Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2012

    It's hard to believe that NaNoWriMo 2012 is only two months away.  The one thing I learned from participating the last two years is that NaNoWriMo is a glorious, agonizing, fun, terrifying, stimulating level of Hell.  Completing 50,000 words in 30 days in no small feat. We all write differently, but i hope some of the advice below may be helpful for the novice Nano'er. So offer Charon your coin for passage and hope you make it to December unscathed.

• Register on NaNoWriMo.org  Say hi on the forums, you'd be surprised how much activity there is year round. It will start to get very busy next month.  Leave a post for writing buddies.  A little friendly competition/encouragement will help you make it through your thirty days.
• If you like to outline - start now.  Decide on your genre, setting, characters, plot, sub-plots, theme, ect.  You may throw half of it out once you start, but having a rich starting point will lessen the shock if you've never written 1667+ words a day. If you write without outlining then damn you, I'm jealous!
• Use your outline to get into a routine.  Try to write 250 (or 500 or 750) words a day for now as you jot down ideas. The hardest part is learning to make time for your writing and forcing it to become a part of your day.
• Learn to write without editing. This one is hard.  The trick to NaNoWriMo is to keep writing, don't stop, don't edit, don't correct, don't reword...just write. You can edit when in December. 
• Remember what Hemingway said "The first draft of anything is shit" and I guarantee your story will be. At the end of November you will have an dirty, back woods, banjo playing, red headed step child of a story that someday....just someday, might grow up and have a top 20 video on CMT, but I doubt it.
• Start buying your supplies. What do you need for your writing, we all have our vices.
• Coffee, soda, tea, water...whiskey?
• Peanut M&M's, pretzels, carrot sticks, whatever will keep your ass in the chair for 1667 words/day.
• Journal - the one I keep by my bed.  I can't tell you how many times I woke up during the night with the world's greatest story idea only to forget it when I rose that morning.  I finally bought this journal for the nightstand.  A spiral notebook would work just as well.
• Favorite pens or pencils? If you have special kind you love buy a few extra for November.
• What are you going to use for your word processor?
• Word - probably the most widely used.
• Scrivener - my personal favorite.  Allows me to brainstorm, outline, and write all in one work space. If you decide you like it, grab the coupon code here while you can still get Scrivener for 20% off.
• yWriter - Free software is always good. 
• There are many other good choices.  The point is pick your favorite and become familiar with it. 
• Dress up your desktop with some inspirational wallpaper.  I always use a few different NaNoWriMo wallpapers throughout the month depending on my mood. Here is the first NaNoWriMo Wallpaper for 2012. I will add more as I find them.
• Decide on your writing space.  Do you write at the desktop in your office, laptop on the couch or favorite chair, or do you like the stimulation of your neighborhood Starbucks. If you can set aside the same time every day to write, let friends and family know not to bother you until you're done.

  The most important tip is have fun, enjoy the experience.  Realize that if you finish you a part of a small group of people that have ever sat down and written 50,000+ words.  It is an accomplishment to be proud of.

How Do I Claim My NaNoWriMo discount for 50% Off Scrivener?

If you're wondering how to get your 50% discount on Scrivener, here is a quick how to.  It took me a while to find the answer and there were similar questions on the NaNoWriMo Forums, so I thought some may find this useful. Follow the steps below to get the Scrivener sale price. Remember if you don't qualify return here to still get your Scrivener Coupon Code worth 20% off!

• Go to the NaNoWriMo website.
• Log in using your username and password
• The first link on the brown navigation bar is My NaNoWriMo.  Hover over this and select Dashboard.
• Now scroll down to the bottom of the page.
• On the bottom right is a section labeled Winner Prizes. Click their link.
• Now you should reach the page with your various winnings.
• Scroll to the bottom and find the Scrivener coupon code.  Highlight the code, right click and Copy.
• For the Scrivener Mac OS X version click here and paste your coupon code.
• For the Scrivener Windows version click here and paste your coupon code.
• Either version will be $20 after discount!
• Your coupon code is good until October 1, 2012, but the sooner the better.
• Now fall in love with Scrivener!

Like I said, not the easiest task to find your reward.  Though being able to snag Scrivener for 50% off is a huge bargain!

If you didn't participate or compete in NaNoWriMo and would still like a discount on Scrivener use this 20% Scrivener Coupon Code.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 14

Sorry for the lack of daily updates.  I was hoping to keep up the same format for each day.  I find though that I am so busy some days I can't even write.  Then when I can write I am playing catch up and have no time to update here.  I don't even think I've updated on Google+ or Twitter recently lol.

Anyways NaNoWriMo is going well, very well in fact.  I am just happy to be on target and actually getting more writing done than I ever have before.  I hope everyone else's month is going great!  I'll try to use my previous format for some posts when I can.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 9

• Today's Word Count: 4351

• Current Word Count: 17615

• Words to Go: 32385

• Cups of Coffee: 2

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 4

• Number of Breaks Taken: 3

• Number of Characters Killed: 0

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

Think I just about caught up to where I should be, maybe even surpassed it.  Now I am hoping to get back onto a regular writing schedule.  Playing Catch up is hard work.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 8

• Today's Word Count: 3866

• Current Word Count: 13264

• Words to Go: 36736

• Cups of Coffee: 3

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 3

• Number of Breaks Taken: 2

• Number of Characters Killed: 1

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

Trying to play catch up after a busy weekend is not fun!  All in all a good day of writing though, now if I can just do this again tomorrow. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 4

•  Today's Word Count: 2973

• Current Word Count: 9398 

• Words to Go: 40602

• Cups of Coffee: 1

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 2

• Number of Breaks Taken: 2

• Number of Characters Killed: 0

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 3

Day 3 continued as a good day. So far NaNoWriMo has been good fun with loads of support and camaraderie from the NaNoWrimo, Google+ and Twitter communities.  The writing is till flowing smoothly, no lack of material...yet.  Also managed a 3 mile run this morning and a 2 mile walk after dinner with the wife. I can see the need to flesh out the story a bit when I get far enough ahead in the word count.  Right now I feel as if I am writing well, but a lot of the scenes are random and out of order.  They are all needed, but I am writing them as I am in the mood to see how they turn out.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.  Though as long as I am not hitting a wall yet I'm happy.  I hope everyone else is having success too.

• Today's Word Count: 1996

• Current Word Count: 6425 

• Words to Go: 43575

• Cups of Coffee: 1

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 1.5

• Number of Breaks Taken: 2

• Number of Characters Killed: 1 (Minor character, needed a writing boost.  May reappear in later drafts)

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

Very happy with today's progress. How did everyone else do?

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 2

Day 2 went well and a little bit quicker than yesterday.  Still thinking I may lose steam a little once I run out of outline and have to start connecting the dots.  As a whole though I am very happy with my progress.  I hope everyone else is off to a good start too!

• Today's Word Count: 1945

• Current Word Count: 4429 

• Words to Go: 45571

• Cups of Coffee: 1

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 1.5

• Number of Breaks Taken: 2

• Number of Characters Killed: 0

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

Very happy with today's progress. How did everyone else do?

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 1

So excited now that NaNoWriMo has started.  I was able to get off to a good start today, though I am intimidated by some of your Day 1 totals!  I felt like I was writing out of order a bit. I decided to write three of my scenes that really don't come in sequence, but I wanted to see where each led.  I now have some good ideas for tomorrows writing.  I hope you all had a good day too, here's my stats for Day 1.  I know the progress bar to the right doesn't match, but I did a quick second writing session in the afternoon.  Now the site where I get the progress meter is down and I can't update it.  I may have to look at something else to track it here.


Edit: Well the site where I get my progress trackers is back up.  If anyone needs one you can find them at Language is a Virus.

• Today's word count: 2484 

• Current Word Count: 2484

• Words to Go: 47516

• Cups of Coffee: 1

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 2

• Number of Breaks Taken: 1

• Number of Characters Killed: 1( minor character whose job was always to die, lol)

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 (It's Day 1 - no giving up yet)

Very happy with today's progress. How did everyone else do?

NaNoWriMo Synopsis

I am excited to get started on NaNoWriMo tomorrow!  I have nailed down the synopsis and done a rough (very, very rough) outline.  Hopefully that will be enough to get me through the next 30 days.  Here is the story synopsis as I have posted on the NaNoWriMo site.

When magic wanes, technology flourishes; when technology fails, magic flows back into the world. It is only in balance that both can truly coexist. But now the Alkai, users of magic, are being hunted and destroyed in the name of technological progress. Jor Craven, dedicated to killing the Alkai for his masters, instead finds himself tricked into honoring an age old oath which binds him to the protection of a young Alkai. A boy whose potential for magic may rival that of any Alkai of the last hundred years. A young woman, whose duty it is to protect the balance between magic and technology, becomes entwined in their fate. Together they must make the long journey to find the last Alkai haven. Now they are hunted by Jor’s brethren who would kill the boy because of his gift, as well as charlatan Alkai who wish to take the boy’s power as their own.

Well that's the rough synopsis right now. It is definitely Fantasy with flavors of Steampunk, I guess we'll just stick with Speculative as the genre until I figure it out. :)  I know I am the worst procrastinator, but if anyone is still looking for writing buddies to commiserate with on the bad days and to cheer each other on the good days hit me up on my NaNoWriMo profile.  I'll take whoever will have me.

Tools For NaNoWriMo

With NaNoWriMo approaching I seem to be receiving a large amount of traffic and downloads for all the writer's tools I've covered.  To make it easier to find I decided to post a list of the tools with the appropriate links.  If there are any others you love or would like to see listed just leave me a comment and I'll add it as soon as I can.

• Sample Novel Outline - A sample of J. K. Rowlings outline and a spreadsheet for your own.
• NaNoWriMo Report Card - A great way to track your NaNoWriMo (or any writing project)  progress.
• Character Profile - Delve in depth into what makes your characters tick.
• Novel Writing Tool - Break your novel into pre-planned acts.
• Scrivener - Every novel writers dream writing and novel planning software - Scrivener 20% discount.
• yWriter5 - a close second to Scrivener and free.  Not as polished, but has some additional options.

Novel Writing Tool

Cameron Matthews, intrigued by the amazing plot breakdown in a recent article, decided to make a "play with your wordcount" spreadsheet to see just how much you should theoretically be writing in each section of your novel.  You pick a "target word count" and then tell the spreadsheet how much of your novel (in a percentage) is waste material that will get slashed by editing, and voila!  It figures out how much you should target for each of the four traditional "acts" of the story.  Useful also as a diagnostic tool when editing and you realize your denouement is nine words long, or your intro fails to answer needed questions.  You'll have to pop over to his site for the download.  Check out his other great tools while you're there.

Character Profile Tool

Looking for a way to scetch out your characters for your story.  Here is a basic character profile sheet you can use to jot down your ideas.  It's important to know where our characters come from and what they stand for.  Strengths and weaknesses, age, physical traits, family, friends, profession, wealth and their stance on various matters are all important to know.  It allows us to better understand their journey through our story.  Here's the download link. Feel free to add more detail to this sheet or simply add notes to the bottom.

Cameron's Character Profile (Cameron Mathews) / CC BY-SA 3.0

Will you post daily updates on your NaNoWriMo progress?

How many of you will keep us updated daily as to your NaNoWriMo progress?  This is the format I used last year.  Any ideas of other things to include?  Do you plan on posting daily updates to your blog, G+, twitter, ect?

• Current Word Count: Words to Go: 

• Cups of Coffee: Hours Spent Writing Today: 

• Number of Breaks Taken:

• Number of Characters Killed: 

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up:

• Number of Chapters:

• Favorite Character of the Day: 

• My Morality Level:

NaNoWriMo 2011 Calendar Wallpaper

Here are three NaNoWriMo Wallpapers from paperpages.  Follow this link to many more of her creations for NaNoWriMo. Enjoy!

NaNoWriMo 2011 Calendar Wallpaper

imaginepageant posted 9 great wallpapers over on her Livejournal.  She did ask that they not be reposted so you'll have to follow the link to take a look at them all and grab a copy. The colors are listed below. Enjoy!









Colors

• Red
• Orange
• Gold
• Green
• Teal
• Blue
• Purple
• Pink
• Brown

This spooky forest wallpaper is by EchoLynnetteB

NaNoWriMo 2011 Calendar Wallpaper

Here's a new entry from .Ali.  You can find the links for 50k, 75, 100k, and 150k words depending on how ambitious you are!

NaNoWriMo 2011 Calendar Wallpaper

Here's a new one from Kiriska.  The original can be found at DeviantArt.

NaNoWriMo 2011 Calendar Wallpaper

All of the wallpapers in this post were created by lastglitter.  The originals can be found on DeviantArt. Enjoy!

The Ultimate NaNoWriMo Checklist

National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, is closing in fast.  The thought of writing 50,000 words in 30 days is a great challenge to most of us. So, with fear and anticipation, I thought I’d create a checklist of things you may want to start thinking about.  Do you need all of these things?  No.  Hopefully, they will get you thinking so that you aren't caught by surprise when November 1st hits.








Getting started

• Register and familiarize yourself with the rules for NaNoWriMo.
• Do you have notes on key elements of your story? (outline, plot, characters)
• Have you told others in your house about what you’re doing?
• Have you found a partner? You can get writing buddies on NaNoWriMo's site.  You can find a local friend to keep you honest and accountable for your progress. You could schedule Google+ hangouts to discuss problems and progress.

Supplies

• Notebooks - The back to school rush is over.  Many stores are now selling off their surplus. Grab your favorite: One, three, or five subject, journal, legal pads, pocket sized, ect.  Find a small one for your pocket when on the go.
• Pencils - I use these for outlining with a legal pad initially.  Beyond that I wouldn't use them, but having some handy won't hurt. 
• Pens - I have a love of pens, especially when I find one I really like.  Ball point, felt tip, whatever your poison.  Black ink, blue ink, save red for when you actually have time to edit in December or January.

"This is my pen. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My pen is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my pen is useless. Without my pen, I am useless. I must write true with my pen. I must write faster than my writing buddy, who is trying to beat me. I must reach my daily goal before they reach theirs.  I am the master of my WIP.  I will win NaNoWriMo!"

          Sorry I couldn't resist.

• Highlighters (optional) - Highlighters are an valuable tool. I like to use them to remind me of something I may need to review later.  I also use them in editing, but NaNoWriMo isn't about editing, it's about writing.
• Smart Phone (optional) - You must leave the house at some point in November, yes you will run out of coffee, peanut M&M's, and toilet paper...trust me.  Use your phone to jot down plot changes, snippets of dialogue or character ideas.  I know you have a good memory, but you will forget.
• Timer - If you will be participating in any word wars, write-ins, or Google+ hangouts one of these will come in handy.  You can buy one, use a phone app, or use a computer program to keep time.
• Your muse/totem - Come on you know you have one!  A stuffed animal, toy, token, mascot, stress ball, cape, lucky thinking cap, whatever!  Get one, name it, talk to it when you're stuck. Your new friend will be the only one in your house that will put up with you in November.
• A writing space - Living room, office, bedroom, Starbucks, B&N, Panara..where will you write. Don't feel boxed into one.  Sometimes just a change of scenery can revitalize your creativity.
• Music (optional) - I usually write in silence, but like anything else a change can be good.  So, if you use music while writing, make sure you have a month of it ready.  If you don't, have something you like handy just in case.

Food and drink

• Drink - Make sure you have a good supply of your favorite soda, water, coffee, tea, alcohol or energy drink.  My downfall is coffee.  I always have a cup handy on the desk.
• Food - Mostly snacks, try to still eat your meals with your family or friends - they miss you. So stock up on fruits, veggies, chips, crackers and cheese, candy, or whatever else will keep you in your chair while you write!

Computer stuff

• Your Computer - I use a PC, both a laptop and a desktop.  I am not familiar with Macs, so feel free to chime in with your favorites.  I'll give you what I use (I like free).
• Virus protection - Microsoft Security Essentials (free)
• Spyware protection - For adware/spyware/malware I use Malwarebytes (free)
• Firewall - I have the Windows default Firewall turned on (free)
• Writing software - If you have a computer it came with something that will get you through NaNoWriMo without a problem.  Microsoft Word is just fine, even Notepad or Word Pad would work if it had to.  Beyond that there are a number of great alternatives.  Scrivener (Windows beta), yWriter, and Open Office are all free.  The trick is to write, not what program you are writing in.  Use something you are familiar and comfortable with.
• Backups - I tend to back up too much (if there is such a thing).  First of all make sure your writing software is set to auto-save at regular intervals.  Set it to however much work you are comfortable with losing (5-10-15 minutes).  After that you have a couple options when you end your writing for the day.  You can back up to a second hard drive or thumb drive.  You can set up a Gmail account and email it as attachment. You could copy and paste into Google Docs, rename it every day as title - date. Or you can use a cloud service like DropBox or SugarSync (I've used both with no complaints).  The idea is to pick one and use it religiously.  There is nothing worse than writing for hours and then losing all your work.  Worse yet, having a computer crash with no backup of your manuscript that you've worked on for months.

Your sanity

Stay healthy.  Spend some time on yourself.  Take the time to go for a walk or a run.  Go to the gym.  Plan time with your family.  Many of your best ideas will come at random times and when you are being stimulated in other ways.  It will make you look forward to your writing time.  Sitting in a chair for hours on end isn't good for anyone.  Schedule some breaks so the world knows you're still alive.

What else is on your list?  What is your muse/totem? What is your must have item?  Or just tell me what I missed!