NaNoWriMo: How to Decide What to Write

So, I've been a little thought-consumed lately with NaNoWriMo.  It kind of brought me to a standstill on some of my other writing projects.  It's like... Like I'm on a roller-coaster that I've been anticipating for forever.  But, just before we can descend the first hill, it freezes.  It promises to start soon enough, but what to do before then? 

The fact of the matter is that I, personally, know what I'm writing for NaNoWriMo 2018.  I'm a lucky duck as in that I have the second half of a novel to finish.  But not everyone else has that.  And not everyone wants to work on what they worked on the year before.  So, what to do?  Well, I have a few suggestions.

First, I would take a good, long look at the type of books you've been reading as of late.  It's not a foolproof plan, but sometimes it helps.  Are you reading a lot of Fantasy books?  High Fantasy or Contemporary?  Or Urban?  Really dig deep into your subconscious and ask yourself what you feel like reading about that hasn't been written yet.  Then, just maybe, you'll find what you need to write.

And if that's not working for you, there's always digging through your trunk stories/notebooks.  Maybe there's an idea from years ago that you put away, but now might be ready to come back to.  Take the time to read through what you wrote a long time ago and see if it sparks you.

Also consider doing a non-traditional NaNoWriMo.  That is, maybe you want to write a collection of short stories or some fanfiction.  There's no real hard and fast rules on this for NaNoWriMo.  In fact, I did fanfiction back in 2010, and that was the first year I hit 50,000.  Whatever it takes to get the juices flowing.  Writing is writing, and while you might not be able to sell most fanfiction, you at least might have had the opportunity to work out some ideas that could lend themselves to a future, original work.

My last suggestion is a fun one.  I've done this one twice now.  Arrange a prompt swap with some friends.  The first time I did this, myself and two of my friends each wrote up a prompt.  It gave a basic summary of an idea, suggested some characters, as well as one or two funny scenes we wouldn't mind seeing.  Everything past the summary idea was considered only a suggestion.  Then, we dropped our names in a hat and swapped.  I still have the story in my trunk from that year, and it's on my agenda to attempt again in the future.  The second time, there was only two of us, so we just wrote prompts and swapped.  That one became the second and third NaNoWriMo's I've ever won.  The novel I'm finishing this year is also that one's sequel.

So, in the end, grab a writing buddy, prep like crazy, and get to writing.  NaNoWriMo's only about a week away!  (A week!!)