SBR: NaNoWriMo

MrsC7 · October 2013

So I think I will finally join NaNoWriMo this year.

How do I need to prepare? I read the snowflake method link that @Young_Love posted a while ago. Should I do steps 1-9 in advance?

RevJen · October 2013

I'm not an outliner. I'm a pantser which means that I just go with the flow and don't plan anything out. I feel trapped when I outline so I know it doesn't work for me.

I have zero ideas for this year's Nano. I have no clue what I'm doing. I may just sit it out again.

Young_Love · October 2013

After a few NaNos where I didn't plan anything and ended up with a useless pile of garbage at the end, if I was doing it this year I would pre-plan AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Outline, snowflake, whatever you can do!

booknerd226 · October 2013

I swear the second I get out of grad school I'm going to attempt NaNoWriMo. I'm a planner though. I have several word documents saved on my laptop with ideas. I even have an entire six page scene that I randomly typed out one day that I'll probably never use, but it makes me happy to reread it.

jackiback · October 2013

I am doing it this year too! I think I got my "big idea" last night this morning.

I absolutely agree with YL. I would plan as much as humanly possible.

I've only done it one other year and I planned mine pretty well. I actually outlined then broke it up into 30 parts so that I knew every day how much I was writing and to what point I needed to get to. I actually hit 50,000 words early but did write all 30 days and finished my story on the last day. I am hoping to do that this year too.

EliStar · October 2013

I'm an outliner. The outline for my current WIP is like 25 pages. I do a modified snowflake - I don't follow every single step in order because I get frustrated. For example- for step 3, I only roughly outline the main characters. I don't do step 5 or step 7 at first - I wait until I've gotten some writing done, because I get to know my characters through writing. It's just how I work. Once I've gotten some of my story down, I go back and revisit my outline. Step 9 is the most important step for me! The narrative of what is going to happen in each scene is how I stay on track. It's easy for me to get lost in subplots if I don't have that strong, detailed outline.

MrsC7 · October 2013

EliStar said:

I'm an outliner. The outline for my current WIP is like 25 pages. I do a modified snowflake - I don't follow every single step in order because I get frustrated. For example- for step 3, I only roughly outline the main characters. I don't do step 5 or step 7 at first - I wait until I've gotten some writing done, because I get to know my characters through writing. It's just how I work. Once I've gotten some of my story down, I go back and revisit my outline. Step 9 is the most important step for me! The narrative of what is going to happen in each scene is how I stay on track. It's easy for me to get lost in subplots if I don't have that strong, detailed outline.

I love this. Thanks, @EliStar! I am definitely a person of structure.

The hard part is first creating the structure in which to operate!

SusieBW · October 2013

I have a couple of ideas kicking around, but I don't know where I would find the time for 50K words right now! I miss writing though, so I may try NaNo this year just to get myself writing again. It's been years since I participated!

I'm not much of a planner, either. I outline a little as I'm going along, and often have 2 or 3 documents open as I'm going - the WIP, a page for notes/ideas that flash through my head as I'm going, and a "sketch page" where I draft out a summary/outline of the final work. The sketch tends to get bigger as I'm writing.

pinkybooklover09 · October 2013

I am still working on my 2010 Nano because I pantsed it when I'm obviously a plotter. I would outline and plan as much as humanly possible because I don't think I ended up using anything from that original draft in the story I have now.

Jen748 · October 2013

I'm in! I'm plotting out my story this month so I can negate a lot of the trouble I went thru while revising my NaNo 2011 story.

j*&p* · October 2013

Last year I spent all of September and October world building and creating a detailed outline and it made hitting 50k so much more doable than the past years when I just had at it on November 1st.

I use the Save the Cat method. It has 15 beats that hit the important points of the story. It's designed for screenwriting but works for novels too.

SBR: NaNoWriMo

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