usually I walk into national novel writing month facing a blank page. This time I had a plan.

I had an idea for a novel three weeks before NaNoWriMo was set to start. It is based on some brainstorming for two words that I got through Storymatic, a game that consists of cards with the character and action. In this case it was

• fashion designer
• an historical reenactment gone awry

after brainstorming, I came up with the character of an ex-Army Ranger, older, retired, who likes rocking the cradle by going out with younger men. This Army guy had a want to be a fashion designer ex-boyfriend. During a World War II reenactment, a murder occurs in the ex-boyfriend was arrested. Army ranger guy feels bad and decides to help the guy out.

However I didn’t think that that would be enough to carry a novel. I outlined the main plot. Then I came up with two subplots: a runaway niece, and a matchmaker.  I got some index cards and wrote out the outline for the main story, then wrote out the subplot stories and interspersed them with the main plot.

That took all of a day.

I still had a little over 2 weeks to figure this out.  So I sat down and did character freewrites whenever I had a chance for the main characters: Protagonist, antagonist, the niece, the matchmaker, the ex-boyfriend.  I also answered detailed questions for the protagonist and the antagonist.

When I started NaNoWriMo, I did 10K words on the first day.  Mind you, I dictated it, but I walked in with a generally clear idea of what to say and how to say it.  Of course, I’m a pantser at heart, so I’ve gone off the outline a couple of times.

Right now, I’m at almost 41K words.  I’m at the climax, and I’m not sure if I can milk it for another 10K words, so I can see myself going back and doing text walls of description.