I haven’t made as much progress as I wanted this month. I got sick again! Plus I’ve been recovering at home from a minor procedure – nothing important, but it still stopped me from sitting at my desk for a little while. I did finish one chapter and started the next, which I thought was the next to last chapter, but realized there is actually two more after it to complete Book 2 of the novel.
Also, as I was writing, the timing of the journey hit me as wrong, which caused me to dig out the maps again to replot the end of the journey. I have them taking a whole day to travel a distance that could be covered in a couple hours, unless there where obstacles on the road, but I didn’t write any in. So I have to make a little change there, one way or the other – either add some obstacles or have them arrive further down the road. That’s what I’m working on now.
I also don’t know if I’ve mentioned the writing program I’ve been using. Like everyone, I started out on Word, but as the book got larger, it was just too cumbersome to find a spot in the body of it if I needed to make a change. So I switched to Scrivener. I like Scrivener, there is space to keep everything related to the book, from notes to maps, the cover, front and back matter. And once I learned it, it worked well. But I found with my short stories that it didn’t format the stories well for KDP – I had to convert them back to Word and reformat them (sometimes multiple times) to upload them to Amazon/KDP. That seemed counter-productive and a lot of unnecessary work. So I heard about a newer program called Atticus and I’ve been giving that a try. I like it. Like Scrivener, everything is broken up by chapters, so I can easily find a section that needs correcting or changing. There is a place for all the front and back matter, along with the cover. I don’t think I can upload my maps, but to be honest, I like the feel of working from a paper copy that I can mark up and make notes on. And the program is supposed to allow me to get the book into a publishable format with the click of one button. I’m still learning Atticus and I haven’t tried to format anything, or export it anywhere yet, but I will be exporting what I’ve completed to my editor soon, so I’ll see how that works for me.
I want to ask my readers something. How do you feel about chapters having titles? I read all kinds of books and some have that and others just number them. I’ve noticed that titling chapters is more common with fantasies, which this book is (Dystopian Fantasy, I would say). So far, I have titled each chapter with a glimpse or clue of what to expect, such as: The Neighborhood, Medical Emergency, or Final Plans. What do you think about that? Use the contact button to give me your opinion. Thanks!
Hopefully, my April update will show I’ve completed more writing – no procedures planned, no more sickness, and the ambition to get this done!
