Nanowrimo cheat sheet

Here’s your cheat sheet for Nanowrimo. Or for just writing a book or script!

Theoretically, you could schedule your four weeks of Nanowrimo by dedicating one week to each quarter of your story: Act I, Act II: Part 1, Act II: Part 2, and Act III.

Realistically, I think you should be thrilled if you get even halfway through a first draft in a month. That’s huge! Anything you do in just one month is almost inevitably more like an expanded outline (what the film business calls a treatment) than what I would call a real book. But that’s just fine.

I write in layers—I do draft after draft of a book until I consider it finished. But since the first draft is the hardest, and anything after is when the real magic starts happening, I think taking a fast and furious month to get that first “vomit’ draft out of the way is a fabulous way to write. And one of the best ways to actually get a book FINISHED.

So go ahead and push yourself—but don’t kill yourself, if you see what I mean.

Here are some links that can help!

If you need quick pointers, prompts or a kick of inspiration, probably the fastest way is to watch one of these videos on Act I – all shorter than 10 minutes:

• Plot Your Book or Script Fast – with Index Cards
• Sequences, Climaxes, and SETPIECES
• The Plan – Your Roadmap to Act II!
• Theme and Thematic Image System: Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Basic Story Elements
• About That Villain

   

These videos demonstrate how to set up a powerful Act I with a few popular movie examples:

• THE HUNGER GAMES, Sequence 1
• THE HUNGER GAMES, Act I
• Screenwriting Tricks of SELMA
• SELMA, Sequence 1
• Basic Story Elements: JAWS
• Basic Story Elements: OKLAHOMA!

 

This post lists the must-have story elements of Act I, with links to extensive discussions and videos on each element. If you take the rest of the week to identify these elements in your story, you will be in fantastic shape for Nano:

These previous posts have links to discussions focusing on choosing the right idea to begin with, brainstorming with Index Cards and a Story Structure Grid, and the most basic story elements you’ll need to start writing.

—Getting & Expanding on the IDEA

—What’s Your PREMISE? — Identifying the ACTION LINE of your story

—Three Things You MUST Know About Your Protagonist

And I’ll do posts throughout the month, but if you need them now here are posts listing story elements, questions and prompts for each of the other Acts:

• The Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure
• Essential Elements of ACT II: PART I
• Act II: Part 1 —Essential Elements, cont.
• MIDPOINT – the tentpole of your book or script!
• MIDPOINT, Part 2
• Act II: Part 2 – The Downward Spiral
• The Three-Part ACT III
• Writing Act III: Essential Elements & Useful Tricks

   

And of course, all of this information and more is spelled out in order with hundreds of examples in the workbooks: Stealing Hollywood and Writing Love.

Get excited! Good luck!! And keep me posted!!

—Alex

I do story structure posts each week for my newsletter, which lives on Substack. Subscribe to the Screenwriting Tricks for Authors newsletter to get these posts in your inbox!