Aug 22 2007
Count Down to Nanowrimo
In ten short weeks, this years NaNoWriMo begins. It’s a project I had a great deal of fun doing last year, even though the novel I wrote was terrible. Changing the way I wanted to write it half way through didn’t help matters. This year though, I’ve decided to work on an outline for the novel, and organise myself so I know what needs to be written each day, and where I’m going with the story. I’ve been working on an idea for the last few days, and I have a very basic version of the plot written down, an initial list of important characters, and half the main protagonists bio.
It’s a very different approach from last years attempt, when on the 1st November I opened up Nisus, and wrote the first thing that come into my head. It took me on some weird and wonderful plot twists, but I never at any point really knew where the story was going. I had a vague idea that the characters had to get somewhere, and other characters tried everything they could to stop them, but once they reached their destination I had no idea what was going to happen. It was exciting in one way, because I went on the journey with those characters, and got a little invested in their well being, but it was also a little frustrating. Thankfully I hit the 50K word count before I had to figure out how to end the story and stopped writing. It’s something I’ll go back and re-write in the future, but at the moment, I still have no idea what will happen when they reach their destination, which being almost a year later is very frustrating.
I’m hoping that working in this more structured, organised way will be just as satisfying and have very little frustration. I’m intending on only structuring the main plot line, and leaving the subplots wide open to allow myself some degree of freedom and spontaneity, which makes the whole process much more fun. This year I’ve also decided to take the last week in November off work in order to make sure I have extra time to write if I fall behind. Last year I had to work, and then write like a maniac in the evenings to catch up from the days I missed earlier in the month. My aim is to make this years novel a much more relaxed, and satisfying journey.
Once this years site opens up, like last year, I’ll post one of the banners that has the word count updates on it. Last year I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to manage it, but I did. Now that I know I can write 50k words in 30 days, I’m just excited, and eager to get started. Only ten more weeks to go.
