First Week of Nano Down- Are You Rockin' It?

If you're participating in Nanowrimo you're one week in. By now, hopefully you have a few pages under your belt and are waiting to rock some serious word count this weekend. Here are some ideas to keep in mind as your shaping this novel. Right now don't worry about going too in depth with them but this might help shape your plot as you continue to write.

1) Save the cat beat sheets. This is an awesome book for scene writers but it works for novelist too.  Below is a link to a writers website I love:

http://jamigold.com/for-writers/worksheets-for-writers/#Save the Cat

There are a lot of other options on the site but if you're just starting out I'd go with this one. Once you've finished come back and look at the other options that will help with the fine tuning of above.

2) Dave Farland's Million Dollar Outlines is another great book for adding some shape to your story. I'm not saying stress over making sure you hit every single suggestion in the first book, but if you take one suggestion a week and incorporate it into your story you'll be that far ahead.

3) The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression
I covet this book. It's my best writing friend and one of the few writing books I refuse to loan out. When you are trying to craft a scene and bring out the emotion this is a good start.

4) Resist the urge to edit. About this time I decide the first chapter needs to die. Maybe the second one. I'm a good chunk in and I decide Cynthia is now Lilly and the male main character is no longer a Damon Salvatore lookalike. This is the time for comments- From here on Cynthia is Lilly. Damon now looks like the frog prince. They are no longer in Connecticut they're in Arizona etc.  Each time I make a major change I put a note to remind me later when I come back to fix before that note. I don't fix it right away because by the end of the story they could in up in Washington. I could decide to change how they look, what they're allergic too, their feelings on food trucks several more times before I'm finished. The notes give me a place to start when I'm past Nanowrimo an into edit mode.

5) If you haven't already start a Story Bible. In a notebook somewhere or a different word doc or Scrivener start writing down the characters, the descriptions, the places, who is related to whom etc. I copy and paste this into the Bible as I'm writing. Then four chapters later when I can't remember if his creepy eyes are green or silver it's an easy find.

Hope this helps!

Any other questions/ suggestion?  Please leave a comment.

Happy Halloween- Nanowrimo's almost here

While I'm out with my nieces and nephews tonight, having walked by 7 Elsa's, I can't wait for my adventure to beginning. It's a trick or treating of sorts- Nanowrimo. Because I'm a discovery writer I never quite know what's going to come out. I love being sucked into the story so much that I don't realize it's 2 AM. (I don't love it so much when I have to get up at 5 AM for work.) I love the late night phone calls to my writer friends where I can shout, "you'll never guess what happened!" I drink more caffeine than I should. Chocolate stashes around the house are raided. The world becomes one flowing story line that is occasionally interrupted by reality.

So for those of you who are afraid to write because they haven't religiously plotted in preparation- here are some final thoughts:

1) Sit but in chair is always excellent advice.

2) When in doubt- repeat above.

3) Have you picked an idea yet? Pick one- no matter how cheesy, corny it may seem, you'd be surprised at what comes of it. Pick it and make best friends because you're going to get to know each other very well.

4) Character interview—these are awesome. Sometimes in finding out more about my character it helps me shape the future story better. Here is one suggestion: https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/character-questionnaire/gotham.

5) What's the worst that could happen? I'm in the middle of editing (and won't finish until sometime in Dec due to nanowrimo) a YA urban fantasy romantic comedy. It's a previous nanowrimo project. Whenever I hit a spot I wasn't quite sure where to go I'd ask myself what's the worst that could happen- and then I made it happen. They are in the middle of romantic dialog on a hike and one of the character falls off a cliff. Even if you don't make the worst happen, it may give you an idea of what can happen to move the story forward.

Any questions or suggestions you want to ask/ pass along? Post in the comments

Confession from a Writer # 4: Reverse Nanowrimo

I was supposed to spend the weekend editing, but the rebellious part of me whispered, in a week you’ll be knee deep in Nanowrimo so why don’t you take the weekend off. And I listed to that part of me. I figured this was the last time in the next month I could listen to this voice because as of November 1^st that sucker is locked in a box and tucked behind the word count monster. My last post was some advice for the upcoming month. Continuing with this theme is my suggestion on word count.

I follow Reverse Nanowrimo or some people call it Backwards Nanowrimo. I start with a higher word count while I’m motivated. It’s the beginning of the month and I haven’t fallen to turkey coma yet.  Below is the chart I follow. I also tend to toss in try and get a higher word count on weekends to balance out hard days during the week where the house exploded and it couldn't wait.

-Happy Writing

	Backwards Goal	Word Total
1-Nov	3346	3346
2-Nov	3216	6562
3-Nov	3101	9663
4-Nov	2986	12649
5-Nov	2872	15521
6-Nov	2757	18278
7-Nov	2642	20920
8-Nov	2527	23447
9-Nov	2412	25859
10-Nov	2298	28157
11-Nov	2183	30340
12-Nov	2068	32408
13-Nov	1953	34361
14-Nov	1838	36199
15-Nov	1724	37923
16-Nov	1609	39532
17-Nov	1494	41026
18-Nov	1379	42405
19-Nov	1264	43669
20-Nov	1150	44819
21-Nov	1035	45854
22-Nov	920	46774
23-Nov	805	47579
24-Nov	690	48269
25-Nov	576	48845
26-Nov	461	49306
27-Nov	346	49652
28-Nov	231	49883
29-Nov	116	49999
30-Nov	1	50000

Confession from a Writer # 3 Preparing for Nanowrimo

I was fortunate that my first Nanowrimo was amazing! Like eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for the first time amazing! For 30 days I was able to cast off my desire to rewrite, revise, nudge, toss, and generally fix my writing and let myself just write. It didn’t mean there wasn’t massive changes that happened after the 30 days. It didn’t mean I didn’t want to fix it during the 30 days. It meant I gave myself permission to accept the first draft as just that- a first draft. So back to getting ready: 

1. Find a group- whether you meet in person or not it’s fun to go on this adventure together. 

2. If you’re an outliner start an outline—be ready for Nov 1st. If you’re a discovery writer, have that brilliant idea.

3. This came by way of a friend during last nanowrimo and I’m going to try it this year. Food plan. When I get lost in a story the last thing I want to do is think about food. My stomach growls, the pantry is empty, running to the store seems like too much work, so I end up eating the mystery item that happened to be handy but tastes like it should have stayed a mystery. Plan simple, fast, hopefully slightly healthy meals that you can grab and eat for yourself and/or family etc. 

4. Prepare the cave. Last year I wrote in my writing room aka the Spare Oom. The year before mostly at the library. Wherever you choose plan accordingly. Because I had the advantage last year I snacked up. Drinks and chocolate were within reach. The less I left the room, the more words appeared on paper. If I left for a drink I’d see the dishes in the sink as I filled up the cup, then I washed the dishes, then I noticed the counter, then I noticed the floor…. 

5. Try to avoid the internet. This applies for non-nanowrimowriting, too. I’ve lost plenty of nights to Youtube. I just went to research one little thing and boom, time disappeared. (Facebook also falls into this category) So if you must research and there is no way around it, try setting a timer. If you know what you’re going to write before nanowrimo try doing research before it starts. 

6. Get the smells ready. This may seem weird but I’ve had a lot of luck with it and so have those I’ve convinced to give it a try. I ground my story to a certain smell and either burn a candle or turn on the wax melter before I begin writing. It makes it that much easier for me to slip into the mood of the story. (This is also helpful outside of naowrimo if you are writing multiple stories. I have a certain smell for each story.) My story involving water had a lot of ocean based candles. 

7. Lastly, get the sounds ready. I write to music. Music provides my white noise so I don’t leave the room. Leaving the room = end to writing. So if you write with music get the sound track ready now. If you don’t use music plan how you are going to keep things a little quieter, or a little more focused for Nov. Please add comments of things you’ve tried during nanowrimo that have helped.