NaNoWriMo Resources

I’ll be on hiatus for a while dealing with post-COVID issues, but I wanted to make sure some resources were more obvious for those doing NaNoWriMo events.

Are you a Scrivener user? I have compiled most of the resources that I use into a single Scrivener template, available as both Scrivener 3 template and a Scrivener-2-compatible project which can be opened and then “Save As Template” from the File menu.

Let me stress first, there is no right way to write your book! Sure, writing classes in school always told you to do it their way, but that varies from teacher to teacher, high school to college, and so on. That’s not going to be what works for everyone, so there are a bunch of building blocks that I’m going to try and explore, and let you assemble them how you will.

My Resources

Some of these are more general fare for any writing, rather than specific to your NaNoWriMo project, but in exploring them you may be able to find a project if you don’t have one, or better define the project you have in mind. Maybe there are some ideas in here you can build on to create something you wouldn’t normally have thought to write!

• Genre Explorations: a look at different genres and resources to explore them
• Point of View and Narration: ways to narrate and styles often favored by certain genres
• Ideas and Conceptualization: brainstorming exercises, resources, and idea fuel
• Characters: without them, the world or plot isn’t as cool, so let’s get them started!
• Setting and Worldbuilding: this is a lot to stuff into a single week’s post, but I’m going to try. Remember your Worldbuilding ABC’s: Accessible, Believable, Cohesive/Comprehensive, Dependable, and Expectable. (See this ancient deviantART link for more explanation.)
• Plot Formulae: traditional and modern takes on the shape of plot
• Outlining Your Plot: different approaches to writing an outline, recommended minimum (for pantsers, too!)
• MICE Quotient and Misc Resources: breaking down how different genres focus on elements in different order

Hopefully these blogs will have enough resources and idea-fodder that you could conceivably use them to plan your entire novel! I’ve gotten it down to a point where I can write a full outline, detailed by chapter or at least by natural segment, in a week. So it’s entirely possible to do it quickly at the beginning of NaNo.

Recommended Starting Point: Organization

As a self-professed pantser (one who writes ‘by the seat of their pants’) instead of an organized planner, I know all too well some of you are groaning right now. ‘NaNoWriMo isn’t about being organized!’ some are complaining. But allow me to let you in on a little secret; even if you don’t start out with a plan, you’re going to want to keep track of things as you write. I also recommend having at least a general outline by the end of week one (April 7th). Why? Because sooner or later you may find yourself in the horrible plot hole. This is a rabbit hole like no other!

If you’ve never heard the term Story Bible, you may want to read this blog by J.M. Butler about creating one to keep track of your characters, setting, and plot details. You don’t necessarily need to start one yet, especially if you haven’t chosen a project, or even if you just haven’t reached that level of detail. But acquaint yourself with the concept, because it will serve you well as we go along. I’m not going to tell you how to organize yours, or what form it should take, or even if you might want to have it in a physical form or digital (I have done both over the years, depending on the project). I will tell you how I organize mine, but the point of the story bible is to have information organized how and where you will need it. That’s going to differ for a lot of people.

I would also recommend you get yourself some kind of daily planner or schedule, whether it’s calendar software on your computer or the internet or an old-fashioned, pen-and-paper planner, to set aside time both for your writing in November and your prep work before then. I used to be all digital, but I’ve recently fallen hard for the Self Journal by BestSelf, which is designed to be a 13-week system for setting step-by-step goals and achieving them, being more focused, and reflecting on things to be more mindful of what works, what doesn’t, and so on. This has really helped me – my first goal was getting this website set up, and here it is – and while you may not need quite such a large-scale planner, I’ve found the act of writing it down changes how much or how well I think about things. (They’ve converted me, and I was irritated at the cost of the thing at first. Very worth it.) So I might recommend trying a daily planner or even just a simple notebook where you have room to write your schedule on one side and notes on the other.

NaNoWriMo Community

This past year National Novel Writing Month made the decision to go digital due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is both great news and sad news at the same time, as I always look forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new people at regional events each year. Now I’m not going to get that, though I already have spoken with my Municipal Liaisons (MLs for short, the people who are in charge of organizing regional events) and they have plans in the works. I look forward to seeing how it turns out! If you don’t know what region you might fall into, check out this helpful post about how to find your regional forum! (Please note: this and other forum links won’t load if you’re not signed in.) These groups are going to be people local to you, and even though in-person events have been banned, other locals might have tips for best cafes to write at if you need to get out of your house and suchlike – please be safe if you do go out!

That said, it’s going to be especially important to connect with the NaNoWriMo community online this year. I would start with the NaNo forums and poke around some. There are places to chat about everything and nothing, and I’ll highlight the Find Your Crew forum, too. Some of these are topical, others are just friends writing together. Whatever you might want to find for a peer group to discuss your novel with, you can find it there.

Some other ideas include real-time involvement via Twitter: the #WritingCommunity, the #NaNoWriMo hashtag, and the @NaNoWriMo official Twitter account. If you can find a writing group of people all doing NaNo at similar times, maybe Zoom or Discord would help keep you involved with other people digitally. There is some kind of NaNo writing sprints twitter account, but there are several and I’m not sure which is the official one, or even if the official one is the most active. If you try any of them and like them, let me know!

Good Luck!

If you still don’t have a place to start, try something suggested in Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem! and spend a few minutes writing down a list of things that you like in a novel. What do you read? Why do you read it? It’s logical that if you like certain things in the style, the themes, the characters, or the genre, you’re more likely to enjoy writing them. Fill a page in your notebook or word processor, and if you don’t have a notebook, now’s the time to get one! It’ll be handy to journal as you go through your prep to help organize your thoughts, and then once NaNo comes around, it’ll be handy to journal on how you’re doing, issues that may have come up while writing, and brainstorming on how to fix them. I can’t recommend journaling the whole way through more highly.

Once you’ve filled a page with things you like, flip to the next page and fill it up with things you hate. What makes you put down a book? Movies and TV shows may have some ideas for you here, too. I don’t recommend basing a book on how to make a good movie, because pacing and style are totally different. But it’s pretty easy to tell when a movie has a crappy plot, or the characters are one-dimensional and boring. Those traits can absolutely find a home on your list of things you hate in stories.

Got that? Two lists. The Great List of Everything Awesome and the Horrible List of Everything to Avoid. Bonus points for the notebook (or writing software of your choice), a daily planner like I mentioned above, and any inspirational material that either gets you psyched up for writing, or gets you into the setting or characters you’re going to be writing about.