Yeah for Scrivener and David Hewson!

A few months ago I switched to a Mac after half a lifetime on PCs. It's been a steep learning curve but I'm just about there. All the things I thought were intuitive weren't... and I still get confused switching between PC at work and Mac at home, but I'm now glad I made the leap.
It took a while to find a writing program I was happy with but I eventually settled on Scrivener. I followed the tutorial that came with it - and fell asleep several nights running. It's a little too comprehensive. I found it hard to sort out which features I really needed and which were peripheral to my kind of thinking and writing. In the end I followed my nose and muddled through several stories and articles, but knew there was much more to it, if I could just take the time out and sort through it all.
Today as I read a few blogs and limbered up for the day I stumbled on David Hewson's Writing a Novel with Scrivener. He cuts straight to the point. The features useful to everyday writers are explained in a few short pages. I found out how to go to full screen and back again quickly, how to use the dictionary and turn on the thesaurus, change fonts for the whole project, split documents without cumbersome double screens, rearrange the binder (I'd struggled for hours to work that out for myself). In short I'd been too interested in getting the writing done to fully realise the power of Scrivener for arranging, structuring, formatting, editing, checking  my text etc etc.
After an hour with David Hewson I'm writing and using Scrivener to the limit. (Just had to tell someone how great Scrivener and David Hewson are!!)

Ghost light - Joseph O'Connor

Ghost Light has been a slow read. This quintessentially Irish story of love between Molly, a catholic actress off the streets of Dublin, and the innovative protestant gentry playwright, Synge, is set in the early twentieth century when the stage was not a suitable profession for male or female. Both lovers are historically true but O'Connor has imagined most of the story and action. In reality, while they became engaged before his premature death, their relationship was probably not as close as O'Connor suggests.
The novel covers a day in the life of the aged and bibulous Molly as she crosses London for her last acting job. The story jumps all over the place - an inn or a bookshop in London, a theatre in Dublin or New York, a train in America or is it England? - as Molly's memory focuses then fades. She recalls their early relationship, their friends in the Irish theatre, times in America and their rupture. The first section in the second person point of view conveys the murmurings of the old woman eking out a life alone in the slums of London.
Joseph O'Connor writes lyrically but not economically. The plot is lost in thickets of description and the pace slows to a snail's pace in many sections. I read several other books while I read Ghost Light but am glad I persevered because it is a beautiful, sad and evocative work.

Time for Tabby

Cats have an impeccable sense of time - they stretch out into it, they thrill to the immediacy of life for a few hours and then they retire to recharge their batteries. Miss Tabby wonders what I am doing in front of this screen instead of talking with her. Humans have such strange priorities! If she is awake I should be with her. If it is dinner time I should be fully immersed in its preparation. If a mouse or other excitement crosses my path I should give it my full attention. If I am overtired or sick I should be resting. So simple really!
Instead I am driven by a plethora of shoulds. I should be cleaning the house, writing a poem, resting my back injury, walking the dogs, finishing that story, writing my work blog - all simultaneously, if I listen to my conscience.
Today I shall take a leaf from Tab's book and pay attention to one thing at a time and do it with my whole heart and mind.