NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) happens every November—you have just 30 days to write 50,000 words. Here’s a list of my resources for those brave writers participating in NaNoWriMo ♥

Writing & Novel Basics

• Getting Ideas & The Five Building Blocks of Story—Will your idea really work as a novel? Do you still need an idea for a novel? Start here.
• Characters—See all my resources for character building, including free printable worksheets.
• Point of View—My 3-part series on narration and point of view, using videos to illustrate.
• How to Write Scenes—The Three Elements of Scene and 12 Types of Antagonists
• 9 Methods for Choosing a Title—Here are some tips for choosing a long list of preliminary titles for your book.
• 7 Tips for Writing Realistic Dialogue—My guest post over at Better Novel Project
• 10 Steps to Finishing a Novel—(Hint: NaNoWriMo is about #4)
• 7 Writing Maxims and What to Do with Them—I break down 7 common pieces of advice and tell you whether you should boot them or take them to heart.
• My Writing Methods—See one way I’ve worked on a novel. In this case, back in 2012!

Writing Quickly, Even recklessly

• Speed-Writing Your First Draft—I used these methods to finally break through my block and wrote 20,000 words in less than 24 hours.
• How Improv Can Improve Your Writing—How you can apply Tina Fey’s rules of improv to writing your first draft
• The Myth of Writer’s Block—Here’s how to write your way our of a block. If you still need help, give me a holler!
• Cheating Your Way to 50,000 Words—My top 3 “cheats” to boost your word count, in order of least desperate to most desperate.
• 50,000 Words!—Planning how you’ll make it through NaNoWriMo

Story Structure

• The Formula for Dramatic Storytelling—Characters, Obstacles, and Goals: Telling and Selling Stories the Video Game Way
• Plot X Theme—Act One: Threatened Characters | The ABCs of Act Two | Act Three: The Final Exam—A 3-part series on how my 8 Cs of Plotting can intertwine with theme to make for a powerful story (using Toy Story to illustrate)
• My 8 Cs of Plotting—my not-so top-secret method for plotting out a story, with worksheets and movie examples. (See Plot X Theme above for an update on the 8 Cs)
• Chapter Outlining Like a Pantser—Here’s a method you can use to plan your book (or revise it), whether you’re a rigid planner or someone who writes by the seat of your pants.

For more resources, see the navigation menu to browse by category or use the search bar if you’re looking for something in particular. If you need help with your story, I have partially reopened for edits! See my editing site for more details. If you found this blog helpful, please tell Writer’s Digest so! ♥