Step 1 - A Plot

New NaNoWriMo writers, need help getting started for November's write-off?

There is much to plan this month (unless you are lucky enough to be able to write 50k words without planning).

Step 1 (for me) is to develop a plot. Do you have a general idea of what your story will be about? What conflict could arise?

If not, don't worry, there are plenty of resources to help you through the planning process.

Did you know NaNoWriMo have a Young Writers Program? It allows the junior authors to become involved as well. They don't have to do 50k of words though, they can pick their own limit. Matilda, (8yrs) is doing 3,000 and Emily (11) will do 6,000. If you have kids who would like to join up, or you are a teacher and want to join up your class - click here.

Where am I going with this? There are some great resources on the Young Writers Program site for beginners too. I'm finding the High School Workbook extremely helpful. It will take you step by step through the process of setting up your plot and characters in a lovely simple format. Priceless. Click here to get it.

Come up with a plot, it does not have to be fancy, you can build on it. Start with a genre or theme you can expand on. I'm still tossing up on a couple of last minute ideas, you can see them here (and I welcome your opnion). What sort of books do you read? Is there one that you wished had been handled differently?

In my next post I am going to work on my characters, create a background for the central ones. Come back with your plot and we can workshop our characters together.