Prepping for NANOWRIMO

The NaNoWriMo Coat of Arms

It’s that time of year again! Time to get ready for that month of frantic writing and nail biting experience known as NANOWRIMO or National Novel Writing Month. For those who don’t know, the premise is pretty simple. On November 1, you start a brand new novel. On November 30, you finish said novel. Simple, right?

Okay, everybody get back up from where you’ve fallen off your chair from laughing so hard.

No, there is nothing simple about writing a novel in a month. There never has been, and there never will be. But that’s kind of the fun, right? Participating in the challenge?

I will be doing NaNoWriMo this month. If you want to join me, I’ll be posting on Twitter, and I’m madelinesmoot if you want to be my writingbuddy on the official NANOWRIMO site. Apparently, I’ve been a member of the site for 7 years, but I’ve never actually tried to do the challenge. This year that changes. And to maximize my success, I’m going to plan in advance.

There are two ways to go about this:

The pantsers just need to come up with a story idea sometime in the next few weeks, and then just start writing on Nov. 1. Yes, yes, it’s all so easy for you. Now go away.

(I kid. I love pantsers. I don’t understand them. I can’t relate to them, but I love them anyway.)

For all the rest of us, we need to create a plan for writing if we want to have any hope in succeeding come November. And that’s where my Story Slices come in.

This is the project I’ve been working on ever since I quit teaching in the MLA program at a local university. It’s also what I personally use to write. Basically, I’ve taken the 6 main areas of a story and broken down into worksheets all the things I’ll need before starting a project. There’s everything from character sheets to scene outlines. The book, though, is more than just some worksheets. Every chapter has a succinct overview on all the parts you’ll need for your story. The ingredients for your recipe, if you will.

For now the book is only available as an ebook from Amazon, but I don’t plan on keeping it exclusive to the platform (or ebook only) forever. Until then, it’s a whole $2.99.

So, come join me in the great novel in a month writing adventure. We’ll see what we can produce!