What are /r/nanowrimo's favorite Products & Services?

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So sorry to hear that. Being robbed is one of my worst fears. I'm glad you're okay, though.

Dropbox can be your friend in the future. It's a no brainer when it comes to backing things up. Just save the writing file in the dropbox folder. It's saved on your hard drive as well as on the cloud. The free option gives you 2 GB of space, which is more than enough for writing files.

I've got about ten years of writing in that folder now. Best thing about it is if you get a new computer or want to write on a different computer, you just have to download the program, type in the password, and boom. Everything's just as you left it.

Here's a similar question from last year that had a bunch of helpful answers.

Also, I was using FocusWriter(https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/) during the month. You can set a daily time/word count goal and it will track it over time. I'm not sure it would be as nice as the NaNo site, but it's a great program overall for low-distraction writing.

Not exactly what you're asking, but check out f.lux.

It takes a few days to get used to the orange tint during the morning and evening but you'll go blind if you ever disable it to see what your monitor looks like without it.

Blowing my own trumpet here - but you might want to check out some of the tools and structures in wavemaker - https://wavemaker.co.uk

I built it, it has several templates (3 act structure etc) , and tools (planning board, snowflake tool etc.)

I'm the developer - find out more at r/wavemakercards

I built wavemaker cards and you can also easily dictate into that using your phone (not tried iPhone but works well on android) using the buikt in text to speech.

Bonus is its easy to transfer from the phone app to the desktop one.

Also its free https://wavemaker.co.uk

750words functions on the idea of writing 750 words a day.

I remember some thread some time ago that posted a link to a Google Spreadsheet where you could do this, but I'm not sure where it is anymore. I think you could probably look for a Excel or Google Spreadsheet template with some Google-fu.

Close your curtains and pretend it's raining with Rainymood. Alternatively, if you want a variety of background noises, like fire, coffee shop noise, or waves, try A Soft Murmur.

For future NaNoWriMos, consider moving to Britain in the last week of October.

There's a chrome app called Gingko that lets you write in a sort of "card structure". It's much easier to understand when you see it in action . I'm considering using it.

EDIT: I've just found out there's a NaNoWriMo template for this app: https://gingkoapp.com/nanowrimo-template

There's also an add-on for google docs known as Writing Habit that offers statistics for your writing (when turned on), including word count.

Here's a link: https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/writing\_habit/908529024908

Word sprints are one way to speed up your writing. Set a timer - say anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. When you know you have such a quick deadline, who knows what'll come from your mind and fingers. :)

Write or Die can help too for some people!

I've only bothered editing one of my NaNo wins. I still haven't gotten around to making all the changes in the Word document (I edited a hard copy and transcribing is boring), but I'd guess I cut about 10%. Which is what I was going for, based off some advice Stephen King shared in On Writing.

Anne Lamott describes this so well in Bird by Bird. Here's someone else's blog post describing it, but this book is almost always at used bookstores and you should have it anyway.

The point is that you "listen to your broccoli, and the broccoli will tell you how to eat it" (from an old Mel Brooks skit). You have to get out of your own head and into that of your characters, and this requires you to put the kibosh on everything you think "should" happen and allow the characters to decide what does happen.

There's no reason to stop when you hit 50K. If you managed 50K in 30 days, set yourself a new target of 100K in 60 days.

If you're missing having things like the graph on the NaNo site, make yourself a Google Doc with a graph of your own. (Here's one I've made)

Start tweeting your word count or sticking it in a facebook status.

The end of NaNo is never meant to be "pens down, let's see what you've done". It works best when you use it as a kick up the arse to get yourself started. You've proved you can motivate yourself, so keep going!

I am not sure how well this will be received here but a good way to get into creative writing is roleplaying. It takes some of the stress off. When I was younger I would play one, or usually multiple, character(s) and the other people would control the others. It is how I got used to writing people. Perhaps we could do a short roleplay until you get the hang of writing people? If you have trouble making a character, try something like this. http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-char.php Any of them.

Those are how I started. I probably roleplayed that way for ten years before I started writing on my own. I would still do it if I could find people my maturity to write with. That is what it is, writing with people. It adds an air of "What will they do, I have a plan but they could easily throw me off course" and helps a person learn limits.

To make you feel better. Here is something I've never linked to my reddit account: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7306796/1/Academy_Days

I just slap things down there as I go. I don't proof it. I just write for funsies. Not everything you write has to be good. Just have fun with it.

You could also try https://wavemaker.co.uk

I made it - Its Free, Cross Platform, syncs between devices and runs offline.

I can let you use it Free, because it's free

It's quite similar to scrivener and was originally built to be a chromebook clone

750words is a site that encourages you to write 750 words every day.

You could probably keep track of your word count progress in something like an Excel document or Google spreadsheet.

Using the ISBN in the link(9781099243684) it looks like they already published it to Amazon. So the editing would need to be in a second or revised edition.

But really I've seen much, much worse on the store. There is no bar to publishing anymore and it's gotten pretty bad for the average quality of work out there.

Sounds like good ol' eyestrain. I'd recommend lessening screen-time wherever possible - perhaps outline on paper.

There's also f.lux which will adjust the colour temperature of your monitor to match the lighting conditions (based on your timezone).

Eye drops will also help, as will a brief nap/rest in a pitch black room.

Coffee should have no impact as far as I know (ianad).

Hey if you're familiar with Notion, you could try out my template. I designed it to help me make a really quick outline.

I think pantsing from a rough outline for nano, is definitely doable if you have a quantitative goal. You can always edit what you write afterwards. I'd go for it! Cheers and good luck~

👉 Genre isn't terribly important - it's usually just more useful for nailing down your fan base, and can sometimes be helpful for keeping in tone with your writing. Honestly, I waffled on my genre so much last year before finally settling on "Modern Supernatural Parable".

👉 Novel Expert? Is that, is that a thing on the site? On NaNoWriMo? I'm not sure what that is I guess, so, probably don't need one, at least in the writing phase.

👉 In regards to world building, if you're doing modern day, that's easy - just pick a place that exists, or make a This-isn't-New-York-but-it's-just-like-New-York type parallel city. Add in some unique locations and such, sprinkled here and there where needed. I keep seperate txt documents for each set of things my world needs - since I'm doing Cyberpunk this year, I've added a Tech and a Slang file. Basically, build what the story needs, add any extra as needed, and just let the rest be in the background of both your mind and the writing.

👉 I know of several success stories about NaNoWriMo novels getting legitimate, full-on book publishing deals. Check a few of them out!. As for mentioning it's a NaNoWriMo novel... I've heard that some publishers get pretty turned off by this, especially if you're shopping around an early draft. I'd say let the book speak for itself, and if you get picked up, then you can mention that it started out as a NaNoWriMo novel. It'll then be an interesting fact, as opposed to a part of the publisher's judging criteria.

Good luck on your 2015 NaNoWriMo novel! I hope my personal experiences and advice are helpful :)

If all that's wrong with the laptop is the backlight stopped working, you might still be able to get a new inverter for it.

Look here.

Types of conflict in literature

All conflict falls into two categories: internal and external.

Internal conflict is when a character struggles with their own opposing desires or beliefs. It happens within them, and it drives their development as a character.

External conflict sets a character against something or someone beyond their control. External forces stand in the way of a character’s motivations and create tension as the character tries to reach their goals.

Including both internal and external conflict is crucial for an interesting story.

Conflict doesn't have to be 'I'm FIGHTING this thing and I will DEFEAT IT' - it could also be 'How can we resolve things peacefully?' or 'How can we bring things back into balance?'

Or it could be I'M FIGHTING A THING, but then 'deafeating' it doesn't bring about the resolution that they expected.

--

If you have no idea, then don't focus on the story itself at first, and instead on your audience, what you want them to feel, and the final 'scenario' you want them to observe to learn from.

Build the characters & story around those things.

For instance:

Lord of the Rings: Despite 'winning' in the great battle between good & evil, Frodo returns to the Shire to find it ruled & terrorized by Saruman. Despite being lauded as a hero by the rest of the world, his actions didn't protect his loved ones, didn't preserve his home, and he was irreversibly damaged by what he experienced on his quest. He didn't really find glory or peace, after all that, which reflected Tolkein's own experience fighting in a war.

There are many displays of courage, and altruism, mental strength and faith - a big conflict of 'Big Evil vs Everyone Decent' - but vanquishing the bad guy didn't actually fix the world.

I've done NaNo for three year, I'm doing the camp now as I'm not sure if I will be able to do it during November this year. I love it even if I don't win.

What you do to prep depends on you. You might want to do some outlining/note taking and prep work like that. Maybe make character profiles or some quick little snippets with your characters just to get to understand their personality. I didn't plan anything about the camp Nanowrimo story I'm writing now and I'm doing fine though so prep isn't necessarily needed.

You will want to plan your writing time. You need to write about 1,667 words per day. For me that is about one hour of writing, for you it could be less or it could be more. I find the site Write or Die to be the best site for making myself do nothing but write (I get distracted really easily).

I think the biggest reason people drop out is because they fall too far behind. It is really easy to understand why they just give up, when you have to write 20k worth of words in a week it can be off putting.

If you want a taste of Nano you can still sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo. You will be a little behind but that will just teach you how to catch up and not kill yourself.

There is a 100% off Wavemaker for people who think about possibly taking part in nanowrimo. Its usually $1099.99 for people who want to write furry porn on a tuesday and have a name consisting entirely of consonants, but is free to use for anyone that has a vowel in their name and/or have drunk water at some point in their lives

... it's free https://wavemaker.co.uk

I'm the guy who built it

noisli is a similar website/tool I am using since 2-3 years. You have to make an account, but then you can compose and store background noises for different situations. For example, my "productivity" noise is a mix of wind, leaves rustle, thunder (very soft), rain, and .. wind turbine. You can set the volume for each one, and I don't think I could have completed my studies without it =)

Some things I've learned from a few episodes of this:

(1) If you push through the pain, it will get worse.

(2) Even just one extended session of pushing through the pain can f**** you for months.

(3) Frequent (every 3 minutes) short (30 seconds) breaks can be very effective. Consider using something like workrave: http://www.workrave.org/

(4) Using a differently shaped input device is less helpful, but still helpful.

The best advice I can give is to cut your word count goal until you aren't experiencing pain. Be a baby about pain. Even very, very mild pain is a warning that you're injuring yourself.

Do you know about https://www.canva.com/? It's a good starting point, with some predefined templates. It has a few free options so if you combine with something like https://pixabay.com/ you have a decent playground.

I tend to start off there and add to it using something like Paint.NET. GIMP and Indesign can be helpful too. I need to get Photoshop back and have a play, but no time at the moment!

Last year was my first experience with NaNoWriMo. I decided to do it on October 31st. I did not prepare in any way.

I found that it took far more time than I expected. I sacrificed Friday nights and became very good friends with the local 24 hour coffee shop. For me, it helped that I could write on my long commute to work on the train. I wrote 80% of my story this way.

Also, I bought a netbook solely for writing the story and brought it everywhere with me. While writing, I disabled the wireless so I would not have any distractions. I brought the computer to friend's houses, parties, etc, so I could stow myself in a corner for 30 minutes and meet my daily word requirement.

My story was always on my mind at all times. I began observing my surroundings much more intensely, picking up on details around me that I hadn't quite noticed before. Using that as a way to help me describe the environment in words while writing.

One thing that saved me was the program Focus Writer! I know there are quite a few word processing programs out there but this was the simplest for me to use. Also, I used DropBox to keep track of my different versions among various computers (so I could write everywhere!)

I like using 750 words for my daily writing. The stats and cute badges are motivational!

I also needed a nice, long break from writing after NaNo, but I think I'm ready to start writing again. I have a lot of plotting to do before the new year..

Twine is an open source alternative for writing non-linear fiction for web or offline use that outputs to an HTML file you can do whatever you like with.

Also has several languages you can use for styntext/formatting/options. So you can make a story that has a table of contents, legal, about, and author blurb on their own side links and then have one chapter lead to the next lead to the next with occasional links here and there to expand on concepts that you don't want to break the main narrative for, or you can go full on branching paths stat systems and randomizer on.

The big thing twine has over inklewrite even beyond 'it outputs to a file that is YOURS' is it gives you a visualization tool that allows for more options on how to do things, such as creating special passages for specific formatting bits, or housing variables at the start of the story, or edit the CSS of a story so the html file has a specific look (like it look like something out of mac's hypercard, or have 'picture' above passages tagged for specific locations rather than having to do it manually.

It's a very flexible thing. I mostly like it because of the fact it works offline and naively for mac/windows/linux rather than simply being a web app. My home connection is not the most stable in the world.

I'm still choosing between plain old Word (well, OpenOffice in my case) or Scrivener. But knowing me, it'll probably be Scrivener. It has a build-in fullscreen modus without distractions.

If you want just a blank page and a cursor (without being able to change anything, like font or writing in italics or such) you could try DarkRoom (or WriteRoom if you're on a mac).

I was reading an interesting book called The War of Art. It mentioned that we often feel mental resistance to doing things that are important to us. Often, the more we want to do something, the more resistance we feel.

I'm hoping NaNoWriMo will help me with that. It will encourage me to just show up and not pour some of my identity into writing. How the writing goes doesn't determine whether I'm a success or failure.

One book written specifically for NaNoWriMo writers that I've enjoyed is Fast Fiction, by Denise Jaden. I used it last year when prepping for NaNo. It focuses largely on developing your characters, setting, and plot from square one.

This year, I am reading The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, and On Writing by Steven King, which are not specific to NaNoWriMo but offer exceptional tips for writing in general. These two books are more about the style and quality of storytelling than helping you plan your story.

I read something (I think by Neil Gaiman?) where he says that quality always comes with quantity. Come to think of it, I think Stephen King says this in On Writing as well... The more you write, the better your writing will become. Sure maybe the first 5k are mheh words, but if you keep working, then maybe the words between 10k and 19k or 20k and 27k will be fantastic ones. Stories are usually pretty random and full of holes in a first draft too. As you revise, you will tighten up those slack sentences, and remove words/sentences/phrases etc that have no purpose being there.

When it comes to number 5, I've honestly decided to eschew the outline. I've been sweating for the last week or two because I have a premise/situation I like, but I don't know where it'll go. It's putting unecessary pressure on me, especially considering the goal is to finish, not to finish well.

I read On Writing to get myself pumped for tomorrow, and King recommends focusing on situation over plot. That is, to start with a premise that is interesting and engaging, and let the story unearth itself as you write about the situation. That makes sense to me. I'm far more excited to trap my protagonist and make myself write him out.

I had some trouble deciding which story to do, and settled on a story that had some problems (stakes not high enough, not sure about the ending, and it's an 'another world' type story where most of the details of the plot in the other world was unknown to me).

Between yesterday's outlining and today's drive to work, I came up with something I really like, that ties together nicely, raises the stakes in both worlds (and ties them together), rounds out the sub plot, and just feels like it fits and is supposed to be there.

In On Writing, King talks about "unearthing the fossil" that is the story, that's what this feels like. It also changes the way the story is in the beginning, which is why I prefer to have the basic outline before starting, so I'm much more confident I'll have the chance to crank out words without having to alter the story too much afterward.

That, and I have a 9 day staycation planned in mid nov to work on writing. Feeling much better, and will (finally) fill out the novel details on the nano website later today.

When I read Stephen King's book "On Writing", this was something he brought up and I remind myself consistently when writing. If I remember correctly, he said to disregard the belief that you should not use 'said' as much as possible but actually use it as often as possible. Using other identifiers like 'ask', 'replied', 'retorted', etc. draws attention to itself and get in the reader's way on a subconscious level. 'Said' is a word that the reader is familiar with and therefore continues on without giving much thought to how much the author actually uses it.

Something that's stuck in my mind and helped me not worry about it too much.

It's an android app called Writeometer. I love it because you can set writing alarms to go off whenever you want a little push to get the day's writing done. Also, it has a thesaurus and pomodoro timer.

I've uploaded it here IT's editable, fyi, because I'm not sure all the charts translated perfectly and some of it might have to be fixed, but the main part works well (Except that it thinks its 2004, but that has never bothered me)

I've got an epic spreadsheet going in Google Docs with this year's progress, NaNo's targets, my own targets, last year's progress and a couple of graphs.

Have a look.

Oh that's really cool!

One thing worth adding: we tend to use the Interplanetary Transport Network (wiki), rather than direct Hohmann or bi-eliptical transfer orbits in practice. Generally this means a much more fuel-efficient trip, but it'll take much longer to reach the destination.

I suspect that for a crewed mission to another planet, we'd very likely go with a traditional transfer as shown on that link, sacrificing the extra fuel requirements in exchange for a shorter (and thus, safer) journey for the crew. But if you're dealing with exploratory probes, just be aware that there are slower techniques that are more frequently used.

EDIT: Fixed link

I use Notion (free for personal use) to write early drafts and go back to edit later on a pc. A couple months ago /u/lixah shared a really good Nanowrimo template, and I've been using that just to work on fiction projects in general.

Link: [https://www.notion.so/Novel-Template-Duplicate-Me-129e46e837214a04addc5eef663ed8e4]

Already retconned it. Now working on another story, just Shepard and everyone blasting around the galaxy, dealing with the fallout from ME3.

> I thought it might be helpful for some writers who may have hit a block in the quality of their writing.

For some writers, this is absolutely true. Some people honestly can't do the format of NaNoWriMo because they're slower and more precise about their writing to such a degree that they write excellent first drafts that need little revision. The biggest problem with posting this here (rather than r/writing, perhaps) is that you're giving this speech to largely the opposite kind of writer - the kind that writes a trash or "okay" first draft that needs to be highly edited. Worth noting, also, that you cannot go back and edit a piano performance.

Further, this was taken from Ray Bradbury Gives 12 Pieces of Writing Advice to Young Authors :

"Begin your writing life... by cranking out 'a hell of a lot of short stories,' as many as one per week. Take a year to do it; he claims that it simply isn’t possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row."

And that's another key difference (as a prior, failed pianist) between piano and writing. In NaNo, you're writing about 3-4,000 sentences in a row. And some of those sentences are complete and utter garbage. But I would extend Ray Bradbury's point: it simply isn't possible to write 3,000 horrible sentences in a row.

A song on the piano, however, is more akin to this short story example. Is it absolutely possible to play 52 songs on the piano horribly? Yes. (Because I've played probably a few hundred songs, and none of them have sounded good since "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.") And again... you can't revise a song once you've played it.

Thanks for commenting! Here's the direct link to the free-to-download Beta https://gumroad.com/l/firstnovelapp which has more information and a screenshot.

My biggest problem with winning NaNoWriMo and writing in general has been that I tend to overthink what I type, think it's not good enough, and revise/erase before I even start to build a momentum. I created this app to help me complete a novel. Writing is split into snippets and once a snippet saved, it can't be edited or deleted. This means that I have to keep writing until I finish the novel.

If you like ambient noise check out Soundborb too.

The site has not changed an ounce in 15 years or so, but the software's pretty nifty. I ran the ocean one for about eight hours and recorded it in Audacity so I'd have something nice to listen to on flights.

I've been doing NANO for 8 years. I've only finished 1 time and it was 5 years ago. Some years I only make it a couple thousand words. This year I'm at 27,000 and on schedule to complete.

Many of those projects I did go on to do more with. At least one of them is actually now '50,000' words. For me, Nano isn't about finishing on time: it's about getting as much of the book out of your head and onto the page as you can. If looking at the numbers is making you feel terrible then STOP LOOKING AT THE NUMBERS. Do some timed word sprints, like switching to the Pomodoro method, or try doing Word Wars (or Fifty Headed Hydras).

You GOT this.

I have most of the story planned out in my head, and I've always pantsed NaNoWriMo, I just didn't write for the past few days, litteraly zero words. I've written 3k before in a day, It isn't that bad with places like writeordie helping me out. However, I see your point. Since my stoy is set in the near past (think 2013) I could take some time to see what the global news of the day was before writing more. Thanks for the tip! :)

If you're still having issues getting words on the page, try using Write or Die. It's a website that let's you set a timer and word count for each writing session and once you start writing, if you stop, it will play an annoying sound and turn the screen read until you start again, or even start erasing what you've written, depending on your setting.

I use various apps that cut out distractions and I do not look at what I have written, except when I forget where I am at. I do not correct spelling, grammar, capitalization, and I don't try to figure out the best words. I just let the words flow. I make a list of scenes that I need to write and then a list of what happens in those scenes. Then I just write.

I use WriteorDie to force myself to write really fast and not look back. I use ilys so I don't worry about spelling, and just get the words out and word count up. I use FocusWriter also because it helps reduce distractions.

Ahhahah...ha...

Don't tell anyone, but I'm fairly behind as well. I've found Write or Die helps me a lot, I'm able to write 1k words in under 25 minutes. (Not that I'm bragging! I'm still really behind.) It also helped that it was only $10. Try out the web app, it's decent albeit a bit more basic compared to the desktop version, but it's free!

...ugh I'm gonna go write. I wish you the best.

Sigh. I came down with a migraine yesterday and didn't write at all. I'm just about caught up for where we should be yesterday, but that still means I have 2k left for today.

This wouldn't be happening at all without Write or Die. :-/

I don't know about you guys, but I find, once I stifle my inner editor during that first week of NaNo, I become much wordier than usual.

Everything I write has the magic ability to balloon out to a few thousand words if I let it. This is mostly a negative thing.. but I enjoy it.

I'll bet, if you use Write or Die and just let yourself relax into the projects, you'll wind up writing far more than you actually need.

Do you have a wordcount for these papers, or just a page count?

Go to Write or Die. think about one of your characters back stories and just write. It will delete words if you pause too much. When you get a good backstory for that character, go to the next character and do them. Repeat this process until you have an idea of where you would like the plot to go. You can use these words toward your word count.

I’ve found myself using Dabble a lot lately, and will be using it for NaNo. It’s also free for the month of NaNo. It is a lightweight alternative to Scrivener, but also has built in plot mapping. So kind of a lightweight Plottr as well.

https://www.dabblewriter.com

I’m also part of a writing group on Discord that’s doing NaNo this year. We chat about tools, prep, have sprints, and generally just help each other out a lot. Feel free to join us over there to chat about it all.

https://discord.gg/c5SS53Gf

I didn't quite finish the story. I was getting there, but then I realized I needed to add a few chapters. Then the new year hit. My edits slowed down, i got busy/distracted, and now a year later my story remains unfinished. You can read the first half of the largely unfinished story here. I should get around to adding the rest of what I wrote. (9 chapters are up on wattpad, out of 17 mostly-written, out of 18 originally planned, out of 21 probably ideal chapters.)

I'd like to recommend Notepad++ with the autosave plugin.

Slightly less crude, but still more than crude enough. :)

Stuart Senner is a model Legionnaire - highly skilled with magic and mortal weaponry, intelligent and able to follow orders. After a civil war almost destroyed the Circle, Stuart finds himself as one of the youngest officers in the past two centuries. He is tasked with finding out who has been murdering (seemingly random) members of the Circle. However, being an officer brings with it all of an officers responsibilities. The one he was looking forward to the least was training the new recruits.

Kalinda Vereden is one such recruit. While stronger magically than Stuart (and many of her superiors) she is considered a 'thug' - all strength and no skill. She is determined to show Stuart she can be just as good as him, and also earn a place at Gatherings.

Eddie Slim is/was a serial killer in the late 1800s. In his mid twenties he stumbled upon a necromancer who banished him. He eventually manages to make a deal with the ruler of the plane he was banished to for his freedom, but just because he agreed doesn't mean he likes the idea.

^Sent ^from ^Reditr

I have not the ten dollars for the desktop version, but I actually cannot seem to focus enough on the online version. The music is nice, since I’ve last tried it, but it just has such an uncreative mood to it that I just don’t feel like writing when I’m using it. A very lame excuse, but my excuse indeed. I enjoy looking at the default colors of Writer from BigHugeLabs. It makes me feel like a spy, and the typewriter sounds are so elegantly done. I love it.

Good luck with your NaNo!

There's also Liquid Story Binder, which runs a half price sale every November. If you're willing to put up with the steep learning curve, it's a pretty awesome program for planning and plotting. Also has a nice fullscreen writing feature that I like to use for NaNo.

Personally, I like rum because it mixes quite well with tea. In fact, in Germany that was more or less common at one time, to drink tea with a shot of rum on a cold day. And it also mixes well with cola, coconut milk, and lots of other things.

Whiskey is also quite nice, especially for cola. This might sound like a drink a lot, but I don't maybe once or twice a week, but I enjoy my alcohol, too, so I thought I would post in commiseration!

I use Q10 when I want the type-writey sound. It's a very light program (I keep it on my USB stick), and it has word count capabilities and timers with alarms. It also fills up the screen, so you have the feeling that you can only write and do nothing else. And it's free, of course Here's the link if anyone is interested: http://www.baara.com/q10/

Gingko.

I'm only correcting the spelling because I was unfamiliar with it and went looking. Looks interesting! I may give it a try. I am barely into Scrivener for the first time - it's a bit... intimidating (?).

Edit to add - I plan to give this a try over lunch break today. Thanks for the idea!

I work on again and off again in Scrivener. I really love just using plaintext docs, so Write Monkey is my editor of choice (it even supports markdown). I use Excel for tracking things.

However, I use Scrivener whenever I need a one place grab all look at a story. I copy drafts, notes, and everything else all in one place there. It all depends really. It's worth the trial at least. Be sure to do the first tutorial so you don't get lost.

Go to some write-ins! Camaraderie and word wars do amazing things to your word count. My first year, I was like you. I could just barely make 1667 words in a day. Then I started going to write-ins and I can pound out 5k words in 45 minutes of non-consecutive 15-minute chunks.

Barring that, get a program like FocusWriter and turn on the typewriter sounds! They really help me get into the zone.

Good for you. It took me five years to write my first novel...Gunny Mac Private Detective Trouble in Chinatown. I will say you did a great thing by getting an artist to do your book cove...I have a great artist. My book had 55 edits and most chapters were written at least three times. Yes my second novel, in the series Trouble in Cleveland is 40% complete in just a few months of writing. here is my cover art and book link. http://books2read.com/u/brqZ7e and my paperback link: amazon.com/gunnymac-Private-Detective-Chinatown/dp/1735702609

I'm 41, this will be my 2nd year participating. I'll be 42 a few days into the event.

My book from last year just got published on Amazon (kindle and paperback).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LR37H9D

If you're stuck for plot, I suggest "Steal This Plot" by June and William Noble. Several different plot styles examined with examples. Amazon

The two I have that seem decently detailed (both from the US, so not 100% applicable elsewhere) are:

The Crime Writer’s Guide to Police Practice and Procedure by Michael O’Byrne

Howdunit Police Procedure & Investigation: A Guide for Writers by Lee Lofland

There is also a 'Howdunit' book specifically on forensics that I do not have.

I was listening to Stephen King's book, "On Writing" today and he makes a pretty convincing case that reading is just as important for an author as learning grammar. I think the guilt gets me if I'm behind on my word count and I'm procrasti-reading:)

I've been listening to the audiobook version of On Writing by Steven King and reading some novels in-between writing this month. I'm currently reading Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. They're both purists and stick to 'he said' and 'she said' dialogue tags. I've noticed a trend over the last decade or so—or maybe it was always this way and I only just started to notice—to use 'he said' and 'she said' even for questions. The reasoning is that 'she asked' or 'he asked' is redundant. I won't go that far. To me, it's no more redundant than the standard 'he/she said' dialogue tag, but I am doing my best to stay away from adverbs and not add flourishes to my dialogue tags. It's asked or said, period. Most of the time. ;)

Setting almost always comes first for me. Setting, then situation, then character(s). Those then work together to tell me the story. Plot is what happens during the process more than something I plan. For years I tried plotting things out in advance and it just didn't work for my style of writing. Then Stephen King told me to stop trying to force my story into a plot (not personally, I read it in On Writing) and it clicked that I'd been doing it wrong (for me).

I just finished reading Stephen King's book On Writing and if it helps any, he doesn't go in entirely blind, he just goes in with what's in his head. Which might be an idea for a scene or a character or even the general idea of a story, but mostly when he talks about not planning it's in that he doesn't outline and do character sheets and whatnot. So I wouldn't stress too much about coming up with ideas at this point; that just means you're excited to start writing, and it's that enthusiasm you need to hold onto.

'The power of friendship'

Can I get a hell yeah? I'll be dead in the ground before I wrote a book where that's not a central theme. My other themes this year include light and darkness (the literal kind, not the ethical kind) and duty vs. freedom.

However, I'd suggest you don't worry about it and write what you know. It's a common saying that you don't really know what it is you're writing till you've finished writing it. I think it's in On Writing by Stephen King, where he talks about how he'll write a first draft, read it through and notice recurring themes, then do the second draft with those themes in mind, attempting to bring forth the themes he wants and get rid of anything that might confuse the message.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott - It's such an inspiring read. Paper notebooks and pens (lots of pens - they tend to disappear) because in a natural setting it's nice to leave the technology at the cabin. Battery operated lantern - to write by when you become inspired in the middle of the night and don't want to wake your bunk mate(s). Happy Writing! =)

I think you will find that the story will write itself. Many, many successful writers begin with nothing more than a main character and setting. Stephen King talks about this in his book, On Writing. Check it out. I bet it will make you feel better and also give you some good tips.

I actually read On Writing but somehow managed to forget this. I didn't make my goal yesterday because I just kept going back and fixing little things. When I write later on today I'm going to try to not look back at all. Thanks for the advice!

Stephen King's On Writing is my favorite, though I'm not exactly a connoisseur of writing guides. Strunk and White I found to be basically unreadable.

The problem with Pinker is, as I said, that he is too verbose. His book The Better Angels could have been made twice smaller with minimal loss of information. That said, just because a person's style isn't good - and in just my opinion, at that - doesn't mean he has nothing relevant to say about the psychological and linguisitic factors that make for an engaging text.

tl;dw:

1. Use the NaNoWriMo forums
2. Use a binder to keep your thoughts together
   1. http://www.the-writers-craft.com/ has some worksheets available
3. Read Books on Writing
   1. No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
   2. On Writing by Stephen King
   3. Write Your Novel in a Month by Jeff Gerke
   4. Any books from Writer's Digest
4. Look for writing videos on youtube
   1. Library of Sara and Katytastic
5. Make a Plan

I'm actually reading Stephen King's On Writing right now. But yeah, I'll probably end up reading fiction soon enough. What else am I supposed to do after I finish my day's writing? I can't watch tv; I'm so far behind on most shows that I'll end up spending November trying to watch ninety odd episodes of tv instead of writing.

This is my first time doing NaNo seriously (beyond just signing up) and I'm starting to feel like I have no idea what a novel IS.

I finished my last book at 12:30 am in the first and have only been breezing through a comic book series (Morning Glories, which has no relation to the subject of my novel), but when I finish it I'll probably pick up Anne Lamotte's Bird by Bird or Stephen King's On Writing, which is awesome.

I have a hard time taking these people seriously when for one, Neil Gaiman himself has written the mid month pep talk and written encouraging comments on his blog about nano, and in Stephen King's "On Writing", King recommends a pace that isn't a lot slower than our 1667/day.

I've probably recommended it on reddit before, but I'll do it again. Stephen King's "On Writing" has a great section on the whole second draft process. He has this philosophy that the first draft is "writing with the door closed" not caring about readers or critics or editing. It's just for you to pull the thing into the physical world.

Your next draft is when you start to write "with the door open", where you start cleaning it up and actually considering how it reads from an outside point of view. It really helped me out, personally.

A sequel to my self published urban fantasy novella Merchant Magician (https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Magician-John-Champaign-ebook/dp/B08VHL5YH5/).

The first book was a coming of age story about a 23 year old man who was establishing himself in a trader family of mystical goods and services. It incorporated real world negotiation theory.

The sequel will be about his younger sister's coming of age and will explore the economic value of friendship.

I'm usually working on more than one idea at once so I got a notebook binder like this one with refillable pages and dividers to keep things organized

I have an outline for my project, but my current ficus is on editing and publishing my current book.

It's due out at the end of October (Halloween Highlights), so I'll start focusing on my NaNoWriMo project then...

The guy that started it (Chris Baty) wrote a book called No Plot? No Problem! -- you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Problem-Revised-Expanded-High-velocity/dp/1452124779/ref=sr_1_1?crid=277JLNJOANZX3&keywords=no+plot+no+problem+by+chris+baty&qid=1664087076&sprefix=no+plot%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-1. The book is a good guide to how the process works.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087YW8FQB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Okay I have a thousand word synopsis here for those who requested (and rightfully so) a shorter version to read.

My routine is predictable and works: I think about it during September, outline it and prepare a 30-day binder in October, and do Nano with a bunch of friends in November. We meet on Zoom every Monday afternoon to encourage and commiserate. By December 1, I have a shitty first draft, and I publish it the following year. This routine is helping me get 2 books a year published. Last Nano (2021), I set a goal of 25K words to do 5 short stories. I added that to some shorts already written and published this in 2022: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B46WZ56F/

For my on-the-go writing, I use a Bluetooth keyboard similar to this one with either my phone or an inexpensive Android tablet in the device slot. It gives me that 'typewriter' device feel and really cut down on distractions.

VAMPIRES HAVE ONLY ONE THING PREVENTING THEM FROM DOMINATING THE PLANET. They call this curse Decimus. Joseph has watched the world of man change, grow, and decay for centuries. But, unlike other vampires, he has never lost his attachment to humanity. When he accidentally bestowed his immortal gift to an evil soul, he forswore feeding on humans completely and vowed never to love again. Joseph’s oath is tested by a chance meeting with David, a young human man for whom his heart unexpectedly yearns. However, their passion is threatened by a terrifying presence from Joseph’s past, hellbent on revenge and his utter destruction.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XV65G71

[ ] something to write on / with --- laptop / phone / pen+paper [ ] something to listen to --- http://www.rainymood.com/ or video game soundtracks or mixes I like

That's it, really. Location can vary, but I need these two things.

I prefer instrumental music, or just some good old RainyMood. For instrumental stuff, I like to just sit with the music for a minute and let my mind create a picture. Kind of like a reverse Mussorgsky, with his "Pictures at an Exhibition." Mussorgsky went to an art gallery that was showing paintings by one of his recently deceased friends, and wrote music that he felt evoked the feel or mood of looking at the paintings. He looked at the paintings and thought of music, but I listen to music to think of stories. (More info on "Pictures at an Exhibition" if you're interested.)

Here's one of my favorite songs for this kind of activity. It just feels like things are happening. This artist is a favorite of mine for writing.

You could start here to see what is available. https://alternativeto.net/software/bibisco/

Maybe try oStorybook or Manuskript. They include the world building plot outlining features, and have somewhat better formatting options than Bibisco.

I've actually been using Google docs for my book ^^' haven't found a good alternative for the collaboration option, but if you're willing to do some extra work I think that [Atom](https://atom.io/) has an instant collab feature where multiple people can edit the same document at once; haven't tested it myself though...

Not sure where to post this, but the writing tools page in the about for this subreddit seems to list Scrivener as not having an iPad app. It does now!

Also, Notion is really great, and I may actually use it this year. The template posted by another Redditor is great, but there are some other good ones too if people want other options. The big overkill one is this one:

https://www.notion.so/LRG-Writing-Project-Template-PT-1-V2-3ebf2fad209e49dcbf53aed226ab8ad3

At the bottom, there’s a link for a companion worldbuilding addon template too.

Here's the advice I give to everyone struggling with wordcount: use the Most Dangerous Writing App (or something like it). It forces you to spew out the words. I can hit the nominal daily word count goal (1667) in an hour. With a bit of discipline, 5k in four hours would be no problem.

If you're really set on getting through this thing, and you really mean it when you say "Screw the plot. Screw consistent characters. I'm going to bullshit all of it," then give this a try. It can be scary, but it's a sure way to get lots of words down.

https://www.squibler.io/dangerous-writing-prompt-app

That's awesome! I've made very little progress recently, but just discovered writing for hubpages... Does anyone know much about it? Sorry for the shameless plug!

Hubpages.com/literature/covid19-the-experience-of-a-lifetimewould appreciate your feedback!

I'm so happy! I'm halfway also, although I'm going for 5 short stories @ 5K each for 25K. Last year, I wrote a novel and published it August 1 this year. It's good! It's not crap! Nano rules.

I say write maybe 1-2 hours a day and try to do this every single day. If I'm in the zone and my story is flowing, I can bang out 2667 words in about and hour. But most of the time, it's not like that so I take closer to 2 hours. But I always aim for 3k words a day. It might not seem like much, but those couple hundred words add up.

And of course, you're going to have some days where you write more, and some days where you write less or none at all (Thanksgiving is a notorious dead spot for me since in the last few years, I've basically written nothing during that entire weekend, not just that day) so you're going to need all those extra words in the beginning.

But for me, I don't write faster as the month goes on, I get slower. And my motivation usually ends up waning around that time so it really helps me to be industrious in the beginning to tie me over at the end.

What does help is not sitting down and writing all 2667 words one sitting. I do most of my writing like that, but I also write on the go a lot too. Any time I have spare time, I'm tapping away at it on my phone (normally, I would be playing some stupid mobile game). And I attend write-ins (great for keeping focus!), or I hit up the local coffee shop/Starbucks for a change in scenery. If I'm feeling really hard up for words, then I do Write or Die. You set a time limit and a word goal and you start writing. If you stop for very long, it starts deleting your words. You'll be surprised at how punishment based writing works. Just don't expect your best work while you're under pressure -- but that's what editing and the month of December is for.