How to Make the Most of Preptober for ProWritingAid’s Novel November
This year, ProWritingAid is hosting an event called Novel November. Novel November is ProWritingAid’s version of the worldwide NaNoWriMo event that ran from 1995-2024.
During the month of November, authors can attempt to write 50,000 words, which comes out to 1,667 words a day. This can be a complete novel or part of your novel, but you have to write 50,000 words starting November 1st and finishing no later than November 30.
In preparation for ProWritingAid’s Novel November, they have what they are calling Preptober. They are dedicating the whole month of October to preparing for Novel November, if you chose to do so.
To help you get the most out of Preptober so that you can be ready to hit that keyboard on November 1, here are some steps that you can take now to get your novel ready for writing.
Step One: Brainstorm Story Ideas
You can find ideas everywhere: in your life, in your surroundings, on Pinterest boards, or even in inspiration from other stories that you enjoy reading. Just remember that you can’t take other people’s ideas, stories, or images and make it your own. Draw inspiration from these things if you’re still looking for a story idea, but make sure your story is your own, not someone else’s.
Not sure where to start? Or too many ideas to choose from?
Set a timer for five minutes and write down as many story ideas as you can. When the timer is up, cut your story ideas in half by removing the ones you don’t find appealing to write now or the ideas you just don’t like now that you’re taking a second look.
If you still can’t decide, leave the list alone for a day and revisit it tomorrow. What ideas do you still like the next day, and which ones no longer sound fun to sit with day after day for the whole month of November?
Once you decide, write your idea down in a notebook, on your favorite writing app, or wherever you are going to do the rest of your Preptober work.
Step Two: Define Your Story’s Start and End Points
It’s not important that you have the whole novel plotted out yet, but it does help to have a general idea of where you want the story to start and end.
Is it a classic good versus evil where the good guy gets drawn into a battle of some sort? And does he win or lose by the end?
Is your book going to start with a classic meet-cute that turns into an enemy to lovers story? And will your character get the guy in the end?
Bonus points if you can come up with a theme for your story. Classic theme ideas include coming of age, good and evil, freedom and oppression, and revenge and forgiveness just to name a few. If you want to know more, Literature & Latte has an article about themes in literature.
Step Three: Create Your Cast of Characters
Now that you have a general idea of what your story is about and where you want the story to start and end, it’s a good idea to start creating your characters. You don’t have to know who everyone is at this point or what every character’s favorite color is, but you do want to start sketching out who your protagonist is, an antagonist if your story needs one, and any of the major supporting characters that play a role in the book.
Remember that this is just the start. You can develop characters even more as you go, and you can even add characters as you’re plotting out the book and seeing who else you need to support your story.
If you want help naming your characters, you can read my article “4 Ways to Name Your Characters.” And if you’re still stumped on character names by October 31st, you can use a place holder like “MC” for your main character, “villain” for your antagonist, etc., so that you don’t have to let that slow down your writing on November 1st. When you do decide on a name, just use the find and replace feature to add the character’s name in.
Step Four: Create Your Major Plot Points
Now, it is possible that you switch the order of steps three and four depending on whether or not your plot points or your characters stand out to you more or just your preference for this planning process.
But by the time you get to step four, you should be working on both your characters and your plot points
We do not need to know every scene in every chapter of the book, but you do need to start thinking about where your characters start the story, what sends them into the action of the story (and probably whether they went willingly or were forced into it), some of the major conflicts that they will face along the way, and ultimately if they will succeed or fail in the end.
If you have a favorite plotting structure that you like to follow, now is the time to use it to plot out all those major points of your novel. Some popular plot structures include Save the Cat, the Three-Act Structure, and Freytag’s Pyramid. (Freytag’s Pyramid was the one I was taught in literature class in middle school, but I honestly didn’t know it had a name until I was looking it up for this article!)
If you’re more of a pantser and like to figure things out as you write, try to keep things big picture so that you still have a general direction for where you’re going when you hit November 1st. I would recommend using Freyag’s Pyramid to do this. It gives you just enough direction so that you’re not wandering aimlessly through your story while still giving you plenty of space to create in the moment.
Step Five: World Building (Optional)
This step might not apply to you if you are writing a contemporary novel (though it could still apply to you if your contemporary novel requires you to do some research about things you don’t know).
But if you have the time and are writing a book such as fantasy that would benefit from world building, it would be a good idea to spend some of your Preptober time mapping out your world, creatures, magic systems, and anything else that makes your world unique.
Doing this in October will help set you up for success come November 1st. You’ll already know how your character has to operate in this new world. You’ll have your rules established and know what can and can’t work for your characters and your world, which will help set the direction for your writing sprints in November.
If you like additional planning...
If you’re like me and enjoy a little bit more planning of your story and characters before you start writing, then try to carve out some time to do that before November comes.
One way you can do this is by mapping out scene ideas before November so that when you come to sit at your computer on November 1st, you already have an idea of what you will be writing and what will happen to those characters in those scenes. This is one of those bonus steps that really made a difference for me when I participated in NaNoWriMo in years past.
Here’s an example of what that might look like:
The Lion King
Scene 1: introduce the world of the Pride lands and the MC as a playful cub who is eager to be king
Scene 2: introduce the antagonist and the seeds of doubt in MC’s mind about the outlands
Scene 3: introduce love interest and have her and MC sneak off to the outlands
Scene 4: MC and love interest are caught in the outlands and trapped by hyenas but MC’s father saves him
Scene 5: antagonist’s POV and learn that he was behind the attack on the MC in the outlands
As you can see in the example, there are a whole lot of important details that are left out, but this gives a map of where each scene needs to start and stop and the main thing that needs to happen in each scene and by which characters. This allows you to have a whole lot of creativity when you sit down to write but reduces the risk of you getting stuck on a blank page or writing yourself to a point of no return.
Most importantly…have fun!
Novel November is a challenge—and a hard challenge at that—but it is meant to be fun as well. It’s a chance for you to get that little push that you need to finally start writing out your book. It’s a chance to connect with other writers over a common goal. And it’s a chance to have fun creating the world and characters that have been living in your head for so long. Enjoy the process!