Nail Your NaNoWriMo #8: Why and How Your First 12 to 15 Scenes are Different
Today’s tip springboard’s from ‘, so if you’ve arrived here in the middle of this series, I highly recommend that you go back one square and study up on tip #7, which is about the all-important First Plot Point. The First Plot Point is the reason your first 12-t0-15 scenes — which come before the […]
Nail Your NaNoWriMo #7: The Most Important Moment in your Story
There’s a lot of wiggle room in this story structure stuff. The targets for your story milestones are just that — targets — but if you miss by a reasonable amount in either direction (too soon, or a bit late), your story may not tank because of it. But one of those milestones, while still […]
Nail Your NaNoWriMo #6: Filling Out the Big Picture
31 Posts in 31 Days to Help you Kick NaNoWriMo’s Ass All this talk about your idea… let’s expand on that. The overwhelming odds are that your original “idea” — the very first glimmer of a spark for a story, originated as something less than a story element, or it if was a legit story […]
Nail Your NaNoWriMo #5: Don’t Forget to Fall In Love
31 Posts in 31 Days to Prep You For NaNoWriMo About that “idea” for your novel. There are ideas… and then there are Ideas. The latter being significant concepts, fantasies, landscapes, arenas, themes and even semi-developed stories you are saving for a real effort at writing a novel. Well, it doesn’t get any more real […]
Nail Your NaNoWriMo #4: Tell Your Story in Context to… ‘Something’
What happens on the first day of football practice? You get a Playbook. Everything that happens from that point forward is in context to its contents and intentions. What happens on the first day of class, besides nausea? You get a syllabus. With the same forward-looking intentions. What happens when you write a novel that is […]
Nail Your NaNoWriMo #3: Vet and Fertilize Your Story “Idea”
31 Empowering Posts in 31 Days Don’t just start something. Develop something first, so you can start something worthwhile in November… and finish it. There are two ways to immerse yourself in NaNoWriMo. One is to arrive at November 1 with either no idea what will happen after Page 1… or only a vague idea. […]
Nail Your NaNoWrMo #2 – Keep Your Character Close to Home
I hate to admit it, but NaNoWrMo is different than the normal, reasonable experience of writing a novel. Time is of the essence. Normally this could easily compromise one of the core competencies (of the six, in case you’re new here) that will, at some point, need to be sparkling and compelling in your story. […]
Nail Your NaNoWrMo (#1)
31 Empowering Posts in 31 Days Don’t just start something. Develop something first, so you can start something worthwhile in November… and finish it. Finishing isn’t the highest goal. It shouldn’t your only goal. If you finish, you haven’t “won” anything. But you can “win.” By writing a novel in November that’s actually something that […]