If you are participating in NaNoWriMo next month then now is an excellent time to start planning. As this stage you can plan and develop your idea, identify your main characters, plot your novel and set aside your writing time.
Remember that you are aiming for 50,000 words. This is a first draft so you do not need to worry about typos, grammar, finding just the right word or sparkling dialogue - you can work on these when you edit.
Start with developing an idea - you might already have one in mind, if not take some time to explore sources of ideas including newspapers, historic events, existing novels, traditional children's stories and personal experience. Once you have a basic idea you can explore other aspects such as setting, characters and motivation - use "what if?" at this stage - what if the male character was female?, what if a specific historic event occurred today?, what if there was a thunderstorm instead of sunshine?
Once you have developed your idea look at plot and characters - which you work on first is likely to depend whether your novel is plot driven or character driven.
Plan a scene by scene outline of your novel - include as much detail as you need ensuring you highlight aspects that are imperative to your story. For example a sudden rainstorm may result in a character being late for a meeting and losing an important contract.
Create character profiles - the better you know your characters the easier it will be to write about them.
You will find many posts on this site detailing how to create character profiles and how to plot a novel, you could also look at Write it! How to write your book in 30 hours or less (just right for NaNoWriMo).
Writing a first draft in one month is an excellent way to kick-start your novel and take you a step closer to completion.
Happy writing.
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