NaNoWriMo Hiatus

Updates will be few and far between until December 1st. NaNoWriMo is eating up way too much of my time right now :)

If you are looking to try Scrivener and wanted the 20% discount for this month, you can find it here.

Pinterest for Writers

Pinterest is a place where users can “pin” images, video or other interesting content to digital boards. Pinterest can give your writing some well needed visual reinforcement. Try some of the following:

Create a Pinterest board for your main characters. How do you picture them when you write?
Boards for settings. I love having visuals to build from.
A board for inspiration.  Your favorite quotes, sayings, photos of authors or favorite books.

Some ideas from Becca J. Campbell:

Boards based on your stories. Tosca Lee, author of Demon: A Memoir and Forbidden (among others) uses Pinterest to collect references for her books. It’s a brilliant idea. This would make a great way to keep all the visual story research together—maps, landscapes, buildings, places, people, you name it.
A character board (or boards). I’ve talked before about how surfing for images of people sometimes helps me flesh out my characters. Pinning them is a much easier way to save and access them.
An idea board. Like my Surreal Stories board, this could be a place where you capture images that make you want to write. It might be a poignant photo of an abused woman/child or a faerie dancing on the palm of someone’s hand. It’ll be different for every writer, but it can be whatever sparks your interest.
A setting board. I’m writing a story for JuNoWriMo that takes place in Lake Tahoe. I’ve been there before, but looking up scenic pictures is a great way to refresh my memory before I jump into the novel June 1st. If your story is set in a specific place, you might want to look up local establishments—schools, hospitals, restaurants, parks, etc. that might be featured in your novel.
A cover design board. I haven’t started one yet, but I’ve got a folder on my computer oozing with cool cover art—why not put it up on a board? I love collecting other book covers as a jumping off point for my own—or just to glean whatever artistic vibes I can from them.

And some more from Jason Boog at GalleyCat:

 1. Post your favorite books on your personal Pinterest page. You can add nice images of all the books you love in your life. Be sure to follow the site’s rule: “Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.”
2. Find other writers on Pinterest and follow their example. Novelist Shiloh Walker has a great Pinterest page, complete with sections for Characters & Clothing, Research & Scenes, and various themes from her books.
3. On your page, create separate “boards” (collections of visual links) about your influences. Just like a high school locker, this is a vivid way to show your readers what inspires you. The site offered this handy tip: “If you notice that a pin is not sourced correctly, leave a comment so the original pinner can update the source. Finding the original source is always preferable to a secondary source such as Google Image Search or a blog entry.”

Here are some examples of great Pinterest boards for writers:

Anna Menefee
C. McKane
Lindsey Edwards
And this is mine

Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers

Good reference for writers OR artists. A nice cheat sheet that presents some obvious and not so obvious indicators of human behavior. Not only helpful with writing descriptors, but also when dealing with people every day.  Originally from tumblr.

More NaNoWriMo 2012 Wallpapers

As we wade into October more NaNoWriMo wallpapers are beginning to appear.  Here are a few to check out over at No Telling.

And here is one that showed up on the NaNoWriMo forums.

Don't forget to grab Scrivener while you can still use the Scrivener Coupon Code.  You'll thank me when November gets here!.

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.

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!

SONAR 3 - Submission Tracking Software

The submission tracking software Sonar 3 is available from Spacejock Software. Best news is it is still free!

Sonar is a manuscript submission tracking program, and I wrote it because I was going nuts keeping track of short story submissions. This program tells me which market has each story, whether a story has been sold or rejected and which stories are gathering dust instead of earning their keep. If you decide to use it, you will be able to view a list of all your stories and then filter them in various ways (e.g. only show stories which are available to send out). You can add markets, stories and submissions and best of all it's completely free!

New features include the following:

• Can be installed and run alongside Sonar 2
• Import Sonar2 data without messing up the original
• Load, use, save as many different databases as you want
• 'Stories' now called 'works', so non-fic writers can use the prog
• You can double-click entries in any list to view details
• Color coded result lines
• Text fields now have unlimited length - guidelines, comments, feedback, etc
• List subs by work AND by market (e.g. a list of everything sent to F&SF)
• All lists can be sorted - including by date
• All forms are resizable
• Now written in .NET 2.0
• Entire project stored in a single XML data file
• Automatic daily backups

Make sure to check out SONAR 3 here.