Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2014
Oct. 22nd, 2014 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aldersprigIt's that time of year again. The time when I start doing everything to prep for NaNoWriMo except actually outline my story (or, in this case, stories). I've downloaded calendars. Lots of calendars. All the calendars, some of them from 2009. (For wallpapers, you see). I've figured out how to do my wordcount, what wordcount I want to do, and what days I'm going to assume I won't get any writing done. I downloaded a new wordcount spreadsheet, took it apart into its component parts, and reintegrated parts into my own.
All of this is very fun, and most of it - the part that isn't the wallpapers, at least - is rather useful. I have a plan for my numbers. But now what?
And that's the question, isn't it? What do you do before November, to make NaNoWriMo flow smoother?
Among my list of things (other than "play on the forums and put all sorts of lovely calendars in rotation for my wallpaper") I can/will/should do to prepare:
* Set up a wordcount spreadsheet (See these; they're lovely!) - this is definitely a YMMV situation, but I find having a tracker helps.
* Clean up other writing queue as much as possible. This is *cough* not the time to have a wildly successful prompt call. That being said, I'm going to get as much of said prompt call done before Nov 1., then pick up on Dec. 1. Or 2.
* Know what you're doing. This can take a number of forms, but I can't imagine stepping into Nov. 1st with no idea at all what my project was going to be.
For me in previous years, this involved notecards, outlines, scribbles - this year, it's a bit more complicated. Step one is pick four projects, since I'm doing a series of stories for submission. Step two is coming up with an idea for, and then outlining, each story. And I've discovered, thanks to @Inventrix, beat sheets (here), so now I have a whole new thing to do.
* Make a work space. I have a workspace, but I've been working on making it more comfortable, more tidy, and more mine. If I'm going to spend an hour a night there for a month, I want it to be nice.
I even, thanks to a suggestion from @cluudle, have candles. Pretty flame & a nice vanilla scent! And I've been working on making the area as ergonomic as possible.
* Plan for the inevitable; plan for the family; plan for life. Last year, I wrote 84,000+ words - and nearly forgot Christmas. So this year, I've set a smaller goal, and am working hard at remembering important things like husband, cats... and Christmas.
What about you? What do you do to prepare for NaNoWriMo, or for any large project?
All of this is very fun, and most of it - the part that isn't the wallpapers, at least - is rather useful. I have a plan for my numbers. But now what?
And that's the question, isn't it? What do you do before November, to make NaNoWriMo flow smoother?
Among my list of things (other than "play on the forums and put all sorts of lovely calendars in rotation for my wallpaper") I can/will/should do to prepare:
* Set up a wordcount spreadsheet (See these; they're lovely!) - this is definitely a YMMV situation, but I find having a tracker helps.
* Clean up other writing queue as much as possible. This is *cough* not the time to have a wildly successful prompt call. That being said, I'm going to get as much of said prompt call done before Nov 1., then pick up on Dec. 1. Or 2.
* Know what you're doing. This can take a number of forms, but I can't imagine stepping into Nov. 1st with no idea at all what my project was going to be.
For me in previous years, this involved notecards, outlines, scribbles - this year, it's a bit more complicated. Step one is pick four projects, since I'm doing a series of stories for submission. Step two is coming up with an idea for, and then outlining, each story. And I've discovered, thanks to @Inventrix, beat sheets (here), so now I have a whole new thing to do.
* Make a work space. I have a workspace, but I've been working on making it more comfortable, more tidy, and more mine. If I'm going to spend an hour a night there for a month, I want it to be nice.
I even, thanks to a suggestion from @cluudle, have candles. Pretty flame & a nice vanilla scent! And I've been working on making the area as ergonomic as possible.
* Plan for the inevitable; plan for the family; plan for life. Last year, I wrote 84,000+ words - and nearly forgot Christmas. So this year, I've set a smaller goal, and am working hard at remembering important things like husband, cats... and Christmas.
What about you? What do you do to prepare for NaNoWriMo, or for any large project?
no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 07:24 pm (UTC)THIS year, I'm going to outline all my major plot points (mostly done) and pin them to goalpoint wordcounts a la beatsheets (not yet done).
Completed prepwork:
* Got my writing netbook working and set up.
* Added my novel to the NaNoWriMo site and updated my profile
* Loose character bios
* Prettied up and updated my tracker
Still to-do:
* Create the scrivener project and add notes to it.
* Set up document structure according to outline.
* Better bios.
* Make a placeholder cover pic.
* Update NaNo page on my writing blog.
* Add major plot points to tracker, tied to word counts.
So, a lot more than normal.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 07:27 pm (UTC)BRILLIANT
no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 07:40 pm (UTC)Nanowrimo?
Date: 2014-10-22 08:09 pm (UTC)Is there a way to /JUST/ get information on how to knock the monkey into component bits? Or, conversely, how to build face, tail, left front paw, et cetera to /end up/ with a ginormous literary monkey as the finished product?
My goal is 700-1k words per blog post daily, PLUS the word count to make another 40k on the monkey.... then go back and bash it from first draft into something which might someday be submitted.
So I've got the same /goals/ as Nano, I think... it's the idea of doing it in the /forums/ that just isn't a go for me.
Re: Nanowrimo?
Date: 2014-10-22 08:16 pm (UTC)I mean, one, you can sign up on the website and never use anything but the wordcount tracker (or not even that), if you want to. Or you can cruise - do you twitter? - the twitter accounts & hashtags for writing support. I've done that.
As for information on working on a project - nano help has a lot of it. I could probably sift for some if you gave me some specifics!
Re: Nanowrimo?
Date: 2014-10-22 08:40 pm (UTC)There's an enormous difference in style between 3-7k short stories, which I enjoy writing, and 80-100k of /novel/. You know, with plot and denouement and stuff...
It feels so different it's intimidating, actually, but all of my practical writing /instruction/ was geared to either short or very, very short stories.
Re: Nanowrimo?
Date: 2014-10-22 09:14 pm (UTC)Well that's the thing, you don't need to! The entire concept of NaNoWriMo is designed for people who have no writing experience, especially writing a novel! In fact, I can summarize everything you need to know about NaNoWriMo in one sentence:
During the month of November, starting at the beginning of Nov 1 and ending at the end of Nov 30, write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel.
That's it! You don't need a plan, you don't need prep work, you don't even need to have a faint idea of what you're going to write if you don't want to. The one NaNo I got closest to "winning" (reaching 50k words) so far was one I went into with nothing except "it's going to have something to do with dragons".
If you register on the website, you'll also get the "pep talk" emails all November, which are basically pieces of novel-writing advice and motivation over the course of the month.
Also, "bashing out words" is basically what NaNoWriMo is about! :P
Re: Nanowrimo?
Date: 2014-10-22 09:20 pm (UTC)and
(b) overestimating the starting criteria by almost the same amount?
WOW.
Good to know!
Re: Nanowrimo?
Date: 2014-10-22 10:40 pm (UTC)Personally, if I were planning on writing 700-1k a day on one thing and then also working on another, I would aim for about 1k a day on that for a total of 50k on both things together for the month. So, 30k target for novel, 20k target for blog posts.
'course then I also wouldn't be aiming for a complete novel draft at 30k, but work on a longer project would be good.