I Don’t Have Any Time To Stay Up All Night Worrying About What Someone Who Doesn’t Love Me Has To

My favourite things about Scrivener

1. Navigation. You can see all your chapters, scenes, character & setting planning at one glance and switch between them very easily - compared to scrolling up and down in one long word processing document. Every file can also be a folder, so you can have collapsible items underneath it.

2. Word count targets. The “Project Targets” are particularly useful for NaNoWriMo so you don’t have to keep looking back at the website to see how you’re doing for the day, but more so outside of it, when you want to keep yourself working to a target but don’t have Nano’s charts and daily word counts. It also gives you a nice ding when you hit your session target.

3. How many pages? I only recently discovered this, but it’s very nice to be able to see in Project Statistics approximately how big your manuscript would be in pages without worrying about formatting. 

4. Outlining. Scrivener has two methods of outlining - one is Corkboard, which is exactly what it sounds like, a digital corkboard with notes pinned on it that represent your chapters/scenes with their summaries. The screenshot above is called ‘outliner’ and lists collapsible chapters/scenes with various statistics you can select as shown in the tick menu. Generally I prefer Corkboard, but Outliner is useful if you just want to see everything in a clear order. 

5. Full screen. I get distracted very easily when writing, so the full-screen writing mode is wonderful for me to avoid that - but you can still choose certain windows from the normal Scrivener view to show up. I have my targets and my summary, so I can stick to my plan when I’m writing and also see what progress I’m making.

6. Notes. No screenshot, but it’s a simple post-it note style box to the side of every document (chapter, scene, character etc.) that allows you to add notes. This may sound very simple, but it’s far more useful than I’d expected. During NaNoWriMo when I’m not meant to be editing at all, but I know something needs fixing, I will jot down something in the side like ‘Take out the horse’ so that when I go through again to edit I know exactly the things to focus on immediately but which would have taken too much time before. It’s linked to the scene so I don’t just have a pile of notes in one document at the end and then have to work out where it needs fixing.

Overall

I downloaded Scrivener for the first time two years ago, and now I can’t imagine working without it. It’s so nice to have the planning and the writing all combined into one place where I can easily switch between the two. I haven’t yet got as far in a novel created in Scrivener to use the compile features so I can’t comment on those, but so far all my experiences of it have been good.

One thing to note is that if transferring project between a Windows and a Mac version of Scrivener, it’s generally best to zip the file first.

[Screenshots from my current novel Kindling Ashes using the Mac version of Scrivener - some features may not be available in Windows yet.]

People have written a lot of touchy-feely pieces on this subject but I thought I’d get right to the heart of the matter

Title: The world is loud, so let's quiet down

Original Work: RWBY Relationship: Qrowin (Set season 4) A/N: I wanted to write about Winter’s reaction to Weiss’ actions at the party, then Qrowin happened due to a post/prompt I saw. ((http://gardenoffish.tumblr.com/post/154388438241/person-a-walks-into-the-room-and-sees-person-b )) Enjoy.

~~~

It was sometime around midday when Winter received the news; about the incident concerning her sister at Father’s latest ‘charity function’ from General Ironwood.

Now it was approaching dusk and with a swipe of her hand, the Atlas specialist smeared her military issued training clothes, with the evidence of her labor.

Step forward. Lunge. Deflect. She moved with the precision and focus that had pushed her through the ranks at such a young age.

Inhale through the nose. Exhale through the mouth. Concentrate.

Arm straining forward, light pulsed forth and at her command she called on yet another summons to attack the training bots ahead.

As she has told Weiss, summoning was like a muscle and needed to be exercised properly. But today, she was pushing herself beyond what was necessary.

Her aura strained against the abuse but she took no heed of it, allowing the anger and irritation at the upper echelons of the Altlesian society to spur her onwards.

Separating her second blade form it’s hidden sheath, she slashed downwards, carving twin lines of pent up emotion into solid metal.

Jump back. Rise. Lea-

Without warning, exhaustion weighed down on her like the unrelenting sun of the menagerie desert. She stumbled; only to catch herself in a low crouch, with a hiss of frustration.

Blast it. Blast it!

Often disapproving of foul language (even within her own head) she found herself mentally cycled through each and every curse that she had ever heard during her service.

She sunk down as gracefully as she could manage - the shameful weakness of her limbs making her put up with the discomfort, of lying on of the unforgiving ground.

Time was an abstract thing right then, as she began to recollect herself. At least, until an annoyingly familiar voice rang out across the large space.

“Tough day, Ice Queen?”

And just where was - there!

Perched on a high beam, was what would be in other circumstances, an uninteresting sight. A black bird, surveying the land below.

Not bothering to answer aloud, Winter waited while watching, with admittedly a little interest, as Qrow shifted into his common form. When finished, she politely shifted her grey eyes to gaze upwards at the curved ceiling.

A brisk nod (which rewarded her with a pulsating headache) was her reply.

Being unusually tactful for once, Qrow lay down alongside her in a show of solidarity (and was that…affection? Or was she just hallucinating?)

Still, the regularity of his breathing was more calming then it had any right to be. Perhaps, this was why his nieces so clearly adored him, despite his less than savory habits?

Taking this rare opportunity to sneak a proper look at the man, she found herself cataloging each and every visible wound, no matter how small. (And oh, how she hated those monsters, that were now roaming the land with ever increasing frequency, since the fall of Beacon).

Not having the energy, necessary to question just what on Remnant he was doing here of all places, she accepted whatever courtesy this was that the Huntsman was offering.

During however long it was, that the two of them stayed there, like schoolchildren that neither of them still were, she vowed to herself that she would lessen her sharp comments concerning Qrow’s drinking. If he was allowing her obvious failure at keeping her composure, just now, through recklessness to slide, she supposed she could do the same with his own faults.

The life of those on the battlefield are harsh, after all, no matter who you are.

And later on, removed from all of her other concerns, maybe she’d even admit, that having him next to her…felt rather nice.

END.

~Thank you for reading~ Sincerely, TheSoulsDepths

stay alive not because your mother will never stop crying but because you can look up at the sky on a sunny day and see the clouds moving by and you’ll take a moment to wonder if it is because the earth is spinning or because the wind is blowing stay alive so you can answer that question stay alive so you can ask someone else that question, then wow them by knowing the answer or be wowed that they already knew it as well stay alive because you’re never too old to look up at the sky and see figures in the shapes of clouds a cumulonimbus that looks like a dog will never fail to make you smile stay alive not because your father will blame himself for the loss of his baby but because your favorite band might come out with a new song or your favorite show might get renewed for a new season or your favorite person might like your tweet on twitter stay alive because the future is unclear and that may seem terrifying, not knowing what’s to come, but it’s worth taking that chance gambling is never a safe bet but the house always wins and you, my dear, are the house stay alive not because your best friend will never forgive themselves for losing you but because of the feeling you get when you do see your best friend that calmness, that peace, that happiness – that feeling is genuine happiness and yes, you are capable of experiencing it you’re allowed to experience it you’re allowed to be happy stay alive because you’re allowed to be happy and there are countless reasons to feel that joy radiate like sunbeams like licking melted ice cream off of your hand as it drips from the cone or the way the world slowly changes from green to orange in autumn or seeing the first snowfall of winter or that first sip of a hot beverage when you’re absolutely freezing or wearing your favorite underwear or finally seeing the Big Dipper at night or the perfect amount of Parmesan cheese on top of your pasta or your pet crawling into your lap stay alive because at least one of those things make you happy and you should experience it one more time stay alive not because i’ll miss you but because one day life will feel the way a brand new notebook feels - intimidating, but exciting and more importantly, a fresh start stay alive because you deserve to be around for that fresh start

(cc, 2017)

How fucking annoying is it when you feel so restless with creative energy but you can’t decide what to do with it and when you finally try to create something it comes out shit so you just give up and sit there being all creatively annoyed and jittery.

Please help!

PLEASE READ/SIGNAL BOOST!!

Hey guys, if anyone has been following me for any amount of time, you may know that I’ve been struggling a lot this past year, with losing my dad to cancer, and losing my job and my U.C benefit several times during the year due to my mental health issues. I have almost been evicted and made homeless due to my benefit cuts and benefit reassessments and I have been under so much emotional stress from the lack of eating proper food these past few weeks, that I’ve almost been hospitalized. 

Thankfully, due to the compassion and dedication of complete strangers, I was able to pay my rent and keep my home and buy small amounts of groceries. And I’m happy to say that my benefit is no longer in a reassessment period and is due to me on November 25th. However, I do have confirmation that the payment I will receive will only be £245.07 (I can show evidence of this) and a majority of that payment will once again go towards paying my rent,  as my housing benefit is not yet in place. 

I am really so sorry to have to do this again and again and I know that I have other donation posts circulating but, with me trying to get my life back to normal, things have been incredibly difficult. All I’m asking for is £100 to help get me through December, or if anyone can spare anything to help me to get back on my feet I would really appreciate it, even £1/$1 would really go a long way to help me.

My Youcaring post is available here if anyone wants to understand my situation.

**Donate either to my Youcaring campaign or to my PayPal ($/€ donations please use the PayPal icon on my blog)

Thank you  ❤❤

Got some new canvases for Christmas and got into the painting mood. Decided to paint a sunset with clouds. Mostly clouds. It been a long time since I painted something, I can't even remember the last time I did something like this. I spent most of my day sitting and just painting. It was awesome!!

You Are Going To Have So Much Success In 2018 (pass it on)

I am so worried about what's happening in the news and politics even though I can barely understand them. How it will effect me and my family. What will the future be for us? It causing me so much anxiety that I can't help but cry while home alone. Does anyone else feel like this?