Two weeks from tomorrow, thousands of crazy totally sane, for sure, writers will start a month-long quest to write the next great frantic novel. (For the uninitiated, check out NaNoWriMo.org to learn what the heck I’m talking about.)
What are you doing to prepare for this year’s Month of Literary Abandon? From now until the end of November, I will be posting productivity tips every Monday to help you successfully complete your novel (or at least the first 50k words of it) this November.
(Full disclosure: I have never actually “won” NaNoWriMo. I have written a novel in a month though. More than once. Just not during November so it wasn’t all official and stuff.)
Now, on to this week’s tip:
NaNo Productivity Tip #1: Make a Plan
Maybe you’ve never used an outline before, you think all that planning ahead of time will kill your creativity when it comes to actually writing; that’s fine.
But.
If you want to write a novel in a month, unless you are superhuman, you will need to have some kind of plan. 50,000 words is a lot for 30 days of writing, and chances are, without a plan, you will end up with about 30,000 of those words being worthless. Okay, let’s be honest – even with a plan, that’s very possible, but alas, that is the nature of first drafts.
What kind of outline do you need? That’s completely up to you, but you know that old saying, “less is more”? In this case it’s completely wrong. You can’t over-plan for NaNoWriMo. At the very least, I suggest you know your basic plot, with a definite beginning, ending, and climax solidly in line.
You know what? Let’s take this one step further:
Get out a piece of paper and a pen. (Side note…I have this purple pen. I call it my Perfect Purple Plotting Pen. And now it’s time to plot out my NaNoNovel and I can’t find the pen. The horror!) Anyway, have your pen? Your paper? Good.
At the top of your paper, write a brief sentence about how your book starts. Then, at the bottom of the page, write a sentence about how it ends. Finally, pick a spot 2/3-3/4 of the way down the page and write down, briefly, what your climactic scene will look like.
This is your basic framework. Take some time and fill in the gaps, focusing on big-picture stuff only at this point. Try to fill every single line on the page with information. Unless, of course, you are using unlined paper. But you get the point.
What’s that you say? You filled all your lines but still have ideas?! That will happen once you get your creative juices flowing. What once seemed a daunting task is now behind you and you still have more to write. That’s fine – get another piece of paper and keep working. Before you know it, you will have a pretty detailed plan of action for your book. (Then, if you’re like me, you will write it all out again because you can’t stand the unorganized mess before you, but that’s not a necessary step.)
There you have it! A road-map to NaNoWriMo success. Keep your outline right next to your computer (or whatever you use to write) for the entire month of November, so it’s easy to reference if you feel like you get stuck. Can you get by without it? Sure. People do it all the time. But I promise it will be easier to get to that magical 50,000 words if you know where you are going.
SPECIAL OFFER FOR NANOWRIMO PARTICIPANTS!
Anyone who completes NaNoWriMo this November (and validates the word count) can get up to 50% off editing services. You can claim the coupon until the end of the year, and the discount will be valid through October 31, 2012, giving you plenty of time to revise and edit the novel on your own before using my services.
Is there anything more sad? The Bateman Plague finally caught up with poor Baby Caveman. He’s been a poor pathetic little snot monster for the last couple days. I feel so bad for him!
