How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo in a Week
October 24th 2010 20:25
There's one full week between now and November 1. If you've not started planning your novel yet, here's how prepare for NaNoWriMo:
Learn as much as you can about your main characters: motivations, desires, fears. What's important to them, and why? What's standing in between them and the things they want? If you find the time, fill in character questionnaires; they are for your benefit and aren't necessary for the story, so you can skip them.
What's your story about? If you're writing character-driven fiction, your answer will depend on the things you know about your characters, so don't try to answer it before you have a sense of who your characters are. I've told stories with nothing more than deciding how the story starts, what the big problem is and how it will end, based on a sound knowledge of how my protagonist and her enemy tick.
Find the slots of free time in your schedule and figure out how to make use of this time to get on with your novel. Are you comfortable writing in public? Can you use any of your mobile devices to write while you're on the way to work or school? Do you have a free afternoon every Thursday that can be devoted to writing?
If you think you don't have enough time to get ready, remember rule no.1: quantity over quality. You don't have to write print-worthy prose. NaNoWriMo is all about finishing the first draft, getting the story out. Anything that goes wrong in the first draft, you'll be able to fix later.
Here's a list of all the NaNoWriMo Newbie Guide posts.
Learn as much as you can about your main characters: motivations, desires, fears. What's important to them, and why? What's standing in between them and the things they want? If you find the time, fill in character questionnaires; they are for your benefit and aren't necessary for the story, so you can skip them.
What's your story about? If you're writing character-driven fiction, your answer will depend on the things you know about your characters, so don't try to answer it before you have a sense of who your characters are. I've told stories with nothing more than deciding how the story starts, what the big problem is and how it will end, based on a sound knowledge of how my protagonist and her enemy tick.
Find the slots of free time in your schedule and figure out how to make use of this time to get on with your novel. Are you comfortable writing in public? Can you use any of your mobile devices to write while you're on the way to work or school? Do you have a free afternoon every Thursday that can be devoted to writing?
If you think you don't have enough time to get ready, remember rule no.1: quantity over quality. You don't have to write print-worthy prose. NaNoWriMo is all about finishing the first draft, getting the story out. Anything that goes wrong in the first draft, you'll be able to fix later.
Here's a list of all the NaNoWriMo Newbie Guide posts.
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