world-building

Further NaNo Prep: Setting Up Markers

Nephele Tempest

If you’ve been following along this month with the weekly prep posts for NaNoWriMo, chances are you’ve got at least a few good pages of notes and plans for your upcoming novel. By now you should have a protagonist, an idea of what they want to achieve, something pretty major getting in their way, and some research under your belt for settings and other important aspects of your story, such as your protagonist’s career, useful tools of their trade, etc.

Today we’re going to look at the shape of your novel. You know any good novel has a steadily building action that leads to the climax and the resolution. You’ve probably seen the little graph that goes with that idea, the ever-growing mountain peaks followed, finally, but the sharp fall off at the end. Characters are meant to make progress, with some back sliding along the way to keep things exciting, until ultimately they reach the end of the book and their happy ending — or everyone dies. You know, whatever floats your boat.

Chances are you’ve already got some scene ideas kicking around in your head, the things that are going to happen to your character on their road to resolution. This week I want you to jot down just a sentence or two for each scene you’ve already thought of, and then dream up a few more. These don’t need to be anything fancy, and you certainly aren’t going to start any actual writing — that has to wait for November 1st. You just want something to help jog your memory when it’s time to write the scene in question. It can be as simple as “George argues with Mary about where to go on vacation,” or “Paul thinks about calling to ask Sue out.” Just try not to be too cryptic; you want to remember what you planned to write when you look at your notes in a couple of weeks.

There’s no set number of scenes you need to come up with before you start to write, but you should try to come up with at least a couple of dozen. That way, when you sit down to bang out your daily words, you will have at least some idea of where to go. You might not know how to write the scene, but you will at least have a scene that needs writing.

Nor is there any set way to keep track of your scenes. If you use Scrivener, you can use the notecard function. If not, you can put each scene onto a physical 3 x 5 notecard, list them in a notebook, or just keep track of them in a separate file on your computer. Depending on the subject matter, you might end up rearranging your scene order while you’re writing, so any means of shuffling your ideas or renumbering them can come in handy.

These scenes don’t need to be comprehensive. In other words, once you start writing, you will no doubt write many scenes that you haven’t jotted down in addition to those you have. The idea here isn’t to come up with a complete outline of your novel, though you certainly can do so if you wish. The idea is more to set up markers along the way, so you have places to aim for in your story once you start to write. Like running a long race and looking for the next mile marker, you want to have something to shoot for as you type along. Focusing too much on how many words you need each day can start to make you a little punchy, so it’s helpful to have places in your storyline that you can see coming up next on the horizon. It feels more specific and more helpful than telling yourself you need to hit 10,000 words by the end of the day. Ultimately, if you want a workable first draft of your novel, you need to focus on the words themselves and what you have to say.

More NaNoWriMo Prep: When and Where

Nephele Tempest

Welcome to the next stage of preparation for NaNoWriMo participation. If you’ve been following along, you’ve got a protagonist with some sort of goal, and something major standing in their way. Where do you go next?

The key to NaNoWriMo is that you need to prepare yourself on two fronts, at least if you’re seriously looking to bang out part or all of a workable first draft of a novel. You want to produce something that serves as a stepping stone, not something that discourages you or makes you want to throw out your idea altogether. But you also want to hit that word count: 50,000 words by the end of November. Even if that doesn’t constitute a completed first draft — published novels for adults weigh in at 80,000 words and up, with few exceptions — it will be considered sufficient for the purposes of NaNo scoring. Your finished product on November 30 might actually need another few chapters before you reach your story’s end, or alternatively you might have a very loose draft that resolves your plot points but needs plenty of filler to flesh out the manuscript.

Preparing ahead of time means that, while the words you type in November might not be golden perfection streaming effortlessly from your fingers, they will at least be working in the right direction. You want to come up with 50,000 words that help your story start to take shape. So the next thing you want to prepare is a setting to go around your protagonist.

Chances are you’ve already thought about this at least a little bit. Who your character is and what they want — and often the obstacle making their wishes a challenge — affect setting greatly, so you likely considered things like genre, place, and time period over the past few weeks while you were coming up with your protagonist and his road block. But now is the time to really flesh out those concepts, and determine what might require a little research.

Many writers do some preliminary research before they begin writing a book, especially where information might be necessary for plot development. If you only know a little about criminal law, but you’re writing a thriller that involves a murder, chances are you’ll have to do some leg work in order to make sure your twists and turns are viable. Likewise, if your character works on a boat and you’ve only gone sailing once, you probably have to read up in order to make his or her actions and activities feel realistic and plausible. Writing about war? What weapons come into play? Is this modern warfare  with men in tanks or foot soldiers wielding rifles with bayonets?

It is, of course, possible to get mired down in research, and so often writers set themselves a specific research goal and then fill in smaller details once the writing gets underway. However, with NaNoWriMo, you’re writing against the clock for an entire month, and the last thing you want to do is pause mid-stream to look something up. For NaNoWriMo, you’re better off doing more research up front so you don’t need to take away from writing time once the starting gun goes off. This has the added benefit of providing you with lots of information to write about, helping to up your word count. It can get pared down during the editing process later, if necessary.

Will you still come across details that need to be filled in while you’re writing? Of course. But once November starts, try to avoid research unless you really cannot move forward without the information. Instead, insert some filler enclosed in brackets so you can easily find your place once December rolls around, make a note so you remember to go back and tackle it, and keep on writing.

So this week, start making lists of details for your story. Where does it take place? Real world? Imaginary? Combination? How much of that place will you use in your story? A planet? Country? Town? Estate? What is the time period, and how does that affect your story? Daily life? Transportation? The work people do? How your protagonist can go about the business of achieving their goal? Consider careers, clothing, food, education, technology, forms of entertainment. Remember that in past centuries — even past decades — many activities took far more time than they do now, which can heavily influence the timeline of your story. Likewise, in the future, we can assume certain aspects of life will have continued to speed up, such as air travel and forms of communication.

Whether you’re writing an epic fantasy, a WWII-era mystery, or a contemporary love story, the world of that novel needs to be described for the reader and brought to life, and your characters must inhabit it in a realistic fashion. Use this week to dream up your own vision of the world you plan to share in your NaNo novel. Happy writing!

Friday Links

Nephele Tempest

Happy Friday! I hope you’ve all got something lovely planned for the weekend. I’ll be searching out some cool spots to escape the ongoing heat wave here in Southern California — going on two weeks or so of ridiculously high temps. But before we all run off for places weekend-y, I’ve got some links for your edification and entertainment. Enjoy!

People of Color in European Art – Looking to instill some diversity in your sff or historical fiction? Check out this great tumblr for inspiration/historical accuracy.

Endings that Hover – Some thoughts on ending stories.

Italo Calvino’s 14 Definitions of What Makes a Classic – Interesting round up.

Holly Black Resurrects Vampires – While I’m personally still a bit burned out on the genre, I like Black’s explanation about why she chose to write a vampire YA right now. it’s a good attitude for a writer to have.

Chasing the Light: On Not Quitting the Writing Life – A nice look at persistence and the way different writers advance at different speeds.

Friday Links

Nephele Tempest

Drive-by links this week, as I’m trying to get some stuff finished up before the weekend officially starts, and it’s going to be a close call. However, I’ve got some great sites to share, so I hope that makes up for any lack of chattiness on my end. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and some terrific writing time!

World-building with Lucienne – For anyone who missed it, my fellow agent Lucienne Diver is doing a multi-part world-building workshop on her blog. Parts two and three are also up.

The Moment When Science Fiction Split Off from Competence Porn – A look at how sf characters have changed in film and TV; interesting analysis of trends.

Edwidge Danticat: By the Book – Brief New York Times interview with the author.

Silent City: Serial Story – A serialized online story with illustrations, mixing fantasy, romance, horror, and some great steampunk-esque flavor.

In Search of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady – A look at the identity of the Bard’s mystery woman.

Mini Challenge: Day Three

Nephele Tempest

It’s day three of the mini writing challenge, and today we’re going to try a little bit of genre bending. The idea is to mix things up a bit and try something completely new, preferably outside your comfort zone. It’s just for a page or two, so set aside your internal editor and any doubts you might have, and just go for it. No telling yourself you can’t write in a particular style; this isn’t necessarily for submission or publication, just a chance to stretch your writing muscles a bit.

You can handle this prompt one of two ways. Read through each and pick whichever works best for you.

Version one: Simply take a new genre or sub-genre for a test drive. Do you write contemporary stories? Try writing the opening to an historical. Give fantasy or science fiction a go. Set up the opening to a thriller or a whodunnit. If you normally lean toward fantasy, give something a straight-up, realistic treatment. Approach fiction with a nonfiction voice, frame it as a (fictional) memoir or diary of an adventure. Try a different setting or approach on for size.

Version two: Try a little hybridization. Take an existing story — either your own or someone else’s — and rework it within the scope of a different genre or sub-genre. How about Horatio Hornblower in space? A Jane Austen novel with a steampunk twist? Try approaching the political, economic, and social machinations of Dune through a series of newspaper reports, in the style of someone reporting a war, coup, or revolution. Can you turn Milton’s Paradise Lost into a young adult novel?

Don’t forget that this is just a prompt, so you don’t need to plot out the entire story unless you want to keep going. Just try a page or two to see how you might approach it. Take the idea and play. Happy writing!

Friday Links

Nephele Tempest

I realize my readership crosses all sorts of weather patterns and seasons, but in my neighborhood we’ve scheduled a heat wave for this weekend. Triple digits right through Sunday, of varying levels of evil. I suspect I’ll be retreating to places like the movies and the library for a good chunk of the next few days, if only to let someone else pay for the air conditioning for part of the time. I will, of course, be taking some reading material along for the ride.

But before I go hide from the heat, I offer up a fun selection of links to kick things off. Wishing you all a lovely weekend, wherever you are. Keep cool, keep warm, and keep writing. Enjoy!

A Day in the Life: Amy Einhorn – An interesting look at one day in the life of the publisher and vp of Einhorn books.

10 Literary Restaurants for Hungry Book Nerds around the World – A fun run down. Anyone planning a vacation to one of these spots?

Kate Atkinson Interview – Learn a bit about the author of Life After Life.

Inside an Illegal Party in an Abandoned Subway Station Deep Under NYC – Cool photos for some potential inspiration.

Cool Bookish Places: Gladstone’s Library – Check out this fabulous library and then check in — they rent rooms to travelers.

Refilling the Well: Branch Out to Enrich Your Writing

Nephele Tempest

January is all about goals and aspirations for the year to come, but for writers one of the hardest things can be to find a balance between forming good writing habits and falling into a rut. There’s a danger in sitting down in the same place every single day and approaching your project with the identical mind set. You can become too rigid about your writing habits to the point of placing undo pressure on yourself; an attempt to hone your personal style and voice can result in repetitive writing, over-used vocabulary or catch phrases, or predictable descriptions; seeking your niche can give you tunnel vision, or a limited scope, and books that all start to sound the same.

So how do you keep things fresh? How do you develop a steady writing practice while still allowing your imagination to run free? What do you do to make sure that you continue to grow, to acquire new skills and hone your craft?

No matter how hard you try to clear your mind before you sit down to write, you will always bring real life with you when you get to work, and really, you wouldn’t want it any other way, as that life is what you tap into in order to create a believable world in your manuscript. So take advantage of that, and mix up your real-life experiences in order to bring something new to the page.

When was the last time you did something completely new, that you’d never done before? We talk frequently about refilling the well, the idea being that creative work requires inspiration, and that time spent outside the creative process gives the mind new material from which to draw. But even playtime can get repetitive. How often do you treat yourself by going to a movie or for a walk or window shopping? The chances are you have a set routine, even when it comes to taking time away from your writing.

Climb out of that rut and explore a little. Check the local paper for something different going on in your town as opposed to the same old choices you normally make. Find an auction to attend, go to a horse race, volunteer at a soup kitchen or with Habitat for Humanity, take a one-day class in something completely outside your comfort zone. Maybe you’ll be inspired to give a character a new hobby or profession, or maybe you’ll just see some new people with interesting clothes or gestures or ways of speaking.

Beginning writers are often told “write what you know,” advice that can be a double-edged sword, particularly for authors of fantasy or science fiction. The best writers combine both life experience and imagination to create their stories, using their knowledge of real world emotions and actions to inform those areas of the story that require them to imagine themselves into the situation.

Get out and broaden your horizons. The more things you experience in the real world, the more inspiration you will bring when you sit down at your keyboard. Make it a goal to try a few new things this year, whether they apply to your current project or not. You never know when a real-life encounter will spark the next big idea. Have fun, and happy writing!