Cameron's NaNoWriMo Outline Assistant

What is this? In my first year of doing NaNoWriMo, I outlined my novel down to the scene, and found that if I had enough scenes, then I was able to estimate an average scene length and then determine how long various scenes needed to be. I successfully completed my NaNo-novel, but the plot seemed a bit boring (probably due to lack of guidance in my outlining). In my second NaNo experience, I ditched the outline altogether. While I still met the overall word count goal, and my plot was a little better, the lack of planning caused my writing to slow to a molasses pace at times and even stall out for days. So, back to the drawing board. Along the lines I stumbled upon Randy Ingermanson's site (http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/the_snowflake.html) and his "Snowflake Method" of writing a novel. I have since adapted it to my own purposes, and created (yet another) spreadsheet for tracking my NaNoWriMo progress, but also to help me with planning my novel so it is not an utter piece of trash. Use as you see fit, pass it along, and feel free to email me or find me (truckpoetry) on the forums with your suggestions. Maybe I'll add them for next year! How does it work? Well, to be honest, it is pretty self explanatory. You start here (with Welcome & Instructions) and work your way through the tabs at the bottom. The deadlines for completing your tasks are calculated based on your start date and the start of NaNoWriMo for that year, so the earlier you start, the more time you have to complete each task (not sure if this is a good thing or a bad one). Each tab will have instructions and a deadline. Complete them all, and then you can use your scene summary for tracking your writing progress versus word targets. Where to begin? Right here. Enter today's date and time in the yellow box: Enter the date you plan to start writing your novel: Enter the date you wish to finish your novel:

12/8/2010 9:00 12/8/2010 9:00 5/15/2010 9:00

Step One: Create a Single Sentence Description of your book's plot line Deadline: 12/8/2010 9:00 Instructions: Write up a one-sentence description of what your book is about. Easy, right? Well, there are some guidelines to follow. First, you want to avoid any character names. Just use descriptive words for the character. Second, you should keep the sentence short and to the point. The structure should follow a basic noun-verb pattern like "A [insert character] [does something]." This should summarize the main point of what you are writing this book about. My first two NaNoWriMo endeavours could be summed up like so: "An independent businessman travels to Las Vegas to play poker like a pro." or "A law clerk unravels the murder of a prominent local attorney." These aren't fabulous sentences, and the plots (in retrospect) seem a bit bland. But hey, that's why I created this tool, right? Your first several attempts at one-sentence descriptions will most likely be as lame as the examples I just gave. But check out novel blurbs in newspapers and bookstores (or the blurbs on New York Times Best Sellers' List: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/bestseller/0910besthardfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin ) for examples on what to write.

Write Your Sentence Here:

Step Two: Identify the major turning points in the novel Deadline: 12/8/2010 9:00

Instructions: A novel is usually not built around a single climactic point. Rather, there are several smaller conflicts that lead up to the main c three act approach of conflict and resolution. While I somewhat agree, I think the basic need is to a) have a situation thrown up character tries to resolve the initial situation (this can take the form of anywhere from 1 additional conflict/crisis to 4 or 5, but be allow the character to resolve the situation. That being said, you can use the template below (a hybrid of our two approaches) o Enter the crises below that you intend to have in your novel, as well as what caused them (usually an action of the protagonist e

List of Major Crises Crisis Description 1 Mother dies/Leigh leaves 2 Ethical diema in Vietnamese Ward 3 opposition to relationship 4 5 6 7

ts in the novel

actic point. Rather, there are several smaller conflicts that lead up to the main conflict and resolution. Ingermanson's Snowflake Method su While I somewhat agree, I think the basic need is to a) have a situation thrown upon a character, b) have that situation become more comple is can take the form of anywhere from 1 additional conflict/crisis to 4 or 5, but beyond that and you are writing War and Peace or something) at being said, you can use the template below (a hybrid of our two approaches) or add or remove additional conflicts that may occur in your n n your novel, as well as what caused them (usually an action of the protagonist except for the first crisis) and how they get resolved.

Caused By battle with cancer/coming of age (external) volunteering for extra shifts despite being already overworked

(not normally needed) (not normally needed) (not normally needed)

d resolution. Ingermanson's Snowflake Method suggests a racter, b) have that situation become more complex as that and you are writing War and Peace or something) and c) remove additional conflicts that may occur in your novel. the first crisis) and how they get resolved.

Resolution Maddy signs up for Vietnam

Step Three: Deadline:

List Your Characters 12/8/2010 9:00

Instructions: Time for your characters! You know you have them - bubbling up there in your brain The people (or animals, or clocks, or whatever) that make your book work. You'll get to the nitty-gritty details of who these people are and what makes them do what they do later, but for now, you need to start generating your cast. List each character, as well as a brief summary of who you think they are, what their primary objective is (both in terms of specific goals and abstract motivations), and what could stop them from getting their objective (hint: you're setting up their various conflicts here as well as giving yourself motivating factors that can help you with dialogue and reactions to situations how would main character Joe react here? Well, if he's driven to accomplish some objective, that might taint his rationality and make him do something stupid...voila! plot twist). I've given you enough space for 200 characters, though keeping track of more than 10 or so might prove difficult.

List of Characters First Name Last Name

Motivating Force (Personality Trait, Desire, etc.)

Primary Goal

Obstacles to Primary Goal

Summary of Character

Step Four: Design the Conflicts Deadline: 12/8/2010 9:00 Instructions: You have already defined your conflicts, so now you need to expand them. Take each one of the main conflicts and flesh them out into several sub-sections, describing the start of the conflict, the rising action, the climax, and any denouement or falling action. For each step of the conflict, you can provide a sentence or two description and/or any notes that you may have at the time.

Conflict Outline Item Conflict 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Type of Action

Description

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

Notes

Step Five: Deadline:

Expand the Characters 12/8/2010 9:00

Instructions: So now that you have a list of your characters and have decided what motivates them so that you know how they might react to a given situation, now it is time to "flesh out" the characters so that you can keep track of their physical and historical attributes and have a reference sheet to go back to. If you need some help with this section, you might want to download my "Character Creator" spreadsheet to help out with your character building.

Character Detailed Descriptions Character Name Nickname/Middle Name

Description

Eye Color Hair Color

Skin Color Height Weight Occupation Gender Birthdate Hometown History

How Character Changes Through Story

Other Notes

Step Six: Deadline:

Sketch Out the Scenes 12/8/10 9:00

Instructions: Now your goal is to sketch out your scenes. List each scene as well as select the point of view character, flesh out timelines if you want, and make notes about each scene. You should also make an effort to tie in the scenes to each of your climaxes and the action point that it ties into. For the most part, each scene of your novel should tie in to one of your conflicts and help progress the storyline associated with that conflict or with your character development that helps explain a conflict. The average novel could have anywhere from 10 to 200 scenes ranging from 3 words to 10,000. The goal here is to just provide detailed breakdowns of what you want to occur in each individual scene and who's there. That should help you keep them straight as you are writing and prevent individuals from being in two places at once (unless in your sci-fi novel this is possible).

Scene List: Scene 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Description

Point Of View Character

Plot Point

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84

85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136

137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188

189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240

241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250

Start Time End Time Chapter

Step Seven: Deadline:

Write Your Novel 5/15/10 9:00

Instructions: Well, we can't really help you here. Now you need to take the scene list you created on the past step and flesh it out, sceneby-scene, to create your novel. What we can do, though, is provide you with the following list for you to track your progress and view some statistics. If you enter a word-count goal, this sheet can also help you track your progress towards total completion.

Word Count Goal: Words Remaining: Average Complete Scene Length: Scenes Remaining: Percent of Goal Complete: Scene List Description

100000 100000 N/A 0 0.00%

Scene

Chapter

Number of Words In Scene

past step and flesh it out, scenet for you to track your progress your progress towards total

Scene Complete?