Love Learning with Lynda.com - Part 1

I continue to become more self-sufficient as a writer and publisher.  I also am embracing more cloud-based subscription services as part of my street team.  I am now using Adobe Creative Cloud, Evernote, Dropbox, Chicago Manual of Style Online, and Lynda.com for quickly building my skills.

Being an author can be a lonely job.  If you sign on with a traditional publisher, they provide skills to help with editing, technical formatting, publishing and promotion.  I self-published my first book, Still Stupid at Sixty without knowing much at all.  Wrote it in Word, had a friend help edit using Track Changes and used Calibre to convert and upload in Kindle format to Amazon.  My wife and one of her friends helped solve a few technical formatting issues.

But Wine Sense, my current work-in-progress has already taken ten times the effort, will be printed in both physical and electronic format and published in Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, iTunes, Smashwords and Blurb minimally.  Still Stupid at Sixty was only published through Amazon.  Wine Sense also has about 40 photographs, charts, diagrams and other images plus 'fun facts' inserted throughout.  Still Stupid at Sixty had none.  Wine Sense references work from 20 other books and publications requiring significant footnoting, end-noting and bibliography efforts to source other work properly.

I have had a massive learning curve converting to Scrivener as an writing management system, and learning HTML and CSS to provide more control over final output when ePublishing.  I decided enough was enough and needed help with the complexities of laying out format design and typesetting.  I asked someone whose work I had seen before and in total would have charged me about $3,000 to do everything - once!  I was worried about how many changes I might have and how the cost could rise significantly before the project was complete.

During this time, I was exploring taking more control end-to-end over the writing, editing, and publishing process.  No matter how much I researched and analyzed alternatives, I kept coming back to Adobe Creative Cloud as the platform that gave me everything I needed beyond using Scrivener for writing and editing.  It also meant I did not need to spend as much time within Scrivener on structuring and defining the Compile function for final publication.  I could use Scrivener for what it was intended and used InDesign to easily lay out final formatting.

But I knew the Adobe product suite has a major learning curve.  These are very high-end apps that provide you ultimate control to do exactly what you need.  The also require a great deal of training, practice and experience for any of the apps.  I was going to learn InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop all at the same time.  Plus I was still learning HTML, CSS and Javascript, and expanding my Wordpress skills!  And to validate content for my new writing projects on writing processes and technology, I also was now working across both Windows and Mac platforms and learning Mac OS in addition to the new Windows 8 and 8.1.

I signed up for Adobe Creative Cloud and started playing around.  I watched videos from the Adobe Learning channel and YouTube.  I bought some books on using the apps.  Over three weeks, I made virtually no progress at all.  I looked to local technical schools to find some courses, but they cost around $700, where targeted to mass market appeal, and did not provide suitable times or locations for me as I work a full-time job.  I tried finding a couple of tutors, but with little result.  I needed to learn a lot and I needed to learn very quickly.

Then several people over the course of a week, suggested Lynda.com.  I checked it out and was intrigued.  You could sign up for as long as you like, terminate when you like, and take as much training as you can possibly fit in.  They also offered a 7-day free trial to test it out.  I signed up for the trial, but after two days, knew I would be subscribing permanently as the results were far greater than I could have possibly imagined.  I could establish my own training program in a structured manner according to my needs, my level of expertise and in accordance to the time I could spend.  It proved to be the most efficient us of of my time.  Within 6 weeks, I have become proficient with InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.  Plus I have taken several other courses to improve my overall writing and publishing processes. I was also able to learn some fundamentals for Windows 8 and converting to and using a Mac!

Lynda.com means you learn quickly and  according to your needs, not the needs of a classroom of people, the schools needs or an instructor's needs.  I love Lynda.com and I can tell Lynda.com loves me!  Lynda.com has become a critical part of my writing team and support group!

In Part 2 to be published later this week, I will explain the various options available, and how and why Lynda.com helps you love learning!


Steve Shipley
SAZ in the Cellar Facebook page
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My wine blog SAZ in the Cellar
Still Stupid at Sixty (published under my writing pseudonym Blake Stevens)
Steve Shipley Pinterest Boards

My journey to the Adobe Creative Cloud for design and publishing

I have become fascinated by the technology to support writing and publishing.  My first book Still Stupid at Sixty (published under the pseudonym Blake Stevens) was written in Microsoft Word and converted into Amazon Kindle format using Calibre.  That is how easy it is to self-publish these days.  Anyone who can type claims they are an author these days, including me!

But my current book Wine Sense is a different matter.  It will be published electronically and as a physically printed book.  It is almost twice the size at 125,000 words or the equivalent of roughly 350 pages based on format.  It will contain almost forty photographs, multicolored tables, and a couple of QR Codes to link to videos.  I researched over twenty other wine books and multiple research papers, therefore requiring numerous citations for the original source.  The total effort involved is estimated to be ten times what was required for my first book.

I started to use a cloud-based approach in order to work more appropriately across multiple platforms.  The apps used included Dropbox and Evernote on my laptop, iPad, and iPhone, along with some ongoing collaboration with my wife's desktop computer.  It also included converting from using a word processor to using a real writing management system called Scrivener which tripled my productivity for addressing a more complex project such as Wine Sense.  And I learned some basic HTML and CSS to have more direct control over the final formatting of the book in electronic format so it would work properly across multiple devices and eReaders..

It is still my intent to still involve a support team, especially a graphic designer.  While I am somewhat innovative and creative when it comes to systems and technical problem solving, I lack creative visual design skills.  However, the more and more I worked to develop and optimize an integrated writing and publishing workflow, the more I fell in love with computers and technology again.  I wanted the ability to work collaboratively with my graphic designer and editor in an interactive and back-and-forth manner without having to pay designer for multiple changes in final layout.  Nor did I want to pay heavily for small tweaks to a basic layout design when I could do that myself.

Therefore I started to study and become more intrigued with some of the freeware tools to manipulate photos and other images.  My initial reaction is that the Adobe products were too high-end and too expensive.  I felt I had neither the budget nor the capabilities or experience to utilize these products.  But then I found out about Adobe Creative Cloud which includes Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver and about twenty other products for publishing and it was all for $49 per month if I signed up for one year.  I took two months reviewing strategies, continuing to optimize my writing workflows, and thinking about the commitment of time required.  Ultimately, I felt the $600 or so I would spend per year was well worth it in terms of what I would save by reducing the charges from graphic designers  and much more in the time it was taking fiddling around with integrating and trying to get precisely what I wanted from the freeware apps available.

So I have committed to the Adobe Creative Cloud.  Be aware that these products are extremely high end and have a very steep learning curve.  The products have matured over 25 years and they have thousands of features and thousands of different ways for doing things.  Some of the keyboard shortcuts require the use of three different keys and a mouse click!  These apps require some serious investment in time to become proficient.  I have read books, viewed online videos by Adobe, and tried to play around with the apps myself.  What is really getting me up to speed though is the tutorials I am taking with Lynda.com.  This is a great training site to provide training in many different areas including outstanding training courses and videos for the Adobe Creative Cloud product suite.

While the tools take some getting used to, they provide amazing capabilities to do exactly what you want.  It takes years to become a professional in just one of them and I am trying to come up to speed on four of them quickly.  But I am certain the savings in time and money for my current book and many books in the future is worth it.  While this approach works for me, I understand it may not work for everyone.  But if you need to have high-end design and want control over what you are doing, then the Adobe Creative Cloud is worth considering.  And if you want to learn the Adobe apps as quickly as possible, I would recommend signing up for Lynda.com.


Steve Shipley
SAZ in the Cellar Facebook page
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My wine blog SAZ in the Cellar
Steve Shipley Pinterest Boards

Scrivener and Evernote - a perfect pair

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post on how Scrivener has more than tripled my writing productivity.  I continue to optimize my writing workflow daily as I become more comfortable with Scrivener.  While most of my writing productivity gains are from Scrivener, they also come from the integration of several other tools, such as iThoughtsHD for mind mapping a new book outline (and key points / notes) on my iPad.  I then export the mind map in OPML format to Dropbox to sync with my laptop for importation as OPML into Scrivener.  It works beautifully!

I also use Scrivener Compile to ePub, then use an ePub editor Sigil to make final HTML formatting changes for a very few things the way I like it beyond what I been able to figure out in Scrivener.

But outside of Scrivener itself, it is Evernote used in conjunction with Scrivener that provides the biggest productivity improvement.  For my current non-fiction book, Wine Sense, I researched over twenty different books on wine, including both physically printed books, and books in Kindle mobi format.  I also used some PDF files in my research.  Previously, I was tagging my physical books with Post-it stickers and highlighting my Kindle books and then reviewing my notes on the Amazon Cloud.  My notes (and my thoughts) were all over the place.  Plus I would have to put in significant effort to source and provide accurate citation for quotes and direct references to others work.  This on its own was going to be a tremendous effort.  I frankly was getting to the point of wondering if it would be possible to finish the book .  And I still had about eight of my most complex books to research!

Taking notes in Evernote on iPad

So I starting using Evernote and created a Note called 'Wine book to-dos' to capture everything I was doing outside of just writing in Scrivener.  It also let me 'tag' and source immediately upon reading any note I thought I may reference later.  Once synced with my laptop, I enter Evernote on the laptop and cut and paste all my notes into a work Binder in Scrivener.

Notes on iPad Evernote now sync'ed to laptop Evernote

These notes can have anything to do with my research or just be random thoughts (such as "Should I use the word 'mouthfeel' or two words 'mouth feel' in the book?") which may be added to my general editing to-do Binder.  Therefore, whenever copying in my notes, I always first copy the notes into a Scrivener Binder entitled 'Evernote In-Box To-Dos.'

Notes from Evernote copied into 'Evernote In-Box To-Dos' Binder in Scrivener

Once I copied the notes from Evernote into my Scrivener 'Evernote In-Box To-Dos' Binder, I then delete the notes from Evernote on laptop (which then syncs and deletes them from my 'Wine book to-do' note on the iPad also.  Then I start the process again as needed.

One of the great things about Scrivener is the ability to establish non-manuscript Binders and I have a Folder of 'To-Dos' including To-Do Binders for a wide variety of things required to turn my writing into a finished work.  Instead of accumulating (or worse, forgetting) these tasks, they are now integrated into my workflow in an organized manner.  Therefore, I am managing my work and doing it in the most efficient manner possible.  And one of these Binders is the one I created for Evernote as described above.

Then from my 'Evernote In-Box To-Dos' Binder, I copy out specific notes as required into the Chapters (represented as separate Binders in Scrivener), to be dealt with when I was either initially structuring, writing, or substantiating (by validating or reinforcing the content of my writing with specific points).  In this case, the note encircled in red is copied into Chapter 7: Wine and Smell (as are most of the notes in this collection of Evernote notes are).  I parse out the notes based on their intended use.  Since I was reading about wine and smell, in this case most of the notes are being copied into my Notes associated with Chapter 7: Wine and Smell.

Original Notes on Wine and Smell now in Notes for Chapter 7 to be dealt with when rewriting later

Therefore, from the very first time I research a topic, I am able to trace the concept into where it should reside in the book with proper sourcing and citation (to be able to easily build the Bibliography and Footnotes).  Using this process, I was comfortable that I had researched and had the content I required to address the topic of my book and that I would be properly sourcing my material. This was done in one integrated workflow, instead of previously having multiple, non-linked workflows that I was always trying to keep consistent.

I had to cut and paste between Evernote and Scrivener, but this was very easy to do.  My next step in optimizing this work flow will be to write a script using specific Evernote Note name ('Wine book to-dos' in this case) and Scrivener Binder name ('Evernote In-Box To-Dos' in this case) to export the Evernote note as a .rtf file and then open my Scrivener Project and import the .rtf file into the Binder defined.  But this process is so easy to do manually, that I do not have a great deal of incentive to write the script!

I know a number of authors who love using Evernote and Scrivener together.  You may have thought about using Evernote with Scrivener, but uncertain about how it would work.  If that is the case, then hopefully this post has helped show you one method of using the two apps together for improving your writing work flow.  The only think I love more than Scrivener is using Scrivener with Evernote!

Steve Shipley
SAZ in the Cellar Facebook page
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My wine blog SAZ in the Cellar
Steve Shipley Pinterest Boards

Writing code helps writing words

Early in my career, the only writing I did was code.  I was an IBM mainframe and early IBM PC coder, mostly in Assembler and COBOL.  I also wrote IBM PC BIOS routines and screen drivers for Louts 123.  And I was good at it.  At the time, I could not write a lick of English.  I learned to write the hard way, as an adult and as a necessity for my job and my career.

I was truly fortunate to have some mentors who appreciated the technical skills I could bring to consulting and helping clients and they took the time to teach me to write and present.  I learned a great deal from following the Barbara Minto style of pyramid writing which is fundamental to consultants who worked at McKinsey and Booz among others.

I lost touch with my technical roots though, as I started managing technology more.  I taught others how to deliver technology, extract value from technology, and I sold technology solutions.  But it has been some 25 years since I did hard-core coding.  I am getting back into that now and (1) loving it, and (2) learning that it helps with my 'word writing.'  Coding is just another language with grammar rules, structure, etc.  But it is far more precise - no slang, no alliteration, and no mistakes allowed!  But as with writing a story or a non-fiction book, you do require an outline and a structure, and you do need to develop the plot and scenes and characters.  They just take the form of procedures and subroutines and definitions of style.  And you need to have a good eye for copy-editing.  It has renewed my push for perfection when writing words, and provided some discipline to my writing process.

I got back into coding about three months ago.  Originally it was so I could tweak some simple HTML statements to modify ePUB files to enhance simple formatting issues in the final text and to provide hyperlinks that were not provided within the Windows platform of Scrivener (even though they are available on the Mac version).  Then I started to play around with Wordpress and blog posts by switching from the Visual Mode for writing blog posts the the Text Mode (where you are presented the blog in HTML format.  Again, it was to start to get a bit more control over the final editing and formatting.

But the big breakthrough for me came when I realized that by taking more control at the HTML level at the end of the formatting and publishing cycle, that I could continue to do revisions without having to pay for 'professionals' to finalize things for me and then pay them again when I made changes later.  I will still use professional graphic designers for the final output, but I will be much closer to completion when I turn things over.  It has also allowed me to create templates and experiment with templates to continue to improve the quality of output and the manner in which I work and then use that at the beginning of the writing cycle without having to worry about what it will technically look like at the end.

However, I was not expecting that it would improve my word writing discipline and process as much as it has.  I started with the technology to improve the writing process and it certainly has accomplished that.  But it has also improved my writing and my approach to writing.  There is not that much difference, no more than there is between writing erotic fiction, historical fiction or non-fiction:  Coding is just another genre of writing!

It may not work for everyone, and in fact, may be a large distraction from actual writing for many.  I benefited from having been an accomplished coder earlier in life.  But I know a few other authors who are getting into their coding and I expect they will be better writers because of it.


Steve Shipley
SAZ in the Cellar Facebook page
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My wine blog SAZ in the Cellar
Steve Shipley Pinterest Boards

Tripling my writing productivity with Scrivener

First of all, I would not have believe it had you told me prior to using Scrivener that it would be possible to triple my productivity as a writer.  But I am certain that my productivity has increased that much or more.  In addition to Scrivener, I have been using several other tools such as Evernote and Dropbox which have helped also.  But Scrivener on its own is the heart of my writing management workflow now and is the primary reason my productivity has increased so much.

I describe my previous writing process in a blog I wrote recently.  To summarize, I was using Microsoft Word for writing and had a few different to-do lists of activities to finalize the efforts and get ready for publishing.  But my current WIP is much more complex and it is was clear that using Word and a few to-do lists was going to be extremely onerous in terms of bringing this effort to readiness for publication, yet alone to do so with high quality.  Read my previous blog to understand the research I did and why I choose Scrivener.

But where did the productivity from Scrivener emanate from?  How is it possible to see a three- or four-fold improvement?  The productivity gains came from the following areas:

• Scrivener is not just an editor and word processing system, but also a project management system and publishing system
• Scrivener has 'binders' which the manuscript comprises (divided into Parts, Chapters, and Sections as you see fit), but the binders can also be used for non-manuscript tasks (under a section called 'Notes' which means they are not to be included in final publication), for use such as research, to-do folders, links to editing and grammar tools, etc.  This greatly integrated into one file all aspects of the writing process, including content, tasks, links, etc.
• I have multiple Notes binders to keep status of and links to research folders, URLs, etc. so within one window, I can work and swap between all the elements of the writing process
• Each binder has a separate window for notes, comments, thoughts, etc. and there is an overall one at the writing project level (you can toggle between the project and the individual binder [usually a Chapter] sections)
• I can annotate comments, endnotes, footnotes, etc. as I am writing to later build a Bibliography and respective citations which is integrated into my writing and not an onerous task to do later 
• The same is true for my use of photos and 'Fun Fact' insets.  These would be major undertakings later in the process, but now they are integrated into the writing process and a by-product of my writing
• Scrivener provides multiple split windows to keep two different parts of the manuscript on the screen for cross-referencing and being able to cross-check linked sections.  This has saved me a tremendous amount of scrolling back and forth in Word when comparing related sections and ensuring I have placed the content in the appropriate section
• Each binder maintains meta-data used for status, binder type, etc. which helps you understand where you are and to manage the writing process
• I use Evernote and my iPad to take notes, regardless if I am highlighting research in a Kindle book or using post-it notes with a printed book to capture the citation when it is first identified.  These notes then are synched (I do a manual cut and paste) from Evernote into a general binder into Scrivener and then into the individual chapters and section of the book to help me complete my writing or re-writing
• I use Dropbox and Evernote to provide PDF files and other research to study on my iPad and then create notes into Evernote to be loaded back into Scrivener
• Scrivener has sophisticated 'Compile' options to many different formats including ePub, Kindle, RTF, PDF, etc. which can then be tested immediately (using Kindle Previewer) for formatting issues and your final publication can be debugged early on in terms of technical formatting issues

The previous individual tasks and lengthy processes of writing, re-writing, photography, citation, editing, and publishing are integrated into a single workflow which saves a great deal of time.  I have also integrated mind mapping with Scrivener which has worked great, but that is a topic for another blog.  Scrivener supported by Evernote has been a 'close to perfect' set of tools for a significantly improved writing workflow.  It matches perfectly the way I like to work, fits my sense of order and integrates writing with project management to ensure you get the job of writing completed expeditiously.

Without Scrivener, I would probably have to spend another eight to ten months to finish off my current effort for my book, Wine Sense.  As it is now though, I have hopes to finish it by the end of this year.  And if you want to follow the progress on the book and also win a bottle of wine, please follow me on SAZ in the Cellar, either on Facebook or at my wine blog and website!

© 2013 Steve Shipley.

Steve Shipley
SAZ in the Cellar Facebook page
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My wine blog SAZ in the Cellar
Steve Shipley Pinterest Boards