Those of you who are super organised and planning to take part in NaNoWriMo have probably already spent October planning for the novel you are going to write next month.
However, if any of you are like me, you will have had numerous good intentions throughout October. You may have read various blog posts, shared prepping tips, perhaps even had a conversation with other indie authors about what you are going to write. But you may not have actually done any planning.
So, here are my tips for planning for NaNo. The takeaway here is even if you don't have time to physically write down answers for each point, if you at least start thinking about them you will have a good idea of what direction to write in when you are trying to hit your 1667 words per day goal.
I'm going to run through these questions with my NaNo project which is The Gaia Solution, book three in The Gaia Collection series.
The Basics
What is your novel about? My NaNo project is the third book in The Gaia Collection.
Where is the story set? The Gaia Solution is set in my dystopian future but this time we are travelling across the ocean to a new country.
Who are the characters? The main characters from book one - Kira, Jed, Martha, Ruth, Dina & Max plus new characters from book two - Zac and Artem.
What's the problem? **spoilers** I know but you don't yet - I can't give everything away!
How is the protagonist introduced? Oooh, I'm very excited about the opening scenes that I've planned.
What do you want people to know? I want them to feel the desperation from the situation my MCs are in plus **spoilers**
What is the inciting event? **spoilers** hehe
My Characters
What problems do the characters have? They're in a different country and **spoilers**
How will your characters fail? They're going to make a huge mistake and it will be difficult to overcome the consequences.
What responsibilities will the character take? They're going to be responsible for the rest of humanity.
How will they overcome these problems? They need to trust each other.
Will your characters rage or cry? Both, possibly at the same time.
Do your characters share their failure? I'm fairly sure everyone will witness the failure but I haven't written it yet so I don't know what will happen.
Think about the ending
How does the core problem get resolved? I'm not sure, I think we might have to utterly fail before we can succeed.
What is the ultimate showdown? New Corporation will have to clash with The Resistance in some way.
How do your protagonists hope to win? I do not know...
How do they fail? They won't fail - this much I do know, throughout the series the books have been hopeful dystopia so there will be hope.
How is the conflict resolved for the ending? I do not know...
How do the protagonists change? They will have to adapt to new situations and new loss, it's going to be interesting to see how they write themselves.
What have they learnt? **spoilers**
Plotting
What is the character arc? I have several characters so I'm really going to have to look closely at each character arc in order for maximum effect.
What are the major plot points? I wish I could tell you but some of it is conjecture and most of it is **spoilers** but I can tell you this much, it's already making me cry...
Three plot points at the beginning: I've got a tragic event, the fallout and meeting the New Resistance.
Three plot points in the middle: Unexpected situation, a sobering discovery and getting ready for the fight.
Three plot point at the end: The big fight, the fallout and the result - I cannot say anymore!
And all of this is subject to change because you know - it's NaNoWriMo, first draft palooza and who knows what will happen halfway through November while we strive to hit our 1667 daily word target.
I wish you all the very best of luck this November. Remember to horde your snacks and set up a caffeine drip.
Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find all her books on Amazon. Join the discussion in her Facebook group Buss's Book Stop.
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