19 October 2011

Planning Progress

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Planning for NaNoWriMo is progressing, somewhat. I have figured out a lot about the personalities of my two main characters, and I have a pretty good idea of how their relationship grows and changes throughout the story. My hero's motivations, stumbling blocks and growth are clear in my mind, my heroine's less so. I have a fair idea of the setting, though I've only just started researching beautiful English tourism websites and I'm going to enjoy finding out a lot more. I will also need to research a lot more around the little historical details that will add realism, and possibly spark plot ideas.

Speaking of plot, this is the main grey area at present. While I know where my characters need to get to, I'm a bit stuck in giving them things to do. I know this will come, but pushing it to come over 50,000 words in one month is a little daunting. I'm keen to have little (and a few large) secrets revealed, which surely do require some planning? The other main gaps right now are most of the minor characters. That, and names. But I think I'll write another post about that later.

However, I am pushing fear aside and gearing up mentally for NaNo. See the participant's logo in my sidebar? :-) I have the bare bones of several scenes written - those that just wouldn't leave me alone and I'm excited about. The challenge for me is the discipline to write all the scenes chronologically, without cheating and rushing through to the climactic scenes I love to write.

What will be the biggest challenge for you during NaNo? (apart from time constraints, obviously!)

2 comments:

  1. I'm in probably a similar place with my outlining. I know my MC and have his voice, and I have some rough beats, but the rest usually comes organically--I'm trying to outline "better" this year, so I won't get stuck like I did last year at 55K.

    I'm going to Vegas for 3 days, so that will be one challenge, but this is my 5th Nano and I have "won" every year even with major life events happening (what is it with everything happening in November??). In comparison, Vegas doesn't feel like a huge challenge, though.

    I wrote my first Nano out of chronological order. But it's definitely harder (for me, anyway) to write in order--that's my challenge this year, too!

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  2. Hi Brooke! It's reassuring to know you've won NaNo repeatedly, considering how busy you are. It sounds like our writing styles are similar. How many of the four did you go on to finish?

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