(I’m sharing my October pre-November NaNoWriMo pre-writing ritual process thingie. Why? Because a lot of people have asked me to post it again. And it’s that time of year and stuff.)
If you’ve followed my itinerary faithfully, then you have enough pre-writing done to give you a great base for your story next month. Even if you’ve just pondered over something I wrote during this thing, it can only help.
So, what do we do from here?
The rest of the month
Take it easy for a few days. Work on something else. Because I like to play with multiple stories, I will work on this project with a whole new story. At any rate, it’s always good to spend a little time away from a project like this. Go work on Halloween decorations, or winter holiday occasions coming up. In the meantime, think of ways to reorganize your story, or add another element to it.
There’s a book out there that might help you, written by Georges Polti, “36 Dramatic Situations“. The wiki link gives you a good idea of what’s contained in the book. This guy claims that every plot device, twist, and theme in the world can be narrowed down to these 36 dramatic situations. Some beg to differ, but it is a good place to start. Not to mention that the reference is almost 100 years old.
Here’s a list of other plot-specific references:
- Narrative Structure, Plot Devices and Stereotypes
- Top 10 Overused Plot Devices
- Annotated list of literary techniques
- Plot device
And here’s a list of random generators:
- Random Plot Generator
- Writers prompts
- Seventh Sanctum
- RPG-Related Generators
- TV Tropes
- Plot Scenario Generator
- Let’s put your character in a sticky situation.
- Serendipity
Also:
- NaNoWriMo has announced that their website is updated for next month, and that you may now create a profile or log into an existing one in order to participate in the entirely voluntary but totally-worth-it online part of this. Add me if you like! They have more forums than I can ever keep up with, for regions, topics, prompts, help, utilities, and all sorts of other write-y madness.