Welcome to Day One of the 2009 National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org/)! Check back daily for live blogging all month! Day 1 Question: Scrivener or Microsoft Word, and why? Keep reading for more details...

I'm attempting NaNoWriMo again for the fifth year in a row. Every year, I have failed to complete a 50,000 word first draft of a novel because, well, hmmmm. This year, I am determined to finish a first draft of this adult novel I've been working on over the past year. I received my MFA in creative writing for adult literary novel writing but after graduating, I immediately fell into the WONDERFUL world of children's books. Although I heart kid lit and YA novels, I recently have had an itch to return to my roots. I've been doing research etc. for this adult novel, so I decided NaNoWriMo would be a fun way to kickstart the writing of it. I also have more of an incentive - I started a new TV writing/producing job this fall and I know that in a few weeks, our schedule will become very labor intensive, so I figured I'd take advantage of our "softer" schedule for now to get as much writing done on this novel as I can.

For more info on NaNoWriMo and how to join up, go here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

By the way, as many of you know, NaNoWriMo inspired my own kid lit version from May 2009 called National Picture Book Writing Week (NaPiBoWriWee). Go here to find out more about my own version:  http://paulayoo.com/content/natl-picture-book-writing-week-may-1-7-2009

I will be live Tweeting all month and reposting each day's Tweets of my progress every night on a new blog entry. (Thirty blogs total in a row). You can follow me here: http://twitter.com/PaulaYoo

In addition, for those of you signed up for NaNoWriMo, please be my writing buddy at my NaNoWriMo page here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/170463

Each day I will post a question on a new live blog posting as well as on Twitter. You can either answer me at my Twitter page (http://twitter.com/PaulaYoo) or register to leave a comment on the blog itself. (For more info on how to register to be part of my blog, go here: http://paulayoo.com/content/help-and-faqs)

I also have a message boards forum on my website if people want to post questions or ask for advice or just to vent! LOL! Go here to participate: http://paulayoo.com/content/nanowrimo-2009-hows-it-going

Well, time to stop blogging and time to start NaNoWriMo'ing. Check back to this Day 1 blog later tonight when I'll update it with your answers on Day 1's question: Scrivener or Microsoft Word, and why?

Happy Writing!