November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which makes it my favorite month of the whole year!

As I approach my fifth year, I have found there are five distinct phases of pre-NaNo drafting and story percolation.

Giddy Excitement

My novel topics usually come to me in fits and starts. Experimental short stories or a big “what if” question can spur a novel topic. Dismantling Spider Webs, 2009’s novel, was founded on the question “what if the spouse you were cheating on died? How would you get forgiveness?”

However, this year’s novel, (working title) Zone Trippers, smacked me upside the head! A cacophony of characters and scenarios seemed to formulate in my head instantly. I suddenly understood what J.K.Rowling meant when she said Harry strolled into her, fully formed.

Overwhelming Unqualification

The second stage for me is always complete despair.I knew nothing about widowhood when I started Spider Webs. I wanted to do the topic justice–touching on every emotion and every problem a new, young widow faces.

Zone Trippers has its own stumbling stones. My characters find themselves spread out all over the world, having to adapt to their abrupt environments. I can research the slums of Calcutta and the factories in Belarus all I want but it easy to feel hopeless when I consider the sheer depth of what I do not know.

Diligent Research

After downing several chocolate infused reinforcements, I start researching.

For Spider Webs, I confounded the librarians by special ordering books on home improvement, how to have an extramarital affair and how to survive widowhood. I am sure they talked about me behind my back!

I am currently researching the nature vs. nurture debate, medical holidays, epidemiology, human trafficking and various obscure countries. I will never finish by the end of October but I will hopefully gain enough information to create a starting point for the book.

Pregnant Pause

I am an outline writer. I have a bare bones spreadsheet, outlining each of the major scenes of the book. But most importantly, I must know my characters. I have complete character sketches complete with photos for each character–major or minor. I am purposefully in choosing their names and their back story. Without their motivations, I can’t begin to write about them. Since the setting is often crucial to the story, I need that information written down as well.

All of these preparations are percolating in my head until I write them on index cards. Then I will rearrange and throw out cards while I write my spreadsheet. During the editing process, I tend to bring out the Post It notes so I can move the story chunks around.

The last two weeks of October has my fingers itching to start the new book.

I feel ready.

I am anxious.

I am impatient.

But because I want to follow the rules of NaNo, I don’t commit a single word until the Kick Off party. The flood of word that follows sets me up for an euphoric first two weeks of NaNo.

Hard Work

I have probably wrote the book ten times in my head before I commit the words to paper. Once the words take on ink and find a home on pulp, new surprises abound. I remember in Holiday Cards, the doorbell rang and I had no idea who was at the door. In Dismantling Spider Webs, I completed the whole second draft before I realized my protagonist was adopted–therefore driving most of her actions.

I am excited to see where Zone Trippers will take me. I have a plot. I am getting to know my characters quirks and flavors. The rising action has been decided but the ending remains a mystery–even to me.

This is the lure of NaNoWriMo–the bubbling thoughts, the new friends who live in your head, the Panera’s bagels and oceans of coffee, the paragraphs that snake across your computer screen and the heft of a printed novel in December.

Have you ever NaNo’ed? Care to join me?

Dismantling Spider Webs