October Novel Prep Challenge

I love asking this question every year because technology changes so quickly:

What technology are you using for the various elements of your NaNo project this year? Where/how do you draft and then store your:

- Prep assignments?
- character info?
- setting info?
- outlines?
- in-progress novel?

Personally, I'm still a huge fan of Google Drive, as I'm sure you can tell whenever you log an assignment! And I will probably do most of my November writing directly into Google Docs. I start my outline as a bullet point list, but by the end of the month it will move into a Google Sheets spreadsheet where I can grab and drag rows up and down to change the order easily. I used to number them in the first column, like chapter one, scene one, etc. But I've learned to leave that off, otherwise, I have to renumber everything when I make changes.

I create additional tabs in my spreadsheet to store character lists, setting lists, and definitions, so that everything related to that one project is in the same document. I embed photos and links as necessary, and the list can be sorted alphabetically by last name, first name, or by any other attribute I desire.

For completing Prep assignments, I've always liked old-school paper notebooks, but this year I'm using new technology: the app called Samsung Notes on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10, which has a stylus. I can handwrite on my phone just like I would in a notebook, but the technology for converting it to text is actually surprisingly good this year. Also, writing on a mobile device with a stylus is improving, to the point where it feels just as satisfying as scratching a pen on paper. In fact, it's better for a couple of reasons: the screen is illuminated, so I don't need a light, the phone itself is automatically a hard surface, so I don't need a hardback notebook or a surface to write on, and my writing is even more brilliant than any gel pen could ever be.

I have made one change in the last year or two: I've been storing my Prep in Evernote instead of an item on a WDC book. (If it started as handwriting, it needs to be transcribed or converted to text to move to Evernote.) It's getting increasingly harder to do on my phone and Evernote is so much easier. I can launch a new note and be writing after one tap on a shortcut on my phone.

I'm also doing a lot of dictation on my phone (usually into Docs or Evernote), but that's not new this year. I've been doing that for a year or two now. Dictation is most definitely the fastest way to get word count.

I do a surprising amount of writing on my phone. 5 years ago I would have asked how that could even be possible, and I would swear that typing on a laptop is the only way to write. Not anymore. Technology has come a long way in five years.

Cheers,
Michelle