Okay…so in 4 days NaNoWriMo starts. Don’t know what that is? It’s National Novel Writing Month and that means thousands of writers across the world are going to partake in the most motivating writing challenge — to write at least 50K in 30 days. There are a few rules…like, no fair writing one word 50,000 times. And you can’t start until the bell chimes after midnight on Halloween (aka NaNo Eve). Go here to see how NaNo works in 10 Easy Steps.

This is my first time participating in NaNoWriMo and I’m feeling a bit of everything. Excited. Scared. Anxious. Scared. Inspired. Scared. And why am I scared you ask? Well, maybe I’m not scared. But my internal editor sure is! Because that’s my problem. I have an -itis…and it’s called Internal Editoritis. This disease is plagued with all kinds of backspace quirks, re-reading double vision, and red pen spewing. My prognosis was looking pretty grim…until I discovered that during the whole month of November I should–wait for it–SHUT. OFF. MY. EDITOR.

And what’s the recommended treatment for this disease called Internal Editoritis? Well, there’s a lot of nifty tools out there, but I found one that I really think will help me: Write or Die Desktop Edition. I was a huge fan of the online version and would frequently use it to pump out mass quantities of word count in short spurts of time. But since I plan on doing a lot of my NaNo writing on my netbook with little to no web access, this tool seems to be the perfect fit. Especially for NaNo.

In addition to the uber-coolness of Write or Die, I have a list of things I expect will be helpful to me during the next 30 days of craziness. In no particular order they are:

• NaNoWriMo Forums – This is a no-brainer. There are loads of just-as-insane people that frequent these boards with threads ranging from Adopt a (fill-in-the-blank) to soundtracks to get you in the mood.
• Q10/WriteMonkey/RoughDraft – Simple is best. At least during the month of November. Free from all the distractions of typical word processors, these applications are essentially just plain old text editors (with a few bells and whistles). Check out the cool typewriter sounds!
• DeviantArt – This site is full of all sorts of visual inspiration in practically every kind of genre. Take a look. Your muse will thank me.
• yWriter – This is a word processor that breaks your novel into scenes and chapters. Although I don’t plan on using this too much during November, it’ll be handy in December (and Jan, Feb, Mar…) when I edit.
• Google Docs/Dropbox – BACKUP. BACKUP. BACKUP. That is all folks.
• Pandora – For continuous background music based off your favorite tunes.
• Seventh Sanctum – Because sometimes I need a little help generating off-the-wall spells and villainous names.
• Bejeweled – Because breaks are good. But be warned: THIS GAME IS ADDICTIVE.

So there you have it. My tools for a newbie’s NaNo. Wish me luck!