Novel Writing: 5,000 words!

I’m up to 5,000 words on my novel. The pending title for my novel is Dragon’s Word, though that may change later depending on where my story takes me! You can follow my NaNoWriMo project here.

I’ve had momentum built after reading A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas. My two writing buddies kept raving about the series so I just had to check it out. This series is seriously the first series I’ve been excited about in a long time. Sarah J. Maas is incredibly talented and I swear my heart was pounding so hard on many of her chapters. I fell in love with her characters and the rich universe she built.

I’ve had several ideas swimming in my head for a few years. I originally aimed to make Dragon’s Word into a stand-alone novel, mostly because I rather just be able to get something out. However, as I continued to write my story, it’s morphed into a trilogy.

One of my writing buddies got Scrivener. I was cynical at first. I couldn’t understand what Scrivener does that a simple cloud product (i.e. Google Docs) couldn’t do. I decided to check it out as well, using the 10% discount from NaNoWriMo. While a cloud system is a powerful, I realize that, due to COVID-19, I wasn’t really going anywhere, so I didn’t really need the cloud. If anything, I’m just outside, walking the cat or myself. Scrivener has been great for organizing my thoughts and seeing it in mapped out (i.e. my chapter section, my character sheet section, etc.).

Speaking of cloud solutions — I also bought the Scrivener iOS license for the times that I am walking my cat outside or am lying in bed at 4AM in the morning due to the cats. Per their instructions, I configured the Scrivener iOS app to sync with my iOS Dropbox app. I use that Scrivener project file in my Dropbox for my Macbook. The syncing between the two (my Macbook and my iPhone) works pretty well. Sometimes one device wouldn’t pick up that there were changes on the other, but — knock on wood — I haven’t seen conflicts yet.

A note about Scrivener — I am a person who uses both a Macbook and a Windows PC. I bought a license for my Macbook, since I figured it’s more portable and therefore I’d use it more for writing in case I want to be that cool writer in a coffee shop. However, my Macbook is tiny, and my main machine is the Windows PC. I later decided to get the Windows Scrivener license, only to find out that the Windows Scrivener version is version 1, whereas Mac is version 3. My story files created on the Macbook weren’t compatible with the Windows version, so I decided to hold off on doing anything with my Windows license for now. Scrivener’s Windows 3 should be released in 2020 according to their site. The iOS Scrivener app is version 1 but it works with Macbook version 3, so things are good!

One of my biggest struggles so far with my story is thinking out character intentions and goals. But, the more I write, the more I’ve learned. I’m not aiming for perfection. I just want to tell a good story! It’s good to just get your ideas flowing. And it also helps to have some writing buddies along the way to inspire you! 🙂

FYI: this is my accountability post so that I can commit to finishing a story by the end of the year.