Writer in the Wild: Octnoplanmo

I am ten days behind reminding you that it is time to start planning for Nanowrimo. So you better get on it.

Image made by the Starving Artist on CanvaPro

I have been deep, deep in edits, but thankfully I am going to write the second half of the novel I started last Nano in November, so I don’t have a ton of planning to do. I already have a playlist, a basic outline, a strong character and voice… and I am workshopping the first chapter this weekend. Here’s the thing: beginnings of first drafts always have major issues. In most cases they plain need to be lopped off and thrown away. In some cases, they need a major rewrite. In many cases the novel needs a different beginning, so the reconstructed beginning needs to be moved to later. I find that when I’m writing a first draft, I am sort of thinking my way through the start and only later does the idea really crystalize, leaving me with a mess to clean up at the beginning. For this half-written book, I can already see that while the first chapter is necessary to the story, there are a few things in it that no longer work as they were written, including the title. I was hoping for helpful suggestions on these points from the workshop. Often, voice is also an issue, as that tends to really firm up as you go.

As for you, this is your month to get ready for Nanowrimo. Let’s take a moment, first, to check in with Nano. They had some real sketchy moments last year involving, I think, minors and forums that weren’t moderated properly. They shut down some of the website features halfway through November 2023 and have been doing a lot of re-working of the whole shebang since then. I am a little confused, but it looks like the local, in-person features of Nano are going to be unaffiliated with Nano, for now. (I looked up the local region on Nano’s website, but it says there is currently no ML, or leader, and there are no events listed. When I did a little more digging, I saw that the ML applications for this November were never posted. Which means that Nano is still working on its communities and (though vague in their announcement and I could be wrong) are going to be unavailable until further notice. Hopefully before next year. I am privy to intel, though, that my local group has been rebranded and un-affiliated and is still led by (some of) the old MLs.) This is a total bummer to me, since besides the tracker graph, it is my favorite part of Nano. And I’m concerned that finding your local Nanowrimo-non-affiliated-participating-in-Nano people will become much more complicated. You could check on Meetup or something, but I don’t know that you could use “Nanowrimo” in the search because the groups can’t use it. Just do some digging if you are interested in finding your community, at least for this year. (Good luck.) For those in the Triangle, NC, the new (non-Nanowrimo!) group is called NC WOrD Writers and they are searchable on Substack. And they’ll be supporting writers during and around November in a goal of writing 50,000 words, etc. If you want to pair this with signing up on Nanowrimo’s website, that’s totally on you.

They promise that they are working on all the things and that their hard work is rooted in issues that needed to be addressed even before the issues last November. They are restructuring and doing a host of other things to bring them into legal and best practices alignment. They also have some cool ideas for new features that will eventually show up on Nano, along with a brand-new website. They need operating funds, and have for years, so maybe consider donating. Currently you cannot purchase any swag, but their announcement refers to 24th anniversary merch. So in a few weeks?

Also, the old How to Win Nano podcast (which was never actually affiliated and stated that clearly) has had to rebrand and is now called Write Your Damn Novel! So, if you were looking for that…

Now, what should you be doing to get ready for Nano?

Come up with an idea for what you will write.Outline that idea as much as you need to (or want to) in order to hit 1667 words per day.Come up with some inspo to get you through the month, like a project playlist, a working cover, vision board, or character interviews.Read ahead in your genre, related materials both fiction and nonfiction.Clear November’s schedule as much as possible. I set five days aside around Thanksgiving and then write 2000 words the rest of the month. This is the best I can do, and it gets me to 50,000.Join the community even if you don’t think 50,000 is reasonable for you. You don’t have to hit 50,000 to participate and to find and support other writers.

There’s a more extensive list of ideas for Planning October HERE.

And I’ll see you all in twenty days.