Hi all,
Novelist, screenwriter, Scrivener user, forumite and general good egg Neil Cross has a new website up and running that may be of interest to many here:
Neil is a bestselling British novelist who was recently described by the Guardian as “Britain’s own Stephen King”. (I count myself as a fan, based on the three novels of his I’ve read myself - Holloway Falls, Burial and Captured - all brilliant, though you need a strong stomach 
). He also wrote for the BBC show Spooks (MI-5 in the US), and has an upcoming show called Luther staring Idris Elba - Stringer Bell from The Wire.
But I’m not just trying to hawk his site or books for him. The reason I’m posting is because a section of his site deals with the “how he does it” aspect of novel writing, and as someone still on the outside looking in, I’m sure I’m not the only one here to find authors talking about how they go about novel-writing fascinating.
Full disclosure: Neil asked me if I would mind posting here about his new site, but I’m more than happy to oblige. He’s been using Scrivener since the early days and has used it for his recent novels (he even name-checked us in a BBC Writersroom interview a couple of years ago), and he’s also been incredibly kind with his time and given me lots of good advice about writing and getting to grips with a novel over the past couple of years (that I have still to complete The Novel is entirely my own failing).
Anyway, you’re probably going to find some of his great advice on his site over the coming months, as for his next novel he is maintaining a sort of “development diary” - a blog about the process of writing the novel from first idea to final draft, to which he will be adding over the course of the year as he writes it:
If you’re struggling to write your novel as I am, I have no doubt this will be a great read. During the writing of his latest novel, Captured, Neil was kind enough to share with me how he uses what he calls “waypoints” to get him from one part of his novel to the next, and sent me some of the plot points he had planned ahead for his novel, and even some early chapters of a first draft, just to show me how things change and how he goes about the process. Suffice to say that I found it eye-opening and incredibly useful. (I hope Neil doesn’t mind me mentioning this…) So I think it’s fantastic that he’s now doing something like this on a public site (although obviously I doubt he’ll be giving away the plot or any early chapters!). There’s a button on the “wordcount” page to access the RSS feed, too, so you can just receive his novel diary in Mail or wherever.
As Neil is a forum lurker, I’m sure he won’t mind answering the occasional question posted here, either. (If this sentence disappears later, it’s because I’ve volunteered his participation without him offering. )
All the best,
Keith
P.S. In case this sounds a bit over-enthusiastic, no, I’m not getting paid for this - I just like Neil’s novels and am genuinely grateful for his support both of Scrivener and my own attempts at writing a novel.
P.P.S. While I’m mentioning useful authors’ sites, I think many of you already know about David Hewson’s blog, but it’s definitely worth mentioning again - David Hewson is another bestselling novelist who uses Scrivener, and his blog has the occasional Scrivener tip and article on his own novel writing processes. So, two great resources from Scrivener-using novelists… Did I mention that they used Scrivener? I’m not sure I did…
Scr…wot? 
