Okay, so one of the problems of farming being our primary source of income is that it leaves very little time during the busy season to write much of anything.  Newsletters from the farm to our customers are about the only writing I get done (other than checks to pay the bills).  So, when November came with its NaNoWriMo challenge, I happily accepted.  Normally the season is completely over with and I have time to play catch up on things around the house that have been ignored for eight months and put in some writing time.

However, this year we had a late season CSA which lasted until the week before Thansgiving.  Then family was in town.  And, before I knew it, November and its writing challenge were over and I had only written 15,000 of my needed 50,000 words.  It was rather dissapointing.  But, on the plus side, I did get a very good start on my first work of fiction.  I will find the time in the coming month to work on that as well as finish Savoring The Harvest in time for it to be published in spring.

Happy New Year … hope you have as many expectations for the coming months as I do!

It’s been a long time since I posted, but I’ve got good reason.  I’ve been very busy running our farm during the busy season.  Now’s the time of the year when I can really focus on writing … um, after I clean the house.

So, I’ve officially register for NaNoWriMo this year.  If you’re not familiar, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month.  It’s a challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in the 30 days of November.  That is, indeed, a challenge.  Since I registered late, I’m already about 8,000 words behind but that’s okay.  I’ll play catch up.

Any of you who write, whether it’s articles, short stories, novels or whatever, know the limitations of word processing programs.  They are much handier than a typewriter, of course, but fully expect you to start at the beginning and write until you get to the end.  That’s not really the way most writers work.  This often means saving chapters in individual files, opening several windows at once, editing in separate screens and then combining the work all together at the end.  Frustrating.

Since 2006 there has been a fantastic program called Scrivener that focused on solving these problems for writers.   It’s a wonderful tool for keeping your drafts, research, notes and links all together in one area.  There are too many tools to mention but let’s just say I’ve always wanted to use it.  One problem: it was only designed for Mac users.  Yes, I use a PC.

But, lo and behold, Literature and Latte has released a beta version of Scrivener for Windows!  Yes!  Granted, it’s a beta version which means there will be bugs.  But I’m good with that.  I happily downloaded it this week and will just as happily report any of the bugs I find back to the designers.

Here’s the bonus: anyone who successfully completes the NaNoWriMo challenge this year, and has their novel verified, will get 50% off Scrivener for Windows when it’s released in January 2011.  WooHoo!!  So not only do I get to challenge myself to write a novel in a month and get to beta test a program I’ve wanted for a while, I’ll get to buy that program for half off.  Sounds like a deal to me!

Now, I guess I need to go start writing.