October Novel Prep Challenge

I used Dabble in 2019 and really liked it. This year I'm trying Scrivener. It seems a good bit more complicated, so I'm a bit worried about that, but we'll see how it goes. If worse comes to worse, I'll just switch back to Dabble. I'm only doing Scrivener because it's free to try during NaNo, more than just the 30 days. They give you from mid October to the 1st week of December. I'm thinking of testing 4TheWords next year. Save the Cat, though I'm actually using their outline method, seemed a bit expensive to me, so while I'm willing to pay that much if it's a 1-time purchase, I don't want to commit to that much regularly. Save the Cat doesn't have a free trial, does it, Cheddah? I didn't notice that they did.

Adherennium Plotting something, yes, it's on the honor system. The only thing you upload once you get started is your word count and that's really more update than upload. There is a lot more to the NaNo site than QueenNormaJean maybesnow?! mentioned, but that is the basics. However, if you are interested in testing out some of the free software (which you can usually buy at a discount after NaNo and a deeper discount if you win NaNo), you can check out the sponsors' page (I think officially called Offers under Writer's Resources) and their threads in the Forums (under the Community tab). You can also award yourself badges and chat with friends. My region does some training and write-ins on Zoom as well, so be sure to check out what's going on in your region's thread (on the main NaNo site--the forums are on a sort of different branch which you can tell because the little icon on the tab is different).

If you head to the forums, there's tons there. There are just places to introduce yourself and chat about your project, of course. There are dedicated threads to certain genres, in case you want to socialize with those writing like you...or want to be able to easily ask questions about things that others might not be able to easily answer outside your genre. There are also specialty threads for people with special skills and experiences. You can either troll those for info or you can post a thread stating the experiences you have that you are willing to talk about. I've asked questions on the sign language thread, the dog breeding thread, the guy who lives alone in the mountains thread, the person in a wheelchair thread, and others. I posted about quilting, having PTSD, being in the Army, and having a brain injury. No one seemed to care about quilting that year, but I had some questions about the other things, but mostly everyone wanted to make their military characters more realistic so I answered their questions.

My favorite part of the NaNo threads is the Adoption Society threads. SO FUN! They are threads where people post ideas they aren't going to use. You can grab as many as you want and as many people as want to can grab the same one. Of course, you can change the idea to suit your needs as well. I've gotten TONS of ideas from those threads! There's all sorts of them--Adopt a subplot, Adopt a Witty Line, Adopt a Running Gag, Adopt a Title (which is where I got my story idea this year), and so many others. These are my favorite part of the NaNo site! Here's the link. https://forums.nanowrimo.org/c/story-development/adoption-society/60

Dobie Mom, if you get the prep finished on time, you can also do sprints in the NaNo Lounge. That's how I finished mine in 2019.