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?
Thursday, 31 October 2013
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.
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