NaNoWriMo #27: How to Optimize Your Scenes
Two words have filtered from the computer programming world into the lexicon of writing fiction. Three if you count the word architecture, which the pioneering computer geeks actually borrowed to describe programming in a design context. The two words are paradigm, and optimize. Ironically, it is architecture that programmers — and writers — seek to optimize. […]
NoNoWriMo #26: The Panster’s Solution to Story Planning
I get asked this every time I use the term, so I’ll go there first: a “pantser” is someone who writes by the seat-of-their-pants. That leaves a wide breadth of possible intrepretation — and is not meant to be qualitative or judgmental — but tends to lean toward an unwillingness (often couched as the inability) […]
A Radical NaNoWriMo Opportunity
Want to really slam your NaNoWriMo out of the park this year? Like to live impulsively? Got a few hundred bucks laying around you’d be willing to throw at this? Timing is everything. And the timing for this is… perfect. I’m doing a workshop in Oregon this coming weekend. All day Saturday and Sunday (Oct.29/30). […]
NaNoWriMo #25: A Strategy for Introducing Your Hero
(Click HERE to read a new Peer Review submission — Prologue/hook from a suspense thriller by Nolan Sweetwater.) Sooner or later you gotta do it. Your protagonist, your hero, has to make an appearance. This can happen in a variety of ways, many of them obvious and vanilla. Better to do it strategically, in context […]
NaNoWriMo #24: Sharpen Your Hook
We’ve covered the notion of a “hook” before. But now, after you’re down the road with your concept and (hopefully) have a functioning beat sheet underway, I’ll wager you know way more about your story than before. Which is the very best time to revisit your opening chapter, or Prologue, to make sure your hook […]
NaNoWriMo #23: Harness the Power of ‘Resentment’
Ever wonder what separates a great book from the pack? The published from the unpublished? The question becomes perhaps more intriguing when you consider that, when it comes to modern commercial fiction (novels and movies), most stories unfold from pretty much the same architectural paradigm, imbued the requisite properties reaching for universal criteria. That fact […]
NaNoWriMo #22: Stare Down Your Limiting Beliefs
If you’ve noticed an element of “self-help” seminar in this series, you’re right. Part of writing a novel — especially under the contrived constraints and faux sense of winning or losing that is NaNoWriMo — is indeed as much about how you think, what you believe to be true about yourself and about the writing […]
NaNoWriMo #21: Still Struggling with Your ‘Concept’?
Let there be peace of mind. First of all, nobody said this would be easy. If you think you’re struggling now, at the planning stage, right there at square one, just imagine that it’s the middle of November and you still don’t have a viable concept in play. That you’ve written about 20,000 words that […]
NaNoWriMo #20: To Edit or Not to Edit…
… that may not be the right question. Perhaps the most omnipresent, simplistic advice circling the NaNoWriMo world is this: don’t edit as you write. Never hit the backspace key. The implication is that you should just keep typing, madly, passionately, and hopefully with the right goal in mind. This advice is everywhere, endorsed by […]
NaNoWriMo #19: Center Yourself Within the ‘Big Picture’
You’ve got two Big Pictures to deal with come November. One is the Big Picture of your story. We’ve been working on that in this series. Understanding the Big Picture of your story is the key to turning your NaNoWriMo effort into a viable, professional novel — a real novel — worthy of a future. […]