#prep_tober

[skidsficrecs]

Some writing sources!

In the topic of NaNoWriMo and writing, there are some formats and tables that help us writers a lot when we are adventuring into writing whatever it is. Since I want to help you guys maybe get your stories ready for NaNo, or just give you guys a little push to writing your story, I thought that giving you all the sources I used to help me structure my stories would be nice. If you guys have other sources, please send us!

3 acts, 9 blocks, 27 chapters outlining method

Plotting and brainstorming a story: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

Worldbuilding and some mistakes you might commit

Character profiles (some different ways)

NaNoWriMo bullet journal I’m currently using

- admin light

[wildbookdragons]

@preptober Day 27: Writing Apps/Software. My Microsoft and Google Babies. -A🐲 • •• • @preptober @microsoft @google posted on Instagram - https://ift.tt/2qm3vVj

[agentsofsunnydale]

🐈👩🏻‍💻🗡 #Prep_toberChallenge Day 9: Where You Write. When I’m not cloistered in one of many Paneras or Starbuckses across town, I write in my bed. Got a swanky new lap desk for my b-day, and it’s where the magic happens. . 🐈👩🏻‍💻🗡 Sidenote: the overgrown bush scraping against the second story window of my bedroom sounds super creepy. 👀 . 🐈👩🏻‍💻🗡 #ReadWriteGram prompt for day 9 is Show Us Your Desk. Voila! My desk/bed. Probably not great for the posture, but at least I have cool pillows, right? . 🐈👩🏻‍💻🗡 #OctLitWrit Day 9: Favorite Fall Beverage. I am a #PSL girl, though in November I am the first in line for the Peppermint Mochas. #basicandproud . #bookstagram #amwriting #nanowrimo @preptober #prep_tober #instawrimo #bookish #novelist #noveling #writing https://www.instagram.com/p/Bou61FlBRg4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=7n9pkgg1pk7b

[wildbeautifuldreamer]

“October is a fine dangerous season in America. . . A wonderful time to begin anything at all” -Thomas Merton. —— Im not going to lie, I searched for a quote to fit, and that seems to be perfect for the beginning of #preptober. —— Who else will be joining me as we begin to plan for writing our novels during @nanowrimo? I’ve done two NaNoWriMos in the past and I haven’t won yet, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped trying! I’ll be starting with an idea I dreamed up this year, and I know I’ll need all the prep work to be able to get anywhere close to my goal this year. —— Do you participate in #nanowrimo or #prep_tober? —— #amwriting #amplotting #amprepping #october #writersofinstagram #bookstagram #fallfeed https://www.instagram.com/p/BoZx2R8Hzrl/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1knzn6tjjbuax

[rachaelstephen]

The Prep_tober Master Post

🍂 Website

🍂 Twitter

🍂 R E S O U R C E S

The Complete Novel-Prep Guide

The Plot Embryo Printable

How to Build a Novel (book)

[2017 VIDEO] The Tragic Plot Embryo: How To Write Plot For Villains, Antagonists & Tragic Heroes

Calendar & Motivational Wallpapers

🍂 2 0 1 6  V I D E O S

5 Ways to NaNoWriMo Like a Career Novelist

Write Your Damn Novel: Pep Talk

NaNoWriMo Hacks: 7 Ways to Streamline Fast-Drafting

MORE NaNoWriMo Hacks: 6 Ways to Streamline Fast-Drafting

How to Use Ambient Noise For Pure Focus

SHOULD You Turn Off Your Inner Editor? 

7 Ways to Recharge on a Writing Break

NaNoWriMo Tag

Let’s All STOP Calling Ourselves Pantsers and Plotters

🍂 E L S E W H E R E

NaNoWriMo Forum Thread

Prep_tober Twitter Advice Threads

Pinterest Board

Reddit Thread

4thewords Thread

[novice-to-novelist]

So a few of you are going to be doing Nanowrimo and it’s hard, it’s basically a marathon of writing and you do need to do some preparation. Think of it in terms of actually running a marathon, you might be able to run a distance but you’re not going to enter a marathon with no training, right? 

Prep_tober and other things like this are great training for Nanowrimo. And some of you might not need it (maybe you’re just using Nano to get back into the habit of writing or you just aren’t a plotter in any way - those are all valid ways to use Nano) but others might need it. I find that Nano always gets off to a great start; I have so many ideas and I’m eager to get started. And then I flag. Because I’m not fully prepared, I’m out of practice, words are foreign things and most of the time I realise that I don’t know where I’m going. Back to that marathon analogy again: I start off at a great pace but then the stamina begins to go and shit, what was the course again? 

A bit of preparation would definitely help with this and it might be exactly what you need to get to the finish line of Nano and have something you can actually work with. I have completed Nano nearly every time I’ve done it. I’m really determined and I hate failing. Does that mean I’ve been able to use everything I’ve come out with? 

Nope.

Not even close. I start off strong, and then I lose my way and then I start fudging things just to get the damn word count. In marathon terms, I’m the person who is crawling over the finish line and then is rushed to the hospital because they weren’t prepared and they hadn’t trained. 

Don’t be me. 

If you’re going to be doing Nano seriously this year (with the intent of having a novel at the end) and want a little bit of extra help, try something like Prep_tober. Don’t put all the pressure to get the writing done in November, use October (even this last week in September) to figure out what you want to write, create your characters, do a few sprints, do some brainstorming. Start thinking about your novel and start asking yourself questions because you have time now to get some of those answers before you’re forced to come up with something when the pressure is on. 

Don’t make this another year where you half-ass Nano or don’t finish at all. Yes, you’ll have words at the end of it, more words than you had before you began but it’s a little disheartening when you dedicated all that time and wrote so much and none of it is even vaguely useful.  

[carolinehuball-blog]

Happy #NaNoWriMo Eve! Er... I mean Happy Halloween! I finally finished by word count tracker, and I'm ready to get started tomorrow! . . . #amplotting #amoutlining #amwriting #amwritingya #nanowrimo #prep_tober #plotober #writerlife #writerslife #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #writing #writerscommunity #writersoninstagram #writersofig #writers #writemore #writinglife

[mandytremelling-author-blog]

Another #prep_toberchallenge day I missed was Writing Books. I don't own any of those tip or how to books, but here is a picture of my author proof for the book I'm publishing this year!! I'm so excited for it and can't wait to give you all the official release date! This is a book I wrote YEARS ago with NaNoWriMo and I'm so happy it's finally done. ❤ #prep_tober #preptober2018 #preptober #nanowrimo2018 #nanoprep #nanoprep2018 #nanowrimo #myworldofglass #nanowrimo2018 @nanowrimo @prep_tober https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo9tcK9nbuLAa_nY0t8PztsOS1q9M4NTDILo0o0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1j34xs811uo3w

[stormewriter]

#prep_toberchallenge with @preptober ⁣ ⁣ Day 10: Music⁣ ⁣ Like food, my taste for #music is pretty eclectic. You can probably tell from my #spotifyplaylist that my current WIP is a romance 😍 ⁣ Kaleb & Aimi's story came to me during my trip to Hawaii in July 2017 for a friend's wedding. Of course, I had been working on a different novel at the time, but Kaleb & Aimi insisted their story be told first. I just couldn't resist a second chance love found in the midst of harsh circumstances & provocative relationships. But after tinkering with this for the past year & half, I am so so so ready to finish this novel this #Nano.⁣ ⁣ ✒Are you team @pandora or @spotify? Do you create #playlists for your novels? What are some of your #favoritesongs?⁣ #pandoramusic #spotify ⁣ @nanowrimo #prep_tober #preptober #instawrimo #nanoprep #nanowrimo #nanowrimo2018 #writeon #writethatnovel⁣ ⁣ #stormewrites #amwritingromance #beinspireddaily #bebolder #beItalic #INFPwriter⁣ #authorsofinstagram #amwriting #authorlife #writerlife #INFP #novelist https://www.instagram.com/p/BoxgZBtHsMa/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mm2h6zv9udjy

[winterstellium]

#prep_toberchallenge Day 3; Goals. This essentially says it all. I just really wanna get back into the groove of writing after not doing so for so long. . . . #preptober #prep_tober #nanowrimo #nanowrimo2018 #writersofinstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BoegBtLA82k/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=3kyryg64lsc3

[skidsficrecs]

NaNoWriMo prep!

Hey, guys! Admin light here!

As I already shared, I am prepping for NaNoWriMo 2019, my first ever nano, so we thought it could be nice to share a little bit of my prepping, since maybe there are some authors out there wanting to participate (which you can totally still do, it’s not too late, even if you decide to do a smaller word count) or even authors who have a hard time plotting and organizing their stories.

So, this is my Google Drive folder for my NaNo project, which here is called “here we go again” and on the NaNoWriMo site is called #illegalyblonde.

I like Google Drive because the design is really pleasing for me and it’s easy to navigate. You can of course use any platform you want to, I just recommend making a folder with all your docs in one single place, so you don’t have to hunt your documents around your pc.

I keep different documents for different things, so it’s easier to come back to them when I need to.

“Scene dump” is kind of my relief document, essencial in the early stages of plotting because every time I imagine a scene to the story, I simply write it there and later I use all those ideas to mindstorm the final structure the story will take.

I have two outline documents. The first one was my first outlining doc, meaning it has loads of ideas and a general plotline for the story. I like to think of it as the story’s skeleton. The detailed outline is where I separated the 3 acts, 27 chapters and am currently describing what happens in each chapter in detail. Some people don’t necessarily need a detailed outline, but I like to know exactly what will happen in each chapter, down to what the characters will do in each scene, so I can escape writer’s block more easily. 

You can see there is already a Chapter 1 but I’ll most likely make a sub-folder just for the chapters.

My characters sub-folder look like this:

As soon as I began the outlining, I wrote a profile for each character. They all have two pictures and a physical description underneath, then I organized their profiles in topics, just like this: 

Every document is organized in topics (and the Drive is great for it, because it identifies topics and lists them automatically), so I can travel around the document more easily. An example of how much those topics can help is my worldbuilding:

See how many stuff is under the “Politics” topic? Imagine having to go through all that to get to “Society”! 

Also, I use other authors’ tables to create all of this. “System of Government” is a sub-topic from Jenna Moreci’s table for worldbuilding. I made this post with all my sources.

Until then, hope I helped you guys a little! If you have any questions, please ask us!

- admin light

[wildbookdragons]

Guys look! After going through 4 new ideas (with the same characters in the same overall idea) making a total of 8 since the beginning. I think I have finally nailed my description for my nanowrimo novel!!! -A🐲 ••• @nanowrimo posted on Instagram - https://ift.tt/2ypzeZW

[agentsofsunnydale]

😴🌤🍂Definitely slept in and missed #5amwritersclub this morning. 🤷🏻‍♀️ . 😴🌤🍂#Prep_toberChallenge Day 7: Week 1 Check in. Not as prepared as I want to be. Still don’t have my villain’s name or thoroughly understand what arc my MC will have. Hoping that filling out these #plotembryo circles will help with that. . 😴🌤🍂#OctLitWrit Day 7 is Fav Fictional Witch. Had to go with Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Although I obsessively emulated Hermione during high school and college life. Grades, grades, grades. . 😴🌤🍂#ReadWriteGram Day 7: #NaNoWriMo and #nanowrimoprep , which I am doing this entire month. Transferring some old notes from my Sunnydale notebook (pictured) to my current bullet journal, just because I don’t want to carry two journals around during NaNo season. . 😴🌤🍂 QOTD: What kinds of gifts are you guaranteed to like? For me, anything related to cats or coffee mugs. The artsy black cat mug pictured was a b-day present. . #preptober #prep_tober #amwriting #amplotting #writersofinstagram #writer #writerscommunity #writersofig #coffeetime #coffeemug #instawrimo https://www.instagram.com/p/BoohoQXBzHo/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1w3lowm8hx0a0

[inherhouseshewaitsdreaming]

NaNo Prep Week #5 & #6 - Organize Your Life for Writing & FInd, Schedule and Manage Your Time

NaNo Prep is a series of blog posts covering the NaNo Prep 101 curriculum which is a good outline of the things you want to do to get ready for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.

Week #5 is a bit different from what has gone before. Instead of being about preparing your novel, its about preparing you. Specifically, its about organizing your life so you have time to write those words every day. Week #6 is about organising your time to write. For me, these two weeks are linked. I think its important to think about how you write before you organise your life around it. So I’m going to combine these into a single post.

I recommend doing this in two steps:

Work out when you write best. Do you write best in the morning or in the evening? Do you need a long time period or is a series of shorter periods better? How much ramp up time will you need to effectively write words and what will you do in that time?

Organise things so you can optimise your writing time around that. This is about looking at all the things you need to do that are not writing and seeing how many you can shove in a box for a month.

Resources

Kate Kavanaugh has a series of Youtube videos where she attempts to write like different authors, as well as trying things like the pomodoro technique, writeathons, etc. This is a great resource for what writing routines might look like.

How I Schedule Writing time from Abbie Emmons, prep_tober & nanwrimo bullet journal setup 2018 from Rachael Stephen and Preptober Planner Walkthrough 2021 from Heart Breathings are examples of authors planning their time for NaNoWriMo. The latter has a planner you can download and both of the last two have gamification elements.

What I did - When to write?

The first part of this is easy for me. I work best in the evening. There is no point me trying to do anything substantial before dinner in terms of actual writing. I am absolutely a night owl and mornings are out. Between work and dinner I tend to spend time with my family. The routine I’ve been following for Inktober will transfer into my NaNoWriMo routine.

What I did - Organising your life to write

I have a fairly substantial period of time available in the late evenings at the moment. Once my daughter is in bed until I go to bed the house needs to be quiet. As I work largely from home at the moment, I don’t need to get up as early and therefore that time is longer than it used to be. I typically use that time to write, draw, paint, play games and watch TV, so I can just use it to write.

I have one big commitment in November - the release of Final Fantasy XIV - Endwalker. And by commitment I mean the need to play the game before I get exposed to any spoilers. I was already planning to meet that commitment by taking the week off work. Without work, I should have no problem finding time on those days to write, but I may have issues motivating myself. My thought is to try and get ahead early in the month. If I fail at that, I will just make myself catch up before I can play. Getting ahead is also useful because I do suffer from migraines and if one of those hits I won’t be able to write. With all this in mind, I am going to try and write 2000 words every day.

I typically use a diary to plan things and everything I will need to do in November is already in it. I’ll track my progress via spreadsheets. With that, I think I have done most of my NaNo prep. I will likely continue to refine my outline over the next few weeks, working around my Inktober project.

[carolinehuball-blog]

Happy #writingwednesday friends! My blog post today (link in profile) is all about my last minute preparations and reservations about #NaNoWriMo next week! Remember to be bold and take risks with your passions today! 💕 . . . . . #amplotting #amoutlining #amwriting #amwritingya #nanowrimo #prep_tober #plotober #writerlife #writerslife #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #writing #writerscommunity #writersoninstagram #writersofig #writers #writemore #writinglife

[mandytremelling-author-blog]

Distractions. #prep_toberchallenge wants me to admit those?! ...i only have two. One is my goofy husband who makes it his goal to make me laugh whenever we're together (and every morning i wake up to a cute text from him too.) When it's not him distracting me, I definitely get caught up in social media. 😅🙊 #preptober #preptober2018 #nanowrimo2018 #nanoprep #nanowrimo @prep_tober @nanowrimo https://www.instagram.com/p/BojrHclAygCf6CYIVSbZm0HMzDb6re1rwtw_jA0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=quyeujdhvbbw