National Novel Planning Month

It’s October! Three reasons why this is one of my favorite months of the year:

• It’s autumn at last! Even though, where I live, there isn’t much of an autumn as most folks in the US might define it, it still means cool breezes, drier air, and the occasional wicked thunderstorm. Plus, it’s Harvest Festival time!
• It’s the start of the holiday season. Yes, I’m one of those people who starts listening to Christmas music in July—well, honestly, I never really stop. Short of Christmas Eve, Halloween is my favorite holiday.
• It’s NaNoWriMo prep time, or as I like to call it, National Novel Planning Month (NaNoPlaMo)!

I confess that I’ve been rather lax in planning for NaNo15. Each year is a little different, and the wild success I enjoyed last year will be difficult to match (I now have a full-time job, plus part-time work on the side. On top of that, I cut out exercise during November 2014, and I will not do that this year.).

I know at least two of the projects I’ll be working on: the Long Story and The Campaign. The Campaign might net me ~50,000 words, but the Long Story is more of a backup in the event that I’m stuck on my other projects and need to churn out lots of words fast. I had a brief visit from a plot bunny about a week ago, but it hopped off without giving me much info. Back to the storyboard for three or four more stories to consider pounding out in November.

One of my main concerns when it comes to The Campaign is my ability at present to write it. It’s a story that wants to be written. There’s a reason it keeps popping into my head at random moments. It’s in a genre, however, with which I have very little experience: mainstream fiction, with a dash of satire. My previous attempts to nail the plot down have met with failure, and though I’m far from surrendering, the story has resisted me at all turns. I’m not sure I can depend on it for NaNo. As evidenced by my earlier posts, I couldn’t depend on it for either Camp session, either.

In spite of this, my NaNo15 goals are unchanged. Maybe in a future post I’ll share them, but I don’t want to commit in public to numbers I can’t promise even to myself yet. Guess I’m a bit of a coward that way!

Are you excited for NaNoWriMo? How often have you participated, and what is your method for success?