Coorlim’s Guide to NaNoWriMo 1: Plotting
Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month
The end of October is upon us, and what does that mean? No, besides the ever encroaching cacophony of saccharine holiday music.
November is National Novel Writing Month, when hopeful writers pick up their pens or keyboards or clay tablets or whatever and try to whip out 50,000 words in a single month. I’m not participating in it this month because I’m already well into a novel, but I aim for at least 50,000 words every month, so I know of what I speak.
This year I’ll be participating in NaNoWriMo in a different way, with a series of blog entries intended to help you meet or break the 50,000 word target for the month.
Pre-Writing Your Plot
It’s only October, so you shouldn’t be writing yet, but there’s more to writing than putting words on a page. You know this already if you’re a planner, but I’d like pantsers to realize that when dealing with a tight word-count, you can shave a lot of time off of your writing simply by developing your story in advance of the official starting gun.
It’s totally not cheating.
Developing the plot with a beat-sheet
There are a lot of ways you can develop your story’s plot, but this is one of the fastest and simplest. A beat-sheet is more or less just an accounting of what has to happen in your story, a record of cause and effect. I like to write mine scene by scene, but you can use as much or as little detail as you care to.
My average scene tends to be around a thousand words long, so for a 50,000 word story, I’m going to need 50 scenes, and that’s 50 points on my beat-sheet. For each scene I note who the viewpoint character is, what they are after, what’s in their way, and how the scene ends.
You don’t have to stick to your beat sheet exactly. In fact, I usually change it up while I’m writing it. But it provides you with a fairly solid road-map, and I’m never stuck mid-chapter not knowing what happens next, and that saves a ton of time.
The Three Act Structure
I’m not getting into this in any depth here – there are better guides on plot structure out there – but I’ll just generally note that this is a good way to break up your beat sheet further.
Act One introduces our principal characters, themes, and the status quo. It takes up 25% of the book (12500 words, or about 12-13 scenes) and ends when your protagonist sets out to do whatever it is your book is about.
Act Two is your protagonist repeatedly failing to accomplish his goals, all while revealing character and growing as a human being. This takes up half your book. (25,000 words, or 25 scenes). It ends when your protagonist has gotten all the information he needs to be the catalyst for the climax.
Act Three has your protagonist demonstrating his mastery over his inner demons to overcome the obstacles that plague him and accomplish his goals, which may be very different from what he set out to do in act one, because HE is different than he was in act one. Alternatively, you may demonstrate that he has failed to change if happy endings aren’t your bag, man. This is the last quarter of the book.
You don’t have to use the three-act structure, or any structure, really, but you should know what you’re doing and where you’re going. It’ll get you there faster.
Next time, I’ll be talking about Worldbuilding, something else you can do before NaNoWriMo kicks off.
Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.
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