Walking and Writing

Several things have occurred since I began walking regularly in June, all of them beneficial. My blood pressure, blood sugar and heart rate are all lower. Although I haven’t dropped much weight, I feel energized and I am getting more work done lately. My walking has provided another benefit, one I never expected.

I have four writing projects going and recently finished the first draft of my new novel Bones of Skeleton Creek. I had pushed hard to finish the book, not allowing myself to spend much time correcting grammar or spelling. I didn’t even have Word’s grammar and spell checker turned on. When I finished the first draft, I began reading, almost immediately finding passages, paragraphs, and sometimes entire chapters that needed mending.

I try to walk about five kilometers every day, except Thursdays when I have a few beers at the pub with the boys. What I have happily found is that sometime during the course of my walk, ideas for ways to improve my story almost always occur. My writing isn’t the only thing to benefit. I also seem to solve business problems more readily while walking.

For all you writers out there, I have found two writing programs on the web. I am using both programs and I’m happy to report that they are both wonderful. Amazingly, both programs are free. They are yWriter5 and Celtx.

YWriter5 is a novel writing program that will do practically everything except type the book for you. Not quite, but it is very powerful and will assist you in building a story from scratch, or help you make your draft of a novel better.

Celtx is a screenwriting program that will do anything the expensive programs will do. This powerful program even has a storyboard feature. So does yWriter5, by the way. Here are links to Celtx and yWriter5.

I also found a great book for aspiring screenwriters called Save the Cat. The title sounds strange, but the book by screenwriter Blake Snyder is excellent. Get the programs, get the book, and then get to walking and writing.

Louisiana Mystery Writer