Beyond Words

Beyond Words

What response does this title invoke in you? 

Does it make you think of emotions which cannot be expressed by words, or does it imply love which you find is beyond words. Or does it mean to you that there are certain meanings which are hidden between the lines? Do you think of pain, anguish , despair or joy and happiness which is beyond words? 

Well don’t be surprised… that’s how a writer in you would think. But by any chance, did it invoke in you another thought process? Like – formatting, PDFs, typesetting, e-books, Scrivener, Ulysses? No…?

Then you are reading the right article. If you are already familiar with all these things, then maybe you should have been writing this article… just joking. It may be of not much use to you. But still if you want to brush up on certain aspects, then read on.

There is more to the process of writing than just putting it on paper, or now in Word. If you have ventured beyond writing short stories or articles, you would understand what I am saying. So let’s start without further ado.

I will start off with various options available for your word processing requirements.

MS-Word 

Word is your first go-to option. Or a default option. Almost everyone starts of with Word. What can one do with it? Well, most of the things, but not all the things.

It can:-

·      Format and edit your document

·      Do a grammar and spell check for you

·      Do reference work and build a bibliography for you

·      Help you in reviewing the document (with comments)

·      Export to a PDF format

·      Navigate through the document

That’s most of the functions. What it is not good at is navigating through the document. Moving and rearranging the scenes, chapters or parts of your document. It can do it, but not in the best possible way. You will be using cut, copy and paste a lot.

It does not have facilities for storing your reference work, character sketches and other things which you will require for building a large project, like a novel or a textbook.

Another thing which it cannot do is generating an e-book. You will have to use other methods. It may not be the best option for generating a print ready PDF file for your print edition.

Ok. Now you know there is a world beyond Word and let’s see what it offers.

Scrivener

If you are a serious writer and writing large projects, at some point of time you will migrate to it, or at least give it a try. It’s the mother of all softwares used for writing.

It is a premium application which can be used across all platforms—Windows, Mac and Linux. It is specially designed for writing novels and scripts. It is not good for textbooks and scientific literature.

It offers a unique way of handling the entire document. You can break the entire document into Chapters, Parts, Scenes and write it piece by piece and then rearrange it at will. You can  compile it and see the entire project (say novel)  in a print format (WYSIWYG).

Scrivener has dedicated templates for character sketches, front and back matter, dedication, Title pages and so on… It can help you in organizing the document using a corkboard. You can save and see all research files and look at them while you work.

And most importantly, it lets you export the completed project in all possible formats for print as well as e-book.

Having said all this, it means that it can practically do everything you want to do. But, it has a steep learning curve. It is a bit complicated and requires you to learn nuances to actually generate a solid and professional output. But it’s worth the trouble.

And lastly, it’s not free. Rather, it’s expensive. More about it later.

Vellum

Vellum is exclusively available for the Mac. It carries the same philosophy of the Apple ecosystem–simplicity, efficiency and beauty.

Vellum is very easy to use vis-à-vis Scrivener or Ulysses. But you will be surprised with the end results. They are professional and beautiful.

It does not have all the functions like others, it is more like a stripped-down version. But it is damn good. It is easy to master and it generates the best print and e-books for all platforms. It also has a real time WYSIWYG pane, that lets you see the output of your book on the go.

It you want to put up a book or self-publish a book without spending too much, this is the one to go for. 

These are the three daddies out there. All of them are professional and will let you make and publish a book without the need for outside help.

There are certain others which are open source (free for download). You can try them. I’ll list them, but I cannot vouch for them, as I’ve not used them personally except for Scribus and Gimp.

Ulysses

If you are a true born writer and want to stay away from the formatting and other elements of it, what you need is Markup Language. Ulysses offers that.

It is meant for concentrating on just writing. You just put labels to identify what you intend to do with the text. A block, quote, emphasis etc.. using the special identifiers. Confusing? It is if you are new to it. How does it help? – It simplifies the process of exporting the final document in a format you choose. It will make necessary arrangements to it, whether it be doc, pdf, blog or an e-book. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

It’s for concentrating on the writing process and eliminating all the clutter. Try it out!

Costs

The costs involved in getting a licensed copy of these software are mentioned below. Most of them give a trial before you can buy. Vellum is free to download. It will not let you export till you buy it. There are other methods if you are ingenious enough to get hold of the software (I don’t recommend it though!)

Word as Office 365	INR 5299/year
Scrivener	INR 3850
Ulysses	INR 319/month
Vellum	$ 249 onetime
Open Source	Free

 

Other Options

Then there are the conventional alternative word processors which you can try out. But they are more in line with Word.

·      Google Docs : Simple, efficient and useful for collaborative work

·      OneNote : Good for taking notes and filing your research work

·      MS-Publisher : very useful DTP application, alternative to Adobe InDesign

·      Pages on Mac: easy to use word processor and lot of built in DTP capabilities

·      Ever-Note : again good for taking notes, not for large projects

Open Source 

There are a host of softwares which you can freely download and use. Prominent amongst them are:

·      Manuskript

·      Bibisco

·      Scribus

·      oStorybook

·      Open Office

These are just some of the few. They are all functional, but do not have the same sophistication of the premium paid apps. I’ve used Scribus and it is more of a Desk Top publishing software which can do a lot of heavy duty work. (We will review them all some other day!)

So go ahead and try all these things out, if you have not already; taking your craft of writing to a new level. Let me know what you think...

#WritingTools series

Punctuation

PUNCTUATION

“Your eyes see what your mind knows.”

It is important that there are no punctuation errors in any writeup. It is a big blot on the writer’s effort and it is best avoided. It’s not very gratifying when these mistakes or typos are pointed out. Hence, we need to periodically re-brush our basic writing skills. 

Some intricacies are not well known and understood. Here we make an attempt to underline some such nuances and improve our skills.

Let our minds know first . . .

Punctation’s main purpose is to help readers understand what you wish to say. It signals the grammatical or logical structure of the sentence.

It is broadly divided into two broad categories: The Stops and the other marks.

Stops

They correspond often loosely to the pauses and intonations in speech, vocal signals which help listeners follow what we say.

They include the period, the semi-colon, the comma and the dash.

Other marks

These are purely visual signals and do not mark pauses.

They include the apostrophe, the quotation mark, the hyphen, the parenthesis, brackets, the ellipsis and diacritics.

We will look at the most commonly used (and sometimes misused) ones today. The other ones are less commonly used and in many cases their use is relatively straight forward. However, we may consider them in future if requested.

Dash

It’s a punctuation mark that looks like an extended hyphen and comes in two sizes: an em dash (—) and  en dash (-).

Em literally means the amount of space the letter M will occupy when you typewrite it and En the space used as in the letter N.

Em dash

It is used to mark a sudden break from the general run of the passage. It is one of the most misused punctuation mark. 

Please note that classically there is no space before or after the dash. But modern usage has  changed a bit and some are using spaces, especially in newsprint. Important is to be consistent and stick to one format.

Usage can be summarized as follows:

§  It introduces something that develops or what has gone before:

You must have noticed it, I’m sure—the tricolor fluttering atop the nondescript office.

§  It is used in pairs to show words in parenthesis or mark an intrusive sentence:

After finishing his schooling in Nainital—where he wrote the epic A Salute to a Hero in 1996—he migrated to Canada to study English literature.

§  To introduce an aside by the writer:

I occupied the suite in the Panorama hotel and Vicky the guest room—this purely for the strategic requirement.

§  In direct speech to mark a break off or an interruption:

I looked disgusted as he said, “You cannot go to—”

§  It is used to indicate a conclusion without expressing it:

“He is an excellent man but—”

§  A dash is used to introduce a repetition for oratorial effect:

Shakespeare was the greatest of all poets—Shakespeare, the intellectual ocean whose waves washed the continents of all thought.

§  To introduce a list:

He excelled in three branches—arithmetic, algebra and geometry.

§  To indicate what is not expected:

He delved deep into bowels of the earth and found instead of a hidden treasure—a button.

En dash

An en dash is used to show sequences:.

2018-2038

An A-Z guide

Again, there is no space before or after it. 

Do not mix two styles of writing it. e.g. from 2018-2038 is wrong usage.

It is also used to denote omission of letters or figures:

Mathew VII:5-8 

R--l (rascal)

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is a series of three dots (or four in certain situations). The principal function is to mark the omission of material from a quotation.

§  The three dots are used to mark the deleted matter in a quoted sentence:

“The traditional texts of the Hindu religion . . . state that the priests are paid in gold.”

The omitted text in the above sentence is ‘the sacred Vedas’.

Note the spacing used: space is left between the preceding word, between each dot and the succeeding word.

§  Four dots are used to mark the end of the sentence:

Dante, someone has noted, is “the last great Catholic poet. . . .”

Note the spacing now: First dot marks the end of the sentence and sits tightly on the preceding word followed by the three dots of ellipsis.

In contrast, if it wasn’t the end of the sentence, it would be:

Dante, someone has remarked, is “the last . . . great Catholic poet.”

§  Now if the original sentence from which the final words were dropped was closed with a query, the appropriate stop is placed immediately after the final word, followed by the standard three dots.

It has been asked, “Was Bahadur Shah the last great Mughal emperor? . . .”

§  Ellipsis is used in dialogue to indicate doubt, indecision, weariness or even suspense.

She sighed and answered, “I really don’t know. . . .”

The 2036 Olympic Games will be held in . . . New Delhi!”

§  It is used to imply a conclusion which readers are expected to infer for themselves:

And we certainly know what to expect when the #countdown ends. . . .

Quotation marks

Quotation marks are used in direct quotes, mark certain titles and to give certain words a special meaning.

American writing uses double quotes, switching to single to include a quote within a quote. British writing does exactly the opposite. Use of both is equally acceptable. Sticking to one style and being consistent goes without saying.

Quotation Marks with Direct Quotations

A direct quotation consists of words actually spoken or written by someone. Whereas indirect reports the substance of what has been said.

Victor said, “We are going to a movie.”

Victor said that they were going to a movie.

Three ways a quotation can be introduced:

Naren said, “I am not in favour of this.”

“I am not in favour of this,” Naren said.

“I,” Naren said, “am not in favour of this.”

Notice the placement of commas in these three sentences. Also note that in the third case, there is no capitalisation in the second part.

Written quotations are also formally preceded by a colon:

Professor Gupta says : “Man is always on the hunt for inner peace.”

Matter is complicated as far as closing quotes are concerned. In American usage, commas and periods always come inside a final quote mark; semicolons and colons, outside.

Victor said, “We are not going.”

Victor said, “We are not going,” and they didn’t.

Victor said, “We are not going”; they didn’t.

Victor said, “We are not going”: why, he wondered.

But the same does not hold true in case of question marks and exclamation marks. It depends on whether the stop applies only to the quotation, only to the sentence containing the quotation, or to both.

Rama asked, “Are we eating out?”

Did Rama say, “We are eating out”?

Did Rama ask, “Are we eating out?”

The usage in British writing is slightly different and at times it can be confusing.

Quotation marks with titles

A title of a work is usually italicized. If it is part of something larger (magazine or anthology) then it is quoted.

Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone has been made into a movie.

“The Red Room” by H.G. Wells explores the depths of subconscious mind to reveal its lurking terror.

Titles of movies are italicized whereas those of television shows are quoted:

“Grey’s Anatomy” is a medical drama with a cult following.

Interstellar and Martian are the most scientifically-authentic Hollywood movies.

Quotations to signify special meaning

Sometimes we need to use a common word in a different sense. We then put it in quotes:

Doon school is one of the top-most “public” schools in India. 

They can be used for citation terms—to refer to something different that its conventional meaning.

“Horse trading” is a scourge of modern day coalition politics.

It can be used for quoting definitions.

“A LASER  is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation.”

Hope you have liked this write up on some basics of Punctuation. If you would like to know more about others, drop in a comment. We will try and feature it in the next WOW. 

Photo by Raphael Schaller on Unsplash