[Macworld]

Post your comments for Surviving 30 days of noveling here

[Jason Snell]

We've also set up a dedicated thread for Macworld NaNoWriMo.

[himbo]

What's the etiquette on planning the novel? Is the entire process from start to finish supposed to be contained in the 30 days of the challenge, or is it acceptable to begin doing research and/or plotting the book before November 1st and then begin the actual writing process at that point?

[Jason Snell]

You can plot all you like, but the actual writing of the words must take place between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30.

[hedgeland]

I've been wanting to try this just once!
Here's little tidbit of advice I got from a guy a couple of years ago. He was dating a friend of mine and was over for a birthday party. He has gone on to win both a Tony award and a Pulitzer Prize. I'm being 100% honest here, no need to lie. I've not seen him in a few years and I doubt he'd remember me.
I told him that I had trouble just sitting down and writing on my laptop. I am always distracted by email or the web or whatever. His advice: "Have you thought about just writing with pen and paper?". Man, talk about not seeing the forest for the trees!
You write with pen/pencil and paper, then you can do a first edit as you type the finished manuscript into your favorite text editor.
G

[Jason Snell]

My handwriting is so terrible -- and I type so fast -- that I don't think I could ever handwrite a novel.

That said, back in 1992 when I was laid up with mono and strep throat for two weeks and had no computer access of any kind, I did hand-write most of a short story. It was certainly lovingly handcrafted, because I was writing in slow motion. It certainly generated a different prose style, though I've never, ever felt the desire to reproduce the experience! (With or without mono.)

[hedgeland]

Yeah, I totally understand that. My handwriting is just awful and I type very quickly. There are many times when I can't determine what I wrote the day before. I think I'm going to try it though. I find that computers and specifically the Internets contribute to attention deficit disorder for me. Although with pen and paper I'll probably just end up drawing stick figures...of people using their laptops.

[Jason Snell]

There's actually a program out there that disables your Mac's networking for a given amount of time. You can't re-enable it without a reboot, or waiting for the time to tick away. A great "focuser" for those who get distracted by the Internet.
http://www.ibiblio.org/fred/freedom/