Scrivener versus Word: Spellchecker

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 7 Comments

Since I’ve written about Scrivener before, I wanted to share something I discovered today.

I think Microsoft Word has a better spellchecker.

I ran the spellchecker in Scrivener and found no issues. Just out of curiosity, not sure why, I decided to compile the document as MS Word and then run the spellchecker in MS Word.

MS Word found an error: Barreling.

MS Word wanted to change this to: Barrelling.

I have my software set to Canadian English, hence the difference in spelling. Being cautious, I checked the Oxford English Dictionary, and sure enough barrelling with two r’s and two l’s is the correct form.

Now I’m going to check spelling in both types of software before submitting to my agent.

Anyone else had this problem?

Thanks for reading . . .

For another review of Scrivener, see MQAllen.com.

Farley’s Friday: A Wheaten With Allergies

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

Farley here.

Do any of you other canines suffer from allergies? I do, and they drives me crazy.

One thought is wheat, another is certain types of grass, but my latest theory is turkey. I’ve got American and Canadian humans as part of my extended pack, so on Sunday we celebrated AmeriCanadian Thanks Giving. We do this every year. Of course, I got turkey left overs. Yum Yum and then itch itch.

My next question is how many times can a dog wake a human without them getting annoyed?

Apparently a lot, if the human is Kristina.

I wake her by tapping my nails on the floor. I do this until she gets out of bed and helps me out.

Sometimes she’s a little slow when she’s sleepy, and it took her until the fourth time I woke her to figure out I was itchy and needed a Benadryl.

Now, I’m a floor dog. I don’t sleep on furniture or in the bed, but I think Kristina was so tired and wanted to lie down, that she made me get in the bed. Yup, made me. She lifted me up and then rubbed my belly until I settled down and could sleep. This is me lying on her pillow!

Farley sleeping

Really, do I have her trained or what?

Woof Woof.

Lagoon 308 S2 Watermaker

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

When we first moved onto Mattina, I knew the one item I wanted before we headed offshore was a water maker.

So, Matt got to work and installed a 12 volt Spectra “Cape Horn Extreme.” The unit is installed in the forward deck locker for easy access.

Watermaker

Now, we get 15 gallons per hour of clean water. No trying to find water. No carrying water.  Just turn on the tap and there it is.

We like the reliability and the efficiency.  It only draws one amp per gallon produced.

Mattina comes with a  large shower, so the extra water makes living aboard luxurious.  We don’t have to monitor every drop that comes out of the taps.  I can’t imagine life in the Bahamas without our Spectra water maker.

Thanks for reading . . .

Writing Novels With A Spreadheet

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know I love to write with a spreadsheet. I’m still amazed by how helpful  I find the tool and that I still find new ways to use it.

One of the columns in my spreadsheet lists objects. Originally I put this column in to make sure my scenes weren’t empty sets. I also list smell, sights, and sounds for this purpose.

Sometimes with the objects, I’ll use the object in a later scene. Like an innocent little baseball bat. The list reminds me to check what I’ve placed in an earlier scene and see if I can use it in an inventive and unusual way in a following scene. Like an innocent little baseball bat that’s not so innocent.

I knew all this. What I discovered this week is the object column can also help me find errors.

In one scene I have two characters eating lunch together. I list a fork. Later in the scene, I list a spoon as an object. But wait! I’m writing about the same character eating the same meal, so why has her utensil changed?

I went back in the scene and discovered I’d changed the utensil. Silly, but unnoticed when I read the scene without listing objects.

I love discovering new ways my spreadsheet can help.

Let me know if you use a spreadsheet and how it helps you write.

Thanks for reading . . .

Related articles:

Writing a Series: Spreadsheet

Keeping Track of Scenes

How to Use a Spreadsheet for Your Synopsis

Tips For Ordering Scenes In A Novel

Farley’s Friday: A Wheaten Gets A Bath

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

How does Kristina not understand that I don’t like baths?

Look at me. This is my best pathetic look. Even as a puppy I knew how to look sad.

Farley gets a bath 2009 02 25

Still here we are, almost 5 years later and she’s still giving me baths.

Farley Gets A Bath Palm Coast

She talks about how the organic, chemical free shampoo is good for my skin. It even has oatmeal in it, like I care.

Just because I was running on the beach this morning, she decided I needed to be clean before I got on the boat.

Any advice on how I avoid future baths?

Woof Woof.

Lagoon 380: A freezer Gets Filled

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

Part of getting ready to set sail every year includes filling the freezer with meats – unless you’re a vegetarian, of course – and then you can fill the freezer with other yummy foods.

Our freezer sits underneath the cockpit bench and is easily accessible from just outside the galley. It’s an Engel and runs off both 12 volt and AC current. We run off the battery when we are underway and run off shore power at the dock. There is a small freezer inside our galley refrigerator, but it’s not big enough for the quantity we like to bring with us.

DSC 1664

I’ve learned a thing or two about getting the maximum use out of the space that I’d like to share.

By not freezing the meat prior to storage, the meat uses up less space.  If the meat is frozen first, then you can’t manipulate the shape to pack more in. We store the meat raw while Mattina is plugged in at the dock. This little machine hums away until the meats are frozen solid.

DSC 1665

Warning: layer your  meats so that each row has a choice. Don’t put all the steak at the bottom, for instance.  The freezer has now become a jig saw puzzle and it’s amazing how hard it is to fit a frozen package back in once the pieces have been disturbed. After a while this doesn’t matter, but at first, if you can pick off the top layer without disturbing lower layers, life is much easier.

We also vacuum seal the meat so freezer burn doesn’t ruin the meat.

Now to get to the Bahamas so we can light up the barbecue.

Thanks for reading  . . .

Why Blog About Something You Want To Learn?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

I had a friend in medical school who told me when she was learning a new medical procedure she was taught:

  1. Learn one
  2. Teach one
  3. Do one

I think this process can be applied to learning grammar and punctuation. When I’m unsure about a rule, the first thing I do is check my grammar books and read about it. This is the Learn One phase.

Next, I blog about it. If I can explain the rule, then I probably understand it. This is the Teach One phase. If you’re doing this, be careful to use your own words. Don’t cheat and look at the grammar book for help. You need to be able to explain the rule without any aids. Sometimes I don’t blog about the rule, but I do try to write the rule in my own words. Even if it’s on a scrap piece of paper, it helps me remember the rule.

Lastly, I write using the rule. This is the Do One phase. You can edit and proofread to ensure you’re using the rule properly too. I consider editing part of the Do One phase.

I figure if this is how medical students learn, it must work for other areas of knowledge too.

Do you have any tips for learning?

Thanks for reading . . .

Farley’s Friday: Toys For A Wheaten Terrier

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

Farley here.

Kristina and Matt are getting ready to leave the country for months on end, and there seems to be an endless supply of presents for me.

A delivery person arrives almost daily and gives me a box.

I can hear him coming, step by step, along the dock . . . I can tell by the smell it’s him.

“He’s here. He’s here,” I bark.

Kristina opens the door for me and let’s me greet him. The guy comes so often he knows my name.

He hands over my present. “Thanks,” I bark.

Kristina always takes out whatever is in the box, like I care. But then . . . I get to rip the box apart, making a mess, shredding cardboard. The sound is so satisfying.

Farley and the Box

Once I’m done, I just have to wait until he comes back with my next box. Who knows why I keep getting presents, but Kristina says it’s something about no stores where we are going and we have to get prepared.

Woof Woof.

Farley and box 2

Lagoon 380 Helm Station

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Mattina is a lovely boat that needs protection from the sun. Even though we have a bimini shading the cockpit, we feel more is needed.

As we sail we have direct access to our depth sounder, wind speed and direction indicator, knot metre and a chart plotter with radar screen. Our helm station uncovered, looks like this:

MAttina Helm Instruments

The first part in protecting the instruments from the sun is the instrument covers. These get put on as soon as we are settled in an anchorage or at a dock.

Mattina Helm Instruments cover

The second part of protecting the instruments is our custom-made helm cover. The cover is made of sunbrella that matches the rest of the canvas on Mattina.

Mattina Helm Cover

You can see from the second photo, there are more items than just the instruments that need covering, including the steering wheel.

Thanks for reading . .

As If Subordinating Conjunctions Can Be Confusing

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

Did you know if you want to spend a lifetime learning something, punctuation and grammar can give you the opportunity.

This week while proofreading my  novel, I noticed I wasn’t using ‘as if’ consistently. Sometimes I put a comma before the words and sometimes I didn’t.

I noticed this while I was reading on my Kindle. Last week I blogged about How To Avoid Errors In E-books, and here is one more instance where the new addition to my process helped me. As if!

I looked up ‘as if’ and found out it’s a subordinating conjunction. I knew this but had forgotten. Now I know the rules for comma use with ‘if’, another subordinating conjunction, so all I had to do was apply the rule to sentence containing ‘as if.’

The rule, you ask?

A subordinating conjunction joins two clauses of unequal importance. If the clause containing the subordination conjunction comes before the main clause then follow the clause with a comma. If it doesn’t, don’t.

  • As if he could stop the bleeding with his eyes, he stared at the knife impaling his calf. (subordinating conjunction before main clause)
  • He stared at the knife impaling his calf as if he could stop the bleeding with his eyes. (subordinating conjunction after main clause)

Attention to detail is a must when writing a novel, but how can you do that if you don’t know the rules? This brings me back to the lifetime of studying idea.

Keep on the look out for areas in your writing where you’re not consistent and you might find areas where you don’t know the rules. Grammar: How to Learn What You Don’t Know gives another idea on learning grammar.

How do you figure out what you don’t know?

Thanks for reading . . .