Shortcut for strikethrough formatting: Word: Ctrl+D then Alt+K Scrivener: Ctrl+Shift+- It is THE best shortcut for Nano! I'm gonna be working on my Romantic Fantasy, and I'm determined to finish this year!
I’ve just got to say - the entire cost and time spent at RWA 2018 in Denver was made entirely worthwhile by finding you. The talk was awesome and what you are doing now is helpful to me beyond words. Thank you 🥰🌻🍸
I'm writing a love story for my first NaNoWriMo. It's a lot of fun, and I so appreciate your advice to turn off the inner editor and just get those 50,000 words on paper. I'm also grateful for your advice to map out the story before heading to the word processor. That has been a time saver! And it's put a lot of the fun back into writing for me, because I'm not stressed out. Thanks, Sarra! Love your energy!
I finished reading the relevant chapters in Save the Cat for my Series and took notes. I'm starting the beat sheet while skimming my 2nd draft. I'm writing the 3rd during Nano. I have to have something of an outline. I tried just doing a thought dump last year and work from that and I got 43k in and the story hadn't even started yet. I thought I could pants because most of the time I can do that with my scripts, but not with novels. It's good to learn. My issue this year is going to be actually finding some time to write. Last year was a little easy because my boys were under a year old so I could stay up late and then sleep in the morning after they had their morning bottle. This year they are up between 7:30 and 8:30 and they are awake and want to play and eat and destroy my living room. They are cute so that makes up for the constant cleaning.
I am attempting NaNoWriMo for the first time. I'm pretty nervous, but I feel you have given me some good starting points! It is good to know I am not alone and that I don't need to be intimated by perfection. I AM ALLOWED TO SUCK!
I am excited to join these groups! Thank you for the wonderful ideas. I am going to write book #2 in my series. I was struggling to get it started until I did you notecard method last night. I wrote 30 cards in an hour. THANK YOU!!
I can't wait until November. I want to write the story now but I'm forcing myself to not open the blank Doc. 😁I started writing another story just to not write my NaNo story 😂 I feel I'm going to finish the 50k in 5 days 😂
I love long sprints. I prefer an hour long sprint. Once I get started I can write for a long time, it's just the getting started part that's difficult for me, which is why I don't do as well with shorter sprints.
My first published novel was written in 21 days during a Nano. You can do it. Mind you I finished at the wire and was wiped out and pumped all at the same time. 2 rounds of editing 1- with a writer friend then 2- with my editor. Worth every minute. My tip- write every day. You will build a flow and the words flow more freely. Creative Blessings!
I decided I wanted to write but as I dont have a clear idea of my story yet I decided, on a whim, to take up a Harry Potter fanfic I was writing over 10 years ago and modify it, in a week on small chunks of time I have written over 9,000 words which I find mind blowing. Obviously my hand doesn't like it much as I am writing on paper. Hugs
Great writing tips in general, but along with NaNoWriMo, just the boost I need to start writing my second romance series. Although I'm from the UK, I am in love with this storytelling city! I'll be plotting out the finer details - I do have some unused note cards, so thanks for the tip - and adding detail to my characters this Preptober!
I don't know if I should curse you or thank you for suggesting "Typing of the Dead"! It's so much fun and unfortunately a great distraction! Finally a game I can beat my kids at! And it really does speed up my typing skills.
Nitro Type is an awesome way to increase your typing speed. Over the years my average WPM has increased from about 25 WPM to 80-90 WPM, and I don't even use it constantly. It's also competitive, so you're actually racing against other people.
Love your videos and courses, they've really given me focus! And while I'm grateful for those HS typing classes, too, I find that I write faster and more smoothly (less inner critism) when I write long hand. So, frustrating! Do you have any tips or resources for your pen and paper peeps? Thx!
This is so helpful! I’m mostly a solitary writer, but I’ve been doing sprints with a few friends since the beginning. So I use those sprints for more productivity things, and do personal sprints at other times. I don’t really know why it works so much more on my own, but it does! Also, I can’t do speech to text. It simply does not work for me!
Awesome video-clear and inspirational! Biggest takeaway for me-simply show up. My historical novel isn’t flushed out enough fir me to plan with scene cards or even a full plot-BUT my version of NaNo this year will be to simply do something on the novel each day. Stick with the challenge of daily “devotion” to my book. May not be 50k words...but that Rockin feeling of accomplishment can still be some thing I share in! Thanks for the videos and great HB resources 😁
This is the encouragement I needed today! Thank you.:) I’m hoping to write the reader magnet for my first mystery series during nano ... just have to get through Book 1 edits first!
Hi Sarra! Is it ok for me to work on my second draft during NANOWRIMO? I just finished the 1st draft Wed. night. Can I use a working title as well when I sign up. It has taken me several years to complete this 1st draft because I had 2 types of cancer then a stem cell transplant. I never wanted to give up on the story I wanted to tell. Thank you so much for your videos! I am now a plotter, rather than a panser! Cindi
I like, on the Nano website, the timer function! I don't use the timed timer, like setting a 20 minute timer, instead I set the stopwatch, and then tell myself I'm writing for 20 minutes; when I finish writing for the day, I stop the clock and give my word count.
Never miss your videos! The NaNoWriMo site has changed to a Camp style so we don't have to commit to the 50,000 words. Feel the freedom to write what you can & win while also enjoying the holiday. Will anyone new to writing still go for the 50K?
Not really. You can create a project that starts on 1st November and ends on 30th November and choose any goal you want. But as soon as you make it an official NaNo project, it will change the goal to 50k. To win NaNo, you still need the 50k. Sure, as I said, you can create a project and not make it official but then it‘s not NaNo. For first timers I‘d recommend to still go for the 50k. You‘d rip yourself from a lot of experiences when you stay in your comfort zone.
I have trouble, when I write I tend to only write dialogue and leave out the description... So when I write a chapter it ends up being only 500 words. I figured maybe write all the dialogue first then go back and add the description, does anyone else do this?
Good point. :) Sometimes I get tired of staring at my screen for hours on end, and writing by hand sometimes takes the stress down. I imagine our word count would be smaller than those typing.
I can actually write faster by hand than on the computer. My inner editor is SO much less involved when I write by hand, the words just come so fast. Give it a try and see how it goes for you.
@@steffanidahl6962 previously I used to write by hand. A lot less distractions this way but gotta make sure I have enough paper and ink and such for writing
Dunno which voice-to-text you've used but I heard an interview with Scott Baker about this. You might want to check out his books, The Writer's Guide to Training Your Dragon. He covers how to teach the Dragon Software the idiosyncrasies of your accent - and how to teach yourself the idiosyncrasies of the software.
