ETA for first words typed: 12:01 am, November 1, 2010.
I don’t know about you, but I’m particularly excited about this year’s National Novel Writing Month challenge. Yes, I’m one of the old veterans of the 30 day writing marathon, having started back in 2002, but there’s something different in the air for me this year. It feels like that same electrically charged atmosphere that I experienced in 2002, when Derek first told me about the crazy challenge to write 50,000 words in just 30 days (I thought it all quite mad, you know, but I joined anyway!). I find myself thinking about it at night–always a good sign for a writer–wondering just what characters I might introduce, what the opening scene should be, what names I might use for companies–that sort of stuff.
Today, I woke early, thinking about characters again, but also wondering how to organize them on my PC. I’ve always written my novels on a Mac platform, but since my laptop is a PC, I’m forced to adjust. Yes, we have a terrific desktop Mac that’s beefy and up for any challenge (thanks, Vonster!), and I will do all the layout for the book on that machine (we call it Maxie–what, you don’t name your computers?). However, I’ll write and edit the manuscript on this HP laptop. With that in mind, I rushed to work this morning and began searching for a PC program that would enable me to organize my thoughts and my characters, etc. in a manner similar to the iOrganizer program I used on my old Mac laptop.
Well, I’m happy to report that after downloading several ‘klunkers’, I’ve found a robust little program called ‘The Guide’, which enables the user to organize all your information in a tree structure. It’s brilliant, intuitive, and quite similar to iOrganize.
Ah, now all I have to do is stock up on donuts and coffee beans….16 more days….
