Today's #TuesdayTip is another #ConversationsWithTheirCreations.
The premise is simple - an author conducts an interview with one of their characters. I leave it up to them how they wish to interpret that brief.
​I am thrilled to invite back thriller writer Stuart Field to chat with his latest creation, Ronin Nash.
A former soldier, Stuart now works as an armed security guard. He was born in the West Midlands, and is married with one daughter.
A busy man, he is the author of the John Steel series, soon to number six entries, the new Ronin Nash series, and has just published the first in a new, two-book series, A Friend Of The Family.  ​

My name is Stuart Field, and I am here with Special Agent Ronin Nash. Today we will discuss his life and his latest case, which was documented in my latest novel, Nobody’s Agent; Ronin Nash, thriller book 1.
Me:  So, Ronin, tell us about yourself.
Nash: Hi Stuart, thanks for having me today. Well, my name is Ronin Nash, and I work for a new government agency which is called the Interagency Investigation Bureau. I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland but didn’t stay there long. My father was in the British army, and we moved around a lot. He was in the Black Watch regiment. My mother was born and grew up in Manhattan, New York. Apparently, they got together after a fling they had when he was on R&R from an exercise in Canada.
We finally moved to Manhattan when I was in my teens after my dad retired from the army and bought a bar in Manhattan. Mac’s bar is called. Anyway, I went through college and finally joined the army. After a few years, I joined the Rangers. I was happy enough there, but after a friend was murdered and I investigated, I got snatched up by CID. Things went ok there until a joint op with the FBI; then, I got snatched up by the feds.
Me: Sounds like an exciting life you’ve had. So how come you are with the IIB?
Nash. There were some problems with my last year in the Bureau, namely one of my work colleagues was a dick. There was an incident, and I left. But after about a year, my old boss, soon to be my new one, asked me to join the IIB on one case, and I guess I just decided to stay afterward.
Me: I see you don’t like to dress like the other agents. Is there a reason?’
Nash: I was never much one for rules I felt were…unnecessary. The whole Brooks Brothers costume was not my thing. For one, it made you stand out. Criminals could see you coming a mile off. Besides, I knew it irritated the hell out of people, so it was a win-win in my book.  I like to dress practically, that is why I prefer jeans or chinos to suit pants. Work or military style boots to shiny shoes. When I dress for an investigation, I don’t want to worry if I’m gonna get my pants dirty or scuff my shiny shoes. And you tried running in those shoes? You get blisters.
Me: So, tell us about the case in, Nobody’s Agent.
Nash: It is set in a small town called Finchley. This is in upstate New York near Albany. The sheriff had discovered three bodies, and it was my job as an IIB agent to go there and assess whether it was a case for the cops or the FBI or, indeed, just an accident. As it turned out, there was more waiting for me in Finchley than I first thought.
Me: Well, unfortunately, that is all we have time for. So thanks to Ronin Nash, and to find out more, check out: www.amazon.co.uk/Nobodys-Agent-Stuart-Field/dp/B09ZCSW3BM

In last week's blog #Tips124, I discussed how to use the style function to navigate your document in Word (or similar word processing packages).
This week, I want to extend that to the specialist writing package Scrivener (visit #Tips80 for my first impressions of using Scrivener).
Now the first thing that regular users of Scrivener are going to say, is "You don't need to use styles to navigate Scrivener, that's the whole point of it!" That's correct, so let me clarify. I am going to look at how to retain styles when exporting to MS Word. Then you can easily navigate your manuscript in Word when you are working with an editor who doesn't use Scrivener.

For ease of use when writing in Scrivener I start a new page for each new scene. This allows me to then easily move scenes around. (I add chapter and section breaks last, once I am satisfied the story is in a logical order.)
In the image below, you can see that I have added some descriptive text for the first scene in bold red text.

Editing - you either love it, loathe it or just see it as part of the process.
I've looked at the issues surrounding editing before (eg #Tips48 for an outline of the basic process; #Tips72 for help chopping the wordcount), but for these posts, I want to share a few of the tips and tricks I've picked up over the years.
Today's #TuesdayTip looks at how the use of styles can help you navigate your manuscript, and keep track of where you are. I will be focusing on MS Word, but the principles are broadly applicable to other word processing packages. I will be writing another blog post extending this to Scrivener and how you can import it into Word.
First of all, what are styles?
Styles are, in their simplest form, a way to apply pre-determined formatting to a piece of text with a single click of the mouse. Imagine you have a piece of text. Word applies a default set of formats to it when you open a blank document. You can then choose a different font, the font size, and modifications such as whether or not the text is BOLD, Underlined, italicised, or a different colour. Delve a little deeper into the paragraph settings and you can decide how the text is aligned, spaced, or add bullet points etc.
This is all well and good, but it may take you several clicks to get the text just the way you want it. And it can be time-consuming if you have to do that each time you start a new document. And what if you have several different types of text within a single document, for example a title, or you prefer to format quoted text differently from the main text?
This is where styles come in useful. Word has a series of different styles built-in, that you can select from the style gallery. All you need to do is select the text you want, and apply a style by clicking on it in the style gallery.

So how does a style help you navigate a manuscript?
Well styles have a hierarchy and this affects whether they appear in the left hand Navigation Pane. You can think of this as rather like a bookmark that can help you navigate the document by jumping to a section.
In the image below, you can see that I have written two chunks of text, with two titles separating them. The Navigation Pane is currently empty, with just some text from MS explaining what the pane is for.

In the next image, I have highlighted the two titles and applied the style Heading 1. Not only do they now look different, they are also listed in the Navigation Pane. If I want to jump around my document, I can easily do so by clicking the link in the navigation pane.

This is a great way to insert chapter breaks. You can easily jump from chapter to chapter by clicking on the relevant chapter in the Navigation Pane.
But this only scratches the surface of what styles can do.
I use them to navigate between scenes. When I start to write a new scene, I like to put a title with a couple of lines of descriptive text. This reminds me what happens in that scene. By applying a style to that text, I can navigate my document by going directly to that scene; useful if I have no idea which chapter something actually occurs in.
Top Tip: Choose a different style than the one that you applied to your chapter heading.

You can see in this next image that not only does my descriptive text appear different in the document to both the chapter and the main text, it is also indented slightly on the Navigation Pane.

Finishing up.
Now obviously, at some point you are going to want to share this document with beta readers, and eventually publish. The last thing you want is to leave those spoilers in.

First of all, removing that descriptive text is easy. If you right click the style in the gallery, you will get a simple context menu. If you choose "Select All", then it will highlight all instances of that style in one go. Hit delete and it is gone.
(Another advantage of "Select All" is that it does a word count for the selected text. So if you are over your word count, you can see how many of those extra words are descriptive text that you will be deleting before publishing.)

But don't jump the gun and delete these useful navigation tools too soon. You may want to use them when doing later edits. Furthermore, deleting them changes the pagination. For example. when I send the manuscript to my beta readers or other editors, they often give me feedback in the form of "There is a typo on the third line of page 26." However, if you have deleted the descriptive text, then the page numbers for the text may have shifted.
So instead, before sending to my beta readers or editors, I leave the descriptive text in place and redact it so the spacing stays the same, but spoilers are hidden and I can still navigate the document.
To do this, simply right click the style again and choose "Modify".
Now you can change the formatting of the style.
I turn the font to black (not automatic) and from the borders option select black for the fill option. It's not pretty, but it hides the spoilers and I can easily reverse it if I choose to do so.

This is just a basic outline of how to use styles. Over the years, I've tweaked my method so it fulfils my own particular needs. I also use my own custom style rather than one of the built-in styles.
I hope this was useful. Do you have any useful tips like this?
If so, please feel free to comment here or on social media. If you are a writer with your own tip to share, then please don't be shy about emailing me on dcijones@outlook.com, I'm always looking for guest bloggers.
Until next time,
Paul

For this week's #TuesdayTip, I am thrilled to invite thriller writer Stuart Field to tell us about the benefits of travelling for research.
A former soldier, Stuart now works as an armed security guard. He was born in the West Midlands, and is married with one daughter.
A busy man, he is the author of the John Steel series, soon to number six entries, the new Ronin Nash series, and has just published the first in a new, two-book series, A Friend Of The Family.  

Stuart's Tip
Travel and do research on your locations:

• Try and see the places you are writing about. Doing research on the internet is a must, but being there is better.  That way, you can get the feel for the place, the aromas, and the people. Also, it can help answer questions about situations your character might face. You might look at a street or a walkway in the hills and think it is perfect, and then when you see it for real, you find your idea isn’t feasible. Try the local foods and drinks. Put yourself in your character’s shoes.
• Also, remember, if you are writing about a city such as New York, London, etc, if you need to put in a diner, a hotel, or even a gas station, make sure it is feasible to do so. Don’t try and put one of these where it is obvious there is a skyscraper or other structure. Doing research on locations is a must because a reader who lives in that city will pick it up.
• However, if you find a city or actual place that doesn’t work for your idea, make one up. That way, you can put what you want in the town, and nobody can pick you up. It is a simple solution, but be careful, because you may still have to research the area you are about to put your new town. 
• The best tip is to have fun in your writing. 
  

(c) 2022 Stuart Field.

You can find out more about Stuart by visiting his website, following him on Twitter or Instagram, or visiting his Facebook Page.
As always feel free to comment here or on social media. 

If you are a writer with a suggestion for a #TuesdayTip, feel free to email me at DCIJones@Outlook.com.
Until the next time,
​Paul.

Editing - you either love it, loathe it or just see it as part of the process.
I've looked before at the issues surrounding editing before (eg #Tips48 for an outline of the basic process; #Tips72 for help chopping the wordcount), but for these posts, I want to share a few of the tips and tricks I've picked up over the years.

Whether you use a dedicated writing package or a standard word processor, the chances are that at some point you will have to send your manuscript to your editor in a Word file or a format compatible with Word (.docx). They are then likely to send back the manuscript with suggested revisions, using the review function. This week's post suggests a couple of tips to make this process easier, and to avoid introducing more mistakes into the manuscript (easily done, believe me).

The first thing you need to do is make sure you have turned on "Track Changes".
This can be found in the Review tab on Word. This means that anything you delete or add will be recorded. For example:

You can see here that I have deleted the word "using" and replaced it with "with the" and I have added the word "feature" at the end. I have also increased the font size to sixteen. The red underlined text shows these differences. They are also listed on the right-hand-side. This is a powerful function, and is especially useful during copy edits or feedback from proof readers.
If your proof reader suggests a change, you can either accept the change, choose to leave it as it was, or change it to how you would like it to look.
However, if a sentence has been modified too much, it can become very confusing, and it is easy to add additional errors. Therefore, a useful trick is to toggle the" show mark up" option on or off. 

Switching it back to "No Mark up" will remove all the red text and strike throughs and show you how it will look in the final document. The changes you have made are still there, but it is much easier to check that it looks the way you want it to.

If you are making lots of changes to a paragraph, you can do this before you start editing it. The changes are still recorded, but it feels much more natural - you are simply changing some text to the way that you want it. 

Using the Comment Function.
Whether you are using a word processor or Scrivener, there is the option to highlight text with a comment.
Comments are really useful, and I recommend using them as you are writing. For example, if a sentence isn't behaving itself, rather than waste ages getting it to look exactly how I want it and breaking my flow, I highlight it and write "Ugh" in the comments box. Then I can easily find it again and change the wording at a future date. I might also make notes, such as "does this match exactly what they found at the crime scene?" to remind me to go back and check, or instructions such as "Check capitalisation" if I've used a brand name (my current work in process has the word Screwfix. Is the F capitalised? - I can look that up on the internet when I have a spare moment, rather than breaking my flow).
Comments won't be printed in the final draft, unless you specifically turn that on in the print options. I'm old-school and like to print a draft to mark with red pen. Therefore, I print it with the comments turned on. They appear in a strip along the right-hand-side of the page and remind me of things that need doing. When I print a copy for my beta readers, I turn off the option, so they don't see spoilers or my notes.

Your editors might also include comments for you to consider. For example, querying if a character has been described in this way previously, or suggesting a change to the pace. In Word, there is an option to reply to a comment. I have started doing this, so my editor can easily find what changes I have or haven't made. I may even justify why I have decided not to make that change and ask for their thoughts.
When you have finished with a comment, it is tempting to delete that comment to tidy the document. In newer versions of Word, there is now the option to mark a comment as "resolved". The comment is still there, but it is faded out. The advantage of this, is that you can reopen the comment if necessary. It also stops you from duplicating effort. In the Screwfix example above, resolving the comment, rather than deleting it, reminds me that I have actually looked it up, and that the F in Screwfix isn't capitalised.

Show/Hide Nonprinting Characters
Finally, this is something that I have found very useful.
If you look at the home tab in your writing software, you will see this symbol. 

It looks like a backwards "P".
If you turn it on, a whole array of "invisible" characters become visible. These include a dot where there is a space, the backwards P denotes a carriage return (when you end a paragraph and start a new one), and dotted lines, showing page or section breaks. You can see in the previous screenshots that I have it turned on. Not everyone likes this, as it makes the page messy. But over the years, I've learned to write with this turned on permanently. The advantage is that you can easily see if you have included a double space, or if the text at the bottom of a page is followed by a page break, or if it has just rolled over onto the next page.

I hope you find these tips useful. As always, feel free to comment here or on social media. If you have something that you would like to share in a future #TuesdayTip, feel free to email me on dcijones@outlook.com.
Until next time,
Paul