The Last Minute NaNoPrep Dash

T -3 Hours and Counting!

Ok, T -x, depending whatever timezone you're in...

Yes, it's almost time! If you are part of the lucky (or unlucky, it's debatable at this point) few who are not yet standing at the doors of midnight and the dash to start writing you're novel, such as myself, then you are certainly facing what I like to call The Last Minute Prep Dash. If you are not, then you certainly are one of the lucky few, and I salute you!

It's at this point where I start running around, rambling nonsensically, and every tweet that goes out reminding me that midnight is approaching is certainly not helping. There's always a bit more prep to do, a few more notes to make. Most importantly, WHERE DID I PUT THE COFFEE? With every passing second I'm reminded that I haven't actually done any prep, that I've been planning to pants things, and if my muse decides to leave I'm pretty much... well, caught with my pants down, as it were.

So here I sit, less than four hours to the launch of NaNoWriMo in my time zone - finally overcome with the urge to just do some planning, for goodness sakes! - contemplating the best method of prep {read: fastest, easiest way to smoosh some plot bunnies together}. Here is what I came up with:

3 FAST Last Minute Ideas For NaNoPrep

1.What the Hell Am I Writing About? Believe it or not, many of us Wrimo's are still hoping that the constant prompts and flash writing sessions will give us a great idea to write about. And how can you write a novel if you don't know what it is you are going to write about? Thankfully, this is the one box I can actually tick - I have a plot! At least, it's a story idea that resembles something that a plot bunny left it the bunny sandbox a few weeks ago.

Sadly, for many of us, that is the case. We have our idea, we've been thinking about it, wondering and planning and the verdict is in - our idea sucks. We need a new one. It's at this point that we need to say NO! to that evil doubt setting in, and try to remember why we fell in love with our original idea in the first place.

{Share your plot with us! What are you writing about this NaNoWriMo?} 

2. Flash Write the End Of Your Story. This is something that has helped me more than I can ever describe. Having a story idea is one thing, but if you don't have at least some idea of where you want to end up, the brick wall of writer's block might show up sooner rather than later. I'm not saying that the ending you write is the end you need to use when you're done. But don't you think it would help if you know that you're heading somewhere?

3. Who Needs Prep Anyway? I'll admit, this isn't really an idea to prep for NaNo. It's for those of us who decided that we really don't want to prep, and that we are going to push the limits of our imagination as far as it can go. The only problem is that the confidence we had in our ability to 'pants' has disappeared out the nearest unblocked window. Now we feel like we need to do some prep - ANY PREP! - and we are lamenting the fact that we waited so long to get on the planning train.

Don't. Just get your confidence back. To quote my much loved Stephen King again:

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” - Stephen King

So, how are you handling you're last minute prep dash? Or have you done all the planning you need to do? Are you going to pants it all the way? Let us know!