Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts

Wednesday

2018 Coupon Codes for Scrivener


Last updated: Saturday, August 3rd, 2019. If you are going to buy the best fiction/non-fiction writing software available, why not buy it at a discount? All links and new promo codes are still valid as of this date. Buying direct from Scrivener with the coupon code below is cheaper than buying through Amazon, plus you are helping a fellow writer!

Scrivener 3 Coupons That Work!




If you are an organized writer, like myself, Scrivener is the best software for both your fiction and non-fiction endeavors. It's even better with a discount!  It is available for either OS X or Windows, you can save 20% off the retail price now! This is currently the best coupon code available for Scrivener.  To get Scrivener on sale make sure you visit one of the links listed below for the code to work.

Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.

One of the great things about the writing community is, as a whole, we tend to be a supportive bunch. So I thought it only fitting to share the links below for anyone that wanted to get Scrivener at a discount.  Remember you can always try it for free first. Enjoy!

I want to sincerely thank all those that continue to use the links provided below.


You can grab the new Scrivener 3 Mac version or Windows version of Scrivener, just follow these steps:
  • This is the most current Scrivener coupon code: WORDSWITHJAM  (This code is still valid as of  Saturday, August 3rd, 2019)
  • Highlight the discount code, right click and copy. The final checkout screen will have an "Add coupon" link at the top. Just paste the Scrivener coupon code into the provided box.
  • You must go here for the Scrivener 3 Mac OS X version and paste your coupon code.
  • You must go here for the Scrivener Windows version and paste your coupon code.
If you ever need help or have a question about this deal or Scrivener in general, feel free to contact me, or leave a comment below.  This space will be kept updated with the best Scrivener discounts available.

Make sure to take advantage of some great free Scrivener Templates as a token of my thanks for using my links!


If you want to learn amazing ways to use Scrivener and how to make a living with this great writing tool read this!


Enjoy this Scrivener Coupon Code and get writing!




Tuesday

Scrivener Coupon - 20% Discount

Last updated:  Thursday April 2nd, 2015. All links and promo codes are still valid as of this date.


If you’re looking for a Scrivener coupon, you can save 20% off the retail price by following the simple steps below (all links will take you directly to the store and will open in a new window/tab so that you can enter your Scrivener coupon):

I want to sincerely thank all those that continue to use the links provided below.


This Scrivener coupon is still valid as of  March 16th, 2015.  Enjoy!

You can grab the  Mac version or Windows version of Scrivener, just follow these steps:
  • You must go here for the Scrivener Mac OS X version and enter the coupon code WORDSWITHJAM.
  • You must go here for the Scrivener Windows version and enter the coupon code WORDSWITHJAM.

Once you've completed the payment process, download the app (if you haven’t already), launch it, and when prompted enter the license information that was emailed to you.

I've been using Scrivener for all my writing the last three years. It works great for novels and short stories, but can also be used for blog posts, research papers, thesis and much, much more.


Make sure to take advantage of some great free Scrivener Templates as a bonus for using the links and the Scrivener coupon provided above.

Wednesday

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?
  • 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.

Tuesday

NaNoWriMo 2012 Wallpaper

TortugaRachel is on the ball!  Already our fist 2012 NanoWriMo Wallpaper! Here is the link.  Enjoy!


Don't forget to grab you Scrivener Coupon Code now so you're ready to go for NaNoWriMo!

Wednesday

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.

Tuesday

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Winner!

51912 was the official NaNoWriMo tally today.  Done!  For now at least, giving myself a week off.  So glad we had the great community here.  On my way out the door so more later. :)

Monday

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.

Wednesday

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.

Tuesday

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.

Friday

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 

Thursday

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?

Wednesday

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?

Tuesday

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?

Monday

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.

Friday

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.







Wednesday

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.

Tuesday

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

Thursday

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 Comics


I figured that we'd warm up for a NaNoWriMo with some of last years comics for writers by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.  You can find her great artwork and writing here.  Watch the NaNoWriMo site for the 2011 comics.

Wednesday