Friday, October 27, 2017

Nano Prep?

Ghost Story Night
We read, we told tall tales and we drank coffee. Thanks to all who came to the adventure last night, and thanks to Stellar Coffee Co. Wahoo. We writers, we shy introverts got out and out of our shell.
I enjoy ghost stories for many reasons. I enjoy the whimsy of earlier fables, with faeries and elves, goblins and anthropomorphized creatures. I don't much care for gore, but, if it's a good story, it's a good story, and we shared some good ones last night. I told my story, but stay tuned. I'll write it tomorrow and share it here.
But next week ... ah, next week begins National Novel Writing Month. I am excited to pull up an old story, a bedtime story I told my son. I will be turning it into a novel at long last. I've made a few stabs, but nothing stuck, so I'm starting over and pleased to be working on middle grade fantasy once again.
So this year I've found many offerings for nano prep. Hum. In this post I wanted to look at the idea of preparing for a romp, the romp that is nano. Is that a good idea?
I'm of two minds. My novel Gabby Care came out of nano, but I worked on it for a long time afterwards in edits and rewrites. I see that a bit more outlining and structure would have helped pre-nano, but I also know that the outlining as I went helped keep me focused during the month. I had a rough idea of the book and where it was headed, but the sequence and mystery evolved as I wrote. I wonder now, if I had a stronger system, would I have eliminated edits and confusion? Surely I would have. But would I have had as much fun? I doubt it.
This year I plan on using Scrivener. We'll see how that goes. I like bulletin boards and poster boards and index cards, basically anything I can touch and see, but so many folks recommend the software that I thought I'd finally try it.
I will dedicate a portion of this weekend to nano prep along with Monday and Tuesday. I am cutting it a bit close, but I think it will be enough. Basically, I'm slicing the nano-prep-pie down the middle. A little prep, a little Scrivener, a little ghost story. It's shaping up to be a great weekend.
Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.

1 comment:

  1. I am new to your posts, B.J., but interested! Hope you will host another gathering at Stellar Coffee, I will try to attend. Sandra Baggett

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