My NaNo Prep YouTube

Because NaNo starts tomorrow night at midnight I thought I better get this out right away.

Two writing friends discuss how they prepare for a month of writing. In this video, we mentioned several resources. The first is NaNoWriMo which stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is now international but still goes by that name. It was started by Chris Baty who wrote the book, No Plot No Problem. It’s a quick read and helps us all learn to write more freely. The website is NaNoWriMo.org.
Another book that Yve and I have found quite helpful at the beginning of NaNo is Building Better Characters by Marc McCutcheon
To find Writer here is that website: http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter7.html Simon Hayes keeps this program free but accepts donations. It is my favorite place to write.
Michele uses WriteItNow4. That is an exceptional program too, and for me, it is where I find character names that work for me. that website is https://www.ravensheadservices.com/download4.html I just noticed there is a new version, 6. I may have to update my version.
Yve uses OpenOffice a free office package that is almost as good as Microsoft’s version. You can find that here: https://www.openoffice.org/
The writing timer I was thinking of that helps you concentrate on writing is here: https://writeordie.com/
When using the character-building book above Yve uses a Randon dice throw app, and I use a Random Number Generator. Just type those in your Google and you’ll find a number of random generating apps.
I do hope all of this helps those who would love to see if they have a novel burning to get out.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, Boo

This being October 30, I had only two days to prepare for NaNoWriMo and writing another book.

Making my second podcast/vlog  I two days. I tossed yesterday’s because I didn’t understand how to share my screen. Thanks to helpful friends I think I get that now.

Our Zoom session lasted about an hour. Moving it to YouTube is my new problem. I don’t know that I’m up to background music and graphics, you know the whole kit and caboodle.  I will learn as I go.  No need to get fancy. Besides, I’m constantly being booted off because I haven’t saved correctly or some other techish nonsense.

When I  finally get it posted somewhere, I  will share. It is a writing group meet of sorts. We covered a lot of websites, programs and books. As soon as the upload finishes, I need to figure out how to add those.

Just think maybe someday our novels will don your bookshelves.

If I can get past the slow upload. BOO! To slow computers!

Per Linda:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “boo.” Find a word with the letters “boo” in it or use “boo” as is and base your post on it. Enjoy!

Unfinished Friday

After frogging yesterday’s hat, I nearly have a brim finished on the new one. Within a row or two, I will put that first row in the middle onto the pegs, knit the first and the last row together, and then start the main part of the hat.

And after ‘frogging’ yesterday’s podcast attempt, I spent the morning learning about starting a new project. I used Wondershare, the free version, to try and work on what might be salvageable from yesterday. I have only gone through the first couple of steps and feel confident I can do something to help others. Here’s their first YouTube.

So my attempt for tomorrow is to show how to set up for NaNoWriMo and hopefully show how my friends start theirs in other programs. I will even walk through setting up a new project on NaNoWriMo. Though I finished (Pandamapocalypse) and won last year’s, That book isn’t finished. I got halfway through another during the first CampNaNo with Marina’s Mission. And suddenly, I had another story, Meeps creep in, but I haven’t posted word count to NaNo yet. And now, because of #Inktober, I suddenly have Crystal. Which I set up in yWriter yesterday thinking I had screen sharing going on Zoom. Nope, it was just me talking, and all you could see was my glasses as I had to get really close to the screen to see. The nice thing about NaNo now, as opposed to how it used to be, is you can divide your wordage between projects or even aim for pages edited or other types of goals. So I plan to share that tomorrow also. So the mistakes of yarns yesterday become new projects today.

Do-over Please

This day! Yikes! It started with a sad situation for my son.

Our internet has been so sketchy today.

I attempted to do my first Podcast. I did the recording on Zoom. I thought I was capturing the set-up of my yWriter project for this November. What I got is a recording of my glasses and my voice yammering on and on. Then I could go no further because of a bad internet connection.

So to soothe my soul, I pulled out the hat I was knitting. It was supposed to be a fast one as I was e-wrapping. But 5 inches in, I found it was too large. So I had to frog-it, rippit. Now it is only an inch long and that’s part of the fold up brim.

Tomorrow is another day. I’m hoping for insight. Anyone know how to share screen on Zoom on the laptop?

On the plus side one of my NaNoWriMo project is ready for wordage!

One-Liner Wednesday

Let sleeping dogs lie.

(Especially when they are related to Jack Russell in spirit.)

And why can’t those busy dogs let sleeping humans lie?

One-liner Wednesday is a Linda G. Hill prompt

Ta Da Tuesday

Sometimes I love the results so much it is hard to resist keeping the item. But this one is headed for the charity. This yarn is so soft.

Flexee Fine-gauge, 80 pegs. Fold-up brim, flat-knit. 4×6 purl, knit basketweave. The bind-off is the Kristen GoodKnitKisses decrease then remove excess pegs to redo the decreases. I’ve used this method in my previous hats. I’d make a clickable URL but I’m writing this on my phone. It is acting up. 😥

💜🧶

Interesting Take

https://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/665768411296645120/i-have-more-of-an-opinion-question-for-you-when

Review: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book and the narrator, Robin Miles, were excellent. It is a biography of a few people told like a novel and captivating from the beginning. Ms. Miles was able to act out all the characters so one could identify who was who.

I have two hours left in the book, but I took a break to write this. I spent today with Pandora playing ‘classical study music’ quietly in the background so I could use the whole day to listen to this book without distractions. I wouldn’t have been able to handle it if it were boring. ADD would have sent me away from the book and into other ventures. That gives you a clue of how good this book is.

The other reason I spent the day reading (listening) to this book is that it is a Libby library copy that is due soon, and I have a lineup of books to read that I have already checked out. You know how that is. With some books, I would let it go. Return the book unfinished. But I want to know how it ends. Besides, I have never heard so many facts and insights before, and I feel I am somewhat ‘woke.’ This is a history not told in history classes when I was a student. I hope this book is used in the classroom now.

I highly recommend this and Isabel Wilkerson’s other book, Caste.

View all my reviews

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, Body Part(s)

In the progression of Fall, today we have had rain and it’s chilly. The trees are nearly naked.

Isn’t it great that we don’t loose our hands, fingers, feet, and toes every Fall. Bare limbs just seem so sad.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “body parts.” Pick a body part and talk about it. Make sure to leave a comment below or put a disclaimer at the top of your post if it’s NSFW! There are people who participate in SoCS and love to support others, but not every one will want to read about private parts. Have fun!

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, Body Part(s)

In the progression of Fall, today we have had rain and it’s chilly. The trees are nearly naked.

Isn’t it great that we don’t loose our hands, fingers, feet, and toes every Fall. Bare limbs just seem so sad.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “body parts.” Pick a body part and talk about it. Make sure to leave a comment below or put a disclaimer at the top of your post if it’s NSFW! There are people who participate in SoCS and love to support others, but not every one will want to read about private parts. Have fun!