05Oct 2012 by diannagunn

Bringing your Ideas Together

Nanowrimo, Workshops, Writing, Writing
Earlier this week we went over a few ways to find ideas for your Nanowrimo novel. With any luck you successfully used one of the brainstorming techniques I mentioned on Monday and came up with a few ideas or managed to flesh out an idea you already had. Today I'd like to help you organize those ideas. While having a mind map or a right brain left brain list is great and either can be used as a basic guide, a linear list of ideas--or a few lists consisting of different categories of ideas--is sometimes more helpful. Personally, my mind maps tend to be horribly disorganized and messy, so I myself will be doing this exercise as soon as I finish writing this post. First, you need to find a…
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13Oct 2011 by diannagunn

10 Things You Should do Today

Goal setting, Inspirational, Novels, Writing, Writing: The Process
In case you haven't noticed,Nanowrimo has refreshed and opened its forums, though the full site isn't quite ready yet. With this news in mind, I've made up a list of ten things you should do today--or at least this week--to prepare for Nanowrimo. After all, you want to make the most of the experience, and have maximum fun time. 1~ Sign up or log into Nanowrimo. Check out all the pretty new participant icons. I swooned so much I had to show my boyfriend. Even he agrees that the participation icons are prettier. Or maybe he just said it to please me; I imagine he really hates Nanowrimo with all the attention he doesn't get. Anyway. Go update your account information. 2~ Make friends. Go check out the forums belonging…
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25May 2011 by diannagunn

Pulling Yourself out of a Writing Slump

Inspirational, Novels, Short Fiction, Writing, Writing: The Process
You're staring at a blank page, obsessing. You're a writer, but today, the computer screen is staring at you, blank and taunting. Today the words aren't flowing. And it's okay, because we've all been there. Writing is hard work, and some days are harder than others. The important thing is that when you're down, when writing is hardest, you try to make it easier, you try to still get done what you need to get done. Today I've created a short list of things you can do to pull yourself out of a creative slump. They aren't necessarily the first things you'd think of-writing exercises and prompts-though those can be helpful too. These suggestions are about truly getting in touch with your inner self, the deep part of you that…
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