Well, here we are. I’m writing a novel. While I’m participating in NaNoWriMo, I’ll be holding off on writing updates on my latest system. But I’ll be documenting what it’s like to participate in NaNoWriMo instead!
So. The challenge officially started yesterday. Here’s what I did for the last week for prep and first steps:
October 28 – 31: Prep Work
As I mentioned in my last post, my prep was broken into two parts: plot prep and emotional prep.
Plot Prep
I went ahead and took this quiz to learn about plot structure planning, and it was really helpful! The quiz lists out all results regardless of your personal results, so I clicked through and read about all five of them. They are: Jot, Bin, Pants; Save the Cat!; 3 Act/9 Block/27 Chapters; 9-Step Dot Plot; and the Plot Rollercoaster.
I was familiar with the Plot Rollercoaster – it was how plot structure was taught in my middle school – so I knew that it wasn’t going to work for me. And after reading through instructions for the other four, I ended up using a blend of two.
Jot, Bin, Pants
This technique is very loose: you jot down any and all ideas that you have for scenes or plot points, then you organize them into bins (beginning, middle, and end), and then you fly by the seat of your pants for the actual novel-writing.
I took about 10 minutes to imagine out a handful of beginning, middle, and end plot points, then shifted over to the other structure technique to sort them.
Save the Cat!
This is NOT the structure I thought I’d be using. I thought for sure I’d use 3 Act/9 Block/27 Chapters, because hi structure, I love you. But Save the Cat breaks the plot into 15 segments with suggested percentages of total word count to dedicate to each section! This was exactly the kind of analytical structure I think I need for writing (I’ll let you know how it goes by the end…)
I pulled open the Save the Cat! worksheet and started plugging in plot points….and realized that the story I have in mind was less of a story and more of a character in a setting.
So I pivoted. There was another character and setting that I had in mind, and when I started filling out the worksheet with her in mind, it just flowed out of my brain and into the worksheet.
I’m really glad that I took the time to do the worksheet, because otherwise I could have found myself a couple thousand words into the story without an end in sight…but now I have a clear roadmap with wordcount targets based on plot points!
Setting
I also took time and went through Artifexian’s worldbuilding videos and hot DAMN does he have a lot of content! It took me a few hours of work, but I got a map (with approximate latitudes), with wind and current patterns, layered with approximate climate zones. Overkill for NaNoWriMo? Absolutely. Something that I’m excited to have done? Also yes.
Emotional Prep
I had originally planned to clean out my desk and get snacks hidden in it (hidden from my snack monster husband), but I didn’t get to that last week.
Interim Writing Hat
I did find a hat to wear! The guy who started NaNoWriMo suggests having a writing hat as a physical reminder to your housemates and your brain that you’re in Serious Mode. But after one day of writing, I’ve learned that I didn’t like the hat much, so I’m working on making myself a Writing Beanie!
November 1: Kick Off
A note on my first day of writing before I go. My plan is to get at least 2,000 words written every day for the first week. Everything I read recommended getting ahead of the 1,667 word/day average goal during the first week while you’re excited and haven’t hit writer’s block.
It was exciting to hit 2,500 words yesterday with only a couple hours of work. I’m definitely benefitting from the plot prep I did – I know that I’m on track to wrap up the story by the end of 50,000 words.
I also noticed that I really like writing in the dark. There’s something about the computer screen being the only light in the room that feels like Jo March writing in her attic in Little Women. I’m going to try and start waking up early to get my writing done in the morning. Sunrise is at 7am and getting later by the day here in Berlin, so it might just pay off!
All this to say: I don’t hate this yet. Stay tuned!
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