Your friendly NaNoWriMo reminder

NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month—is about a month away. If you don’t know what that is, here’s a link to an explanation. It’s probably the writing community’s most productive time of the year.

I usually get vague parts of a story together beforehand, but I want to plan my novel out some more this time.

Here are some ways to plan for NaNoWriMo in case you want to too:

Make a mood board

You can do this with the setting, characters, plot, etc. It’s a board of pictures that captures the essence of what you’re trying to write.

For example, for a character, I could grab a picture of a girl with glasses. Take pictures of books, music, or video games that she’d enjoy. If she’s not human, I’d also tag along a picture of the creature she is. Perhaps she gives off a purple vibe, so I’d theme the whole board purple. Something along those lines.

Most of these I’ve seen are digital boards, but physical ones can also work.

Story plot outline

I’ve seen these done in different, creative ways. Sticky notes traveling left and right on a wall. Or a big arrow map on a sheet of paper. A list in a Word document. It’s an easy task that can go across many mediums.

Most outlines are not very detailed. They have a beginning, a few big moments in the middle, and an idea where the ending should go. These are not set in stone either and can change while you’re writing if another idea takes over. But they’re useful to have a concept of where to head toward.

As a reminder, as long as you don’t start writing your novel, you can plan all you like. I’ll be blogging weekly check-ins like last year.

Happy writing!