NaNoWriMo is something I do almost every year. I’ve had many years where I did it unofficially, without signing up for an account and simply wrote. I’ve also had several years where for one reason or many, I simply didn’t make the fifty-thousand word goal.
This year of course, I’ll be doing it again. I’ll also be recording how the attempt goes, through from preparation to the final day of writing on November 30th. While this year I’m in the rebel class and working on something I’ve done previously, I did want to share some of my resources for getting inspiration for those of you who want to try your hand at it but could use a dose of inspiration.
The Forge is a really good generator for things like place names, beasties and yes, spells. Very fantasy.
Chaotic Shiny has a massive amount of generators for almost anything you could possibly need. Wide variety.
WritingExercises is a massive collection of prompts and exercises to help get you started or unstuck. Wide variety.
Polygon Map Generator generators random island-like maps, with some basic options for customization. Good for setting.
Fantasy City Generator is really useful for modern cities too if you need it and can be modified to some extent. Good for setting.
Pinterest is an excellent place for collecting all the random bits you find into a single storyboard or helping you find that one piece of something you’re missing. Wide variety.
Ambient Mixer can be used to create virtually any sort of background noise you need for setting or focus. Wide variety.
These are some of the resources I’ve found the most useful for starting, collecting and gathering inspiration to help build the story. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but hopefully it gives you somewhere to start looking.
Also, don’t forget to check out the NaNoWriMo site itself and poke your head into the forums.
The Written Vixen 