NaNoWriMo Boot Camp Week 2

Well, I made it through Week Two of NaNoWriMo Boot Camp, and my novel is definitely getting itself into shape. The V key on my keyboard has kind of stopped working, which I feel could be an impediment to writing a novel.

Week Two of Boot Camp involved coming up with a basic plot and developing your setting. I've got to admit - I'm a bit of a Boot Camp cheater. I haven't been doing the exercises strictly in order, and I did have a basic novel plan before I started.

This week I did the setting exercise first. I also drank a lot of cider, so I wasn't sure how well that exercise was going to turn out. The goal of this exercise is to come up with 10-20 facts about your setting and then work out how those facts affect your characters.

I wrote YA fantasy last year, and it made this exercise a lot easier. This year my novel is contemporary, and it's a lot harder to come up with facts about a setting that is essentially the world we currently live in.

Nevertheless, I did the exercise, and it really did help. I have a much better sense of place for my novel now, so hopefully it won't seem like the characters are just floating in space. I also realised that my subconscious was a lot more onto it than I thought - the facts I came up with revealed a coherent setting that made complete sense for my characters.

This is another exercise that's useful about halfway through the month when you're running out of things to write and seriously considering plot ninjas. Instead, you can think about your setting - how can it help or hinder the current situation? Or, if you're really stuck, you could always spend 1667 words describing your setting in excruciating detail :P

The other exercise for this week was 'Come up with a basic plot'. It asked you to write a synopsis similar to the one you'd find on the back of a published book. This was super hard, especially after a consumed a lot of the aforementioned cider. But once I got going, this was a really fun exercise - I'm pretty sure I've convinced myself to read my book, even if I can't convince anyone else. It's not perfect - the end of the synopsis could still use some work - but I like it. I'm starting to get excited about writing my novel now.

Only 19 days until NaNoWriMo!