NaNoPlaNoMo Take Whatever

 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In all likelihood I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year. Not a surprise, really, as I have not done it the past couple of years to any level of success. Part of that is just that I am not prioritizing the level of time required for it, part of it is travel with the holidays, part of it is a few more excuses I can come up with. And honestly, I have a few writing projects to finish before I inject another one.

That said, I may still do a little planning for my next project, and while I have a few days off around the beginning of the month, I may binge-write a few thousand words and call that a win (if you recall several of my actual NaNo wins came at the hands of 10,000+ days on the last day or two of the month, so if I got that over on, say, the 2nd, we could call it a win and I would get to keep my November).

While I might be skipping it, I know that thousands (yes, oddly thousands) of people still will swing by my sites here in the next couple of weeks to download spreadsheets and things, and so I'm doing an obligatory NaNo post as a head-nod to them.

From the fact that my last post on the writing pages here came last October, I'm guessing this is an annual self-imposed feeling. Still, hopefully it can help.

In terms of "how to write a novel in a month" - the answer is simple. Write. Don't worry about what you write, just write some more. And then write a little more. And then you will think "this is stupid" or "I can't write anymore." And then you write your way through that.

The Sprints on Twitter are always helpful - join a fifteen minute sprint or so and crank out 300 words. When I get "into a flow" I can write 800-1000 words an hour doing 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off, 15 minutes on, 15 off, etc. If you could keep that pace, you could finish NaNo in a week. NaNoWriWee?

Anyway, I'm not going to rehash a lot, since there are several discussions of planning, writing to numbers, outlining, character-building, etc. on here.

What has intrigued me of late is the work that Christine at BetterNovelProject is doing, basically breaking down some best sellers by math and algorithms to develop best practices in plotting, character building, and writing overall. Looks a whole lot like my writing by numbers type of detail, but she breaks it out in several different ways other than word count (number of characters in Chapter One, Sequel triggers, etc.). Might be worth doing with my the next Michael Connelly or John Grisham or David Baldacci that I read. Perhaps I should be doing it right now as I read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. Anyway, it's interesting stuff. Maybe you will see more "author math" here as well.

For now, go write something. Or plan something to write in November.

Ciao.