About 10 days ago, I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo 2015. I planned to re-use some interesting characters from my serialisation and weave an entirely new plot.
I have made a list of the things I will be re-using:
- The name of most of the main characters
- The motivation and the ultimate quest of the titular character
- The intended ending of the segment
- One resolution of sub-plot (It was funny and I wanted to use it somewhere)
Since 95% of the novel will be spanking new, I have to prepare many things in advance. So far, I have a rough outline and some momentum ready to fuel at least 75% of my run.
World building
My world building started with a map and some rough timelines. I drew two rough maps and one detailed map. The detailed map is the place where the events of the entire first volume will occur. While drawing the maps, I had so many ideas regarding the history of the world. The surprising part was that these ideas were very coherent and made sense within the fictional world. I intend to use them somewhere downstream.
[1]It’s all on some graph papers
The idea behind this approach is borrowed from Holly Lisle [2]. She has quite a few pointers regarding this. I have also received some help from here [3].
I have not named any place yet. Nor have I invented words for certain articles and phenomenon in the universe.
Adapting the MonoMyth
Joseph Campbell had written about the hero’s 12 step program. You can read about it here [4]. He had also described the 7 archetypes of the myth. I will not be touching all of them in this volume, but I intend to introduce these characters one by one in the overall series.
There is a nine block adaptation of the monomyth. It is also called the rubik’s cube method [5]. I have used that to chalk out major events.
[6]Monomyth and rubik’s cube blocks superimposed.
Long ago, I had also tried using the snowflake method [7] to construct a novel. Although it is an excellent tool, I did not find it suitable for my own use. I am using some basic constructs (especially, the first few steps) and then I will leave the rest to spontaneity.
Weapon of Choice
I have been using Scrivener for a lot of projects. I will be using the same along with a cloud backed drive to churn out the novel. Here is how things look as of today –
[8]The folders represent each block of the rubik’s cube and the sub pages on the left are scenes.
I have stopped planning. I have a solid foundation of the first 25% and the last 25% of the novel. Plotting the middle has been chaotic.
Tomorrow the India ML is hosting a meet up in Bangalore. I will not be able to attend. Since I am not on Facebook or Twitter, it is even more difficult to network with fellow participants.
I also have the founder, Chris Baty’s book No Plot, No Problem [9] to read before attempting the challenge.