NaNoWriMo Wrap Up

Clue is wrapped up in a blanket because December is cold! But also because this is a wrap up and I like puns. Photo by Kate Ota 2021.

After hitting my 30k goal during November, I decided to reflect on how well my prep in October helped with my writing process.

My project was an idea I’d had percolating on a back burner of my brain for a while. I kept little notes about it in a Word doc so I could keep track of what I’d thought about already. At the beginning of October, that Word doc was a mere two pages. I knew I needed to expand my idea into an outline, but was dissatisfied with 2020’s NaNo outline, which I had made using Save the Cat. That one had left me floating in Fun and Games (the bulk of Act 2 prior to the midpoint) and Bad Guys Close In (the bulk of Act 2 after the midpoint) with barely any idea of what was supposed to happen. I didn’t have time for that chaos this year, seeing as I was trying to do over half of the word count in under half the time.

So, in 2021, I used another approach. I started with Save the Cat as a basic structure. Then I used The Story Equation to nail down character arcs because that tends to be my weak spot. That helped fill out the outline a little more. Then I used The Anatomy of Story to get into the rest of that outline’s details. This bulked up my plan significantly, especially in those pesky catch-all categories from Save the Cat (Fun and Games and Bad Guys Close In.) I ended October with thirty specific scenes in my outline. I knew this was not going to be the whole story, but it left enough wiggle room in between scenes that I could pants a little here and there. Gotta leave room for organic story growth and new ideas.

As predicted, I ended up adding scene ideas as I went. Moments of “oh, he needs to be somewhere else, so let’s do a scene of where he went” and “gosh, I can’t believe I almost forgot this fun thing” got to be included while I also didn’t feel pressure to come up with something new on the spot each day. By the time I hit 30k (and ran out of time for NaNo) I hadn’t even gotten to the midpoint scenes!

I think my outline hit just the right note between structure and freedom. A bit like a playground that has some abstract climbing equipment, allowing my imagination to frolic while giving it a jumping off point so it didn’t get exhausted. A more stringent outline might have forced me into doing one thing, and the slightest inspiration toward a new scene would have thrown off the whole plan, forcing me to choose the plan (and save myself a lot of trouble the rest of the month) or leap down the new rabbit hole of creativity (which could have led to a better story, or could have led nowhere.)

Here are my tips for making your next NaNo (or drafting in any other month) more successful:

• Outline at least the basic beats of the plot so you know what you’re writing toward. Be as detailed or abstract as you need.
• Plan the parts you have struggled with most in the past. It could be world, character, plot, whatever slows you down.
• Feel free to combine outlining methods from multiple sources, especially if they focus on different things. Just because one method is someone else’s favorite, doesn’t mean it will automatically be the best for you.
• If you typically pants, give yourself more leeway in your outline, because you’re going to want to pants. If you don’t let yourself pants, you’ll be miserable or abandon the project partway through.
• Once you start drafting, don’t overthink. You can always edit what you’ve written later, but you can’t edit a blank page.
• If out of ideas (ex: you need a character name), or if you decide you need to return to something later, leave yourself a note. You can highlight it, leave a comment if working in Word, make a note on the scene’s note pad if using Scrivener, leave a note using track changes, or use brackets to denote your comment. Whatever you do, be consistent so you can find all your notes later.

​How did NaNo go for you? Did your prep help or hinder your final results? Let's discuss in the comments!