I use something called Page Four. I could just use Word, or any text editor but I really like the way I can break my project into chapters and scenes with Page Four. It allows you to add as many folders and pages/files as you want.

I’ve set my novel up so I’ve got one folder for outlines, world building notes, etc, and then a folder for each chapter. If I want to move a scene from one chapter to another, it’s a simple drag and drop – then I just have to do a little editing on the transitions. It’s come in very handy when I want to restructure a story without getting lost.

It’s a fairly simple editor, without too many bells and whistles, but how many times do you use all the crazy stuff Word can do anyway? It saves files in RTF format and they can be exported as one file into Word if you want, when you get to your final draft. It will also archive versions and you can take snapshots if you want.

You can try it out for free (limited by number of pages), and it’s relatively inexpensive. (Note – I have no affiliation. I just bought a copy awhile ago and really like it.)

Page Four - my NaNo novel

For example, in this book I saw some wonderful color combinations, organic flowing shapes, and some transparent and opaque surfaces that gave me new ideas to try with liquid clay. I’m thinking multi-layers with some sprinkles of powdered chalks for opaque enamels along with transparent ink tinted clay…. It could be very interesting.

If anyone can do that last one, I’d love to see it – it would make a great marketing photo. I can just imagine an artist in a painting smock, standing on their head, with a brush stuck out the side of their mouth, squinting at an abstract piece of art on an easel….

Anyway this book won’t tell you how to gain perspective about your work, but it will tell you how to put perspective IN it. The aim of perspective is to create the illusion of three dimensions in a two dimensional surface, or basically to make it look real.

The Art of Perspective by Phil Metzgar is, as it claims, the ultimate guide for artists in every medium. It was well written – I could sit down and just read it instead of trying to drag the main points from it while my eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. (I have gotten “art” books before that would have been better prescriptions for insomniacs.) I learned quite a bit that I’ll be able to apply to my relief sculpting.

The book has two main sections. The first, on natural perspective, covers the more intuitive parts of making something look dimensional, such as making objects in the distance lighter and bluer, and not having the same amount of detail in both the foreground and background since our eyes will only focus sharply on one area. It was very interesting. There were alot of “Duh, why didn’t I think of that?” or “Hmm, that makes sense,” moments while reading, but the nice part of it all was that it DID make sense and I think I’ll be able to apply the concepts.

The section on linear perspective was a bit more involved, but would be very useful if you ever want to do buildings, roads, etc. It covers horizon lines and drawing by the rules. Even if you never draw out all your marking lines, it helps to know the concepts so you can apply them intuitively.