NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. Upon us(me). Looming. Imminent.
Yikes.
There's so much for me to do between now and November 1st it's not funny. The Painted Queen is thisclose to being a completed first draft. It's sitting at 70k right now. I thought I could wrap up everything around 75k and expand through edits, but it looks like I was wrong-o. (insert le sigh here.) I've taken to writing short snippets (~500 words) that capture the bare bones of the scenes and can be fleshed out later. As is, I've got about 14 of them to write.
Probably time to get crackin'.
Beyond that, I'm really excited to begin the new WIP, tentatively titled Hell to Pay. Like I've said before, it's been driving me crazy. I'm so excited, in fact, I've forgotten how I wanted to open the damn thing. Openings are hard for me. Like many newish writers, my stories usually begin about three chapters beyond where I start them. I'm determined to begin Hell to Pay right where it needs to--only I'm not sure where that is anymore. #fail.
I downloaded a free trial of Scrivener software, mainly because they claim to make the first draft easier (which sounds like an impossibility to me, but I'll give it a go) and offer a discount on the full version if you 'win' NaNo. To be honest though, I'm not sure I'll figure out how to use the darn thing before Nov. 1, so I'll probably just stick to good old MS Word. The concept of Scrivener sounds fabulous, and I'm sure it works for many people, but I'm not sure I have enough patience to fiddle with it when I could be writing away on my normal word processor.
Although, with the new schedule I've set up for myself, I might actually have some free time to figure out Scrivener. Because I'm only writing my thesis and working this semester, I'm really having trouble getting in a routine and many things have suffered because of it. (My jeans, for instance. They seem to have shrank from the spite.) November is my opportunity to adopt a schedule, all while writing furiously.
Basically, in the next 35 hours I need to write 8-10k, figure out Scrivener software, grocery shop, grade 200 papers, do laundry, and drive back home. Not too bad, right?
Oh. Right.
And outline the novel I'm going to write like a madwoman, because it hasn't been done yet.
Crap.
I downloaded Scrivener last year after NaNoWriMo. I really love it. I went through the guided tutorial and started out using the basics of the program.
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm editing my WiP1, I'm going back and reviewing the tutorials on the advanced stuff.
I know a lot of writers say you don't need fancy software, but I do like the organizational aspects of Scrivener - and how it lets you take "snapshots" of passages to track edits. Plus, with the NaNO discount - it was a steal!
I figure I'll get into Scrivener later, maybe after this draft. I really wanted to try and use the trial version for NaNo, but I was so behind with outlining and whatnot that I didn't want to spend time going through the tutorial. Maybe next time, though.
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