Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? I’m doing my own version of NaNo in November and revising the draft I finished earlier this year.
I’ve been going through my first draft, reading and re-reading and making notes for changes, and then creating scene cards to make my post-draft story roadmap more portable. And as I’ve been doing this, I’ve felt SO grateful for having taken the time to plan and develop my story before I wrote it.
This draft is total crap as far as the writing goes. But the story? The story is there. Sure, I’m finding ways to optimize things, and moving things around and changing stuff, but overall the story is still the same as it was when I wrote the draft.
Because I didn’t use my draft as a way to search for my story (I’ve tried it that way, it always results in epic failure for me), so my draft is actually a story.
This is a big deal, because it’s making my revision process much easier and less frustrating. And I totally expect to get it all finished during November. That may seem crazy (although if you’ve hung around me long enough you know I like crazy), but when you do enough planning ahead of time, you can write a first draft that doesn’t suck.
Which means my second draft is much easier to revise.
I’d say I’m able to save about 75% of my original draft (the story, not necessarily the way I wrote it). For me, revisions are more about infusing the narrative with characterization and description, for improving dialogue and making sure I’m showing more than telling.
I’m not ripping apart the story or fixing major plot holes or anything like that. Because I work that shit out first.
If you’re attempting NaNoWriMo this year, that’s exactly what I recommend you do too. If you plan your story before you write it, you will end up with a better first draft every single time.
And even if you’re busy this month, you can still make it happen. I’m making NaNoPlanMo even easier for you, with this 15-minute story planning schedule.
There are 20 days left in the month. That means if you worked your way through this list for 15 minutes a day, you’d have spent 300 minutes (or 5 hours) planning your story. Is that enough time to get it perfect? Probably not.
But it is enough time to know the most important information about your story. And since 15 minutes is a small amount of time, you can easily throw in an extra session here and there when you need it.
Here’s a list of story tasks/questions that you can do in 15-minute increments:
- Brainstorm your idea, Concept and Premise
- Refine your Concept (aka: the landscape of your story)
- Refine your Premise (aka: plot)
- Who’s your Protagonist?
- What does she want in the story?
- Who’s your Antagonist?
- What does he want in the story?
- Why does he want to oppose your Protagonist?
- How does the introduction of the Antagonist create stakes for your Protagonist?
- How does the story open?
- What’s the Hook?
- What’s your First Plot Point?
- What’s your Midpoint?
- What’s your Second Plot Point?
- What are your two Pinch Points?
- What needs to happen in Part One (aka: Set Up)
- What needs to happen in Part Two (aka: Reaction)
- What needs to happen in Part Three (aka: Attack)
- What needs to happen in Part Four (aka: Resolution)
- What’s your theme/message?
- What are your subplots?
- Who are your secondary characters?
- Write up a scene list (multiple 15-minute sessions for this one)
- Expand on each scene (one 15-minute session per scene)
And there you have it. Your quick-and-easy-get-it-done NaNoWriMo story plan.
Now get to work!
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How do you get your story ready for NaNoWriMo?
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