50,000 words on a new work of fiction in the month of November.

NaNoWriMo

Affectionately known as NaNo.

For people who do not write for recreation, the idea of tackling a novel in a month is as foreign as the food you’ll never be able to spell; but for those who’ve always felt they have a story inside and no time or support to get it out, the dark days of November have proven year after year to be the time to dive in and grow.

Through the month of October 2013, I wrote (almost) daily posts to offer suggestions and a sort of hand-holding in preparation for one process of building a novel.

The rules (for National Novel Writing Month) don’t allow us to officially dive in and start the word-count before November 1, but preparation is encouraged and there are definitely things you can do ahead to maximize your work time during November. There are choices you can make now that will simplify your revision process later.

You do plan to finish, revise and publish, right?

If you are getting ready for NaNo (or just want to piece a novel together in your own time), I expect these posts will be very useful to you.

Completed Table of Contents:

1. What is NaNo?
2. Why NaNo (What, part 2)
3. Create Your Like-Lists
4. Ways of Writing
5. Capture Your Information
6. Meet your Main Characters
7. Setting
8. Pick a Problem
9. Eager Expectation
10. What is the Best Form for Your Story?
11. Message in a Novel
12. Plot Structures: My favorite Folktale Formula
13. Plot Structures: The Hero’s Journey
14. Plot Structures: The Heroine’s Journey
15. Introducing Cross-Genre Support
16. Romance Elements
17. Romance Terms Defined
18. Thriller (and Mystery) Elements
19. The Four-Arc Outline for a Thriller
20. Conflict
21. Stakes!
22. Designing Relationships
23. Self-Care
24. Transport
25. Every Helper a Hero
26. Research Ahead
27. Cross-Cultural Inclusion
28. Odds and Ends (Names, images, mapping and music)
29. Prepare for Imperfection
30. [No new post today. Catch up on what you’ve missed ;)]
31. Emotion in the Process

And now the series is complete. I wish you the absolute best as you work through the coming month of exploration, and the subsequent months of finish and polish.

Peace to you, and always, HOPE.