Are You Ready for NaNoWriMo?

It’s almost time for NaNoWriMo, when thousands of writers will try to cram 50,000 words into a 30-day deadline. If you’re participating in NaNo and anything like me, you might be freaking out a little as November nears.

For the last several years, I’ve offered my popular Lost Your Pants? The Impatient Writer’s Guide to Plotting a Story workshop in October to help writers focus on their story before NaNo comes around. I’m a big fan of NaNo, and an even bigger fan of making sure we’re not ending up with a mess of a story. *smile*

Unfortunately, my health issues this year mean that I can’t present Lost Your Pants? as a live class. As part of the months-long waiting period for my jawbone infection to heal, my doctor decided to wrangle my jaw into shape with posts and rubber bands holding it together in ten places, and they won’t be off for at least several more weeks.

As much as I know I’ve been promising all year to offer the class this month, I can’t even smile without cutting the inside of my mouth, much less talk for an hours-long workshop. *sigh*

However, a promise is a promise, so I figured out the next best thing I could do. Actually, two next best things…

#1: Limited Time Only! Lost Your Pants? Available OnDemand

I’ve never offered this workshop OnDemand because it’s a complex class to organize: two webinar sessions (which are each about two hours long) and lots of exclusive materials and downloads.

But I’m making an exception this year and offering Lost Your Pants? The Impatient Writer’s Guide to Plotting a Story as an OnDemand workshop for a limited time. The OnDemand version includes full access to last year’s webinar recordings and all class materials—all at a discount from the normal “live” version price. *smile*

Lost Your Pants?
The Impatient Writer’s Guide to Plotting a Story

Do you write by the seat of your pants? Do you want to write faster?

Lost Your Pants? OnDemand Version for a Limited Time:

Learn techniques and receive tools developed especially for pantsers.
More Info »

I jokingly refer to this workshop as my “plotting for pantsers” class, but it’s really about how to plan our stories at a high level and work our way down only as much as we need to. Whether we’re a “pantser” (writing by the seat of our pants) who just wants to learn a minimalist approach to story development, or a plotter who wants to understand how plot and character arcs work together, this class might be able to help.

I’m a die-hard-and-proud-of-it pantser, so I developed this process for myself. In other words, I promise my fellow pantsers that I’m not one of those authors who tells you that you need to plot because otherwise “you’re doing it wrong.” *smile*

Everyone who registers will receive several tools (worksheets and beat sheets) developed especially for the workshop. Also, for NaNo preparation, the tools help writers work out enough story direction to make “fast drafting” techniques work for us. I won’t be offering this workshop again until next year, so if you’ve thought about taking the class, you might want to grab this opportunity.

#2: Shortcuts to Starting and Organizing Our Story

I’ve written several posts over the years with tips on how to get started with our story. So if you’re not able to register for the class, I can at least point you in the right direction for some of those posts here. *smile*

• Planning Smart: We don’t want to spend hours working through a character background sheet if we’re good at winging the character aspect of our story. Alternately, we don’t want to waste time completing a story outline if we’re good at making up the plot turning points as we go. Learn what style of planning will work best for us.
• Essential Elements of a Story: Does our story contain all the essential elements? Does it have the bones of a good story? Learn what elements we need for our story to be strong, have a purpose and an arc, and how we can make it even better.
• Finding the Start of Our Story: What should the starting point of our story be? What opening scene will best get across the right impression, lead to the rest of the story, and grab readers’ interest? Learn what story opening might work best and an alternate approach for figuring out the best story beginning.
• Build Arcs & Don’t Get Stuck: What should we do if we get stuck in our plot? Or with our character? How do we develop a character arc? How can we avoid a “sagging middle”?
• Nitpicky Issues that Can Wait for Revisions: Should our protagonist be on the first page? Should we avoid prologues? What about first-page clichés?

If you’re participating in NaNo this year, I wish you luck! Based on the interest from my editors, beta reader, and commenters here, I’ve decided to work on the first book of my gargoyle spinoff series for my NaNo project. Here’s to something new—Yay! *smile*

Are you participating in NaNo this year? (Are we buddies yet?) What are you working on for NaNo? What’s your top NaNo tip? Do you have any questions about my workshop or what it means that it’s OnDemand rather than live?