T'was The Night Before NaNoWriMo... | Jo Linsdell

T'was The Night Before NaNoWriMo...

T'was The Night Before NaNoWriMo...#NaNoWriMo2016 #NaNoPrep #NaNoWriMo


So tomorrow is 1st November and the first day of NaNoWriMo 2016. Despite not being sure about whether I'd be taking part or not this year up until a couple of weeks ago (my health continues to give me problems), I'm actually feeling quite prepared.

You can check out the draft cover design, and read the synopsis here: http://www.jolinsdell.com/2016/10/nanowrimo2016-do-you-like-me.html

This year I'll be writing a YA. There will be a bit of romance, a bit thriller.... should be fun. 

I made the most of my kids swimming lessons to write up some plot notes. I always have a notepad and pen in my bag, and so pulled them out as I sat pool side and did some brainstorming, and plotting. 

I've written up some very basic character notes for the main, and secondary characters too. Things like; name, surname, age, height, build, hair colour and style, eye colour, and relationship to main character.

I also made a board on Pinterest for inspiration. I've been pinning inspiration pics for locations, and character outfits. 

As my book will deal with stalking I've also been researching stalking laws and statistics online. 

I even made a word count tracker (you can grab yours here http://www.jolinsdell.com/2016/10/nanowrimo-2016-word-count-tracker.html). I'm all set to be writer-tastic!

What I hadn't banked on was earthquakes. We've had a lot of earthquakes recently here in Italy, and some of them have been pretty scary. Due to damage to some buildings in Rome following the earthquakes, they've decided to close the schools for security checks today. Tuesday the schools are shut anyway as it's festive here. So, whilst I'm happy that they've adopted a better safe than sorry approach, this does not make for the best of starts to my writing frenzy month. I was hoping to have more time today to sort through my NaNo prep, and maybe do some more work on my plot. I may still fit in time for some work on my scene outlines though. Fingers crossed. 

In past years I found a good way to increase my word count was to do word sprints. Usually 10 to 15 minute sprints. I think I'll be doing lots of those this year. I've set up an event page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/2203724819766193/ where I'll be posting about my writing progress, and writing sprints I'm doing. I hope you'll join in with the sprints :)

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? How have you prepared for the challenge?

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