Hello everyone and welcome back. I hope your weekend saw you all well. Even though I had Monday off, I still would have preferred at least a couple more days off. If for no other reason just to get some more peace of mind with the cat. He's still not considered 'stable' and even with the pills that are suppose to stimulate his appetite he didn't want to eat last night and was sick this morning. I know it'll take baby steps but I really wish he'd get back to normal.
With October now officially here, all eyes are now turning to November. There's a lot of different ways people approach NaNoWriMo, and I thought that given the amount of time left, it would be good to bring up today. Now obviously there are going to be things people do differently and/or things I just plain left out. If there's anything specific or special you do to get ready for NaNoWriMo feel free to post about it below! What's your plan? Do you let yourself have one? Do you participate and why or why not? I'd love to hear all about it!
Now one thing I've heard of people doing, and keep in mind I am not this person, mostly because I don't think I physically can be, is that they sit down on November first and are done within the first week, some people even within the same day. Again, I cannot do this even if I wanted to and had the time/motivation to do so. There is a reason it can be done though, and that's because those are the people (generally speaking) that plan out everything months in advance and schedule each and every detail out so that when they sit down on November 1st they know each and every word that is going onto their page. They are also robots, but that's a different thing.
I'm not saying I don't plan, or that no one else does. If you want to get the word quota completely done you need some kind of plan before you jump in and expect everything to work. Outlining is incredibly helpful for NaNoWriMo, since it gives you an idea of what you're dealing with before starting and you will have enough time to work out all the details as you go. Honestly this is closer to what I do, since I have a series I'm working on and NaNoWriMo is my main area for writing it, I know what happens in the stories, and being able to work on them for that month gives me a chance to get everything out. I might not know each and every detail or piece of dialogue going into it, but by the time I get through I do. The benefit for the previous method and this one is there are very few places you're going to be hit in the face with writers block. Though if it does happen during NaNoWriMo, remember it's important to mark that place on the page and move forward; if you get stuck for too long you're going to find yourself falling behind.
Another method, and I don't think I could do this honestly, is sitting down and just doing everything as a piece of 'flash fiction'. For those who aren't familiar with that term, it's when you sit down with no idea what's going to happen and let everything just sort of...happen. There's no plan, no outline, just a genre (and sometimes not even that) and your imagination. I'm not someone who could use this method to work in November. I've done it for considerably shorter things, but not for NaNoWriMo. There are people who can though, and I find that impressive. Flash Fiction is a form that usually ends up with a product that is entertaining and fun to read for both the author and the reader, since you get to go back and see exactly what happened. It's also the type of writing that, at least I think it would, takes a lot of the pressure off. You're sitting down and basically doing what you want at the pace you want, so the only real pressure you have is the word quota.
Again, what methods do you use? This applies not just for NaNoWriMo too, but any form of writing you do. Is there something specific to you that helps get the creative juices flowing? I really would like to get some discussions started here and I thought those questions might be a good bunch. Especially because for the ones today there really aren't any wrong answers. Don't be shy, I'd love to hear it and you might help someone else who's stuck!
Thanks everyone again for stopping by. As a way to celebrate 'Rending the Seal' going to beta-read/edit, here is the link to 'The Light Rises' so you can all get the series started. My hope is that the prequel will be ready to see the world early 2014. I apologize for the gap between the two, but hopefully the other books will come out sooner than these two did. I'll be back on Friday though and I look forward to seeing everyone here! Have a great rest of the week!
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