wordpress | R. Lynn Archie, Romance Author

I never thought I would say this, but Scrivener is wonderful for putting a story together. What is Scrivener? Plain and simple it is a word-processing program and story outline designed for authors, writers, students, and bloggers, among others who do a lot of writing.
To be honest, I wasn’t always optimistic about Scrivener. My first-time hearing about the program was from someone who told me it was something I might find useful. Okay fine, that person piqued my curiosity. I did a little research, however, after watching a few YouTube videos, I felt intimidated by Scrivener. Yes, you could do a lot with it, but it was so overwhelming for a newbie. As I think back, I know now it had a lot to do with the presentation not being clear, concise, and to the point. That’s pretty much how I lost interest.

Okay now fast forward to the present. Out of the blue, I get an email invite about a user-friendly webinar explaining how I can get Scrivener to do exactly what I want. To tell you the truth, I was real iffy about it, but I took part, and I’m glad I did. The webinar was so helpful and well explained for a beginner such as myself. It helped in familiarizing me with Scrivener and explaining how I can best use Scrivener in managing my writing. The concept behind Scrivener is it’s basically an electronic huge binder that holds all your saved correspondence on a specific writing project (i.e. video and audio files, web pages, pictures, PDFs, etc.) in one place that is available to you at a click of a button. That’s huge for me, and I find it convenient not having to search all over my hard drive for something.

A Few Features of Scrivener:
• Piece it Together. Switch instantly between editing your writing one section at a time and together as a whole.
• Corkboard. In Scrivener, every section of your project is attached to a virtual index card. Scrivener’s corkboard lets you step back and work with just the synopses you’ve written on the cards—and when you move them, you’re rearranging your manuscript at the same time.
• Outliner. Like the corkboard, the outliner lets you work with an overview of a chapter, a part, or even your whole manuscript—but puts even more information at your fingertips.
• Print, Export, Publish. Scrivener has everything you need to prepare your manuscript for sharing with the world.

I could go on and on because there are more features, but if you visit Scrivener’s website you can get a better insight of the program. What I appreciated the most is before you pay for anything, you can do a 30-day free trial. That was so beneficial for me, for it allowed me an opportunity to see if this was a purchase I truly wanted to make. The outcome—it won me over.

My final words on Scrivener would be, try it out. Who knows, you might like it too.

Happy, Friday, and as promised, I have for you the first posting of G’s Charismatic Bunch (team changed to bunch). I will be posting the mini-series every Friday all the way up until the end of April. I welcome hearing your thoughts, so please type away; your comments will determine whether I continue this into the future months. Thanks for stopping past and as always, happy reading:-) – R. Lynn

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Two of a Kind

Gessica had just walked to her work station and set down her belongings when she heard Demi coming her way. “Hey G Honey, what’s going on? Did you have a pleasant weekend?” The words spewing from Demi’s mouth were dripping with such sugary sweetness that it was almost sickening to Gessica’s ears first thing in the morning.

“Nothing. It was good, but must you be so darn bubbly in the morning?! Demi, how many times have I asked you to wait until I get some caffeine in my system before you go spreading your upbeat morning joy?” Gessica’s tone was grouchy; nonetheless, Demi continued unfazed by her friend’s morning zombie mood.

“Look who got up on the wrong side of the bed again. Oh, and G, just to clarify that last question, I don’t pay attention to your rantings!”

“Obviously not,” Gessica grumbled, picking up her lunch bag as she accidentally bumped into Demi while making her way to the kitchen.

“Hey!” Demi shrieked after catching her balance. “It’s okay G, I still love you! Kiss, kiss.” Demi chuckled as she watched Gessica slowly trudge down the hallway. This morning routine of theirs happened pretty much the same way each day.

As Gessica walked back to her cubicle, Demi accepted a package from UPS and handed it to Gessica as she sat back down at her desk. “This is for you, dear.”

Gessica peered down at the label through her newly acquired bifocals. “No, that’s for Bronwyn; looks like the blank CD’s I ordered for her. And, speaking of CD’s, I know you can help me with this question: What is the name of Adam Lambert’s second 2009 hit song? You know the one the radio plays over and over….and over?”

“What do you want from me?” Demi answered shrugging her shoulders.

“The Adam Lambert song. What’s it called?”

“What do you want from me?” Demi answered, gesturing wildly with her hands as she spoke.

“For goodness sake, what I want is for you to answer my freaking question!” Gessica replied, agitation dripping from her voice.

“I answered you!” She voiced.

“No, you did not!” Gessica responded, the pitch in her voice rising louder.

“Yes I did; the name of the song is Whataya Want from Me!”

“Ohhhh,” Gessica sheepishly replied as she realized Demi had been answering her all along.

“Oh my god, you are killing me!” Came Demi’s exasperated reply.

Tami, Bronwyn, and Anna, walked over to Gessica’s desk to investigate the commotion. Eager to know what all the fuss was about, Demi patiently explained what had happened, and the women all burst into a raucous bout of laughter.

“You two are like Tweedle Dee and Twiddle Dumb,” blurted Bronwyn causing another roar of laughter from Tami and Anna. She burst into laughter herself as Gessica and Demi simultaneously rolled their eyes in her direction.

The clock struck 9:00 am as morning visitors began entering the lobby. It was back to work for the five of them, smiling to themselves, thinking that there’s never a dull moment with G’s Charismatic Bunch.

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Artwork by J. Mo