Crazy bit of advice from a crazy NaNo newbie (take at your own risk ):
Winterstar, if October 31 comes around and you still aren't able to think of a plot, I would recommend doing one of two things:
1. Just start writing and find your plot and characters that way.
2. You could try retelling an old story, like a fairy tale or Greek myth. That way you already have a built in plot.

I'm going to try again this year (I didn't do very well last year)
Here's my cover:

It's going to be about a mixed racial home for mentally and/or physically disabled children in 1960's Alabama.

Don't have time to comment on all of the posts, but I skimmed through and there were a bunch of things that caught my eye! Good thinking, Nwebbers!
I may not join NanoWrimo officially, but I'll take the challenge of writing 50000 words anyways on my own.
On the Writer's World thread, somewhere we discussed free verse for NanoWrimo, and that's how I'm going to be writing my novel.
I'll post more later.

sweetlilgurlie, thanks! I feel better, now. Hmm, I'll probably start trying to think of characters. I need to know my characters before I know the plot. A good plot is ruined by bad characters, I think. But good characters are a little harder to ruin.

Avra, I think I'll might retell a fairy tale. Now to pick the right one... Now I'm scared again. Then again, I might not retell a fairy tale. I don't know!!

*Takes a deep breath* *Talks to herself* It's not that, hard. It's not that hard. It's just like a story for Creative Writing. Only longer. A LOT longer *Takes another deep breath*

Thanks for your advice, peoples!

Aww, don't be too scared. Last year was my first year and I was very, very nervious, especially since it was personally very important to me that I finish my novel. I did, and I did it in excellent time too. So if I can do it, the biggest procrastinator ever, you can do it too.

I think a little healthy fear is good for NaNo, because it gives you proper respect and that extra bit of motivation you need to just sit down and get it done. Even an extra few minutes spent writing every day can make a HUGE difference in your overall productivity.

Yay!!!!! NW Wri-mo er's!! This is exciting. I decided a month ago to do NaNoWriMo (my original plan was to do it in October instead, but that didn't work out; though through no fault of my own...) so I decided to just do it with everyone else in November. Now, knowing that so many NWebbers are doing it as well, I know it's gonna be awesome! So, if any of you notice that you've been friended over there by 'the_enchanted_rose', don't freak out... that's me.

Mar, beautiful cover! I love the image you used!

What if my characters get on my nerves and I want to kill them all?

Y'know, there's nothing that says you couldn't kill everyone off. Just maybe wait until after you've reached 50K.

Everyone's given you great pointers on plots/outlining/ideas, but the one suggestion I might add is to think of a question that interests you, whether physical or emotional, and then start to explore it. For example, one of the main questions that sparked my plot was basically, "What if you had been told all your life that it wasn't safe to be you?" There's a lot of characters and twists that have sprung from that.

aravis_tarkina, I really like your cover! The title in particular is lovely.

RileyTea, have you done NaNo before? And welcome to NW, by the way.

Okay, so I'm curious: what exactly do all of your outlines look like? Do you do a timeline? A detailed synopsis?

Well, my plot has changed. I can't find anywhere to take the story of Mordred. Instead, i'm doing an sorta-based-off-of-not-really-a-re-telling of Beauty and the Beast. It is with great reluctance, but the plot just came together in my head much, much easier than Mordred, so ...

As for outline appearance, i've done several different kinds; very simple (setting, conflict, climax, conclusion), prose overview, etc. Before Nov. 1st, i hope to have a list of what i want to accomplish every day of NaNo.

aravis_tarkina: I really like your cover! The title is really clever!

Which reminds me that I need a title. But hey, I don't know what's going to happen yet...

there's nothing that says you couldn't kill everyone off. Just maybe wait until after you've reached 50K.

Why do main characters only die at the ends of books? Someone who doesn't have an idea yet!: write a story where all of the main characters die before you get half way through. It will be fun. I will read it. It's not done much, so it will be original.

"What if you had been told all your life that it wasn't safe to be you?"

Now that is a neat idea!

I found one of the houses that I'm going to use. So now the characters are starting to come alive. If they don't have a habitation, they would probably shrivel up and die.

As to overview.... I am not doing one, unless I change my story. Because I don't know what's happening in that sense.

Ah, so good to hear that Betsie is joining us! (I think?) I hope your storyline all comes together and stuff, and you have a fantastic time!

aravis_tarkina: I like the cover! Tis lovely!

I'm not sure if I said this before, but I finished up my plotline last week or so....and as such have barely been thinking about NaNo except for counting down the days. (And getting some reading done, just in case I'm not able to read much during NaNo...) Ho hum.

Malkah: I did a detailed plot outline (scrapping the simple synopsis idea because I found personally it wasn't enough for me), that ended up about 8 or 9 pages. Then, because I had some events that I thought up towards the end of the planning, but actually go earlier in the novel, I wrote out a simple timeline so I knew.

I'm really excited about one character in particular in my novel to be, (who actually isn't the main one....I was excited about the main character, until this new one was brought to mind, originally only to move the plot along, but now he's actually got a theme and a reason for his existence that's quite clear to me, which is more then I can say about the main character...) I hope I can get him right, if I can, I think that he'll be my favourite one in the novel.

Outlining this year shall be interesting for me. I'm sort of writing a "school story". It's sort of like a story for characterization- or else a bunch of little stories in one big story. What kind of a conflict would that be?

Meh, I'll just write it out and have a good time

I'm voluntarily going insane this year too! Er, I mean, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. My story is a whimsical fantasy (at least, I like to think it's whimsical)... I've been calling it the love story of reason and romance, because that sounds pretty and Important... but that's not really what it's about. I know very little about it, aside from my main character's first name and a few important (and non-important) plot points.

Regarding schedules and plotting: One day when I was procrastinating I wrote up four detailed schedules for different types of days during NaNo (Plain old school days, school and rehearsal days, Saturdays and Sundays). I doubt I will follow them - I'll probably just write when I can, but I am laying down some rules for myself, such as: no novel writing before church on Sundays.

As for plotting, I am deathly afraid of outlines. The one and only time I tried a chapter-by-chapter outline, I was sick of the story before I plotted a quarter of it. I don't want that to happen again! But neither can I just "wing it," with no notion of characters or story. So I will probably spend the last week before Nov. 1st brainstorming ideas.

Anyhow, I'm very excited. I've been wanting to do this ever since I found out about it two years ago... at first it was only a little wistful longing filled with doubt... but this year I'm jumping in.

*tackle-hugs Fauny*

DELANEY! You've come at last! HOORAY! Which idea did you decide upon then, please?

Yeah, I'm not one for detailed outlines either. I'm good with coming up with a bunch of character names and personalities (Thank-you Ditto Town!) and having a vague idea of where I want my plot to go. Though I discovered last year that it was a really good idea to know where the end of my story was going to be. How it was going to end, I mean.

I discovered three days from the end of NaNo that I had no idea how I was going to end my story. I'd created a really nasty situation for my character and left her absolutely no way out.

So as much fun as winging it is, this year I'm planning how I am starting my story, having a vague idea of what the middle is going to be like, and knowing how i'm going to end it.

Sort of like those online maps- like google maps. You punch in a start place and an ending place and it fills in the in betweens. I have an idea where I'm going, just not exactly how I'm gonna get there.

This is my first official year doing nano. Last year I did it, but I never joined the site or reached the fifty thousand words, however this year I've joined the site(my name is the same there as here) and picked a plot line that at least will has me pointed in the right direction. It's really cool seeing so many other narniawebbers doing nano too. Good luck to everybody.

I finally joined. "Betsie" there, as here. I was hoping for Bets....

I also finally figured out how my story is going to go..... *happy dance* I don't think I'll outline it. I love outlines and graphs, but something as vague and imprecise as a story idea would just annoy me. But I know what is going to happen, and how it's going to work, so I think it's alright.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement!