Quest Guide Jenn's Preptember
How she's preparing for Fictober and Novel Quest
Hello all! Quest Guide Jenn here!
I guess an introduction is in order. While this is my first year as a Quest Guide, I have been a writing leader in my local writing group, The Writing Journey, and for Nanowrimo in the past. I’m a multi-genre author (romance, fantasy, science fiction, and more!) who started writing fanfiction but moved into writing original fiction several years ago. I found that having a writing community and a monthly goal has helped me get into a regular writing habit.
Some writers have been with our Quest Guides for years and may remember that we offer several free preparatory workshops in October to prepare for a jam-packed month of writing in November!
Without the looming ‘new novel goal’ that November usually entailed, I wanted to return to some roots of mine, things I did before the hustle and bustle of being a leader took over. Sure, I will have my goals for November, but I’m excited to have some October goals… and even closing out September with some goals, too.
To Plot or Not To Plot
Many have heard the terms plotter and pantser (even plantser if you are somewhere in between). I tend to run somewhere in the middle. I will often have an idea for what I’m going to write without always writing it down (goodness me I’m currently writing a serial that I don’t have plotted out on paper and releasing each chapter as they’re finished).
I tend to go in with at least some idea of what I want to do.
From there, though, the advice gets… dodgy at best. Write down your world, make maps, and write character profiles.
(FYI, we’ll be putting out some helpful 101 guides soon on those)
Oftentimes, it all feels like generic advice. So, for me… I came up with some goals. What are the key things I NEED TO KNOW about my characters, settings, and where do I want to expand.
For example, I had my characters. In my head, I knew a bit about their history. But as I was writing something that I could put out on social media about my character (a profile if you will), I realized… I don’t know her mother or father. In the context of the story, it doesn’t matter. My secondary character has been alone most of her life. She was adapted from a different character but… is she an orphan like my other character? Do I need to say it explicitly? Not in the story. As far as I have plotted, the topic of her parents has not come up.
So far, then my character profile looks like this:
Which feels a little sparse. But… that is something I can figure out later.
Because honestly, the idea of creating a whole world is DAUNTING!
So, I put together my very own Preptember goals.
Sure, the activities are basic… but they helped me start understanding my world more and more importantly, kept me on track and still doing worldbuilding activities.
For example, I wanted to better understand my main characters, so I wrote some short stories, which was more fun than writing a boring history.
I wanted to expand the relationship between a main character and a secondary character… so I did the same thing. I wrote another short story.
What I did was find what was engaging to me. I, personally, cannot go long stretches of doing worldbuilding like writing histories or character settings. I still do them. But bits at a time. That way, I can go from these short stories to character sketches like this:
A character sketch like this can then be filled out over time as I learn about my character.
But I also tend towards softer worldbuilding rather than hard worldbuilding (think Tokein). Where details may creep up as I tell the story. I don’t write rich histories but prefer to delve into the story itself.
This methodology has also come up over time. I’ve been writing for several years now, and as I change, so does what works for me.
Quest Guide Jenn’s October Plans and Prep
As I head into November, I’ll be participating in Fictober, a prompt challenge based on Tumblr (which you can click here and find out more information and see the 2024 Prompt List). I use the prompts to help me fill out my world, character relationships, and more while also dabbling in shorter-format writing that relates to my current works in progress. This is a way that I stay engaged and have fun. In the past, I have even completed all 31 prompts to expand on one of my novel length fanfics.
(Note, no quest guide leads or is even a part of any of these Tumblr challenges. We’re just sharing them as a way to help generate excitement and open up new opportunities for writers that may not have seen these before.)
But there are many October writing prompt (as well as art prompt) challenges.
Tropetember is coming to a close
Some people find great inspiration in prompts (whether they are just themes or dialogue based prompts). Prompts can be a great way to help you in a slump, expand your creativity, and challenge yourself in a new way. I also really enjoy checking in on Reedsy’s weekly prompts.
What are ways that you prepare for a big month of writing? Or what are the ways you enhance your worldbuilding? Do you have a different method? Please share it with us and what your plans are for October!