It's all part of the Plan!

I plan to plan (he he he). Last year, I used the snowflake method to flush out my details, etc. It worked pretty well for me and I think I will use it again. Since I am working on a sequel, I already have lots of back story. I think it will be easier than starting from nothing like I did last year.
B

Planning to plan--funny!

I'm still waiting for something more than these ideas that have drifted through my head:
-First person POV
-interrelated shorts or short-shorts

My planning consists of brainstorming, looking at odd mind-stirring resources, and browsing through years'-worth of idea journals. And buying pretty paper. And considering whether I want a new pen, even though I compose almost entirely on the laptop.

Oh, I kind of thought about making up a monthly meal plan. Does that count?

poetT / Teri
the ML in the black hat
United States::Missouri::Kansas City metro area

Meh, I plan go consume just as much beer as I always do...

DIG£ST FOR FR£AKS 小林丸

Ah, planning. It's always a double-edged sword with me. It's darn hard to write without any idea of your characters, setting, plot, whatever ahead of time, but there's a very fine line between "enough planning so I'm not staring blankly at the first page for five hours" and "I overplanned and now I hate it" (at least with me). I'll summarize my conflict in maybe a short paragraph - not my plot, that would imply I know what's going to happen next, and I never do - and do a setting of some kind, some character work, maaaaaybe think about where chapter one should start, and that's about as far as I can go.

But this year I'm aiming for well over the 50k mark (I'm thinking 125k would be a good goal?), so I'm figuring I'll end up with two different works. So I have two main ideas starting to simmer away in that first conflict-paragraph stage. Exciting, exciting!

[url=http://dragcave.net/viewdragon/mj1l][img]http://dragcave.net/image/mj1l.gif[/img][/url]
[url=http://dragcave.net/viewdragon/FCu4][img]http://dragcave.net/image/FCu4.gif[/img][/url]
Sexy is indeed a word. ~Luke

I have the main character and a supporting cast, the situation that sets the story in motion, and the POV.

When I NaNoWriMo'd a few years ago, I outlined my novel before starting. I think this year I'm going to try letting the novel surprise me. It might be a recipe for disaster, but what's the worst that can happen? Fifty thousand boring words? I've already done that.

And this time, I'll try not to make the main character too much like me. The was the problem (well, one problem) with the heroic fantasy novel I wrote before: a guy who mostly wants to sit around and read isn't much of a hero.

When I write screenplays, I plan pretty heavily, to the point where I have the main 40 scenes outlined before I even begin writing. I've tried to take a similar if less anal-retentive approach to NaNo this year. I'm using Scrivener, so I'm getting the benefit of their notecard feature.

To my dismay, I found that I was unable to continue plotting to the level I would normally do with a screenplay. My plot is pretty much stuck until I star writing, I'm afraid. So, I've let myself off the planning hook for now. Interestingly enough, since then, I've had a number of good story flashes I intend to use. I'm just not trying to force anything.

All that being said, I do have the very general story arc planned out for my novel (which will be divided into three books, and by books I mean major divisions as opposed to three separate novels), along with anywhere from five to 20 scenes/chapters planned depending on the book.

-----
"Sometimes the only sane response to an insane world is insanity." ~ Fox Mulder, The X-Files

OOOHH... I have a recommendation for a monthly meal plan. nanomail me if you want details.
B

ditty,
nice details. Thanks for sharing. I can definitely see the need to calculate screenplays more carefully than a novel (at least upon outset). But your level of detail in planning a NaNoWriMo project sounds more complex than the average writer on this site. I hope it works for you. Also, thanks for mentioning the Scrivener tool -- I've just looked it up and it seems quite helpful. Have you been using it for awhile? Other than the notecards, what features do you find applicable to your work?

Zen F.

This year I'm writing down general ideas, because I didn't last year and I want to see what it's like to sort of plan.

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.

Hi Zen,

I haven't been using Scrivener very long; in fact, I'm still on the free trial. But so far, I really like it. I'm planning to go ahead and purchase it when my trial's up because I think it'll really help me stay organized.

One thing about Scrivener I'm thinking will come in really handy is the ability to concatenate chapters while writing. You can also combine or split chapters really easily, too. They also do a split pane view so you can have research or another chapter open in one pane and your current chapter open in another. I've used this quite a bit already just in planning stages.

I probably wouldn't have done as much planning as I have this year if my story weren't so epic. This is my fourth time around, so I know more or less what to expect luckily. It's just this time I've got at least four major storylines to weave together, and there's no way I'd be able to keep things straight without a fairly high level of planning. Even so, I'm also the kind of person who will happily stray from the plan if a better path shows up. Nothing's set in stone; it's just penciled in. :-)

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"Sometimes the only sane response to an insane world is insanity." ~ Fox Mulder, The X-Files

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"Sometimes the only sane response to an insane world is insanity." ~ Fox Mulder, The X-Files

Anyone else having trouble planning?

Of course, if you're planning to wing it, brilliant. No worries there.

I, however, really wanted to have more of an outline this year... and I still don't. I wanted to have the story mostly laid out ahead of time, so that I could perhaps actually finish an entire story for once. (I have issues with that.) Instead, I'm stuck on a bare outline of an idea that I don't really want to do for an entire month.

Anyone else wading in uncertainty? Struggling with expectations? Wanting to kick your main character? In short, having planning or planning-related issues?

This might be hijacking this thread [oops!], but feel free to share even if you're still trying to figure out what to do. There are some very helpful people around here, who will probably throw planning ideas at you to see if they stick. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to comment on my problem... Should I just start on the scenario that I don't really want to write, just because it has been nagging at me for months? (I found a 1st outlne of it dated July 31st.) Okay, maybe that answers my own question...

Inkwet-
I too am starting to get that uneasy sensation that I don't know what I'm going to write...

I sat down the other night (ok, granted I was watching Dancing with the Stars at the time) and tried to sketch out what I wanted to happen in my sequel. You would think that since I have a 225 page manuscript about these same characters already, that I
would have some idea what they're going to do in the sequel...
Nope.
Now I am having an attack of the nerves. Are they so one dimensional that I cannot write anything more about them? (and I have wasted a few trees on the last manuscript as well?)
Or is it that I am so distracted right now that my brain will not function in anything other than survival mode, therefore making creative thought impossible?

I think (hope) it is #2 and not #1. For now, I am drowning my uncertainty in peanut butter pumpkins (the ones covered in chocolate) so that then I can obsess about my weight too... ;)

How about a vote...
My main character is 16 with a baby and a boyfriend. Does the boyfriend leave during the sequel or does he stay???
I think he needs to leave, but he's such a nice guy that I'm having trouble finding a reason for him to leave.

What do you think?
B (please excuse the chocolate finger prints on this message)

You could have him run away to join the army, truckdriving, or circus to help pay for the baby...

DIG£ST FOR FR£AKS 小林丸

Well, Breezyday, you're just feeling the sense of adventure, of the unknown. There are going to be new things to learn about those characters next month. New conflicts? New flaws? Changes based on emotional/mental growth?

Turn off the tube, set aside a special time (yes, with chocolate, if necessary) and brainstorm the possibilities of how complex they can be. Let those characters make some suggestions about what they want to have happen. Make sure that the characters (maybe add another or three?) have plans/aims/goals at odds with the others'. Plot will grow out of the conflict. You'll be fine.

poetT / Teri
the ML in the black hat
United States::Missouri::Kansas City metro area

Here are some random reasons a 16 year old would leave his girlfriend (and biological child)?

and yes, I think he should leave.

Where will NaNoWriMo take us?

It's funny. Almost as soon as I wrote the above, I thought of a reason for him to leave. Of course, it may mean that he gets killed off in the end, a prospect my daughter wasn't happy about. Her response was: "That would have been like Stephenie Meyer killing off Edward in the end."
While I appreciated the comparison to Stephenie Meyer, (may I someday be as successful as she...) I learned a lesson that I will heed in the future:

DO NOT DIVULGE PLOT TWISTS TO FAMILY BEFORE PROJECT IS DONE! Then you will not have any guilt to deal with.

I did like the Mafia idea, though. I'll have to think about that. Did you know that the mafia was strong here in KC in the past?? And my story does take place in KC... HMMMM. Could be a possibility.

B

Off the top of my head Pendergast was huge in the early 1900s. This website gives some more details. I also vaguely remember listening to a NPR broadcast on organized crime, and supposedly there are still some activities in KC.

Where will NaNoWriMo take us?

Yeah, I bought that book for my hubby who has an interest in the mafia & KC history. The author was selling it at B&N, and he autographed it for me. Hubby thought it was great, although I must confess that I haven't read it. History has never really been my thing.
B

Plan? What plan?!?

I've been fairly panic-y lately because I don't have anything planned out. Last year I was very thorough with notes and outlines, but pretty much all I know about this year's novel is that there will be a Belgian castle.

Breezy,
melrice was telling me about the Mafia in KC at the write-in Sunday at the Roasterie.
something about houses in part of town she was calling a Little Italy where there were tunnels under the houses to other houses (presumably to escape the cops or other bad dudes, I guess - or to store loot maybe)

might hit her up for some details

she was trying to place her story in a town where it was believable that a family from Italy would settle and some of them would go back to Italy and some get left behind.....I'm not remembering why the Mafia were involved - maybe just tangentially, because I was suggesting cities that would have a Little Italy - like some have Chinatowns...

mike

So far all I really have are the character names, some background research, outline for half the prologue, and a number of things I could add as fluff in case the main plot doesn't hit the 50k mark. I don't know how much more I will prepare for the thing before November 1st, although I was a compulsive outliner back in my college days.

Where will NaNoWriMo take us?

I don't know how to plan anything, including trips. I winged it (wung it? wang chunged it?) last year and will probably do so again, mostly because I don't have any concrete ideas at the moment. There's one that's floating around that may be fun but may not last for 50,000 words. I'm trying to pretend it's not there so maybe it'll get bigger.

I did some character worksheets, and I have a basic idea for how the plot is supposed to go. (I've got the beginning and the end, I just don't know about the middle.) AND I have to figure out how to get all of them into the plot, and make it seem realistic (it is supposed to be realistic.) My character outlines contained things like:

Shoes
Favorite Breakfast Food
Favorite CD

Even though these things might not appear in the novel, it helps me get to know them better...for better or worse...I had a dream last night that a few of my key characters were arguing about what kind of Chinese takeout to get. Now I get to add "favorite egg roll" to my character sheets.... LOL

-Audrey

I've heard about this for a couple of years but never really decided to commit to it. I acctually forgot about it and a couple weeks ago I got a great idea for a story, and have a basic outline, notes... but nothing too concrete. I've got a great charicter outline sheet, which is what i'm going to be working on for my three main people over the next couple of days.

I think i'm more in the "wing it" camp, though...