I had a massive panic when I thought November started next weekend and for some reason I was super behind on Boot Camp, but I'm not, thank god. Although November is only two weeks away - argh!
This week was Week 3 of NaNoWriMo Boot Camp 2014 (you can find all the exercises here). This week involved outlining your novel and planning your subplots.
I actually did the exercises in order this week (how shocking). Although, to be honest, I only did that because it's a little difficult to plan your subplots if you don't know what your main plot is.
Outlining my novel was fairly straightforward. I used the same template as I did for my antagonist's story, and it was made a lot easier by the fact that I already had a rough idea of what was going to happen in my novel (I'd roughly outlined it before and I also drew heavily on the synopsis from last week's exercises).
The most helpful thing about this exercise was that it gave me a lot more detail around my plot. I also now know a bit more about the motivations behind my characters' actions. The other thing I realised, however, is that a main plot definitely doesn't have enough going on to fill an entire novel (you'd be lucky to even make it to 50,000 words, which is technically not even a full novel).
This week also involved planning out subplots. The subplots are what makes the novel, well, actually novel-length (a short story, for example, probably won't have subplots). They also enhance the main plot, develop characters, control the pacing, and generally make your novel more interesting.
I already had a couple of vague ideas about subplots, but this exercise helped me flesh them out. I now know more about my secondary characters and about my main characters motivations, goals, and obstacles. The subplots also all tie nicely into the main plot, which made the second part of the subplots exercise really easy.
This is the point in planning that I get really conflicted. I always start thinking about other plots, or messing around with other vague ideas that just sound more interesting. Too much planning makes me get bored with my novel. But I also know that I won't finish anything without an outline and some basic content beforehand. This level of planning makes me much more likely to finish this novel, even if I feel less interested. The honeymoon period is over. I just have to remember that there are other exciting things about this novel - like exploring the characters and writing the exciting action scenes. I'll also discover other exciting things about this project as I go along.
Saturday, 18 October 2014
Sunday, 12 October 2014
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!
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!
Saturday, 4 October 2014
It's NaNoWriMo time again!
So it's October, which means it's time for NaNoWriMo planning.
I'm still plodding away on my main novel project, but NaNoWriMo is a good time to take a break.
With that in mind, I'm writing something as different as possible from my novel. It's going to be light-hearted and fun, with a basic plot and lots of action. The last time I wrote something similar it was the easiest and most fun 50,000 words ever.
I'm also ML for the New Zealand: Wellington region this year. I un-officially did a lot of the organising last year and I still made it to 50,000, so hopefully I can do it again this year. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun.
Last year I did Gwendoline Nelson's Pre-NaNoWriMo Boot Camp to get ready for NaNoWriMo (Gwen is my co-ML this year, yay!). It was a lot of work, and I didn't get through all of it. This year she's revamped it, so I'm giving it a go again. Week One involves planning your antagonist's story and creating your characters. The idea is that you can start with nothing, and by the end of the month you'll have a solid plan for NaNoWriMo. I may have cheated a little bit - I have a very rough outline of my novel already.
I've just finished up with Week one of Boot Camp, which means I now have an antagonist and a cast of characters. I could have done NaNoWriMo without Boot Camp - I already had a rough outline of my novel after all. But I think Boot Camp saves you a lot of work. You've got a lot more to work with when you inevitably run out of steam, for one thing - there'll be no need for plot ninjas when you know your characters well enough that you can predict what they'll do next. And if you do decide to continue with your novel after November it'll be in much better shape than if you hadn't done Boot Camp - much less editing out of paragraphs that are just the same sentence repeated in slightly different ways, or deleting unnecessary descriptions or sex scenes (yes, I am speaking from personal experience).
Boot Camp gives me a different perspective on my novel. Last year I ended up loving my antagonist so much that she became one of the protagonists in subsequent re-drafts. I don't feel the same about my antagonist this year, but planning out the story from the point of view of multiple characters gives it much more depth and makes it much easier to write. I think it will help with pacing, too - if I know what the antagonist is doing and how long that might take, I can make the main narrative flow a lot better.
Knowing my other characters (their personalities and their internal and external motivation) will also help with this. I am a planner in general, and I think knowing about your characters gives your book a lot of depth. And it's not that much work - both tasks for this week took perhaps a few hours tops.
I'll start Week Two of Boot Camp on Wednesday. For now I should use the remaining 26 days in October to do some last minute work on my main novel project before I have to give it up for a month.
With that in mind, I'm writing something as different as possible from my novel. It's going to be light-hearted and fun, with a basic plot and lots of action. The last time I wrote something similar it was the easiest and most fun 50,000 words ever.
I'm also ML for the New Zealand: Wellington region this year. I un-officially did a lot of the organising last year and I still made it to 50,000, so hopefully I can do it again this year. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun.
Last year I did Gwendoline Nelson's Pre-NaNoWriMo Boot Camp to get ready for NaNoWriMo (Gwen is my co-ML this year, yay!). It was a lot of work, and I didn't get through all of it. This year she's revamped it, so I'm giving it a go again. Week One involves planning your antagonist's story and creating your characters. The idea is that you can start with nothing, and by the end of the month you'll have a solid plan for NaNoWriMo. I may have cheated a little bit - I have a very rough outline of my novel already.
I've just finished up with Week one of Boot Camp, which means I now have an antagonist and a cast of characters. I could have done NaNoWriMo without Boot Camp - I already had a rough outline of my novel after all. But I think Boot Camp saves you a lot of work. You've got a lot more to work with when you inevitably run out of steam, for one thing - there'll be no need for plot ninjas when you know your characters well enough that you can predict what they'll do next. And if you do decide to continue with your novel after November it'll be in much better shape than if you hadn't done Boot Camp - much less editing out of paragraphs that are just the same sentence repeated in slightly different ways, or deleting unnecessary descriptions or sex scenes (yes, I am speaking from personal experience).
Boot Camp gives me a different perspective on my novel. Last year I ended up loving my antagonist so much that she became one of the protagonists in subsequent re-drafts. I don't feel the same about my antagonist this year, but planning out the story from the point of view of multiple characters gives it much more depth and makes it much easier to write. I think it will help with pacing, too - if I know what the antagonist is doing and how long that might take, I can make the main narrative flow a lot better.
Knowing my other characters (their personalities and their internal and external motivation) will also help with this. I am a planner in general, and I think knowing about your characters gives your book a lot of depth. And it's not that much work - both tasks for this week took perhaps a few hours tops.
I'll start Week Two of Boot Camp on Wednesday. For now I should use the remaining 26 days in October to do some last minute work on my main novel project before I have to give it up for a month.
Wednesday, 20 August 2014
WEEK SEVEN/EIGHT - ROMANCE SUBPLOTS
Week seven/eight - it's like two for the price of one or something? This week I'm talking about romance subplots in my novel.
Sunday, 3 August 2014
WEEK SIX - CONCEPTS
More writing talk from yours truly. This week I talk about stopping making excuses about not writing and about story concepts.
Monday, 28 July 2014
WEEK FIVE - MULTIPLE PROJECTS
Week five of my novel vlogging. This week I'm talking about my writing process, which includes working on multiple projects at once.
Sunday, 20 July 2014
WEEK FOUR - A COLLABORATIVE HEIST
Week four of saying words about my novel. This week I'm talking about collaborative novels.
Sunday, 13 July 2014
WEEK THREE - LIKE RUNNING A MARATHON
In which I say more words about writing my novel and compare writing a novel to running a marathon. It's pretty similar in that you have to be crazy to do it and it consumes your life and becomes the only thing you talk about haha.
Sunday, 6 July 2014
WEEK TWO - FIRST DRAFTS
So I talk more about my current novel and about how I go about writing first drafts. This blog is seeing more action than it has in a long time.
Saturday, 5 July 2014
Wow, I'm a terrible blogger...
So it's been...eight months since I updated this blog? I suck etc. But here, have a video of my face talking about writing.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
NaNoWriMo Week One
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.
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.
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.
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