I’ve been staying ahead of my writing quota the last few days. I’m currently 13,338 words into my NaNoWriMo novel, (working title: Say a Prayer for Me), so tonight I took some time out to download some interesting novel writing software and tips, sign up for some writing newsletters.

Then it was time to get some new writing music. I finally remembered that I’ve been wanting to get the Battlestar Galactica soundtracks, so I’m downloading those right now from iTunes. I’ve already added some tracks to my novel writing playlist and I’m hearing a very Celtic number (Farewell Apollo from Season Four) as I type this. What incredibly beautiful music this is! Bear McCreary became one of my favorite soundtrack composers when I watched my very first BSG episode back during, I think, the second season.

So now I’ve got a playlist with chants on it, another one for general Catholic sacred music, one for BSG, which will probably end up being several different BSG ones, for the different types of music and energy level/tones that are sure to enhance the writing experience.

A brief note about the writing software

Liquid Story Binder actually lets you add music files to it, you can record a song in it too, and add image files, for a writing experience that is way over my head. I haven’t figured out how to use it all yet. I finally decided to continue to write in a really neat word processor app that someone turned me on to years ago: Rough Draft. And then I’m using some other stuff I downloaded to help me with figuring out how to flesh out my characters, add dramatic tension and structure to the story, and other neat and helpful things. yWriter5 from Spacejock Software is a nifty little tool that helps you build your story and keep track of a multitude of details. I’m still learning how to use it but it’s helped me develop some ideas for my novel already just playing with it for a while tonight.

I’ve been reading a few pages in my books on writing. I like the ones like No Plot? No Problem! (by Christ Baty of NaNoWriMo) and Immediate Fiction (by Jerry Cleaver, see also his online writing course), where the author explains things, shows you examples, and gives you exercises to get you writing on your project now instead of doing what I so often do, which is think about writing, read about writing, and talk about writing. That’s why I love NaNoWriMo so much: it gets me off the couch and into a chair, a chair at a table in a coffee shop where I can write and reward myself with treats and caffeine that someone else prepares for me. Then that someone also gets to clean up the mess I leave on the table. Which is a much easier job than cleaning up the mess I make in my novel. My poor characters. They have no idea who they are or what they want. They only know they have horrible and ridiculous names, which I have taken much pleasure in providing for them. Heh. ;)

Just kidding. I don’t actually leave a mess on the table. I figure if they’re willing to put up with me for hours at a time and make fresh coffee for me by the tubful, then the very least I can do is leave a clean table behind. But the part about the mess in my novel? That part was true. Very true. Very, very sad, but, alas, very, very true.