NANOWRIMO is only a couple weeks away, and so is my oldest son’s 16th birthday. I don’t know which terrifies me more. This year, for NANOWRIMO, I am working on a romantic historical fiction book about a young woman who joins the Confederate army and fights at the battle of Wilson’s Creek.
I started my book titled What We Leave Behind shortly after we visited the Wilson’s Creek Battlefield for the anniversary of the battle, and I learned that women fought alongside men during the Civil War disguised as men, of course. It got me thinking: what if a female Anthropologist discovered a woman in a Civil War grave, and she found among her things a diary outlining this woman’s life and her decision to join the army and fight during the Civil War.
So, with NANOWRIMO only a few weeks away, I thought I would hop on here quickly and update you on what I am doing to prepare and talk about the book. You have the premise of the story. So here is what I am doing to prepare for NANOWRIMO.
OUTLINING ah, the dreaded plotter or pantser debate. So I have always, always, always, always been a pantser. I have about fifteen novels I have started and about ten that I have finished, though only first drafts, and none have I ever tried to outline. Then, a couple years ago, I came across K.M. Weiland and started following her blog, even bought her books, and started researching what it would be like to outline. Since going down the outlining path, I have read that you can outline and cut out part of the revision process. So, since I have a LOT of first drafts and you can probably guess what I think of the revision process, I thought maybe I should give outlining a try.
Another thing I will be doing is seeing which I like better, SCRIVNER or DABBLE. When I started What We Leave Behind, I was using my Chromebook and didn’t have access to SCRIVNER, which is why I signed up for DABBLE, but for me, the verdict is still out. I don’t know which one I like better. I think I’ll play around on both as I am working on the outline and let you know before November 1st which one I use to write the story, or maybe I will stick with Google Documents or Microsoft Word.
What is your favorite program for writing? Have you found SCRIVNER or DABBLE better for the outlining process? Are you ready for NANOWRIMO?
