Idea Try Outs

With every novelling month there is the debate of whether to prepare or not to prepare. There are stories of weeks of carefully detailed character profiles and scene outlines being thrown away at the eleventh hour for the scarce glow of a shiny new idea. It’s when pantsers and plotters go head to head and it becomes every writer for themselves.

When you’ve signed up to write a novel in a month and you have four long weeks before you have to put pen to paper, if you’re starting a new story on June 1st but have no idea, what are you to do? There are all of these tantalizing preparation challenges but what if you don’t want to plan one idea out that much? What if you don’t even have a character to put through Speed Dating or a subject in which to Treasure Hunt? Let’s open Try Outs, Idea Try Outs.

Think of yourself in a large auditorium sitting at one end opposite the doors behind one of those collapsible tables. You’re in charge and you get to pick which idea you go with come June 1st. It might be one of the many candidates attending the formal Try Outs or it might be some unknown that you heard about months ago and has come to your attention again or a fresh face that you discover at 11:58pm on May 31st. It’s entirely up to you and you’ll know it once you find it.

Put those ideas through their paces in May. Dredge up old candidates, discover new ones and make them all work for the honour of fulfilling their potential and being brought to life during SoCNoC.