The Feb 25 meeting was a presentation about the application called SCRIVENER. Below please find a commentary/summary relating to the meeting.
A word of thanks and recognition
Thank you, each of you, for attending yesterdays meeting. You confirm that this is a special group of intelligent, creative, energetic writers wanting to improve our skills and expertise by being open to more learning. Amazing and inspiring.
SCRIVENER PROs
Thank you Howard for your presentation showing us how powerful and comprehensive SCRIVENER is as a management tool for writing. It goes far beyond any writing app such as WORD. Using the WORD familiarity, we can see SCRIVENER gives writers the capability of writing all kinds of “post it” notes and sticking them all over the work. More than that, it helps a writer keep things in manageable organization with use of folders, notes, symbols and colors to keep items ordered in a visual way like notes on a corkboard.
CONs
SCRIVENER is amazingly powerful. Hence, it has a steep learning curve if one wants to maximize its potential. This can be very draining on a writer’s energy and that can impact negatively on the total energy a writer has for doing their work.
A writer like J.K. Rowling writes using long hand and legal pads. All her energy and creativity is focussed on her writing. To redirect any of that energy from her focus would be detrimental to her writing. Some of our WAG members are of that philosophy and we can understand and appreciate that kind of outlook.
Others of the WAG members are curious and open to exploring ways they might improve their work processes. A commendable philosophy also.
SCRIVENER, however, demands much energy and effort to working alongside of your own writing. Ultimately, it may prove its value as an organizational tool but one must recognize it demands much of you before it will be seen as having worthwhile return on the investment of energy to develop your skills with it.
Bottom line on SCRIVENER
Be prepared to devote a lot of energy and time to learning it. Its full value and benefits will only be realized after much effort.
The days ahead for WAG
We should consider our next meeting, Mar. 25th, to be a “business meeting” where we discuss “the Good, the Bad and the Ugly” about our WAG meetings. We need to be clear in our focus and our energy devotion.
There are many technology aspects that need attention, exploration, and consideration. However, not all of us are interested in technology. There are those among us who see writing as an energy demanding endeavour and to divert that energy means impacting negatively on their output.
However, each of the WAG members is very open-minded, never discarding the opportunity of learning more about ways to improve themselves as writers. A tremendously commendable philosophy that many people reject thinking they know enough and do not want to even consider there is a possibility of improvement. Our members are far more open-minded.
From yesterday’s meeting, there is a desire to get more help, to learn more, to discover ways to improve skills and enhance creativity. In that light, it seems like what we need is more exposure to how writers think, how they operate, how they work, the tools they use, and how technology can help. Obviously, saying all that is merely scratching the surface of our needs. A word of caution: energy must be focused on doing the work rather than on how the work is done.
Still, knowing how others work can only be more arrows in the quiver, more ammunition in the arsenal. Given that, may I suggest we set the agenda for the Mar 25th meeting as a discussion of where we want to go, what do we want to explore.
I have copied some of the suggested presentations and number them for convenience only for the upcoming months to help you in your consideration.
MAR 25: OPEN AGENDA TO EVALUATE “WAG ASSOCIATION”
- SCAPPLE and MIND MAPPING, Richard
- PUBLISHING (SELF vs COMMERCIAL) – Eva H.
- SOCIAL MEDIA-GINGER K.,
- ILLUSTRATORS-PETA-GAYE contact
- MEDIA KITS, Dennis, G.
- “HOW I WORK” ( 2-3 writers per session)
Clarification of where WAG is presently
WAG has the potential of helping each of us tremendously. The potential benefits are becoming very evident and much is to be gained my investing the hour or so each month in getting together. Just hearing the discussion confirms that we have very polished, intelligent writers doing a lot of creative work and learning how they do it can benefit each of us.
My final word is again a word of appreciation. Thank you for your time, your commitment and your support of this endeavour. The project was created with this kind of benefit in mind, that every member grows from the knowledge gained by meeting with this group. This WAG is an amazing group and I am privileged to have you continue to support and work here.
Best,
Richard
