We've held three of four planned preparatory workshops thus far, with just one to go this coming Saturday (17 October, 1-3 pm, Nichols Library: Characterology 101 by Kat Stepps and Todd Hogan). Notes and slides from the first three (and past workshops) are available.

So where are you in your preparations? I think I have locked in on what I am planning to do this year:

• define a bit better my characters by asking the five key questions
• do the 7 point plot structure
• use the back cover blurb expansion method to get to where I can produce 30 days worth of index cards, perhaps with one index card of instructions of what to write each day.

I will definitely need to edit my entry in Sam M's NaNo planning Accountability Group (which, by the way, meets again tonight via google+ hangout--everyone is welcome to join). I had entered October with two story ideas, but it has become clear that my mind is focused on the second story.

I'm such a slacker. I haven't done anything. I opened Scrivner the other day and promptly got distracted when my husband came home early and wanted dinner. And I haven't opened it again.

I need to because I'm trying to finish last year's ms.

My goals:
1. Re-read everything I wrote last year.
2. Determine what is missing.
3. Write notes on what to write during NaNo.
4. Re-structure what needs to be done before I can start writing.
5. 6. 7. I'm scared to continue.

PBJ63010 wrote:I'm such a slacker. I haven't done anything. I opened Scrivner the other day and promptly got distracted when my husband came home early and wanted dinner. And I haven't opened it again.

I need to because I'm trying to finish last year's ms.

My goals:
1. Re-read everything I wrote last year.
2. Determine what is missing.
3. Write notes on what to write during NaNo.
4. Re-structure what needs to be done before I can start writing.
5. 6. 7. I'm scared to continue.

If you have any doubts on what to restructure, this sounds like it could be helpful to go through a story wall process (also see these examples). These can be run with any small group of people; I imagine you could even do it via google+ hangout. Ideally, this process doesn't take long: 10-15 minutes to go through the novel at a high level, focusing on possible question areas and then maybe another half hour to collect input, answer questions, etc.

I find that story walls also imbue the recipient with a bunch of energy and ideas...

--Tim

That's a good idea. I'll have to look all this over after work!

It makes me so mad that this year was complete and total chaos and I didn't make it to a single Journey meeting. I would have learned so much.

I'm definitely a lot more prepaired this year than I was last, (which isn't saying much, mind you, because last year I didn't even have a novel idea at the start.) I know about what I want to write, and I've started making notecards for characters, scenes, and other important stuff. I have not, however, put them in any sort of order. And, I need character names. A lot of them. So far, only two of my characters have names. Fortunately, one of them is the main character!

I will probably also continue working on last year's novel, and maybe write a few short stories, too. I'll need to make note cards for those. Last year's "novel" needs a lot of work, still, and I'm so in love with the idea I just hate to see it forgotten.

Tonight or tomorrow I'll pull my print out of last year's novel and I plan on reading it. Since this year's novel continues the story I plan to get back into my fictional world to prepare for my writing this year.

Other than that I won't plan too much - I am a pantster!

Dave

I was reading the hipster PDA, high-lighting my favorite tips and planning how I would achieve all the squares of the Nano Bingo. I saw "Join the 18K challenge," butI don't remember it! What is the 18K challenge?

Basil Cliffside wrote:I was reading the hipster PDA, high-lighting my favorite tips and planning how I would achieve all the squares of the Nano Bingo. I saw "Join the 18K challenge," butI don't remember it! What is the 18K challenge?

Here is the 18K challenge thread from last year. Essentially it is a special challenge to folks to write 18K words in just six days. Those who do will win a special prize (redeemable at the TGIO). Haven't decided the form of this year's prize yet...

--Tim

I have just a few kinks left to iron out of my outline, and I'd like to do a bit more fleshing out of my "contextual planning," but I think I'm in great shape!

This discussion on reddit looks interesting, especially the comment about using a tool called PlotWeaver to show character interactions in time, across events.

If you are you are falling behind on your NaNo novel planning there are still two more NaNo Accountability Group (NAG) meeting coming up:

• Sunday, October 18^th at the Helen Plum Library in Lombard from 1:30 to 3. There will also be a Google Hangout if you cant make it to Lombard. (NaNo Accountability Group Meeting - October 18)
• Monday, October 26^th, from 7:30 to 8:30 via Google Hangout - NaNo Accountability Group Meeting - Oct 26th

The meetings are a good place to ask questions and getsome help with your novel planning. Below are highlights of some the advice and ideas sharedin the first two meeting:

• 7 Plot Structure:
  • http://www.writerstoauthors.com/how-to-outline-a-novel-seven-point-story-structure/
  • You can make a matrix of romance, betrayal, adventure, ..., each with their 7 point plot structure
  • Where the 7 point plot structures intersect are the exciting points in the novel
• 3 Act Structure:
  • act 1; hook, backstory, trigger
  • act 2; crisis, struggle, epiphany
  • act 3; plan, climax and ending
• How to come up with your story idea?
  • Jot done ideas as they come to you throughout the year and stick them in a box
  • Start off with - What if...
• How to flesh out a full short from some jotted down notes?
  • Take a walk and think about the what ifs
  • Think about the story idea while doing mundane activities like washing the dishes or mowing the lawn or driving to work.
  • Story Wall
    • Helpful exercise to get input on your story
    • Round up a small group
    • Spend 10-15 minutes to tell your story or idea and then discuss where you need help
• 
  Interesting Planning Goals
  • What do I need to do with myself to get that 1667 words a day or 1000 words a day plus more on the weekend?
  • Develop 30 index cards by Nov 1st
  • Write the pitch sentence -one sentence you would give someone to describe what your book is about short, to the point, and hooky, something that makes them want to read it. The sentence is usually around 50 words. Some have a pitch sentence as short as 15 words.
• Advice for November:
  
  • Mark on a calendar the days you know will be bad writing day; days when you will be very busy with other life events. Then pick out other days on the calendars to make up for these bad days, perhaps use the write-ins.
• Links and classes
  
  • Gale courses online through the library; Write Fiction Like a Pro (talks about outlining and preparing a story). An attendee got into the class using alibrary Plainfield card, but it is the whole library system. Courses are every six weeks. Should be starting again in November.
  • NaNo spreecasts (past and future)https://www.spreecast.com/users/nanowrimo
  • Masterclass on facebook; purchased the subscription to it because it had James Patterson on how to write books. I found it inspiring; he's one of the most well-known mystery writers. But I'm finding the resources on the NaNo site to be more helpful (more concrete information).
  • A helpful character questionnaire for fantasy writers when "real world" questions don't work (~Kiela):http://www.creative-writing-now.com/fantasy-characters.html
  • Plot complications worksheet: http://www.evernote.com/l/ABBz4_UXYO9PMaNxEYRJRzCRjvL-yS5SHmY/
  • Stupid Plot Tricks: http://www.evernote.com/l/ABCI9YupeIZHPKnGqQRvRH0dUhqpX0E0i2k/
  • Naming help for everything from worlds&weapons to people& ships! (~Kiela)-http://fantasynamegenerators.com/
• Planning and writing tools:
  • Scrivener (Windows/Apple) - a free 30 day trial version is available. Use it to plan your NaNo novel now and buy a half price version when you win NaNo. (List price is $40, but if you win NaNo you get %50 off.)
  • Storyist (many platforms, including phones)
  • QuollWriter

Add you NaNo planning plans and advice to this thread.

If want to participate in the NaNo Accountability Group, but cant make the meetings, you can still participate by posting and updating your NaNo commitments in the Google Spreadsheet available at naperwrimo.org/nag.

Hey, all!

Week 2 of planning month is almost over, but I'm not seeing many updates on our Google spreadsheet. I thought I'd chime in and see if there was anything I could do to help anyone.

Say the word! What's got your creativity tied up or blocked? Let us give you a hand and help kick-start your progress!

~Kiela (^_^)

I know I'm not in the accountability group, but I'm having issues making my characters connect. I have 3 strong leads--1 MC and 3 support--but their stories don't seem to want to fit together! I'm hoping to write my book kind of like a TV serial or something, where the main cast gets sent on a different mission each chapter. I have a few locations in mind, as well as some major plot and character developments. It's the "getting them to fit" that's the stickler.

Hi, Anobi.

I'm sending over a NaNoMail so we can discuss in greater detail. It might also help to check out the Character Cafin the regular forums. The folks there have great advice to help people sort out character troubles. (^_^)

Happy planning!!

~Kiela

Happened to look at my 2012 prep workshop (Emotional Response: How to connect with your readers) and saw this nice tip:

The craft of revealing your characters: the two column trick:

• column 1: what you know about your character
• column 2: how do you show this in a scene?

And: instant character appeal:

Do we feel sorry for the character?

• undeserved mistreatment; injustice
• bad luck; misfortune
• handicaps; being trapped by their circumstance
• haunted by their past
• weakness/vulnerability
• betrayed or deceived
• not believed when they tell the truth
• have they been abandoned?
• are they lonely?
• what are their regrets?

Just thought this might be helpful to folks.

I love that list, Tim. Thanks for sharing it!! (^_^)

~Kiela

This is great. Thanks for posting!

Well, I have finished reading last year's novel. I noticed three things.

1. My 2014 novel needs reorganizing (but that will wait).

2. I killed off on of my main characters. My emotional reaction to that stifled my last week of writing. That reaction caught me unaware so hopefully when I kill off four more main characters I will be prepared to push through and keep on writing. Why kill off these characters? You might ask. It's because I am writing a series and these deaths are critical for the character development of the main character in my series. Not only do the death's provide his greatest strengths they also provide his fatal flaw.

3. Lastly, that novel was pretty golly gosh darn good! I enjoyed reading my novel!

I feel as prepared as I can be for this year's novel and am ready to start!

Here we are: five days to go...!

Was browsing facebook and this old chestnut popped up: 22 Pixar rules for storytelling.

Some of my favorites:

• #2: You gotta keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

• #4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

• 5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You'll feel like you're losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

• #6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

• #12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

• #14: Why must you tell THIS story? What's the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.

Trying #4: Once upon a time there was a teenage girl named Maya whose dad was killed in a laboratory accident. Every day, she tried to put her shattered life together. One day, she discovered she had the ability to switch places with analogs of herself in parallel worlds. Because of that, she began exploring the parallel worlds. Because of that, her stepfather, who had actually been responsible for her father's death, spied on her as he sought to develop a way of travelling himself to a certain parallel world. Until finally her stepfather decided to steal her blood, the missing component in his design. Maya acts to try to save herself and her mother.

I just finished my biggest obstacle to my NaNo prepping and completed the first draft on my current project! YAY!

It's a wonderful feeling to type THE END, even though I know it will still need at least a couple more passes in rewrite before I'm comfortable passing it on to alpha readers. It's a huge hurdle, and it's out of the way. Now I can focus on my fun little adventure romp for November!!

Bonus: I blew my word count record out of the water! Who knew I could do 6200+ words in a day? Gives me a nice little confidence boost for NaNo, that's for sure! (^_^)

~Kiela

Congratulations, Kiela!

I only started my planning this week since I'm more of a pantser but I am trying to do more planning. My main thing I'm focusing on at this point is hitting the points I know I have to hit in the story. This one is a major turning point in my series so this year I have to be a little more careful with what I do. Also I got an ipad mini this year and still trying to figure out if this is what I want to use for write ins opposed to my surface that is slowly dying. I am also stocked up on tea and hot chocolate so there is one thing I have totally done.

Main goals:

1) To finish before 15th (personal goal to help keep me focused)

2) Attempt to build more romantic tension in the story and allow it just to be built up in the story

3) If i complete goal 1 I want to attempt to start a rewrite of my very first nano win and just fix it cause it is so very messed up.

4) Go to more events and be more social at said events.

I found something else interesting during my NaNo prepping that I wanted to share with the group. There are quite a few free avatar creation apps out there. I liked "My WeChat Avatar," but I encourage poking around to see what you can find.

I have always had trouble trying to "cast" my stories. So instead of wasting hours and hours trying to find pictures of people I think closely resemble my main characters, I decided to make them for myself! And since I only draw stick people, in comes the avatar app exploration. Even though they're cartoony, it still gives me a face to look at, a background to inspire me, and even clothing to give me hints at their individual styles.

Anyway, thought I'd throw that out there in case itmight helpanyone else.

Happy prepping!!

~Kiela

Man, I wish I'd seen PlotWeaver earlier. Time to fiddle with it.

Fortunately, I've been prepping like a doomsday conspiracy theorist since last December. I've got a wiki, character illustrations, diagrams, plot threads, maps, and a massive outline. If I have any problems, they'll be in my head. Someone else could write this book with this material. But where's the fun in that?

I'll definitely horse with it for a future project (it does look helpful!!), but with only 3 days to go and more stuff to prepare, that looks too intimidating for me to start learning now. Ah well. There's still something to be said for paper & pen prepping - I know how those tools work! (~_^)

~Kiela

Here's what I was able to figure out/work up yesterday. Took about an hour and a half for me to get the hang of it and detail my major plot points.

What I noticed: navigation and interface isn't great, but it's a useful tool for tracking who's where. I found two characters doing this that I'd forgotten to give proper ends too (read "kill off"), so I guess it was worth the time.

Wow, that's impressive!

--Tim

Just finished a very basic physical map for my story to help me see where my characters will be going and what kinds of problems they might encounter along the way. It actually helped me brainstorm some of my scenes, so I wish I'd done it sooner. But now I know! (...and knowing is half the battle - Yo Joe! ~_^)

I'm still not as far along in prepping as I'd like, but considering I was still working on a different project for three of my nano prepping weeks, I'm trying to be happy with everything I have accomplished. My accountability spreadsheet isn't nearly as horrible as it could be!

Lesson learned: make sure all other projects are completed (or set aside) by Oct 1st, if at all possible. And considering I pounded out over 6200 words in one day to get to "The End," I'd say anything's possible! (^_^)

Enjoy your last few hours before chaos reigns... and see you tomorrow at the big Naper kick-off!

~Kiela

*scrambles back to her plotting pages*

Not that great. I should probably reread the first book in the series since I'm writing the second book in Nanowrimo. I wrote the first book over a year ago. I don't remember much. I will eventually get around to it.