25,020 words so far. I realized today that I’m going to have to scrap a scene and a half from earlier in the novel to adjust for new characterization and plot. The characters are finally coming together in my head, so I’ve decided to outline them below.
There are many more characters, but these are the important players in the first book.
Continue readingI am 1/5 of the way there, with 18,011 words total. That’s on track for 90k! I spent most of this evening working on figuring out the rest of Acts 2 and 3, with many ideas but still a lot of scenes to sort and place.
These six are smaller subplots that either are only a small part of the story, or are the beginning of a larger plot that extends through the rest of the trilogy.
Continue readingFour days into November, and things are running pretty smoothly. I’ve written 12,419 words, or about 1/8 of the total. That’s close enough to par for me, especially at the beginning of writing.
Besides the main plot, there are ten subplots that I’ve planned. With the expansion of the main plot, some of these will run their course in this book, and others will persist through the trilogy.
I’ve made a large chart detailing each plot and how it comes into play for each scene. Each subplot was outlined using the same major beats as the main plot. I’ve got the first half of the novel roughly planned out, though I expect some changes in the future.
Continue readingI sketched out the main plot by hitting upon 9 major scenes that form the scaffolding of the plot. Hopefully I’ll be able to plan scenes to lead into and out of these scenes to fill the rest of the space between them. For those interested, these major scenes are based on K. M. Weiland’s Story Structure.
Continue readingNaNoWriMo got off to a good start today. I often don’t finish the goal of 1,666 words on the first day, because it is always difficult getting into the swing of a new story. This year should have been especially hard, since I’d only done the briefest amount of planning. But things went fairly smoothly today.
I spent two hours this morning working on plotting the main plot, discovering the characters I’d need, and writing the opening of the first chapter, getting a total of 754 words written.
This evening, I managed to complete planning the main plot, which I will share tomorrow. I also began to work on the sideplots that I discovered along the way. After half an hour of planning in my notebook, and an hour expanding my notes into Manuskript, I managed to finish Chapter 1 with a total of 1,993 words written for the day.
Now, to see if I can improve my pace, as I’ll need to write 3,035 words a day to get to 90k by the end of November.
How’s the prep been going for this year’s NaNoWriMo?
Well, for me, there hasn’t been much. Between work, family, and editing What Happened at Ingvar Bluffs, I’ve put off prepping for this year’s NaNo novel. So far, I only have a few themes, some sketches of the world, and a loose sense of the plot.
This year’s novel doesn’t even have a name yet, so I’ve given it a (very boring) name: Project River. You’ll see why I chose “river” in the setting description below.
I’m sharing this as a way to work it out in my head for tomorrow morning and to encourage you to begin NaNoWriMo, even if everything isn’t perfectly planned out. Here’s what I have prepped so far:
Continue readingOne question people ask me is “Where do you get your ideas?”
The question is not hard to answer on an individual basis, such as how I came upon a particular idea for a short story or novel. However, for me, there is no consistency for where ideas come from.
Some form out of the blue, while others take months of molding and changing. Some are full stories when they come to me, while others are just the brief spark of an idea.
But if you are still looking for an idea for your NaNo Novel, let’s go through some of the ways my ideas come to me. Feel free to use these ideas to create your own story.
Continue readingNow that I’ve determined my word count, it is time to figure out my plan for writing each day.
Creating a daily plan is an essential part of having a successful NaNoWriMo. It keeps you on track, breaks your work into smaller steps, and can help push you to write more than you would have.
Creating a daily plan doesn’t even have to be very difficult. Let’s look at three different options for planning.
Continue readingThe normal goal for NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words. They used to list novels that were about 50k words long, such as:
This is an excellent word goal for a new author. Your draft will require a lot of work afterwards. The fact that it is so short will be a boon, since I find that I usually need to add rather than subtract from the first, quick draft of a story.
However, most novels are actually 70k-90k words. Some longer sci-fi and fantasy novels can run over 120k words.
I will be setting my word count goal for 2021 to be 90,000 words.
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NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, thousands of writers commit to writing a novel in a month. The goal is to write 50,000 between November 1 and November 30.
NaNoWriMo is about breaking free of your restrictions and completing a draft, no matter how terrible. It is always easier to edit a draft that exists than one that is only in your head.
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