2 weeks to go!
2nd post of the day, 2 weeks until NaNoWriMo. And no so long ago I was bragging that I had my plot all planned out so I would not be blogging my NaNo prep. Well I got bitten by a plot bunny and for the last couple of days I've be planning industriously. With 2 and a half weeks left I decided to *gasp* change my idea! I must have been too organised. I'm ready to start writing Blue Blood right now, but that's clearly not enough of a challenge in the eyes of the NaNo gods, so I'm running with this new thing for now and seeing where it takes me. There just something about going from idea conception to finished first draft in a couple of months that really appeals to me. Last year I started planning around 2 months, 1 week, 2 days before NaNo, as last year's blog post will testify, so 2 weeks will really be something of a challenge for me.
This year I'm writing my solution to the whole 'chosen one' plot line. We all know the drill. One boy/girl, preferably from humble background, is phophesised to be 'the chosen one' who will defeat the greatest evil in the land and be a great hero. I'm not sure why this plot is so appealing. Perhaps it's something to do with the reluctant hero who has this great destiny thrust upon him that he must rise to 'or else'. Anyway, I thought it might be nice for a change to have the hero of the story become a hero because he actually wants to, not because some old hag 1000 years ago wrote it in a scroll. So, my hero Devon is the only person with no destiny in a kingdom where the future of every child is prophesised at their birth, and in his story he's going to have to actually exercise some free-will and make choices for himself. As the one guy who can actually be anything that he wants to be what choices will he make? There's kind of a Willow 'which finger controls your destiny' thing going on, so it should be fun.
Last year I tried out the snowflake method of outlining. It's good, but time consuming and I've only got 2 weeks left, so this year it's Holly Lisle's notecard method . It looks fun. You basically write out ideas of scenes on index cards and kind of trust your brain to tie them together in a coherent plot. This seems good for me this year because at the moment all I've got are ideas for scenes, so I hope my brain works as well as Holly's, plus it gives me a good excuse to use up those coloured index cards I bought for my 2006 NaNo that never got planned.
So far it's going pretty well. I've plotted out most of Act I using this method so I've got at least the first couple of chapters. I managed to do this in about an hour yesterday, but I did have a better idea of the first part so we'll see how the rest goes. I'm going to start on Act II now. Wish me luck! I'm going to need it.
At least if it fails I've got Blue Blood ready to fall back on :)
