How do you achieve your goal? How do you plan ahead? Do you know your one sentence idea? Your conflict lock? Your characters? How do you keep track of your progress? All these things are key for success.

1. Planning for
NaNoWriMo
Success

2. The Keys NaNoWriMo
Pre-Planning
Set Goals
Keeping Track Daily
Always Write Forward
Staying Motivated

3. Pre-Planning
Make a roadmap--if
you don’t know where
you are headed you are
likely to get lost!

4. The WHO of your story
Protagonist, (Hero and/or Heroine)
Antagonist
The WHAT of your Story
What is your basic conflict (Conflict
Box further on)
Pre-Planning

5. The WHY of your story
Motivation
The WHERE of your story
Location
The WHEN of your story
Time frame
Pre-Planning

6. Basic backstory of main characters
Who are they?
Main character’s GMC (Goal, Motivation and Conflict)
What do they want?
Why do they want it?
Why can’t they have it?
Pre-Planning

7. What Point of View are you going to write
in?
What will be your tone?
How will the conflict escalate?
Pre-Planning

8. Write it DOWN
Original Idea
Narrative Structure
Make a character sheet
Draw your Conflict Box
Pre-Planning

9. Original Idea
One Sentence
25 Words or less
Sums up your book
Imagine landing in a faraway world and the only
way you can get home is to follow a brick road
and on your journey a wicked witch keeps trying
to steal your shoes.

10. Narrative Structure
What is your inciting Incident?
Escalating Conflict
Crisis (Dark Moment)
Climax
Resolution (payoff to the reader)

11. Character Sheet
Take your main characters and write
down their bios
Write down who they are in the
beginning, the middle and the end of the
book to the best of your ability
How do they change?

12. Character Sheet

13. The Central Story Question
Will the protagonist defeat the
antagonist and achieve her goal?
When the reader asks that question, the
story begins.
When the reader gets the answer, the
story is over. This question leads us to
the . . .

14. The Conflict Box
A way of diagraming your protagonist,
antagonist, goals, and conflict.
You can have conflict because:
Protagonist and antagonist want the
same thing.
Protagonist and antagonist want different
things, but achieving one goal causes
conflict with the other’s goal.

15. Conflict Box
Protagonist
Conflict
Protagonist
Goal
Antagonist
Goal
Antagonist
Conflict

16. The Conflict Box-Same Goals
from Agnes and the Hitman

17. Conflict Box: Same Goals
•Agnes wants
to keep her
house, which
she bought
from Brenda.
•Brenda wants
to steal back
the house she
just sold to
Agnes
Keep
HOUSE
Get
HOUSE
Protagonist
Conflict
Antagonist
Conflict

18. Conflict Box: Conflict
Someone is
trying to steal
the house from
her!
Someone won’t
let her steal the
house back!
Keep
HOUSE
Get
HOUSE

19. Conflict Box: Inescapable!
Someone is
trying to steal
the house from
her!
Someone won’t
let her steal the
house back!
• To see if your
conflict is
inescapable:
Draw a line from
Agnes’ goal to
Brenda’s Conflict.
If Agnes is
causing Brenda’s
conflict, you’re
halfway there.
• Then draw a line
from Brenda’s
goal to Agnes’
conflict. If Brenda
is causing Agnes’
conflict, you have
a conflict lock.
Keep
HOUSE
Get
HOUSE

20. The Conflict Box-Different
Goals from Lost Girls

21. Conflict Box: Different Goals
KILL whoever is
killing young
girls
KILL the
daughters of the
men who
betrayed him
Protagonist
Conflict
Antagonist
Conflict
•Gant wants to
find out who is
kidnapping and
killing young
girls.
•The Sniper wants
revenge for being
betrayed.

22. Conflict Box: Conflict
KILL whoever is
killing young
girls
KILL the
daughters of the
men who
betrayed him
Another Girl is
killed,
kidnapped.
Someone is
closing in on
him, trying to
stop him.
•Gant wants to
find out who is
kidnapping and
killing young
girls.
•The Sniper wants
revenge for being
betrayed.

23. Conflict Box: Conflict
KILL whoever is
killing young
girls
KILL the
daughters of the
men who
betrayed him
Another Girl is
killed,
kidnapped.
Someone is
closing in on
him, trying to
stop him.
•Gant wants to
find out who is
kidnapping and
killing young
girls.
•The Sniper wants
revenge for being
betrayed.

24. Daily Writing Goals
Word Count/Page Count
Daily Reminders
Don’t edit
Weekly Goals
Reward yourself
Set Goals

25. Read what you wrote the day
before
But don’t edit
But make notes
Keep a daily writing grid
Keeping Track Daily

26. Daily Writing Grid

27. Always Write Forward
Use Grid to keep track of story
Use Character sheet to keep track of
character changes
Use Character grid to keep track the
flow of the story
DON’T REWRITE OR EDIT!

28. Staying Motivated
Support other writers
Reward yourself--especially on hard writing
days
Get out and walk
Take Breaks
Look at daily/weekly accomplishments
Don’t beat yourself
It’s a marathon not a sprint

29. Print
Book
More free slideshares on survival, writing, history, trivia
and more topics are available by clicking on the image
below.

30. For More Information click on covers
The Complete Writer is four books at discount in one
bundle.

31. Coming 16 November by Bob Mayer.
A sequel to Agnes and the Hitman:
Amazon
Apple
Nook
Kobo

32. New York Times bestselling author, is a graduate of West Point
and former Green Beret. He’s had over 80 books published,
including the #1 bestselling series Green Berets, Time Patrol,
Area 51, and Atlantis. He’s sold over 5 million books. He was
born in the Bronx and has traveled the world. He’s lived on an
island off the east coast, an island off the west coast, in the
Rocky Mountains, the Smoky Mountains and other places,
including time in East Asia studying martial arts.
He was an instructor and course developer/writer for years at
the JFK Special Warfare Center and School which trains Green
Berets and also runs the SERE school:
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape.
www.bobmayer.com