IWSG: Novella or Bust!

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So far this month - yes, I know it's only the 3rd but bear with me - I am feeling . . . cautiously optimistic about my writing. 

I'm working on a novella. (That's what I'm calling it since it's less overwhelming than novel.) It's an idea I've been kicking around for awhile, one I'm really excited about writing. It's got good guys who might be bad, bad guys who might be good, old people, kids, and a storm. Oh, and zombies.

Since I know a lot of us struggle with our writing now and then, and this is the Insecure Writer's Support Group post, I wanted to share two reasons why I'm feeling better about this project: Scrivener and Rachel Aaron's ebook 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love. (Please note - I don't get anything for mentioning them. I just find them useful.)

Now, I don't use most of the bells and whistles of Scrivener, but I'm already more organized than I've ever been with a mansucript. I watched the ten minute tutorial on the website that shows the very basics of the program and I was good to go.

For me, Aaron's ebook is about much more than increasing my daily word count. I've used it to plot my story way more than I usually do, to plan better for actual writing time, and to remind me how much I truly enjoy the process of creating and telling stories.

So, please keep your fingers crossed for me and my novella this September! It's going to be a wild ride, full of ups and downs...and zombies. Don't forget the zombies.  

Over the Cliff I Go

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on last week's IWSG: Path or Cliff? post, where I dithered about which writing project to work on next. As you can see from the title of this post, I went over the cliff and went with the "Ugly Horror Manuscript" now known as UHM….

I greatly appreciated all your thoughts, advice and encouragement, and I feel better, more ready, to aid my protagonists in their fight for survival and to grapple with my nasty protagonist and her cohorts. 

I do have two questions/issues/problems to pose to all of you wise ones out there:

1) Is it weird that I don't have an ending in mind? I usually do, and it's kind of freaking me out that I don't this time. I have scenes that happen toward the end but that's it. Do you usually know your ending before you write? Or do you discover it as you go? 

2) I recently downloaded Scrivener, and I'm looking forward to playing around with it and maybe using it for UHM. Do any of you use Scrivener? Any suggestions for how to make the most of it? Would it be better to use it for a fresh, new ms instead of one that's already got a few versions written plus lots of notes and scrawls that would have to be entered into Scrivener?