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Writing Words - writing it is the only way of getting it written
I wrote a series of blog posts in the run-up to November last year, titled the Newbie Guide to NaNoWriMo.
Since it's only 13 days until NaNo, the most important things to think about now are characters and plot.
Come November, don't worry about the amount of planning you did or didn't put in. Just give yourself permission to write badly and have fun.
Picture prompt:
Eccentric Headgear
"Freed to be rough, my writing actually became smoother. Freed from the demand that it be instantly brilliant, perfect, and clever, my writing became not only smoother but also easier and more clear...If only we could give ourselves permission to write 'badly,' many of us would write very well indeed."
Julia Cameron (in The Right to Write)
Give yourself permission to write badly and you will surprise yourself. If you write badly, it's okay, you are allowed to do that, after all. If you write well, you prove to yourself and your inner editor that you're actually good at this writing lark (well, sometimes, at least - but the times you write well rather than badly will increase with practice). It's what lies at the core of NaNoWriMo, the whole month is one big bad writing fest.
Write, write badly (and occasionally, well), keep pounding out words until you reach 50k and The End and remember that, with a few weeks distance between yourself and finishing the first draft, you can go back and edit your badly-written prose:
"The first draft is just you telling yourself the story."
Terry Pratchett
In addition to having useful writing websites bookmarked, you should also have the right tools handy. Anything that will make it easier for you to get through NaNoWriMo is allowed.
Here's what helps me:
Timer:
I use my iPhone but anything that makes a noise after a period of time set by you is fine. If a timer doesn't help, I switch to Write or Die.
Keeping track:
I've used my own, pretty basic spreadsheet to keep track of my progress, but if you want a ready-made solution, I'd recommend this NaNoWriMo report card.
Word processing and back-up:
When I write at my laptop, I use CopyWrite. It has a handy notes drawer where I keep ideas and plot outlines and comes with a full-screen option. Sometimes it helps if all you see is the write screen filling with your words. I use the full version (at $24.99 not really much of an expense) but you can use the trial version free for as long as you like.
[Before I switched to Mac, I used RoughDraft - it's not being further developed but I'd still highly recommend it if it works on your Windows machine.)
Both for back-up purposes and to have my story available when I'm out and about, I make several back-ups. I keep a text file on Dropbox into which I'll paste what I've written at the end of every day. I'll also use the Zoho online word processor where I'll create a new document every day with the day's writing - just in case I want to look something up while I'm not at home. Maybe I'll use My Writing Nook for online access this year, I haven't decided yet.
Making regular back-ups is a good idea, you never know if or when your computer decides to die on you. If you don't want to use online word processors and other writing applications or online storage, you can email your work to yourself. It would take your email provider's server to be wiped for you to lose your work - not very likely, is it?
Treats:
Use them to reward yourself rather than munching your way through a bag of tortilla chips while writing. A cookie tastes much better after having written 1,000 words than it does while you're struggling to get past 500 words. Make yourself earn that chocolate, mince pie or hot chocolate with Bailey's.
There's one full week between now and November 1. If you've not started planning your novel yet, here's how prepare for NaNoWriMo:
Learn as much as you can about your main characters: motivations, desires, fears. What's important to them, and why? What's standing in between them and the things they want? If you find the time, fill in character questionnaires; they are for your benefit and aren't necessary for the story, so you can skip them.
What's your story about? If you're writing character-driven fiction, your answer will depend on the things you know about your characters, so don't try to answer it before you have a sense of who your characters are. I've told stories with nothing more than deciding how the story starts, what the big problem is and how it will end, based on a sound knowledge of how my protagonist and her enemy tick.
Find the slots of free time in your schedule and figure out how to make use of this time to get on with your novel. Are you comfortable writing in public? Can you use any of your mobile devices to write while you're on the way to work or school? Do you have a free afternoon every Thursday that can be devoted to writing?
If you think you don't have enough time to get ready, remember rule no.1: quantity over quality. You don't have to write print-worthy prose. NaNoWriMo is all about finishing the first draft, getting the story out. Anything that goes wrong in the first draft, you'll be able to fix later.
Here's a list of all the NaNoWriMo Newbie Guide posts.
Here's what I'm up to this weekend: Fleshing out characters (I'm quite fond of doing this by clustering them this year: I write their name or the character description in the middle, then I branch of desires, fears, looks, etc.), refining the story idea, hopefully some degree of plotting (even though I like to keep things loose as far as plot is concerned).
So, in order not to keep any of us from planning our November novels, I'll recommend a few useful websites which make my NaNo life easier
[ Click here to read more ]
There are different approaches to plotting a novel. Try the one that fits your writing style - you won't get far with the Snowflake method if you like to explore most of your story as you write, for instance.
You may say that you want to write a character-driven. Great, that's what I do. You'll still need a plot, though. Something has to happen (in my opinion; reading - and writing, for that matter - 50k of existential angst without any action would be putting me to sleep in record time). The following links provide useful methods for plotting and/or will help you to determine the plot of your story
[ Click here to read more ]
What is plot? Plot is the sequence of events that form the story. Plot is also the subject of your story. Ideally, you should be able to summarise the plot in one sentence.
Plot needs a beginning, a middle and and end. That may sound obvious, but it's important to remember how beginning, middle and end are defined in narrative fiction. The beginning is where you set the scene, introduce your character and the problem the character needs to solve (the problem is closely related to the character's desire). The middle describes your character's bumpy journey towards fulfilling her/his desire. It's where the tension rises, it looks increasingly as if the character isn't going to get what she/he wants. This is the largest part of your novel
[ Click here to read more ]
One important aspect of creating strong characters are the characters' motivations. Why do they want what they want? What's there in their history that explains why they think what they think, want what they want?
Character motivation needs to be plausible, obvious when you look for the clues, backed up by the things the character says and does. It can't just come out of the blue
[ Click here to read more ]
Without a strong set of main and supporting characters, there's no point of telling a story. Your readers need someone with whom they can sympathise, at the very least, to keep them interested in your story.
So how do you create believable, sympathy-worthy characters
[ Click here to read more ]
How do you know your novel idea is a good one? How can you tell you're not going to waste your time? Check if the ABC for novel ideas applies:
Action: Stuff happens (some good, some bad), your characters make it happen or react to it and thus move the story forward
[ Click here to read more ]
With less than one month until NaNoWriMo, it's time to get serious about planning your novel.
If you've carried a notebook around with you to collect your ideas, go through them and identify the one (or the ones) that you like most. Don't go for anything you think you ought to write but are not passionate about. Passion for your idea is important as it's easier to keep going with something you love even when things are getting a bit rough. So find the ideas that resonate strongly with you, those are the ones that will get you to the other end of 50k. Examine each idea to find the ones with potential for a longer piece of fiction. If you love an idea but have a feeling that you would run out of story long before reaching 50k words, you'd better drop it. Save the short story ideas for December
[ Click here to read more ]
September 26th 2010 20:53
September 19th 2010 19:20
The thing about a span covering 30 days is that you can't plan each and every single day down to the last minute. There might be days when, despite your best efforts, you'll not be able to write as much as you'd like. You can plan for some writing down-time because you know in advance that you have to fulfil some obligations. Other constraints on your writing time come up without warning and you have no choice but to deal with them.
The best contingency plan is to write as much as you can on days with plenty of writing time. Write more than the bare minimum of 1,667 words per day when the story flows, plan to use much of your free weekend time for writing. Building up a wordcount cushion means you can deal with times when writing time is scarce, be it for planned reasons or unplanned ones
[ Click here to read more ]
September 19th 2010 14:55
You signed up on the website, you read all sorts of advice and maybe you've started preparing for NaNoWriMo. And now you're panicking. It's all too much and you're not sure you'll be able to do this thing.
Don't worry. The most important thing about NaNo is that it's fun. If you put too much pressure on yourself before November has even begun, you won't enjoy it. You'll also find writing much harder. What't the worst that can happen? You may not write 50k words in a month. If you don't win, you're not going to be alone. In 2009, 32,178 of the 167,150 participants won, that's 19.25 percent
[ Click here to read more ]
September 12th 2010 20:55
Writing in public places isn't for everyone. Some writers can't write in public because they don't feel comfortable being watched when they write. If you don't have a problem with it, writing in public may help you reach your wordcount goal, though. Sometimes a change of scenery is all you need to come up with an amazing plot twist. Also, there are often fewer distractions at your chosen writing spot than there are at home (where even housework may seem strangely appealing all of a sudden …).
At the coffee shop: Coffee and creativity go hand in hand for me. Stop at a coffee shop for 20 to 30 minutes in the morning before you get on with your normal life and get a head start. Spending your lunch break writing in a coffee shop is another (or an additional) option which will help you boost the wordcount during the day
[ Click here to read more ]
September 11th 2010 22:57
One recommendation on the NaNoWriMo site is that you should tell as many people as possible about your plans for November. If many people know about your writing ambitions, so the reasoning, you'll be more motivated to finish. I don't agree.
I've never told many people and I won every year since I discovered NaNo. I always found that the support from the NaNo community was enough for me to make it through to the end. In my first and second year, I told nobody about it. Since 2004, I let in a handful of selected people in on the secret. They all know that they'll only get bits of the first draft to read if I decide something is worth reading, and they don't demand to see my work. I certainly wouldn't want everybody at work to know about my favourite November activity - none of their business
[ Click here to read more ]
Freewriting several time a week will get you into the habit of writing. If you want to increase your NaNo training, consider a writing weekend. It's exactly what it says on the tin - you spend much of a weekend writing:
Clear your calendar for the weekend and remove as many distractions as you can. Forget you have a DVD player and several box sets of TV shows to be watched, unplug your WiFi modem until you've written at least 2,000 words
[ Click here to read more ]
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