Thicken Thursdays

Sometimes during NaNoWriMo, you end up with a plot that seems to go nowhere. Or you just don't know what's going to happen next.

Or sometimes your plot goes along just fine and it's not a challenge at all and you find yourself wondering what's so interesting about your story anyway.

Throwing a proverbial wrench into the mix can do a lot of things for a story.

I've been outlining my novel for eight months and have everything almost completely decided upon. But, in honor of Thicken Thursdays, I'm going to throw something completely new into my plot to thicken it up: an ottendorf cypher.

I was thinking of National Treasure today, and realized I really liked the code they used on the back of the declaration of independence.

What will you choose to thicken your plot? Or do you have ideas for other people that don't quite fit with your story, but you want to share anyways?

Happy writing!

Word Count: 9,413

Word-War Wednesdays

I challenge you!

Today, let's see how many words we can each write in, say, an hour. Post your results in the comments below.

I find that word wars are great for the first couple days of NaNoWriMo. I'm usually hesitant when I first start because I haven't gotten into the flow of my novel yet. Forcing myself to pump out words and forget about worrying if they're the right ones or not helps get me in the mood to write the good ones later on.

Feel free to use Write or Die or any other method of timing your words. Good luck! (I'll post my results in the comments as well.)

It's a Word War!

Word Count: 7468

Trip Tuesday

This morning, and I mean really early this morning, I did my location writing at IHOP near Mall of America.

I joined in with several other NaNoWriMo people and we counted down to midnight, then wrote madly for a twenty minute word war. It was interesting to write in a restaurant surrounded by other people, all typing as fast as possible. It was quite the motivation sound track.

Being in a place I've never been before seemed appropriate for starting a new novel, because I had to put myself inside the main character's shoes, and every scene was new to me. I think it helped me focus on developing the opening scene.

Did you attend a write-in? Where did you start writing at midnight?

I challenge you to find at least one location this week outside of your normal writing routine, just to see what it does for your writing.

Day 1 Word Count: 4,457

Writing ditty

Write a book through and through
Write a proposal and query too.
Send them out in droves and hordes
To as many agents your pocket affords.

Keep on tweaking, writing, breathing,
Despite the rejection letters' seething.
Don't forget you can always be better.
Keep sending out those query letters!

If no one offers representation,
Consider other modes of publication.
But first, take a good, hard look
At the quality of your much-rejected book.

Audiobooks, Kindles, PDFs,
Do whichever you think is best.
Plan your publicity well and clear.
Work, work, work! Your book is here!

www.nanowrimo.org

NaNo Toolbox

NaNoWriMo doesn't have to be planned out. You can write by the seat of your pants (called being a pantster) and sometimes, that's fun.

But I've come to the realization that NaNoWriMo can be more than just fun. It can help writers become more experienced in their craft.

The hardest part about writing a book in a month is that every single word is a decision. That's 50,000 decisions you have to make, 1,667 decisions every day. I find my mind gets tired of making decisions really quick, especially if I also have to decide which way the plot is going in the process. Deciding on a few things before you begin writing will help take away some of the burden during November.

The following tools are things I'm finding help me a lot when I start a new project. You don't have to spend hours on them, but even just thinking about it without making a firm decision will help you discover what you want to write when the time comes.

1. A genre. (Pick one or make up your own.)

2. A main character. (Even better if you know what motivates your main character.)

3. A single sentence describing the most important part of your plot.

4. A villain or antagonist.

5. A setting. (Time & place)

6. Minor characters

7. A detailed outline of your plot.

8. Any research you might need about your setting or characters.

9. What the denouement (climax) of the story will look like.

10. Passion about what you're writing. (And yes, this is a decision/choice.)

With these ten things prepared beforehand, I can almost guarantee you'll have lots of fun writing an entire book in 30 days.

This year I decide to go for the uber outline. I've been preparing this story for eight months and have gotten it to the point where I could almost hand over my notes to a seven year old and they'd be able to write it. I certainly should be able to!

Good luck in getting ready for a writing marathon! See you November 1st! I can hardly wait...

NaNoWriMo

It's the time of year when the leaves fall, and when I greatly anticipate the start of November. Next month is a time of literary abandon through the program NaNoWriMo. I'm so excited. I've been outlining what I'm going to write for six months and my fingers are itching to type.

During November, I plan to have a short post for EVERY DAY of the month, mostly pertaining to writing, of course. The schedule is as follows:

Surplus Sundays: Encourage writers to write more than their daily goal to build up a surplus of words going into the week.

Method Mondays: Talk about methods we use during NaNoWriMo or anytime of the year to get the writing done.

Trip Tuesdays: All about location writing. What are some favorite places to write? The most convenient? Every Tuesday I will purpose to write somewhere I've never written before.

Word-war Wednesdays: Kind of self-explanatory, but I'll be challenging writers to see how many words they can write in an hour, then post their results in the comments.

Thick Thursdays: Challenge writers to thicken their plots. I will offer a choice of ways to do this, but it's entirely up to you! I will also post how I chose to thicken my plot.

Fast Fridays: I will attempt to write double my daily word count goal every Friday. Watch those fingers fly! If you want to join in the challenge, awesome! Post how many words you got done in the comments.

Sanctuary Saturday: We'll talk about writers and their writing spaces, how to protect your writing time and space, and what are some good ideas for setting up that perfect ambiance of inspiration.

See you on November 1st with Trip Tuesday, my first location writing exercise! I'm off to the NaNoWriMo forums!

To picture or not to picture

Sometimes I read other blogs because the picture they embed at the top of their post is interesting. It draws me in.

Other times, I see the picture, but then don't read the text because the first few sentences are boring and I'm already looking for a quick and easy intake of information...the picture sets me up for that. I want the post to be just as entertaining as the picture or else I won't read it.

In short, putting pictures before every post on a blog is a great way to draw people in. But if your post doesn't live up to the expectation you create by giving your readers a picture first, then they'll likely drop you like a hot potato.

Kinda like publishing. The first chapter (or prologue if you must) is a promise to your readers of what they can expect. If your first chapter rocks, but the rest of the book is slow, they'll most likely stop reading, frustrated with a story that doesn't stay true to what that first chapter promised.

Of course there are other things that catch the readers' eyes before the first chapter that also act as promises: cover art, what section of the bookstore it's in, what they've heard about the book online, the reviews they've read, which of their friends recommended it, the blurbs and summary on the jacket cover, etc. But these things you don't necessarily have control over if you seek traditional publishing.

It's kind of sad, in a way, that the very first promise I'm going to make to my beloved future readers whom I've dreamed about writing for for years isn't even in my control. The cover art could be completely misrepresentative of the book inside. The blurbs could promise my book will make the readers' hair stand on end, when all I really wanted to do was make the reader feel warm and cozy. Sounds a little awkward, doesn't it? Having to fulfill the promises your publisher and editor have made for you by designing your publishing package?

And yet, maybe we do have control over those things as well. Our publishers and editors are people, too. In fact, they are our very first readers. If we can't communicate the vision of the book to them, the excitement and passion we poured into it, then maybe they won't know how to present it to readers in the way we envisioned.

My pastor (who's also my boss) talks a lot about vision. He says it needs to be clear, it needs to be inspiring, and it needs to be portable: you have to be able to transfer the vision to someone else. And not just to one other person through a ton of thoughtful explaining. You need to be able to port your vision to lots of people, and be able to do that with a simple summary of your book.
Can you sum up your book in an inspiring, single sentence that draws people in?  Can you talk about your book with passion, excitement, and longing? Is your passion about what you're doing catchy?

To picture or not to picture...

Do we present the reader with something that draws them in all easy like and promises great content with little effort on their part? Or do we draw them in slowly, telling them upfront that this book will take a lot of clever thinking to keep up with it, that it will challenge them?

Maybe I should put a picture in at the end. Kind of like an easter egg in a DVD, or a reward for reading all the way through. I know I will never walk out of a movie theater again until the credits have completely played through. I did that once, with an X-men movie, and didn't get to see Magneeto playing chess without his powers. I now expect and even hope for that last picture at the end. Maybe building a reputation that way would draw people in, knowing your work is solid all the way through?

So....here. Have a picture. :)