Hello everyone!
Welcome to another month of IWSG – a database resource site and support group for writers and authors. Featuring weekly guests and tips, a monthly blogfest gathering, a Facebook group, a book club, and thousands of links – all to benefit writers!
I’d like to add the link to a recent article on the website by literary agent Mary Kole, that I found very useful. You can read it here.
Before I move to this month’s question, I’d like to share with fellow members that I’ve been shortlisted for the Rama Mehta Writing Grant 2024. I’d been waiting for this news since April. Having stayed away from writing for most part of the last year due to my personal life taking precedence over everything else, I am very happy to get back with this news.
The Rama Mehta Grant is given to unpublished women writers in four languages- English, Hindi, Urdu, and Rajasthani. To apply, you have to submit a short story based on a theme. Ten writers are then shortlisted, who are invited to attend a four-day writing workshop in Udaipur, Rajasthan. In the second part of the grant, one author from each language is chosen for a cash prize. I am excited to attend the retreat and learn from some fine Indian authors.
Rama Mehta was an Indian sociologist and writer, who won the Sahitya Akademi Award (an Indian literary honour conferred upon writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit) for her book Inside the Haveli.
And now, over to this month’s question.
What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, yWriter, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And which one is your all time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write?
I was always a ‘Word’ person until a friend introduced me to Scrivener. It took me a while to get used to it, but I love it now, for the ease of access. I do not have to go crazy hunting for my stories, or chapter names, or character outlines anymore. In short, Scrivener is a great organizer, and that’s my favourite part of it. I also like its templates. I can save my research material in it, so that I do not have to go back and forth as I write. If anyone is planning to use Scrivener, there’s only one disadvantage I would say- it takes a while to get the hang of it. A little more than that, actually!
After Scrivener, I prefer the good, old Word Document for my blog posts and few first drafts. It is user-friendly and offers some basic assistance tools.
How about you? Which writing softwares do you use/recommend?
The awesome co-hosts for the July 3 posting of the IWSG are JS Pailly, Rebecca Douglass, Pat Garcia, Louise-Fundy Blue, and Natalie Aguirre!
Thank you for co-hosting.
If you’d like to join the IWSG, please sign up here.
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Many congratulations and I would love to read a piece on what your experience was like.
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Oh, how nice. Good luck and enjoy!
Charlotte (MotherOwl)
PS- coming from Olga Godim’s blog and the discussion of pop-ups, the one in the lower right hand corner if your blog is a nuisance.
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Hi Sonia, and congratulations for being shortlisted.
Personal life has a way of taking over, sometimes out of the blue. Prioritising writing becomes impossible.
My IT brain husband isn’t being cruel, just encouraging me to be less of a dino…
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Hi,
Congratulations!!! That is an honor, and I am sure you will enjoy it.
I agree, Scrivener does have a steep learning curve but I will give it another try.
Take care.
Shalom shalom
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Woohoo! Well done, Sonia, that’s fantastic. Perhaps now you will be encouraged back to your writing, knowing that you have what it takes 🙂
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Wonderful news! Congratulations on being shortlisted. Have a great time at that workshop.
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Congratulations, Sonia! How exciting! I hope that you have a great time at the conference, and may you earn a grant. Happy IWSG Day!
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Thank you!
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Congratulations on the possible grant! It sounds like an amazing opportunity.
I dabbled with Scrivener but probably gave up to early. So for now, it’s Word for me.
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How exciting that you’re up for that grant! Huge congrats to you, Sonia.
https://cleemckenziebooks.substack.com/p/something-new-this-way-comes
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Wonderful news about the Grant – all the best for going all the way 🙂
I’m in that place with Scrivener at the moment. I believe it will be what I need long term, but the investment of time and energy is great. Especially when Word works…
Debs posting today from Fiction Can Be Fun
Also found at Debs Despatches
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Congratulatons!!!
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Thank you, Rajani.
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Congrats on being short-listed for the grant. Fingers crossed for you that you win.
I know a lot of people like Scrivener, but I’ve just stuck to Word.
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That is awesome about the grant! At the very least, you will learn a ton from the retreat. But here’s hoping you go all the way and win.
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