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Matthew's avatar

I'm a pantster and I violate many of the conventional story arc rules--"there are no rules in the novel," from How to Read Novels like a Professor by T. Foster among my favorite books on writing. I write with Google Docs, 1 file for each chapter assembled into 1 big file when it's ready for formatting. My must have tool is a full-on Grammarly subscription. I mostly ignore it in the draft phase, but when it's time to edit, it gets used extensively.

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J. B. Velasquez's avatar

Thanks for the book rec. I'll have check it out. I have ProWritingAid, but unfortunately, it doesn't play with Scriv so I just use their in-house spell check and hope for the best.

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Stefanie Barnfather's avatar

Omg, I agree about the plotter vs "pantser" debate. I'm a lot of both, too. And thanks for the Scrivener tips! I've never used it, but maybe I should give it a try. I currently plot/plan/keep-my-pants-firmly-on-the-ground by using a combo of Post-Its and notebooks. Old school style.

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J. B. Velasquez's avatar

Whatever you’re doing it’s working!

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Stefanie Barnfather's avatar

Aw. Thanks. 😊

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Mike Strickland's avatar

As I wrote a while back, we're all pantsers (forgive me for using that word): even following a rigid outline, we're all making it up as we go. "That’s the joy and the hell of writing."

https://stricklandia.substack.com/p/writing-in-the-dark

And yes, Scrivener (and Save the Cat) rocks! 🤘🏻

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J. B. Velasquez's avatar

Agreed!

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