NaNoWriMo Arrives Again

This weekend begins one of the most hectic, stressful, satisying, and rewarding month's of a writer's life:

National Novel Writing Month.

Regardless of what genre you plan to write, or if you plan to write a novel at all, this month brings a certain camaraderie amongst otherwise individual artists - you are not alone. There are thousands of people pursuing a similar goal, pushing to release their creativity into the world.

During this month, we'll post few prompts but more helpful motivations for those who are participating.

Expect:

Plot bunnies
Tips for planning
Tips for writing
Tips for boosting word count
Advice to get those creative juices flowing
Motivational rants

Today, I offer some tips on planning for NaNo, if you're one of those writers who plans.

1. Ideas are everywhere.

Each story is about a person. Find a character - even if it's not your protagonist first. A character gives you a person to talk about; write their back story, their fears, their weakness, their strengths, etc. There's bound to be a story in there for you to stretch into 50,000 words.

If starting with characters isn't for you, check out prompt sites. Allow yourself to play with prompts: mix them, smash them together, pick little bits out, polish them.

For further ideas, try people-watching. Take a seat on the subway, or at the park, and write down snippets of conversation you here. Make up stories from little windows people allow you glimpse through.

2. Outlines are your friend

Plot structures can help in the long run, regardless of whether you actively use outlines for writing. A plot structure - usually beginning, middle, and end - help you to maintain an idea for going from Point A to Point B, and so on.

Have fun with your plot - exposition to rising action to climax to falling action back to rising action to secondary climax and so forth. Don't hesitate to throw in extra climaxes - J K Rowling does this all the time: up and down, up and down. Life is not making it up one hill and coming down triumphant (or not) - life is a crazy rollercoaster in the dark with twists, turns, and lots of drops.

3. Have an idea of your ending

Even if your ending changes five million times over the next month, make sure you have some semblance of what it will be. Knowing the ending gives you an advantage over the reader - you can foreshadow like nobody's business. Look at the foreshadowing of Deathly Hallows in Philosopher's Stone - would that have been possible without JK knowing the ending? Not easily.

Don't get into intense detail of your ending before reaching it through the novel; that keeps you from being flexible. Keep in mind, as you write, you're accompanying your protagonist(s) on their journey to that end - and the future is ever-changing.

More to come:

Stay tuned as we head into the month for more tips, ideas, and motivation!