just over 24 hours to go! What pre-prep, if any do you do leading up to NaNo? Do you just give your novel a name and have a vague idea what you want? Do you write up a synopsis and maybe a few quick notes? Do you do full blown character charts, outlines, and ? Or do you jump from the gate at midnight with nothing planned at all? How do you start NaNo?
Has anyone picked up Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days, or any of the other novel writing in 30 day books? Find them useful, worthless, etc?
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2006 - The Guardian - 24805 words
2007 - The Guardian - under 10000 words (try 2)
2008 - Broken Wing - 49251 words
2009 - Aisuru, To Love - TBD
8,086 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 20 35
For my prep-pep I first got to know my characters a little more. I wrote out a short character profile for each and kind of just asked them what their story was. The crazy things then decided to let me know two days before starting day that they were a different nationality than what I originally proposed! So I had to change the setting and the names of ALL of my characters. It was a bit aggravating. Haha.
I plan on going to a coffee shop tomorrow before and after the game in order to get some sort of an outline together. I think it will help me if I am more organized and have some sense of what I am going to write about, especially since I have other classes and stuff I have to worry about, I just want to be sure to get most of my thoughts onto paper about the plot and whatnot before I begin.
But I have heard of people who just wing it! Haha. What is your plan?
----------The first draft of anything is shit. - Ernest Hemingway
32,816 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2009 - 06 25
Generally, I have a title, a short synopsis, and maybe the main characters names. Two years I did have an outline, that my characters then frequently said "nah, this happens first instead". Last year I didn't have any kind of outline or anything other than a one paragraph synopsis and only some of the character's names. I think I even changed two names part way through. Its the closest I've gotten to winning so I'll probably try that again this year. :D May see if Barnes and Noble has Baty's book, though, and flip throguh it a bit to see if he has any good tips for time management.
----------2006 - The Guardian - 24805 words
2007 - The Guardian - under 10000 words (try 2)
2008 - Broken Wing - 49251 words
2009 - Aisuru, To Love - TBD
7,241 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2009 - 06 28
Well I kinda had this story in my head for over a year but I didn't know to much about it. Just an over view. Then I told Renee (the girl that hosted writers bar camp) about my story and she helped me with my direction. So now I have a full page of who what and why. I was planning on expanding on it today. Also I bought the Novel in 30 days book but haven't really looked in it!
43,026 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2009 - 10 01
I do the whole chapter-by-chapter outline, which I find helps me out a great deal; I need direction, purpose, an end goal. I tried ScriptFrenzy two years ago and basically just winged it, and it turned out to be a total disaster. I finished the 100 pages, but man did my story really, really stink. It was a complete word-mess, but at least I learned what didn't work for me.
I read No Plot, No Problem! for my first Nano in 07, and thought it was a very good book. It was short, so I basically finished it in about a day and a half, but I remember it being very inspirational and funny. Chris Baty seems like a nice guy. :)
----------Life would be so much better with a plot.