@longcat - If you look on the NaNo forums you'll see that's a pretty common predicament. I've had that happen a lot of times during November writing sessions. I'll have an outline that's all nice and neat and then a week later the story will have been derailed off the outline or the initial idea I had. NaNo is about making a creative mess so to speak. It's a first draft. It doesn't have to be organized. It doesn't have to be pretty. Halfway through the month you could decide to completely shift everything in a different direction and it's a-okay. If things go well, you might find something in that mess you can use.

It might be worth you making an account over there/scanning the forums even if you don't participate just because there's a lot of good writing advice and a good-sized community over there dedicated to that specific issue.

@Kat - Hello! I'm pretty excited myself, though I've gotta juggle a few things on top of NaNo this year. How are you?