Well, Squiders, it’s that time of year again. We are a mere 13 days from the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and all the insanity that that entails. What is NaNoWriMo (asks probably a very few of you)? A writing challenge where you write 50,000 words on a novel during the month of November.
(We talk about this every year, Squiders dear. You’re welcome to peruse previous Octobers and Novembers for words of wisdom as the fancy hits you. I won’t be offended if you don’t.)
We’ve talked about Nano Zen and Plot Death and what to do if you want to do Nano but aren’t feeling it. So, now, it’s mid-October, and people start thinking that maybe they should start getting ready if they’re going to. If you’ve done this before, you know what you need to do to be prepared. If this is your first time, I recommend that you have at least the following:
1. Main character (or two)
2. Setting
3. Basic plot and/or premise
4. Starting point
Realize that none of these things need to be set in stone, but you will make things infinitely easier for yourself if you have something for each point.
(Some of you may note that I didn’t include villain/antagonist in the above list. This is because I find they tend to be fairly organic–they come into being fully formed to block your protagonist and/or are defined by your premise. Your mileage may vary.)
This will be my 10th year participating, and probably my last. Dunno why, but it seems like ten years is some sort of threshold. My plan is to finally write the third book of my high fantasy trilogy, though we’ll see how it goes with our new family addition. People who have written (especially for Nano) around very small infants, do you have any recommendations? He’s not on solid foods yet, so I can’t leave him for very long.
Are you doing Nano this year? What are your goals?
