Scrivener Trial NaNoWriMo message

Every day I see this message pop up. It’s the Scrivener NaNoWriMo 2009 Trial message. This software is my success story for this year’s National Novel Writing Month.

Scrivener is a Mac native application geared especially towards novel and scriptwriting. It allows easy organization of work into projects, manuscripts, parts, and subdivisions, such as chapters or scenes.

Research notes are kept in the Scrivener as well. The same interface allows not only keeping text in your research section but also images and links. It’s as handy as drag and drop.

Search has a Mac native feel, a la Spotlight.  Start typing in the search bar and the left hand bar immediately responds by only showing subsections (in my case chapters) that have that search word included. In turn, the search word is highlighted in each section. I’ve found this feature especially useful for name use. Don’t want two characters with the same name right?

Search has more than just simple text searching. Here’s a snapshot of the search drop down.

Full Screen mode is nice. A single column down the center of the screen is the initial set up. Configuration is adjustable to place the column, set the column width, and the transparency of the background. Many writers will find this their preferred mode I think. It blocks out distractions well.

Document exporting is robust. Microsoft formats are selectable, as well as PDF, RTF, and plain text. Selection is allowed at differing levels, allowing any part of the document to be exported. This feature allowed easy email off to my wife of the novel.

Scrivener has other features I’ve been enjoying. It doesn’t have a couple of features I’d love though.

• Web publishing
• One click email sending

Will I be purchasing Scrivener at the end of the trial? Right now it seems a sure bet. Its interface is straightforward. There are plenty of ways to customize and export. Support is built in for CSV version management. (computer geeks will get that)

Find the Scrivener NaNoWriMo deal.

Find me as tojosan on NaNoWriMo.

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National Novel Writing Month doesn’t just take place on your computer; it is happening all across the world.  In my case that area of the world is the St. Louis metro. Today we held our first official write-in.

Hosted by the ML, Municipal Liaison, the official write-ins act as way to get a bunch of local are writers in the same place at the same time.  The idea isn’t to hold a big party, though you could have one.  Supporting each other is the goal.

Leading into my first write-in we held a little pre-party.  Folks showed up with food and beverages, and laptops.  Of course, they all showed up ready to get writing. In our case we mostly stayed away from the alcohol, but there was plenty of caffeine.

Music played a big part of our evening. The host provided some selections but a couple of the attendees brought their own as well. Quite a variety of tastes but a lot of fun.  Another cool party was a bit of Firefly flashback.

On the Halloween episode of Castle, the character, played by Nathan Fillion, is getting decked out in costume. The surprise? He’s getting decked out as a space cowboy, ala his character Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly.  It’s a hoot because not only does he recreate that look perfectly, he gives us a bit of the old swagger.  Producers managed to squeeze in a bit of the old Firefly music riffs as well. Needless to say in a room of fans it was riotous and required several rewinds and replays.

Midnight was brought in with another flashback, this time to Thunderbirds.  It was the countdown from the beginning of the episodes.  Again the group went wild with laughter. Talk about a great way to kick off the writing.

Writing commenced.  There were Macs, Dells, HPs.  Laptops and netbooks were involved. Music and chit-chat provided a continuous background for the writing. There was even a bit of a music battle going back and forth at one point.

In the middle of the 2 hours of writing, we had a word war. A word war is where two or more groups compete to have the highest word average for a given period of time.  We set the timer and went to town. Talk about a keying frenzy!!

This encouraging group lead me to about 1500 words in two hours. That’s with talking, laughing, and goofing around.  At the end of two hours, most of us packed up and headed out but this one event will stick with me the whole month.

Planning on making more of these this month.  If you’ve not been to one yet, I recommend you find one in your area and get involved.  Give one a try at least. You might find the writing much easier.

Do you have a NaNoWriMo experience to share?

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National Novel Writing Month is upon us.  As in years before, thousands of would-be authors will sit at their keyboards and attempt to bang out 50,000 words or more. Yours truly will be attempting it as well.

This will be my third attempt. In years past, though I’ve had writing buddies on the nanowrimo site, I’ve not attended in live events, nor had in person writing buddies.  St. Louis though has a large community of nanowrimo authors so I decided to get some face time this year; the hope being that I’ll be more encouraged, inspired and challenged to complete fifty thousand words.

Saturday we had a kick-off party hosted by etoiline. She brought some goodies, captured our names, and set us to mingling.  This Saturday is the Halloween pre-party in St. Louis.  Party will lead into a November 1st writing kick-off.  Hopefully there’ll be room for me in there somewhere. Writing should go till about 2 AM.

Writing will be helped along throughout the month by write-ins all over the St. Louis metro area.  Planning is in the works for write-ins out St. Charles and St. Peters way.

Beyond the face time though, I’d still love to have some extra buddies along for the ride.  You’ll find me on the nanowrimo site as tojosan. Go. Click. Buddy.

What’s your novel?

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Slideshow is from the St. Louis NaNoWriMo Kick-off party on October 24th. Jennifer, @etoiline, organized, while a couple dozen of us showed up to hang out, get some good eats, and chat about our novels-to-be.

Signup was more than just jotting down our names. After recording our names, and forum IDs, Jennifer asked us to create “plot ninjas”. A plot ninja is basically a sentence or idea recorded on an index card. These will be used later to help folks through writer’s block. In exchange for filling out a plot ninja card, novelists received a gift bag.

Conversation wasn’t just about novels. We talked about jobs, current and past. People shared past NaNoWriMo experiences, including what helped and what didn’t. Personal histories were shared as well, such as trips to foreign countries, family stories, and music they love to write to.

A quick survey netted a range of novel themes, from horror, to chic lit, and several folks planning a sci-fi novel. Me? I’m leaning towards horror/thriller. Dean Koontz will be a heavy influence either way.

Next up is the Halloween Pre-Party leading into the first write-in, at midnight.

Can’t wait to get writing!
Cheers,
Todd
Find me on NaNoWriMo and friend me.

Chris Snow may have a genetic disorder and a deadly one at that, but nothing keeps him from being the master of Moonlight Bay at night. Fear Nothing is the story of Chris Snow, his dog, Orson, and their friends as two dramatic days pass in Moonlight Bay.

The story begins with the death of Chris’s father at the local hospital. Chris soon discovers bodies going unexpected places ad well as an unexpected extra body. Of course he takes off on adventure into the night to uncover this mystery.

In spite of being a story that takes place over two days, it doesn’t move very fast. Oh, there is action, including chases, gun fights, and a few deaths, there is a much more in the way of inner conversation. The narrative takes place mainly inside Chris’s head. We see all other characters’ actions through his eyes.

The actions taken by Chris in this story are definitely unbelievable. He may have a genetic issue, but he’s managed to become a successful author, an accomplished surfer, and find a hot lady for a girlfriend. We find he also has an affinity for animals. All of those take him from one act in this novel to the next with him surviving relatively unscathed.

It turns out Chris is not just a bystander either. He’s central in several ways to the plot of the story, not just as the random guy caught up, though until later in the book he doesn’t get that. It seems his friends don’t get it either until the end.

In my opinion, not one of Dean Koontz’s best novels, but still not a bad read. The narrative is slow, and some of the characterization, though wordy, is shallow. The characters leave possibilities open but the way the book ends you’d think things wouldn’t end up well for Chris or his friends.

If you’re a die hard Koontz fan, pick this up. If not, skip this one.

Or how to lose your sanity in 50,000 words or less.

That’s right, I’m going to try this again.  What’s this? It’s National Novel Writing Month, and yours truly is setting himself the lofty goal of writing a 50,000 word or more novel by midnight on November 30th.

Other’s have attempted this feat in years past and have succeeded but I’ve yet to complete one.  Coming alongside to do this I have a few friends attempting it, but will that be enough.  The drama begins today.

As of this writing, I’ve already put down over 1800 words. I’m writing and storing the novel to be in Google Docs.  This will make the story accessible from anywhere I need to work on it, and with any computer.

What does this mean to you?  It means I’m going to be crazier than usual and you can expect to see excerpts here.  You’ll probably be seeing mention of folks you’ve never heard of and things you might not want to think about.

What can you do to help? Read the excerpts. Leave comments. Suggest things to happen in the novel. Want more danger? More sex? More candy? Let me know.  Just be encouraging.

For now, it’s off to the races, and fingers to keyboards. Let novel writing begin.