What is NaNoWriMo Anyway?

[Nouva]

kawaii_kat

This is my first year doing this. I'm definitely nervous! I have a very rough outline. How do you guys develop your outlines?

Generally, I setup my outlines based on what I need to happen so that I can get the desired result. You want to leave a little room in there for spontaneous thought. Also you may want to have an idea of what the settings will be for various of events and this you really want detailed. Otherwise, your character could stumble over a chair in the middle if a swamp. Lastly, character interactions should be relatively planned out. This way Deus ex Machinas do not mess with the flow if your story too much.

[Empress Kitty]

I did it (and won) back in 2006, but I have not been able to do it since! A couple years I was just too busy, the other years I just flat-out forgot. I plan on doing it again this year!

[Misuki Marishima]

This will be my third year in a row participating! heart I've won the previous two years, so I'm planning on making this a repeat-3-peat!

I'm still grappling with what story idea to do though.

[Zhi Fei]

I'm going to try for it again this year. Last year didn't go so well, especially when I got distracted by physics. I need to get over this slow-writer problem of mine.

[Malee]

kawaii_kat

This is my first year doing this. I'm definitely nervous! I have a very rough outline. How do you guys develop your outlines?

I don't. rofl I tried an outline one year and hated it and have up on it. I have set goals I want to reach sometime in the story but don't like outlines.

[Miss Pagan Rose]

kawaii_kat

This is my first year doing this. I'm definitely nervous! I have a very rough outline. How do you guys develop your outlines?

Well, I'm usually a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pantser and don't do an outline, but this year I'm writing a monomyth, so I'll be using a rough outline based on these steps: link. Don't know if I'll hit all of them since I like to make it up as I go, but it's definitely giving me some more structure.

[Lazarus Larkin]

Last year I wrote a really vague stream-of-consciousness summary going more or less over what was going to happen, but I winged a lot of it.

[Samuel Beal]

This is my third year doing this and I plan on making this my second winning year. I have everything pretty much outlined in the NaNoWriMo guild I currently am in here...with a couple of tweaks on notebook paper. That way...I don't lose my novel that I wrote like I did last year. Was about to send my novel to my email when my pc just crashed on me...so I learned a lot last year. ><

[Morigale]

Hi guys. D:

So it's 11 or so days till NaNo starts, I have all three of my interlocking plotlines worked out about halfway, and I know my ending.

I still need to work out the events from middle to end, maybe expand the outline for at least some scenes, and make a layout for the really important settings. (The characters spend about half the book hanging out in a magic shop with an apartment over it, then there's the motel, the car, and the apartment building that each have multiple scenes in them... So.)

All my main characters have first names, but I still need to at least find a placeholder name for the water-spirit and the nekomata who show up for a chapter or two. (Actually I need to go look up that article on Wiki to double-check what country that water spirit legend I was using is from. And check the spelling.)

Anyone else using Yarny for their outline and/or novel?

Also I've committed to write 100k this year. I should possibly BE committed instead.

[Misuki Marishima]

Oh wow, I like that link you just gave! Maybe that will help me decide what novel to write and how to write it.

-PM's link to self, will look when she's home from school-

It's a contest between a prequel showing one of my other NaNo MC's father as the main character, or another world that I made a long time ago in high school that needs some serious tweaking to meet my standards.

[MythicalRealism]

This is my first year participating in NaNoWriMo.
I'm still working out the minor details in my plot.

[Alluicious]

Anyone else entirely dependent on Write or Die to get their daily word count? If I don't use it, I'm slow as hell and I spent half my time thinking instead of writing.

[Bipolar Masquerade]

Do you have an idea yet? For the most part yes. I'm still tweaking like crazy but hopefully by the first I'll have everything i need.
Are you planning it out beforehand or writing by the seat of your pants? I have a basic Idea and some notes on where I want the story to go, but other than that I'm winging it.
Have you done NaNo before? Nope. I've wanted to in past years but by the time I remembered it, the time had already past.
Any tips for new NaNo participants? Well since its my first year myself, no not really. But the best tip I can give myself is to write and keep writing. I'm big on the procrastination so hopefully this works out.

[whimsicaldreamer]

Alluicious

Anyone else entirely dependent on Write or Die to get their daily word count? If I don't use it, I'm slow as hell and I spent half my time thinking instead of writing.

I have never used it though I think I might this year just to see what it is like. I sounds interesting.
I usually do not have a problem with being slow so I never felt a need to use it, plus the deleting what I have typed scared me off. Now I know you can set it. It could change up my white font when slow method.

[Malee]

Alluicious

Anyone else entirely dependent on Write or Die to get their daily word count? If I don't use it, I'm slow as hell and I spent half my time thinking instead of writing.

I like word wars to help me when I'm stuck with my word count. I write better when I have a reason. And competing against other is always a good reason.