Plot Preparation

Personally, all it takes for me to get into the swing of a story is a set of characters fleshed out in excruciating detail, an equally detailed idea of the setting (as a fantasy writer, knowing your world is important, naturally), a general idea of a beginning, a potential ending, and only a vague idea of the journey from one to the other. Of course, you need to find your own style here--plenty of people would argue that you need no preparation at all, and others use post-it notes to create giant plot webs on their living room floors.

"Und eef dey don't vant to dance ... ve beats dem vith a steeck!"

You need to think about what genre you want to write. Myself, I know I want to write a fantasy, so immediately I have things to think about such as the world, creatures, quest, etc. I never really just sit down and try to come up with something... I usually just allow my thoughts to wander. Keep a notebook handy wherever you go! Sometimes in the middle of math class when I'm tuning out I think of the perfect twist, or character, or element of the plot.... and then by the end of the day I totally forget what it was.

So far, I've planned out my characters, settings, and general plot outline. I personally don't think you need to go into scrutinizing detail before November, but it doesn't hurt to have your characters, plot, twist (if there is one) and settings sorted out beforehand.

Happy planning!

Speaking of plot preparation... I am seriously lacking in the plot area. I have five characters, a setting (Boston, 1650-1730, have not chosen exactly), and little else. My characters are as follows:

Damien Rutledge: solicitor. Age 40.
Alecie Bell: black indentured servant (this is before slaves, I'm hoping. I don't want the poor girl to be a slave!). Age 30.
James Marcus (or Watson because I keep typing that instead): Rutledge's apprentice.* Age 22.
Madelaine Caillot: French indentured servant. Age 19.
Daniel Hopkins. Homeless :(. Age 18.

I want James and Daniel to get together, and I want Damien to sleep with either Alecie or Madelaine or both (probably both) because no one is going to tell him not to (as he essentially owns them during their indentureship) But beyond that, I really don't have a plot. Help?

Jeanne Leigh
2005: Night Life
2006: Souillé
2007: It's A Secret

My basic plan of action is "All right, I have point "A" and I have point "B", and I know what happens, but I don't know how they get there.
I find it tends to be more fun and truly in the spirit of NaNo. Although, admittedly, it didn't go that well, last year.

I'm thinking it might be best not to try to think of a plot at all, else I will just change my mind 30 dozen times between now and 1st November and get myself into a pickle. Current strategic plan is to just write a load of wiffle every day until some themes sort of coalesce and some people do/say some interesting things, and then maybe try and plan the rest into some sort of cohesive and arguably satisfying drawing together of the good bits before carrying on with slightly more structured wiffle.

I have a feeling writing enjoyable-to-write prose is going to be harder for me when I'm simply adding flesh to a pre-planned plot. On the other hand, I'd like to be doing *something* now just cos I'm excited!

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I have nothing to declare except my incompetence.

Yeah ok, thanks for the input so far.

I have the general idea of what I want to do, somewhat of a futureistic fantasy that's set in a magicked world. And the main character I at least have some sort of origin for and a way to start the story. But I'm lacking an ending to the plot as well as side characters and the. It's just a good thing that I still have some time before Nov. to get this all worked out.

I alos have a hundred plot ideas and am trying to winnow them down between now and november.
My current most likely is the story of a man who finds a book that seems to describe his life under another name but is missing the last chapter, so he spends the novel meeting people and having adventures which lead him to similiar books and the final chapters, I picked this because it meant that every so often if i got stuck plotwise he would find a chapter which i would then write in adifferent style (fantasy/serial killer/romance) and then go onto a differnt attempt to find the real chapter, hopefully prevent me having too much writers block ( a problem i have when trying to turn a plot intpo a story). Also i have an ending (the penultimate chapter he finds the final chapter of the book which is then, in the final chapter, shown as being a sligtly rewritten version of the penultimate chapter). The above BTW is the first time i have written down the plan tosee if it holds together and it just might.