#NaNoPrep: What do I want to write? #nanowrimo

Two weeks ago, we talked about discovering our writing style. Some people plot, some write by the seat of their pants, and others are somewhere in the middle. I plot for a while and then find myself winging it. The plot goes in a new direction until I hit a wall, and then I replot until I know what has to happen. And then I let the words fly as they will.

crows-clip art clicker vector dot com Every year I participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I sit down and write, and by doing that for two hours every day, I manage to crank out the high points of a story and get my wordcount and the “winners” certificate. A year or so later, I have connected the dots and end up with a coherent first draft that tops out at around 120,000 words.

Three years and six drafts later, it will be publishable at about 90,000 words.

For me, succeeding at getting the bare bones of a novel’s first draft written during the 30 days of November requires a bit of pre-writing—a pre-flight checklist.

I found Excel useful when I first began writing, and I use it to this day to keep my plots and background information organized. But any document or spreadsheet program will work. The aforementioned pre-flight checklist becomes my permanent stylesheet/outline for that novel.

The outline is a visual aid that keeps my stream-of-consciousness writing flowing.

Once I’m done winging it through the story and am in revisions, some scenes will make more sense when placed in a different order than originally planned. At that point, an outline allows me to view the story’s arc from a distance.

I can see where it might be flatlining. Perhaps an event should be cut entirely as it no longer works. (I always save my outtakes in a separate file for later use.)

Over the next few weeks, we’ll talk more about my process.

But first, what are we writing?

The basic premise of any story in any genre can be answered in eight questions.

Who are the players?
Who is the POV character?
Where does the story open?
What does the protagonist have to say about their story?
How did they arrive at the point of no return?
What do they want, and what will they do to get it?
What hinders them?
How does the story end? Is there more than one way this could go?

We’re starting with question number one: who are the players?

My stories always begin with the characters. They come to me, sharing some of their story the way strangers on a long bus ride might. They tell me some things about themselves. They give me the surface image they want the world to see. But as strangers always do, when I first meet them, they keep most of their secrets close and don’t reveal all the dirt. These are mysteries that will be pried from them over the course of writing the narrative’s first draft.

That little bit of sharing gives me the jumping-off point. I sit and write one or two paragraphs about them, as if meeting them for a job interview. That little word picture of the face they show the world is all I need to get my story off the ground when the real writing begins.

But before we go any further, I must ask, “What genre are we writing to?” This is important because tropes will guide the reader to see the world I envision.

Most of the time, I write a fantasy of some sort. I love alternate medieval, alternate Arthurian, and other subgenres.

Sometimes, I go nuts and write women’s fiction. I write whatever I’m in the mood to read. The story is the picture, and the genre is the frame. When selecting the frame for a picture, do I lean toward heavily carved and gilded frames, simple polished wood, or sleek polished steel?

The choice of frame depends on the picture and the room in which I intend to hang it. For my story, the frame (genre) will be determined by the reader I intend the book for. Mostly, I write for myself, so my genre is usually fantasy.

Characters usually arrive in my imagination as new acquaintances inhabiting a specific environment. That world determines the genre.

Julian Lackland, Billy Ninefingers, and Huw the Bard are alternate medieval novels because the characters live in a low-tech society with elements of feudalism. Waldeyn is an alternate world because I saw it as a mashup of 16^th-century Wales, Venice, and Amsterdam with a touch of modern plumbing. I gave women the right to become mercenary knights as a way of escaping the bonds of society.

Also, I changed how religion works in that world. The church is an institution with hard and fast rules and exists to train men and women with the ability to wield magic. So, magic occurs in that world as a component of nature and spawns creatures like dragons, but they aren’t the point of those books.

Magic, dragons, and fairies are aspects of set dressing. They are the tropes readers of specific subgenres of fantasy expect, the backdrop against which the relationships and personal struggles play out.

Knowing your characters, having an idea of their story, and seeing them in their world is a good first step.

Write those thoughts down so you don’t lose them. Keep adding to that list as ideas about that world and those characters come to you.

This is how I start my pre-flight checklist for winging it through NaNoWriMo. Next week we’ll go a little deeper into the process.