Motivation for NaNoWriMo

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NaNoWriMo begins in just 17 days. Not sure of what NaNoWriMo is? Well, it stands for “National Novel Writing Month.” But NaNoWriMo is more than just the title for November…it’s also an event. Hundreds of thousands of writers sign up at NaNoWriMo.org to write a novel in just 30 days. Well, write 50,000 words of a novel. Most novels ought to be longer than that, if you want to be published. (See “Length” in “The Difference between Novels and Short Fiction,” here.)

There are some NaNoWriMo rules, like not working on a work-in-progress. Obviously I have a work in progress, even if it isn’t currently progressing (see word count, right column). But, I’m sort of going to use NaNoWriMo to motivate my writing anyway. Besides, all I’ve really written so far is the prologue, and how many people skip over that, anyway?

So I am spending the next 17 days doing an unhealthy amount of research, outlining, planning, plotting, and taking notes so that by the time November 1st hits, I’ll be ready to write with “literary abandon!”

Will you be participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What do you want to know about writing a novel? Ask your questions in the comments, tweet me anytime, or comment on my Facebook page. That’s right—I just added a link to Facebook so I can connect with you lovely people in another arena. For links to my Twitter, Facebook Page, and RSS feed, check out the icons in the top of the right column.

P.S. I’m mostly kidding about that research link. I have far more reliable resources than the kind editors at Wikipedia. If anybody is interested, I’ll post reviews on some of the more general sources I’ll be using. I assume you aren’t all writing about 12th century England, so I’ll leave the specific ones to myself.

P.P.S. Please, don’t write about 12th century England.

Motivation like Pavlov

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Hanna Pylväinen, author of We Sinners, has an interesting approach for training herself to get into a writing mood, rather than just wait until that feeling she should write.

Read her quote and find her secret here on Poets & Writers. Then check out the pw.org writing exercises page for writing prompts in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fic.

I’m definitely guilty of writing when I feel like writing or when inspiration comes, rather than sitting down and staring at that terrifying blank page. Training myself with something portable might be the trick. I’ve heard you shouldn’t limit yourself to writing at one certain time of day, or with one particular type of music, or in complete silence, or only in one location, because then it will be harder to be spontaneous. Writers should be able to write anywhere at anytime.

What are your tricks for getting to work?

Today’s Words: Madeline L’Engle

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Today’s words come from Madeline L’Engle, brilliant author and person:

“Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.” —MADELEINE L’ENGLE

Who knows when/where she said it. Ah, the wonders of the internet’s lack of citation. I got it from @AdvicetoWriters.

Speaking of words, I installed a little word counter on the right side of my blog so you can check my snail’s pace, make fun of my patheticalness, feel better about yourself, etc.

Pathericalness is a word, WordPress. I looked it up in the dictionary. Curse your little red squiggly line!

As you can probably tell from my words, I have a head cold. Stay healthy, my friends, and if you have the luxury of calling in sick, unlike a stay-at-home-mother, than be sure to write something while you are in bed / in the couch / sleeping. Seriously, you’ll come up with some crazy stuff.

In other news, I’ve started up a book club. It starts this month and we are reading Newbery and Carnegie Medal winners. Both medals are for juvenile literature that is more literature than juvenile. Our first book? The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, the only book ever to win both medals. At the end of each month(ish), I’ll post a review for the book we read that month, so you’ll be seeing a lot of reviews on books that might be, should be, familiar to you. Stay tuned.

Cheers,
Lara

 

The Simplest Story Structure

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Wednesday I reviewed Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald. In it, he mentions the The Seven Easy Steps to a Better Story.

I’ve already written a series on plot, but I do want to mention these seven steps for two reasons. One, because I have heard them before, but not explained to the extent that McDonald does. Two, because this system works for stories of any length. He heard the steps from a writer named Matt Smith (no, not the Doctor), who heard it from Joe Guppy. And now I’m sharing it with you.

  1. Once upon a time, ________________
  2. And every day, ________________
  3. Until one day, ________________
  4. And because of that, ________________
  5. And because of that, ________________
  6. Until finally, ________________
  7. And ever since, ________________

The story people at Pixar use this method, probably because McDonald uses this method and is a consultant to Pixar. I’ve seen these seven steps written a bit differently. Some change #7 to “And the morale of the story is ________________.” Personally, I don’t like that method. If your story has a point—a morale, theme, or big idea—that point needs to be introduced in the beginning and dramatized throughout the story. If it comes as an afterthought, you may as well leave it out completely, because it will sound preachy if slapped at the end.

Compared to other plotting techniques

“Once upon a time” and “And every day” are Act One, the beginning.

“Until one day” is the inciting incident.

Then there is a series of cause-and-effects that make up Act Two, the middle.

“Until finally” is the climax.

“And ever since that day” is the dénouement or resolution. These last two are the ending.

Compared to the 8 C’s of Plotting a Novel

“Once upon a time” is C1, the captivation.

“And every day” is the opening.

“Until one day” is C2, the change.

“And because of that” is everything between C2 to C5, the Collapse.

“And because of that” is everything between C5 to C8.

“Until finally” is C8, the culmination.

“And ever since that day” is the resolution.

Want more instruction on The Seven Easy Steps to a Better Story? Be sure to check out Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald.

Until next week!