Nanowrimo 2011 is Over

Nanowrimo 2011 is officially over, and once the flurry of dust and debris and clickety clackety has died away wrimos everywhere will be divided into two groups - those who did finish, and those who didn't.  Where do you fall in?

By the Seat of My Pants

  So it is Nanowrimo's Eve and I still don't have an outline.  Normally, that would be a bad thing.  You see, every year prior, I've had a semi-decent outline of Story, Characters, places, etc.  And every year I have failed to meet the 50,000 word challenge.  This year, however, I'm not too concerned.
  I have the protagonists' and antagonists' basic profiles figured out, and a very basic premise for the story, and that's it.  I plan on writing by the seat of my pants, and I'll figure out all the little details about the story as I write it.  Now I don't plan to just write willy-nilly without some organization.
  I'm going to use Yarny, a wonderful and powerful writing web-app.  Yarny has a character, location, and item section to add notes and such to.  Using the character sheets from the Scriptorium, I create a full character profile.  As I write, if I add something that will affect the character's basic "self" then I will jot it into their character profile.  As I add locations, I will create a location profile for each location.  Same goes for any special items.  What this will do is allow me to still be flexible, but at least semi consistent.
  So, for those of you who are also going to write from the seat of your pants, good luck!  Whether good or bad, the bright side os there's always time after Nanowrimo to edit, and work out the kinks and inconsistencies.

Software Tips and Tricks: Dropbox and yWriter

  Today I'm going to introduce you to one of the most powerful and versatile programs on the Internet - Dropbox.  Dropbox is a program that synchronizes data from multiple computers and mobile devices using the Operating Systems own shell or window manager (i.e. Explorer or Gnome/KDE).  It also makes a backup copy on their servers and the files are accessible via Dropbox's website.

Old outlines given new life

  I recently went through some of my notes and part of my outline from Nanowrimo 2008 this past week and came to a sudden realization...I actually liked my old plot more than I do my current plot.  Some ideas and some characters are far more developed and are more dynamic than the '08 versions, but overall the '08 story captivated me much quicker than this year's story.
  The great thing about going through old stories, plots, notes, and any other plans for a story as that in some cases you forget completely what the story was like.  In one sense you can approach the story much like a reader would.  I was drawn in to the story I had typed out, I was even captivated by what I had written, and in my current '09 iteration of my novel there is no sense of that need to turn the page.  It's not compelling enough to for the reader to feel the want, almost a need, to turn the page and see the events unfold.  My '08 is.  Or is closer at the very least.
  I feel that I will need to reinvent a few characters, restructure my fantasy world, and rework the plot to meld the two outlines into something that feels much more compelling, and ideally will be able to tell a captivating story.  Currently the trio of primary protagonists are redone, and the antagonists are being worked on, as well as a rebuilding of the world.
  As a side note, check out The Scriptorioum's Toolbox section for great forms on character creation, world planners, plot planners, and scene planners.

Something to consider: different Limbs

  Recently tech blog Gizmodo had a week-long marathon "This Cyborg Life" which covered aspects about prosthetics, natural enhancements (through technology), not so natural enhancements, and how all of this bio-tech will effect us.  One particular article, Normal Was Never Cool: Inception of Perception, by Aimee Mullins was very interesting and offered insight to one of my own characters.