It’s November, which means it’s time for those so insanely inclined to churn out a 50,000-word novel in 30 days in the name of arting like a motherfucker. In years past, I learned that November is my own personal novel-less month and that signing up for NaNo is only ever a sure path to disappointment and self-loathing.
However, THIS YEAR is different. All of the things that have traditionally demanded my time and attention in November are no longer a factor. On top of that, I’ve got the full support of the people I live with, which is a new and exciting condition for me.
In other words, LET’S DO THIS.
As a novelist, I’m somewhere on the Pantser end of the writing style spectrum, with only very slight Architect tendencies. Which is to say, I’ll come up with a few ideas about the general structure, and hope that all of the details fill themselves in as I go. The fact that I’ve never hit 50K by November 30th might be related to this approach in some way, but I concede nothing. When I make too solid a plan, I find my creativity constrained by its boundaries to the point of immobility. There’s a sweet spot somewhere in the middle, and sometimes that boundary has to be renegotiated on a chapter-by-chapter basis. The real problem with NaNo is having only 30 days in which to perform these negotiations.
How do you novel?
Autistic Wordpainter 
One reason I’ve decided twice now not to do this is that in my attempts so far, I haven’t had a plot structure in mind. Usually all I have is a conflict and a few scenes. I think the people who are really successful at NaNo tend more in the architect direction. But I could be wrong and I hope you get your stuff onto the screen!
My real problem with trying to pre-engineer more of a structure is that if I can’t approach plot developments organically, they don’t make sense to me and I can’t *make* them make sense. So, like, I can’t see what happens two scenes from now until I’ve written enough of the events that set it up. And if I try to do it the other way around — knowing what happens and needing to set it up — I get lost in the logistics of how to make it happen.
I’m sympathetic. I’m lousy at plot.
What helps me plot is going in with a very clear sense of the characters. So I may not 100% know what’s going to happen, but when it does happen I 100% know how my characters will respond to it.
aha.
“Arting like a motherfucker” LOL! Great, that makes it sound quite attractive, actually. Maybe I could join with my own private NaNoShriMo?
But seriously, now that I have read your post, I can see why I have alwaya felt unable to weite long-form. I am not an architect either, and to the extent that my creative work (written or otherwise) anarchically lives and decides its own shape. I can never tell where my creative work leads me. Does it have to? Can a writer not just write on the basis of a general premise and then rewrite once it’s all been done? Whatever, I hope you’ll have lots of time to do it this month. I know you can!