NaNoWriMo Day #16: Tips for Accomplishing those Daily Goals

Day Sixteen of NaNoWriMo, and thousands of novelists are still going strong. Some have even finished their 50K word goal.

I've had my good days and bad days, and days in between.

There are a couple of things that help me in attaining my goals.

1. Overall word count goal
Scrivener has a nifty tool called "Project Targets" which allows you to set a word goal for your project. I do this, and set the writing deadline option for November 30th. This year, I've set my goal for 80K words. 

You can also declare some days of the week as non-writing days, which I've done for my Saturdays and Sundays (even though I've done some writing on those days, I treat them as vacation-days, so I don't have to write if I can't or just need a thinking day). 

By setting my overall goal and determining my writing days, I know exactly how many words I need to write per day, and I can watch my word count increase until it fills up the bar and I've reached my daily quota.

2. Mini outlines
I've said before that I don't outline, and I don't. But Scrivener has another great tool, which looks a lot like an index card. This is just a section where you summarize the scene you've created in Scrivener. You find the summary spot in the Inspector under the "Notes" section. You can also view all the "index cards" in order, and drag and rearrange them as you like. 

So instead of outlining, I do this, and then I have a rough idea of where I'm writing to, even if it takes me several scenes to get there. In Scrivener, it's easy to add scenes, so I just continue adding and keep the next "outline point" for a later scene.

3. Scene-by-scene word goals
I'm a goal-oriented person, which is probably why NaNo works so well for me.

In Scrivener, there's a way to set a word goal per scene. At the bottom of the screen, there's a round little target icon, and if you click it, you're given the ability to set the word count for the scene. Then there appears next to the target icon a bar which fills up as you write towards your word goal, going from red, to yellow, to green as you reach your goal. I do this for most scenes after I have an idea of what's going to happen in them, so it serves as a *very* rough estimate of wordage.

I like this because I find it nice to have a goal per scene as it helps me know if I'm being too wordy on a section or if it's too short. (If I can only come with 400 words for a scene, I know it's skimpy and I need to add conflict or another character, or consider deleting it.) I also find that when I pay attention to my scene's word count, I subconsciously acknowledge the flow of reading for the audience. This comes more into play later in subsequent drafts and as I'm editing, often trying to be more concise.

4. Sit down and write
There's really nothing else to say but sit down and write. You'll never be a novelist if you don't do this.

NaNo is great for getting my butt in the chair. It creates motivation where there otherwise might be none, and pressure to get it done in a set time period.


So while this may be the way I work, there are endless ways to write a novel out there.

NaNoWriMo Day #15

Yesterday was the halfway mark of NaNoWriMo 2012. 

And after some furious late-night, while-in-bed, typing-on-my-iPad NaNoing, I surpassed the 40K mark. 

*insert cheer here*

That means to "win" NaNo this year, I have only 10K words left to write in the next fifteen days. The highly competitive side of myself rejoices in this, as I will then have "won" both years I've participated. 

However, this 40K mark also means that I've met the halfway mark of my personal, larger goal. And, right on schedule, too. So in order to make my 80K words by November 30th, I must average 2667 words each day. I have scheduled myself a few days off though, so my writing days end up having a goal more like 3500-3600 words.

These are doable chunks for me. I'm accustomed to sitting down for at least an hour, if not two or three at a time and pumping out words or editing a block of what I've written in that time frame.

But for a lot of people, that sounds like a whole lot of words. Which is why my next post will be about the tools I use in Scrivener to get those words written.

Apps for Writing a Novel

I typically write my novels in Scrivener (on a MacBook Pro), but often, when I'm "on the go," I want to have my novels at my fingertips to edit. I've found a few apps which help in that task, and I thought I'd share. I'm not a techie or even presume to be one. I also hate to spend money on an app that I haven't experienced before, so most of these are free apps that I have found useful in daily editing and writing.

1.) Evernote

Although this is not an app that syncs with Scrivener (maybe one day), it is awesome for impulsive note-taking and jotting down ideas. The app syncs over multiple devices, iPad, iPhone, iTouch, even Mac and PC. You can sync voice memo notes, or save an entire webpage (on your computer), separate your notes into notebooks. These notebooks, you can make into "shared notebooks" or "offline notebooks." (Note: offline notebooks are a "premium" feature, which costs $4.99 a month or $44.99 a year to utilize.) 

You can also tag your notes, and later search by tag if you've forgotten what you've called the note or even if you made a note about it--as long as you tagged it. Also, you can "favorite" a note, which I like to use for those notes that continually come back to, or something that needs attention.

As a non-paying Evernote user, I get 50 MB of syncing/storage per month. For my uses, this is plenty. The only times I've even come close to using this is when I upload a lot of pictures or Internet pages.

In the two years I've used this app, I have yet to pay for this service, and have found it invaluable in making notes for later novels, works-in-progress or keeping track of research.

2.) Dropbox

This is not actually a word-processing app, but a storage app that you can also download to your computer. Then you save your document into the Dropbox folder and can pull up the document on your iPad, iPhone or iTouch later. There's some overlap in iCloud's abilities for a Mac user, but overall, I've found Dropbox to be simpler and, at times, more dependable. If I save a document into Dropbox, the document shows up in the app and I can download it, then "open in..." Pages or Index Card (more on that later).

Now I do physically have to put my files there and keep them updated--Dropbox doesn't do that automatically. At least, I haven't found it to do so, unless you're keeping the original file there, which I don't. I prefer to keep backups or copies on Dropbox and work from them when I'm on the go. I'm still a laptop writer at heart, and that's my preference, as I can type a heckuva lot faster on my MacBook Pro than on my iPad (even though I love it).

3.) Simplenote

This is one of those I-love-but-hate apps. I've found a ton of difficulty in dependability in syncing Scrivener to Simplenote (although it's simple to do.) 

To sync Scrivener and Simplenote, go to "File," then "Sync" and select "Simplenote." From there, you'll need a Simplenote account and password, which you set up online. Then enter your information and give the project a "keyword." This can be anything, but it acts like a folder and tag, so you can compile the entire document in Simplenote on the web or on your iPad. Click on "Continue" and it will talk with the Simplenote server to download your notes on there already, and then it will give you an option to select which files to sync. 

This is the point where I constantly get "Download Failed: There was a problem downloading the notes from the server." Sometimes, if I try again, I can get it to communicate, other times, it's not worth the effort.

If you get past that point, you can select which notes to sync with Simplenote, from all of them, to one, and you have the option to permanently delete files on the server which you choose not to sync at that time. Of course, make sure that you don't need those files, because once deleted, they're gone forever.

Even though I have problems syncing, I can access Simplenote on my computer, my iPad, my iPhone, my iTouch. I always have a backup at my fingertips, and should something happen to my computer, there's a backup in Simplenote. Call me paranoid, but I like having as many backups as I can--especially when they're free.

4.) Index Card

This is one of the few apps I've paid for that I enjoy (current price $4.99). Scrivener allows you to sync with Index Card via Dropbox, and allows you to utilize the summary you write on the card portion of Scrivener, unlike Simplenote. It also allows you to rearrange your scenes or chapters with a quick drag of the finger. Of course, you have to go back into Scriverner and "file," "sync with Index Card for iOS," to make sure you're writing on the same document, but it's nifty once you get the hang of it.

One downside to this is that syncing is not quite as simple as with Simplenote. Instead of syncing and being allowed to choose the documents you want to sync at that time, you have to create a "Binder" section in Scrivener with all the scenes or folders you want included in your sync prior to selecting "sync..." under "file." If you don't, you'll be syncing nothing or omitting some scenes that you might have wanted to work on. 

Case in point: if you create a new scene in Scrivener and don't immediately add it to your Index Card binder by right clicking on the title and selecting "add to collection" and then choosing the correct collection to sync, you're out of luck  when you sync later--the new scene has not been added, and you won't be reminded to do so, either. That's a huge downside for me--I often forget to add a new scene to my Index Card binder in Scrivener, and when I go to sync, I'm not given a list to compare old saves/syncs versus my new save/sync to, and I often forget about a scene. 

As a result, I've learned that you can keep several binders in Scrivener for Index Card purposes (or other purposes, but I don't have a need to at this point). I often create a new one when I'm trying to update my files for syncing because I don't want to scroll through and figure out which files are there and which aren't. 

Index Card on iPad is great though, and I've found it to be relatively bug-free with few crashes (i.e., loss of work). You can color-code your cards, edit the main text or the card summary or title. You can also jump through your text by "word," either forward or backwards, which is awesome to have when writing a novel or short story on the iPad, instead of having to use your finger to painstakingly put the cursor in just the right spot to add that "s" to "sync." It also gives you the quick buttons: undo, -, ', ", ., ◀ & ▶ (allowing you to cursor forward or backwards one character), a "+" button which adds a new scene in your file, and a forward delete button. All of these are great for writing a novel on your iPad, buttons that you'll soon wish you had in Pages or your Messages.

Index Card is a convenient app to have for writing on the go, and I enjoy it for what it is. Just remember to sync back to Scrivener when you've made changes on your iPad, otherwise you'll be working with an old document. 

When you return to Scrivener, you cannot have forgotten to export your Index Card edits to Dropbox, or else all your work will only be accessible via your iPad. You can do that with the nifty little arrow button on the top right of the screen--but it does kind of suck that you have to do this and it doesn't save there automatically. 

And when you go to update your files in Scrivener, you must select "update collection from Index Card file," and all your files are replaced in Scrivener with the newer documents from your iPad.

Although Index Card and Scrivener are tedious to use together, the backup is nice, especially considering how complete a backup it is from Scrivener.


In conclusion:

I don't like to use too many apps. I prefer to keep life simple with ones that work and work well. I familiarize myself with a few and stick to them until I find something better.

These four apps are the free or inexpensive apps which I've found myself returning to time and again for writing on the go. 

There are a ton of other writing apps out there, and I've certainly not tried them all. I've focused on ones that I can use in conjunction with Scrivener, since that's where I do the majority of my writing.

If there are more that I should be using, please feel free to let me know! I'm always up for trying a new app, as long as it's affordable. I'm a starving writer, after all. 

Notes on Editing: Consistency in Timeline and Characters

Copyright Terry Bain:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/axis/

Lately I’ve been increasingly frustrated with my work-in-progress (WIP). It’s like every time I get one problem figured out, another rears its ugly head. 

Perhaps one of the reasons I’m so challenged with my current WIP is because I never outlined when I began writing it. I’ve outlined since my first draft, and plotted endlessly. However, I’ve also made plot adjustments and added new thoughts, scenes, characters, etc. So in the end, I feel overwhelmed by the changes and hopelessly frustrated by the timeline. 

I’ve found one way that allows me to keep this all straight in my mind, and breaks my editing up into shorter chunks, so I thought I’d share. 

1. I’ve broken down and titled the scenes in my WIP by character and select just those scenes in Scrivener.
2. Looking at only those scenes, I read through them--quickly--looking for timeline issues as well as character issues. Is the character of Joe being consistent throughout the novel? Or halfway through, is he showing characteristics that aren’t like him? *By timeline, I mean progression of events as well as dates and times of the novel. In Scrivener, I make comments on the side as I go, notes to myself to return to a certain paragraph or sentence later, or check on a fact later. (Note: I’m a compulsive editor, so big-picture edits are extremely difficult for me.)
3. After a quick review of the character’s scenes, I go through and edit more closely. Taking only these scenes as a whole allow me to read just those events and make sure that everything for that character is smooth and consistent.

I don’t know whether this is an unorthodox solution to timeline issues and consistency in characters, or whether it’s old news. But I’ve struggled to find a way to keep track of important events keeping my characters consistent at the same time. This way, I can compare one scene with another and check for inconsistencies.

Also, it gives me a piece of editing that I can focus on without getting overwhelmed by the entire picture.