Scrivener – The Debutante Ball

Writing Technologies: 4 Websites I Love, 1 Website I Tolerate, and 1 Website I Want To Murder

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Well, it’s official. I have become old. Settle down, young’un, and listen to me bitch about this newfangled writer technology. Writer-specific software! Graphic design! Grammarlys and Dropboxes and writing in the cloud! Next thing you know, authors will be obsolete because brain-scanning cyborgs will be writing all our fiction using templates designed by teenaged nerds. Back when I was coming up, we had to write with wood-encrusted lumps of lead,…

How Tech Controls My Chaos

Monday, May 21, 2018

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In life, I’m inseparable from my cell phone, but when it comes to writing, there is one program I can no longer function without: Scrivener. I love this program to bits. I’m a non-sequential writer, and I spent the first ten years or so of my writing life struggling with endless Word docs. This goes back to the days when a full manuscript wouldn’t all fit on one 3.5″ disk…

Writing Historical Fiction – My Process

Monday, February 27, 2017

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This week the Debs are writing about technology. What do we use to help our writing, what couldn’t we live without? What do we love and hate about technology? How do we use social media? Do we stress over it? I have written a zillion articles on social media since I work in community and social media for my day job, so I’m going to skip that and talk about…

Technology for Non Tech Writers

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

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Given how wired I am now, I find it difficult to remember those days when the most technological advancement I made in my writing was switching from a ball point pent to a gel pen (and there was a brief, pretentious time in there when I wrote with fountain pens, because, you know, I was the 1990s version of a hipster, which in those days was simply called “young.”). When…

Scrivener Love

Monday, February 15, 2016

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When I read that our theme this week was technology, I was fairly certain that my post was going to be just pictures of all my old, dead laptops that I am incapable of throwing away. When it comes to writing I keep things pretty simple—it’s just me and my computer. That’s something that I love about writing—it’s like walking—no gadgets or gear required. But I do have one geeky…

For The Love of Critique Partners

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

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It’s hard to believe now, but it was only two and half years ago when I finished my first (never to be seen again, thankfully) book. Like the brand-new baby author I was, I wrote THE END, spent many hours researching how to write a query letter, and then started querying. At the same time I started following a handful of writers on twitter, and I kept seeing “CP” written…

3 Writing Tricks That Actually Work for the Master Procrastinator

Thursday, December 4, 2014

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This week’s post is all about ways to stay the course and get the words on the page. And reading all the tips from the other lovely Debs, I expected that light bulb moment. That “oh yes, here’s how I get through” genius. And then I realized something. I truly am a Master Procrastinator. Because while I’ve learned a few tricks here and there, I still have long stretches of…

How I Write: Distractions, Muffins, & Deadlines

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

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Writing is hard. Not because of the whole come up with an idea and make it interesting thing – though that isn’t exactly easy, either. What makes writing “hard,” at least in my books, is just how easy it is to NOT do it. Case in point: my latest book. I have a deadline, and not just one I’ve set, but one from my editor. I’m excited about the story….

Words of Advice…

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

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A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Jodi Picoult read from her latest novel LEAVING TIME, and to meet her for the briefest of moments while she signed my book. She was funny, and gracious, and quite down to earth despite her 23 books – the last 8 of which have made it on the NYT bestsellers list. And while I loved learning about the book,…

On Writing: Here, There, and Everywhere.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

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If I were creating a dream office to write my bestseller in it would have five things: an antique wooden desk, with a great history; a ghost chair that was just uncomfortable enough to make sure I sat up straight and kept my feet on the floor, a huge window to let in light and breeze, a bookshelf full of my favorite books (color coded, of course), and an espresso…

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