CornerScribe

Links, links, and zooming right along

Here are a few links you might find useful.

New Novelist This software looks interesting, maybe. The screenshots aren’t very good, so it’s difficult to tell much about it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a place to download a free trial.

Story Mind They offer some free articles and classes, but also free trial downloads of several writing program. If you’ve been thinking of buying something, you might find a trial version here.

Here’s a very good article on story mapping. I think this would be useful when outlining, especially if you like a visual representation of how the ups and downs of your plot are coming along. Even better? It’s pen and paper, so no software to buy.

Another article from the diyplanner site describes how to create a writer hipster. This is simply another organizational tool that uses index cards or templates as a notebook and idea collection method. I use a moleskine with some loose pages, myself, but this looks very handy.

Finally, here is one that’s worth is weight in gold. Have a question about word usage or grammar? Common Errors in English is the site for you.

The Snowflake method is described in this article. I’ve never used it, but I’m strongly considering it this time around for NaNo.

That brings me to the novel, which is progressing nicely. I’m still behind on my word count, but I’m not worried…yet. As you can tell, I must not be terribly worried or I wouldn’t be taking time out to blog, would I?

Which reminds me… here’s a tip I’ve found enormously useful. Always stop writing when you’re at a “good” part. I know what’s about to happen, but I’m also looking forward to writing that part. If I choose these points in the novel to stop, I have no trouble jumping right back in. It’s a little trick I use to avoid writer’s block.