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 |  Useful information I think you will like to know, inspirations, comments, and more! |
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Welcome to my blog! I'm planning to use it for logging:  bits and pieces of stories: writing exercises that turned out well, story ideas, ... links to other items I recommend reading on writing.com, and why I like them short articles, notes, and information about specific topics results of polls and surveys I created my goals for the year more about who I am, my values, my interests links to authors I like and why I like them anecdotes anything else that I think may interest other authors, my family, and my friendsFeel free to give me your comments! I want this blog to be interactive as much as possible. Come visit often! |
| I just got back from the dentist, which I thought was taking away some of my precious writing time. Little did I know the hygienist would give me a fabulous idea for a character. It was my first time there, and when the hygienist asked how I found them, I told her my daughter was one of her patients and she had visited a few times over the past two weeks. The hygienist frowned, puzzled, then looked at my daughter’s chart on her computer. She couldn’t remember her at all. Then she clicked on her x-ray pictures. “Oh, yeah! I know who she is now.” That made me crack up. She remembered my daughter by looking at her x-rays! Makes sense, she spent an hour looking at her teeth. She went on to tell me that sometimes she can’t place people she treated until she sees their teeth, like when they smile or laugh. This very tall guy at a wedding obviously knew her, but he wasn’t a relative. She desperately tried to figure out how she knew him. When he laughed, she looked up at his fillings and remembered exactly who he was. Sure enough, he was one of her patients. So now I’ll integrate that in my NaNo novel: a dentist on the trail will recognize my secondary character by her teeth! Who knew it was even a thing?? |
| I discovered this site recently, while taking the NaNoWriMo 101 training class: https://writingexercises.co.uk/plotgenerator.php I'm playing with it, to see if it would help my creative juices flowing again with short stories. Here's an example: Main character: A man in his early thirties, who is very caring. Character 2: A woman in her sixties, who can be quite stubborn. Setting: The story begins in a nightclub. Situation: A sudden storm blows up. Theme: It's a story about loneliness. Character action: Your character sets out to change everyone's opinion You can randomly select an element again to change it. The site also has a random name generator and other tools useful to fiction writers. Worth a try! What do you use for new story ideas? |
| I'm entering NaNoWriMo for the first time next month. The idea of writing a whole 50,000-word novel in 30 days seemed daunting at first, but as I'm preparing for the challenge, I actually think it's feasible! I spent the last few months outlining my novel (which is something I normally don't do - I just write and see where it leads me), learning a lot about plot, character arc, and Scrivener, and testing the waters by writing something - anything - just to get back into writing. Today, I tested how many words I could write in one hour. Even with a few interruptions, I wrote some ramblings related to my novel, anything that came to mind, and I came up with 1,845 words. If I write at the same speed, one hour a day for 30 days, I can actually accomplish the challenge. It was also my first time using Scrivener (aside from outlining), and I'm really starting to love the software. I did the tutorial earlier this month, which I'm glad I did before the challenge. I didn't want to get distracted with technicalities while writing my novel. For outlining, I recently discovered the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet. I came across that outlining method when I took the NaNoWriMo 101 free class. I'm also learning about the Hero's Journey method, with many popular movies cited as examples for each part. Both methods are somewhat similar, and I realize that many popular movies and novels actually follow a clear formula. Now I'm watching movies I'm familiar with and noticing each part described, from the Call to Adventure, when there is a time of hesitation before setting on the adventure, to the Midpoint, when the protagonist has an a-ha moment that will help resolve the problem and come up with a plan, to the Climax and Resolution, with many other stages in between. It amazes me that all the movies I like the most are following this same formula. It gives me hope that I can learn it too, and write a novel worth reading. For those of you who participated in NaNo before, do you have any tips or something you wish someone had told you before you started the challenge? |
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~ Brooke
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