The October NaNoWriMo Update
It’s a bit early in the month, I know, but I am planning on taking a good bit of time off of writing beyond the bare necessities of work for the next couple of weeks, so I’m doing my mid-October update a little early.
I actually sat down for a few minutes the other day and did some basic outlining of my future novel. It turns out I had a few good ideas (cool huh?) and now I have the basic idea of a novel in hand for me to get started with when November gets underway. I never know for sure how much to outline though – I don’t ever want to get too far ahead of myself. When I do, I tend to fall behind a bit and then not get as excited as I could when it all gets started.
But, then there’s the other side of things – if I don’t do some outlining early, I tend to get really caught up when it’s time to write 1500-3000 words a day for an entire month. So, I opted for the former and have a nice little outline to get me started.
I also decided to aim for something slightly less messy than the last few years – I’m just writing something simple and fun in the fantasy genre. I’m also aiming for a really long book this year. The last few times I tried to keep it short and then got stuck in that in-between space where I couldn’t quite figure out where I was going to end the book and so even when I wrote 50,000 words, it ended up being about 40% of a novel. So, this year, I’m aiming for a finished length of 100K+. I know I probably won’t write that much in one month (unless work gets really slow), but it’s a good target and will actually end me up with a completed novel, which would be pretty fun too.
Anyways, I have an outline, I have an idea, and it’s a lot of fun. Anyone else out there wallowing through October before NaNo, make sure to spend some time outlining. It’s cathartic if nothing else, plus it keeps all your ideas fresh in your head as you roll into November and start writing.
