When I attempted NaNoWriMo back in November 2017 I blogged 5 tips to help you achieve. The only thing I’m doing different this time is my goal is 25k words and I’m going to use Google Docs so I can write anywhere! If you’d like to read my tips, please click here.
What I learnt from failing
Well November 2017 was a very challenging month for me and I didn’t achieve NaNoWriMo despite my top tips. November is always busy month for me but last year’s November was awful!
I don’t think you should see failure as a reason to give up. It’s a chance to learn and grow and become even better. If you’d like to learn from my mistakes, please click here.
Carol J Forrester posted that she was looking for NaNoWriMo participants to feature on her blog. I let her know I was interested and answered her questions about which poem I was most proud of during the challenge. I emailed it over and she liked it enough to publish it. Please do check it out and give Carol a follow.
These images are snippets from the 30 days of poems:
The challenge is over and I did it. It’s time to reflect on how it went.
Three things I learnt:
Reading the blog posts on NaPoWriMo.nethas enabled me to learn so much and the prompts have challenged me to try things I wouldn’t have thought to do myself.
I found posting every day a real challenge with my schedule, however, I was late only twice. I’m really proud of what I achieved and can see the possibilities if I make time for my writing.
Posting daily has increased my followers and engagement. I hadn’t expected so much support – in fact, I feared I’d scare people off. In addition, I have discovered new bloggers to follow.
It was so unexpected and I wish I’d paid attention to how many followers I had before I started. Each day, I have gained a few new followers. Now, I have 100 plus!
I have been adding the poems to a book on Wattpad to create a collection. If you’d like to read them all in one place in full, please click here.
Would I do the challenge again?
I think I will give it another go in future but don’t think I will do it every year. Poetry isn’t really my forte although I think it is a useful learning tool for any writer as it encourages you to think about your use of words and the English language.
I am relieved the challenge is over and the pressure of a daily post is off. However, I am delighted at how much I produced and proved to myself that if I make time each day I can make progress on a project. I want to apply that logic to complete another novel. Novel writing has taken a back seat since starting my CIPD course at work so once that is finished in June, I am going to get back into novel writing.
I was pleasantly surprised by all the support from other poets and NaPoWriMo participants. I didn’t feel like I was doing the challenge alone. The increase of followers and engagement was unexpected but I am so happy to have connected with you all. Thank you – it helped keep me going.
For Day 5, the prompt was to write a poem about a photo in one language and then in another… I didn’t quite get it because I struggle with foreign languages. I decided to use Canva to find a random image and write a poem about that instead.
Whilst looking for a picture of a camera/photo for my blog title image, I came across this picture and decided to write my poem today about this.
About my BFFs
I am really blessed with my best friends. We have known each other since we were three years old. Yes, we have had fall outs over the years but they never last long and we always come back together. We have been there for each other through the hard times and to celebrate the best times.
Being 80s girls, we had shoeboxes of photos, hand written letters and ticket stubs or event flyers. You couldn’t check the image until it was printed – there are some awful pictures of us out there. Today, you can retake a picture, delete it or even edit it with a filter or Photoshop. Sadly, I don’t think as many pictures get printed even though they look better. Instead there are too many photos taken and they get lost in the mass.
As teens we spent all out summers together but now we don’t get to see each other as much as we would like as our lives are full with work and family. When we are together, we tend to take pictures of our babies (kids or pets). But, when we do get to meet up it’s like time has stood still and we just pick up where we left off. They really are my chosen sisters: Aimee, Jo, Laura and Maile – alphabetically because we don’t do favourites.
The last picture I can find of us altogether is from my best friend Aimee’s baby shower (I’m pregnant too in the picture) taken over 4 years ago!
Dabble is an online writing platform for plotting, writing and editing. It works best in Google or by using their app but can be used in any browser.
Features:
Dabble Account and cloud storage
Plotting tool
Export to Word/text file
Word counts
Novel series
App (works on a PC)
During November, they offered a free trial to NaNoWriMo participants. We were able to use the site for free and they enabled a word count tracker – nifty!
Price:
Dabble Writer usually costs $9.99 but at the moment there is an introduction offer of $4.99 which if you subscribe will be at 50% forever.
Dabble Writer is an official sponsor of NaNoWriMo. If you took part, check the NaNoWriMo offers page to see if there are any exclusive additional offers for NaNoWriMoers.
Projects
I created two projects to test out the software. One was Daisy Chain (my NaNoWriMo project) and the other was Jewel of the Sea (aka Drift).
Daisy Chain: This required regular updates so I needed to work on the story whenever I was able to. Switching between computers (and browsers) did cause a little technical issue but the support guys at Dabble were awesome. The site runs best in Google chrome and the app. There is also a little cloud that you can click to save your progress and ensure it has been backed up.
Jewel of the sea: I uploaded this so I could experiment the downloading to word feature. I was really impressed. It puts it into the correct format for agents so all you need to worry about is the line spacing.
Word Count
Word Count total: There is a tracker that shows your overall word count for the novel (or project).
NaNoWriMo Tracker: The word count tracker for NaNoWriMo was incredibly intuitive. It deducted words if I deleted any and updated my daily goal based on how many words I needed to reach to keep on target based on my total. They are currently developing a personal goal tracker so writers can set their own word count goal at anytime in the year.
Plotting Tools
This was one of the features I enjoyed using the most as I currently have nothing like it.
It looks a like pin board with post it notes stuck on it. You can create different boards for tracking different things.
On the board you create different headings (or timelines). I found it easiest to use it to track my characters developments within the story and plan I needed to happen and when. It was easy to move and edit these too so it didn’t feel like a digital hindrance.
The ‘post it note’ (tile) has a heading and brief description. You click on it to open up and a little note paper where you can go into more detail about the plot line.
This is a great planning aid and helped me to visualize the story.
Story notes
This is another great feature. I’ve never shared my story notes *cringe*.
I split my notes into two categories (headings) ‘Characters’ and ‘World Building’. Within those sections I create a note on different things that are important.
It is really handy to have everything stored in the same place and organised instead of loads of files saved in different places or programs. I love having some where to stash my ideas and notes about the story.
Novel series
Within a ‘project’ you can create multiple books. This enables you to track a whole series all in one place. Genius!
Dabble future?
Customer Service: The team at Dabble are extremely responsive to their customers and I think this will take the company forward to a bright future. They were always on hand whenever I had a question about using the site. No problem was too big or too small. I wondered if they ever slept.
Development: They have developed the site a lot from Sept to Nov so I’ve no doubt that they’ll make true on their promise to continue improving and bringing out new features. They also ask their subscribers to suggest features and vote on features to help them prioritize what their users want the most. Here are some of the features coming soon that excite me the most:
Goal tracking – set your own word count goal any time of the year (not just for NaNoWriMo)
Images in story notes (save a picture of your world map or the engagement ring or a celebrity that looks like you character)
Editing mark up (you can highlight a section you know you need to rework)
Novel cover (upload an image for you novel cover)
Character image (upload an image of how your character looks) and character tools
Restore a previous version as a new file
More ways to import and export including dragging a project to your desktop to save it
Social – enable word count competitions and stats to be shared socially
Am I subscribing?
I am very tempted to subscribe but currently I have a lot going on that I don’t think I will have the time to really make the most of having a subscription.
However, Dabble Writer is something I would definitely consider in the future as I found it a very easy to use interface, fantastic customer service and the features were exactly what a writer needs.
The year began by creating my first Word Press blog. At the time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I’ve really enjoyed my crash course in learning to use the site.
Here is what I learnt:
Blogging
Schedule posts/tweets: You can schedule posts so can write ahead of time and space posts out. Use LoCalendar to schedule tweets (but make sure you set an end date so you don’t spam people).
Make it visual:
Canva is a great site to create images for blog titles and other social media sites.
Google Drive Photos is an app you can download onto you phone and it backs up images you have taken. You can then access these online from wherever you are working to use them.
Instagram links can be added into articles and enables you to share pics from your own account and other users images. I’ve used this to share professional brand images when I forgot to take a pic of the product I’m reviewing before it got all grubby.
Support others:
You can share other people’s blogs on Word Press via the reader. This helps support them and improves your content. Follow people who write on similar subjects. Can help when you are busy and hit a dry spell to keep your blog current.
As mentioned before, you can share pics by others posted to Instagram. The image will have a link to their account so if a reader likes their pic they can choose to follow them.
Categorise posts: It puts posts into collection of subjects and helps readers navigate your site or enables you to create pages. I still have more to learn on this but I think I will be utilizing this in the new year.
Brands:
Review brands you love to demonstrate the market you are interested in and to gain support. Follow their social media accounts to be aware of blogger offers.
Offer to review brands you are interested in and you may strike lucky. This year I got a free photobook from Saal Digital in return for my honest review. I love the product and will cherish it forever – so happy!
Do courses: If you can find time to do a writing course they are really good. I did the Curtis Brown – Starting to Write your novel course. This covered a lot of stuff I already knew but made me think about it again. I really improved the start of two of my novels using what I learnt. See my review from earlier in the year here.
Enter competitions and query: Take time to put your stories, poems or manuscripts out there. Even if it is just a friendly competition – I won a few awards on Wattpad and it got me more readers and valuable feedback. I managed to enter one national competition but I am annoyed I missed the deadline for the one I really wanted to enter because I was taking too long editing – I edit too much!
Don’t over edit: Guilty! I am so guilty of this. I am my worst critique. Every time, I think I am done editing… I start again. I don’t even enjoy editing. I must stop myself. I wish I could afford an editor to do it for me.
Make time to be creative: living a busy life can make it hard to find time to write but if you make time and do a little a day (even if it’s just plotting or researching), then you will keep making progress towards your goals. I try to make sure I sit down at my PC/Laptop at least once a week to actually write.
Don’t force it: If you force yourself to write you can cause yourself to burn out. I think this was a side effect from NaNoWriMo. I feel the writing bug coming back – phew!
This year I’m doing NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it takes place every year in November. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
