With NaNoWriMo not even two weeks away now, I’ve decided to get started on my writing-related posts now. I thought it would be good to start by talking about where I am with my writing right now and what I’ve been doing to prepare and what I’ve still got to do. So without further ado…
The Plan for November
I guess the most important thing to work out was what I’d actually be writing during November. I’ve decided to go my usual route, which is basically—whatever I feel like at the time. I have like six different projects going on so I didn’t want to just choose one and then ignore all the others, so instead, I’ve set some mini word count goals for a few and we’ll just see what else I get done.
I’m not aiming for the 50k this year because I’m also participating in two readathons and I’ll be back at work since lockdown is finally ending here. I don’t want to overwhelm myself too much.
The Prep
I’m mostly definitely a pantser at this stage in my writing. I used to plot extensively, but lately, I’ve been finding it easier to go into the first draft with a plan of what’s going to happen but without a scene-by-scene or chapter-by-chapter breakdown. I struggled to write anything consistently for a good two or three years so I’m using these like ‘zero drafts’ to regain my love of writing as well as my confidence in it.
But I have been doing some preparation to get myself into the writing mood. I’ve done a bit of actual writing, but also been thinking about the characters and plots and mentally thinking through some of those ideas to see what might work. I’ve also been watching lots of writing videos on YouTube to see how other people go about plotting or even just writing vlogs to help motivate me a little.
That’s really all I have to talk to you about today. I’ll be back in a few days time with another writing post!
Earl Grey Books 