I'd already had the idea for the story before I even thought about doing NaNoWriMo. It came to me after a series of different concepts kind of coalesced, like balls of mercury glomming together when rolled around on a flat surface. One came from another novel I had started reading - a Stephanie Meyer book called "The Host," in which alien beings physically take over the bodies of people just before the moment of death. Other parts of the concept came from other places which, at this moment, my memory cannot access. It was pretty much a bunch of "what ifs"...which, when you come right down to it, are probably the seeds of almost every novel out there. What if.... hmmmm....
After getting about three steps into the Snowflake Method, I kinda branched off in my own direction. I thought, "how the hell am I gonna write a cohesive novel in only thirty days?" Well, I needed a plan, I decided. I think that's the production manager in me coming out. If you look at a task as one big whole, it can be terrifying...terrifying enough to send you running in the other direction.
But I knew that lots of people have "won" NaNoWriMo, so I knew it was do-able. I also knew I've tackled seemingly daunting tasks in the past and managed to accomplish them with aplomb. And here is how I did it:
Recipe for Tackling a Big Scary Task:
- Break the Big Scary Task down into its component segments
- Figure out (loosely) how long each of the segments should take
- Know what your deadline is
- Work backwards from the deadline to figure out your deadline for each segment
- Write down your plan
- Get to work, stick to your plan, adjust as needed, and finish the job.
So, following that recipe, here's my plan:
- Component segments of a book are chapters, of course.
- I have thirty days to write 50,000 words. That makes my daily output goal 1,666 words per day. I know from previous experience that it takes me, when on a roll, about 90 minutes to two hours to write that many words. Since this novel will be written without my customary obsessive editing-as-you-go method, I can assume one to two hours of writing time per day to reach my daily goal.
- My deadline is November 30 at midnight
- This step jives with #2 in this case. I need to finish one segment (chapter) of 1,666 words each day.
- My plan is to break the novel into 30 chapters of approximately 1,700 words each, in sequence, from start to finish. I have already outlined, chapter by chapter, exactly what will happen in the first three quarters of the book. I'm tending toward leaving the last quarter un-outlined, as I suspect things will come up in the first three quarters that will inspire a logical and satisfying conclusion. I may be taking chances here...but I guess it's okay to live dangerously just a little bit.
- I've used the month of October to plan my novel out. On Monday, November 1, I'll begin writing, following my plan closely and trying not to deviate from it too much. That way, by the end of the month, I should have a finished, 50,000-word first-draft novel on my hands. (And if my best friend, Tonia, has anything to say about it, I will then immediately abandon "Touch" and return to my work on my first novel, "The Bog," which she is clamouring for more of.)
Now that I have my Plan in place, I'm feeling very confident about being able to do this. My biggest challenge will be to allot up to two hours every day during November to work on "Touch." As much as I love writing, I find it sooo easy to put it off in favour of other, usually far less fulfilling or worthwhile activities. That's where my readers come in. You (I know you're out there) who have signed up for my daily emails will be my conscience and my guiding light. Knowing at least nine people (at current count) are reading along will "keep me honest" so to speak...I won't be able to quit so easily without a huge amount of guilt. I hate guilt.
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