So here we are, Wrimos. It's Hallowe'en (happy holiday! I'm probably at work while you read this, lol) and we are mere hours away from the first of November and the beginning of the crazy journey that is the National Novel Writing Month. Are you ready? Have you prepared enough, have your girded your pants … Continue reading NANOWRIMO IS COMING: The Final Days
Category: nano prep
So this is actually a piece from my first residency in grad school, so it's just shy of four years old at this point. I haven't edited it at all (save for one word I added in just before posting it, because I'm not sure why it wasn't there to begin with) and so I … Continue reading NANO FICTION FRIDAY: The War Veteran and the Child
Of course, that title isn't to insinuate that once you write something during November, you can never take it back. (Gods forbid, because I can't imagine any of my stories staying there. Ugh.) But no, this is one of the other "rules" of NaNoWriMo that I've found people have the hardest time doing: not editing. … Continue reading NANOWRIMO IS COMING: Written in Stone
So I've been working on a little bit of an idea for a new project--not my NaNo project, but a more long-term slow-build one--and I've been in need of a setting. Since we all know how well I do with planning, I'm going to see if I can take the few threads I've come up … Continue reading NANO FICTION FRIDAY: Paint the Picture
So now that we've talking about building a character, let's chat a little about your setting. There's really two pieces to this that I've seen: the world you've built, and how you introduce that world to your readers. These are two of the places that I've struggled the most in my writing, so a lot … Continue reading NANOWRIMO IS COMING: Wait, Where Are We?
So let's take the character from Monday's adventure, and start throwing him into some mess, shall we? You'll see as I start to write this how quickly the rest of the world begins to form around him, how setting and character and plot start to get all jumbled up together. I've tried to keep this … Continue reading NANO FICTION FRIDAY: Dana Cantrell
I've used that title for so many things over the years, and I'm never going to get tired of it. The origin is a Kurt Vonnegut story by the same name, about a man with little personality of his own but when he's given a part in a play, he becomes utterly immersed into the … Continue reading NANOWRIMO IS COMING: Who Am I This Time?
So since Monday's post focused on pants versus plot, I was a little lost as to what to write for my fiction post today. However, my lovely friend Lyn leapt to the rescue, and offered writing about someone who's pantsing it, and someone who's plotting. Given that I only have one extant character who's ever … Continue reading Fiction Friday: No Plot, No Problem…?
One of the first things anyone will likely tell you about NaNoWriMo is the title of the book Chris Baty wrote specifically for the preparation time: No Plot, No Problem! It's the core of what gets pushed about the National Novel Writing Month, that you can walk in with absolutely nothing and you can still … Continue reading NANOWRIMO IS COMING: Pants vs. Plot
I am not lost... 