NaNoWriMo Success

I achieved 50k words earlier today. I'm very happy with my success so I guess I want to share some of what I've learnt while writing 50k words in 15 days.

When I started, I wanted to go for the pantser badge which is to write without any planning. however I found that I can write a lot faster and more effectively with planning. Not exhaustive planning but simple point form notes about the story and characters.

I've been trying Scrivener for this NaNoWriMo and I've found that I love it. It works very well with my process or at least the process I have for writing fast for Nano. I've also been using the Scapple note taking / roughing out tool for writers, made by the same people who make Scrivener. I find that it also works very well for the way that I think and write. With these two pieces of software and an appropriate set of rough notes on where to take my story I've been able to be more productive than I ever thought I could.

I've found much to my surprise that I can write up to four and a half thousand words after work. That is a volume I just didn't think I could achieve. Now that I know I can achieve more I'm hoping to be more productive in general. Before anyone asks, no I don't get any kickbacks from this software or anything for endorsing them, I've just found they work exceptionally well for me. End. Of. Story.

Here's to more writing ahead but also more planning to make it happen easier and faster.

A.I. Marin.


Links:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scapple.php

NaNoWriMo Update

It's nearly two weeks into NaNoWriMo and my word count is going well. As of last night (day 11) i was at 35,567 which is a little short of twice the target of 18,333. I'm going to try and catch up to twice the target over the weekend. Overall I'm confident I'll reach 50k by the end of November. I'm actually hoping to reach 80k for a first draft.

I'm writing what i originally intended to be science fiction with an urban fantasy twist but the story has ended up being more like urban fantasy than anything based on science. So for now I'm going to label it Urban Fantasy i might try to bring back more of the science flavour into the story during editing.

For those that are interested, the working title is "Dimensional Parasites". I'm not sure I like it so the title may well change later. The synopsis I listed on the NaNoWriMo site is below.

An accident at a particle accelerator puts physicist Devon Moore in hospital. He wakes up with only partial memories of the accident and a strange woman sitting in his hospital room. She asks what he remembers and offers a warning, someone might come to kill him. She flees when hospital staff enter the room to see to their patient.

Another stranger tries to kill him by tearing him apart but a flash of light intervenes and Devon wakes up in the park outside the hospital in his paper gown and no memory of how he got there. Weak and bleeding he waits on a park bench for his killer to find him again. Instead he is found by a woman in leather and more piercings than a punk rock band. With little choice but to accept the only help that's being offered, Devon climbs on the back of her motorbike.

A small group of conspirators fill him in on what is trying to kill him and how they think he survived. Physicists like Devon believe that string theory unites everything we know about the universe in a mathematical model with eleven dimensions. The accident at the particle accelerator has pushed Devon into the other dimensions, he can see into them and be seen by whatever already lives there. Devon has become a D-Walker of unknown abilities. The parasites from the other dimensions are after him because they sense his powers. Life has changed and this is only the beginning. Devon must survive the parasites and learn to defend himself while a more insidious threat stalks him.

 A.I. Marin.

1st of November, starting NaNoWriMo

It's 8am on Sunday morning the 1st of November. I'm about to start my NaNoWriMo attempt.

I've decided to give Scrivener a go as my writing and editing tool (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/index.php). I've been using MS Word for many years, so I'm kind of curious about other editors and Scrivener is designed with authors in mind. I'm about to start the Interactive tutorial, an investment in time I'm sure will pay off. The better you know your tools, the more you can focus on the task not the tools.

Here goes!

A.I. Marin