How I Used Memoires at a Writing Conference

Have you held on to paper calendars through the years so you can remember what you did long ago? Do you journal or keep a diary? Are you like me and have several journals around, partially written in? Maybe you have a journal for different topics. Or did you forego the paper route and decide to get techy by journaling on your computer, only to discover organizing the entries was a bit tricky? 

I tried that years ago—named a folder JOURNALING, but I never was consistent with saving the entries and ended up with a hodgepodge of file names and a cluttered mess.

Wired towards using a calendar efficiently, I’m a big fan of iCal on the Mac. That’s why I was excited back in January to discover the Memoires app by Coding Robots. It’s the perfect solution for typing journal entries at the glance of a calendar. When an entry is made, that number is bolded on the calendar. 

My favorite feature is the automatic file naming: with one click the date becomes the file name, or it can be renamed something different altogether. That’s what led me to use it yesterday in an entirely new way.

I attended the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference in the mountains of beautiful north Georgia and as always was taking copious notes. I first opened a Pages document, but I knew I’d have to go through all the steps of deciding where to file them and wondered how in the world would be the best way to recall them when I need them and so on. I’d already started a journal entry for the day when it dawned on me that I could use the same method for note-taking during the conference. 

So here’s how I used Memoires: with each speaker, I started a new entry. That’s as simple as clicking on the + sign on the bottom left corner. I titled each with the speaker’s name and session title, and then my fingers got busy typing what the speakers said. One person asked me if I were a court reporter. Not exactly, just a former administrative assistant who was darn good at dictation. 

If I want to do any more with these notes, I can copy them into a word processing document, but I can’t think of a better place for them to live than right there in my 2014 Journal that resides in my Mac’s dock. (I’m actually typing this blogpost in Memoires and will copy over to my blog when I finish editing.)

Check it out for yourself at codingrobots.com. I’ll bet you can come up with even more ways to use Memoires in your own situation. Happy writing and remembering.

PlotWriMo Day 2

After several years of work, I finished writing a novel somewhere in the neighborhood of 82,000 words. Drop confetti here.

I often hear from people, “I want to read your book;” “How’s your book coming?” and the like. Even my husband and sons tell me their friends want to read it. Yikes! Those words make me tuck my tail and hide under the bed like a whipped puppy. Why?

I’ve known for a while that my story needed a major overhaul, that some of its pieces simply weren’t right—either not in the right order or forced or some other reason I’d not yet labeled. After spending all summer 2012 querying agents, I decided to enter a national organization’s contest last fall with the beginning. I got some decent feedback and made the suggested changes to the manuscript and entered that group’s next-step contest in early 2013. When the feedback arrived, I didn’t even recognize what they were saying because the story had been so convoluted to fit their requirements. It was enough to turn me off completely of both that organization, my story, and writing all together. I put the manuscript in a proverbial box under the bed (actually just a file on the computer) and did not think about it. In fact, I grew disdain for the whole project. I even considered hitting “delete.”

I decided I wasn’t a fiction writer; I’m doing copyediting for others. I simply was not ready to tackle this huge undertaking again or wasn’t sure it was even worth it. Then a month ago, the signs started showing up all around me. You know those instances that seem like coincidences, but they happen one after another in a condensed period of time, and you can just feel God nudging you saying, “WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT ME TO DO? COME DOWN THERE AND WRITE IT FOR YOU?” Well, that would be nice, but that would also freak me out, so we’ll go with the nudging.

The last of the nudges was a message from Martha Alderson, the Plot Whisperer in California, who told me not to fret but to wait until her annual PlotWriMo when she leads authors through the month together doing daily exercises to analyze the plot. Come one, come all, just bring your finished manuscript, and we’ll tear it apart. How could I deny that nudge? I couldn’t. So ready or not, December 1 arrived, and somehow I started. I still haven’t opened my novel’s file, which is good since Martha instructed us not to read it yet. I haven’t read it since the beginning of the year so it’s really fuzzy (plus all mixed up since I had rewritten the beginning for that contest.)
I confess on Day 1 of PlotWriMo, I just stared at the screen trying to figure out what to write down for the exercises. With this niggling feeling that the story wasn’t right as is, I wasn’t sure how to proceed. Not until pushing through today’s assignment (and the physical act of writing on legal-size paper) was I able to hash out some of the major problems with the plot. Eureka! I may have uncovered some of the characters’ motives tonight, and it’s only because it happened now. No way could I have written these scenes earlier since I have new understanding.

Cause and effect is the main driving force behind a plot. A character doesn’t do something without a reason to do so, which is why some of the scenes seemed forced to me. By being willing to do a major cut—slice and dice, with a major rewrite on the horizon—I’m finally able to move the big pieces of the puzzle around to see if any of this story can be salvaged.

What I may find is that I have too many sub-plots, or I may have another book woven into this one, but I think the process of the PlotWriMo will uncover that issue among others. Only two days are down with an entire month ahead. I shall trudge forth in an effort to keep on track, not fall behind, and be ready for the new year’s total rewrite with a new direction and newly fueled energy. This manuscript may live after all. At this early point in the month’s journey, I hope you’ll wish me the necessary glue to stick to it.

Caffeine or Life?

Oh boy, I’m feeling sorry for the writing group I’m in right now, because in less than an hour they’ll have to be at a table with me. In a place where you’re supposed to sit still, concentrate, contemplate, and compilate (questionable word), I feel like the little silver ball inside a pinball machine trying to maneuver itself through the crystal department at Macy’s. BING! Crash.

Maybe it was the Italian Roast from Starbucks this morning that kicked me into fifth gear, having skipped over second through fourth, but whatever it is, I’m feeling like I could take no prisoners today. WooHoo! Maybe it was getting up at dark-thirty, dressing, and leaving the house with headlights on low beam scouting for deer (actually, I think Bambi and friends were still sleeping) to get a big jump on the day that has put me ahead of the eight ball today. Regardless, I hope I won’t be too obnoxious for this writing group.

It’s been a week now since I submitted my manuscript, and it’s such a freeing feeling. I’ve had a birthday, lots of celebrations, and lots of ideas bouncing around my noggin. I’m excited about possibilities. I’m excited about friends. I’m excited about the season. I’m excited about life. What are you excited about today?