National Novel Writing Month

Welcome WriMos!

A message from the developer

We are super-excited to be sponsoring National Novel Writing Month for our second year in 2013. To celebrate, we are offering some great discounts to NaNoWriMo users:

  • All participants: receive a 20% discount by entering the coupon code NANOPOWERUP into our web store before December 15, 2013.
  • NaNoWriMo winners: receive a 40% discount (code to be made available on the Winner's Goodies page in early December)

We are starting to roll out some special NaNoWriMo content, including new demonstration videos, and our first author chats with NaNoWriMo authors and Aeon Timeline participants. Check them out by following the links to the right.

While you are here, download a trial version of Aeon Timeline now to help get your NaNoWriMo planning off to the best possible start! Extra information can be found on our main (feature) page, our FAQ page, and our video page.


Guest on Reader/Writer Podcast

I had a lot of fun talking to Ben and Mary Ellen from the Reader/Writer Podcast podcast this week. They invited me on as a guest to discuss Aeon Timeline, its history and its future, and I did my best to hang around and contribute to their regular segments as well.

I've been working my way through their back catalogue of episodes ever since, where they ask authors all sorts of questions about their writing and their writing process. A great way to fill in the gaps in your writing time during this year's NaNoWriMo.

Author Chats

In the lead up to November, we will be asking authors a series of questions about their plans for NaNoWriMo and how Aeon Timeline helps their writing process.

In keeping with the NaNoWriMo spirit, our interviews are open to published writers, enthusiastic amateurs, and even some first time users of Aeon Timeline.

  • 18 October: Elizabeth Haynes: NaNoWriMo participant since 2005. Elizabeth talks about converting her NaNoWriMo beginnings into a successful writing career.
  • 20 October: Amelia Lynn: NaNoWriMo participant since 2011. Amelia is an aspiring author who talks about the many tools she uses to successfully complete NaNoWriMo.
  • 23 October: Badrat: NaNoWriMo participant since 2005. Part discussion, part pep-talk, Badrat talks about establishing writing routines that can last well beyond NaNoWriMo.
  • 23 October: Jonathan Rudderham: NaNoWriMo participant since 2007. Jonathan is writing not only a series of books, but a series of books involving time travel.
  • 27 October: Michael Mountain: NaNoWriMo participant since 2007. Michael is a new user who talks about what he hopes Aeon Timeline will provide. We will check back with him after NaNoWriMo.
  • 2 November: Shannon McChesney: NaNoWriMo participant since 2010. Shannon is hoping Aeon Timeline will be the difference in helping her reach 50,000 words for the first time.
  • 2 November: Joe Casadonte: Joe has never participated in NaNoWriMo, but talks about how Aeon Timeline helped him with his writing over the past year.
  • 10 November: Jenna Winters: NaNoWriMo participant since 2007. Jenna is aiming to write 100,000 words this year!
  • 10 November: Ashland Pym: NaNoWriMo participant since 2009. Ashland studies and writes about Mythology, if she can find the time in November for both.

We will follow up with all our authors soon to find out how they are progressing on this year's NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo Preparation: Content Updates

New Getting Started Video

We have created a new video to help you get started with Aeon Timeline. The video is a good introduction to Aeon Timeline for both Windows and Mac users. The video runs through the basic concepts and key features of Aeon Timeline, and shows how to get started creating a timeline.

This is the first of a series of new videos and video refreshes we intend to do over the coming weeks.

Go to our videos page to see the new video.

Free Trial: Extended Expiry Dates

We know that the last thing you will want to worry about in the middle of November is whether your planning software trial is about to expire with 20,000 words still to go, so we have extended our normal trial period for NaNoWriMo participants.

Our normal trial period lasts for 20 days of actual use, but we have extended the trial to last at least until December 10, 2013 (it will expire on that date or after 20 days of use, whichever happens later).

Rather than upload a specific NaNoWriMo version for this extended expiry, we have simply modified the current release versions of our software:

Mac OS X:
Aeon Timeline for Mac OS X Version 1.2.1

Windows:
Aeon Timeline for Windows Version 1.0.5

Windows Users

Differences between Windows and Mac

The only significant difference between the Windows and Mac version currently is the Scrivener Synchronization feature, which is available on the Mac version only.

Syncing requires functionality that is only available on Scrivener 2, which is available on Mac OS X but has not yet been released on Windows. We are working with Literature and Latte (the team behind Scrivener) to provide Scrivener syncing support as soon as Scrivener 2 for Windows becomes available.

This won't be ready for NaNoWriMo 2013, but it will be released as a free update to the existing version once Scrivener 2 becomes available.

Looking for last year's discount?

During our 2012 NaNoWriMo sponsorship, we offered Windows users a chance to sign up for a newsletter that entitled them to the same NaNoWriMo discounts that we offered to Mac users.

We have now emailed everyone who signed up for our 2012 newsletter with the discount offers they qualified for during 2012. If you signed up for the newsletter but did not receive the email, please let us know.