Are you Ready for NaNoWriMo?

25 Days. Let the games begin.

In 25 or so days, writers all over the world will suffer from lack of sleep, caffiene addiction and…writer’s block.

But Jordan, that sounds like NaNoWriMo!

You bet your 50,000 words it’s NaNoWriMo!

I’m not prepared! What am I going to do?!

Don’t worry, I’m not prepared either and for most of us writing isn’t our entire lives. We have work, school, kids, so we a battle plan going in. That’s where I come in. We are going to plan these novels down to a T over the next 25 days. Think of us as pre-NaNo buddies!.

What if I haven’t done NaNo before, Jordan? 

Not to worry just go sign up at nanowrimo.org. You’ll be fine I promise. This is only my second one and I’m going to be prepared this time.

I know writers all over the world are ordering their coffee in bulk right about now, (I probably should too) but there are plots to be finalized, character to be made, wars to be planned!

Ask yourself: Is my story ready for NaNoWriMo?

If yes, great! Sit back and drink that coffee, you deserve that coffee! If your answer is no then you’re on the struggle bus with me and a million other writers. Not to worry, we’re driving to preparation station where everyone exits the struggle bus…and boards the struggle train to NaNo Town! At least you’ll be prepared when you get there!

Now that the rant is over, let’s get down to business. Since I usually start with characters we’ll start there.

Do you have a main character?

Do you have all of the characters you need at the moment? (Your answer is no if you have less than 15)

Have you established which characters are primary and secondary?

Have you established each characters role in the story?

All of these components help you determine how your story is going to go. Your characters, their motivations, their hopes and dreams need to be flushed out before you start writing. Otherwise, you’ll be banging you head against the table before you know it. I’d suggest looking into character profiles. Click here to read my post on character profiles.  It’s one less thing to worry about when you need to reach 50,000 words.

If your looking for inspiration I go to Pinterest and search “character inspiration”. I’ll be talking more about characters and next week we move on to….PLOTS! At the end of the next two or three weeks, I’ll have a check list put together so people can keep track their progress. Let’s whip our characters into shape!