It was not an easy journey, not for a lot of us. Even if we finished our word count ahead of schedule, some are still trying to finish the story line, and others are entering the world of editing – something we (ought to have) fastidiously avoided for a full 30 days.

It’s scary.

Well, maybe not for everyone, but it is for me.

My biggest challenge in December, writing-wise (because naturally trying to stay sane in the Christmas season with two kids, a husband and a cat keeps me busy) is going to be finishing my story. After that, I have big, fun, scary adventure goals – editing, which after nine NaNoWriMo’s I have actually never done, and then publishing. And hopefully selling.

Have you found the Big, Fun, Scary Adventure Challenge yet, by the way? I have. I’ve posted my goals there, but for some, me included, that big forum with hundreds and thousands of people posting, it’s a little impersonal.

So hey, in the spirit of adventure, I’m going to share with you my Big, Fun, Scary Adventure plans for the next year. Last year I had three – to post a weekly video of myself (which lasted a week), to doodle every day (which lasted about four months), and…um…something about writing more. Didn’t happen. But this year people asked me about the challenges I’d set for myself, and I felt something.

Guilt. I felt guilt. Because I had tried, but not managed it. So this year, I have that guilt driving me. I also had another idea…my ideas, they weren’t big and scary enough. They were manageable, had I kept at them, but I didn’t have to fight for them.

So this year, I have a couple BFSA’s I want to share, and if you’re interested, I want you to share yours, too. Then next October, when we’re gearing up for NaNo again, we can hold each other accountable.

Nicki’s BFSA’s for the 2012 season:

• To finish, edit, and publish my 2011 NaNo Novel, Esther Goes Outside
• To write two more novels (Camp NaNoWriMo, here I come!), edit them, and publish them
• Get no less than 100 people to tell me they don’t want to buy my novels (go ahead, ask me why!)
• Keep our region meeting monthly throughout the year, every month until next November, with no less than five people in attendance each time

Hrm…have I bitten off more than I can chew? I don’t know – but NaNo and Chris Baty have taught me one thing – if I can do this, there is unlimited potential to what else I can pull off. And this time, heck, I have a whole year!

So congratulations for giving NaNoWriMo a shot – you rock, and you are my hero. Rock it on a little harder throughout the year in honor of Chris Baty with me.

Let me share!

Write or Die! - I bought this two or three years ago for $10, and it was the best $10 I ever spent. What it does is simple – based on your parameters it will take your goal and time limit and keep you on track. It will delete your words if you stall too long in Kamikaze mode. It will play the sound of babies crying or wretched violins. And when you meet your goal, there is the lovely sound of trumpets cheering you in your victory!

Why does this work for me? I’ll be honest – I do not know. Perhaps it’s the very real threat of a deadline and certain doom if I do not keep typing. It frees me from my inner editor better than any other method I’ve found.

And yes, the writing might not be as good as if I agonized over every word, but that’s not exactly what NaNoWriMo is about, now, is it? So I pulled this out of my box so I could get the words in without worrying so much about the content. It got my story to where I need it to be to make it interesting for me again, and it was even almost painless!

Yarny – This is an alternative to some of the other novel-writing software out there that you have to install. Personally, I tend to drown in all the options of those other software programs. Yarny gives you some options to combat this. You can create what they call Groups and Snippets. Groups, in my case, act like chapters. The Snippets like scenes. I can tag them which is super convenient because I’m already used to doing this in Gmail and Evernote, and so I tag them with people, events, and the date I wrote them on.

Really, the only downside to Yarny is that it is entirely online (for now), and if I don’t have access to the Internet I’m stuck trying to remember what I wrote last and how to tie it together later when I realize there’s a hole. On the upside, not only can you export all your writing (backup, backup, backup!) into a text file, but they’re working on an offline version for the future.

I am really digging this as a tool because I can set my word count goal (actually 75,000 this year), all my writing, no matter how it’s segregated, gets added to my total word count, and I don’t have to hit any extra buttons to see said word count – only move my mouse to get out of full-screen, no-distraction mode. *squee*

Netflix - Creativity-sucking media as a writing tool? You may think not – but I was surprised at the pull my favorite television series had when I thought about not being able to watch it until I was finished! So yes, Netflix was my reward at the end of tonight, and man it felt good.

So what kind of tools are you using? I’m interested! I don’t have time to learn them all, but if you have some goodies you’d like to share, let us know!

It’s a double whammy in the world of Nicki.

Well, is everyone ready yet? NaNoWriMo is a mere six days away. Our regional Kick-Off Party is even closer – four days! I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to Sunday when I plan to persuade my dear husband to let me sleep until noon. Who really needs clean laundry on Monday, anyway?

The party Saturday is going to be stellar, not just because of all the goodies I’ll be bringing with me (new stickers, anyone?), but because of all the goodies you guys are bringing! People have offered to bake and bring brownies, apple crisp, cookies, and a couple mystery desserts, drinks, sandwiches, cookies, chips, and other yummy noms. So don’t worry if you haven’t had lunch yet, or have a wait until dinner. We will sustain you!

(Thank you, awesome people who have offered to bring noms, by the way! It’s totally not required – they’re all just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, and willingness to help out. I luff ewe!)

Also, I have a nifty surprise for folks who have never heard Chris Baty speak. Unfortunately I couldn’t get him shipped Express Mail in time for the party, but I do have a very cool, inspiring something-or-other for everyone to watch. It gives me fuzzy knees just thinking about it!

And if you are able to come, please be sure to remember your new pen and notebook for the exchange!

Um…well, there are a ton of things still to be done in the Ivey household before Saturday, so I’m going to keep on getting organized. See you on Saturday, or at the first write-in, or on the forums, or on Facebook (if it ever starts playing nice), or on Twitter!

Where:  Eastern Exterior Wall Systems conference room
When:  Saturday, October 29, 2011 – 2-5 p.m.
What to Bring:  (1) blank notebook and (1) new pen
RSVP:  On the forums, if you could please!

The event will be friendly for all ages, Young Writers included. You may bring a guest, non-writers included, just let me know when you RSVP if your guest is a potential WriMo or not.

We also have several Write-Ins scheduled! But not all of them – I will also be scheduling Sunday write-ins. This is not the be-all, end-all of write-ins! You may host write-ins, or simply let me know when you will be at a particular location and I will add it to the Regional Calendar! Because there is only one of me, I can’t make it to every single Write-In. But I am trying to schedule a wide variety of locations, so hopefully one of these works for nearly everyone.

Keep an eye on the schedule, and please let me know if none of the scheduled events work for you, but there is a day/time that would. I really want to get as many folks involved in getting out to write with others in our region, because a little group writing can be a great thing!

I’ve paused my Questions of the Day on the forums for the moment, merely because I don’t know when things are going to go down. So when the site comes back up in its new and glorious awesomeness, you, my fellow Lehigh Valley WriMo’s, will have some catching up to do!

I’ll be posting updates here as I have them to give you – like the new awesomeness of the website release, our new forum location, all the goodies you’ve come to know and love. I’m also posting tweets of posts, and stuff on Facebook.

If there is anything you want to see or need more information on and you can’t get to the forums, this is the place! I’m around almost all the time.

It’s all so exciting – I can’t wait for November!

*cough*

Evernote

Right now, Evernote is my tool for…well, everything. There are these nifty plugins for my browsers, so I can clip parts of or entire web pages. There’s a Windows version, a Mac version, and mobile versions. And the best part? Free.

Love it!

I’m using it to organize my ML duties and a lot of materials for work, and a ton of images and stuff. I love it because it syncs between work, my two home computers, my iPod Touch and the Internet. So it’s everywhere, whenever I need it – even when I don’t have the Internet available I can add things and it syncs later when Wi-Fi is available (since I haven’t quite crept into the 3G generation).

Dropbox

And then there’s Dropbox. I could use Evernote just like Dropbox, but Dropbox is different. It’s also free (cha-cha-cha!), up to 10 GB that you can earn by inviting others (that’s the link I gave you up there), which isn’t a ton but quite enough for most of my needs.

Dropbox is a folder on your computer. Anything you place in that folder gets synced to the Dropbox website, and down again to any other computers you have the program installed on. So basically, you get to use it as a backup service for your critical documents and images.

…like your NaNo novel!

And even better than that, if you’ve ever opened a file, intending to save it with another name and make changes, but then forgot to Save As before making the changes and clicking save, completely overwriting your original files…yeah, that sucks. But with Dropbox, you can simply stop cursing (or throwing things, or however you express your frustration), log on to your account, and restore a previous version!

Rock on.

Write or Die

I don’t know why, but time limits and being forced to write quickly frees me up every time. When I need artificial pressure, more than NaNo can provide me, I turn to Write or Die.

Free.

There’s a free online version or a $10 desktop version, which I love. Basically you tell it how long you want to write and what your word goal is, and how badly you want to be punished (yes, really) when you pause for too long. Then when you’re done, you just copy and paste your words into your document, and go on about your business!

One little warning about this sucker – play with it before you count on it. I know of several instances where people have lost their words because of a glitch or they didn’t copy and paste first, or they relied on the built-in functionality to send it somewhere, then it didn’t go. It’s happened to me, and whether it’s just user error or a problem with the program, I don’t know. But I still love it, so there you go.

Well! I don’t want to give away all the eggs in one basket (or however that saying goes). I have more writing tools I’d like to share with you, but I’ll leave you some time to play with these. If you don’t use them yet, you’ve got a couple weeks to give them a shot. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Blog of the Lehigh Valley WriMo’s! Here’s how I intend to use this site:

1. To notify folks of upcoming events
2. To notify folks of important posts on the forums
3. To keep conversations going in the off season

More or less. :)

This year I’m the only Municipal Liaison, so the chances of me getting this updated as frequently as it ought to be is not as good as it was last year. But I am motivated – and if there’s anyone interested in making guest posts, please let me know!

But for today – can you believe it? It’s October 1st! There are only 31 days left until November, until we all launch off the starting line and start writing 1,667 words per day (or more, hopefully), frantically pushing aside other obligations to complete our dreams.

Wow. Just…wow.

For those who are interested, there’s a Question of the Day posted in our forums. I won’t post them every day, but since the site reset is scheduled for the 10th this year, I will be archiving answers to re-post on the new site.

I hope everyone feels welcome to post comments, make suggestions, and pitch in a guest post once in a while! I encourage everyone to click that giant “Subscribe to RSS” button on your right – especially if you like getting your blog posts delivered to one central location – or even your email inbox!

At some point today, the new NaNoWriMo site should be up, with all new, clean forums, ready for us to post our little hearts out. Or, you know, chatter when we should be writing.

This year, as an additional fundraising effort, NaNoWriMo will be conducting a book drive. These books will go to Better World Books, which sells them, and a percentage of the proceeds go back to the Office of Letters and Light. If you could, put up flyers at work or school, cull books from your shelves, or put up boxes for others to donate their gently used books. Details of the drive. Currently, I (Erin) am the Bookdriver-in-Chief, meaning I’m coordinating this, but if someone else wants to take over, I’d be thrilled.

I know Nicki and I are both looking forward to another great year with you all. Let’s get ready to wrrrrrrrite!

Not me, certainly.

Rather than spending my September thinking about what I’m going to write about two months from now, I’m going to try to spend my time actually writing. Developing my 2,000/day habit now so when November comes around I won’t be out of practice.

I am also working on ways to make sure my writing takes place in the Cloud. If my laptop tries to pull last year on me, crashing on November 1st, I will be able to gently push my husband aside and commandeer the desktop without too much guilt, and take up where I left off.

Have you started to prepare already? When do you start getting really excited about National Novel Writing Month? And is anyone, besides me, going to try to go to the Night of Writing Dangerously on November 21st?

While you’re waiting, I suggest you check out the past book reviews in Vision, one of my favorite e-zines. Full disclaimer: I’ve written a few of those reviews.

Do you have a favorite writing book? Or one that just didn’t work for you at all? Tell us about it in the comments!