Creating a content plan for your blog
Last week I talked about my efforts to get serious about building my
Before you finish that draft
After an excruciating process taking anywhere between a few weeks and several years, your first--or second, or third--draft is almost finished. Your adrenaline's pumping and you're ready to power through to the finish line. As antsy as you might be to finish it, I suggest instead you pause and take a deep breath. It's time to create a plan for after you've crossed the finish line. Start by scheduling a couple says off. You can write, of course, but jumping straight from one book to the next isn't a great idea. Give your brain some time to relax and refill the creative well by enjoying somebody else's book or doing something fun. You might want to focus on stories very different from your current WIP so you can get out…
Robin Burks on Character Development
Today's author is debut novelist Robin Burks, whose novel, Zeus, Inc. began as a Nanovel. I hope you'll give her a warm welcome and enjoy her thoughts on character development. * * * * What makes a good character in a story? Character development is something every writer has to think about. A good character is key in readers enjoying your work and a good character will keep readers coming back for more of what you write. But where to begin when creating a character? I tend to look at my own personal characters from an actor's perspective because of my background in theatre. I ask myself about their motivations and I put myself in their shoes and try to react to situations in a way that I would if…
Bringing your Ideas Together
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…
Creating a Plan B
Every blogger--or other writer who's actually expected to produce something regularly--should have a plan B for when things hit the fan. Rather than a small white pill, the plan B for a writer should be a back up of writing: a collection of spare blog posts, article drafts, half-finished fanfiction chapters ready to be rounded out at any moment, or whatever else you're expected to publish on a regular basis. I haven't always been the greatest at this. For the last two weeks I've missed blog posts due to crisis situations--and because I didn't have a plan B. I should have had at least three spare blog posts on hand. I didn't, and therefore my blog sat unloved for a day. So last week, instead of beating myself up over…
Creating a Nanowrimo Survival Kit
Every year in at least one of the Nanowrimo forums you'll find a thread talking about people's Nanowrimo survival kits. A Nanowrimo survival kit is a big box full of items that will help you through Nanowrimo. Unlike most kits, not all of it will be in a box. Some of these items are better off in the fridge or cupboards around your home. Some should be carried with you all the time. Today I've created an example Nanowrimo survival kit, which contains many items most Nanoers find useful during the month of November. Ramen Noodles- Mr. Noodles are a quick, simple meal to make when you're deprived of sleep and chained to your computer. Picking up a big box of these noodles is a good idea. Even if you…
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Staples Business Depot would like us to believe that August and September make up the most wonderful time of the year. Most people seem to believe that Christmas is the most wonderful time of year. And then there are a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand strange people that are convinced that October and November, especially November, are the best time of the year. Why is that? Well, it's simple. November is National Novel Writing Month. Each year in November, thousands of people gather both on the interwebs and in real life, all with the same goal: to write 50, 000 words or a first draft of a novel. They gather on forums and in chat rooms. There are local Nanowrimo groups in hundreds of cities around the world…
Creating an Outline
There are plotters and there are pantsers, but usually I find that it's best to be somewhere in the middle. I find it's much more important to understand and be familiar with your setting and characters than to know all the details of your plot. This is because you're writing from that point of view in that place, and those details help you decide what decisions characters make and how they influence the story. With that in mind, I'll help you create a basic outline. I prefer to use printer paper for this and to draw my own border near the edges of the pages, but it's really up to you what kind of paper you use and the aesthetics of your outline. I do however insist that you use…
Plot in Early Planning
Now that we've talked about setting and character, it's time to talk about plot. Plot is the conflict and its resolution, the story itself, which is built upon the building blocks of setting and character. Today we're going to talk about the things you should establish before you write your outline. Today you're going to create a fact sheet in relation to your story. The first thing you need to put on this sheet of paper is the location in which your story takes place. Next, write down each of the characters' names and their roles in the story. Leave some room here-you're probably going to run into more characters along the way, and it makes it easier if this list stays up to date. Finally,write down the main conflict…
Characterization in Early Planning
This week we are going to talk about character. I know that I said we would talk about plot next, but I decided that we should talk about character first. This is because I believe plot should usually be built upon setting and character; together they are the building blocks of a well written story, and without them, plot means nothing. The greatest story in the world will fall flat on its face if nobody cares, and without a great character-or at least a decent one-nobody will care. For many writers, character is the first thing to appear when they are working on a story. This does not make it the easiest; a character may say hello to a writer days before they give the writer a name, and months…