It's almost that time for NaNoWriMo again! If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is it's National Novel Writing Month where writers all over attempt to write a novel of a minimum of 50,000 words in the month of November. I know that sounds crazy and insane, and it's because it is. Of course it's not supposed to be a finished novel. I don't think there isn't a book out there that hasn't gone through revisions a bunch of times before becoming the final book that we come to read and love. The novel you end up writing is more like a REALLY rough draft of a potential book, but NaNo is a way to help stop the procrastinating and putting off that story we know we can rite, and helps get those words down onto the page.
This will be my third year participating in NaNoWriMo. The first year was a complete disaster. I had no idea what I was getting myself into especially because I was in school and working part time. I fell behind and that's one of the worst things you can possibly do during NaNo. Last year, my second year, I knew what to expect and how to plan my time. I also wasn't in school anymore and was able to win NaNoWriMo! I flew through the month of November by the seat of my pants. Sort of. There are two types of writers, pantsers and planners. Pantsers, don't plan their stories in advance and planners do. Last year, I was a pantser. I didn't plan or outline what I wanted to write about, I just went in with a general idea I had for a story and wrote whatever came to me everyday.
Although I liked doing that then, I don't think that's the approach I'm going to be taking this year. I've had this idea that has stuck with me for a while now, and I haven't gotten sick of it which is great. October is known as Preptober to those who like planning out their stories before November comes along. I have already started outlining, plotting, and detailing characters, but I am more nervous now than when I didn't have an outline. I think it's because I know the work that I'm going to have to put in whereas before I was kind of going in blind. Sort of like by not outlining I was in denial that it was actually happening, so I faced the fact that I had to write 50,000 words on November 1st.
Anyways, in preperation for NaNoWriMo I wanted to do a series of posts on how you can prep, and some of the things that you may need to survive NaNoWriMo. I'll be updating my progress throughout November, most likely I'll do the same type of posts as last year with the daily updates condensed into a weekly post, but who knows I might change my mind in a couple of weeks.
My NaNoWriMo page. Add me as a writing buddy if you're participating too.
Coming Next: My NaNoWriMo Surival Kit
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