Nano Nano Preparation Part 1 2020

What is Nano?  

It's a contest where you try to write 50 thousand words in a month.  Yes you heard

me right.  It can be done, thousands of people do it every year.  True, every word of it might not be worth keeping, but it teaches you to get out on that limb and write.  Never heard of Nano go here.

 
Getting ready for Nano. 
I'm not one of those people that count down the days, well not until it's like two

weeks out at least.  But I love to get ready for Nano, or at least try to.  There is so many things that you can do.  You can clean the house, get some food frozen so your family does not starve while you're writing. There is laundry to get caught up on, so many things that you really need to make a list.

Will I be ready?
Yes!  NO!  Maybe!  Of course not!  But I will do my best, but there will be something that creeps up on me that I'm not thinking about. Like running out of Nano supplies.  Candy, Coffee?  There are daily things that you can't do ahead of time: like walking the dogs, eating, praying family issues. Those daily chores that just have to be done. But still Nano must go on!

Outline?
For those of you that have done Nano before you know that the only thing you can

do towards getting ready for the contest writing wise, is to work on that outline.  You can plan and think and outline, but you can not write one word not even that first line to this great new novel until midnight of November the first.

I don't have my outline started yet.  I'll once again be working on my Street Justice Series during this month so I'll need to do a little reading on the last novel and see where I left off.  I'm behind one book and that is not good.  Most of the time at this point I would be releasing my next in the series, but forces beyond my control . . . life in general . . . have slowed me down.

Homework. 
If you think you might be interested in joining in on this contest just jump right in with both feet.  That said do your homework, talk to others that have done this before.  Join our Nano group on face book.  Outline if you can check out more Here 

Winning! 

Winning is fun that is for sure, but even if you don't win, you can learn so much    from being in this contest.  You can meet some great people, learn that you can    write a lot of words in one month, but most of all you learn to write write write.

I learned that I can write things that were not in my outline, that sometimes if do  put myself out on that writing limb that the story line I created while out there    will last and it is good.  I suggest that every writer tries Nano at least once.

I'll more than likely be talking about nano more before November so as I like to  say during this time of year.

Nano Nano

Part 2 

Part 3 

Links coming soon 

Evernote part two Templates and More

Part two:   Evernote Templates
See part one Introduction and PC or Online

Evernote the ever growing helper 

Evernote reminds me of a file cabinet with many secret
compartments, that has a camera, a microphone and more. I may have to do a third article because I feel like I'm just reaching the edges of what this app can do. I know it's a bit overwhelming and that's why I didn't jump into Evernote last year but it just has so much to offer that I just have to give it a test drive.

Templates  

I'm sure there are other things that we should talk about before templates but I'm an author and I've been looking for something like this forever so I have to share these great templates that I found. I don't use my phone for a lot of writing but while I'm trying to go to sleep or waiting for the dogs to take their walk I like to world build, or set up Character key-points. What has slowed me down is not having a simple list of shall we say 'fill in the blank templates'. 

I'll list below some of the great templates I've found on line. Here is a image sample of one of them. There are many different templates and you can edit them as you like and I'm sure after studying them you'll figure out how to save them in the form you want. I'm still working on learning how to make my own templates.

These templates that I found on line have some great ideas to get you started writing a great story. I'm grateful for those that share their templates online and now I'm sharing them with you. You will need a Evernote account to view these correctly.

Journal Template

Personal Template

Fitness Template

Template - Story Premise

Template - Character Profile

Template - Story Beats

Template - Worldbuilding Basics

Template - Three-Act Story Plotting
This is my first Template I hope you find it useful Samantha's Character Template

I hope you find these useful and here is an Evernote forum if you want to know more. Also there are hundreds of videos about Evernote on youtube if you need further information.
Evernote Forum  

I'd like to take this time to wish everyone a Happy New Year and if you have some templates you'd like to share please feel free. I hope to have a third post in a week showing you some of the ways my Author friends use Evernote. Book marks us and come back and check them out. 

 

Evernote: Part one What is Evernote

Evernote part one Introduction and PC or Online Version 
Part 2

Evernote:
A year ago when I found Evernote I looked the other way. I thought 'this is too complicated,' I don't have time to learn something this huge. Also, I wasn't sure it would help. Now I've decided it's worth another look. I've found several helpful things about this handy App and want to share what I've learned. Be sure to check out the other upcoming posts to see if there is something you're missing out on with Evernote.

What is Evernote?
Evernote seems to me that it is just about anything but cook, and it won't drive out and get a pizza. All joking aside Evernote does so much that it often scares people off. It will serves many purposes. It can be a digital file cabinet, note-taking, journal, task  and or project system, keep up with your recipes, and more.  It does so much I'll share a couple of useful blogs I've found on the topic.


What is all the Fuss about 
Getting Started with Evernote 
Prefer Video What is Evernote? 


Where does Evernote work?

Evernote syncs from PC to tablets to phones and what I love most is that it works on the PC, a lot of apps don't. This is where I started composing notebooks, and templates.  I found templates a few weeks ago and that pulled me back into looking at Evernote.  If you're into syncing then Evernote is for you. It will sync over any and all devices. They also have a pro-plan but I've not checked into that yet so I'm not sure what you gain by going pro.  Be sure and check out the Templates blog post if you're an author.

SIGN UP or SIGN IN   

If you want a Evernote Account start here and then you can go to your phone, tablet, and download the app from your google play store or apple stores.  Then you can sign in to your account and start syncing

You can use Evernote on line, or you can download to your pc. I found with the online version you can arrange your toolbar, I'm sure there are other perks that I'll learn to having the PC version. To download click here.

PC or On-line choices

Here I will share a couple of screen shots between the online version and the PC version.  Click on the images to see the difference. The PC version is darker and more imaginable.
ON LINE VERSION Notebook screen                          PC Download Notebook screen  

Why download?
I wanted to organize my toolbar here is a screen shot of what you can do with the online version. Here is a short video on how to organize your toolbar Click here
 

Drop down menu's 
This is another advantage of downloading Evernote. I'm sure that a lot of the same functions are in the online version but the fonts look darker and are easier to find and read.  

 
Thanks for joining in check out the next lesson on Evernote LINK HERE in a few days check back.