I work.

1. yWriter

God bless Simon Hayes for coming up with this software, because it’s FREE, and it does a helluva decent job. It enables you to break up your book into chapters and scenes, and swop and change scenes easily between chapters. It also allows you to keep a log of locations, items, and characters. Each scene gives you the option to add date and time, things like goal/conflict/outcome, and other gems like whether this is part of the main plot, and where it rates in terms of humour etc. Whatever floats your boat. I’m using two other programs to help with the planning bit (more on that later), but in terms of getting down to business and writing the actual book – I’ll do it in yWriter.

And for those Aussies out there… it appears Simon Hayes is one of us. Which is so gratifying.

Favourite bits:

• It’s FREE! He is THAT generous. But you can donate. I did, because it gave me so much value.
• The fact that you can upload decent-sized images. I derive a lot of inspiration from looking at a muse or a location, and yWriter allows plenty of opportunity to store and retrieve images easily.
• Running word count: allows you to see how far your book is going. Also allows you to toggle between scenes that add to your word count, and scenes you’ve created for later.
• Global find and replace – so handy when you’ve changed your character’s name halfway through, or something like that.
• Target tracking: Got a minimum word count per day? You can set this in yWriter and it’ll keep track of where you’re at and how far you have to go.

Room for improvement:

• Pretty basic WYSIWYG editor. Doesn’t always work with standard shortcuts like Ctrl + B, and you can’t do fancy indents or use two different fonts to denote different voices, etc.
• Spell check quite lame. Don’t use.
• No dictionary. I suggest downloading and using WordWeb instead. Simply highlight the word you want to check, and Ctrl + Alt + W brings up the dictionary. Also works in all other programs. It’s free, if you’re not a business. Please note: it’s not a spell-checker.
• No WYSIWYG editor in characters/locations/items function. And because the dialog box is so tiny for each element, not being able to highlight your points to aid scanning seriously makes things hard when you’re looking back on what you’ve planned for your character. Which is why I’ve used another piece of software (mentioned later)
• Limited storyboarding capability and no real big-picture of timeline. It allows you to set viewpoints per scene, based on characters… but plotting your story using the storyboard feature is painful. Again, have resorted to something else instead.

But all in all, just easy to use and very low learning curve needed. If you’re not too attached to formatting your work as you go, this gives you more flexibility than just MS Word.

2. Character Writer

Character Writer makes you think seriously about how your characters live and breathe. And for me, it’s working out well for my major characters because it forces me to work on things like their motives and motivation, what they’d typically say, how they’d typically dress, whether they had a twisted childhood or grew up well-adjusted and happy. The software goes through facets of each character and asks probing questions like “Why do you like this character?” and “What makes the character annoyed?” etc. You don’t have to answer every single question, but if you’re starting from a blank canvas, it throws up suggestions based on typical novel archetypes, and even has a section on ailments and psychological disorders.

Also includes the story-writing section, where you can create chapters and scenes. But it’s nowhere as detailed as yWriter in that regard, so I don’t use it.

Favourite bits

• All that probing! I thought I already had (some) rich characters in my head, but just answering these questions helps distill the essence of each character, and prevents the trap of my minor characters turning into clones of each other. It also helped make my characters consistent – no point deciding one moment that your major character tends to blow up with expletives, and then act like a perfect gentleman in another similar situation. Unless, of course, your major character is inconsistent to begin with.
• Ability to add other questions to use later on.

Room for improvement

• Itty-bitty space for pictures! 100pxls by 100pxls – you can barely make out what colour their eyes are! Hopeless for me, as I practically need to be surrounded by posters of them so they feel real to me.
• Again, limited WYSIWYG editor. But what’s even more sillier is the fact that you can’t undo the last action when you’re in character mode! That’s, like, word processing 101! UNDO! UNDO!
• Gotta pay for the darn thing. Yes folks, it ain’t freeware. And it ain’t that cheap, for what it is – USD69.99, which was ~AUD80 at the time of purchase. If Simon Hayes were to create one of these free, I’d give my money to him in a heartbeat because at least he pays some attention to usability. No undo button, pffft. Seriously!

3. Storybook

This may not be the case for your book, but my current project has one main plotline, and about 7 subplots. Probably not the easiest thing to write, but hey. Let’s talk about what I’m doing wrong some other time.

Because of my 8+ plot lines, I had initially bought a swag of visitor cards and coloured pens so I can do some card sorting. And card sorting is still not a bad idea to get the timeline and your story board in order. I’ll cover this off in another post one day.

But back to Storybook. Unlike yWriter, Storybook focuses on plotlines, and allows you create several plotlines in the one canvas and date each scene. What you get at the end of the day is a pretty good grid and a top level idea of how your entire story hangs together. It’s GREAT for working out dependencies (this has to happen before that), and helps you work out pacing for each subplot.

It also allows you to create character profiles, and write your chapters in full – but again, I still prefer yWriter for this.

Favourite bits

• Big picture canvas of what happens when. By far the most useful feature of the software.
• Colour coding of each plot line, and the ability to colour code your characters as well so you know where they appear when. Helps counter the doppelganger problem.
• And it’s FREE! But more on that below.

Room for improvement

• Can’t export big picture canvas of plotlines. The single biggest let down of the program, IMO.
• Donation nag – everywhere you turn, there’s a reminder to cough up some money. Which makes me NOT want to cough up some money.
• Again, lousy WYSIWYG editor. In fact, it only allows you to write in plain text! But as I’m only using the plotline feature, I’m not too fussed.

And there you have it – my two software for the planning and analysis phase, and my one software for the actual writing. Let me know if there are others you’ve worked with, that you highly recommend.

1. The work space is everything

Like Homer Simpson and the butt-groove on his couch, having a workspace I can leave “messy” helps me sink into the zone whenever I get behind the laptop. Disturb the space, change the environment, and it’ll take that much longer to adjust to that familiar posture of tap-tapping away.

2. Get the procrastination out of the system

Half the reason I started this blog was to give me an outlet to write about something related to the project, so I could slip into writer’s mode and channel my energy into the actual book by the time I was done with the post. It enabled me to procrastinate healthily, if you will.

3. Give yourself 10 minutes

Also attended one of those I-am-woman-hear-me-roar seminars for corporate women, and learnt that it takes 10 minutes of sticking to a particular task to overcome inertia. 10 minutes. That’s it.  Once you’ve started on a job for 10 minutes, you’re well on your way to completing it because it gets easier and the mind has begun to focus. And 10 minutes sounds like a reasonable bargain with the brain – especially for jobs that are quite icky.

So that’s my 2-cents’ worth. Now I have to move on to point 3 for one of my subplots, so I’d better get a move on because I’m buzzed…

Colleague: Oh yeah… I’ve always wanted to write, too.

Me: Yeah? What kind of books.

Colleague: Porn. I’ve always wanted to write a porn novel.

Me: …

Colleague: Seriously. Like, you know those books they have in porn shops?

Me: Not exactly… Erm… is it like erotica?

Colleague: A little like that, except, you know…

Me: Less plot?

Colleague: No…

Me: More graphic?

Colleague: I was going to say “more spanking and stuff”. You know, throw in a pink bottom here and there. But I’m not into that sort of thing. The spanking.

Me: Good to know.

P.S.: Lost some work today because I didn’t realise one of my programmes doesn’t autosave. How aggravating.

But at least I’ve reached a natural rest point with all my characters.

• Each character now has a summary in 50 words or less
• Each character now has a “look” – an attached piccy of someone else so I have a rough idea how the character might look. It’s so important for me that I can “see” all my characters interacting, in my head.

Next anal-retentive thing – pairing off the pairs so I can see what everyone looks like side by side. I mean, if you’re going to make your characters sizzle, the least you can do is picture them… er… talking to each other.

Other things left:

• fleshing out each character’s likes and dislikes, habits etc
• their voices and what they might say, how they might say things, whether they have a lisp…
• preparation of plots for card sorting.

Ooh. Card-sorting. More on that later.

Anyhoo, I did a quick google, not expecting anything at all, when I chanced upon the Olvar Wood Writers Retreat and lost my heart completely.

• Wireless internet access on most of the grounds – check
• Fully-equipped kitchen – check
• Library for research – check
• Stuck in the bush so you can have a quiet weekend of mad writing – check
• Complimentary on-site editorial and critiqueing service – bonus! (they keep saying “complementary editorial” when they mean “complimentary editorial”, but hey. It’s still nice to have someone VOLUNTEER to read your work and tell you what they think!)

It’s an hour away from Brisbane and rates start from $350, although if you just want to be left the hell alone so you can write freely without feeling watched, then rates start from $550. HOW COOL IS THAT!

Either I start saving now, or I aim to be one of those editorial chicks when I retire. WHO’S WITH ME?! (Nobody at this stage, because blog is still shiny and no one  is listening. Yet.)

• Created sketch of majority of major and minor characters (w00t!)
• Created chart to summarise where all plots are at the start of the book, and where all plots are to end up by the end of the book.
• Started researching images to attach to each character.
• Created two floor plans for two locations.

Huge disclaimer: If you happen to be into architecture and  you happen to be reading this blog,  please don’t think about suing me for gross incompetence. I DON’T DO THIS FOR A LIVING! Far from it. But I enjoy diagramming living spaces.

Days left for planning stage: 31

I used to spend Too Much Time on The Sims, because it was essentially an electronic dollhouse, and I’m a bit girly like that. (Admit it, boy gamers secretly marrying off your Sims after they have multiple Woo-Hoos in the outdoor jacuzzi. You like playing with electronic dollhouses. It’s not just about drowning them for fun by removing the ladder in the pool. I’m on to you.)

I also spend a lot of time in my day job with Microsoft Visio. Which includes many lovely stencils for the planning of office spaces and the like. Also a kind of electronic dollhouse fetish coming into play here, you follow me?

Enter yWriter’s ability to include profiles of locations you refer to in your book. Suddenly, I can get real micro-managery and start putting together line drawings of sets for my characters. And when I’m through with that, I can load Sims and choose wall paper and furniture.

I’m only half kidding, by the way. If I’m going to describe how characters are sitting relative to each other in the office, I’m going to have to draw the office. I’m visual. I work that way. It sounds like a cheap excuse to bash away at playing House again virtually, but because I’m not going to get past this block until I get this out of my system – and because it’s so much fun (for me), guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow night.

All this, thought up while in the shower this morning. Told you inspiration strikes there.

Actually, most of the day went swimmingly, except for that bit where I got b*tch-slapped by email. Sticks and stones yada yada, but that doesn’t mean words don’t draw blood. It came partially out of the blue (I had an inkling on Friday that the emailer was a tad psychotic), but I didn’t expect a verbal nutty this morning -  complete wth threats. Hello!

The rush. The surge of emotion. I’m trying to put together a paper trail to defend myself, but I cannot type. The blood pours into my face and the fingers are shaking. I try writing instead and I cannot steady the hand; the chicken scratch on the page only serves as a further reminder that I am upset, and somewhere, a dialogue of self-doubt and outrage is churning.  I am trembling. I am livid. I am mortified. The mind is racing around like a lemming on speed locked in a cage, and cerebrally I’m talking myself through how I’m feeling and how I need to be a bigger person. I remember to breathe in and out. My face, I am sure, has gone bright red and I seldom to never blush.

Somehow, I didn’t get angry like I thought I would. Which made me paranoid that I’m guilty after all. Which made me anxious about the threats and getting jack-all for support. Which turned into a panic. Which turned into embarrassment. Which turned into defensiveness and the sudden urge to want to run out and bitch to everyone in the world about what a jerk that idiot was and who the hell is he anyway, making threats like that? What is he, twelve??? How DARE he! Ooh, found the anger.

I am still upset, which is partly why I’m writing this down because it’s therapy and because I didn’t quite bitch as much as I would have liked today (I told 5 people – 3 only out of necessity for political reasons, 1 because he’s my husband, 1 for actual catharsis). I’m old enough now to know that some folks are just bitter and unhappy all on their own, and it sometimes has very little to do with me. Yes, the world doesn’t revolve around me, etc etc. And because my imagination is fired up and I’m hungering for material, I want to feed all this emotion back into the book because it’s potent stuff. But I’m still feeling a little too raw, so I’m penning this down as a stub for myself to revisit later.

At the risk of sounding like a tortured thespian wannabe… sometimes, emotions just drain you. Maybe I’ll wake up earlier tomorrow to whip up a character profile, but for now I think I’ll just cuddle in bed and call it a day.

That isn’t the win. The win is absolutely loving what came out of the brainstorm. I am now officially in love with my characters and my main story. Things are clicking. Things are making sense! I want to read this book!

What a buzz! How am I going to sleep now and get ready for work? I feel like writing the entire book RIGHT NOW!