NaNo Prep 2021: At the Turn of Tomorrow #1

If it’s your first time participating in National Novel Writing Month or your 10th, you can make the month what you need it to be to reach all your writing goals. Writing begins on November 1st to reach 50,000 words by the end of the 30 days and while there are plenty of rules, you have to keep in mind there aren’t any rules.

In this time frame, you can write a novel, anthology of short stories, collection of poetry, and anything in-between. You don’t have to put any time in preparing (though as a NaNo veteran I can confirm, some prep goes a long way), you don’t need an outline, you don’t even need the best idea in the world. All you need is a vague idea of a project you want to develop, some time during every day to get 1,667 words, and the understanding that each week is going to be progressively harder.

We are well deep into the 2021 NaNo season. I take the month of October to begin jotting down notes related in any way to my story, the characters, the world they will be living in, and the ever elusive plot. I have begun working on a story idea I have titled, At the Turn of Tomorrow, which will be my 9th NaNo attempt and I still feel like I have no idea what I’m getting myself into, but I have so much fun all the same giving it a try.

At this moment I have the main character, two or three of the most important side characters, basic world structure, and the ending. I do not yet know how the story will begin, any of the major plot points, or exactly how I’m going to structure any of this madness.

As preparations move along I’m hoping to share story summary and a bit of the main characters, but until I can, I’m keeping my pen and notebook close. By the end of the month I hope to have a full understanding of my main characters, strong building blocks for the world, and a full outline to work off of when it comes time to write in November.

If you’re interested in what I’m working on outside of my NaNo project, check out my updates from my current project, The Edge of Death, from the beginning and how it’s been going lately.