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Posts Tagged ‘NaNoWriMo’

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Your newest ally for NaNoWriMo? Google Docs.

by Celeste Ng

It’s November 1, and that means–yup! NaNoWriMo is upon us. We’ve posted here before about various tools that can help you in your mad writing binge–see below–but this year, we wanted to share a techie tip for distraction-free writing that’s easy and free. Did you know that Google Docs can provide a clean, tool-and-menu-free writing environment? That’s right–nothing to buy, download, or install. Power Tips for Google Docs tells you how: If you are a big fan of WriteRoom on the mac, or the Windows clone, you’ll be happy to know that you can achieve a similar distraction free experience […]


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Thankful for NaNoWriMo, and you

by Lee Thomas

Fiction Writers Review would not be here without you, our readers. We’re thankful for your insightful comments, engagement with the site and participation with this great community of writers and readers. As we sit down to hearty meals today, or maybe just another Thursday dinner if you’re in India or England, I’ve also got the NaNoWriMo champs on my mind. One week to go! Think of all the ground you’ve covered in the past 25 days, the dedication and discipline that’s been required, the problems you’ve worked out on the fly. Last week, Michael turned me on to GalleyCat’s inspired […]


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Robot Assistants: 2010 Edition

by Celeste Ng

Much has been said about what technology is doing to literature from the reading side. But what can technology do for those on the writing side? Several programs have recently been released to make the writer’s difficult task easier—or at least more manageable. Here’s a roundup, just in time for the start of NaNoWriMo: First, to help remove distractions, FocusWriter gives writers with a pared-down word processor that fills the entire screen, theoretically minimizing the temptation to waste time on the internet instead of writing. Unlike other stripped-down word processors, though, FocusWriter still provides basic features like word, paragraph, and […]


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NaNo___Mo

by Celeste Ng

For those of you keeping count, there are 2 more weeks until the start of NaNoWriMo. But why stop at just writing a novel in November? Writer Ian Healy has some ideas for other NaNo-type events that—as he puts it—might just save the publishing industry. Here’s one of them: NaNoBuyMo Acquiring editors for publishers don’t get let off easy. They have to acquire ten books between November 1 and November 30. That means they don’t have a lot of time to think things through. If they kind of like something, better to take a chance on it. Sure, maybe they […]


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NaNoWriMo Grab Bag: Robot Assistants and More

by Celeste Ng

As Gwen announced last week, it’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), the annual challenge to write a 175-page (50,000 word) novel during the month of November. How many of you are taking part? We have at least one FWR editor and one contributor on the scene, and so far they’re keeping up with the wordcounts. You’re 1/10 of the way through your novel by now, right? Right? Here’s some extra motivation. NaNoWriMo’s profile has risen from Crazy Thing 21 People Did in 1999 to Mass Writing Event in 2008. Last year, NaNoWriMo reported over 120,000 participants, 20,000 of whom finished […]


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NaNoWriMo: FWR FTW!

For a few Novembers now, I’ve been dimly aware that a few thousand people around the world were doing some weird writing thing during one of the busiest months of the year. NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. 50,000 words — a whole novel — in one month. No editing, no going back, no working on previous projects. Quantity over quality. Revise later. That’s crazy, I thought. Who would do that? Then I came up with 10,000 reasons not to do it, including but not limited to my travel schedule in November, my schoolwork, my job, my boyfriend, my family, my […]



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