katecavanaugh
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EEEEK, October is almost over!
🕑 Added 2023-10-30 15:04:32 +0000 UTCWhere, oh where, has the spookiest month of the year gone??
I had a dream last night that, with the brief cold front blowing through San Antonio, we wouldn't get any trick-or-treaters tomorrow! ("Dream," but really that would be a nightmare.)
My brain likes to play tricks on me the closer we get to exciting things, and it's doing the same with NaNoWriMo. Big plans! Two projects! Vlogs! SOMETHING MUST GO WRONG.
So I'm here, typing this, trying to quiet that absurd little voice, and I would love your help.
1: Double Stream Days!
This month has been a bit chaotic for me, but we're going to squeeze them in at the very last moment! (Honestly, when I need them most.)
Our first will be TONIGHT/TODAY, Monday, at 5:00pm CDT. You can find the link for that here. (I'm also hoping to stream over on Twitch a bit earlier in the day, if you want/need even MORE sprints.)
Our second will be TOMORROW on ~Halloween~ at 8:30am CDT. You can find the link for that here. I am ready to get allllllllllllll spooky with our sprints and reminisce on some favorite Autumn/Halloween memories and recommendations. So prepare yourselves. 😈
And a quick note, these will be the LAST Double Stream Days with me in this timezone. We "fall back" this coming weekend, so I'll be switching over to CST for the next 6 months or so. Just FYI! :)
2: Be on the look out for some extra chatty, planning, publishing-related sessions as we near the end of the month and into December.
I have some vague plans to slow down on YouTube for the 1st quarter of 2024 as I focus on grabbing beta readers for several projects (A Closet Full of Cauldrons, Project Death, The Meridian Maps #1, Project Purple even maybe???) and producing some longer form, publishing experiments (like setting up a pen name!).
But I'd really like to bounce a couple of the crazier ideas around with y'all and would loooooove if you'd also like to share your ideas too. Maybe we can do some crowd sourcing all together? Anyways, just to keep in the back of your brain!
3: Let me know what ~supplies~ you'll be using this NaNoWriMo (or have recently used and loved for other projects).
On the Storytellers' Hearth Weekend Relay stream, I was ~influenced~ by Becca, Katie, Davaisha, and Jessica to buy several notebooks to try writing a first draft entirely by hand. (Hello December long-form experiment. 👀)
And on our writing retreat, Katie Ann also convinced Becca to buy a whiteboard to write out her ideas and I'm thiiiiiiis close to doing the same. (In fact, I erased what was on my own whiteboard, just in case, but it's bolted into the wall and hard to move bahahah.)
I also keep getting these ads on Reddit and have NEVER heard of the company before. So if y'all have, let me know if they're any good and if I should try them out bahaha. (Apparently they're doing a free-for-a-year deal on NaNo's Offers page.)
Comments convinced me to try The Last Draft and I just got a copy in from the library, and then Shay convinced me to try Writing the Cozy Mystery so I'm just waiting for that to ship now. :)
Clearly I am in a "try all the new things!" mood bahaha.
Hope I'll see y'all at the sprints! If I don't get a chance to say it to you otherwise, I hope you have a marvelous Halloween.🎃👻 Until next time, happy writing!
Comments
Maariyah S.
AHHHH KATE, I BLAME YOU FOR INFLUENCING ME TO DO NANO THIS YEAR!!!!! Joke aside, I was going to sit this one out, until I watched one of your preptober videos and got inspired. It'll be my first nanowrimo event in a long bit, but I was telling my husband that one of the things I've loved about the event, is the spirit of camaraderie that just overflows throughout the month. Since I've only had 2 and a bit weeks to prepare, I still want to do character sheets, timelines, and a littttttle bit of outlining, so I'm not staring at my screen in dread come Wednesday lololol. Hope to see you all for tomorrow's stream! We got this!!!
alessandra
I'm hoping to do some writing alongside some NaNo streams, but I haven't even outlined my project. I'm hoping Janurwrimo happens again because that would be better time wise.
Joanna Ortiz
I'll def be at the first stream, though I will probably be working for half of it, making graphics for my company social media, which involves editing photos of my sister's cat wearing hats I've crocheted for him
Michelle Mahan
I’m using Campfire this year. I’d used it in the past and wasn’t in love with it, but they did some updates a bit ago and after trying it again I really like it. I’m creating an entire town for my sweet romance series and it does the heavy lifting world building that I love. Plus being able to access all the world building things as I write and being able to create and edit world building without having to leave my manuscript is wonderful. I saw Butter Docs as well and watched their video. It looks nice but a bit complicated? I need to stop being a writing software junkie 😆 They are my main weakness. I keep looking for that elusive “perfect software” and it doesn’t exist. If I could marry Dabble and Campfire together that would be my dream 😂 I can’t believe it’s almost November!
Vicious scribbles
I know all about the 'try all the things' vibe- I'm in one myself, actually with my whole 'researching how to write fictional podcasts and which ones to listen to to 'study'
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
I absolutely will! I'll definitely be needing some extra eyes. :)
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
OMG you'll have to let me know if you learn any tips or tricks for survival bahaha. I won't be starting until December 1st! We'll miss you on the streams!
Nancy Chen
I'm doing nanowrimo again this year, and thought about writing by hand on my kindle scribe. It does help me to plot longhand, but I think I'll still use my AlphaSmart and Scrivener for fast drafting.
Sarah Cahill
First time I can attend the double stream days in a while, so hoping to keep the live stream accountability motivation and get some more work done before NaNo hits. And I'm all for crazy ideas, so I'm looking forward to see what chaos you have planned.
Tib Roe
I *should* be able to join for tonight's stream, but my goldfish brain may forget. My Youtube notifications have also been forgetting to remind me when I ask it to, so I might be late to the party lol. I just got a new to me AlphaSmart 3000 for a more portable way to write while traveling/distraction free. Can't believe the thing is 23 years old; it feels brand new! Because I'm planning on using my AlphaSmart, I think I'm going to have to forgo using Campfire for my manuscript and stick to Scrivener as that is the only program I have that AlphaSmart will still transfer to. If I'm not on my laptop and still have some time to work, I'll probably sneak on to Campfire and work on my second project. Hopefully with three different modes of writing and two projects going on at once, I'll hit the 50k this year! I've never heard of butterdocs and I need a new writing program like a fish needs the beach, but if anyone is brave enough to try it out, please report back!
Maggie Ransom
Oh! Please let me know if you need another beta reader! I have plenty of experience. 🙂
Silvia Letizia
Nano is getting too close too fast and I didn't prepare anything, because I didn't think I would have written something this year. But here I am, just a few days before the end of the months, with a new project on my hand, ready to start writing. I’m not panicking (I am).
Kerri B
Thanks, Kate 🙏 I put both streams on the calendar so I won't miss them and I'll be rolling a D20 to figure out which of my WIPs I'll be working on in November. I'm planning to split my time between two or three.
Matthias Grosser
I have to miss both streams because I’ll be in class sob :(( I hope everyone has fun!! I’m also trying to draft longhand in a notebook rn so I’ll be crying right along with you bahahahahahaha
Manders
Nano falls during my job's busy season so I'm always too mentally worn out to write, but I've been scrambling to get my notes together which is split between Notion and Scrivenr. I also always find myself super ready to write while on my work laptop, but never in the mood at my Desktop PC. So I was gonna print out all my notes and maybe cut them up and try to organize them?? I've never been very organized lol so it's getting in the way and I keep getting new ideas too.
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
I love that as a goal! And it is so hard when the freelance work gets so big that you can't focus on your own projects. It's the best-worst kind of problem, because YAY for freelance work coming in, but boo for not having the time you need for personal fulfillment. Sending you all the best luck for this month!!!
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
Ooooh, please report back with your thoughts!! :)
Kate Cavanaugh Writes
That's my hope! Probably somewhere around ~2:00. :)
Kerri B
I keep getting those ads on Reddit too and I've never even used Scrivener! I'm using Nano as an "excuse" to make writing a priority again. My sprint tracker pages (I just keep track of my time spent writing and words written in a daily word document) look abysmal. I wrote less than 20 hours last month while I know I spent at least double that editing for clients per week!
Katrina Marie
I'll miss both double streams, but getting ready for NaNo. I hadn't heard of ButterDocs until I saw it on the NaNo site. I plan on playing around with it to see if I like it.
Zara Hoffman
Darn! I have to miss both the double stream days. Hope you’ll do Twitch today so I can make *something*
