Story Plan Checklist: Introduction

[ladyseishou]

Every well built house started in the form of a definite purpose
plus a definite plan in the nature of a set of blueprints.

- Napoleon Hill



For the next month, we're going to be putting everything together that we've worked on so far to get ready for the Big Day: November 1. Our goal is for all our Nano Writers to have what they need to start strong and finish 50,000 words strong!



To that end, we're going to work from Karen Wiesner's Novel Blueprint and her Story Plan Checklist. Ms. Wiesner, the author of First Draft in Thirty Days, From First Draft to Finished Novel, and more than than twenty novels covering a wide range of genre, from suspense to paranormal to romance, writes:

I call this list a Story Plan Checklist not only because of its correlation with a home plan checklist, but because if you haven’t considered each of these areas, written something solid about them and checked them off, your story may not be fully fleshed out and cohesive enough. Sooner or later, the basic structure will begin to fall apart.

...which could make for an unhappy writing experience for Nano Writers that aren't as comfortable flying by the seat of their pants as their pantser brethren.

Do as little or as much as you like - think of these challenges as highlighting landmarks on a map for your novel that will take you from day one all the way through to the NaNoWriMo finish line.

Along the way, we'll recap highlights from Stephanie Bryant's 30 Days of Worldbuilding exercises that we worked through in August as well as showcase member's cover artwork submitted for Nano Writer’s Cover Up! contest.

Tomorrow we'll review the checklist for the Wiesner Story Plan. Until then Nano Writer, keep writing!