NaNoWriMo Prep Tools

Prepare for NaNoWriMo, or any other writing project, with over 100 tools and resources for planning plotlines, creating characters, developing worlds, and more!

Know of a resource not listed here? Make sure you let me know so I can add it!

Last Updated: Oct. 29, 2015

Topics

General Writing and Writing Habits

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Book References

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Story Bibles

  • This guide on how to make a successful Story Bible by RJ Blain is a dream come true.
  • More in depth Character Bible outline/questions. Another good one here with 100 questions.

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Generators

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Beat Sheets

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Character Development

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Dialogue

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Outlining & Planning

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Plot, Conflict, and Scene Building

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World Building

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Word Counting & Calendars

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Other

  • some things that would make cool stories
  • Free online novel-writing app (LitLift).
  • Descriptions of the 12 most common archetypes.
  • I wanted to add a link to this amazing podcast series about writing, hosted by the fabulous Brandon Sanderson, plus Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler. Podcasts are each 15 minutes long, and they cover ALL writing topics, basically
  • Lino – Private pinboards that work just like your home corkboard. I love this tool so much, and I think it works way better than Pinterest for storybuilding.
  • Songza – My preference for free music tracks. Love the Post-Rock Bliss channel for writing.
  • Firestorm – I live in Kitely grid and host a write in on Thursdays, but there’s virtual write-ins all over virtual worlds like Second Life. If you want something really low resource, Radagast is a text viewer.

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Tools for DURING NaNoWriMo

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Revising

  • Katastic’s Youtube Vlogs on writing and revising are great! I’ll be trying out her outlining method (2 videos) after nano is over and I’m ready to start a longer novel.

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Finishing the Novel

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Credits:

Links found from NaNo users: averyink, Will_Watanabe, ushotmedown, debso, Leechy, scriobhnoir, Roswenthe, Allocin, girl-king, shand21, Chandeere, zvi, BookBaby, KristinaVH, Jillieji, purplegracenotes, Zette, ChaosFoxRiverSong906, and ToolUsingMonkey on NaNo

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Have a resource you’d like to recommend?

Let me know by leaving a comment here or adding the link on the forums.

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Found a Broken Link?

Let me know by leaving a comment here or contact me directly with the broken URL.

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23 thoughts on “NaNoWriMo Prep Tools

  1. You may have this here and I just missed it, but I really appreciate Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook — it was mentioned in one of the NaNo webinars in October. You need to have the basic premise and a few characters for this workbook to help, and I found the exercises to be very thought provoking — helped me build in some much needed tension and complexity. (And thanks for compiling all these resources!)

  2. Great list! I would add (in the Tools for DURING NaNoWriMo section), Write or Die http://oldandbusted.drwicked.com/. It’s an app available on several platforms as well as a free web app. I have used it during NaNo when I needed a boost to finish a chapter or a section. It’s like your own personal word war/sprint.

  3. I would suggest the “Track My Words” (http://bit.ly/1lcIFD1) Google Docs add on I created. It tracks your words per minute and word count for each day you type automatically, and then generates stats for you so you can see which days you type the most, how you compare to other writers on the site, and more.

    If you are using Google Docs I think it is a great option!

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