I'm not a great pantser; what kind of preparation do I need for NaNoWriMo?
I'm very appreciative of NaNoWriMo's "your first step is writing a crappy first draft" credo, and I like the motivation that NaNoWriMo encourages. I'm precisely at the point where what I feel I need most is some serious butt-in-chair routine, with less emphasis on writing well, so this credo suits me well right now.
But I don't feel like I can just start pounding out words at a given cue. I need some sense of plot, setting, character; I don't like pantsing the entire thing, since my first ideas rarely interest me. I need either a ton of prep work, or else a concept that's very easy to leap straight into and work out as I go along. Right now, I don't have either of these. (I do have a few exciting ideas that require a ton of prep work.)
I want to be able to start typing real words on Nov. 1st; I don't want to risk tripping up by demanding of myself that I produce complex, meticulous prep-work beforehand (that kind of seems to contradict the "just write stuff" ethos). So: is NaNoWriMo a good fit for me? Is there some kind of preparation and planning that would be useful to me? Do I need to go as far as doing all the prep and planning I would for a "regular" novel-writing effort?
1 answer
NaNoWriMo would never ever work for me, because without the prep work, it's just logorrhea. But if you're trying to use the butt-in-chair time as a motivator, then instead of "when timer dings, start typing your book," maybe it should be "when timer dings, start working through your prep work."
If all you want to do is get into the habit of writing, then how about "when timer dings, start writing blog post"? or "start writing short story"? Or one exercise we used to do in creative writing classes, which is "when timer dings, write, and do not stop writing under any circumstances until timer dings again in five minutes. Even if what you write is 'I can't think of anything to write about and this is really stupid,' keep writing. Write the alphabet if you have to."
These exercises are not "novels," to be certain, but they will get you going.
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