That is the same reason I didn't do it this year. I checked the website and you are supposed to start in September! You then outline the plot in October and spend every day of November just writing prose and dialogue. One thing I had thought might work, was to think of the final dramatic scene, something that would leave strong memories with the reader and lead them to recommending the book to their friends, and then work backwards, ensuring that the outline for each preceding chapter consisted of a few sentences describing what the goal of that chapter needed to be, and allowing the characters involved the length of the chapter to transform as a result of external forces (or internal deep introspection in the case of a first person narration and reflection on past memories, which is a lot more complicated to write) in the space of that chapter, and then do the same again with the preceding one, until you get to the first chapter, and then go beyond that to the unwritten backstory you can hide from the reader and reveal later (i.e. one character's phobia based off childhood trauma). When writing a fantasy, or historical, or alternate reality, or science fiction story, you will need to know more of the 'context' surrounding the characters (both what is normal and abnormal for them) than what you actually use so the reader feels that the author knows everything about the fictional world, when they only know a bit more than the reader to appear confident. I would advise against coming up with your own conlang (i.e. constructed language), as this is a lot of work if done properly. It really adds to the atmosphere to have one in a fantasy or sci-fi story, but it is easy to make the prose turgid and pretentious with unpronounceable words. If you have a desire to come up with "alien names" for characters, try to pick some you can read aloud without difficulty. The more of this preparation of plot outline, character arcs, character backstories, and 'lore' context you can get out of the way before you start writing in November the less you will have to fret about what happens next, or be conflicted about wanting to do P with C and it not being in C's nature to do P but you need to do P to get C to P2, as this all goes away when you have the plot P, P2, P3, P4... worked out and the characters subservient to that plot so that they naturally will do P and then P2 and so on (having a set of characters and 'pantsing' the plot will likely get you unstuck as the characters will want to pull one way, whilst the plot you had in mind desires something else of them, this leads to awkward rewrites as you started writing without knowing what the story of your book would be; perfectly fine if you are prepared to waste time, but not efficient enough for this nanowrimo month). Pantsers can still have fun writing a chapter based on the few sentences of summary in the already decided plot outline. If there is time for pacing it should be divided between the plot outline, which can be revised many times until you are happy with how the story establishes its stakes early on, and has periods in which it allows the reader to relax after building up tension to a mini-climax, as it would be exhausting to read if it was high stress situations all the time, and no reflective scenes where the reader could take a metaphorical breath and take stock of what has just happened. Most of the pacing is structural to the plot outline, but some can be in the length of prose and dialogue exchanges which should be shorter when the narrative needs to be more consequential. This means that 'lore' context and backstory reveals ought not to take place at the very end of the story, but the reader should be informed about how the fictional world works through prose descriptions early on, which simply aren't necessary later, and character backstories should emerge at the mid point if they have been held back, and character's interrelationships should be well enough established that their final words to each other can be quite succinct yet still very dramatic as we are informed by everything we know they know about each other, allowing for that dramatic shorthand, and basically zero exposition (about the only exception to this is the structure of the Whodunnit, which isn't very good writing, as it is more about creating a narrative puzzle rather than a story about transformational character arcs, were you to write the story of the murderer's motives then it would be a story about transformational character arcs, but no longer a Whodunnit as you would know who did it - i.e. more like a _Columbo_ than an Agatha Christie). Feel free to ignore this advice, it is just what I thought I would do, if only I had a decent idea.
Omg why was seeing my face such a jump scare LMAOO thank you so much for the little shoutout 💕💕 I loved this vlog so much and am so glad nano is going well for you! I'm doing live write ins every Tuesday at 2pm PST (although the last week is at 7pm PST!)
Oh wow in preptober I made a word count tracker with the coloring blocks too. I go by rainbow color and I'm almost at 10k words right now so it's looking pretty good. My reward system is usually something very small at every 1k words. Something like: Go on a picnic, watch an episode of a show--basically things I can look forward to if I hit my word count every day. Congrats on your Nano progress too Vee! I agree that writing with people is really fun, it just gives you that Nanowrimo spirit. I join a lot of livestreams too. I loved yours and Abbie Emmons' livestream. I hope the 2nd week of Nano goes well for you! ❤💕
i love that you have a reward every 1k!! i might do that next year even if it's something small per thousand words 💓 thank you so much!! i hope your second week of nano is going well!🤗❤
Omg, I literally just found your channel, and I'm IN LOVE!! This is such an amazing and encouraging channel! I'm definitely going to be watching this channel from now on!! Also, I heard your doing more Live Write With Me videos, and I was wondering how to know when you are going to post those? thx! I literally LOVE your channel!!
aw thank you SO much!!!☺️💕 i’ll definitely do at least one more live before nano ends and i’ll be sure to let you all know through a community post or by scheduling it ahead so you can turn on a notification for it!! :)
I think The Dawdling Writer has a link to a master list of sprints/authortubers on hand! I found out about it in one of her sprints, it’s so nice to have. 😊
Omg, I've been looking for a nano documenter just like you! you're so feminine and pretty, you're interesting, and the way you edit is very appealing. you also don't swear like a truck driver (which is so much harder to find than you think lol!). I'm so glad I found you! Please never quit uwu!!!
You might already be a aware of this but your channel started with a Preptober vlog. You’ve been making videos on RU-vid for a year 🤯. Also, if I could give you my lounge cushion with arms. (But I wouldn’t dare, it goes perfect with my blue comforter, sheets, and pillows. 😈)