Showing posts with label ms word tip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ms word tip. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Have You Seen a Scene Around Here? Scene Writing 101

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today, we're gonna talk about scene writing. Every book is a collection of scenes, so getting this part right is kind of a must. Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

First off, understand that every scene has three basic parts: An opener, a middle, and a conclusion.

A chapter, while still made up of those same parts, usually doesn't contain just one scene.

Let me break a scene down for you. We'll use a tidbit from my section of Fractured Glass with Elba and Diego.

Color coding is as follows: Green = Scene Open, Red = Scene Middle, Blue = Scene End

As he walked down the hall, he pondered how she got in without setting off the alarm, and wondered if she was dangerous. Logically, he’d rather have her in the foyer than his room. After shuffling some things around, he grabbed the book, spun around, and walked right into her. “How—”

She grabbed his hand and took two steps backward.

Air like an arctic blast hit him in the face. He shivered and his teeth chattered even as his eyes scanned the area. “Whoa. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

Walls that were once a dark blue had become rough rock. To the left, where the door used to be, there was an opening with jagged protrusions all around. He felt his jaw drop as he took in the landscape. Purple skies, bright yellow mountains, and green clouds greeted his eyes.

She snatched the journal out of his hand. “You don’t even have the beginnings of a grasp on the amount of danger those girls are in.”

“Where are we? How’d we get here? How do you know what happened? And what do you mean by ‘danger’?”

Her eyes widened, and she stuck out her hand. “I’ll show you. If you’re brave enough to come with me.”

Diego put a clammy hand in hers. “Brave? Lady, I’m like a lion. Are we going back to my house now?”

Super white teeth flashed from between her lips. “Not yet. There’s something you need to see.” She took another two steps backward.

They were in a cave—much like the previous one—only the air was warm.

He jerked his hand away, and the crazy woman disappeared. Fear clawed at his throat when a deep rumble echoed in the small space. “Hello? Where’d you go?” A scaly blue tentacle slithered from the shadows and moved over the floor in a sweeping motion. Dust and debris kicked up, forming a small cloud of particles.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he backed toward the cave’s entrance. “Um, hello? Crazy lady? A little help here?”

Inch by agonizing inch, the thing connected to the leg came into view. It seemed to have no skeleton, rather like an octopus, but it was flat as a pancake. Once it fully emerged, he saw the teeth. He looked back and considered jumping to his death rather than being torn apart by the razor sharp incisors grinding together less than twelve feet from his position. Choices raced through his brain, and he wiped his palms on his jeans.

A sheer drop was on one side, the monster, slowly oozing its way across the floor, was on the other.

“Help!” he yelled.

Quick as a flash, the thing searching for him launched itself across the cave.

He put his hands over his head and prepared for the impact.

There was a pulling sensation on his arm, and the scene changed again. This time, he found himself waist-deep in a pond with the woman’s hand around his bicep.

For the water, he was grateful; it washed away the evidence of his fear. Anger replaced the cloying feeling present a moment before. His face was cold, and he knew he was as white as his skin could turn. Gesturing at the sky, he let his rage take over. “Where the hell did you go? That thing almost ate me!”

“I didn’t realize you’d pulled away from me. We have to keep touching or you can’t traverse the fractals with me.”

“Fractals? Lady, you’ve lost your mind! How do I get home?” Again, his teeth were chattering, but it wasn’t cold.

“Oh my. You seem to be in shock. Okay, I’ll take you home. But we can’t go back the way we came. Thanks to you, that thing in the next world over will be waiting for us. My name is Elba, by the way. You can stop calling me lady, crazy lady, and creepy lady now.”

Diego felt his face get warm. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve been called worse.”

Something slithered along his leg under the murk. “Um, whatever we’re gonna do, can we do it fast?” Images of the same creature he’d just encountered being able to swim gripped him in a fist of iron. His whole body shook harder.

She smiled. “I’m working on it.” Her journal was in her hand, and she was turning it this way and that.

Another creature touched his calf, sending tingles up his leg. “I don’t mean to interrupt again, but I think something just stung me.”

“I doubt it. These are glooshna eels. They’re only put into a feeding frenzy by urine. You’ll be fine.”

“Actually…”

Her hand collided with her forehead before she slammed the book closed, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him along after her.

They turned left, climbed the embankment, and ran ten steps, then right for two steps, before the scenery changed again.

She pointed to the left. “That’s the cave you were just in.”

High up on the side of an electric green mountain, the squishy creature could be seen dangling from the hole where Diego almost met his demise. He squinted at it. “What’s it doing?”

“Shh! We certainly don’t want it to know we’re down here. Those things are fast.”

He rubbed his hand on the back of his jean shorts. “Tell me about it.”

Again, they moved forward. But this time they went fifteen steps before the scene changed. Purple skies and yellow mountains greeted them.

“This is way weird.” All the hair on his neck stood up. “Is there anything here that can eat us?”

Elba grinned. “Always assume there’s something that wants to eat you. It’s the only way you and your little friends will survive.”

He gulped.

“Now, we have to climb up to that cave so I can guarantee we end up back in your room.” She stuffed the book in her knapsack and began the ascent. By the time they reached the top, he was panting.

Grabbing his hand, she pulled him two steps forward.

They were back in his bedroom.

Diego collapsed and kissed the carpet. “So good to be back home.”

“All right, kid. Go clean up, change, and meet me in the kitchen. We need to talk.” Laughing, she strode from the room, pivoted in the hallway, and disappeared.

Rolling over, Diego lay on the soft floor, allowing himself a moment. “We need to talk.” He mimicked her gravelly voice. “You bet we do. But, this time, you’re giving me answers.”

No, this isn't the whole chapter; it's actually the second scene from the beginning of section 2 (my section of the book).

I used the five W's: Who, What, When, Where, Why.

This scene serves a huge purpose in introducing the reader to the fractals. Without this adventure, the story would be beyond confusing from here out as the characters traverse the parallel worlds.

Your beginning should set up for the action.
Then, you have the exciting part, where you get to kill people or heighten tension.
At the end, you should be preparing the reader for a transition to the next scene and leave a question or two open that needs to be answered (why should I keep reading?).

So, I answered the most basic question: Is it necessary?

Always ask yourself that when you're doing your edit. A lot of times, a scene can be cut and it not impact the overall story. Talking about what the character is seeing every other scene gets boring. Seek and destroy those dragging visuals when necessary.

When it doubt, cut it out.

Once you've identified the scenes, you can use this post to measure the pace of your entire novel. Pretty cool, huh?

This section gets a score of: Beginning = 72.6, Middle = 86.9, End = 87.5. Not bad pacing. Nice high there at the end.

What do you think? Have you ever broken down a scene like this?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

MS Word 2013 Tips and Tricks - Grammar Check Solutions

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Today, I'm talking about a tool you already know and love but may not be using to its full potential. Please note! I haven't tried this on earlier versions of Word, but in the 365 suite, all these functions are available for you to exploit use. Are you ready to get your awesome on? You may need pen and paper, but you might wanna open your MS Word and be ready to follow these steps. Either way, grab some java and let's get rolling!

First, open Word by clicking on the icon and choose blank document.

Next, you'll wanna go to the menu item File. Click there and you'll get a screen that looks like this:


No, I'm not gonna show you my file list. *grin* You'll know what I've been up to soon enough. Let's move on! Please click on Options down at the bottom left (see arrow).

You'll get a screen like this:

Now, we want to click on Proofing (see arrow).

And we get this:

Under the heading When Correcting Spelling and Grammar in Word, there's a Settings... box to the right of Writing Style. Be sure Grammar and Style are selected from the drop down there, then move to the box. Click it (see arrow)!

Here's where the magic happens! Look at all the nifty check boxes! If you missed changing the drop down in the step before this one, you may do that now. You won't see all these boxes in one view; you'll have to scroll. I'm showing you here so you may have a nice overview. *grin* Are you all in grammar geek Heaven like I am?

Make your selections and click OK.

Now, open your manuscript and review everything Word magically underlines for you. Booyah!

Please keep in mind that Word doesn't "read" your manuscript. There are still stylistic choices you'll have to make, but most have an option to keep the program from pointing those out.

THIS DOES NOT NEGATE THE NEED FOR AN EDITOR. Yes, you can get a cleaner manuscript this way. No, it won't catch all your errors. Yes, it will create new errors if you blindly accept all suggestions. It's a program, not a human.

I hope this little tutorial helps you all in some way.

Did you know these options existed? Did you check it out? What did you find! Share with us!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Back and Playing Catchup

Happy Thursday, everyone! I know it seems like I've been around, but I've been on vacation since last Wednesday. I'm stunned at the response my post on MS Word and Scrivener got last week. I can see how passionate you all are about the topic. As you probably know, I had a guest post slated to go live today, but it never appeared in my inbox so I'm having to skip it.

That being said, since I've been out for a week, my inbox is overflowing. I'm planning to spend today playing catchup and I'll be back with awesomeness for you all tomorrow. There were some great questions raised on that post last week, and I'm gonna do my best to get them answered tomorrow.

Until then, I'm taking a moment to give you all a huge shout out and a thank you for sharing and discussing my post.


You guys rock!

I'll be back tomorrow with that post and responses to the comments that were left on the last one.

Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Friday, April 4, 2014

Word Processors for Writers - MS Word vs Scrivener

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! I know you're all super excited to be knee-deep into the last day of the week (I know I am). With the weekend being just around the corner, I know your attention span is probably as limited as mine is. *grin* But, try to keep focused as we discuss these two word processors available for writers on the market today (ones I've personally used). I'm also gonna tell you about something awesome that was on Flipboard this past weekend. Stay with me!

So, let's begin by talking about MS Word (since it's the most popular word processor out there).
The Pros:
  • Easy to use WYSIWYG editing program that has some awesome features (like the one I discussed here).
  • Easy to switch to print layout with a few minor adjustments (though I still recommend InDesign for this).
  • You can get templates for various platforms (discussion on that here).
  • Most people are familiar with the functions.
  • If you mess up your MS, a quick undo fixes your boo-boo.
The Cons:
  • Limited ways to incorporate images in layers for printed version.
  • Sometimes difficult to set up for printed version (for novices).
  • No bulletin board type feature or note card feature.
  • Wasn't designed specifically for writers.

Now, we'll go into Scrivener.
The Pros:
  • Built in Character bio sheets.
  • Built in novel templates.
  • Folders to manage chapters and scenes along with a cool note-card peg-board type thing.
  • Separate creation ability for writers.
  • Was created specifically for writers.
  • Can change a character's name with the click of a button.
  • Easily outputs to various digital platforms with the click of a couple of buttons.
  • Gives a lovely side by side view of your MS.
  • Keeps all research together in one file for easy reference.
The Cons:
  • Not easy to use if you've never messed with it.
  • Preferences must be set on day 1 and are a PITA to change.
  • You must learn a whole new program.
  • There's little margin for error when combining things or clicking buttons when you aren't sure what they do.
  • It's hard (might even be impossible) to undo big changes when the program auto-saves the way it does.
Now, I've used both of these (I got Scrivener at a discount for winning NaNoWriMo in 2013). I have to admit, I wanted so badly to fall in love with Scrivener, dive in, and use the hell out of it from day one. I'm not an unintelligent person, but to learn how to use a whole new program just hasn't been in my time management ability sheet lately. Yeah, I've had it for over a year and used it maybe twice. I wrote five chapters in it before pulling it all out and moving it to Word. I was hella confused and super frustrated.

Am I gonna make the time to learn how to use it? Maybe. I see the potential there, but I'd rather be writing. Will I ever give up MS Word as a processor? Not likely. I love Word. It's so easy to use! Not to mention the awesome tidbit of information on Flipboard about it this past weekend that makes me want to hug the hell out of Bill Gates.

Are you ready to hear this?

Are you sure?

MS Office now has an app for your iPad! It's called Office 365. Holy smokes! It's not cheap (at $100 a year), but it may be worth the money (for me, at least - an editor on the go). Scrivener has been working on developing one, but they haven't gotten there yet.

Check out Office 365 here and get more information.

Is that gonna make a huge impact on my decision of which one to keep using? It's possible. I have a feeling it's gonna replace Evernote for me. Everything stays in the cloud so you can access it from anywhere, on any device.

You all know I LOVE being synced across my devices and anything that saves me time. You all also know that I refuse to talk about anything I don't love, intend to love, or use myself here. I'm not compensated in ANY way for any of my posts, either (except by the continued love and comments by my readers). So, get on it and check this stuff out. Also, take my opinion with a grain of salt (I'm not a die-hard Scrivener lover yet).

What do you think? Stroke of brilliance on Microsoft's part?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Measuring Your Novel's Pace with MS Word

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today I'm gonna let you all in on a really cool tip having to do with MS Word. This tip will help you adjust the pacing throughout your novel in snippets. According to what I've seen, you can use up to twenty-two scenes to see how your story maps out. Are you dying to know how to do it? Well, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

I'm going to use a scene from I, Zombie where Trixie finds her dog.

Every scene has three parts: Beginning, Middle, and End.

You can graph the pace of a single scene by using a three-point scale that ranges from forty-five to one hundred and a nifty tool you have in MS Word. I'll get to that in a moment.

Go ahead and make your graph now. It might look something like this:

Choose your scene from beginning to end within your novel and copy it out to a new document so we don't have to worry about screwing anything up.

Now, mark the scene between the beginning and middle and the middle and end with a couple of asterisks or other symbol of your choice.

You'll need to get two numbers: The Flesch Readability score and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score.

Here's where MS Word has a feature you may not know about that will give you those two numbers. Do the following:
  • Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options.
  • Click Proofing.
  • Make sure Check Grammar With Spelling is selected.
  • Under "When Correcting Grammar in Word," select the "Show Readability Statistics" check box.
  • Click Ok.

Each readability test bases its rating on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.
  • A Flesch score will be between 0-100.
  • A Flesch-Kincaid score will be a decimal. It tells you the grade level someone should be on to comprehend the document (a nice gauge for all you children's book writers, eh?).

Okay, now, go to MS Word and click on the Review tab. Highlight the text in the scene from the beginning to the first break and click the "Check Grammar and Spelling" button in the top left corner. Go through the prompts. It'll ask if you want to continue with the rest of the document. Click "no."

Be amazed at what pops up.

Write down the numbers next to "Flesch Reading Ease" (mine was 86.8) and "Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level" (mine was 3.6). Subtract the second number from the first (mine comes to 83.2).

Add a dot to your graph. Like this:

Wash, rinse, and repeat for the other two sections. Connect the dots. You should have something like this:
As you can see, my scene has an end peak. This heightens tension when moving into the next scene. A peak at the beginning isn't good because you go in with tension and folks can get bored. Chances are, those scenes will drag. Try for a middle or end peak.

"So what?" you ask. "How will this help me?"

Well, the real measure comes when you do a bunch of these scenes and compile them together. You'll get an idea of the pacing throughout the story rather than just one scene. Because, after all, a story is a group of scenes all put together.

If you take the time to do a set of congruent scenes, make sure your novel has nice highs and lows (not below forty-five) and isn't a flat-line of death. It'll help show you where your work needs improvement.

I'm just giving you the tool. It's up to you how you use it. You may want to add some graph paper to your writer's toolbox!

What did you think of today's little lesson? Did you know about this measure?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Friday, April 19, 2013

Templates for Using MS Word to Format for Print

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm going to share some news and give you a coupon! How awesome are coupons? If you're an Indie author and you've been struggling to make your book look more professional through self-publishing platforms like CreateSpace, you're in for a treat.

Not long ago, I did a post about MS Word vs Adobe InDesign. I went through a few of the good and bad things for using each. Now, you have some additional options for making your book look awesome with MS Word. I know I'm not far off when I say, many of us just can't afford programs like Adobe InDesign and most of us wouldn't know how to use it even if we could. With InDesign, you can create books that look like this:



Now, I'm not saying you'll ever be able to do that with MS Word. I just don't know if it's possible. What I am saying is that you can have an awesome printed book for little to no cost. Keep reading.

I'm a regular subscriber to The Book Designer blog. His name is Joel Friedlander and he does a lot for those of us in the self-publishing world. If you don't already subscribe, I suggest you do so ASAP. It's a wonderful resource for Indie authors. Okay, moving on.

What's the big news? I'm getting to that!

Joel has partnered up with Tracy Atkins, author of Aeternum Ray and partner over at Dyslexiana, to bring you MS Word templates you can use to make your book look awesome in print. Yeah, I know, it was a little difficult for me to believe as well; but take a look at this post where Joel announces the launch. Those look pretty awesome, huh?

If you hop on over to their website BookDesignTemplates.com, you'll even get to download a free copy of their Book Design Templates Roadmap. It walks you through how to use the templates you buy. If you want to skip all the hubbub, you can go right on in and look at some of the templates available by clicking here.

Prices start at $37 each. But, after you buy one, you can use it time and again.

What's all this about a coupon?

Well, Joel is offering a coupon code for 41% off any template you buy. Holy moly, right? That makes each template's price start at just $15.17!! You can read all about it in his post here.

Without further ado, I give you the code: book41

You can follow Joel on Twitter, too. He's @JFBookman

Happy shopping!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Restricted Fonts

It's hump day, good people of the blogosphere! That means just two more days until the weekend arrives if you can make it over the hump. Can I get a, "YAY!"? Come on, you know you want to!

Today, I'm going to bombard you all with information to help get you through today if you happen to be formatting a book, e-book, or designing a cover. This post is all about restricted fonts.

Anyone know what a restricted font is? Do you know how to check if the font is restricted before you use it? I have your answers! Read on...

A restricted font is one that cannot be embedded in a file. It's restricted to use on your personal machine.

But how do you know a font is restricted before you use it? Follow these step-by-step instructions for discovering if a font can be embedded before you use it in your file:

  1. Open MS Word (I use 2007 so these instructions are for that version)
  2. Click on the Acrobat tab at the top
  3. Click on Preferences
  4. Click on Advanced Settings
  5. Select the folder icon for Fonts
  6. Look under the section titled Embedding and find the font list
  7. Scroll through and note the tiny icons on the left side of your fonts

  • TT means it's a true type font.
  • O means it's an apple (mac) font.
  • If there's a lock icon there, that's a restricted font. You cannot embed those fonts. Make a list of them and avoid them like the plague when preparing a book or e-book.

Now, if you flatten your Photoshop file to a jpeg before you upload it, it will keep your font (even if restricted), but you can't use it to design the interior because it WILL NOT embed.

I hope this post helps you all to find and avoid those fonts that will give you hours of headaches if you use them.

On a happier note, I just released a smaller, less expensive version of Yassa in print! It's 11pt type and this book is only 5.5x8.5 (standard size). It's $10 less than the large print version and is just $7.99. You can find it here. Remember, the Yassa ebook is also on sale for the month of October for just $2.99, everywhere e-books are sold. For an easy link, click here.

Have you ever been pinged by the dreaded restricted font warning message?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Ten Timeline Tips for Tuesday

Good Tuesday, people of the blogosphere! Today I'd like to talk a little bit about those pesky problems we all run into from time to time called inconsistency. I'm gonna give you a handy dandy way to eradicate that problem by giving you ten tips to creating a timeline in MS Word that will help your story (or series) stay the course.

  1. When you decide on a year your story will take place in, write it down.
  2. Make a quick list of your characters' ages and put their birthdays on your timeline.
  3. Use sequential time (don't put 1988 down, follow it by 1992, then jump back to 1964).
  4. Be specific - use a calendar and reference months and days.
  5. Don't move or change dates while writing (you can add, but that's a different animal).
  6. Use a type size that's easy to read (I recommend 12pt or larger).
  7. Italics and bold are your friends.
  8. Bullets can be used to call out a list of events that occur on the same day.
  9. It's okay to have a year where all that happens is a birthday.
  10. Color code your characters' names.
Now, for a more in-depth look at each of those tips and why they're important.

#1. You want to have an idea of what the speech was like in the era you're writing about. You also need to know what the world was like. If you're writing a novel set in the 1960's, you won't have someone chatting on a cell phone.

#2. You need to know your character from birth to death even if you don't kill them off during the story. Life events have a way of shaping us into who we are. Know them all.

#3. You don't want to hunt through ten pages of time to know when a character fell down and scraped her knee. If you want to make it when she was nine, you'll be able to look up the year by following the timeline.

#4. Just do it. Your story will be more believable if you do and will help you find pertinent information later with ease, keeping you in the flow of writing. If you have to stop and figure out what Saturday in May little Alice had her twelfth birthday party, you're going to break your concentration.

#5. I don't know how Scrivner works, but if you're hashing out a manuscript in word, changing the date something happened is a PITA. You may have referenced it elsewhere and forget. Make decisions!

#6. This is so you don't suffer eye strain when looking back and forth or searching for something.

#7. Italics and bold can help you call out emotional or life-changing events; eliminating the need for searching through your entire timeline to find out when the character's friend called him ugly.

#8. If you have a particularly stressful day lined up for your character in the past, bullets will help you reference the list quickly and call it out on your timeline for easy spotting.

#9. Even if it's just a 9th birthday party, put it down. You may decide later to have someone drown in the pool and it will prevent you having to look up what day of the week it was on. See #4.

#10. If Margot and Alice both had an event on the same day, color coding will help you see what happened when and to whom as soon as you find the date. Easy peasy.

I hope this list helps you prepare to write using a timeline. For a series or a work with specific dates already set in stone (like the birthing of children in a Historical Fiction novel), it's a must-have tool.

I used one religiously when writing Yassa so I could keep the dates of Genghis Khan's son's birthdays in order. Is it just me or was that a lot of s use?

Do you keep a timeline? Have you ever thought about it?

Well, that's all for today, folks! If you haven't picked up a copy of Yassa yet, it's on sale everywhere for the month of October at just $2.99. Go get one! You can find the links here. Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo