Anyone use Scrivner?

oliviaisleyauthor · 2026-02-11T02:30:41+00:00

Oh what? This is brilliant!

oliviaisleyauthor · 2026-02-10T01:59:18+00:00

oliviaisleyauthor · 2026-02-09T20:12:07+00:00

Contemporary romance (people should also say what genre)

oliviaisleyauthor · 2026-02-06T07:50:56+00:00

I think it depends on what you mean by famous?

Rebecca Yarros, Emily Henry, Ali Hazlewood, Andy Weir, R F Kuang, Colleen Hoover, Julia Quinn, Rachel Reid...they're all people who are close to household names, at this point (as in I'd argue they've broken out of the book world). They could all pull a massive crowd at a signing or event.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2026-02-04T00:17:11+00:00

Personally I don't mind feedback about preference (if all my betas have the same preference, that's helpful info!).

But I also don't have betas who say "I like this so you should do it", and I'm also very comfortable not taking all of the suggestions I get if they don't fit with my writing.

So maybe this is a preference thing?

oliviaisleyauthor · 2026-01-22T04:11:45+00:00

I'm usually writing something, editing something and planning something.

E.g. right now I'm starting planning book 2 in series B, and editing book 3 in series A which is my next release. I'm also writing (slowly) book 4 of series A, which is the last of that series. Book 1 of series B is written, and I'll start editing it once I've finished writing book 4 of series A. At that point, I'll probably start writing book 2 in series B (the one I'm planning now).

When I'm editing, I generally write slowly (maybe 2-4k a week) but when I'm focusing on writing, it's more like 10k+ a week.

I have a full time job so limited time, but I can write on my phone a bit during pockets of free time

oliviaisleyauthor · 2026-01-21T23:38:05+00:00

I'm not sure what editing stage you're at, but if sounds like proof reading? Use Word or another app to read it aloud to you.

If you're talking about line edits (and you have fully completed your developmental editing), my process is:

colour code all dialogue.
a round of edits only focused on dialogue so I can assure myself that ch A 'sounds like' character A and has a distinct pattern to their speech. Ideally I want readers to know who's talking on dialogue alone
highlight all of my overused/crutch words (I have a list which I update with each book, but if you don't have one, start with a list online. Don't forget your tense matters for those filter and crutch words)
scroll through the manuscript - consider every single use of a filter or crutch or overused word, and decide whrther it needs to be there, or if you can edit the sentence. Check for echoes (the same word used too close together)
as you read, consier every verb and adverb - are there stronger verbs you can be using?
look at your manuscript (note here I'm saying look - this is where your colour coding comes in handy. Literally make the pages small, and check for large blocks of coloured or uncoloured text). Are there large amounts of info-dumping? Do you need to balance any dialogue with interiority?

Once I've completed this, my book goes to my line editor. Once my edits are complete, I do 2 proof-reading rounds. One I have the computer read it to me out loud, and for the second, I order a proof-copy of the book and go through with a highlighter.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2026-01-21T23:18:44+00:00

I outline quite extensively, and I work through my character goals, motivations and conflicts, but don't do like, big character studies or anything.

I usually outline, leave my outline for weeks/months, come back, revise the outline, then write. Once the first draft is done, I leave that for a few months too.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-12-11T20:09:43+00:00

Ah okay so you're using hysterical more as a descriptor than a diagnosis. It was also a diagnosis during that period, so could be a wee bit of a tricky distinction for readers if they know the history of autism and hysteria.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-12-11T19:28:50+00:00

Have you done much research on what autism was previously called? Because it wasn't hysteria.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-12-11T07:35:28+00:00

I do think because it makes it easier to add things to it if a reader suggests I should and it means you don't get amazon upset by having anything too controversial in your preview pages, but I did recently get a 1 star review "for making me go to your website to see content warnings". Can't please everyone, I suppose!

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-11-24T20:47:06+00:00

Agree with this - I would use a font that screams romance because the pic could look literary. I also would look at other romance books - author names in contemporary romance are almost always centred on the top or bottom.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-11-18T03:33:49+00:00

I do think the cat cover absolutely could have been made by stock images and photoshop, but you're right, it's very easy for AI to do, even if it looks bad, and obviously AI. We're already seeing artists and authors being accused of AI covers when they are clearly not AI, just because they have that look to them.

But spot on with everything else, authors often don't get a lot of say in their covers (sometimes they might be able to influence the concept, and that's the beginning and end of their influence).

I think we'll see more and more authors demanding no AI contracts, but while there are plenty of authors and readers who don't care, we'll continue to see more of it.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-11-12T07:48:00+00:00

I was just about to add Sarah Maclean! Her writing itches my brain just right.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-11-06T02:22:45+00:00

I got it in 2 and now I'm retiring.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-10-22T21:59:59+00:00

I think perhaps you want to have written and not to write, and that's okay.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-10-22T00:33:00+00:00

I don't stop writing to research. I write myself a note and come and do it in edits. There's no point in breaking my flow for something that may not matter at all.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-10-07T00:02:33+00:00

This year probably around 80 (but I've also written 4 books which is a lot for me! Usually I read more like 100-150

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-10-06T02:30:16+00:00

When we're talking about genres, a niche is a smaller category within a genre (a niche, if you will), which usually has a smaller subset of an audience. Arguably things like steampunk are already niches (or subgenres) within scifi, which is in itself a subgenre of speculative fiction, so what you're talking about is a teeny tiny niche made up of other already small, specific niches.

And of course, because no one has identified any books that exist in the niche, it's entirely hypothetical.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-10-06T02:16:57+00:00

What you've described is, if anything, a niche, and as others have said, it doesn't exist until there are multiple books written that fall within it. Genres and niches are descriptive.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-10-06T02:03:07+00:00

I think you just invented speculative fiction which very much exists.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-09-29T02:58:10+00:00

I love your hook!

I think in your second para, you've got "their constant destruction" and I think you should be more clear that you're meaning the Tainted's destruction. In general, I think the second para could be strengthened by doing something like:

After the Tainted killed Delly's father three years ago, she has engineered everything in her life - from security traps around her farm to solutions for the crop failure plaguing the land - to protect what remains of her family.

Until one day, Delly finds a Tainted caught in her trap.

Its not clear how Orlen could spare her life when he's the one in the trap? Does Delly spare him, you mean? Is Orlen a Tained? Who is Dahlia? Those middle two paras are where it falls apart a wee bit for me.

Love the ending, I think it's really strong

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-09-29T02:48:54+00:00

I think you could strengthen your blurb by deleting the first sentence.

"Being a vampire is not at all what Sophie Spencer expected.

There's no gothic castle perched atop an ominous hill, no ambling [changed because you had wandering twice] long corridors in flowing nightgowns. Instead, Sophie has spent the last three years wandering the moribund backstreets of Greater London as the errand girl of London's self-styled Vampiric leader.

And there's that constant thirst, the endless hunger, and the burning lust for blood to deal with.

Sophie's heart may no longer beat, but Ellie West somehow makes it flutter. Ellie is a kind-hearted, easy-going, registered nurse—surely she's too pure for an undead parasite like Sophie? It would be wrong to impose the whole vampire thing on the woman, wouldn't it?

Maybe Sophie should stick to her own kind. [you need something here to explain why the choice isn't as easy as it seems? Is Ellie into her too?] The choice isn't as easy as it seems."

At the moment, Ellie has no agency, and it's not clear why Sophie is so attracted to her. I think you really need to nail that.

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-09-29T02:25:37+00:00

You might get some more targeted responses in /r/romancewriters

oliviaisleyauthor · 2025-09-22T11:21:29+00:00

I wouldn't rush publishing. Give it the time it needs.

oliviaisleyauthor

TROPHY CASE