October 18, 2006 Drama Newsletter

Writers will happen in the best of families.
~Rita Mae Brown

Write what matters. If you don't care about what you're writing, neither will your readers.
~Judy Reeves

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers; when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.
~Elmore Leonard


From the Editor:

Are you planning to NaNo this year? What? You've no idea what I'm writing about? NaNo is the abbreviated version of National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org)

The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. In other words, thirty days! Participants are in no way expected to write a complete and polished novel. This will be a very rough draft at best. The idea is quantity over quality. If one plans to make something saleable, they should expect to spend many hours doing rewrites and edits.

When it comes to planning a novel, different writers run the gamut of how much or how little. Several things may be considered in the planning stages:

Plot: This is the basis for your novel. Some writers put together elaborate storyboards with the plot neatly lined up. Other authors choose to merely go with the flow and let their characters write their own stories. Yet others fall somewhere in between.

Conflict: This is really the meat of any story. Something needs to take place to shake things up and keep your readers hooked. Again, some writers are very detailed about their conflicts in the planning stage. I often stumble upon what my conflicts will be as I write out character sketches.

Setting: Where your novel takes place. It may span the globe or take place in a single room. When I get ready to write, I have to know my place, it's name and what it looks like. If I don't have this clear in my head, I have trouble letting my story unfold.

Characters: Whether your tale is moved by people or animals, to my way of thinking, they are what moves the story forward. Conflict propels them. As with my setting, I need to know who my characters are before I can write. I want their names, who they are, where they come from, what they like and hate and what they ate for breakfast. I write out a sketch for each character. Often I will find a plot or conflicts when I do this.

These are the very basics of novel writing. Planning can be whatever you need to do to get you started. Each author is unique in their methods.

Put these ideas and any of your own to work and join the madness of NaNo!



Till next month!
Nikola



Feedback:

From deev23 : Nikola, I really enjoyed reading about your event-filled night at the fair! :)