Every year when I do National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November, I find look for resources to help me plan or help when I get stuck. The NaNo forums are a great place to find help.
I’ve put together a bunch of resources that should help us plan in October and procrastinate (I mean do research to keep the plot moving) in November.
If you are a visual person, you may want to put together a collage of images to capture the mood and ideas for your work. Here’s a site that will let you create a visual image of your book.
If you are more verbal, try making a word cloud of terms related to your story.
It use to be when your plot got stuck, you had to resort to the plot wheel or a dart board or the old standby, “kill someone”. Now the Internet is full of great resources for various kinds of generators to spur your plots, define your characters, and refine your settings.
The Nine Frenchboys site has name generators, including French names, Japanese names, Medieval names, Trendy names, Villains’ names, and Fantasy names. They even have Gnome names and online handles, if you are as challenged as I am for names to use on Internet sites.
They give you help with character building, even anthropomorphic animal characters.
They have generators for fantasy titles, dragon names, clothing, and color names (and even the hex codes, if you want to put them on your website).
The plot twist generator can help when you get stuck. If you are writing fantasy, they have a plot twist generator for that.
At Seventh Sanctum they have generators for just about anything. You can work out your characters, beings, names, and settings. Work out your elements of darkness and evil or humor, whatever your story requires.
Don’t let being stuck be an excuse for not writing. And don’t let research be an excuse for not writing. Set a timer when you click over to one of these great sites.
For other tips on preparing for NaNoWriMo, check for other articles on this site.
If you have other helpful sites or tips, please leave a comment here.
