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Coming up with an idea that will see you through a 50k+word novel is not always easy. If you have an idea for Nano, great, if you don’t — in the words of Douglas Adams — don’t panic.
If you have an idea: fantastic. Perhaps it is something that just came into your mind one day and you could have been living with it and nurturing it. That’s great, but you can’t guarantee that one idea will be sufficient to see you through the whole month and the entire novel. You will still need other ideas for small scenes or when you hit the wall. It’s always good to have a resource bank of ideas and prompts to call upon.
You can draw your ideas from many different places: pictures, a vague idea you may have had before, conversations, dreams and writing exercises. Best-selling author Jasper Fforde always starts with what he calls a “narrative dare”; latterly what would happen if humans always hibernated (as detailed in his latest novel Early Riser). You could have a go creating your own, for example: what would happen if all humans had robotic parts?
Collect idea-creation tools. Ideally in a notebook or in a file on your computer. If a picture catches your interest, take a copy and stick it in. If someone says something interesting, or you read a news article that has possibilities — stick it in.
