Congratulations! This is an accomplishment. ? Today I challenge you to write a minimum of twelve words. I was struggling yesterday to really get into this story. My word count is good is at 3,665 but... I think today I am going to find some writing prompts and use those. My goal for the day is still 2,000. Keep writing today!!!

Let's do this! ?

Good Morning fellow NaNo's. The day is here for us to officially start writing! Woo hoo! My goal for the day is 2,000 words. I like the higher number because I know there will be a few days during the month when I will likely not get any writing done because of other commitments. Good luck everyone!!

So my MC has shared with me today that she is not a 30-40ish woman in a bad marriage but rather a 17 year old in a bad family situation. Any planning I had is out the door. But I'm actually feeling excited about this new revelation. I'm ready to start writing today! lol

@vmsurbat1 @Ravin I will look at your link later when I have more time. Last year I incorporated a couple of tricks that I learned about either from a similar NaNo post or picked up somewhere else online. The first one was to include a quote or song lyrics somewhere in your story if you are struggling to make your word count for the day. This worked perfect for me as my character was at a funeral. I added the lyrics from Amazing Grace. The second was to write a goodbye letter from your MC to your antagonist or another character. This was awesome. I think my letter gave me my full word count for the day. ETA: The only way I have found to get back to this "club" is to click on the link in my notifications.

@Pen I may have to spend some time at the library or Starbucks this year. I tried the library last year though, and I felt more distracted than I did inspired.

Lol. Good question Pen! ? The difference this year is that my son has graduated from PS and is home more often now. His full time job has turned out to actually be somewhere between 25-30 hours a week with at least two days off between M-F. Dd and I have (had) a routine-while she is doing her independent school work, I am writing or doing something else. Now that he is here, he thinks that time not spent directly doing school with her is quality time for him. He is what we call a "Chatty Cathy" and thinks that all of my "free" time is for him. ? Love him to death though. lol

I am having a terrible time getting motivated. Actually let me rephrase that, I am motivated but I have a child who has been extra needy with my time. He keeps robbing me of all of my extra energy. I have some health issues, and they have also decided to flare right now which hasn't helped at all with the energy level. ?

Your cover looks good! I should do the same but I would end up spending to much time playing around when I should be writing. ? i'm hoping to get some writing done today but I have several errands to run and dd wants to go shopping. Fingers crossed...

This year I really want to focus on writing better in addition to the word count. So I spent yesterday studying Motivation & Reaction Units (MRUs). I plan on going back over some previous free writes today and rewriting them using the MRU technique. I'm hoping the practice will help me to utilize the technique naturally during NaNo. I'm sure it will take a lot more practice than I will be able to get done before 11/1 but at least it is a start. Pen-where are you finding the pre NaNo experiments?

I have not heard of this before. I will take a look. Thanks

I am just amazed with how writers are able to create these whole extravagant worlds. The details are just crazy. I on the other hand will stick with this world. lol Have fun!?

I try to listen to podcasts when I am cleaning the kitchen, cooking, or doing something else where I can't actually be writing.

Today I hope to continue working on character development today.

I think they have stuff available on the NaNo website if you look. If you want to go all out, I think you can signup to be a regional rep in your area and they will send you some stuff to promote NaNo. Again, look on their website.

Good for you! This is a big task to take on. I hope that you find some new writing friends!

Good morning everyone! I have found that inspiration for me often comes best in attempting to inspire and be accountable to others. I am starting this thread in the hopes of touching base with everyone on a daily basis (hopefully) to see what their day looks like. This will become more of a challenge as we get further into November but let's try to check in when we can. I was listening to a podcast last night by DIYMFA and took away a couple of things that I want to share. 1) Write something every day even if it is only one sentence. This will engage the creative side of your brain and help you to form a habit. Obviously during NaNo, we will need to be writing more than one sentence if our goal is to hit the 50,000 words. So starting today, I challenge everyone to write at least one sentence until November 31st. The sentence does not have to be something extremely creative and perfect. It does not have to be related to your NaNo project for the next thirteen days. (I do try to write every day personally whether it be a prayer, brain dump free write, or some form of creative writing.) 2) Writing prompts are an excellent tool because they force us to write outside of our comfort zone. I often use writing prompts, but I will admit that I scroll through until I find one that appeals to me and then free write. DIYMIA says I am doing it all wrong. I need to find a writing prompt that scares me a little and then write. A good way to do this is to use one of the random online prompt generators and use whatever it throws at me. I have heard in the past that this is also a good tool to use during NaNo when you are stuck. Find a good prompt and write your character out of the situation. My day is jam packed today. I have already done my prayer and brain dump writing. I also need to help my son complete a resume. My goal is to spend some time working on my story line or character development for NaNo at some point today. What is everyone else's goal for today?

I was you three months ago. ? I have since purchased tickets twice through Vivid Seats and have had no issues. Both sets of tickets were outside of my state and for big events. I looked at purchasing tickets from Stubhub but found better seats on Vivid. I would have no calms purchasing from Stubhub though.

Lol. I meant that I use my pen name of Mandy67 on the site.

I use my Pen name on NaNo. And yes, you can copy and paste between pages and scrivener

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/download Here is a link to the free trial. https://nanowrimo.org/sponsor-offers Here is info for the discount. Looks like you enter NANOWRIMO as the coupon code. You can receive 20% off regular or 50% off if you win NaNo. Last year when I did the trial offer, I seem to recall using the coupon code allowed me to extend the trial period until after November 30th. However, I am not sure if that is the case again this year. I have a Mac and I use Pages for my every day stuff and Scrivener for writing. Is Pages not free on your Mac?

I would be.

You do not have to participate in the forums at all if you choose not to. You could check your area to see if you have a local chapter close by. Ours has some fun events throughout the month including write-ins at public places. There are always teenagers there in addition to adults. Our group is largely made up of women with one or two men showing up occasionally. When you submit your word count at the end of the month, NaNo's computer system turns your novel into "gibberish" essentially so that all it is actually doing is counting the words for verification. Your novel is not kept by them. I really can't think of any con's to NaNo except that it takes a lot of time. If your daughter decides to participate help her to understand that the goal of NaNo is to write 50,000 words during the month. It is NOT to write a perfect book during the month. She needs to spend the month free writing. No editing, no correcting grammar or punctuation at this point, no deleting. She does not need to start writing at the beginning and work her way chronologically through her story until she reaches the end. Her goal is to put ideas down that may translate into something worth keeping once she starts editing after the month is over. If she gets stuck, have her find a writing prompt putting her character into a situation that she can write him/her out of. Sometimes the characters lead us down paths that we had no idea even existed. If she can give herself permission to just write and worry about all of the editing later, she will reach the goal of 50,000 with ease and have a blast doing it. ETA: Take a look at the free trial of Scrivener. I found this software very helpful in allowing to just put ideas down and not worry about the order. It will also allow her to add pictures, quotes, and anything else she wants to help her in her writing. If she wins NaNo, she can purchase the software for 50% off the regular price. And it's cheap to start with. You can find a link on the NaNo webpage under Sponsor Offers.

Are you familiar with Scrivener? They offer a free 30 day trial and if you win NaNo you can purchase it for 50% off. It is less than $50 when it is full price. If I remember correctly, last year they extended the free trial a little longer if you participated in NaNo. I think I downloaded it mid October and then had the free trial until December 7th. I really like this app. I could just start writing and then worry about organizing later. You can find it on the NaNo page under Sponser Offers. The Scrivener website has a lot of tutorials that will do a better job of explaining how it works than I can.

Anyone looking for writing buddies or accountability partners? You can find me on NaNo as Mandy67. Last year on day one I just started free writing. No actual direction. I just a conversation with myself about the fact that I wanted to do this and brainstormed ideas. i did have a basic idea of what I wanted my story to be about beforehand, but I had no idea how to put it on paper. So for those who state they don't know where to begin, just start getting words either on paper or your computer. It doesn't matter if what you write on day one is the beginning, middle, or end. It doesn't matter if it actually makes it into a finished book. It only matters that you start. Don't edit. Don't rewrite anything. Leave all of the mistakes and just write. All writers will tell you that the first draft is only for themselves and tends to be total crap. It was so rewarding last year to hit that 50,000 mark, but I bet of those 50,000 words probably only 5,000 are actually words worth keeping. If even that. Lol.