Losing the Plot: Preptober Diaries Weeks Three and Four
What happens when a NaNoWriMo challenge crosses paths with a full-time business and a chronic illness? Absolute chaos.
If you’ve not been following along with my Preptober Diaries, I am taking on the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge during November: writing a 50,000-word book in 30 days.
At the start of October, I made a promise that I would update my progress every week by writing a small article on Medium. So far, I’ve been using October as preparation for the challenge, and I can say with confidence that I feel ready to sit down and write.
But the last few weeks were challenging to say the least. So much so that I neglected to write an update last week!
Here’s what happened.
Losing the plot … and finding it again
Last week I started taking on the biggest preparation task yet: the plot.
I worked on further developing the two main POV characters (they are named Zohar (m) and Nahla (f) for those who are interested), reshaping their fears, beliefs, and desires, and diving into the primary themes of the book.
Despite the hard work last weekend, I felt it wasn’t worth writing a Medium article. I’d spent much of that time thinking and refining. So, I decided to postpone the update and combine it with this week’s one.
But of course, life loves to get in the way. My endometriosis decided to come into play this week. Coupled with the current changes going on in my writing business, I honestly didn’t think I’d make another update before November.
However, I was determined this week to finish my planning and be fully prepared for NaNoWriMo. So instead of losing the plot, I found it again.
Using the work I did last week and the week prior, I took my characters a step further and designed their character arcs (based on their desires, misbeliefs, and fears). Finally, I mirrored these arcs with the three-act structure and other story beats.
And so, here I am with a fully-finished plot that I am finally happy with!
It’s taken me years, tears, and many revisions to get to a point where I feel confident in the plot. My final step in the plotting process will be to lay out each story beat and scene onto an index card.
That will be a job for Halloween though!
Lessons learned in Preptober
This has been a quick post, but to summarise, it’s been a tough but successful couple of weeks. Despite an endometriosis flare-up and some challenges with the business, I somehow made it through the month and come out on the other side with a good baseline to work from.
I planned:
- My goals, tools, and rewards for NaNoWriMo
- The story world and characters
- The plot and character arcs
Overall, despite the setback last week with no update, I feel Preptober has been a success for me, and I am ready to get stuck into writing on the 1st of November.
It’s also important to note that not everything goes perfectly. This month has been challenging, to say the least. By the time I get to December, I am going to be exhausted. But it will be worth it to attempt the challenge!
There are also a few lessons I learned from my experience this month:
- Preparation is essential for NaNoWriMo — if I hadn’t prepared anything in advance, my challenge would have been an immediate failure from day one!
- NaNoWriMo prep isn’t just about the plot and story — it’s also about what you need to succeed with your goals (check out the post below for what I planned
- Documentation is a great way to hold yourself accountable — honestly, if I hadn’t committed to writing a Medium article every week on my progress, I don’t think I would have made it through Preptober in one piece. Aside from missing one update, having that source of accountability meant I knew I had to step up and do what I committed to.
What an insane month it has been! Next week I will be knee-deep in writing (and probably losing sleep), so I have my fingers crossed that I can maintain a healthy momentum!
How do you feel about NaNoWriMo now it’s almost upon us? Was your Preptober a success? I’d love to know how you’ve been getting on!
