Setting up National Novel Writing Month

Wow! Hello all those who are coming around here to read what I have to say. Really.

Now that I have said that, it's getting to be that time. As you see by my counter, there are 47 days until the start of National Novel Writing Month, which lasts from Midnight November 1st to Midnight December 1st.

During this time I will work so hard to reach the goal of 50,000 words in a single month, if not more.

But before I can do that, I have to prepare for it!

What does that mean? Well, it means that I get to do a lot of things.

1) I get to figure out which plot I'm using this time.

I'm actually torn between 5 different plots that I discuss on the Nano forum thread Torn Between Ideas. The ideas that I'm torn about will be in their own blog post (and yes, I will link below that post when I get it up).

2) Pardon my language, but, un-f*ck my space.

This pretty much means I'll clean up my area. Organize, get rid of, move things around, and all around get things clear for when I start my month. This'll happen closer to November and I'll actually post pictures of my space of the before, during and after process. That'll be fun.

Yeah...

3) Prepare my muscial and movie choices.

I listen to a mix of music and movies when I write. Or TV shows. My favorites list on hulu is forever growing with shows that I want to listen to or watch while I'm writing. The same can go for my youtube lists.

I have a playlist that is ever growing that contains nearly every song that I have added to one list or another. A lot of pop, rocks, JPop, JRock, KPop, Krock, anime theme songs, and some older songs from America's 60's and 70's.

4) Make sure that I'm stocked with snackages for the coming month.

I don't like getting up for snack foods unless I need to okay? So I tend to buy easy to eat snack foods the two months before November. This year it'll just be the one month since the last couple of months I let that fall to the wayside.

Next month (October) I'm planning on hitting Sam's so I should be good.

5) Make sure I have plenty of tea and coffee.

Got a good amount of both but I think I'll get some more coffee just in case. It's starting to get cooler at night. Means coffee and tea are going to become my friends.

6) Make sure that I have plenty of water.

Easily done. Water machines, filtered, are on property.

7) Have at least 10 chapters of story plotted out, have a list of characters, character names, and generalized descriptions of other characters written out, and have major plot points noted down.

Okay, let's break this down.

A) 10 chapters plotted. I need to have at minimum ten chapters plotted out otherwise I will never get anything done while I hem and haw over what to write. So having ten chapters plotted out helps me in the long run. I will plot more as I write and the smaller details start to fill in.

B) List of characters, character names, and generalized descriptions. This means that I will have my main characters plotted out, have names for future characters, and have characters with no names but general descriptions waiting. This is so that should I need a new character, I can go over the descriptions and I can figure out who I want to use for whatever reason.

C) Major plot points noted down. This is pretty much what it says. In a story there are plot points that you want to hit. Mini climaxes that build up to the main climax.

I'm sure that you've all heard the "Beginning, Middle, and End" thing right? Or "Beginning, Climax, End". Well, to get to the Climax, or rather middle, you have to build up to it.

Think of it as a peak that you're climbing. There are stopping points for rest and there are points where you climb. That's how I see stories building. The mini-climax's, as I call them, are my plot points. I need to get to the first one, then the second one, and so on until I come to the final Climax.

I'll most likely go further into this on one of my later posts. But that's the general idea.

And I need to know what they would be. I pretty much write out a really long summary before I break it down into two different points: Mini-climax's and Building-points.

It's needed for me

8) Make sure my sanity is firmly taped down, the muse has much delightful things to keep her going, and tell my friends on facebook that I'll emerge on December 1st.

What? I need to explain this? Facebook is just as bad as tumblr when it comes to time sucking okay.

So, it's time to start prepping! First things first: figuring out my plot.

Fun times. Le sigh.

Blog Post: Plots and Being Torn for NaNo 2015