first time NaNOWriMo-ing

Abbie Emmons has a great YouTube channel. Below is her NaNoWriMo prep video. At 2min 47secs into the video, she speeds through a document of descriptions of each component of the 3-Act structure. Might be worthy till someone else responds. Good luck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGu1pRgjBIE

Pantsing is a common technique in NaNo (no outline, just go). Plenty of people finish it that way every year. Some people are a mix, outlining the plot points to hit and letting what happens between them happen. It's something we can't really tell you what will work because it's different for every person. The best advice I can give you is to just dive in doing what you're comfortable with and do your best. Be active in the forums, both NaNo and here, because the best support is everyone else struggling with you And remember to have fun with it. Don't be pressured to do anything you're not comfortable with, up to and including finishing. We call any word count a winner in NaNo.

I've done NaNo with varying degrees of success each year, and here's my takeaway: Do what you want.
The best part of NaNo is the pressure or atmosphere that You Should Be Writing. Embrace it, let whatever else you can afford to slide to the bottom of you list, "Because it's NaNoWriMo and I need to be writing." That's nice, and not a luxury I can realistically have year-round. But once a year for a month? Yeah, I can do that.
And then when I don't hit "finish" by the end it's ok, because those are all imaginary deadlines anyhow.
It's like wanting to dance. You could dance at home any time, but it's maybe more fun to show up to a big dance party and dance with friends. Dance your butt off, friend.

skylessbird2218 said:

So, this is the first time I joined up for November NaNo. I have never done it before, and it's going to be my first time doing it. I'm going in knowing next to nothing about it, so I am worried.

My typing speed is abysmal. I mean, I could perhaps get four hundred words or so done in an hour if I don't take a break, but I don't have the habit of constant typing. If I push myself, I might get two thousand done in a day though, and I am still practising to improve my speed, so it's not my main concern. What worries me more is the story.

I write mostly straight from my head. Even the plot points, mainly the beginning and the end, I keep in my head. Sure I write down some ideas that come to my mind, but they are hardly enough to make a story. Right now, I just have an idea what the story is going to be about. I am not an outline person, an least not one I have to write down, but for NaNo, should I outline?

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I don't think your typing speed will slow you down. It's your thinking speed that counts. I type pretty fast, around 70 wpm, but you write much faster than me. Even after completing extremely detailed outline I'd be incredibly happy with your 2000 words /day.

Tried writing without outline in the past, and in my case I end up with a garbage story that has to be completely re-written. My first outline is also always garbage, but it has been faster for me to rewrite outline many times compared to entire screenplay or manuscript. Obviously there are many great writers who work better with outline that exists only in their mind, or completely pantsed.

Whatever is the simplest path to completed project - if you can pants, I say go for it! If you want to make an outline, you have a few weeks to git 'er done.

skylessbird2218 said:

So, this is the first time I joined up for November NaNo. I have never done it before, and it's going to be my first time doing it. I'm going in knowing next to nothing about it, so I am worried.

My typing speed is abysmal. I mean, I could perhaps get four hundred words or so done in an hour if I don't take a break, but I don't have the habit of constant typing. If I push myself, I might get two thousand done in a day though, and I am still practising to improve my speed, so it's not my main concern. What worries me more is the story.

I write mostly straight from my head. Even the plot points, mainly the beginning and the end, I keep in my head. Sure I write down some ideas that come to my mind, but they are hardly enough to make a story. Right now, I just have an idea what the story is going to be about. I am not an outline person, an least not one I have to write down, but for NaNo, should I outline?

Click to expand...

I did my first NaNo in 2010. I've done it (and won it) every year since. I'm also an unapologetic pantser.

It's different for everyone, but my advice is this:

1) Write like hell and don't look back.
2) If you've written yourself into a corner, skip over the stuck part and keep going.
3) If you don't like what you've got so far, pretend you've already rewritten it and keep going.
4) You WILL get burnt out. That's OK. Figure out a sustainable pace and allow yourself rest and mistakes.
5) "Winning" is entirely symbolic. It's not worth it if the whole process is making you miserable. On the other hand, if you enjoy it at all, it doesn't matter if you've written 50,000 words or 5.

I find it a fine excuse to take a month to completely indulge myself and write whatever pleases me. I'm almost always shocked by what comes out the other side.

This is my first year too

If you don't like outlining, there's no reason to start now. Historically I write 3/4 books. I never get the ending. I'll know where I want it to go but I just wander around not able to find it lol. This year I've decided to outline to see if that works better for me. It's a pretty skeletal outline. I took all the plots I wanted to happen and said "what scenes do I NEED to accomplish this and made a list. So I have 33 scenes listed that I think need to happen, and I'm just going to write it in whatever order seems good at the time and add or combine as things happen. It helped me see that my main plot wasn't enough so I could add more complexity, and social stuff to get to novel length.

I'm also not sure if I can hit the word count. My goal is to write for 2 hours every day, and if I can squeeze in more when my schedule is being kind to me, I will. If not, I wont beat myself up over it.