NaNoWriMo has been steadily approaching, by which I mean that I knew it was coming because November happens every year. This year it has sneaked up on me and ohmygosh, it’s October 31st!
I am primarily a pantser. I don’t like outlining, but I do it when I get stuck, or when I have November looming over me, seemingly out of nowhere because, come on guys, how did October go by so fast?
Last year, I tried prepping a little. I did some bare bones outlines of a couple of story ideas. These consisted mainly of the story title, basic plot, possible ending, and a few sub plots and scenes I thought I might add. It was essentially me taking notes while brainstorming. And you know what? Last year I finished NaNo for the first time. Granted, I went rebel in the middle. I made the mistake of writing an election based story during a Presidential election year, and got sick of all things election before hitting 50,000. However, it got my writing juices flowing and helped me to finish the word count. I didn’t follow the outline exactly, but it was a good source of inspiration when I got stuck, especially the scene ideas.
So here we are on October 31st and I’ve done almost no prep. I have chosen the story I will work on(rebel again, I started it last November). I have announced it on the NaNo website. That’s it. That’s all I’ve done. I feel unprepared, but still excited.
To ease the growing anxiety over not having prepped, 50,000 words being a lot, I’ve decided to create an emergency outline. It looks like this:
It took five minutes.
Here’s hoping November doesn’t go as fast as October seemed to.