I’m not going to take time to write one of those ‘Night Before Christmas’ parodies — no, I’m way too busy today wondering if I’m really ready to start writing that novel tonight. Do I know my character well enough? Do I have adequate plot points to inspire me throughout the month?

The answer to both those questions, for me, is no. I could use another month to get ready — but time’s up. NaNoWriMo starts tonight at midnight and so at that point I’ll be sitting at my computer writing the first tentative words of my main character’s story. I have the rest of today to work on last-minute readiness issues. With that happy thought in mind I’ll produce a list of things to do, the day before NaNo.

1) Location. Write a description of the location(s) of the novel. My novel will take place in a forest for the most part. A visit to a botany or wildlife website could help put more words together for descriptions of things my main character may be dealing with during the course of the novel.

2) Character development. Can there ever be too much character development? What is your character’s goal in life? What things / issues / people prevent him from reaching that goal? And if your character doesn’t reach that goal, what will be the consequence? What are your character’s greatest assets and flaws? What does he dream about? What is he afraid of? Does he have a secret? What is it? Finally, make a list of ten things your character hates, and ten he loves. Have a detailed description of each character’s appearance.

3) Theme. Can you write in one sentence exactly what your novel is about?

4) Plot. Do you have any idea what will happen during the course of your novel? I’ll be honest — as of right now I know where my novel starts and where it ends, and have only a few sketchy ideas about places my main character will be during her journey through the pages of my manuscript. Today I’ll sit down and build a road map — because how can she get there if I don’t know where she’s going? I will create a series of scenes for each chapter. I acknowledge that the novel is very likely to take on a life of its own — and give it permission to do so — in fact, I hope it will, and soon! But for those nights when I need to beat out 2500-5000 words and my imagination is drained and I have no idea what to write about — well… those plot points are going to come in mighty handy!

A lot of people in the world aren’t aware of NaNoWriMo and don’t realize the significance of the last day of October. They call this day “Halloween.” I guess I’m one of the lucky ones — I live far enough from town that no kids will show up at my door. I have no need or desire to dress up, participate, or party.

The path is clear. NaNoWriMo is finally here!

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

For those who would like to know how I made it through eight NaNoWriMos successfully, I have this bit of advice. What worked for me DETERMINATION. If you have the desire to write a novel in November, you have to be really, really sure you want it.

You will set aside enough time each day or night to write a good sized chunk of your novel. The first year I did this, I was determined to write 2500 words every evening. I knew I’d be distracted by one out-of-town trip early in the month. Also at that time I had young children still at home, and what’s more distracting than that? So I figured if I totally blew it and couldn’t get my work done some days, this would at least give me more than the daily minimum of 1667 words. As it turned out, though I did have to take one day off, I finished the novel in only seventeen days. You know how I did that? DETERMINATION.

This fierce quality, also known as WILL-POWER, is the hard outer-covering of an intense need to succeed. If you are one of those that needs to write a novel, I’m sure you won’t have any problem drumming up enough DETERMINATION to make that happen. You and many others will meet in the winner’s forum shouting out about your success and celebrating with your writerly joy.

If you are one of those who is slowing down, doubting your ability to go on, first examine your motivation. Why do you want to write a novel? How important is it to you? Whose idea was it, anyway? How much will it embarrass you to say, “I failed”? I suppose not everyone is meant to write a novel. Not everyone can do it every year. Not everyone really wants to. Either buckle down and pack on some DETERMINATION or instead, write a list of twenty things you learned by attempting NaNoWriMo this year, and post it to your blog.

Those with DETERMINATION: Buddy up to your characters, and write on!

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)