IWSG: Word Processing Software I Use; Book Cover Concept Sketch

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. Today’s post is a double feature of a sort since we have both the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop and the post that I normally publish on Mondays but decided to combine it with today’s. So, today we have the IWSG question of the month (which is optional) and the latest progress on my upcoming single-short story book, "The Trespassers". And that update includes the concept sketch for the book cover's illustration which you'll see below! 

Book Progress for 'The Trespassers': Book Cover Illustration Concept Sketch

I sent the manuscript for “The Trespassers” with the final edits to the formatter and so now it’s formatted for both print and ebook. Immediately after that, I made a pen and ink sketch of the illustration that I want to use for the book cover and have submitted an illustrator. We're in the talks for the style that's going to be used for the illustration which I'm aiming for a photorealistic painting style since that seems to be popular for science fiction books at the moment. 

And now here's the concept sketch for "The Trespassers" book cover illustration:

'The Trespassers" Synopsis'

After crash-landing on a sand planet, astronaut and forensics anthropologist Gav Torres becomes separated from the rest of his expedition. He soon enough reunites with everybody except one person: his fiancé, Shelley Wu. Gav’s persistence to find Shelley will soon reveal to him the post-mortem alien terror that is responsible for her disappearance, the previous expeditions’ disappearances and the too likely possible annihilation of himself and the rest of the current expedition. 

Celebrate Freedom with Free!

The Spirit of '76! Photo Credit: Pixabay

Here in the US, we have our Independence Day holiday tomorrow and, for those of you in the nation, one way you can celebrate your freedom is with free things! One of these is my free author’s newsletter. Another will be copies of “The Trespassers”. Yes, you read that right!  I will be giving away free copies of “The Trespassers” to both my current subscribers and anyone who subscribes within one month from when the book releases which will be in about another week. So, if you haven’t already done so, subscribe now! However, I ask that only U.S. people subscribe, not because I’m US-centric (I’m not) but because of legalities that vary between our nations.  

Credit: Pixabay

IWSG Question of the Month & Answer: My Favourite Word Processing Software

So, now for the optional IWSG question for July! The question:  What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, yWriter, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And which one is your all time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write? 

My all-time favourite word processing software that I use constantly is Word. I've been using it almost ever since I owned my own PC which goes all the way back to the early 2000s when I was still in college (grad school, specifically). I've liked it most because it has all the right tools for writing and editing your work. Plus, it has commenting tools for sharing your work with others which come in perfectly handy with writer's critique groups. Others in the group often have to have the same software or a compatible version, which most of the people in my writer's critique group do. 

The other word processing software that I use is actually a text editor and that's NotePad. However, I normally use that for writing my initial drafts of non-fiction work such as this blog post. I use it for that type of work because I more frequently produce non-fiction than I do fiction. So, it helps me to write faster and not get tempted to stop and correct mistakes like I would with Word, which underlines misspellings and grammatical problems more. 

What I like about both word processing apps, though, is the dark mode option. I was especially glad when Word finally improved its dark mode option which, like NotePad, gives a black background with light-coloured text. That was a big delight for me because, before that, I was straining my eyes really bad whenever I would type and read through my work on the white screen even if it was dimmed. Now, I can type and read way easier in Word! 

I'm going to skip next Monday's blog post since we had both our IWSG and weekly blog posts combined. However, do look out for the latest updates on the release of "The Trespassers" at my Facebook and Instagram pages. What word processing software or apps have worked best for you? 

Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: JS Pailly, Rebecca Douglass, Pat Garcia, Louise-Fundy Blue, and Natalie Aguirre! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels! 

Until next time . . .