Well, folks, it’s October first, that time of year again. What’s so special about October first here at Fictional Worlds? Well, it’s time to officially begin preparing for Nanowrimo, and it’s time to start this year’s Nano Prep writing workshop. For those of you who aren’t participating in Nanowrimo, it’s still a great way to start building a novel, and I hope you’ll stick around.
For this year’s workshop you need to already have a basic idea for your book-an idea of what kind of world you’re working in, an idea of who your characters are, and a vague idea of your plot-but when I say basic, I really mean basic. While last year’s workshop was designed more for the epic fantasy novel, this workshop is meant for books focused more in one place.
I’ll be posting prompts five days a week as a warmup for Nanowrimo. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I will also be posting full exercises, but on Tuesday and Thursday I will also have novel planning questions for you.
Today, if you don’t already have one, I’d like you to make a map of the kingdom your story takes place in. If your story takes place in a real world country, print out a map of that country and mark the places important to your story. Don’t worry about the artistic value of your map; trees, castles, mountains, all of these things should be drawn simply rather than elegantly. The point is to know where your story is, not to impress people with your talent.
I’m also going to leave you with some recommended reading:
Limyaael’s Rants is perhaps the most down to earth, most comprehensive archive of blog posts focused on writing fantasy and writing in general. It would take a very, very long time to read through all of these, but everything’s a gem, and it’s definitely worth reading what you can.
And for those of you who don’t know, Nanowrimo can be found at Nanowrimo.org.