Anyone else getting ready for NaNoWriMo? Yeah. Me, too! There have been very few years since I heard about it that I haven’t tried. And most of the ones I attempted I finished (won) I believe what has helped me most is the Sprints/Sprompts that you find on Twitter or Facebook, and the numerous Virtual Write-Ins on YouTube. The first one for this year will be October 30, 2019, for a prep.
I love the excitement of writing a story. Even when it feels like crap. I love the thrill of the 1,666 word-goal a day. Even when you think you don’t have one lying around in your head.
What I don’t like is facing NaNo with a computer that has a screen that seems to go all white unless I fix the lid just so, and finally, I might get a couple of minutes.
My husband is the best! Hands down! He knew how frustrated I was about all this, so he got on the phone and made sure that by Thursday, I will have a working laptop! And I don’t have to relinquish this piece of @#$@#!@. I can face midnight on Halloween with courage and a bit of an idea what the story is about and a way to move it all slowly to the newer machine. I’ll write more about that as it becomes a reality.
So I played with my characters a bit and now have a few. Even a semi-working title Balter’s Dance Studio. And it does seem to be in Haven’s universe on Crim. Where we learned about Dusty’s Love Lair. Yeah, not exactly what you might think. Mostly sci-fi with fantasy and lots of imagination. Sorry I haven’t brought that novel onto the website. Yikes! I haven’t even finished uploading the first book. Dusty’s is about five novels since that one.
I always start prep with WriteItNow. I like its prep-ability. Character development works well in that program. Especially when I use:
The Writer’s Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon
I play random numbers on the characteristic to build the physical and then the personality of each character. My writers’ group back in Reno and I would call out numbers and then write down the results. Now without them, near I have numbered the items on each page then use the random number generator to select the characteristic. So now I have Walter Balter nearly standing in front of me. I know a lot about his mental health just from the physical. I will continue making him live and then work on the rest of the family. Hopefully, the characters and a minor outline will be ready for Midnight Thursday.
How do you prepare? What are your methods of writing NaNo or other novels?
Darswords 