Thursday 10 January 2008

A good writing day

Preceded by a good writing night. I wrote a short story last night for the first time in ages, inspired by the National Galleries of Scotland Creative Writing comp. It felt great to be working on something not connected with my novel for a change, and that's perhaps why I returned to the novel with fresh enthusiasm this morning. I really feel like I'm making headway with it especially since I started using Ywriter, which Cally Taylor recommended recently. This free software is basically a way of organising all of your novel related documents into a coherent scene by scene format. I've found this particularly useful as otherwise I get myself lost in one huge Word document or lose track of my scenes when they are saved separately. I've found it simple to use and very flexible.

I went for a run this afternoon and tried to combine it with picking up some books that had been offed on Freecycle. I've never tried running with a full rucksack before and its wasn't a total success but I did have one of those lovely 'breakthrough moments' as I was bumbling along bent half double. I was mulling over a crucial scene in my novel and suddenly realised what it was that was bothering me about it and how I could turn it around. Just need to fire up YWriter now and get it all down before I forget.

3 comments:

HelenMWalters said...

I must try Ywriter. I could do with something to help organise my thoughts!

Jen said...

You sound very bouncy about your writing - how lovely!

Am really quite tempted by the gallery comp and think I may take a leaf out of your book. Writing something different to the novel sounds perfect for this dreary, rainy day.

Jumbly Girl said...

Helenmh - yes give it a try. Once I'd got over the paranoia of having all my work disappear into thin air I was fine. I got over that (unfounded I'm sure) worry by exporting my work ino a word doc at regular intervals - so I still have one long big unwieldy back up document if I should ever need it.

Spiralskies - I like 'bouncy' it sums up how I'm feeling pretty well- don't know if it's the novel progress or the 10 days abstinence from alcohol - probably a bit of both. Good luck with the Gallery comp, there are lots of very inspiring pictures/ sculptures etc to choose from