NaNoWriMo for iPad owners writers and Authors using dictation software
Taking Part in the NaNoWriMo Contest – A Novel in 30 days using dictation software
Now it is the time of the year for writers and authors to start thinking about the National novel writing month otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. This is where totally crazy writers join in a contest to write a 50,000 word novel in the space of one month. You have 30 days to just get stuck in and create your novel, it works out at around about 1700 words per day. I have never attempted the challenge before but I think that this November, I will give it a go. While I’m using the Dragon dictation software I find it very easy to actually get the words written for the articles that I write. Just looking at my stats for so far this month in October, I can see that I have had an average of 2200 words per day. I expect that it will be more difficult to write around about the same number of words per day, writing prose for a novel, but I am going to give it a try.
Starting with writing an outline for the novel in iThoughtsHD
The first thing to do to get started with this, will be to use the 10 days between now and the end of the month to use the iPad mind mapping software I have, to work on an outline. The mind mapping software that I plan to use will be iThoughtsHD and it is within the rules to have an outline, you can even have some back stories written for your characters if you wish, just so long as you don’t actually start writing the novel itself until 1st of November.
I feel challenged by NaNoWriMo even with using dictation software for faster writing.
I have seen that the organisers do try and help you keep to the program as it were, by giving you challenges on a daily basis. For example they might say in a tweet -okay you have 30 minutes now to do non-stop writing, don’t think about it just do it. Then there might be suggestions such as have your character go into a Starbucks and meet somebody. It will be little things like this, that the NaNoWriMo organisers will be sending out, in order to make sure that there are no writers blocks being formed.
Buying books for the Kindle and free books for the Kindle
I have the Kindle app on my iPad and I have downloaded a few free books that are available. It is nice to know that there are free books for the Kindle for the iPad. There are also free books that you can get to use in the iBooks application on the iPad too. I actually bought a book from Amazon called No Plot No Problem! Which is by the author Chris Baty, who was the person that instigated the NaNoWriMo idea in the first place. Aside from the outline of the Story of how the NaNoWriMo came into existence, there are lots of tips and tricks for the authors and writers that take part in the exercise can use to help them be a winner in the contest.
The risk of bragging about being able to take on the task
Chris talks about how to find time to do the writing. He says that is a good idea to brag to all of your friends before you get started, that you are taking part in NaNoWriMo, so that you are obliged to start it and finish it. The ignominy of being teased rotten and the lambasted by your peers for not being able to finish what you started, is a good motivation to keep your nose to the grindstone with writing your novel.
Will not make a reader vomit
One of the things that is also necessary for completing the NaNoWriMo and being a winner is to first of all lower your expectations of your novel. Even the best writers will tell you that the first draft of any novel is complete shit. All of the work that you do in the rewriting is what turns it into something that is readable. We should not expect to have something brilliant, a 50,000 word masterpiece after one month of writing, but we should aim for something that would not make somebody vomit.
Week by Week plan for NaNoWriMo
After gathering up a stockpile of incentives to make sure that the novel gets written, Chris goes on to talk about how to work out some of your characters and plots. He also moves on to suggest a week by week overview of how you might attack the writing process of bashing out your book. He suggests that the first week might be easy enough with the first flush of excitement and fun of making the characters come to life and actually do something. Then the second week will hit and reality will hit even harder. The allure of various tasks around the house will be almost impossible to resist in a flurry of procrastination. It may well be that at the end of the day around about 11 PM and no writing has been done yet, that you have to dive into throwing out some words just in order to keep up with the word count.
The deadlines and the intense pressure that you put upon yourself to do the 50,000 words within 30 days, is really what it is all about. Without having something like this, it will be a case of always saying – I will do it tomorrow. As we all know tomorrow never comes, the book never gets written and you never have your bestseller.
Using Dragon Dictation software and Scrivener with iPad
I would like to say that I would use the iPad to write my 50,000 words, but that may be a little bit unrealistic. What I plan to do is to use DragonDictate to write my novel. I could use the free Dragon Dictation software that is on the iPad, which is actually very accurate, but I think I will get more done if I use the Mac version of the software. I will be using Scrivener of course to organise the novel. Unfortunately there is not a Scrivener for iPad, though many people have suggested to the developer that he should create an iPad version. There are other writers software out there and I think it is true that Storyist does have an iPad application that you can work with. I must check that out, even though I am unlikely to change, because I do very much like the way that I can work within Scrivener and iPad.
SimpleNote for the iPad, will automatically go into Scrivener. What I can see happening is that I will have a day or two, where getting out of the office and writing somewhere else will get the creative juices flowing. Taking the iPad out and going off to do some writing elsewhere of a couple of thousand words could be just what I need.
Getting the novel published and into the iBook store helped by Dragon Dictate iPad dictation software. The writers software for mobile computing, dragon dictation for ipad means that I can also work at NaNoWriMo away from home. iPad dictation is not as fast or as accurate as using the Mac version but fairly good all the same. The iPad for authors is invaluable as you can use it as a place to write every bit of a note or part of a story that would otherwise end up on a piece of papre that would get lost easily. I took part in NaNoWriMo 2011 and I am not sure if I will do NaNoWriMo 2012. I also used the Scrivener software which is a tool for the professionals. My writer for iPad could be one of a number of iPad apps for writers. Textastic is my favourite at the moment.
Leave a comment below if you have made an eBook already.
