Tag: Betweos

Using Google Docs For Novel Writing

KenMcConnell13 Comments

I recently got a request to do a post about how I’m using Google Docs to write my novels. Looking back over some old posts, I already covered this a year ago, and you can read that article here. I’ve now written two novels and I’m currently working on a third using the Google word processing software. I’m pretty much doing the same thing I started out doing except I’m no longer stitching together chapters to make a whole manuscript. I’m just writing linearly, the same way I used to write in Word. I can hear all the Scrivener users gasping. People still write this way folks, it isn’t so crazy. It’s also how you read a novel.

I still outline pretty extensively before starting a first drive. By using Google’s spreadsheet program I can have them both open in tabs and easily see them with one click. I can also keep all my images and notes in a folder and access them from any tab of my browser. The biggest reason I’m using Google Docs instead of LibreOffice is because during the first draft, I don’t want a dead laptop to kill my draft. If my lappy dies, I can grab a nearby Chromebook and carry on cranking out the word pies.

You may recall that I use Linux as my operating system. I normally run Ubuntu with the Unity desktop but this week I’ve switched to a more minimal look with the Gnome Desktop. Still running Ubuntu 16.10 under the covers. Anyway, in the above screenshot you can see my browser and a PDF of a screenplay that is my first draft outline for Betweos, my WIP.

I have found a add-on for GDocs that offers a TOC or Table Of Contents on the right. I like this because it lets me easily jump to whichever chapter I like. I set the size of the editor to Fit and it leaves me a gutter in which to jot notes.

I also use Jamie Todd Rubin’s word count and tracker program that you can read about on his blog. I have it set to record my word count at two in the afternoon which is well past my normal lunch hour writing sprints. It lets you know all the days you didn’t write by filling them with zeroes. But it’s nice to have a record without actually recording it into a spreadsheet after each session.

Above is part of the word count tracker spreadsheet for Betweos.

Because of the way Jamie’s software works, I have to keep my active WIP in a folder called SANDBOX. I have that located in my Fiction folder along with all my other stories. You can see the tracker spreadsheet lives there too, along with programs provided by Jamie.

My Betweos novel folder holds all my notes, outlines and misc stuff. You can look at images in the folders using this screen shown below.

Because I’m using a screenplay as my outline for Betweos, I have the screenplay up as a PDF and I Alt+Tab between them as needed. Below you see the same scene in both formats. I wrote the screenplay when I was in my early twenties. That was a loooooonnng time ago.

My novel outlines are exactly the same as they have always been, I just didn’t use one for this novel. My next novel is going to be a Mystery under my other writing handle – Johnny Batch. I’ll be back to a regular spreadsheet style outline for that novel.

I started writing Betweos in mid October of last year and as of now, late February of 2017, I’m only halfway through it. I need to buckle down and get this draft completed before summer. That’s when I’m supposed to start writing the next novel. I hope this short update post was informative for you. Ask away in the comments if you have questions.

Betweos Origins

KenMcConnell

My latest WIP is called Betweos. It’s an original Sci-Fi story that dates back to the eighties when my brother, Byron, told me an idea he had for a science fiction tale. We tweaked the idea off and on for the next thirty years. While I was in college, I wrote the story as a screenplay. That screenplay is the structural basis for the novel I’m writing now.

Of course the story continued to evolve and hopefully the novel version will contain all the ideas and inspirations that we’ve collected over the decades. But it’s nice to have something to read as I pound out the outline for the novel. Screenplays are much less dense in detail than novels and thus the novel version will have more scenes and probably more subplots. Such is the nature of film vs book versions of stories.

This novel will be my primary focus for next year. I don’t anticipate writing anything else. If I finish a first draft before summer, I might start the next Star Saga novel, but I can’t promise anything. The more likely scenario is that I’ll push Betweos out to beta readers and try to collect their reactions in time to finish a second draft by the end of summer. That leaves fall and early winter to edit it.

Betweos is a stand alone novel and I’ll be taking it to agents for traditional publication. It could be years down the road before those efforts result in publication. If nobody wants it, then I’ll throw it out there by myself. In the meantime, the Star Saga will regain my focus until that series is complete.

Something Different

KenMcConnell

Having finished the first draft of my novella, Corvette and moving into the editing phase for my novella, K’nat Trap, I’m ready to start moving on to the next novel. This one is a stand alone SF novel not set in the Star Saga. It’s called Betweos and the story originated with my brother, Byron some thirty odd years ago. This is the novel I’ve been waiting to write for about a decade now. All the novels I’ve written to date are just practice for this one. Hopefully I’ll be able to do the story justice.

What’s it about, you ask? Well, that’s hard to say, exactly. I hope to have a decent description or pitch line for it soon. Here’s a possible back cover tag line – “The first casualty of war, is the truth.”

betweos

This novel will be shopped to agents and traditionally published. So even after it’s completed, it could be years before anyone reads it. But if none of the Big Five publishers want it or I can’t get an agent to represent it, I’ll release it myself. Rest assured, it won’t be trunked.