#someone write a snarky child with a large hammer please and thank you

[portiaofbelmont]

How to Preptober

So.

It's October. Spooky season, pumpkin spice...and frantically attempting to create and organize character sheets and/or scene cards and/or series bibles and/or nano survival kits. You know the drill. (And if you don't, in fact, know the drill, allow me to redirect you to nanowrimo.org, because I highly suggest you learn the drill.)

Whether you're going for the traditional 50k, joining me in the 100k club, or editing the seventh draft of your latest manuscript, (or any other way of approaching Nano,) prepping is an essential step of getting there. Yes, even for pantsers -- Nano is 10x easier once you have at least a beginning, middle, and end. I myself have started to go to ridiculous amounts of plotting, but how do we get from the general bleh of story ideas to a beautifully constructed story bible?

While the Nano website has great resources, here is my self-constructed step-by-step for lazy people. As long as you do the first three steps, I'd say you're prepared for Nano, and you can continue on as many steps as you'd like.

Story idea (arguably the easiest part. and the one that requires the least explanation.)

Brief shitty synopsis (seriously. be shitty. i write a sentence for my set up and beginning, a sentence for my middle, and a sentence for my resolution. that's all you need. if you'd like, you can also make a title, writing playlist, pinterest board, etc..)

At least name the characters (this is not a prescription for character sheets. they're great, but unwelcome here. write a list of characters you're probably going to include - this might (will) end up being added to or deleted from - and maybe a few words describing their role. go further than "side character" and "antagonist". I personally like "bitchy bff" and "snarky child with a large hammer".)

Plot (this is where it gets fun. fun obviously meaning "grueling and easy to procrastinate". I'm currently stuck in this step right now. the easiest way to do this, at least for me, is to choose a formula -- save the cat, seven act structure, katytastic's outlining method (which is the one I use), etc. etc.. fill in the formula, change it where necessary, and voila, you're a plotter.)

Now actually flesh out your characters (this may or may not be where character sheets come in. of course, I'm quirky and don't use character sheets. I write a paragraph of biography for each character and find a picture to represent them.)

Scene cards (scene cards always seem mysterious to me, although I've used them before. they're a great tool and make writing much faster and much easier, so why wouldn't you use them? I don't have a specific method for making scene cards; I really just go through my outline and write a paragraph or two about each scene. then, later when I'm writing that scene, I make that paragraph visible to me and write. it keeps me from having to write on a blank page.)

Worldbuilding (for me, this happens as I outline, but you might want to do it after you plot. that's good and well, just please please please don't do it before you plot. do not fit your story to your world. story and characters come first!!! I'll do a separate post on worldbuilding - it's a complicated topic - but for now just know that everyone worldbuilds differently.)

And there you go! Go through all of this and you are just as (if not more) prepared for Nano as I am. I will see you in November! (No, I won't, because no tumblr during Nano. This rule applies to both me and you, alright? Tough love.)

Happy writing!

#god damn it i need to be doing psych homework #writing #am writing #nanowrimo #preptober #im back bitches #someone write a snarky child with a large hammer please and thank you