NaNo Prep, Day 2-Plotting
The next step in getting ready for speedy NaNo-writing is to work out a plot. You need to know exactly what you’re going to write when you sit down, so plot work is essential. There are a few tools I use when starting to plot.
Core Need/Inner Wound
A good place to start plotting is with the goal of your character. For assistance, I use the Core Need/Inner Wound section of Character Creation Made Easy. It walks you through determining a core need and inner wound for the character and then takes it two steps further into outer goals and inner goals. Once you know the goals for your character, you can determine ways to thwart those goals, and thereby create scenes for your novel.
Create a Plot Clinic
This book provides you with 20 plot tools and a notecarding method you can use to sketch out scenes. It also gives a great explanation of several different plot structures. I think for my NaNo novel, I’m going to use the Cliffhanger Structure.
Plot Outline Mini-Course
This is a seven lesson email course that I just loved, especially the idea of using common conflicts as ideas for plot scene starters. I’m definitely throwing a few of those into my novel.
Snowflake Plotting Method
Randy Ingermanson put this plotting method together. It starts out with the very essence of your story, a one-sentence description of it, and it builds to a complete synopsis.
Synergy
This is a post by Paperback Writer on how to write a synopsis and it has some great links to several synopsis resources on the web.
Whatever method you go with, creating an initial plot for your novel will make it easier to write during November.
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