Distraction!

Uh Oh. On the way to my way to revision, I found myself with a big roadblock. A fun, intriguing, often baffling one, well worth my time, so I'm saying.

I was making such good progress with the Cheryl Klein notes from my evening at her revision workshop. 

Yes, it was getting harder. After printing out the revision in a new font, I was to read it without marking it up, noting the good stuff and the bad stuff. Then I was to list the first ten things each significant character says or does. Fun! I like this so far!

Then Cheryl's handout sheet says run the plot checklist at cherylklein.com.

Still good, though getting harder.

But wait!

I was just about to change my font and print out the entire revision when I got a message on Facebook that the writing software, Scrivener, had a new deal (big savings if you are participating in NaNoWriMo and complete the word count!) and an upgrade. I'd tried Scrivener before and gotten totally bogged down with the complicated bells and whistles. This time, I listened to the easy tutorial that hit the high spots and I gave it a whirl. 

No, it's not going to help with word choice, characterization, or the voice of your novel (BTW, I love how Cheryl Klein defines voice: "Kind of like air- hard to talk about..."),  but it's a neat way to organize.

Before Scrivener, I was a huge fan of stickie notes. I had a zillion legal pads, multiple versions on my computer, in a word-- a mess (but I do kind of like those Frida Kahlo stickies my friend Ivy gave me for my birthday):

Now I'm wrestling this revision into shape. If I don't get bogged down again with all the bells and whistles. So far, I'm a huge fan of Scrivener. 

Now if I could just figure out how to change the color of those pushpins...

Soon I'll get back to my notes from the excellent Revision Workshop. More to come, at a later blogpost.

But now I'm busy adding more notecards.