got a plot?

I have a plot, the characters and the book after it all planned out. I'm a little obsessive when it comes to the planning. There are always new little twists and turns along the way, but most of it gets planned well in advance. Though the book I am working on is number three of a set of nine, so the characters are already defined which helps.

I've actually got a good bit planned this year. I don't want to end up in the same position as last year: stuck in the middle with no idea how to get to the end. I've been using the time to come up with extra characters and subplots, just in case I need padding. I still don't quite know where the main plot is going, but I've got enough extra stuff to keep me writing while I find out. :)

I have a plot...it's the one i used last year. I didn't finish it (grr) and i'm thinking of rewriting it for this years nano. As i've already got the planning done it makes october much less stressful :)

Cliched fantasy, bad dialogue and emo characters a specialty.

Yeah my plot is fleshed out but not commited to paper yet. I am a 'pureist' so don't allow myself to write anything down until midnight on 31st. I do have a title picked our however which I always find cements a story idea much more.

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Never done this before, and don't have a plot yet. I hope to have at least a vague one before it starts though...

I've actually found that going in with a plot "worked out" is a sure-fire way of disappointing yourself. The last two years I've done NaNo I've achieved the 50,000 word mark. The first year, I reached it in a truly stupid 12 days. The next year, it took me around 29 days. Why? I put it mostly down to the fact that 2008 was a year when I decided I was going to write a novel I've been meaning to write for around six years now, so I ended up displeasing myself with its execution, making the writing process far less enthusiastic. It became a chore which I felt I was failing at, rather than a whole new journey which was full of new stuff to discover.

Which isn't to say "wait until November 1st to come up with anything." It's always good to know what themes, messages and tone you're going for in your story, but don't flesh them out just yet. Know what you're doing, but don't marry what you're doing. Don't jump into bed with what you're doing. Don't put unreasonable expectations on yourself. And don't trust that you're going to be drowning in frenzied inspiration. With the knowledge that thousands of other writers are going to be writing alongside you, you'll have an extra burst (a very significant one, at that) which you don't have at other points of the year, it's true. However, keep in mind that it's still you doing the writing. There's 50,000 spaces which you need to fill in with the correct words.

My plot will probably include orcs, goblins, and wizards. And maybe some battles.

I found last year that I had an overall idea of plot but I had to sit down before each chapter and decide what was going to happen before just dropping in and writing.

But perhaps that is why I didn't reach the 50k target... who knows?

a

I have an idea but I'm trying not to think about it too much...however, that doesn't appear to be going too well!! I have an opening scene, possible prologue, about 4 events and a handful of characters.

Roll on Nov...

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I don't really have a plan right now. I'm pretty useless at the planning stage, but I don't think I'm going to have a snowflakes chance in hell of winning if I don't plan plan plan.

All I know so far, if that my main character whose point of view it's of is going to be a human (female), and my other main character is most likely a vampire (male), providing the perfect opportunity for some classy romance. I've never really wrote romance, but I've read plenty of horrors with the romantic twist.

(By the way, NO I'm not some kind of Edward Cullen obsessee. And no, my vampires really wont glitter in the sunlight. They're more likely to die in it.)

The two will have that attitude where they plan on walking away from each other at the end, but they can't get past the attractions between them and the feelings that hae arose.

It's pretty much a Keri Arthur Nikki and Michael story, mixed in with her other books plus some Kelley Armstrong, but hopefully I'll be able to come up with enough of a twist to make it origional.

Any ideas?

NotAliceInHerWonderland x

Do I have a plot? Kinda. I've been procrastinating about finding an end to the story I have vaguely worked out. I've tried it one year without a plot (failed, miserably) and one year with (won!) so I think it's better if I do have one, personally. My main fear is that I'll start writing and then not have enough plot to last 50000 words.

My idea this year is basically teenage angst, but hopefully it'll be fun.

Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at.

So far I have a fairly good idea of the plot, all the main characters and a rough idea of the chapter breakdowns. What possessed me to set it in the middle of the 1500's I'll never know, but the historical research is proving very educational. The first chapter is not yet set in letters of fire but it's given me an idea of how many words I can produce during a normal day. I've also given myself the option that each section will have a couple of different endings so I can change direction if an idea doesn't work out too well. Apart from that there's some medicinal whisky within easy reach just in case I dry up totally.

I want to die peacefully in my sleep, just like grandpa. Not screaming and panicking like his passengers.

I currently have absolutely nothing to go on. In '07 I started with a plot of about 3 sentences, and just about managed to struggle through to 50,000 about 2 hours before the deadline. Last year, I had a much more established idea and characters and got hopelessly stuck and failed.

It's going to be seat of the pants time again this year. Although with any luck I will have a vague idea come Oct 31st.

i finally have a plot, some characters and ending which will probably change i just can't decide which person to write it in :/

I have a plot that seized me in June. However, I'm devoting most of my time to something a lot longer and more complex than the plot I have in mind right now, so I haven't really fleshed it out at all I'm taking November as my chance to get right on and do the damn thing. I'm excited.

It isn't too detailed either, which means that I can pretty much make it up as I go along. woohoot!

You think it's the living who have the ultimate judgment over you, because the dead have no claim over your soul. But you may be mistaken. -John Kramer

I will be writing the second half of last year's nanonovel. Basically, it is a fantasy story which aims to have no fantasy characters in it whatsoever until the final chapter. Absolutely no dragons, dwarves, knights in either shining or rusty armour, elves, hobbits, shapeshifters, goblins, leprechauns, intelligent wolves etc. Although a talking cat does make an appearance for one chapter. She's called Sylvia and collects bell jars.

2005: The Stone of Alkair Taì (Fantasy)
2006: The Quotation Tree (Children's)
2007: City of the Dead (Historical Fantasy)
2008: Such Things As Dreams Are Made On (Knitting/Fantasy)
2009: Such Things As Dreams Are Made On: Volume II (Knitting/Fantasy)

I don't have a clue plotwise this year, but then again, last year I changed the whole thing, completely, a few days in and still managed nicely. I'll see what ideas come my way in the next couple of weeks.

I'm new this year and can't wait. So excited! I have a rough idea of the beginning, the beginning of the middle and no idea about the end! I like to have things to aim for and am afraid I'd find it more of a chore if I didn't have at least a vague outline to work to.

OK, I am such a hypocrite. I now know what I'm doing. Compared to lots of stuff I've wrote before, it's mature, it's on a big scale, and it's full of depth. That is, of course, compared to the stuff I've wrote before. :)

Apparently I am going to be writing Supernatural, only set in England... featuring a musket from the Anglo-Zulu war.

Hmph.

Ok I already want to read that!

I'm new this year, and as of yet have no idea what I'll be writing about. Hoping inspiration will strike in the next few weeks or I'll be winging it!

I've had an idea that's been rattling around my head for a few months that i'll be using. Have a bit of an affinity for post-apocalyptic fiction and naturally this will follow that style. The biggest challenge I can see is that there'll only be one human character in the whole novel, with all the other 'characters' being automatons and robots.

Did a bubble plot earlier on this week and I think I have enough to easily reach the 20,000 mark, but if all else fails and I can't reach a point where I know how it'll all pan out, I have another fall back story to which I can retreat.

Have decided to take the plunge this year and go for it. So after making this decision (and it took a few days to actually tell myself YES you will do it this year! after coming up with excuses the past few years) I've ended up with three (possibly four) plots, and thought I'd decided on the 'one' to write over November. Then after doing some research today I may have changed my mind to something completely different.

So yes I have plot(s), just not sure if I haven't 'lost the plot' deciding on a plot!

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-Robert Frost

I have two... and I keep switching between them both. I'll probably decide at 23:59 on the 31st!

One is something I started working on last October, and the other in February but the stories have changed and developed. I have the characters and bits of outline to push me ahead in case of writers block, but I'm going to start whichever I go for from scratch. I can always edit my old stuff in when it gets to December if it still fits in.

I've just sent the two synopsis to a few friends... see what they think. Not sure that will help in the decision, but it might.

Both get quite dark in places, but apart from that have nothing in common. One is drama exploring bullying and depression. The other is fantasy.

"There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." W. Somerset Maugham
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I am now on the verge of changing my mind over where book I want to write. My problem is that I have a set of 9 working its way round my head and the 4th is begging to be wrtitten, but I am only on number 2 at the moment. Hopefully I will be workin on book 3 for NaNo, if I change my mind though, I will be working on book 4. Not sure yet.

I'm new this year, and I have an idea for a first chapter, and a hazy kind of idea about where the book will go....but no detailed plot! Will I be okay? Should I plan?

depends on how you write. I am obsessive about planning. by the time I am a quater of the way through I will normally have a rough plan for each and every remaining chapter. But some people dont plan at all and that works for them. So really, its up to you. If you prefer to have a plan, then plan something. if not, then just go at it and see what you get :)

Chelle

Personally I need a least one main character whose beginning and end points are mapped out in my head. Everything else can be scripted around that, to make sure that char goes through the necessary trials and development.

Less of a plot, more of an idea. Was thinking of a novel which involves a central character who reads short stories that she has written herself... so it's a novel containing short-stories. Don't know if anyone else has tried that before. Not sure if it will work, but here's hoping.

Haven't really decided fon my characters either, thought I'd leave it all till November.

Angie

Deep in the heart of Bluebell Forest there is a small clearing, and if you look very carefully, you will discover some very, very tiny creatures. Be careful that you do not stand on them! They are the Fairies of Bluebell Forest.

I've got a plot in mind, but it's likely to change as I watch more Firefly and Enterprise and go to my Traveller Meets as well as I write. I've got a definate start and a vauge direction, including a few moments I want to get in. My characters keep introducing themselves to me, so I've been jotting down ideas to keep my head focusing on work. I know and like my main character, and I think I'm developing a soft spot for the irritating nine-year-old who turned up yesterday.

~*~ [url]http://wolfishwritten.wordpress.com[/url]~*~

ive spent today cementing the ideas of the last week or so down.... i even have a vague blurb!

'Stuart was, quite frankly, a perfectionist. Obsessed with deadlines and achievement, everything had to go his way and there was no room for bending the rules. However, an increasingly disturbing disruption of his sleep meant that the 'rules' were suddenly thrown out of the window. Sent on an enforced holiday, Sean is capitulated into a situation he didn't even think was imaginable, let alone could involve him! Conspiracies, mysteries, and curiosity entrench themselves firmly into Stuart's new life, and he soon finds himself on the run from the government with a seemingly crazy Native Canadian, and an even stranger hippy with a 'thing' for falconry. Together, the fate of everything they've ever known rests with them as they progress in their search for truth.'

so yeah, three main characters, a problem and some action.... everything else has yet to be worked out! :P