Let’s talk NaNoWriMo

Posted October 18, 2011 by elizatilton in Uncategorized / 4 Comments

For those of you not in the know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s when a ton of people decide to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I failed last year, but this year I have a plan!

First, if you are doing NaNoWriMo you should add me as a writing buddy. Here’s me : )

Awhile ago I did a post on outlines, which by the way I only recently started appreciating. I found this plotting guide on Query tracker—changed my whole world.  It takes the whole cumbersome process of planning and whittles it down into nine steps, critical for NaNoWriMo.

To simplify things, here’s what I suggest. Create a hook, concept, idea whatever it may be–An alien invades the body of a fifteen-year-old boy’s mother and forces him to eat massive amounts of brussel sprouts until he morphs into one of them–no, that’s not mine but you can totally steal it!

Now that you have your fantastic idea write a query. I know, you probably just rolled your eyes at me, but it will help. Ever hear the advice that if your query is muddled the book is? No, okay, maybe that was just me….moving on!

Once you have an idea start plotting. If you use the one I linked above, it will force you to focus on the mc while developing the main conflict.

Next, read all these posts on storyfix.com PURE BRILLIANCE. Reading all of them may be too time consuming, if that’s true just pick a few that really spark your interest.

November 1st is the start date, think you’re up for the challenge?

Tags: , ,


4 responses to “Let’s talk NaNoWriMo

  1. I'm definitely in. I'm cherry_chez over there. I've had the idea that I'm writing for a while and can't wait to get started with it. Good luck with yours.

  2. I love NaNoWriMo! I've done it every year since 2003. I'm a notorious pantser, but since my time is limited this year, I'm going to try outlining. Thank you for the link. I'm Kalligenia on the site, but the buddy thing isn't working yet for me.

  3. I am probably doing it again this year, since writing buddies is down at the moment, my name there is kristam, so we should be buddies! You can do it this year! 🙂