NaNoWriMo, here I come.

Yep, I'm going to do it. So, I've been busy pre-planning my story.

Originally, I'd planned on individual posts on the tools that I'm using to prepare for my new story. But, with Life stuffing October with things to do and places to be, I've run out of time. So instead, I'll list a quick blurb about for my go-to tools.

• Story Engineering by Larry Brooks. As I've mentioned before, this structure spoke to this "retired" engineer like nothing else.
• 7 Point Story Structure as explained by Dan Wells. I just found his 5 video series on You Tube. These videos seemed like Cliff Notes version for the basics of Brooks Story Engineering. The link above takes you to the first video of the series.
• I recently bought The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson, and I can already see how her visual plot tools and character building can help my stories. Her plot line structure is also broken into 4 sections, similar to Brooks's.
• Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways course has been my mainstay for how to develop stories that I want, and hopefully others, want to read.
• NaNoWriMo.org has lots of tips, tricks and inspiration to browse through when stuck. If you want to Buddy me, AnneV is my handle.
• Lynn Viehl will be blogging on various topics related NaNoWriMo.
• I've created a Google+  circle for those on that network planning on participating in NaNoWriMo. Head over to my Google+ profile, I've just shared my circle.
• Twitter. Many writers hang out on this social network, using hashtags like #amwriting and #nanowrimo. For specific tweets from NaNoWriMo directly, follow @nanowordsprints and @nanowrimo.
• Pinterest. I created a board to house all photos that will help me hopefully create a realistic world of my story and characters.
• Scrivener - for all my writing and digital project organizing needs. The company is a sponsor of NaNoWriMo and has special offers for participants.

Time to get back to outlining.

Screen Setup

Still revising, slowly but surely. Not going to hit my targets for this month, so it's time to think about how to move forward with NaNoWriMo right around the corner. To NaNo, or not to NaNo. That is the question.

In the meantime, thought I'd share what my setup looked like today. On the big monitor, Scrivener is open with my current WIP along with Visual Thesaurus and iTunes. My laptop screen holds Chrome with my Trello story To-Do cards. Using iThoughts, a mindmapping app, on my iPad, I created a character's family tree. Yes, there is a scrap piece of paper and a pen too. Other notes and story outlines are in stacks just out of the photo on the desk and on a cookbook holder.

On a side note, something cool that I discovered today ... if using a Mac or Bonjour enabled Windows computer, a user can access/download iThoughts mindmaps via a browser if the iOS device and the computer are on the same wi-fi network.