Master post of my favorite NaNoWriMo tools

[innerslytherin]

Some of my favorite writing links, just in time for NaNoWriMo:

• Outline Your Novel in 30 Minutes - This has a lot of useful questions to get to know your characters. I've used this several times.
  
• Sketch a Novel in an Hour - Very similar to the first, which it's based on.
  
• My index card method of plotting - with examples from one of my earlier NaNoWriMo novels. :)
  
• The Snowflake Method - I haven't used this before, but it looks good for visual people.
  
• Novel in 30 Days worksheets - Lots of worksheets to develop character, scene, plot, and more. Based on Victoria Lynn Schmidt's Book in a Month. I haven't used these extensively, but they look useful.
  
• First Draft in 30 Days - From the book by Karen S. Wiesner. I don't follow this method 100%, but I love this book, and I love the worksheets. This year I've worked with it extensively during October to plot my novel, and I feel like I have a better handle on my idea going into November than I ever have. She has a few of the worksheets available online, but I bought a copy of the book and typed the worksheets into Word to make them easier for me to work with. I will say that I've been using this method for the past three years, and this is the first year I've fully embraced it.
  
• How to Prep for NaNoWriMo - Advice from Jennifer Blanchard, who runs one of my favorite blogs Procrastinating Writers.
  
• Procrastinating Writers' 5 NaNoWriMo Posts You Don't Want to Miss - Links to 5 useful articles about NaNo. One of them is the article I linked above.

And a very useful (and fun) tool I acquired several years ago and use every year: NaNoWriMo Report Card - this is the download link for an incredible spreadsheet. Originally Created by Eric Benson - Edited for 2004 by Rebecca Waterhouse. I just keep updating the year, and if I want a word count other than 50000 as my goal, I do a CTRL+H to replace 50000 with whatever word count I want (I'm aiming for 80000 this year).