I find it so much harder to blog when I have nothing to write about.
Last week, if I'd written this on Friday when I'd intended to, I probably would have had a bit more to say. As is typical for me during NaNoWriMo, I wrote well for the first few days, and then got extremely behind. But I wrote 9,000 words in three days, so now I'm all caught up again. I think I have tennis elbow, though (a pre-existing injury only exacerbated by letting myself get so far behind).
Largely due to this, I think, the lessons I learned during Boot Camp have somewhat fallen by the way side. Most of the last few days have been taken up by word sprints (where you set a timer and write as many words as you can until it goes off), which I'm somewhat excited to say yield about 1000 words every fifteen minutes. This doesn't exactly lead itself to quality writing, or to considering your work as you create it, something I think is necessary to implement the lessons I only just learned from Boot Camp.
It wasn't a waste of time, though - far from it. I've noticed that I'm far more able to consider what should be happening, and how a particular scene should be going, even if it isn't going quite as planned. I'm realising my mistakes and making notes about how I should fix them.
One of the things I need to fix, again an issue caused by word sprints, is that most of my scenes are far too long. I'm 20, 000 words in, and I'm only just starting the third scene - a scene that should probably have ended 5000 words ago. I also need to move some scenes around.
I feel like, in some ways, that NaNoWriMo is like writing an extended outline of the planning you did beforehand. I'm getting the bones of the story down on paper, but I'm also figuring out all the things I need to plan that I hadn't planned before - like the rules of magic in my universe, for example (kind of a biggie).
On the plus side, though, I'm really enjoying the story. The characters are fun, and I've had some breakthroughs about other characters I need to introduce. I'm also not giving myself the chance to over-analyse anything, which is usually while I write so slowly. Also, although I haven't read over much of what I've read (mostly out of fear of how terrible a writer I am), most of what I've caught sight of my accident hasn't been half-bad, writing wise.
The other bonus of doing NaNoWriMo is the social side. I'm really active in the meet-up groups, and it's great to meet so many new people, especially fellow writers. And, despite the chatter that goes on, I'm still up to date on my word count, so yay, basically.
I was about to say that another bonus is that I've been maintaining a social life, but then I realised that actually, I haven't, really. I went out briefly on the weekend with non-writers (although it turned out that one of them had done NaNoWriMo in the past, so we ended up talking about that), and other than that I've left the house to go to meet-up groups or to go out and write. Or to go to work, but I write for a living too, so not sure if that really counts. So that's a bit of a fail.
But who cares? I've got 20,000 words.
Tuesday 12 November 2013
Thursday 31 October 2013
Blog Post #17
Done! All done! I have completed the last three exercises with one hour and 29 minutes to spare. Now to write about them.
The next exercise is about creating characters arcs for your secondary characters. Even if they die halfway through or leave the main narrative arc you should still know what path they take once they leave, or what would have happened to them if they survived.
This works on the same principle as plotting your antagonists storyline - it makes your overall plotline make more sense, and it fills in space in the storyline you might not otherwise have filled. I've now decided who is going to die in my story, based on their plotline - I didn't know that before. I've also come up with several other scenes for the main plotline which will (hopefully) make it more interesting, and expand the action a bit more.
Knowing their character arc also effects things like dialogue, which I was struggling with. Now I know what they might do or have done, I can understand better how they might react to a situation, and whether it would be important to them or not.
At some point I'm going to go through and create a timeline for all the events within the time-frame of the novel, just so I know what is going on at all times.
That will also involve the next exercise, which is about subplots. In this exercise you were supposed to take the subplots you came up with on day 11 (which for me was about three days ago?), and then think of how they could complicate the main plotline.
I actually already knew a lot of this already, just from all the other exercises I'd done. Some of it came up as recently as the plotting of the secondary characters' plotlines. That made the exercise pretty easy.
However, I did still have to come up with at least three ways in which these subplots could complicate the main storyline.
A lot of this is ground I already covered in the original post about subplots, so I won't go over it here. However, I will say that again this exercise has given my main plotline more depth. It also gave me a way to make a formerly boring characteristic of a character much more interesting.
That is the main point of subplots, really - to make the main plot more interesting. Also, the more complicated your main plot is, the longer your novel and the more you'll have to write about for NaNoWriMo. Can you tell I'm thinking about NaNoWriMo a lot now?
With that in mind, I'm just going to summarise the last exercise quickly. Then I'm going to sleep...
The last exercise is about comparing your characters to characters in published novels. The exercise asked you to do this for all your characters, but I don't actually have time, so I just did it for my main character.
This was actually an amazingly helpful exercise. I picked two books - Fairest by Gail Carson Levine and The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead. Although the characters are not exactly like my lead, they do share some characteristics.
I read through some sections of dialogue, and then I practised writing my own. Even just reading through the dialogue and thinking about how it worked helped me a lot in improving my own dialogue. I guess that's the general lesson here, though - consciously thinking through how these techniques work will mean you think more consciously about your own writing and how it works. It also means you'll understand how these techniques function, and can hopefully apply them to your own writing.
Here's to hoping everything I've learned doesn't all go out the window when I'm frantically trying to make it to 50, 000 words in the last week of NaNoWriMo.
59 minutes to go...are you ready?
The next exercise is about creating characters arcs for your secondary characters. Even if they die halfway through or leave the main narrative arc you should still know what path they take once they leave, or what would have happened to them if they survived.
This works on the same principle as plotting your antagonists storyline - it makes your overall plotline make more sense, and it fills in space in the storyline you might not otherwise have filled. I've now decided who is going to die in my story, based on their plotline - I didn't know that before. I've also come up with several other scenes for the main plotline which will (hopefully) make it more interesting, and expand the action a bit more.
Knowing their character arc also effects things like dialogue, which I was struggling with. Now I know what they might do or have done, I can understand better how they might react to a situation, and whether it would be important to them or not.
At some point I'm going to go through and create a timeline for all the events within the time-frame of the novel, just so I know what is going on at all times.
That will also involve the next exercise, which is about subplots. In this exercise you were supposed to take the subplots you came up with on day 11 (which for me was about three days ago?), and then think of how they could complicate the main plotline.
I actually already knew a lot of this already, just from all the other exercises I'd done. Some of it came up as recently as the plotting of the secondary characters' plotlines. That made the exercise pretty easy.
However, I did still have to come up with at least three ways in which these subplots could complicate the main storyline.
A lot of this is ground I already covered in the original post about subplots, so I won't go over it here. However, I will say that again this exercise has given my main plotline more depth. It also gave me a way to make a formerly boring characteristic of a character much more interesting.
That is the main point of subplots, really - to make the main plot more interesting. Also, the more complicated your main plot is, the longer your novel and the more you'll have to write about for NaNoWriMo. Can you tell I'm thinking about NaNoWriMo a lot now?
With that in mind, I'm just going to summarise the last exercise quickly. Then I'm going to sleep...
The last exercise is about comparing your characters to characters in published novels. The exercise asked you to do this for all your characters, but I don't actually have time, so I just did it for my main character.
This was actually an amazingly helpful exercise. I picked two books - Fairest by Gail Carson Levine and The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead. Although the characters are not exactly like my lead, they do share some characteristics.
I read through some sections of dialogue, and then I practised writing my own. Even just reading through the dialogue and thinking about how it worked helped me a lot in improving my own dialogue. I guess that's the general lesson here, though - consciously thinking through how these techniques work will mean you think more consciously about your own writing and how it works. It also means you'll understand how these techniques function, and can hopefully apply them to your own writing.
Here's to hoping everything I've learned doesn't all go out the window when I'm frantically trying to make it to 50, 000 words in the last week of NaNoWriMo.
59 minutes to go...are you ready?
Blog Post #16
More dialogue time!
This exercise asks you to write a dialogue scene and then read it aloud, figuring out which parts sound forced and which parts sound natural.
I wrote a short scene between two of my NaNoWriMo characters. I'm thinking about including the scene in some form in my novel.
After reading the scene out loud, I realised a few things. Firstly, I don't use enough contractions when I'm writing dialogue, so my characters sound a little bit like robots. I also need to work on making my dialogue sounding more casual in general: perhaps I should take some of the commas I use in the text and insert them into the dialogue.
I also need to vary my sentence length. Hopefully that will make my dialogue more snappy. It's definitely an art, making dialogue sound realistic.
I also think my main problem with dialogue is related to the previous exercise on dialogue: I don't know my characters well enough yet to write accurate dialogue. I'll need to do some more brainstorming and planning for my minor characters, otherwise my dialogue won't improve.
Although I do think just doing this exercise has already improved my dialogue, simply because I made myself think about every word before I wrote it, and then thought about it again once I'd read it aloud.
I'm also including the next exercise in this blog post, because that section on dialogue wasn't very long.
The next exercise is about using emotive language. It asks you to write a short scene from the perspective of a character who is angry, then one who is happy, and then one who is terrified. Sarah also phrased the reasoning behind this exercise amazingly, so I'm just going to copy it here:
"If you’re having a bad day, and it’s raining outside, you’ll probably think of the weather as gloomy and miserable. If you’re feeling more positive, you might be grateful to be curled up inside or even see things as romantic. Likewise, a character’s perception of their world should be filtered through their emotions."
This exercise was awesome. This is something I'm good at, writing scenes depending on the mood of the character. It was nice to have an exercise that was relatively easy for me, especially considering I've got just over three hours until NaNoWriMo.
When I'm writing in this way - viewing the scene through the mood of the character - I do several things. First, I choose specific words - I would use scraped or screeched in a scene where the character is stressed, but I might use squeaked or slipped in a scene with a lighter tone. The way I use punctuation is also important - I use more dashes in a scene where the character is angry or scared, and more commas when the character is happier.
I also wrote all these scenes in third person and past tense, which seems to indicate that I should use that when I'm actually writing my NaNoWriMo novel.
It's amazing to see how much richer this makes my writing. It's a really great way to get into the character's head, and add personality to the writing. It could also be a good character exercise - picking a situation and then writing the scene through the emotional point of view of each character.
It would be interesting to see how this would work in first person. Maybe I'll try that sometime.
If I survive NaNoWriMo.
This exercise asks you to write a dialogue scene and then read it aloud, figuring out which parts sound forced and which parts sound natural.
I wrote a short scene between two of my NaNoWriMo characters. I'm thinking about including the scene in some form in my novel.
After reading the scene out loud, I realised a few things. Firstly, I don't use enough contractions when I'm writing dialogue, so my characters sound a little bit like robots. I also need to work on making my dialogue sounding more casual in general: perhaps I should take some of the commas I use in the text and insert them into the dialogue.
I also need to vary my sentence length. Hopefully that will make my dialogue more snappy. It's definitely an art, making dialogue sound realistic.
I also think my main problem with dialogue is related to the previous exercise on dialogue: I don't know my characters well enough yet to write accurate dialogue. I'll need to do some more brainstorming and planning for my minor characters, otherwise my dialogue won't improve.
Although I do think just doing this exercise has already improved my dialogue, simply because I made myself think about every word before I wrote it, and then thought about it again once I'd read it aloud.
I'm also including the next exercise in this blog post, because that section on dialogue wasn't very long.
The next exercise is about using emotive language. It asks you to write a short scene from the perspective of a character who is angry, then one who is happy, and then one who is terrified. Sarah also phrased the reasoning behind this exercise amazingly, so I'm just going to copy it here:
"If you’re having a bad day, and it’s raining outside, you’ll probably think of the weather as gloomy and miserable. If you’re feeling more positive, you might be grateful to be curled up inside or even see things as romantic. Likewise, a character’s perception of their world should be filtered through their emotions."
This exercise was awesome. This is something I'm good at, writing scenes depending on the mood of the character. It was nice to have an exercise that was relatively easy for me, especially considering I've got just over three hours until NaNoWriMo.
When I'm writing in this way - viewing the scene through the mood of the character - I do several things. First, I choose specific words - I would use scraped or screeched in a scene where the character is stressed, but I might use squeaked or slipped in a scene with a lighter tone. The way I use punctuation is also important - I use more dashes in a scene where the character is angry or scared, and more commas when the character is happier.
I also wrote all these scenes in third person and past tense, which seems to indicate that I should use that when I'm actually writing my NaNoWriMo novel.
It's amazing to see how much richer this makes my writing. It's a really great way to get into the character's head, and add personality to the writing. It could also be a good character exercise - picking a situation and then writing the scene through the emotional point of view of each character.
It would be interesting to see how this would work in first person. Maybe I'll try that sometime.
If I survive NaNoWriMo.
Wednesday 30 October 2013
Blog Post #15
One down for today, five more to go!
The next exercise is on tenses and perspectives. It asks you to write a short scene in first person, third person, present tense, and past tense.
I cheated a little bit, in that I only wrote two scenes - first person and present tense, and third person and past tense. I plan to experiment with third person and present tense during NaNoWriMo too, however - if it doesn't work I'll just edit it out.
I have a confession to make about this exercise: I actually hate first person. That probably makes me a bit biased, but at least I gave it a go, right?
I think my hatred of first person comes from years of reading (and occasionally writing) fanfiction, where first person is frowned upon. I never quite figured out why this was the case, but the prejudice remains. Oddly enough, I don't have this prejudice when reading fiction - in fact, I quite like it, and find it quite easy to read. However, I've never really written anything in first person.
As a result, I'm not as good at first person as I am at third person. This meant the scene I wrote in first person wasn't as strong as the scene I wrote in third person. However, this just means I need more practice. I did enjoy the present tense part of the first person scene, however, so I'm definitely going to work more with that.
I also rewrote the same scene both times, which meant the scene I wrote second (the third person scene) was better simply because I was essentially re-writing the scene.
I'm actually really torn between which perspective and tense to use. I'm leaning towards third, simply because I like using people's name in the narrative, but first person may actually be easier for NaNoWriMo, because I find it quicker to write in (although I do also find it more casual, which could be a downside in a novel with a serious premise). It'll be a nightmare to rewrite it all if I decide to change perspectives halfway through, though.
I guess I'll make up my mind in five hours and three minutes when NaNoWriMo kicks off. Argh!
The next exercise is on tenses and perspectives. It asks you to write a short scene in first person, third person, present tense, and past tense.
I cheated a little bit, in that I only wrote two scenes - first person and present tense, and third person and past tense. I plan to experiment with third person and present tense during NaNoWriMo too, however - if it doesn't work I'll just edit it out.
I have a confession to make about this exercise: I actually hate first person. That probably makes me a bit biased, but at least I gave it a go, right?
I think my hatred of first person comes from years of reading (and occasionally writing) fanfiction, where first person is frowned upon. I never quite figured out why this was the case, but the prejudice remains. Oddly enough, I don't have this prejudice when reading fiction - in fact, I quite like it, and find it quite easy to read. However, I've never really written anything in first person.
As a result, I'm not as good at first person as I am at third person. This meant the scene I wrote in first person wasn't as strong as the scene I wrote in third person. However, this just means I need more practice. I did enjoy the present tense part of the first person scene, however, so I'm definitely going to work more with that.
I also rewrote the same scene both times, which meant the scene I wrote second (the third person scene) was better simply because I was essentially re-writing the scene.
I'm actually really torn between which perspective and tense to use. I'm leaning towards third, simply because I like using people's name in the narrative, but first person may actually be easier for NaNoWriMo, because I find it quicker to write in (although I do also find it more casual, which could be a downside in a novel with a serious premise). It'll be a nightmare to rewrite it all if I decide to change perspectives halfway through, though.
I guess I'll make up my mind in five hours and three minutes when NaNoWriMo kicks off. Argh!
Blog Post #14
Okay, I lied. If I do this exercise, I only have six more exercises to do tomorrow!
This is going to be me at the end of November, too: extremely tired and unable to use capital letters, but still determined to write just that little bit more and get to the end.
The next exercise is about creating distinctive voices for your characters. You can find the exercises here.
I did the first one - the Sitcom exercise - for all my main characters. I really liked this exercise, and the discussion beforehand was really helpful too. Some of the stuff it mentioned - about knowing your characters well enough to know what they would say - would be a lot easier once you'd done the character worksheets, for example. I definitely noticed that the characters I'd done worksheets for were a lot easier to write dialogue for.
I agreed with a lot of what the blog post linked above said - I often feel like I'm just writing from my point of view, and that I'm not inside my characters' heads. This exercise really helped me think about how I could get inside their heads, and I definitely think this exercise will improve my writing.
It's also something I've never done before, so I'll definitely need a lot of practice. I'm also going to give the other exercises a go at some point (i.e. post NaNoWriMo, when I've got a chance to write anything with quality again).
And time to stop for today - only six exercises to go!
This is going to be me at the end of November, too: extremely tired and unable to use capital letters, but still determined to write just that little bit more and get to the end.
The next exercise is about creating distinctive voices for your characters. You can find the exercises here.
I did the first one - the Sitcom exercise - for all my main characters. I really liked this exercise, and the discussion beforehand was really helpful too. Some of the stuff it mentioned - about knowing your characters well enough to know what they would say - would be a lot easier once you'd done the character worksheets, for example. I definitely noticed that the characters I'd done worksheets for were a lot easier to write dialogue for.
I agreed with a lot of what the blog post linked above said - I often feel like I'm just writing from my point of view, and that I'm not inside my characters' heads. This exercise really helped me think about how I could get inside their heads, and I definitely think this exercise will improve my writing.
It's also something I've never done before, so I'll definitely need a lot of practice. I'm also going to give the other exercises a go at some point (i.e. post NaNoWriMo, when I've got a chance to write anything with quality again).
And time to stop for today - only six exercises to go!
Blog Post #13
So if anyone doing these exercises got to this point and suddenly thought 'what?' well, you can blame me for this one.
I was there when Sarah was creating this NaNoWriMo bootcamp exercise, and she needed a sentence to be an example of 'Show, Don't Tell'. I suggested this one.
The lesson from this exercise is pretty obvious. Although, something I have noticed is that you can't 'show' all the time. Sometimes, telling does work for the story, as long as you don't overuse it. It's one of those cases where you should probably know the rules before you break them. Too much telling leads to dull writing, whereas too much showing can lead to really beautiful writing.
Showing also leads to more crafted, carefully considered writing. If you have to stop and think about what you're writing and how you're writing it, you'll have to put more effort into creating your story. Especially if you're me, you'll find this hard to do during NaNoWriMo, but if you're able to make your 1700 words a day, you should be able to craft your writing a lot better.
Although the lesson from this exercise is pretty obvious, this is also an exercise you should practice all the time, because it's definitely one of those things that you may understand academically but you'll get much better at if you practice.
And that paragraph was one sentence, so I should probably get some sleep.
Seven exercises to go, and one day to do them in. Can I do it? Who knows.
I was there when Sarah was creating this NaNoWriMo bootcamp exercise, and she needed a sentence to be an example of 'Show, Don't Tell'. I suggested this one.
The lesson from this exercise is pretty obvious. Although, something I have noticed is that you can't 'show' all the time. Sometimes, telling does work for the story, as long as you don't overuse it. It's one of those cases where you should probably know the rules before you break them. Too much telling leads to dull writing, whereas too much showing can lead to really beautiful writing.
Showing also leads to more crafted, carefully considered writing. If you have to stop and think about what you're writing and how you're writing it, you'll have to put more effort into creating your story. Especially if you're me, you'll find this hard to do during NaNoWriMo, but if you're able to make your 1700 words a day, you should be able to craft your writing a lot better.
Although the lesson from this exercise is pretty obvious, this is also an exercise you should practice all the time, because it's definitely one of those things that you may understand academically but you'll get much better at if you practice.
And that paragraph was one sentence, so I should probably get some sleep.
Seven exercises to go, and one day to do them in. Can I do it? Who knows.
Blog Post #12
I'm starting to think I might actually catch up on these exercises, but then I remember that some of the last ones are quite long. I've still got over 24 hours until Nano starts, though - I can definitely do this. Right?
This next exercise is about dialogue. I was really wondering how I was going to get this exercise done in time, because it involves recording a conversation and transcribing it. But then we had unexpected guests tonight (yes I am typing this up with guests in the room, because my friends are excellent people who understand the importance of NaNoWriMo planning), and so I recorded our utterly inane conversation about how amazing Mac and Cheese is.
After transcribing the conversation, the next step of the exercise was to rewrite the conversation for dramatic effect. Now, I think the chances of characters discussing Mac and Cheese in a novel is quite low, so I was already at a disadvantage there. But I did my best.
I'm sure it's an obvious lesson, but real conversations are dramatically different to fictional ones. For starters, fictional conversations are rarely as pointless as the one I just had. If you're writing a pointless conversation, edit it out, or think about how it could be relevant to the novel. Unless it's NaNoWriMo, in which case have as many inane conversations about food as possible - the more words the better, right?
People in real conversations also change topics halfway through, use incomplete sentences, leave the room halfway through the conversation, and fail to use context. You can always use these things in a novel, but there has to be a point to them: they should either develop the characters or forward the plot.
Fictional conversations are usually more structured. They may look casual, but a lot more thinking goes in to them than in to real life conversations.
I had a couple of other points about this exercise, but basically they all boil down to: make sure your novel conversations are relevant to the plot, and that what your characters are saying is clear (or, if it isn't, make that a plot decision, not a result of poor writing).
This next exercise is about dialogue. I was really wondering how I was going to get this exercise done in time, because it involves recording a conversation and transcribing it. But then we had unexpected guests tonight (yes I am typing this up with guests in the room, because my friends are excellent people who understand the importance of NaNoWriMo planning), and so I recorded our utterly inane conversation about how amazing Mac and Cheese is.
After transcribing the conversation, the next step of the exercise was to rewrite the conversation for dramatic effect. Now, I think the chances of characters discussing Mac and Cheese in a novel is quite low, so I was already at a disadvantage there. But I did my best.
I'm sure it's an obvious lesson, but real conversations are dramatically different to fictional ones. For starters, fictional conversations are rarely as pointless as the one I just had. If you're writing a pointless conversation, edit it out, or think about how it could be relevant to the novel. Unless it's NaNoWriMo, in which case have as many inane conversations about food as possible - the more words the better, right?
People in real conversations also change topics halfway through, use incomplete sentences, leave the room halfway through the conversation, and fail to use context. You can always use these things in a novel, but there has to be a point to them: they should either develop the characters or forward the plot.
Fictional conversations are usually more structured. They may look casual, but a lot more thinking goes in to them than in to real life conversations.
I had a couple of other points about this exercise, but basically they all boil down to: make sure your novel conversations are relevant to the plot, and that what your characters are saying is clear (or, if it isn't, make that a plot decision, not a result of poor writing).
Blog Post #11
This is another setting related exercise. This time you were asked to come up with some interesting locations your characters could visit: places you can't go or are scared to go in real life.
It took me a while to get going on this exercise, because my first thought was 'Well, my entire novel is set in an alternate universe - I can't go anywhere in it, because it doesn't exist!'. So I decided to take a step back, and just think of locations I'd like to visit or I'm scared to visit in the real world, and then think about how I could fit them into my novel.
In the end I came up with three locations. They're all places I could easily find close to my house, but they're also all places that will work really well within the world of my novel.
It's also made me a lot more excited about writing my novel: although I don't get to go to these places, my characters can. Although I might have to arrange to visit some of them for research.
This exercise has also solved some of my narrative problems - I now have a better idea of where I might set some of my scenes, and what those places might look or feel like. Although there is one location that I will just have to completely make-up, because I doubt I can access it.
I've also been so focussed on plot that it was nice to think about something else. The character worksheets were the same - coming up with settings and characters was a fun creative exercise.
I think this would be a good exercise to keep in mind while you're writing: as you start a scene, think about where it could be set, and how that might work with the narrative or the characters. Make each scene as interesting as possible - that way you'll be more excited about writing it.
It took me a while to get going on this exercise, because my first thought was 'Well, my entire novel is set in an alternate universe - I can't go anywhere in it, because it doesn't exist!'. So I decided to take a step back, and just think of locations I'd like to visit or I'm scared to visit in the real world, and then think about how I could fit them into my novel.
In the end I came up with three locations. They're all places I could easily find close to my house, but they're also all places that will work really well within the world of my novel.
It's also made me a lot more excited about writing my novel: although I don't get to go to these places, my characters can. Although I might have to arrange to visit some of them for research.
This exercise has also solved some of my narrative problems - I now have a better idea of where I might set some of my scenes, and what those places might look or feel like. Although there is one location that I will just have to completely make-up, because I doubt I can access it.
I've also been so focussed on plot that it was nice to think about something else. The character worksheets were the same - coming up with settings and characters was a fun creative exercise.
I think this would be a good exercise to keep in mind while you're writing: as you start a scene, think about where it could be set, and how that might work with the narrative or the characters. Make each scene as interesting as possible - that way you'll be more excited about writing it.
Blog Post #10
In today's edition of 'how on earth will I get through this before NaNoWriMo?' we have exercise 16, Compare Yourself to Published Authors. Published authors probably did their Nano planning, so we're off to a bad start already.
This exercise asked you to pick a scene you'd read recently that made you have an emotional reaction. I picked a scene from Wool by Hugh Howey, which I'm slowly making my way through.
Wool is very good at making me have emotional reactions. I picked a scene which I read about seven hours ago, on my lunch break at work. It was so good that I was nearly late back to work because I didn't want to stop reading.
The next step of this exercise was to write the scene out in your own words, and then compare it to the original scene. Honest hour: I skipped a step here - you were supposed to write out the original scene, but I'm rapidly running out of time so I didn't.
I don't think this exercise was as effective as it could have been, because I sort of rushed it. I do think I picked a good genre, however, because this is similar to the sort of thing I'll be including in my Nano novel.
I did learn that I need to work on my pacing a bit - I think I let the reader relax too much in the scene, when it really needed constant tension. As a result, the ending fell a bit flat.
However, I did notice I used commas and rhetorical questions to good effect. I also came up with some good descriptions.
This is another exercise I'd like to repeat later on, once I've done a bit more work on the novel. I think this exercise has the potential to be very helpful.
This exercise asked you to pick a scene you'd read recently that made you have an emotional reaction. I picked a scene from Wool by Hugh Howey, which I'm slowly making my way through.
Wool is very good at making me have emotional reactions. I picked a scene which I read about seven hours ago, on my lunch break at work. It was so good that I was nearly late back to work because I didn't want to stop reading.
The next step of this exercise was to write the scene out in your own words, and then compare it to the original scene. Honest hour: I skipped a step here - you were supposed to write out the original scene, but I'm rapidly running out of time so I didn't.
I don't think this exercise was as effective as it could have been, because I sort of rushed it. I do think I picked a good genre, however, because this is similar to the sort of thing I'll be including in my Nano novel.
I did learn that I need to work on my pacing a bit - I think I let the reader relax too much in the scene, when it really needed constant tension. As a result, the ending fell a bit flat.
However, I did notice I used commas and rhetorical questions to good effect. I also came up with some good descriptions.
This is another exercise I'd like to repeat later on, once I've done a bit more work on the novel. I think this exercise has the potential to be very helpful.
Tuesday 29 October 2013
Blog Post #9
The last exercise I need to do today in order to catch up! Then it's four exercises on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then it's NaNoWriMo (ohgod). ETA: I didn't do it. I'm so far behind.
This exercise is character worksheets. Basically, I love character worksheets: they're my kryptonite and my ultimate procrastination tool when writing. If I wasn't doing this bootcamp I wouldn't be allowing myself to use them.
I did the first half of the first worksheet here for all my main characters. I'm trying to catch up, otherwise I would have picked one of the much longer sheets.
I've done these for my three major characters. At some point I should do something similar for the secondary characters, but that can wait until later.
Some of the stuff in these worksheets is stuff we've been over in previous exercises. I already knew my characters' secrets, for example. But I learned some really interesting things about them, especially when I wrote about where they went when they were angry. It was also helpful to differentiate between their secrets and their fears - I now have a much better idea of what drives these characters, and what might hinder them in reaching their goals.
I also now know what my characters look like, which I didn't know before. It wasn't something I'd thought about. It's also something I'm very particular about: their names and their looks have to match, and they have to be exactly right.
Looks are also a good clue to what might have happened to a character in the past. The scars they have, if they wear makeup or dye their hair, how clean their hands are can all be clues to what they've been up to. I've come up with what I'm hoping will be a great trope subversion (and also a way of driving the plot forward) by thinking about my main character's physical characteristics.
I'm probably going to do these sheets again, maybe when I reach the end of that mythical first draft.
I'm also including the next exercise in this post, because again it isn't really an exercise. It does give some good advice about not 'info-dumping', however. Again, this is something I find hard to do during NaNoWriMo: I'm often writing so fast that I'm not thinking about quality, so I do 'info-dump' a lot - it's more words, usually. But wrapping exposition in action is a much better technique - there's nothing worse than pages and pages of information. Just make sure you don't use the "as you know, Bob" technique, when the characters discuss something they already know just so the reader can know it too.
I feel like the quality of these posts is going down the more I write. That's what happens when I don't pace myself, I guess.
This exercise is character worksheets. Basically, I love character worksheets: they're my kryptonite and my ultimate procrastination tool when writing. If I wasn't doing this bootcamp I wouldn't be allowing myself to use them.
I did the first half of the first worksheet here for all my main characters. I'm trying to catch up, otherwise I would have picked one of the much longer sheets.
I've done these for my three major characters. At some point I should do something similar for the secondary characters, but that can wait until later.
Some of the stuff in these worksheets is stuff we've been over in previous exercises. I already knew my characters' secrets, for example. But I learned some really interesting things about them, especially when I wrote about where they went when they were angry. It was also helpful to differentiate between their secrets and their fears - I now have a much better idea of what drives these characters, and what might hinder them in reaching their goals.
I also now know what my characters look like, which I didn't know before. It wasn't something I'd thought about. It's also something I'm very particular about: their names and their looks have to match, and they have to be exactly right.
Looks are also a good clue to what might have happened to a character in the past. The scars they have, if they wear makeup or dye their hair, how clean their hands are can all be clues to what they've been up to. I've come up with what I'm hoping will be a great trope subversion (and also a way of driving the plot forward) by thinking about my main character's physical characteristics.
I'm probably going to do these sheets again, maybe when I reach the end of that mythical first draft.
I'm also including the next exercise in this post, because again it isn't really an exercise. It does give some good advice about not 'info-dumping', however. Again, this is something I find hard to do during NaNoWriMo: I'm often writing so fast that I'm not thinking about quality, so I do 'info-dump' a lot - it's more words, usually. But wrapping exposition in action is a much better technique - there's nothing worse than pages and pages of information. Just make sure you don't use the "as you know, Bob" technique, when the characters discuss something they already know just so the reader can know it too.
I feel like the quality of these posts is going down the more I write. That's what happens when I don't pace myself, I guess.
Monday 28 October 2013
Blog Post #8
Exercise 3/5 I need to complete today in order to catch up. I can totally do this.
For those who need a refresher on the exercises, the post is here.
This exercise is about creating subplots. Basically, if you're writing a novel, you need subplots, or you'll rapidly run out of things to write about. Also, the more plots you have, the easier it will be to get to 50, 000 words (because lets face it, we'll need all the help we can get).
I'd gotten so behind on these exercises that I'd forgotten what my plot even was, which was a bit of a hindrance when coming up with subplots. So first I reviewed my plot.
Reviewing my plot did make me realise that it was a bit thin at points, and I'd really need to work to get through parts of the novel without subplots. They'll also help to make the main plot and the characters more interesting (hopefully).
I also found it helpful to think about novels I'd read, and figure out what their plots and subplots were. The article attached to the exercise was also extremely helpful, giving several examples of how to figure out what your subplots can be.
The other important piece of advice mentioned was that subplots should arise organically from the main plot. Otherwise, they'll look forced. They should also link to the main plot, and influence it in some way. This is great advice: my first subplot came from thinking about what happens right at the beginning of the main plot, and how I could weave that in later.
I've picked one major subplot for now, and outlined it. I've also realised that I've got two main plots, as such, which often switch between primary and secondary plot depending on what else is happening in the novel.
I also noticed that I don't have any romantic plot lines. Romance just didn't seem important to the main character's journey, although I might include a past romantic interest that becomes important to the main plot line somehow. We shall see.
I'm worried I'm going to forget to include these plots because they aren't included in the main plot I originally laid out. However, they'll hopefully relate to the main plot enough that I can go back and add them in.
I'm tacking the next exercise on the end here because it isn't really an exercise. It's just a quote, reminding writers to vary their sentence length. It's good advice. Although, honestly, during NaNoWriMo I often write paragraphs that are the same sentence written in five slightly varying ways, which probably isn't quite what Gary Provost was going for. But that's what editing is for, and I'll endeavour to make my sentences as musical as I can at that stage.
For those who need a refresher on the exercises, the post is here.
This exercise is about creating subplots. Basically, if you're writing a novel, you need subplots, or you'll rapidly run out of things to write about. Also, the more plots you have, the easier it will be to get to 50, 000 words (because lets face it, we'll need all the help we can get).
I'd gotten so behind on these exercises that I'd forgotten what my plot even was, which was a bit of a hindrance when coming up with subplots. So first I reviewed my plot.
Reviewing my plot did make me realise that it was a bit thin at points, and I'd really need to work to get through parts of the novel without subplots. They'll also help to make the main plot and the characters more interesting (hopefully).
I also found it helpful to think about novels I'd read, and figure out what their plots and subplots were. The article attached to the exercise was also extremely helpful, giving several examples of how to figure out what your subplots can be.
The other important piece of advice mentioned was that subplots should arise organically from the main plot. Otherwise, they'll look forced. They should also link to the main plot, and influence it in some way. This is great advice: my first subplot came from thinking about what happens right at the beginning of the main plot, and how I could weave that in later.
I've picked one major subplot for now, and outlined it. I've also realised that I've got two main plots, as such, which often switch between primary and secondary plot depending on what else is happening in the novel.
I also noticed that I don't have any romantic plot lines. Romance just didn't seem important to the main character's journey, although I might include a past romantic interest that becomes important to the main plot line somehow. We shall see.
I'm worried I'm going to forget to include these plots because they aren't included in the main plot I originally laid out. However, they'll hopefully relate to the main plot enough that I can go back and add them in.
I'm tacking the next exercise on the end here because it isn't really an exercise. It's just a quote, reminding writers to vary their sentence length. It's good advice. Although, honestly, during NaNoWriMo I often write paragraphs that are the same sentence written in five slightly varying ways, which probably isn't quite what Gary Provost was going for. But that's what editing is for, and I'll endeavour to make my sentences as musical as I can at that stage.
Blog Post #7
So to complete all the exercises by the end of the month, I need to do five exercises today and then four on each day after that (because although my blog calendar says the 27th, it is actually the 28th here - so close to NaNoWriMo!)
The next exercise is about studying techniques an author uses that work well and then trying them out yourself. You're supposed to pick the book closest to you, but as I'd just tidied my side of the bed, the closest books were my partners non-fiction business books. Although that could have been a super fun challenge, I went and found a fiction book instead: The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman, possibly one of my favourite books of all time.
I always balk a little at these exercises, and I think it's because I feel like I'm back in school when I do them. However, the hardest exercises are often the most rewarding, and I definitely found that with this one.
The three techniques I looked at were: listing, simile, and the cliff-hanger. Picking the techniques was easy enough, but having to think about why they worked was a lot harder. I realised that these techniques were part of a string of techniques used throughout the chapter, all with the intention of building tension. The listing built tension by giving the reader a suggestion about how the character might be distracted, and then taking it away, frustrating the reader while indicating that the problem was serious enough that none of the character's favourite pastimes would work. The simile built tension and also a gothic mood by comparing the wind to restless spirits. This both relates to previous scenes and foreshadows later ones which also contain apparent supernatural elements. The listing technique was also used here, with each clause building on the previous one and adding to the suspense. Finally, the cliff-hanger summarised these elements (as such), providing a moment of calm before, suddenly (this is a slight flaw in the book, it's overuse of the word suddenly), something dramatic happened.
The next step was applying these techniques when writing a scene in a different genre. I decided to try applying them to a romance. Initially I found it quite difficult, because I still had the previous scene in my mind. I think this would work well if you wrote down the techniques and then did the exercise once you'd forgotten what the techniques were (or swapped with a friend who also did the exercise). Once I got going, however, I was fine.
It was interesting to see how universal techniques can be. I found it easy to use the same techniques in a romance that were used in a mystery novel: it was only the content that differed. After all, restless spirits aren't often something you want in your romance novel (usually).
Learning these techniques well enough that you can write them when needed would really enrich your writing, in my opinion. Learning how to subvert them is even better.
These posts are probably going to get a little shorter as I frantically try to get to the end of NaNoWriMo Bootcamp. Wish me luck!
The next exercise is about studying techniques an author uses that work well and then trying them out yourself. You're supposed to pick the book closest to you, but as I'd just tidied my side of the bed, the closest books were my partners non-fiction business books. Although that could have been a super fun challenge, I went and found a fiction book instead: The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman, possibly one of my favourite books of all time.
I always balk a little at these exercises, and I think it's because I feel like I'm back in school when I do them. However, the hardest exercises are often the most rewarding, and I definitely found that with this one.
The three techniques I looked at were: listing, simile, and the cliff-hanger. Picking the techniques was easy enough, but having to think about why they worked was a lot harder. I realised that these techniques were part of a string of techniques used throughout the chapter, all with the intention of building tension. The listing built tension by giving the reader a suggestion about how the character might be distracted, and then taking it away, frustrating the reader while indicating that the problem was serious enough that none of the character's favourite pastimes would work. The simile built tension and also a gothic mood by comparing the wind to restless spirits. This both relates to previous scenes and foreshadows later ones which also contain apparent supernatural elements. The listing technique was also used here, with each clause building on the previous one and adding to the suspense. Finally, the cliff-hanger summarised these elements (as such), providing a moment of calm before, suddenly (this is a slight flaw in the book, it's overuse of the word suddenly), something dramatic happened.
The next step was applying these techniques when writing a scene in a different genre. I decided to try applying them to a romance. Initially I found it quite difficult, because I still had the previous scene in my mind. I think this would work well if you wrote down the techniques and then did the exercise once you'd forgotten what the techniques were (or swapped with a friend who also did the exercise). Once I got going, however, I was fine.
It was interesting to see how universal techniques can be. I found it easy to use the same techniques in a romance that were used in a mystery novel: it was only the content that differed. After all, restless spirits aren't often something you want in your romance novel (usually).
Learning these techniques well enough that you can write them when needed would really enrich your writing, in my opinion. Learning how to subvert them is even better.
These posts are probably going to get a little shorter as I frantically try to get to the end of NaNoWriMo Bootcamp. Wish me luck!
Sunday 27 October 2013
Blog Post #6
So, four days left in October...I can definitely catch up, right?
The next exercise is about setting. It asks you to write down 10-20 facts about your setting and incorporate them into your novel.
So I'm writing a YA Urban Fantasy for my Nano project, and, as everyone knows, setting is super important in novels like this. After all, they're mostly set in worlds unlike earth, so the reader needs at least some of this explained so the story will make sense. Also, the setting is often part of the plot.
But really, setting should be crucial to every novel. After all, it has an effect on where your characters can go, what they do, even their mood and personality. If it rains a lot in your setting, how does your character feel about this? Does it prevent them from doing things? Rain causes traffic jams, accidents, delays.
The same setting also has a different effect depending on which genre you're working in. In a crime novel, for example, a lot of rain could severely hamper any investigation. In a sci-fi/fantasy novel it could prevent armies from moving or it could be acid rain and prevent people from going anywhere. Or it might be relief after a long drought. There are millions of examples.
I had some vague ideas about my setting before I started this exercise. But again, like in many of the other exercises, being forced to think about it in detail really helped.
I had to think about how it would make sense geographically. If you've got a rebel group hiding in the woods, for example, how is it that no one has found them yet? The woods must be large, or the areas between cities must be very sparsely populated.
I also had to think about the level of technology, and how the premise of the plot would affect the setting at the beginning. In real life things often happen randomly, of course, but they rarely do in fiction (and it annoys me a lot if they do, personally). Thinking about what people might have done to react to the situation in the book was really useful in developing a setting.
The other thing to think about was how the setting hindered or helped the characters. I probably need to work on this a bit more, but once I have I imagine it will be quite useful.
This was a fun exercise, mainly because I like knowing everything about my setting. I also love novels with strong and interesting settings.
The other part of this exercise is going back and including facts about the setting in your novel. I'm definitely going to go back and do this. If I have time, I'm probably going to plan out my plot again, incorporating all the exercises I've done.
Although I should probably finish all the exercises first...
The next exercise is about setting. It asks you to write down 10-20 facts about your setting and incorporate them into your novel.
So I'm writing a YA Urban Fantasy for my Nano project, and, as everyone knows, setting is super important in novels like this. After all, they're mostly set in worlds unlike earth, so the reader needs at least some of this explained so the story will make sense. Also, the setting is often part of the plot.
But really, setting should be crucial to every novel. After all, it has an effect on where your characters can go, what they do, even their mood and personality. If it rains a lot in your setting, how does your character feel about this? Does it prevent them from doing things? Rain causes traffic jams, accidents, delays.
The same setting also has a different effect depending on which genre you're working in. In a crime novel, for example, a lot of rain could severely hamper any investigation. In a sci-fi/fantasy novel it could prevent armies from moving or it could be acid rain and prevent people from going anywhere. Or it might be relief after a long drought. There are millions of examples.
I had some vague ideas about my setting before I started this exercise. But again, like in many of the other exercises, being forced to think about it in detail really helped.
I had to think about how it would make sense geographically. If you've got a rebel group hiding in the woods, for example, how is it that no one has found them yet? The woods must be large, or the areas between cities must be very sparsely populated.
I also had to think about the level of technology, and how the premise of the plot would affect the setting at the beginning. In real life things often happen randomly, of course, but they rarely do in fiction (and it annoys me a lot if they do, personally). Thinking about what people might have done to react to the situation in the book was really useful in developing a setting.
The other thing to think about was how the setting hindered or helped the characters. I probably need to work on this a bit more, but once I have I imagine it will be quite useful.
This was a fun exercise, mainly because I like knowing everything about my setting. I also love novels with strong and interesting settings.
The other part of this exercise is going back and including facts about the setting in your novel. I'm definitely going to go back and do this. If I have time, I'm probably going to plan out my plot again, incorporating all the exercises I've done.
Although I should probably finish all the exercises first...
Friday 18 October 2013
Blog Post #5
Exercise number six!
This one is about finding your writing voice using this blog post by Jeff Goins. It asks you to complete ten steps to find your writing voice.
I found the blog post itself to be helpful. It gave a lot of good advice about writing voices, particularly about making sure you're comfortable with your writing voice and that you practice and develop it. I found out the hard way that if you aren't comfortable with the way you write, you'll probably never enjoy writing. I spent a lot of time trying to imitate the voices of popular writers, and I never finished anything.
It's actually one way in which I find NaNoWriMo to be really helpful - I'm writing so much that I don't think about crafting my voice to sound the way I think it should, I just write. And although anything from Nano is very much a first draft, I've come up with some great ideas and phrases this way.
It's something I've had to realise about any art: there are hundreds of different ways to be good at something, but your way has to be true to you. And it won't be exactly how you want it to be at the beginning, but that's where practicing comes in - the more you write (draw, sing etc.), the better you will get. Eventually you might even become just as well-liked as the people you admired in the first place (who, spoiler alert, probably got where they are by practicing and being comfortable with their voices).
The exercise included in the blog post was also helpful. It required you to think about how your voice will work, and why it works that way. This, like a lot of the other exercises, follows a pattern of learning I heard about a while ago.
The idea is that you are at first unconsciously bad at something, then consciously bad, then consciously good, then unconsciously good. These exercises work well for that conscious stage - you learn what you might be doing wrong, and then you have to think about how to fix it. Applying these exercises will hopefully improve your writing. Eventually, you'll become unconsciously good, and you'll apply the techniques you've learned without thinking. Although that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep trying to improve - otherwise, you'll risk getting complacent, bored, or both.
I'm not sure how I'll go at applying these during Nano. I think you'd do really well at applying this if you were unconsciously good, but I'm definitely not anywhere near that stage yet. I'll do my best, but I think a lot of this will be implemented in the editing stage.
I'm also thinking about going back and doing these exercises again post-Nano. I think it'll be really interesting to review them once I've written 50, 000 words.
But right now, on to the next exercise: setting.
This one is about finding your writing voice using this blog post by Jeff Goins. It asks you to complete ten steps to find your writing voice.
I found the blog post itself to be helpful. It gave a lot of good advice about writing voices, particularly about making sure you're comfortable with your writing voice and that you practice and develop it. I found out the hard way that if you aren't comfortable with the way you write, you'll probably never enjoy writing. I spent a lot of time trying to imitate the voices of popular writers, and I never finished anything.
It's actually one way in which I find NaNoWriMo to be really helpful - I'm writing so much that I don't think about crafting my voice to sound the way I think it should, I just write. And although anything from Nano is very much a first draft, I've come up with some great ideas and phrases this way.
It's something I've had to realise about any art: there are hundreds of different ways to be good at something, but your way has to be true to you. And it won't be exactly how you want it to be at the beginning, but that's where practicing comes in - the more you write (draw, sing etc.), the better you will get. Eventually you might even become just as well-liked as the people you admired in the first place (who, spoiler alert, probably got where they are by practicing and being comfortable with their voices).
The exercise included in the blog post was also helpful. It required you to think about how your voice will work, and why it works that way. This, like a lot of the other exercises, follows a pattern of learning I heard about a while ago.
The idea is that you are at first unconsciously bad at something, then consciously bad, then consciously good, then unconsciously good. These exercises work well for that conscious stage - you learn what you might be doing wrong, and then you have to think about how to fix it. Applying these exercises will hopefully improve your writing. Eventually, you'll become unconsciously good, and you'll apply the techniques you've learned without thinking. Although that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep trying to improve - otherwise, you'll risk getting complacent, bored, or both.
I'm not sure how I'll go at applying these during Nano. I think you'd do really well at applying this if you were unconsciously good, but I'm definitely not anywhere near that stage yet. I'll do my best, but I think a lot of this will be implemented in the editing stage.
I'm also thinking about going back and doing these exercises again post-Nano. I think it'll be really interesting to review them once I've written 50, 000 words.
But right now, on to the next exercise: setting.
Blog Post #4
Day 5: Adding tension to dialogue
So this is going pretty much exactly how NaNoWriMo always goes for me, so I feel this is excellent NaNoWriMo prep - I start out really keen and write a lot, I do pretty much nothing through the middle of the month, and then I frantically rush to get everything finished over the last week.
The fact that I avoided this exercise for so long should indicate how much I hate writing dialogue. This exercise really stumped me, so it's good, I suppose, that I finally did it.
And once I did, it turned out to be super enjoyable. I picked two characters who weren't originally going to interact much in the novel, although now I've written this scene I might write more.
It was great having to consciously think about what they would say to each other and how they would say it, all the while practising adding tension to my dialogue. I attempted to use all three suggestions made in the original exercise - defensiveness, teasing, and answering questions with questions. This was great, because it really added variety to the scene, and it made me think about different ways the same sentiment could be expressed. It also made the scene longer, which added more tension as I drew it out.
For this exercise, I only wrote dialogue. This made me appreciate how much description can add to a scene, however - the actions accompanying the words are just as important, especially because they are all we get - we can't see the characters or hear their tone of voice after all. I'm planning to go back later and add in extra description in an effort to add more tension.
Although it wasn't part of the exercise, the other thing I did was switch which character was asking the questions halfway through the scene. Done right, this hopefully serves a bunch of different purposes: it disarms the character originally asking questions and changes the balance of power in the scene (again, hopefully adding to the tension), it shows character and gives the lead-in for future interactions between the characters, and it hopefully engages the reader more, making them want to know if the shift will happen again. I also found it good for giving the reader important information without making it too boring.
Consciously thinking about dialogue in general is extremely useful. However, I'm not sure if I'll do it during Nano - I'm usually writing a lot of words in a short amount of time, which doesn't leave much space for musing. It's a good exercise to have in your repertoire, though, and it'll be great practice for writing in general and for post-Nano novel edits.
A fun fact before we go: to get in to the mood for this exercise, I listened to Quartet from the musical Chess. This is a great example of some of the techniques I talked about,, and also of other techniques to add tension to a scene. Also, Chess is a great musical, and well worth a listen.
Now, I have to do eighteen exercises (if I skip all the free writing) in 12 days. Let's see how we go.
So this is going pretty much exactly how NaNoWriMo always goes for me, so I feel this is excellent NaNoWriMo prep - I start out really keen and write a lot, I do pretty much nothing through the middle of the month, and then I frantically rush to get everything finished over the last week.
The fact that I avoided this exercise for so long should indicate how much I hate writing dialogue. This exercise really stumped me, so it's good, I suppose, that I finally did it.
And once I did, it turned out to be super enjoyable. I picked two characters who weren't originally going to interact much in the novel, although now I've written this scene I might write more.
It was great having to consciously think about what they would say to each other and how they would say it, all the while practising adding tension to my dialogue. I attempted to use all three suggestions made in the original exercise - defensiveness, teasing, and answering questions with questions. This was great, because it really added variety to the scene, and it made me think about different ways the same sentiment could be expressed. It also made the scene longer, which added more tension as I drew it out.
For this exercise, I only wrote dialogue. This made me appreciate how much description can add to a scene, however - the actions accompanying the words are just as important, especially because they are all we get - we can't see the characters or hear their tone of voice after all. I'm planning to go back later and add in extra description in an effort to add more tension.
Although it wasn't part of the exercise, the other thing I did was switch which character was asking the questions halfway through the scene. Done right, this hopefully serves a bunch of different purposes: it disarms the character originally asking questions and changes the balance of power in the scene (again, hopefully adding to the tension), it shows character and gives the lead-in for future interactions between the characters, and it hopefully engages the reader more, making them want to know if the shift will happen again. I also found it good for giving the reader important information without making it too boring.
Consciously thinking about dialogue in general is extremely useful. However, I'm not sure if I'll do it during Nano - I'm usually writing a lot of words in a short amount of time, which doesn't leave much space for musing. It's a good exercise to have in your repertoire, though, and it'll be great practice for writing in general and for post-Nano novel edits.
A fun fact before we go: to get in to the mood for this exercise, I listened to Quartet from the musical Chess. This is a great example of some of the techniques I talked about,, and also of other techniques to add tension to a scene. Also, Chess is a great musical, and well worth a listen.
Now, I have to do eighteen exercises (if I skip all the free writing) in 12 days. Let's see how we go.
Wednesday 9 October 2013
Blog Post #3
Well, the title of this blog is 'I will write this novel', so I'm going to do it.
Day 3 was free writing, but I skipped it in an effort to catch up on the exercises. That absolutely did not work - it's Day 9 and I've only just finished Day 4.
Day 4 is 'create a secret and a goal for each of your characters and use it to motivate them'. I was pretty happy when I saw this exercise - I thought it would be an easy one.
Spoiler alert: I was wrong. This exercise was really quite hard. Especially picking one secret and one goal for each character.
It got easier once I realised that the goals didn't necessarily have to be realistic or achievable. They should reveal plenty about your characters (and if they have un-achievable goals, that says a lot about them). They should also reflect the path the character will take - and they will, giving an idea of the conflicts they will face. Their secrets and goals should relate to each other. Deciding whether or not your character will achieve their goal/s is also valuable - it will indicate their place in the story, and direct the action.
I ended up picking more than one goal for the main characters, and only one for the less main characters. The main characters obviously change over time, and so their goals change. Their secrets stayed consistent, however, at least until they were revealed.
The secrets and goals should cause both internal and external conflict for the characters. They should also be revealed at some point. Not all of them need to be revealed in a dramatic way, of course - the more important the character, the bigger the effect on the plot.
Another thing I noticed while doing this exercise is that I had real trouble coming up with goals for the main male characters. And, when I did come up with them, they were often related to their love interests or to other female characters. I realised this was because I hadn't really thought about the male characters as much: none of them play a main role in either Imogen or Nell's plotline. However, this exercise was well worth doing - it meant I had to think more about what the 'minor' characters were doing and why they were involved in the plot. One way to ensure your characters are believable is to make sure they have realistic goals and secrets. Not achievable ones or reasonable secrets, just ones that real people would have. And vary them - everyone values different things, after all, so everyone's goals and secrets are different.
Creating goals and secrets for every character also meant thinking in detail about the plot in more detail. This is great - it means your plot has more depth to it. It also means you'll have to re-plan parts of your plot. However, I think this will only make my novel stronger, so it's all to the good. I haven't looked at what the last exercise is, but if I catch up I might include a 'plan your plot in detail' exercise later on.
Secrets and goals are also a great way to set your story up for a sequel. Secrets and goals create internal and external conflict, so ending the novel with the creation of new ones sets up the next stage of the story. If you're certain your story will have a sequel, create new secrets and new goals, and hint at them at the end of the novel. If you're not certain, or you want to leave the ending a bit more open, just create new secrets. This hints at a further plot, and, if you do decide to write a sequel, you can create new goals related to these secrets at the beginning. It also leaves the reader curious, especially if you've dealt with the secrets and goals well in the first novel.
So now I've got a better idea of who my characters are and what they want, it's on to creating tension. Let's see how long this exercise takes me, shall we?
Day 3 was free writing, but I skipped it in an effort to catch up on the exercises. That absolutely did not work - it's Day 9 and I've only just finished Day 4.
Day 4 is 'create a secret and a goal for each of your characters and use it to motivate them'. I was pretty happy when I saw this exercise - I thought it would be an easy one.
Spoiler alert: I was wrong. This exercise was really quite hard. Especially picking one secret and one goal for each character.
It got easier once I realised that the goals didn't necessarily have to be realistic or achievable. They should reveal plenty about your characters (and if they have un-achievable goals, that says a lot about them). They should also reflect the path the character will take - and they will, giving an idea of the conflicts they will face. Their secrets and goals should relate to each other. Deciding whether or not your character will achieve their goal/s is also valuable - it will indicate their place in the story, and direct the action.
I ended up picking more than one goal for the main characters, and only one for the less main characters. The main characters obviously change over time, and so their goals change. Their secrets stayed consistent, however, at least until they were revealed.
The secrets and goals should cause both internal and external conflict for the characters. They should also be revealed at some point. Not all of them need to be revealed in a dramatic way, of course - the more important the character, the bigger the effect on the plot.
Another thing I noticed while doing this exercise is that I had real trouble coming up with goals for the main male characters. And, when I did come up with them, they were often related to their love interests or to other female characters. I realised this was because I hadn't really thought about the male characters as much: none of them play a main role in either Imogen or Nell's plotline. However, this exercise was well worth doing - it meant I had to think more about what the 'minor' characters were doing and why they were involved in the plot. One way to ensure your characters are believable is to make sure they have realistic goals and secrets. Not achievable ones or reasonable secrets, just ones that real people would have. And vary them - everyone values different things, after all, so everyone's goals and secrets are different.
Creating goals and secrets for every character also meant thinking in detail about the plot in more detail. This is great - it means your plot has more depth to it. It also means you'll have to re-plan parts of your plot. However, I think this will only make my novel stronger, so it's all to the good. I haven't looked at what the last exercise is, but if I catch up I might include a 'plan your plot in detail' exercise later on.
Secrets and goals are also a great way to set your story up for a sequel. Secrets and goals create internal and external conflict, so ending the novel with the creation of new ones sets up the next stage of the story. If you're certain your story will have a sequel, create new secrets and new goals, and hint at them at the end of the novel. If you're not certain, or you want to leave the ending a bit more open, just create new secrets. This hints at a further plot, and, if you do decide to write a sequel, you can create new goals related to these secrets at the beginning. It also leaves the reader curious, especially if you've dealt with the secrets and goals well in the first novel.
So now I've got a better idea of who my characters are and what they want, it's on to creating tension. Let's see how long this exercise takes me, shall we?
Saturday 5 October 2013
Blog Post #2
Okay, it's day two (it's not really day two, but I'm behind, so let's just pretend).
Day two is basically doing what I did yesterday, but for the protagonist, Imogen. I already had some idea of what her plot was going to be, but now that I know Nell's plotline I can flesh Imogen's out a little bit more. Hopefully it will make a little more sense.
I'm really excited about the parallels between these two characters. Later in the month I get to do some character worksheets, so I'll hopefully be able to flesh those out a bit more then. Fingers crossed they don't come out too heavy handed.
Okay, so.
The set-up
Yesterday's planning allowed me to come up with the idea that the testing centre was moved. That means I've now had to think about how that would effect Imogen. Planning the build-up to the test from both sides has also helped create tension, I think, whereas the beginning of the story was quite basic before. I hope I've also avoided it being too cliche. Again, I think working this out from both sides and actually having to think it through really helped build up the story. I'm excited about writing it now.
I also like seeing the scale of Nell's government drama vs Imogen's more personal nerves about the test. I might have to try working both their plotlines in, perhaps, or at least hinting at both.
The inciting incident
Well, we actually went over that yesterday. The inciting incident is the test, where both Nell and Imogen jointly cause the incident that propels the rest of the plot.
It is going to become apparent later that it isn't entirely their fault, though.
I'm actually having to think about what exactly happens in that scene now. Knowing what everyone is thinking is hugely useful, because it means (hopefully) that everyone's actions will make sense.
The rising action
This was the part of the story where I thought I didn't need to know what Nell was doing. She isn't directly involved in much of what happens here. However, when I actually planned her story, I had to think about how her actions would make sense within Imogen's story anyway, so that everything that needs to happen in the main plotline could happen without interference.
This was also the part I struggled with in the original planning. I had the actions, but not the reasons behind them.
I can never restrict myself to five points. Although that'll be good for Nano: the more detailed planning I have, the less I have to stop and think when I'm desperately trying to write 50k. This is the most planning I've ever done for Nano, and I think it's really going to help.
Confession: I had help on these points. Talking things through with another write is really helpful for any writing/planning. I'd recommend everyone go to a group meetup during Nano, or even participate as much as possible on the forums. If I hadn't had helped I would have spent much more time stabbing my notebook with a pen and saying "I don't know why it happens - because of reasons!"
The climax
The part where our two plotlines converge again. I already had a good idea of how this scene would go before I started planning - it was one of the first scenes I thought about. I'm going to need to do some work to build the other character in this scene back into the story, as they don't show up much before now. The scene won't pack as much punch if no one has a feel for who they are.
It's probably the most useful piece of advice I've learned from all the planning resources I've read: your can always go back and change your plan later. This is almost the brainstorming stage of plotting, and it, just like the novel, will get revised several times. I'll probably do some more in-depth planning once I finish the novel and start editing it, but the goal is to just get the words down on paper for now.
I got to this scene and realised I hadn't done enough planning for this scene from Nell's point of view. Again, this was where having someone else to brainstorm with really helped.
The falling action
I had to do a lot of planning for this section from Imogen's point of view, because Nell doesn't really do anything during this point, and she doesn't know what's going on. It also made me realise that I had to go back and add some other events earlier in the book (hopefully I remember, otherwise the end just won't make sense). But again, that's what planning and re-drafts (so many re-drafts) are for.
The resolution
I actually realised when I was planning this that my 'antagonist' gets a better ending than my 'protagonist'. Although it does set up plenty of angst for the next book, so...
And now to catch up, as it's now Day 6. Whoops.
Day two is basically doing what I did yesterday, but for the protagonist, Imogen. I already had some idea of what her plot was going to be, but now that I know Nell's plotline I can flesh Imogen's out a little bit more. Hopefully it will make a little more sense.
I'm really excited about the parallels between these two characters. Later in the month I get to do some character worksheets, so I'll hopefully be able to flesh those out a bit more then. Fingers crossed they don't come out too heavy handed.
Okay, so.
The set-up
Yesterday's planning allowed me to come up with the idea that the testing centre was moved. That means I've now had to think about how that would effect Imogen. Planning the build-up to the test from both sides has also helped create tension, I think, whereas the beginning of the story was quite basic before. I hope I've also avoided it being too cliche. Again, I think working this out from both sides and actually having to think it through really helped build up the story. I'm excited about writing it now.
I also like seeing the scale of Nell's government drama vs Imogen's more personal nerves about the test. I might have to try working both their plotlines in, perhaps, or at least hinting at both.
The inciting incident
Well, we actually went over that yesterday. The inciting incident is the test, where both Nell and Imogen jointly cause the incident that propels the rest of the plot.
It is going to become apparent later that it isn't entirely their fault, though.
I'm actually having to think about what exactly happens in that scene now. Knowing what everyone is thinking is hugely useful, because it means (hopefully) that everyone's actions will make sense.
The rising action
This was the part of the story where I thought I didn't need to know what Nell was doing. She isn't directly involved in much of what happens here. However, when I actually planned her story, I had to think about how her actions would make sense within Imogen's story anyway, so that everything that needs to happen in the main plotline could happen without interference.
This was also the part I struggled with in the original planning. I had the actions, but not the reasons behind them.
I can never restrict myself to five points. Although that'll be good for Nano: the more detailed planning I have, the less I have to stop and think when I'm desperately trying to write 50k. This is the most planning I've ever done for Nano, and I think it's really going to help.
Confession: I had help on these points. Talking things through with another write is really helpful for any writing/planning. I'd recommend everyone go to a group meetup during Nano, or even participate as much as possible on the forums. If I hadn't had helped I would have spent much more time stabbing my notebook with a pen and saying "I don't know why it happens - because of reasons!"
The climax
The part where our two plotlines converge again. I already had a good idea of how this scene would go before I started planning - it was one of the first scenes I thought about. I'm going to need to do some work to build the other character in this scene back into the story, as they don't show up much before now. The scene won't pack as much punch if no one has a feel for who they are.
It's probably the most useful piece of advice I've learned from all the planning resources I've read: your can always go back and change your plan later. This is almost the brainstorming stage of plotting, and it, just like the novel, will get revised several times. I'll probably do some more in-depth planning once I finish the novel and start editing it, but the goal is to just get the words down on paper for now.
I got to this scene and realised I hadn't done enough planning for this scene from Nell's point of view. Again, this was where having someone else to brainstorm with really helped.
The falling action
I had to do a lot of planning for this section from Imogen's point of view, because Nell doesn't really do anything during this point, and she doesn't know what's going on. It also made me realise that I had to go back and add some other events earlier in the book (hopefully I remember, otherwise the end just won't make sense). But again, that's what planning and re-drafts (so many re-drafts) are for.
The resolution
I actually realised when I was planning this that my 'antagonist' gets a better ending than my 'protagonist'. Although it does set up plenty of angst for the next book, so...
And now to catch up, as it's now Day 6. Whoops.
Wednesday 2 October 2013
Blog Post #1
So, I'm going to write a novel.
It might not be very good. I'm using Nanowrimo as a kick-off point, so no doubt most of the first draft will be the same badly worded sentence repeated fifteen times in a row in an effort to up my word count. But nevertheless. It's something I've always wanted to do, and you only live once, so.
This is day one. Obviously, you need an idea, possibly a plot and some characters, before you write a novel. Different people need different amounts of planning. I mainly need someone to keep me accountable.
With that in mind, I, along with some fellow writers, am going to follow along with a Nanowrimo prep tool kindly provided by a friend of mine. You can find it here.
Some notes on this, first. You probably want to have a vague idea of what your novel is about before you start this. The first exercises are plotting exercises, yes, but it's a bit difficult to plan a plot when you don't have any idea of what that plot might be about. So do a little bit of brainstorming, perhaps, and come up with some rough thoughts first. Then try these exercises.
I have a reasonable idea of what I'm planning, so I'm diving straight into day one. Here we go.
And yes, I realise I am technically already a day behind. I feel like this is great foreshadowing for my Nano efforts, in which I typically don't start until day 5 and then write 90% of my novel in the last ten days. I'm just going to skip some of the free-writing days in an effort to catch up.
Today is day one: plan your antagonist's story line.
The first problem I've faced is that I don't have Microsoft Word, so I actually can't download some of the worksheets. I guess that makes picking one easier.
After having a look around, I'm going with this one.
I don't want to spoil too much of the plot (who knows, people might actually want to read this novel one day. If they don't, I promise I'll tell you everything), so I'm going to talk generally here.
So, step one: the set-up.
I'm excited about this: there are a lot of parallels between the antagonist and the protagonist in my novel, and I'm hoping having both plotlines fully planned out will allow to explore and hint at that more deeply.
So, if this were a novel about my 'antagonist', what would the set up be?
So the set up is: Nell (the 'antagonist') works for a government agency that administrates education. She is due to assess a group of candidates (an apparently typical day on the job) in a series of tests to do with extra abilities of some sort. However, on the morning of the assessment, there are some incidents at the original testing centre. They move the testing to another school. There is pressure on Nell for these assessments to go well: the better the system works, the easier it is to maintain order, after all. And Nell has a performance review coming up, so she wants to do well.
Having the venue changed is pretty normal, and doesn’t really throw her - this is treated as totally normal. She is nervous because she wants to do well, and she believes in the tests, although the reader will soon see that there is something odd about them.
This leads into step 2: the inciting incident.
Her inciting incident would actually be meeting the protagonist, who is, of course, one of the students to be assessed. Despite the disruption earlier, the tests go as planned until the last student, Imogen (the protagonist). Imogen's actions in the test incite something in Nell, and they cause a near fatal incident. Nell is knocked unconscious.
She wakes in hospital. Her boss is there, and they ask what happened. Nell lies, because she knows that she was complicit in breaking the rules of the test (and the law). This causes conflict because she loves the rules and does not want to see them broken. She becomes determined to track down the other student involved and solve what happened.
Next, the rising action.
This worksheet asks you to list five events involved in the rising action.
1. After Nell wakes up and is released from hospital, she starts to research the student. Finding out information about her isn't hard, but finding her location is. Eventually she realises that Imogen disappeared after the testing.
2. Nell researches, and begins to track Imogen down. Eventually, she finds her.
3. She observes Imogen and, once she realises what Imogen is doing, begins to sabotage her actions.
4. She overhears plans Imogen and her friends are making. She is nearly caught by them.
5. She escapes back to the city to try and stop them.
When I wrote this out in my private notes I found it hard to keep to five points. So, I've actually got six (whoops). But this plot planning exercise is really working: I'm able to see how the villain's plot will fit in with and reflect the protagonist's plot.
The climax
Nell arrives in the city where the story began. She confronts Imogen over her plans. They fight, and Nell accidentally kills Imogen's target. Imogen's friends congratulate her for the kill when they burst in, and arrest Nell.
The falling action
This section asks if the protagonist gets what they want and if the antagonist is defeated. Well, as the antagonist, Nell won't get what she wants. At least, not now. She is at the mercy of Imogen now, trapped in a cell.
I feel like Nell is going to have a better ending than Imogen, however. I vaguely had her ending in mind before I started, but working through this plan has given me a better idea of why she might go along with it, and how she might get there.
The conclusion
Well, writing down here would spoil it, wouldn't it? But this won't be the end of Nell - I've got plans for her.
Although I knew that planning out Nell's story line was necessary to writing this novel, I was worried that it might make me want to write her story instead. It hasn't, however: I still want to tell Imogen's story. However, I think I might write what happens to Nell next at some point.
This exercise was great for figuring out how the novel will fit together. I've got a better idea of timelines, how to make everyone's actions make logical sense depending on background, location etc. Even if your novel doesn't have an antagonist as such, I would still recommend plotting the main plotline for your other characters: it'll give you a much better idea of how your main plotline works.
I'm going to start day two tomorrow, and skip the free-writing days to catch up.
It might not be very good. I'm using Nanowrimo as a kick-off point, so no doubt most of the first draft will be the same badly worded sentence repeated fifteen times in a row in an effort to up my word count. But nevertheless. It's something I've always wanted to do, and you only live once, so.
This is day one. Obviously, you need an idea, possibly a plot and some characters, before you write a novel. Different people need different amounts of planning. I mainly need someone to keep me accountable.
With that in mind, I, along with some fellow writers, am going to follow along with a Nanowrimo prep tool kindly provided by a friend of mine. You can find it here.
Some notes on this, first. You probably want to have a vague idea of what your novel is about before you start this. The first exercises are plotting exercises, yes, but it's a bit difficult to plan a plot when you don't have any idea of what that plot might be about. So do a little bit of brainstorming, perhaps, and come up with some rough thoughts first. Then try these exercises.
I have a reasonable idea of what I'm planning, so I'm diving straight into day one. Here we go.
And yes, I realise I am technically already a day behind. I feel like this is great foreshadowing for my Nano efforts, in which I typically don't start until day 5 and then write 90% of my novel in the last ten days. I'm just going to skip some of the free-writing days in an effort to catch up.
Today is day one: plan your antagonist's story line.
The first problem I've faced is that I don't have Microsoft Word, so I actually can't download some of the worksheets. I guess that makes picking one easier.
After having a look around, I'm going with this one.
I don't want to spoil too much of the plot (who knows, people might actually want to read this novel one day. If they don't, I promise I'll tell you everything), so I'm going to talk generally here.
So, step one: the set-up.
I'm excited about this: there are a lot of parallels between the antagonist and the protagonist in my novel, and I'm hoping having both plotlines fully planned out will allow to explore and hint at that more deeply.
So, if this were a novel about my 'antagonist', what would the set up be?
So the set up is: Nell (the 'antagonist') works for a government agency that administrates education. She is due to assess a group of candidates (an apparently typical day on the job) in a series of tests to do with extra abilities of some sort. However, on the morning of the assessment, there are some incidents at the original testing centre. They move the testing to another school. There is pressure on Nell for these assessments to go well: the better the system works, the easier it is to maintain order, after all. And Nell has a performance review coming up, so she wants to do well.
Having the venue changed is pretty normal, and doesn’t really throw her - this is treated as totally normal. She is nervous because she wants to do well, and she believes in the tests, although the reader will soon see that there is something odd about them.
This leads into step 2: the inciting incident.
Her inciting incident would actually be meeting the protagonist, who is, of course, one of the students to be assessed. Despite the disruption earlier, the tests go as planned until the last student, Imogen (the protagonist). Imogen's actions in the test incite something in Nell, and they cause a near fatal incident. Nell is knocked unconscious.
She wakes in hospital. Her boss is there, and they ask what happened. Nell lies, because she knows that she was complicit in breaking the rules of the test (and the law). This causes conflict because she loves the rules and does not want to see them broken. She becomes determined to track down the other student involved and solve what happened.
Next, the rising action.
This worksheet asks you to list five events involved in the rising action.
1. After Nell wakes up and is released from hospital, she starts to research the student. Finding out information about her isn't hard, but finding her location is. Eventually she realises that Imogen disappeared after the testing.
2. Nell researches, and begins to track Imogen down. Eventually, she finds her.
3. She observes Imogen and, once she realises what Imogen is doing, begins to sabotage her actions.
4. She overhears plans Imogen and her friends are making. She is nearly caught by them.
5. She escapes back to the city to try and stop them.
When I wrote this out in my private notes I found it hard to keep to five points. So, I've actually got six (whoops). But this plot planning exercise is really working: I'm able to see how the villain's plot will fit in with and reflect the protagonist's plot.
The climax
Nell arrives in the city where the story began. She confronts Imogen over her plans. They fight, and Nell accidentally kills Imogen's target. Imogen's friends congratulate her for the kill when they burst in, and arrest Nell.
The falling action
This section asks if the protagonist gets what they want and if the antagonist is defeated. Well, as the antagonist, Nell won't get what she wants. At least, not now. She is at the mercy of Imogen now, trapped in a cell.
I feel like Nell is going to have a better ending than Imogen, however. I vaguely had her ending in mind before I started, but working through this plan has given me a better idea of why she might go along with it, and how she might get there.
The conclusion
Well, writing down here would spoil it, wouldn't it? But this won't be the end of Nell - I've got plans for her.
Although I knew that planning out Nell's story line was necessary to writing this novel, I was worried that it might make me want to write her story instead. It hasn't, however: I still want to tell Imogen's story. However, I think I might write what happens to Nell next at some point.
This exercise was great for figuring out how the novel will fit together. I've got a better idea of timelines, how to make everyone's actions make logical sense depending on background, location etc. Even if your novel doesn't have an antagonist as such, I would still recommend plotting the main plotline for your other characters: it'll give you a much better idea of how your main plotline works.
I'm going to start day two tomorrow, and skip the free-writing days to catch up.
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