I’m going to give it a red hot go this year and really looking forward to it. Anyone else committing to the madness? 
I keep wanting to…but so far I don’t even have a vague idea. And for a confirmed plotter, that’s not good. 
what’s the worst thing that could happen if you ‘pantsed’ a novel? you’d get 50,000 words of something you didn’t expect to write…
This year my wife is pretty much demanding that I do it, in order to finish the novel I’ve been putzing about on since last year… Then she wants me to see about how to get it published and getting it out there…
If this sounds like pussywhipping, it might be be, but I actually want to get it published and her ‘nagging’ is good motivator to keep on path to doing so.
I already tried that one year, and the result wasn’t pretty. And after about a week I couldn’t even make myself open the file because it was such utter rambling crap. 
Okay, I could live with not having it worked out down to the scene level, but c’mon. I don’t even have an itch for what genre to try. Maybe I should write a zombie apocalypse. It at least pretty much comes with a protagonist (Joe Everyman) and goal (stay alive!) built in.
Set it in your local neighbourhood, with various locals gradually succumbing to the zombie plague ("Oh no! There goes the greengrocer! Where will I get the eggplants for my moussaka?). You could even challenge yourself by incorporating an event from each day into the novel. Worst case scenario, you’ll have a lot of fun in November. And if you publish, all the locals will want to buy it to fund out how they die! 
I’ve tried that and it’s a lot of fun to have your story set in your hometown, even if it might not be 100% accurate.( Not sure if there actually IS a Frontenac County Sheriff’s Department…But there is one in my book.)
Oh yeah, I’ve been there. I pushed myself and wrote such drivel one year that I had problems going near the manuscript without nausea for about six months.
Check out the Nano forums. There’s heaps of ideas and plot bunnies and stuff to get you going down the writing track. Maybe inspiration will strike you there…?
I’m in as always… although i’m a bit behind this year as I don’t even have an idea of what i’m going to write about… i have a few ideas… but I’m procrastinating again (as normal!!) on which one to go for…!
I’ve managed to 50k for the last 6 years… fingers crossed for a 7th!
One man’s pussywhipping is another man’s motivational strategy. 
Seriously, it sounds like you have family onboard and that’s really great. My family tend to groan a bit around November and nanotime. They tend to groan, I think, because writing fast is a huge stress for me but I do like trying to get some words down and I also am a big fan of communal madness. And my feeling is generally that any words I get down get me closer to my novel writing goals.
jealous I’ve managed 20k a year the last couple. Better than nothing but I’d like to hit the 50k this year. I think I’ve reached 50k about 3 times - 6 times is really impressive!
Hi,
This is my first time actually doing this craziness, although I’ve been participating in the forms for a couple of years.
I am trying to write a sequel to my espionage thriller that I just finished, but I’m having trouble brainstorming for outline material. I have ideas about what I want the characters to do, but I can’t seem to figure out how to tie them all altogether to make a satisfying ending with a good twist or two.
About Scrivener, can anyone share how they use it to outline a novel that’s in parts? I have viewed some YouTube tutorials but don’t really understand how to set it up and tie it in with my manuscript.
The other question I have is how to import my research documents that are in Word, into the Scrivener universe.
field19
Have you completed the Scrivener tutorial (included when you download Scrivener) yet?
Regarding novel outlines, there are lots of different ways. The simplest is create a folder for each part, and then subfolders for chapters (and subdocuments within those for scenes & sub-scenes). There are, of course lots of alternatives (possible as many ways as there are authors using Scriv) — personally, I break fiction into scenes (typically 1 document per scene, but sometimes I’ll break those into sub-documents). For non-fiction, I often have only one or two paragraphs per document to better track ideas.
The best advice is to try it. As you become more comfortable with the app, you will likely adapt your setup to better suit your own approach.
For importing Word documents, drag’n’drop works on a Mac, but you can also use the Import command.
I’m in. I’ve got a basic plot, some characters, and a setting. :mrgreen:
Woo hoo! I poked around on my hard drive and found a folder that was miscellaneous stuff I’d brought over from three computers ago, including a whole folder labeled ‘story ideas never started.’ 
Actually liked two or three, but there was one clearly best suited to Nano-ing. So now I have a genre (murder mystery) and antagonist (well worked out already) victims 1 & 2 (sketched in) and a raft of ideas for clues and plot twists. What more can I need?
Well, okay, a protagonist. Right now his (her?) complete character portrait consists of "police detective.’ But no prob – I’ve got nine days to ponder that.
Count me in!
I’m in. It’s crazy. This is no country for old men. But I have this film script that has grown out of it’s format. Instead of over and over taking it out, look at it and say to myself, that, maybe, it is more of a novel - I’ll try to make it into a novel. Perhaps that doesn’t work out. Then at least I know, and can bury it in good conscience.
Yay!
That is true and is totally the Nano philosophy.
Importing research documents - Just drag them to the Research Section in the bottom left of your project’s Binder. Scrivener will convert them to rich text format documents and they can be accessed anytime by clicking on them. And you can copy and paste material between your research documents and your novel if you need to.
And re the outlining of a novel, there are lots of ways to do it. I sometimes use folders for the sections of the manuscript and then group scenes into folders. So if you are following a three act structure you could have folders called Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3 and then group the scenes together in those folders. Or you could just have all your scenes as separate documents in your Draft Folder and then drag them around to position them as needed. Last year for Nano I was trying to write to a novel plotting thing I found so I had labelled all the sections according to that structure: sort of 1, 2, 3 etc.
I don’t know if that helps at all. If not, ask more questions.
literatureandlatte.com/docum … win-a4.pdf
Appendix D is quite useful, too. That way you aren’t locked into one set layout for chapters, even.
I’m in as StaceyUK!