National Novel Writing Month is almost upon us.

I’ve been thinking that since June. After my first attempt at NaNo last year, I decided I needed to plan a lot better this year. I have been planning my novel since March this year. I have sketched characters, a map of their world, outlined a plot, and revised each idea at least a dozen times.

For those of you unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, let me offer a brief explanation: you have from the first day of November until the last day (30 days) to draft an entire novel (50,000 words). You can do as much planning beforehand as you like, but you can’t actually write it until November.

There were a number of challenges I learned from last year, and I hope I am better equipped to face them this year. Aside from the standard challenges everyone else faces (making time to write about 2000 words every day), the middle of November happens to be the end of the fall quarter at SCAD. So halfway into NaNo, I have finals to deal with as well as a trip home. It’s inconvenient, but I hope to handle it better this year.

Over the summer, I got so excited about my idea that I really wanted to start writing it. Instead, I came up with an idea for a companion novel (set in the same world but following other characters). This allowed me to write with a similar setting, but a completely different story. The benefit of this is I’m fleshing out the world and discovering what I haven’t thought through enough.

This really excites (and overwhelms) me. I’ve already thought of a few things for another companion piece. It seems like I’m already planning for NaNo 2013. Whether any of this actually helps remains to be seen; I’ll let you know at the end of November!

Related articles

• Who’s doing NaNoWriMo this year? (writeontheworld.wordpress.com)
• It’s Never Too Early For NaNo Dares (chyrondave.wordpress.com)
• 5 Things You Will Notice During NaNoWriMo (chyrondave.wordpress.com)