NaNoWriMo update

November 6, 2007

As it stands I’m at 4,050 words, and I should already be past the 10,000 mark right now. So I’m a bit behind. But while I’m eager to catch up, I don’t have nearly the anxiety about it as I’ve had in previous years. I don’t feel as guilty and I certainly don’t feel as down on myself about it. I just need to catch up, that’s all, and the last few days have been pretty busy.

Scrivener is helping me plan and organize my writing immensely, partly because it makes it so easy to focus on chunks. But also because it has a full screen mode that blanks out everything — menu bars, desktop, other interface elements — and lets me write as though I was typing on a typewriter. No distractions. I currently have it set to display green text on a black monitor, an old dumb-terminal like setup I feel very comfortable with for some reason.

If you want the same effect without Scrivener, you can use WriteRoom for the Mac or Dark Room for Windows. There’s also a Java based version ( JDarkRoom), and a web-based version ( Writer).

Posted in Art and Writing