CreateSpace - Free Copy for Winners

I was looking around on the forums and if you win NaNo, CreateSpace will give you a free proof copy of your book. That sounds pretty cool to me. Just another incentive to win.
After winning, you get a special code from NaNo and then make an account at CreateSpace. You have to follow their submission guidelines. After you receive your proof copy, you can decide to make it available to the public or invisible.

Create. Collaborate. Distribute.  (CreateSpace tagline)

Our free online publishing tools and Community can help you complete and sell your work.
Distribute on Amazon.com, your own website, and other retailers without setup fees or inventory.

Here's to hope that I win and have the option to do this if I want.

A Writer's Notebook

A writer's notebook is a case of digging your well before you are thirsty. Writer's notebooks are personal, make of it what you may types of records. Some keep them as journals and others have a specific book just for writer's notes.
Writer's notes are anything a writer wants to keep record of for future reference. These notes are used for sparks, inspiration or a nudge when a writer needs an idea. Sometimes ideas are all around popping up all the time and then sometimes they all run down the idea hole, nowhere to be found. Your writer's notebook comes in handy when the ideas are hibernating. And anything interesting to you qualifies for your notebook. It's yours after all, so don't worry about writing down anything wrong.
So many things are good to write in it. You may not be noticing all the different things you could be. Here's a list of things to be on the lookout for to include in your book:

+ Interesting words you notice
+ Quotes and one-liners from anywhere including people you are around
+ Eavesdropped conversations and ideas for novels from them
+ Headlines and story ideas from newspapers/magazines
+ Character profiles from real people
+ Setting details from real places
+ Things you hear children say - they see the world in different ways
+ Ideas you get while reading
+ Names of places on signs and business cards
+ People ahead of you in line and why they are buying what's in their cart
+ Habits of people around you - do you know why they have these habits?
+ Things you find really pretty or really ugly

Write down things you want to keep, but don't have a need for now. They someday may fit in a story or make a story for you. You just need to be able to reach out and grab them at the right time.

Ernest Hemingway

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward,

some are strong at the broken places.”

~Ernest Hemingway

I love this quote. I also think it could be a jumping off place for a lot of different stories. And maybe it already has. As I read this, it conjured up: a man who lost his brother in a wilderness hike and battled through the woods and climbed a rocky mountain in order for the search party to find him. And for complications.... who was chasing after him up the mountain and why? I think it has to do with a secret his brother was keeping from him and why he invited him to go on the hike.

Goodreads

Jayne Q Public's favorite books »

From the official site:
What is Goodreads 
Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have over 2,500,000 members who have added over 60,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more. 
Why? Let's make reading fun again. Somehow, reading books seems to have gotten a bad rap. People are working too hard and not making time to read, people are watching TV because they can veg out and turn their brains off—hey, we feel it too! But every once in a while you run into a friend who tells you about this "great new book I'm reading." And suddenly you're excited to read it. It's that kind of excitement that Goodreads is all about.

I joined goodreads last night. My username is Jayne Q Public. Feel free to befriend me there.
I think I already like this website because you can save your favorite quotes. I am a quote collector and have been for years. There are tons of books already on the site and you can also search Amazon.com from goodreads. It's quick and very easy to rate and add books to your bookshelf. I took quizzes last night based on the books I put on my shelf. I haven't reviewed any yet, but plan to do so. I joined the NaNoWriMo discussion group and posted a few comments. I had a pretty good time exploring the site. I encourage you to check it out and sign up if you like it.

Character Profile Questionaires

I have heard a lot of writers talking about Character Sheets. So far on my NaNo novel, I have two main characters sitting pretty solid in my head. I really don't want to sit down and do a profile on each. I would rather let them form a bit more on the paper before I go filling out a "demographic" for them. Maybe afterwards, it would be interesting and give me some different directions to go in if I get stuck. On the other hand, I think I will fill in partial sketches on some of the lesser people that could be in my story. I'm a real visual person, so I've been cutting out any interesting people pictures from magazines and taping them in a notebook where I can write whatever I want alongside them. I think that may come in handy at some point too.
Below are links to some character profile pages:

Rich Hamper's Character Profile Sheet
Character Sheet Generator
Charlotte Dillon Character Chart (with questions after to ask your character)
Writers Write - How to create a character profile
Fiction Writer's Character Chart
Gotham Writer's Workshop - 2 questionaires
Character Trait Chart and Personality Components
Fiction Addiction Character Creation - multi-paged

I haven't decided which one(s) I will print out yet, but it was interesting looking through the questions. There are different ones on each. Some are very in depth. Some I wouldn't have thought of at all. In answering, I think you would definitely get to know more about your character. And with some of those in depth questions, maybe TMI (too much information) haha!

NaNoWriMo Desktop Calendar - Rabbit

Right click and choose set as desktop background.

 

NaNoWriMo Desktop Calendar - Landslide

Right click on picture and set as desktop background.