I'm a hybrid. I need to have enough of a plan already laid out before I get started or I run out of things to write about and get writer's block, but if I have TOO much of a plan laid out I end up using up the whole outline before I have enough written and then I get stuck.

The first time I did NaNo, I had the main character involuntarily being transported through the multiverse and living out stories vaguely based on things I'd done with friends in the past. I was successful with this one, because I was always able to add more words by expanding on one of the settings or squeezing in another point into a story arc.

The second time, I had an ambitious plan to write a fictitious research paper based on a wizard's attempts to unravel the fundamental nature of magic, interspersed with notes from the translator that discovered the paper and translated it to English. I got off to a great start, but then I hit the wall once I got the meat of the idea explained and found myself 20k words short still. I had some big bullet points in my outline I hadn't covered yet, but I hit crunch time at work the week before Thanksgiving so I didn't have the motive power to push through it.

This time, if I do it, I'll be working in a crossover universe of a couple fandoms, so I'll have a TON of material to tap for inspiration, and I've been working on the plan for MONTHS in the back of my head. If I'm GOING to do this, though, I need to get that plan out of my head and into an outline. (Technically, I've kinda cheated because I wrote the prologue chapter already in a fit of inspiration, but that was before I even thought about NaNo. I may just not count the prologue in my word count to make it fair.)

Writing starts November 1st. :D

-was under the impression you could start beforehand and put in word count starting november 1st-
Well I guess that means one more week and a half of fully fleshing out the details I will need >.>

the first year i did NaNo, i got all excited and started mid-October too. as it turned out, there was a day that i didn't write at all that november, so that was the day i pasted what i'd previously written into my document and included it in my word count. XD

also, just a tip - if you write/type ANY words - single words, a phrase, a sentence, a whole paragraph - that you want to delete - DON'T. cut them, and paste them at the very end of your document. put them on a new page, maybe even grey them out. this is what's called a Word Graveyard (i forget where i heard the term from now) the thing is, you wrote those words during november, they're yours, and they should count. when you go to get your official NaNo word count (copy all (ctrl-a mostly) the words in your document and paste them in the word count validator on the NaNo site), they'll be in your word count, but not in the story. (my google docs from 2012-2014 still have my Word Graveyard in them too)

Interesting =O
I'm on page 3 of my outline right now as it is XD not sure that counts though =P
And thats a really nifty trick!

i first heard of it in 2011, when i did my first NaNo.

outlines don't count towards your word count, but you can 'outline' as much as your little heart desires between now and nov 1. =)

The graveyard idea is sort of a gray area. >.> Yes, it's words you wrote during NaNo, but the goal is to write a 50,000-word novel, not to write 50,000 words in the process of writing a novel.

The time I succeeded was... I think 2001?

by the time i was done with my 2011 NaNo there was no word graveyard. =)

i look at it more like i wrote those words intending for them to go in the novel, so i count them.

Everyone I've announced it to either looks at me like I'm nuts or goes... That isn't that big of a book....
Tells me a bit about the people surrounding me XD

when i first did NaNo, i don't think too many people were surprised that i was doing it. i find most people are at one extreme or the other - 'oh, yeah, NaNo!' or '....what's that?' no one's like 'errr i heard of it, what is it?'

just thought of this: in reference to the word graveyard - yes, the goal of NaNo is to write a novel. but also to write 50,000 words towards that novel.

my 2012 novel is the shortest one i wrote, totalling 51,151 words (google docs says 51068 words) - the novel itself is 50287 words (again, google docs) without the word graveyard (781 words). but it's a complete novel; i finished it, wrote ~fini~ on my last page.

compare that with my older daughter, who, in 2013, 'won' on November 30th with 52,325 words - but she wasn't done the story (that happened in april of 2014, with a total of 100,088 words.) so when she was done, she'd won with half a novel.

Coda, upthread you said 'the goal is to write a 50,000-word novel, not to write 50,000 words in the process of writing a novel' - but my older daughter won with, technically, '50,000 words in the process of writing a novel.'

i know you also said the word graveyard is/was a grey area, but it stuck with me, and now that it's unstuck, that's my rationale for using the word graveyard. =)

Well, the rules explicitly say the novel doesn't have to be DONE.

heh yes, that is true. =)

Next week!
I have until next week to finish naming the important and side characters XD

Going to the "local" (40 minute drive) kick-off tomorrow!

I'm going to stick with editing my first attempt. Not sure how I'll record the words, except to just take a current count of the document and then math it at the end of each essay-thing.

i have my main character, the time she's from (2215), a few things about her time, and the big thing that she goes back in time to impact. i don't know what year she's going back to yet. (it'll be the future for us, though - 2030s maybe). yeah.