The first session of Camp NaNo is coming in about a week and a half, and I am still in the middle of preparations for it. One of my primary preparatory tasks is finishing a timeline for the first draft of the fourth book of my series.
For those who aren’t familiar with Camp NaNoWriMo, the event is a branch of NaNoWriMo that happens in April and July. It is a bit more open than the original NaNo regarding the structure of the event. You can choose your own task (novel, short stories, editing, and more), and your own goal (number of words/pages/etc.). Another feature I like is that you can choose to be in a virtual cabin. These cabins are based on similar task/genre or similar goal, I believe (or specifically chosen, if you have certain people you wish to share a cabin with).
As such, I think Camp NaNo has a few interesting dynamics to it. That said, while I have been quite successful with NaNo in November, I have yet to pull off a win (or serious attempt for that matter) at Camp NaNo.
Now, though, I have a story that really wants out, and far be it for me to keep the story in. Thus my task falls to timelining the story, which is at least a solid plot as of a couple days ago. Yay!
The first step, as it were, involved getting a rough timeline of the series. As each book is plotted, timelined, and written, I tweak the series timeline to match, but it at least gives a starting point. So, with the finishing of Book 3 this past November, I gained the starting point for Book 4.
From there, I broke the span of the book into broad sections. Currently, it’s something like
- On break from school
- While school is in session
- Once the semester ends
With the general breakdown of the time, I am now in the process of filling in what is happening during those events. This helps me know which characters would be showing up when, and it gives some structure as the events unfold. That said, the tough part is frequently taking that giant chunk of time and breaking it into chapters.
As I work on setting up individual chapters, I piece together specific events, choose the best POV for those events, and make sure the timing works appropriately. I do my best to verify all of those things serve the story by running sections of the timeline by my in-house editor. We discuss spots that might be issues, and then, once we are satisfied, I move on to the next section.
My current plan is to get this timeline finished before 1 April. That’s not completely set, but it is my goal. For this past NaNo, I had a partial timeline for Book 3 at the start of November and finished the timeline about a third of the way in. I think that draft still turned out really well.
As for the timeline itself, I use a program called Aeon Timeline (typically available with discounts for NaNo participants and winners), and I include different things depending on how much time (and energy) I need at the time. My chapters have the timespan they cover and a paragraph (length varies) for what the chapter is about. In that way, the timeline also serves as an outline for me. For my first two timelines, I have my characters in the file so I can track who is in which chapters. I plan to add that information into the latter two timelines when I revise them.
I’m a bit new to this timelining business, but it seems that with each book I write (and timeline), I am able to refine my process a bit more. So far, it seems to be working.
How do you plan your books? Do you have a particular outline or timeline process you use? I would love to hear from you!
~ Theresa
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