Hey everyone.
There’s a saying that pressure makes diamonds.
(and anxiety attacks)
National Novel Writing Month is fast approaching, peeps. It seems like everybody has been planning the whole month, and of course, me, last-minute was like “okay, let’s actually outline”. Basically, I redid (and hopefully improved on) the outline I’m using during NaNoWriMo. Don’t get me wrong, I had a skeleton of an outline before. But I decided I should give it more…substance? You know what I mean. Before, I had a bullet point that just said ‘intro’. Like just titles of scenes.
So I’ve been scouring through the internet, and other blogs for tips on outlining and winning NaNoWriMo. Clearly, I need all the help I can get. And some people actually know what they’re doing, unlike me. I found one blogger who made a post it wall of notes on poster board to outline their story. Inspired! What a great idea! I am a visual thinker and posting notes on a white board like that actually helped me spot plot holes and weak points while keeping track of sub plot stuff. It’s also a pretty motivating thing to look at.
Never made a board like that before and I know it’s probably not done correctly, I squeezed a lot of info on some post it notes. Over the course of November, I have a feeling notes will be added and changed and moved around (and by the end, set fire to the board itself). I guess I would be considered a plantser, I’m half planning, half winging it. For the most part, there is a plan (lol me with a plan). There’s definitely some wiggle room here also. It was an interesting way to spend an afternoon. I ordered some Chinese food, sat on my bedroom floor and inked up my hands writing all those notes (I was feeling permanent ink marker today).
Side Note, today, while was enjoying a nice vegetable fried rice and trying to organizing my scattered ideas, I got a fortune cookie fortune that felt very fitting to the NaNoWriMo season. I wanted to share…
My boyfriend thinks it’s a sign of good luck. How perfectly does that embody the National Novel Writing Month experience? It’s about writing quantity not quality, right? So how are you guys planning for NaNoWriMo? Any last-minute tips? Are you ready to go? Because I’m slightly petrified and mildly excited. Good luck to everyone participating!
Lady Jabberwocky 
Love the fortune you got – makes for a wonderful send off for NanoWriMo. I spent 4 hours today mind-mapping the characters, background info, the conflicts and crisis of the plot. I had a brilliant idea about how to write it – as diary entries. I’ve never had this much info before NaNo, I’ve always just pants-ed it. Hope I make it to the end and don’t hate the story!
Good luck to you and everyone else taking part.
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