NaNo Nattering

[st_aurafina]

I think I'd better start making a plan of some sort. I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm going into NaNo hideously under-prepared. Any advice will be cheerfully taken on board.



I don't have a plan, yet. I'm starting with what I know.

I know these things:

I want to write about sisters. This was the first thought that popped into my head when I asked myself what I wanted to write for NaNo. My subconscious knows stuff, and I'm not going to ignore that. I don't understand my sisters - maybe inner!Me wants me to think about that. So I have characters, two sisters.

My protagonist is called Jane. She's the sensible sister, and I'm writing from her POV. Jane's older sister is Miranda, and they've long been stereotyped as Plain Jane and Flighty Miranda. Both of them buck against this, and the different expectations that their parents have of the two girls has been a source of conflict between the sisters into their adulthood.

I'm going to write in third person omniscient. I'm comfortable with it, and I think that experimenting with an unfamiliar POV on top of meeting the November word count is asking for trouble. I'm going to be writing about relationships and it would be easy to sound whiny and self-obsessed writing in first person. Or so I imagine, since I've never actually done it.

I'm setting the novel in a rural town in Australia. No Plot? No Problem! suggests writing what I know. It's easy to control things in a small town; there's only a limited number of people and places. There are koalas and tractors and cows in the main street, sweeping landscapes to describe, and the threat of fire and flood around the corner.

I want to write urban fantasy. My incredibly literal mind is asking if it's still urban fantasy if the setting is rural but Charles de Lint has plenty of rural settings, so I think it will be fine. I'm going to write about an insular migrant community of farmers that live cheek-by-jowl with the mythological creatures that came across with them. I'm taking inspiration from The Nargun and the Stars, an Aussie YA book about wonderful fantasy creatures living in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. These were creatures of an Australian landscape, though, and I definitely want my creatures to be an introduced species, possible wreaking havoc on the indigenous mythology, like rats and foxes do with our native fauna. I've also been thinking about American Gods, and that S2 episode of Supernatural with the scarecrow and the apple trees, both stories where the imported creatures have not settled well or comfortably.

This is all I know so far, and that scares me a bit. I should have an outline, and I have no idea where to start with one. Time for some useful links:

People on the forums are talking about the Snowflake Method, and I'm checking that out.

Maybe I should have a three act plan, like this person does? But what if I want more than three acts? Is that allowed?

And I definitely need a a cool chart on the wall, though I don't have anything to put on it yet. But it's a chart! On the wall!

And from megburden, I found Holly Lisle's website, which has loads of information and advice on writing, with this which looks like a good way to firm up vague ideas, and it's not so - I don't know - formulaic as the Snowflake Method looks. (Although, for all I know, Snowflake is a good way to go.)

It's so weird to write these ideas down after having them stew in my head. It suddenly seems so real. I'm going to write about these people - when I have an outline, anyway. Jane and Miranda, you are real people. (Of course we are, they're saying to me. Did you doubt it?)



And hello to my new friends from the NaNo friending meme! *waves* It's nearly time!