October 19, 2009

A couple weeks ago, I reminded you that It’s NaNoWriMo Time Again. This November marks the 10th National Novel Writing Month, when writers around the world attempt to create 50,000 words in 30 days. Participating the last two years helped me blast past some procrastinating and get moving again.

Help!

Several people wrote for tips on how to actually make yourself write that much. They asked about tricks of the trade, starter exercises, or anything that might help them stay productive throughout the month of November.

In the November Writer Magazine there was a short article about this, and several computer applications were suggested to help you. Here they are, for your perusal. I plan to try a couple of them myself. (Click on the headings to go to the programs.)

Write or Die

This online app at Dr. Wicked.com encourages writers to create a steady flow of prose. You can set a word and/or time goal and choose the severity in the “consequences” mode. (See below for your choices.) The strongest consequences come with kamikaze mode–it starts deleting characters if the user stops typing for too long. (Don’t worry–there’s a pause button if needed.) When you reach the goal you set, a trumpet sounds as your reward! (This online application doesn’t require downloading, which is nice, nor does it require creating logins.) Just don’t forget to copy and paste your writing into a word document when you’re done–Write or Die doesn’t save it for you. You can’t edit in the box they provide–only write new material. The idea is to separate the writing process and the editing process as much as possible.

Here are your “consequences” choices:

• Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
• Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
• Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

Blovel Spot

This is for people who are comfortable writing a blog. The novel is written in a series of blog posts using blogging software. Each chapter or section is published as a blog post. You can’t go back and edit previous chapters so you don’t slow down your progress. CAUTION: your writing goes public with the blog posting. You may not want your rough drafts out there where people can read them. Also, I’m guessing that most publishers would shy away from buying a book that has been published online. However, this could be a great way to warm up for the day, sort of “Diary of My Novel-in-Progress” sort of thing before you start writing.

Dark Room

This is designed for writers who crave a simple writing environment without distractions. (We ALL need that sometimes!) An easy download gives your computer the Dark Room effect. There is nothing on your dark screen but your writing. No other buttons, no way to play games or check email or hear Twitter tweets. Just you and your words until your writing time is over. (Mac users would need to go here for a similiar version.)

If these helps are enough to inspire you, then click over to NaNoWriMo right now and register. You have nothing to lose–and 50,000+ words to gain! Who knows? These applications may work so well for you that they become part of your personal writing routine. If so, let me know!

8 Comments »

1. 

   I just learned of another one this morning, Momentum Writer.

   Comment by PatriciaW — October 19, 2009 @ 11:17 am

2. 

   Thank you, Patricia! I checked it out, and it looks helpful too. I don’t tend to revise until my rough draft is done, but I can see where these programs would really help people who do!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — October 19, 2009 @ 1:47 pm

3. 

   That Dark Room one looks like my ticket….let’s see, instead of working for the past hour, I’ve been on Facebook and my history message boards. I need a Dark Room, or a Solitary Uncharted Private Island…Off to work with me!

   Comment by Yvette — October 19, 2009 @ 7:58 pm

4. 

   Yvette, I hadn’t even thought of that angle. I saw the dark screen as something to keep you from going back and editing (which it prevents), but yes, of course, it would also block out the tweets from Twitter, the Facebook messages, all IMs, etc. That sounds like what we ALL need!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — October 20, 2009 @ 7:43 am

5. 

   Write or Die cracked me up. Honestly though, I’m a slow writer. I write and revise as I go, and make notes for other things I need to revise. I don’t think my internal editor is ever “off” …

   The only place where I truly let loose is my cheapie composition notebook. But I do need to transfer that skill to the computer and this just might be the thing for me. I’ll have to try it out seriously.

   I’ve never done Nano, but one of these years, who knows? I might surprise myself.

   Comment by Vijaya — October 20, 2009 @ 10:47 pm

6. 

   I should probably use the Write or Die too, but for a different reason. I tend to pause too long and think too much about how to say things. I need to go back to when I wrote fast when my kids were little–there was no other choice! And the fast writing was just as good as my slow writing now.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — October 21, 2009 @ 8:23 am

7. 

   Hi Kristi,

   Just to pass on to those who are going to write their novel as a blog, you can limit access to the blogspots from Google. For my teen daughters, only invited friends have access to the blog. That way they don’t have to be concerned with strangers. This might be a good option for those who don’t want to make their novel totally public, but still want to do it as a blog.

   Comment by Beth Mac — October 21, 2009 @ 2:36 pm

8. 

   Oh, Beth, thank you for that note! I was wanting to use the blog format myself, but wasn’t willing to be public with anything that rough. Excellent idea–thank you!! JUST A WARNING: I checked the Blovel website, and you have to publish what you write. So if you want to keep it private, do what Beth suggest and use Blogspot, where you can control who (if anyone) sees your blog. The blog DOES give a freer feeling to the writing, so you might try it.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — October 23, 2009 @ 7:19 am

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