Nothing to write home about

It’s probably best to have some idea what you’re going to write about - but last year I only started planning a couple of days before. I had a rough idea of what I would write in each chapter - but some of the chapter outlines were pretty sketchy.

On the day it didn’t matter - writing at speed helps you keep going.

Once or twice I ran out of ideas and borrowed from life - an overheard conversation or what was in the day’s news worked fine.

Nanowrimo grab bag

Break down your plot into a series of steps

I’ve just found some writer’s software called ywriter - I only downloaded it today but it seems to have everything I need to keep track of my plot and characters, and it acts as a basic word processor.

Also from the Nanowrimo tech forums I found mind mapping software

and another word count spreadsheet - this one has a few more features than mine.

Last year I used this progress meter on my site.