A Few Helpful Items from the Writing Trenches

by Tammy Euliano

Every writer evolves differently. On interviews we are frequently questioned about our writing technique: “plotter or pantser?” (both), “morning or evening” (both), “tea or coffee” (neither). And there are innumerable programs in books and on the internet offering suggestions, from snowflakes to post-its to tentpoles to grids. I’ve dabbled with many of them and found promising tidbits in most. Having published only one novel to date (but written 3 others), I’m far from an expert, and my methods continue to evolve, but here are a few that seem to really help me.

1)    An enormous white board. You can now buy an erasable whiteboard as a sticker for the wall for <$50. In addition you’ll need super-fine colored erasable markers. I choose a color for each character and then jot details about them, linking those to other characters in a mindmap. Every once in a while, I take a picture of the board, since un-delete doesn’t work (I know, I’ve tried). There are software-based mind mapping programs, but they just don’t work as well for me, even with a monitor the size of a tennis court.

2)      A monitor the size of a tennis court. You can buy a huge HDTV for <$200 (much cheaper than a monitor) and they work great. I have Scrivener open alongside Word with my Beta reader edits, and Thesaurus.com in another window.

3)    3)   A standing desk. Mine is manual, sits on my existing desk, and can be set at various heights. Highly necessary between doses of caffeine. We have a little plastic tray I can strap to the treadmill but it gets sadly little use. I have difficulty walking and reading/typing. Oh, and chewing gum...

  A  4)    A mobile laptop stand. I take this outside and write while intermittently throwing a ball for my dogs – so I also recommend a Chuck-It to get the ball far enough away. While I’m at it, I recommend a dog that actually brings the ball back to you, instead of hiding it under a bush for you to find, but they were all out of that brand when we got our Golden (or maybe it’s me).

5)   A large 3-ring binder and clipboard. When I finish the first draft, I print it 2 pages to a sheet in landscape view (it looks like a paperback where the pages flip from the top), then read it with only pencil and various colored sticky tabs. This keeps me from word-smithing while I read. I also print out the chapter synopses I made in Scrivener as a spreadsheet, put that on a clipboard, and write in any major changes there, like rearranging or adding chapters. Meanwhile in the main text, I just circle clunky words/phrases and write notes/questions in the margin or on the blank facing page.

6)     6)    +/- Natural Reader. I use the free version and let it read my story to me. It’s far from perfect, but does a reasonable job. I’ve learned to do a global replace for things like “Dr. Downey” because it reads it as “drive.  Downey”. So I replace Dr. with doctor and phonetically spell frequently used uncommon names if it will bug me. I don’t always have the book read to me, but it does keep me from editing while I read, and I can do it while walking above dogs who may or may not be pulling in opposite directions on their leashes.

      I hope you found something in there helpful! Please share your own tips, especially if they relate to teaching an old dog new tricks, like how to LISTEN.

        

Tammy Euliano

      Author of Fatal Intent

      Physician, author, wife, and mother of 3 kids and 2 very independent dogs.