Last year I made a feeble attempt at National Novel Writing Month. I'm going to make a feeble attempt this year, too, but it won't be as feeble as last year's, because I recall what I did wrong.
I didn't put time in planning before November, so I could make the best use of my writing time during November.
Developing Ideas Before You Start To Write
This will be the third time I've worked on this particular project during NaNoWriMo, so, yes, I have been thinking about it for a while. What's more, I've been thinking about how to write this thing for a while. What I've realized is that any writing project will go better, if you know what you're going to write. And if you want to write fast, which is what National Novel Writing Month is all about, it's essential.
I have two methods I'm using, the same two methods I got started with last year, to be honest.
Using the Elements of Fiction to Create Story. I've been doing this with this particular project for a while. The setting, for example, in this particular case does have a big impact on what's going to happen, and having come up with a voice this past spring has been hugely helpful.
Blueprinting Chapters. I learned about this story development plan last year at a conference and haven't made much use of it yet. This month I'm going to be focusing on it for prepping for November. I hope to have more to say about this by the end of the month.
Don't Panic
It's already October 10th, and I've done very little of the NaNo prep work I'd hoped to do this month. Last year I wrote about the NaNoWriMo word count and the What-the-Hell Effect. The word count can work against you, if realizing you're not meeting your daily goals causes you to give up because you're not going to meet NaNo's 50,000 words in a month requirement. The same is true of prepping. Any preparation, any at all, is better than no preparation.
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