NaNoWriMo Survival Kit!

Since NaNoWriMo officially starts in 2 days (I am including today since I am writing this at 8 am), I am getting that much more excited! In order to make it through the month of literary abandon I have put together a little kit of items that I have deemed necessary or helpful to myself.

My outlines, character sketches, maps, background pieces and scene cards. These are my road maps of where my novel and characters are going.

A word count calender that I found on Pinterest. You get to fill in little boxes for every 250 words written. It's awesome since my goal is not just the 50k, but actually to write 70k. 

Music. I have a specific soundtrack that I've created for this novel series specifically. I also like listening to soundtracks from movies that  are similar in genre or theme, and have several of them lined up and ready to go. Earbuds also fall into this category...I don't want to annoy other people around me too much :)

My Laptop...because...well...DUH :)

An external hard drive. I was almost done writing the first novel a few months back, and realized that I would probably die if I lost any of those 70,000 words due to a computer crash...so I went out and purchased a relatively inexpensive but good external hard drive. I also have a few flash drives on hand  for backing things up.

An extra notebook that fits into my purse for any ideas that pop into my mind while I'm away from my keyboard.

HOT CHOCOLATE. I went out and bought a very large container to keep all throughout the month. While most people like their morning coffee as a stimulant. But I've never liked the taste of coffee. So for me hot chocolate functions as a coffee substitute.

A crocheted shawl/lap blanket I made. Because it gets cold in Wisconsin in November.

And my official NaNo hoodie, for the same reason as above!

I plan on attending a few of the write in's, the kick off and happily ever after parties. I am so excited to be around people who get just as geeky about writing as I can :) I also will try to blog pretty consistently during the month with how my process is going, updated word count, and any problems (eek) that might come up. Maybe that way someone else can learn from my first NaNo too!

Good Luck fellow WriMo's!!

Maybe I am just a tad strange...

So back in April/May of this year my mother and I embarked on an incredible, once in a lifetime trip to the British Isles. In 18 days we went all around Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. It was such an awe-inspiring trip that I never want to forget it, and hope to some day go back and explore a few areas further.

A few of those areas are the Isle of Sky, the Highlands in Scotland as well as the northern islands and parts of England.

My heart really fell in love with the landscape stretching from the Lake District, all the way down to Oxford. Something about the scenery, the roads, and the people captured my imagination. Even though I am not a city girl, I LOVED Oxford, and if only I had the scholastic skills and money I would try to get into a graduate program there. I even got to sit (And had inspiration strike) in the Eagle and Child Pub, which is the pub that literary greats like J.RR Tolkein, CS Lewis (among others) came to write and meet to discuss ideas.
I have read both of these writers, and love their works.

One of the funny things I have noticed since being back home is that whenever I stumble across their works, whether their written or even the film adaptations of their works, I feel like I understand them a bit better for being in Oxford and the surrounding areas. I don't know if this is just a part of my imagination, or if by being there and seeing the same types of things they had, that I gained an understanding that I didn't have before. Maybe I picked up on some of their writing "mojo", or their essences felt a fellow writer when I was visiting and they followed me home. 

No matter what it was, my newest goal in life is to go back to the Lake District, Stratford upon Avon, and Oxford and just spend some quality time with my notebook or laptop. And I don't mean just a weekend. I mean like a month or more. I want to walk the same places these people walked, I want to see the same buildings and become seeped in the history of the towns.

And most of all I just miss the great sense of peacefulness and contentedness that I had while I was there. I want to capture that feeling and bottle it up so I can take it with me.

One thing I do know, even if I never get back there, those feelings and memories will stay with me for the rest of my life. And I feel better for having experienced them.

Planner? Or Pantser?

So I've been reading a lot of the forums and threads on the official NANOWRIMO website as well as watching countless YouTube videos, and I'm curious just where people stand on the planning or pantsing of a novel? 

Before this project I have not once really planned out a story. Sure I knew who my characters were, I knew where it was taking place, and I might have even had a hint of where the story could head. But that was it. I just dived in and wrote. 

And that's pretty much how this series got started. However, my goal for November is not just to write 50k, it's actually to write 70k or more. Also I realized that if I didn't start planning out this novel (and series) that bad things were gonna happen, like running out of steam. 

So, lord help me, I set out to plan the novel. 

I was hesitant at first. One of my favorite aspects to writing is not having all of the answers laid out for me from the get go. I like to see where my characters will go on their own. But with my lofty goal, I outlined the entire series and novel loosely with enough wiggle room to explore.

I also actually wrote out character sketches, scene cards and even a few pages of backstory, which would even make for another series. A prequel series if you will, that comes before these 4 core books. 

All in all I think I've left enough wiggle room to enjoy where my characters may take me, but with enough direction to accomplish my goal. 

And NANOWRIMO is only a week away!!! 

Let the countdown begin!!

Is anyone else as excited as I am for NANOWRIMO this year? 

Usually October and Halloween is a much bigger thing for me, but this year all I seem able to think about is November. And of course NaNo. 

Maybe it's just because it will be my first year participating that I can't seem to get the coming month out of my mind. Or it could be because I'm really jazzed to start this next novel and I haven't been able to yet. Or going to write ins to again be surrounded by people who get as excited as me about writing. 

Regardless of why I'm excited, I am looking forward to joining the ranks of people who aspire to write a novel in a month. And hopefully I will be with those at the finish with a new first draft on my hands! :) 

12 NaNoWriMo Questions

So since NaNo officially starts in 15 days, I thought I would answer a few of these questions I found online.
Annnnnd I'm getting really excited for the start...

1.) Are you planning to do NaNoWriMo this year?
                  DUH! :D
2.) How many years previously have you participated in NaNo?
                  None, this will be my first year, though I've known about it for a few years.

3.) New novel or a novel you've already started?
                  The novel I will be writing is the second in a series, I finished the first at the end of September. I plan on participating in camp NaNo in the spring/summer to write the third and fourth books in the series.

4.) Working Title:
                   I can't share that! However, the series will be called the Ryder Chronicles.

5.) Genre:
                  Epic fantasy/Fantasy

6.) Project word count goal:
                  My first novel was about 71,000 words, so the second has to be at least that, or more.

7&8.) Outline? How much have you planned for NaNo so far?
                  I've spent all of October outlining the whole series, well the core 4 books, of events that have to happen for the story. Made lists of names if new characters pop up. Made character sketches for most of my major characters. I've made up what I call "Scene cards" for about half the novel. And worked on the "bad guys" motives and some back story.

9.) Do you expect to be able to achieve your goal?
                 Yes, and if I don't finish the whole novel in November, at least I will have written 50K of it!

10.) Greatest challenge in completing your goal?
                 Myself..? Though my confidence has grown since I have finished one novel.

11.) Any words of advice from past NaNo experiences?
                Since I'm brandy new at this, I will let you know come December!

12.) If you're NOT doing NaNo, any goals for November?
                How could I NOT do NaNo! Crazy peoples... :)

Prepping for NaNo

I have started prepping for my first challenge with NaNoWriMo. I am so excited to actually be participating this year, I had wanted to in the past but between working 32 hours a week 15 credits in college and a (now ex) Boyfriend, and maybe sleep in there, I never had the time.
This year is going to be different. And I am more excited than I thought I would be.
I'm usually not a huge fan of outlining, but then again I have never had as high of a goal as writing 50,000 words in 30 days. I also have never written a sequel to a novel. I never really realized how much planning and forethought have to go into the second book!

I started prep by adding a baby names app to my iphone...you all may laugh, but it comes in handy!
I used this app to look up a bunch of names and I started making a list of boys and girls names that I liked the sound of. Some of Germanic, Celtic, Danish, Aremian, even Aztec origins. I figured that by having a list of both gender names on hand that whenever I needed a new character when writing I would already have a list and wouldn't have to waste time hunting one down.

So far it's actually worked.

I started, on note cards, listing scenes that need to happen. A notecard often includes: which POV I'm writing from, who needs to be in the scene and roughly what happens in that scene. Related to this I've also (for the FIRST time EVER) written out character sketches. Before I just had a detailed idea of who these people were in my head, but putting it on paper is an interesting exercise and has revealed a few holes in some of the characters that need plugging both as characters and as their place in the story.

Also, I went back and re-vamped the map of the "world" I'd created and made a better, more in depth version of a region a few of my characters will be spending much time in. 

Next up is solidifying what the "bad guys" are up to, even if I don't reveal all of it to the reader, I need it to be more concrete for the rest of the writing. 

Is it too much to say how fast I hope October will go by so I can start this next novel? :)