Still not ready....

The last time I did NaNoWriMo (2006, when I was still living in Minneapolis) I spent the month prior gearing up for it by writing 1667-word stories every day. During the course of writing these vignettes an idea formed, and I wound up with a decent concept that turned into my first winning NaNo. My best suggestion is just keep writing, even if you're just free writing, and something will come up.

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My best nanowriting happened in 2007. I started by coming up with three characters and a location and just let them go at each other. The month flew by and I never got behind schedule. It was also my best result so far. I'm doing the same thing this year. I have two of my characters and a location. The third character will be the spoiler...

don't panic. if all else fails, you can wing it. It's a little bit of a strange ride, but it still works.

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A lot of people reference "No Plot? No Problem!" which I don't have any experience with, but it might help in your case.

If you do have some idea of a story, the Snowflake Method is a good approach to developing it into a workable plan to write a novel. Google should be able to point you to both of these.

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I started reading "No Plot? No Problem!" last year around this time. I made it as far as page 48. The bookmark is still there. maybe I should restart the book (and even think about finishing it) this year, since I don't have a plot - just a great (I think) idea. (I found the book in Barnes and Noble last year. I don't know if they would still have it, though. It might be worth a look, if anyone is interested in it.)

Last year's Nano was based very loosely on my job, so I drew a lot of inspiration from it (and everything else) to keep me going throughout the month. This year, parts of my Nano will be based on dreams, so I am hoping I will have especially vivid dreams. I should stock up on hot and spicy foods to ensure weird dreams.

For now, I'm reading "Physics of the Impossible," by Michio Kaku, to get a good handle on the logistics of my many worlds. And I'm jotting down a few notes here and there as they occur to me.

I started rereading "No Plot? No Problem!" from the beginning yesterday. It took me about an hour to get to page 48, where I had left of last year, and made it all the way to page 67. It's actually turning out to be a quick, fun read.

Also to prepare for NaNo, I purchased a keyboard for about $15, since I am hard on my laptop's keyboard and have dirt under they keys (it doesn't help that I eat around it all the time) and two of the keys (one is the backspace) have come off. I probably won't cart the keyboard around with me, but it sure helps at home (but it doesn't magically help me hit the right keys - maybe what I really need is one of those devices that turns voice into text).

I also bought "2010 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market", because I just didn't think I could live without it. What I like best about these market books is (are?) the articles about writing. I haven't started reading anything in it, though.

My setting is half-built, my characters only partially realized, and I have only the faintest thread of a plot to go on. I'm ready!

:-D