Beginning in October of 2020, you won’t be be able to fly unless you have a REAL ID. After the terror attacks on the U.S. in 9/2001, Congress enacted a law that requires specific types of identification for people to access federal facilities, fly on commercial aircraft that is federally regulated, and to enter nuclear power plants.
In most states, when you present specific types of documentation at the time you obtain or renew your driver’s license, it will be marked with a star as REAL ID-compliant.
I attended the New England Crime Bake last month for the second year in a row. Once again, I came home with the BEST advice and innumerable insights that have helped me immeasurably with my writing.
This year, one of the panelists at a workshop I attended, a multi-published author, mentioned that she uses Scrivener to write her books and wouldn’t consider writing a book using any other tools/software. I checked the software out, was impressed, and downloaded the free trial.
What appealed to me about the software was its claims that I could not only write my book in the software, I could also keep all my research notes, photos, resources, resource URLs, etc. in the same program AND refer to them while I was writing. Here’s why this appealed to me, and why I didn’t hesitate to spend the very reasonable $49 fee for a license to the product (which I can download on multiple devices):
I’d been writing my books (and all my works in progress) in Microsoft Word
I’d been keeping all my story notes, research, resources, images, URLs, etc. in Microsoft OneNote
I had to keep 2 programs open all the time when I was writing (or plotting, or researching), and switch back and forth between them (when traveling, or working on my laptop, this proved to be a difficult task–especially with respect to way saved my files in the cloud and had my syncing between devices set up)
There was a little learning curve once I started using Scrivener, but that was shortened immensely by the fact that I read the entire manual while I had the program open before I began doing anything with it. (I didn’t bother reading the fourth section of the manual Final Phases, until after I’d been using the software for a while.)
I absolutely ADORE Scrivener. One of my favorite things about it is I can write each scene separately. Sure, if I want to write each chapter with all its scenes intact, I can do that, too. But if something comes to me and I just want to write, I have that flexibility. All the scenes, chapters, folders, etc. are kept in a Binder that shows in a navigation pane. I can move anything around by simply clicking and dragging.
For those of you who HAVE to outline and write in order, Scrivener lets you do that. For those of you who write organically, you can just write scenes and then stitch them together later. And for those of you like me, who outline AND write organically depending upon the moment … and the characters it’s wonderful.
You can use Scrivener with Microsoft and Mac, and you can easily export the files of your choice into any of the following formats: DOC, DOCX, PDF, RTF, TXT, ODT, HTML, XHTML, PS, EPUB, MOBI, MMD, FODT, OPML, and TEX.
Do any of you use it? If so, tell me what you do and don’t like about it? If you don’t use it, check it out!
Texting is a form of risky, or distracted driving. Experts say that when you’re sending or receiving a text, the average length of time your eyes are off the road is 5 seconds.
Five seconds doesn’t sound like a long time. And maybe it isn’t. But taking your eyes off the road for 5 seconds while you text is the equivalent of driving your car at 55 mph, the entire length of a football field … blindfolded!
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has a webpage devoted to Risky Driving, just in case you’re interested in statistics about any of the following activities: distracted driving, drowsy driving, speeding, seat belt use, or driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Here’s a link to a recent article that lists the 10 states with the toughest texting while driving laws: https://bit.ly/38BqlNg
Beginning in October of 2020, you won’t be be able to fly unless you have a REAL ID. After the terror attacks on the U.S. in 9/2001, Congress enacted a law that requires specific types of identification for people to access federal facilities, fly on commercial aircraft that is federally regulated, and to enter nuclear power plants.
