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 |  Hodgepodge of things. Contest entries, short stories, scenes, my newsletters and other ... |
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This book is a catchall for all those things that would make my portfolio unmanageable if I had them each in a separate item. I'm keeping short stories and contest entries, scenes and newsletters, notes and random stuff in here. If you were tagged in this item: I write all of my newsletters for Writing.Com here first. Until those newsletters are published, they are set to PRIVATE. So, you might be tagged in an invisible/unaccessible item. Don't worry. It's nothing inappropriate. You will see it in the official Writing.Com newsletter on its release day. |
| More Flint Stuff Close your eyes and take five minutes to think about the novel you want to write. When those five minutes have passed you will start typing and don't stop for at least 15 minutes. Do not delete anything! Do not self-edit, leave typos alone, don't worry about grammar...Write down anything that comes to you as regards your novel. Remember, "Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable." Don't let your fingers rest...type, even if it's only bits and pieces. "We are elves, Amandine." "What does that mean?" "We are not human. We are a different race of beings." "But we look the same. We eat the same things. We live the same way. You make no sense." "It's glamour. A magic spell I put over you at birth. All of us in our family have it. We do look a bit different from humans. There are some slight but significant differences and we have to hide them." Amandine shook her head. "Glamour? Magic? You speak like a heathen." Celestin smiled and nodded. "I know it sounds entirely unbelievable." He rubbed both hands roughly over his arms, shoulders, neck, face, and hair. Amandine watched in amazement as the real Celestin became visible. His skin on his arms was smooth and hairless. His face was all angles and planes. His eyes were a touch larger than she was used to. The most prominent change were his ears. Instead of the little round ears she had always seen on him, she now saw that his ears were long and pointy. The point of his ears was even with the top of his head. Amandine whispered, "You are the devil!" "No, Amandine. I am an elf. There is no God, devil, or anything like that. What is real are elves, trolls, dwarves, orcs, many many other creatures and beings you've learned about through fairy tales." Amandine stood up. She held her arms tightly around her chest. "You are not my father! You are a demon sent here by Satan to confuse me." Celestin closed the short distance between them. He rubbed his hands roughly over her naked arms, her neck, and her face, finally her head and ears. He pushed her toward the mirror over her dresser. Amandine saw herself for the first time in her life. And she was the most beautiful woman she ever laid eyes on. Yes, she had gotten compliments from the farmer boys at church. Yes, she knew she was pretty, but her new self was entirely different. The skin of her face was of an even ivory. Her mouth had fuller lips. Her eyes were larger and slightly slanted. Her ears were long and pointy too, yet were smaller and more delicate than those of her father. They ended below the top of her head. Amandine touched her ears. She touched her high cheekbones. Although urged by her priest to use make-up only sparingly, she had indulged in some beautifying products. As she saw her true self, she realized that no amount of cosmetics could ever replicate the natural beauty she now possessed. We're looking for 'theme' here, but don't worry if you don't find anything specific...theme is usually like that. The theme of the novel is the life of elves, Amandine in particular. How does she live in a world dominated by humans? Who are your main characters? We're going to spend more time on characters later, just write a few important details about them here. Write a list of all the characters you have in your head. Devote at least five minutes to each as you write a paragraph that explains their importance to the novel. We're going to do a full character sheets later; for now, convince yourself that each of your characters are important to the plot. Demand that they each fulfill a purpose in your novel. Why are they there? What do they bring to the novel that another characters couldn't do instead? Amandine The hero of this series, she will be the one character that I'll be writing about all the time. She is an elf woman who learns about herself and life through her relationships. Celestin Amandine's father. Sylviane Amandine's mother. Olivier Amandine's brother. Celine Amandine's sister. Hartmut Amandine's first love. A human German soldier. He is the reason that Celestin told Amandine that she is not human. Hartmut and Amandine planned to get married, but that plan is foiled by Celestin's revelation. Heartbroken, Amandine kills Hartmut. |
| Introduction Ever had a "huh?" moment in the midst of a good book? Picture this: the main character encounters a dense thicket. This is no problem for our hero, who whips a sword from his scabbard and slices through the underbrush. But wait a moment... didn't he just lose his sword over the cliff in that action-packed battle? Up until that moment, you were captivated - you were completely engrossed in the story. But this discrepancy just yanked you right out of the narration and plopped you back in your living room. The longer a work, the more important planning ahead becomes. Because of the length of time required to write longer works, it's easy to forget what happened in Chapter 3 two weeks (or months) later while you're writing Chapter 17. Even if you catch the error in the edit phase, the problem might permeate the entire piece. Take for instance the previous sword example. The hero now needs to find another way through the thicket, or else the author needs to remove the thicket from the plot entirely. But what if the thicket is central to the plot, such as it is in the story of Sleeping Beauty? In that case, the hero needs to either find another sword, or not lose his sword in the first place. Fixing errors such as these in the edit phase is frustrating, because every correction can ripple, yielding new and unforeseen problems. Prevention is the best method for avoiding mistakes in your story plot. Outlining in advance prevents the errors in the first place. Draft a rough outline before you begin writing the piece. When starting a new writing project, you may not know everything that's going to happen in your story, and that's okay. Your initial outline can be limited to your beginning, your climax, and your ending. Once you have that in writing, you can begin to flesh out the middle, outlining how your characters will get from the beginning to the climax, and finally, to the end. Some writers feel that outlining stifles creativity. While opinions vary, two things remain true: (1) plot errors take a lot of work to fix after the fact, and (2) overlooked plot errors run the risk of pulling readers out of your story. Whatever your thoughts on outlining and the creative process, consider the headaches that planning ahead will save you. You may find that it's worth it. October NaNo Prep Challenge: 2013 Calendar This list of daily challenges accompanies "October Novel Prep Challenge"  .*Bullet* If an assignment does not apply to your novel project, post "Assignment not applicable." You will still be eligible for grand prizes. *Bullet* You must complete all of the Bonus Assignments to win the Bonus Prize. THE CALENDAR: Calendar too messy? Try the dropnotes version: "October Nano Prep: 2013 Calendar" Tuesday, Oct. 01 *Bullet* Required: PREMISE prem·ise (noun): (1) a previous statement or proposition from which another is inferred or follows as a conclusion. "if the premise is true, then the conclusion must be true" (2) an assertion or proposition which forms the basis for a work or theory. "the fundamental premise of the report" Your novel premise is nothing more than the basic idea, the seed, the concept on which your plot is constructed. Your premise answers the question: "What is your story about?" Your premise can, but doesn't have to, summarize the following: Who is(are) your protagonist(s)? What will happen to him/her/it/them? Why? How will it turn out? What does that tell us? Is there a moral to the story? Folks, you should be in brainstorming mode at this point. Remember your plot basics: Your main character(s) should have an objective but encounter obstacles along the way (AKA, literary conflict.) Resource: Premise Options: *Bullet* A "what if" question. Example: the movie Groundhog Day (1993): 'What if you lived the same day over and over again?' *Bullet* A theme or moral and how your storyline addresses it. Example: In this epic tale of love conquering fear, Carly must overcome her fear of flying to traverse the globe and pull Tom, the love of her life, back from death's door. *Bullet* Fill in the blanks: My main character is a ________ whose objective (goal) is to ______ but he/she/it is confronted by _______ who opposes him/her/it because ________. *** STILL NEED A STORY IDEA? Try the writing tools at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* *Bullet* Bonus: PREMISE DEFINITIONS Clearly identify your protagonist, antagonist, characters' objectives and conflict. Wednesday, Oct. 02 *Bullet* Required: CHARACTER INVENTORY REVISION #1 AKA Dramatis Personae. Draft a list of your characters and write a brief profile on each one (first and last name, age, occupation or relation to main character(s) and rough physical description.) Keep your list handy for future updates throughout the Prep. *** NEED CHARACTER NAMES? See the name generators at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* *Bullet* Bonus: PROTAGONIST PROFILE Complete a character profile of your protagonist. The point of this exercise is for you to get to know your character inside and out before you write your novel. If you don't know your character, how can you expect it of your readers? Flesh out your pre-story character in detail. Keep in mind that your protagonist will grow in some way during your story. Options: *Bullet* By listing his/her attributes *Bullet* By writing a description from the perspective of someone very close to your protagonist. Thursday, Oct. 03 *Bullet* Required: OUTLINE REVISION #1 The first draft of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outline format : Define what happens at the beginning, climax, and the end.*Bullet* Using Index Cards (Paper or Electronic): Define your beginning, climax, and end. As you build your outline throughout October, you can easily shuffle around plot elements. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Write a provocative one-sentence description of your story. Example from Randy Ingermanson's Transgression : "A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul."*** SEE ALSO: Outlining Tools in the Writing Tools section at the bottom of this calendar. *Down* {/dropnote} *Bullet* Bonus: CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE #1 Add a chronological timeline to your outline. Specify when your plot begins, climaxes, and ends, using whatever definition of time is appropriate to your novel. Friday, Oct. 04 *Bullet* Required: SETTING INVENTORY REVISION #1 Draft a list of your settings and write a brief description of each. Keep your list handy for future updates throughout the Prep. *Bullet* Bonus: SETTING #1 DRAWING or SAME SCENE/DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS Drawing: Get out your pencil (or Excel or Visio or Autocad if you're the nerdy type) and draw a physical sketch of any setting in your novel, which we will call Setting #1. This can be a map of a town, woods or valley, a layout of a room with furniture and walls, a floor plan of the castle, or any other physical setting. It doesn't matter if your art skills are lacking. Just get a feel for where obstacles and objects are in relation to one another. Same Scene/Different Viewpoints: Write a brief description of your setting from the viewpoints of two or more different characters. Saturday, Oct. 05 *Bullet* Required: CONTEST ROUND 1: PROTAGONIST BACKGROUND STORY Write a story about your protagonist that takes place outside of your novel. Make your readers relate to him or her in such a way that we would be devastated if he or she were to experience conflict (which, ultimately, sometime in November, he/she will.) The object of the contest is to make your judges root for your protagonist! Simply put: the character we like best wins. If your protagonist is an assassin or someone similarly "unlikeable," never fear! I love Vlad Taltos, the professional assassin . You can make us love your character, too. *Submit your BITEM or ENTRY link by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday, Oct. 06 to compete. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you may still post your assignment completion for the grand prize, per the standard Challenge guidelines. Sunday, Oct. 06 OFF/FREEBIE Take a break or catch up. Monday, Oct. 07 *Bullet* Required: PLOT POINTS INVENTORY REVISION #1 Draft a list of plot points you will need to reference later, and write a brief description of each. Examples of plot points are: objects critical to the story, historical facts, descriptions of fictional races and species, or that "how I met your father" story that will be critical to the plot. Your plot points inventory should include your Prep object description, plot background stories, cultural setting, and any other aspects of your work that require a quick summary for easy reference during November. Keep your list handy for future updates throughout the Prep. *Bullet* Bonus: RESEARCH or WORLD BUILDING Research: For reality-based fiction, research aspects of your novel that will lend credibility to your writing. World Building: For fantasy, science fiction, or other speculative fiction, develop the history, geology, ecology, and/or maps for your world. Tuesday, Oct. 08 *Bullet* Required: PLOT BACKGROUND STORY Write a story that sets up your plot. EXAMPLE: The Lord of the Rings story revolves around the One Ring, its significance, and how it's destroyed. But how did Frodo get the One Ring in the first place? We learn that in The Hobbit. You obviously can't write a full-scale novel in 15 minutes, but you could write the scene where Bilbo encounters Gollum and stumbles across the ring. That would be a background story that sets up the plot in Lord of the Rings. *Bullet* Bonus: ]WRITING SPRINT #1 Complete today's assignment using the Write or Die sprint writing tool at writeordie.com. Set the time goal to 15 minutes and record your final word count. You will try to beat this count in subsequent sprints throughout October. Wednesday, Oct. 09 *Bullet* Required: CHARACTER INVENTORY REVISION #2 Update your character inventory. *Bullet* Bonus: MINOR CHARACTER #1 PROFILE Write a character profile about a supporting or minor character, whom we shall call Minor #1. If you have a second protagonist or antagonist, use this assignment to profile that character. Thursday, Oct. 10 *Bullet* Required: OUTLINE REVISION #2 The second draft of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outlining or index cards, write your climax and several key conflicts/disasters. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Expand your sentence to a paragraph. Include the beginning, conflicts/disasters, climax, and end. *** NEED DISASTERS? See the Plot Twists generator at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* *Bullet* Bonus: CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE #2 Add a chronological timeline to your revised outline, using whatever measure of time is appropriate in your story. Friday, Oct. 11 *Bullet* Required: SETTING INVENTORY REVISION #2 Update your setting inventory. *Bullet* Bonus: SETTING #2 DRAWING or SAME SCENE/DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS Drawing: Get out your pencil (or Excel or Visio or Autocad if you're the nerdy type) and draw a physical sketch of any setting in your novel, which we will call Setting#1. This can be a map of a town, woods or valley, a layout of a room with furniture and walls, a floor plan of the castle, or any other physical setting. It doesn't matter if your art skills are lacking. Just get a feel for where obstacles and objects are in relation to one another. Same Scene/Different Viewpoints: Write a brief description of your setting from the viewpoints of two or more different characters. Saturday, Oct. 12 *Bullet* Required: CONTEST ROUND 2: SETTING #1 DESCRIPTION Describe Setting #1 in words. Use all five senses and make your reader experience the setting as if he or she were there. *Submit your BITEM or ENTRY link by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday, Oct.13 to compete. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you may still post your assignment completion for the grand prize per the standard Challenge guidelines. Sunday, Oct. 13 OFF/FREEBIETake a break or catch up. Monday, Oct. 14 *Bullet* Required: PLOT POINTS INVENTORY REVISION #2 Update your plot points inventory. *Bullet* Bonus: CULTURAL SETTING Describe the cultural, political and/or religious setting in your novel. What do your societies believe? In what practices do they engage? What kind of government rules your world? What laws or rules of society are in place? Who enforces them? How successful is enforcement of laws and rules? How does this setting impact your protagonist? Tuesday, Oct. 15 *Bullet* Required: MINOR CHARACTER #1 BACKGROUND STORY Write a background story about Minor #1 (or your second protagonist or antagonist.) *Bullet* Bonus: WRITING SPRINT #2 Complete today's assignment using the Write or Die sprint writing tool at writeordie.com. Set the time goal to 15 minutes and record your final word count. Wednesday, Oct. 16 *Bullet* Required: CHARACTER INVENTORY REVISION #3 Update your character inventory. *Bullet* Bonus: ANTAGONIST PROFILE Complete a character profile of your antagonist (your "bad guy" - the character creating conflict for or your protagonist.) If your antagonist is a situation rather than a person, write about what it is and how it will create the narrative conflict. Further clarification: - Wikipedia's definition of Narrative Conflict - Newsletter Article: "When The Bad Guy Isn't a Person" - "ANTAGONIST (Re: A LOT of confusing things)" Thursday, Oct. 17 *Bullet* Required: OUTLINE REVISION #3 The third draft of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outlining or index cards, fill in some of the gaps and start developing subplots. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Write a one-paragraph summery of each key character's personal storyline. *Bullet* Bonus: CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE #3 Add a chronological timeline to your revised outline, using whatever measure of time is appropriate in your story. Friday, Oct. 18 *Bullet* Required: SETTING INVENTORY REVISION #3 Update your setting inventory. *Bullet* Bonus: SETTING #3 DRAWING or SAME SCENE/DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS Drawing: Get out your pencil (or Excel or Visio or Autocad if you're the nerdy type) and draw a physical sketch of any setting in your novel, which we will call Setting#1. This can be a map of a town, woods or valley, a layout of a room with furniture and walls, a floor plan of the castle, or any other physical setting. It doesn't matter if your art skills are lacking. Just get a feel for where obstacles and objects are in relation to one another. Same Scene/Different Viewpoints: Write a brief description of your setting from the viewpoints of two or more different characters. Saturday, Oct. 19 *Bullet* Required: CONTEST ROUND 3: ANTAGONIST BACKGROUND STORY Write a story about your antagonist that takes place outside of your novel. Make your reader empathize with the motivations of the antagonist. If your antagonist is a situation rather than a person, write a background story about that. *Submit your BITEM or ENTRY link by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday, Oct. 20 to compete. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you may still post your assignment completion for the grand prize per the standard Challenge guidelines. Sunday, Oct. 20 OFF/FREEBIE"}Take a break or catch up. Monday, Oct. 21 *Bullet* Required: PLOT POINTS INVENTORY REVISION #3 Update your plot points inventory. *Bullet* Bonus: PLOT BACKGROUND STORY #2 Write another background story that happened in the past and sets up your plot. Tuesday, Oct. 22 *Bullet* Required: MINOR CHARACTER #2 BACKGROUND STORY Write a background story about supporting or minor character #2. *Bullet* Bonus: WRITING SPRINT #3 Complete today's assignment using the Write or Die sprint writing tool at writeordie.com. Set the time goal to 15 minutes and record your final word count. Wednesday, Oct. 23 *Bullet* Required: CHARACTER INVENTORY REVISION #4 Update your character inventory. *Bullet* Bonus: MINOR CHARACTER #2 PROFILE Write a character profile about supporting or minor character #2. Thursday, Oct. 24 *Bullet* Required: OUTLINE REVISION #4 The fourth draft of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outlining or index cards, fill more gaps and flesh out subplots using traditional outline format. Optional: Add a timeline. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Compile a synopsis of your story by expanding each sentence of your summary paragraph into its own full paragraph. All but the last paragraph (which describes the story ending) should close with a disaster. *Bullet* Bonus: CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE #4 Add a chronological timeline to your revised outline, using whatever measure of time is appropriate in your story. Friday, Oct. 25 *Bullet* Required: SETTING INVENTORY REVISION #4 Update your setting inventory. *Bullet* Bonus: SETTING #4 DRAWING or SAME SCENE/DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS Drawing: Get out your pencil (or Excel or Visio or Autocad if you're the nerdy type) and draw a physical sketch of any setting in your novel, which we will call Setting#1. This can be a map of a town, woods or valley, a layout of a room with furniture and walls, a floor plan of the castle, or any other physical setting. It doesn't matter if your art skills are lacking. Just get a feel for where obstacles and objects are in relation to one another. Same Scene/Different Viewpoints: Write a brief description of your setting from the viewpoints of two or more different characters. Saturday, Oct. 26 *Bullet* Required: CONTEST ROUND 4: COMMITMENT LETTER Write a commitment letter to yourself promising to do your best during the month of November and vowing to not allow distractions or procrastination to keep you from your goal. Explain in the letter why you are awesome, how you plan to complete NaNo 2011, and what you will do to celebrate when you win. *Submit your BITEM or ENTRY link by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday, Oct. 27 to compete. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you may still post your assignment completion for the grand prize per the standard Challenge guidelines. Sunday, Oct. 27 OFF/FREEBIE Take a break or catch up. Monday, Oct. 28 *Bullet* Required: MARKET DEFINITION Describe your target audience. Identify a demographic profile including gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, education, income level, marital status, location and other commonly evaluated data. Explain in detail what aspects of your novel will appeal to this particular audience and why. *Bullet* Bonus: QUERY LETTER or WORKSPACE PREPARATION or PROCRASTINATION LIST Query Letter: Workspace Prep: Plan out where you will work, what computer you will use, and what supplies you will need. Create a music playlist, if applicable. Procrastination List: Write a list of all the things you tend to do to procrastinate and establish a writing schedule for the month of November. Tuesday, Oct. 29 *Bullet* Required: OBJECT DESCRIPTION Describe, in detail, an object critical to your story. *Bullet* Bonus: WRITING SPRINT #4 Complete today's assignment using the Write or Die sprint writing tool at writeordie.com. Set the time goal to 15 minutes and record your final word count. Wednesday, Oct. 30 *Bullet* Required: PROTAGONIST CHANGE Describe in detail how your protagonist has changed from the beginning of the story to the end. If you created a protagonist profile, devise before-and-after versions. *Bullet* Bonus: PROTAGONIST INTERVIEW You are a journalist. The story of your novel is complete. Interview your protagonist and ask the following questions: 1. How did the events of your story change you? 2. How is life for you now? Thursday, Oct. 31 *Bullet* Required: OUTLINE REVISION #5 The fifth and final revision of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outlining or index cards, flesh out the logistics of how your protagonist gets from the beginning of the story to the climax of the story. Add more timeline details and consider plotting out scenes by chapter. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Using your synopsis, list the scenes needed to create your novel. Each scene should include the POV character and the action. *Bullet* Bonus: CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE #5 Add a chronological timeline to your revised outline, using whatever measure of time is appropriate in your story. FridayNov. 1 - NANOWRIMO BEGINS Start writing your novel! WRITING TOOLS: (Optional tools to help you complete the assignments. Click each for more info.) BRAINSTORMING TOOLS AND PROMPTS *Bullet*Brainstorming and Mind Mapping *Bullet*Free Mind Mapping Software: Freemind *Bullet*Free Mind Mapping Software: Mind Meister *Bullet*Photo and Quote Prompts *Bullet*WDC Writing Prompts SETTING TOOLS *Bullet*Fictional World Mapping CHARACTER TOOLS *Bullet*Character Name Generator *Bullet*Seventh Sanctum: Name and Fiction Generators *Bullet*Behind the Name: the etymology and history of first names *Bullet*Baby Name Dictionary *Bullet*US Name Statistics *Bullet*Google Images - find your perfect character PLOT GENERATORS *Bullet*Plot Generator *Bullet*First Line Generator *Bullet*Plot Twist Generator *Bullet*Seventh Sanctum: Name and Fiction Generators OUTLINING TOOLS *Bullet*Novel Outlining Worksheets *Bullet*Seven-Point Story Structure *Bullet*The Snowflake Method NANOWRIMO TOOLS *Bullet*NaNoWriMo Survival Guide |
| The Snowflake Method For Designing A Novel Writing a novel is easy. Writing a good novel is hard. That’s just life. If it were easy, we’d all be writing best-selling, prize-winning fiction. Frankly, there are a thousand different people out there who can tell you how to write a novel. There are a thousand different methods. The best one for you is the one that works for you. In this article, I’d like to share with you what works for me. I’ve published six novels and won about a dozen awards for my writing. I teach the craft of writing fiction at writing conferences all the time. One of my most popular lectures is this one: How to write a novel using what I call the “Snowflake Method.” This page is the most popular one on my web site, and gets over a thousand page views per day, so you can guess that a lot of people find it useful. But you may not, and that’s fine by me. Look it over, decide what might work for you, and ignore the rest! If it makes you puke, I won’t be insulted. Different writers are different. If my methods get you rolling, I’ll be happy. I’ll make the best case I can for my way of organizing things, but you are the final judge of what works best for you. Have fun and . . . write your novel! The Importance of Design Good fiction doesn’t just happen, it is designed. You can do the design work before or after you write your novel. I’ve done it both ways and I strongly believe that doing it first is quicker and leads to a better result. Design is hard work, so it’s important to find a guiding principle early on. This article will give you a powerful metaphor to guide your design. Our fundamental question is this: How do you design a novel? For a number of years, I was a software architect designing large software projects. I write novels the same way I write software, using the “snowflake metaphor”. OK, what’s the snowflake metaphor? Before you go further, take a look at this cool web site. snowflake imageAt the top of the page, you’ll see a cute pattern known as a snowflake fractal. Don’t tell anyone, but this is an important mathematical object that’s been widely studied. For our purposes, it’s just a cool sketch of a snowflake. If you scroll down that same web page a little, you’ll see a box with a large triangle in it and arrows underneath. If you press the right-arrow button repeatedly, you’ll see the steps used to create the snowflake. It doesn’t look much like a snowflake at first, but after a few steps, it starts looking more and more like one, until it’s done. The first few steps look like this: snowflake iteration 1snowflake iteration snowflake iteration 3 snowflake iteration 4 I claim that that’s how you design a novel – you start small, then build stuff up until it looks like a story. Part of this is creative work, and I can’t teach you how to do that. Not here, anyway. But part of the work is just managing your creativity — getting it organized into a well-structured novel. That’s what I’d like to teach you here. If you’re like most people, you spend a long time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. You may do some research. You daydream about how the story’s going to work. You brainstorm. You start hearing the voices of different characters. You think about what the book’s about — the Deep Theme. This is an essential part of every book which I call “composting”. It’s an informal process and every writer does it differently. I’m going to assume that you know how to compost your story ideas and that you have already got a novel well-composted in your mind and that you’re ready to sit down and start writing that novel. The Ten Steps of Design But before you start writing, you need to get organized. You need to put all those wonderful ideas down on paper in a form you can use. Why? Because your memory is fallible, and your creativity has probably left a lot of holes in your story — holes you need to fill in before you start writing your novel. You need a design document. And you need to produce it using a process that doesn’t kill your desire to actually write the story. Here is my ten-step process for writing a design document. I use this process for writing my novels, and I hope it will help you. Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Something like this: “A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul.” (This is the summary for my first novel, Transgression.) The sentence will serve you forever as a ten-second selling tool. This is the big picture, the analog of that big starting triangle in the snowflake picture. When you later write your book proposal, this sentence should appear very early in the proposal. It’s the hook that will sell your book to your editor, to your committee, to the sales force, to bookstore owners, and ultimately to readers. So make the best one you can! Some hints on what makes a good sentence: Shorter is better. Try for fewer than 15 words. No character names, please! Better to say “a handicapped trapeze artist” than “Jane Doe”. Tie together the big picture and the personal picture. Which character has the most to lose in this story? Now tell me what he or she wants to win. Read the one-line blurbs on the New York Times Bestseller list to learn how to do this. Writing a one-sentence description is an art form. Step 2) Take another hour and expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel. This is the analog of the second stage of the snowflake. I like to structure a story as “three disasters plus an ending”. Each of the disasters takes a quarter of the book to develop and the ending takes the final quarter. I don’t know if this is the ideal structure, it’s just my personal taste. If you believe in the Three-Act structure, then the first disaster corresponds to the end of Act 1. The second disaster is the mid-point of Act 2. The third disaster is the end of Act 2, and forces Act 3 which wraps things up. It is OK to have the first disaster be caused by external circumstances, but I think that the second and third disasters should be caused by the protagonist’s attempts to “fix things”. Things just get worse and worse. You can also use this paragraph in your proposal. Ideally, your paragraph will have about five sentences. One sentence to give me the backdrop and story setup. Then one sentence each for your three disasters. Then one more sentence to tell the ending. Don’t confuse this paragraph with the back-cover copy for your book. This paragraph summarizes the whole story. Your back-cover copy should summarize only about the first quarter of the story. Step 3) The above gives you a high-level view of your novel. Now you need something similar for the storylines of each of your characters. Characters are the most important part of any novel, and the time you invest in designing them up front will pay off ten-fold when you start writing. For each of your major characters, take an hour and write a one-page summary sheet that tells: The character’s name A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline The character’s motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?) The character’s goal (what does he/she want concretely?) The character’s conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?) The character’s epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change? A one-paragraph summary of the character’s storyline An important point: You may find that you need to go back and revise your one-sentence summary and/or your one-paragraph summary. Go ahead! This is good–it means your characters are teaching you things about your story. It’s always okay at any stage of the design process to go back and revise earlier stages. In fact, it’s not just okay–it’s inevitable. And it’s good. Any revisions you make now are revisions you won’t need to make later on to a clunky 400 page manuscript. Another important point: It doesn’t have to be perfect. The purpose of each step in the design process is to advance you to the next step. Keep your forward momentum! You can always come back later and fix it when you understand the story better. You will do this too, unless you’re a lot smarter than I am. Step 4) By this stage, you should have a good idea of the large-scale structure of your novel, and you have only spent a day or two. Well, truthfully, you may have spent as much as a week, but it doesn’t matter. If the story is broken, you know it now, rather than after investing 500 hours in a rambling first draft. So now just keep growing the story. Take several hours and expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends. This is a lot of fun, and at the end of the exercise, you have a pretty decent one-page skeleton of your novel. It’s okay if you can’t get it all onto one single-spaced page. What matters is that you are growing the ideas that will go into your story. You are expanding the conflict. You should now have a synopsis suitable for a proposal, although there is a better alternative for proposals . . . Step 5) Take a day or two and write up a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other important characters. These “character synopses” should tell the story from the point of view of each character. As always, feel free to cycle back to the earlier steps and make revisions as you learn cool stuff about your characters. I usually enjoy this step the most and lately, I have been putting the resulting “character synopses” into my proposals instead of a plot-based synopsis. Editors love character synopses, because editors love character-based fiction. Step 6) By now, you have a solid story and several story-threads, one for each character. Now take a week and expand the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis. Basically, you will again be expanding each paragraph from step (4) into a full page. This is a lot of fun, because you are figuring out the high-level logic of the story and making strategic decisions. Here, you will definitely want to cycle back and fix things in the earlier steps as you gain insight into the story and new ideas whack you in the face. Step 7) Take another week and expand your character descriptions into full-fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character. The standard stuff such as birthdate, description, history, motivation, goal, etc. Most importantly, how will this character change by the end of the novel? This is an expansion of your work in step (3), and it will teach you a lot about your characters. You will probably go back and revise steps (1-6) as your characters become “real” to you and begin making petulant demands on the story. This is good — great fiction is character-driven. Take as much time as you need to do this, because you’re just saving time downstream. When you have finished this process, (and it may take a full month of solid effort to get here), you have most of what you need to write a proposal. If you are a published novelist, then you can write a proposal now and sell your novel before you write it. If you’re not yet published, then you’ll need to write your entire novel first before you can sell it. No, that’s not fair, but life isn’t fair and the world of fiction writing is especially unfair. Step 8) You may or may not take a hiatus here, waiting for the book to sell. At some point, you’ve got to actually write the novel. Before you do that, there are a couple of things you can do to make that traumatic first draft easier. The first thing to do is to take that four-page synopsis and make a list of all the scenes that you’ll need to turn the story into a novel. And the easiest way to make that list is . . . with a spreadsheet. For some reason, this is scary to a lot of writers. Oh the horror. Deal with it. You learned to use a word-processor. Spreadsheets are easier. You need to make a list of scenes, and spreadsheets were invented for making lists. If you need some tutoring, buy a book. There are a thousand out there, and one of them will work for you. It should take you less than a day to learn the itty bit you need. It’ll be the most valuable day you ever spent. Do it. Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes that emerge from your four-page plot outline. Make just one line for each scene. In one column, list the POV character. In another (wide) column, tell what happens. If you want to get fancy, add more columns that tell you how many pages you expect to write for the scene. A spreadsheet is ideal, because you can see the whole storyline at a glance, and it’s easy to move scenes around to reorder things. My spreadsheets usually wind up being over 100 lines long, one line for each scene of the novel. As I develop the story, I make new versions of my story spreadsheet. This is incredibly valuable for analyzing a story. It can take a week to make a good spreadsheet. When you are done, you can add a new column for chapter numbers and assign a chapter to each scene. Step 9) (Optional. I don’t do this step anymore.) Switch back to your word processor and begin writing a narrative description of the story. Take each line of the spreadsheet and expand it to a multi-paragraph description of the scene. Put in any cool lines of dialogue you think of, and sketch out the essential conflict of that scene. If there’s no conflict, you’ll know it here and you should either add conflict or scrub the scene. I used to write either one or two pages per chapter, and I started each chapter on a new page. Then I just printed it all out and put it in a loose-leaf notebook, so I could easily swap chapters around later or revise chapters without messing up the others. This process usually took me a week and the end result was a massive 50-page printed document that I would revise in red ink as I wrote the first draft. All my good ideas when I woke up in the morning got hand-written in the margins of this document. This, by the way, is a rather painless way of writing that dreaded detailed synopsis that all writers seem to hate. But it’s actually fun to develop, if you have done steps (1) through (8) first. When I did this step, I never showed this synopsis to anyone, least of all to an editor — it was for me alone. I liked to think of it as the prototype first draft. Imagine writing a first draft in a week! Yes, you can do it and it’s well worth the time. But I’ll be honest, I don’t feel like I need this step anymore, so I don’t do it now. Step 10) At this point, just sit down and start pounding out the real first draft of the novel. You will be astounded at how fast the story flies out of your fingers at this stage. I have seen writers triple their fiction writing speed overnight, while producing better quality first drafts than they usually produce on a third draft. You might think that all the creativity is chewed out of the story by this time. Well, no, not unless you overdid your analysis when you wrote your Snowflake. This is supposed to be the fun part, because there are many small-scale logic problems to work out here. How does Hero get out of that tree surrounded by alligators and rescue Heroine who’s in the burning rowboat? This is the time to figure it out! But it’s fun because you already know that the large-scale structure of the novel works. So you only have to solve a limited set of problems, and so you can write relatively fast. This stage is incredibly fun and exciting. I have heard many fiction writers complain about how hard the first draft is. Invariably, that’s because they have no clue what’s coming next. Good grief! Life is too short to write like that! There is no reason to spend 500 hours writing a wandering first draft of your novel when you can write a solid one in 150. Counting the 100 hours it takes to do the design documents, you come out way ahead in time. About midway through a first draft, I usually take a breather and fix all the broken parts of my design documents. Yes, the design documents are not perfect. That’s okay. The design documents are not fixed in concrete, they are a living set of documents that grows as you develop your novel. If you are doing your job right, at the end of the first draft you will laugh at what an amateurish piece of junk your original design documents were. And you’ll be thrilled at how deep your story has become. Over the years, I’ve taught the Snowflake method to hundreds of writers at conferences. I’ve also had this article posted here on my web site for a long time, and the page has now been viewed over 2,400,000 times. I’ve heard from many, many writers. Some people love the Snowflake; some don’t. My attitude is that if it works for you, then use it. If only parts of it work for you, then use only those parts.I write my own novels using the Snowflake method. Make no mistake — it’s a fair bit of work. For a long time, I did it the hard way, using Microsoft Word to write the text and Microsoft Excel to manage the list of scenes. Unfortunately, neither of those tools knows about the structure of fiction. Finally, I realized that it would be a whole lot easier to work through the method if the tools were designed specially for fiction. So one day I decided to create that software. I wanted something that would automate every step that could be automated. The result was a commercial software package I call Snowflake Pro. It makes my own Snowflaking incredibly easier, and it’s now doing the same for zillions of other writers. Snowflake Pro SoftwareSnowflake Pro makes the Snowflake method fast, easy, and fun. It runs on Macs, Windows, and Linux. Currently, I’m running a $pecial promotion that gives a 50% discount on this cool and fun tool for anyone who owns a copy of my book Writing Fiction for Dummies. Learn more about Snowflake Pro Ways To Use The Snowflake Are you struggling right now with a horrible first draft of your novel that just seems hopeless? Take an hour and summarize your story in one sentence. Does that clarify things? You’ve just completed step (1) of the Snowflake, and it only took an hour. Why not try the next few steps of the Snowflake and see if your story doesn’t suddenly start coming to life? What have you got to lose, except a horrible first draft that you already hate? Are you a seat-of-the-pants writer who finally finished your novel, but now you’re staring at an enormous pile of manuscript that desperately needs rewriting? Take heart! Your novel’s done, isn’t it? You’ve done something many writers only dream about. Now imagine a big-shot editor bumps into you in the elevator and asks what your novel’s about. In fifteen words or less, what would you say? Take your time! This is a thought game. What would you say? If you can come up with an answer in the next hour . . . you’ve just completed Step 1 of the Snowflake! Do you think some of the other steps might help you put some order into that manuscript? Give it a shot. What have you got to lose? Have you just got a nightmarishly long letter from your editor detailing all the things that are wrong with your novel? Are you wondering how you can possibly make all the changes before your impossible deadline? It’s never too late to do the Snowflake. How about if you take a week and drill through all the steps right now? It’ll clarify things wonderfully, and then you’ll have a plan for executing all those revisions. I bet you’ll get it done in record time. And I bet the book will come out better than you imagined. If the Snowflake Method works for you, I’d like to hear from you. You can reach me through the contact page on my web-site. Acknowledgments: I thank my many friends on the Chi Libris list and especially Janelle Schneider for a large number of discussions on the Snowflake and much else. Best regards, Randy Ingermanson signature Randy Ingermanson, Ph.D. Taken from Snowflake Method |
| THE CALENDAR: (Required Assignments. Click each assignment for detailed instructions.) Monday, Oct. 01 - PREMISE The premise of your novel summarizes the following: Who is(are) your protagonist(s)? What will happen to him/her/it/them? Why? How will it turn out? What does that tell us? Is there a moral to the story? Options: *Bullet* A “what if” question. Example: the movie Groundhog Day (1993): ‘What if you lived the same day over and over again?’ *Bullet* A theme or moral and how your storyline addresses it. Example: In this epic tale of love conquering fear, Carly must overcome her fear of flying to traverse the globe and pull Tom, the love of her life, back from death’s door. *** STILL NEED A STORY IDEA? Try the writing tools at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* http://howtowriteanovel.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/how-to-write-a-novel-developing... Tuesday, Oct. 02 - OUTLINE #1 The first draft of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outline format : Define what happens at the beginning, climax, and the end. *Bullet* Using Index Cards (Paper or Electronic): Define your beginning, climax, and end. As you build your outline throughout October, you can easily shuffle around plot elements. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Write a provocative one-sentence description of your story. Example from Randy Ingermanson’s Transgression : “A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul.” *** SEE ALSO: Outlining Tools in the Writing Tools section at the bottom of this calendar. *Down* http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12921887/Traditional-outline-format http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php http://www.ingermanson.com/books/transgression.php Wednesday, Oct. 03 - MARKETING EXERCISE Describe your target audience. Identify a demographic profile including gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, education, income level, marital status, location and other commonly evaluated data. Explain in detail what aspects of your novel will appeal to this particular audience and why. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics Thursday, Oct. 04 - DRAMATIS PERSONAE Draft a list of your characters and write a brief profile on each one (first and last name, age, occupation or relation to main character(s) and rough physical description.) Keep your list handy for future updates throughout the Prep. *** NEED CHARACTER NAMES? See the name generators at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* Friday, Oct. 05 - PROTAGONIST PROFILE Complete a character profile of your protagonist. The point of this exercise is for you to get to know your character inside and out before you write your novel. If you don't know your character, how can you expect it of your readers? Flesh out your pre-story character in detail. Keep in mind that your protagonist will grow in some way during your story. Options: *Bullet* By listing his/her attributes *Bullet* By writing a description from the perspective of someone very close to your protagonist. http://www.charlottedillon.com/CharacterChart.html http://www.engl.niu.edu/wac/char_sk.html Saturday, Oct. 06 - CONTEST ROUND: PROTAGONIST BACKGROUND STORY Write a story about your protagonist that takes place outside of your novel. Make your readers relate to him or her in such a way that we would be devastated if he or she were to experience conflict (which, ultimately, sometime in November, he/she will.) The object of the contest is to make your judges root for your protagonist! Simply put: the character we like best wins. If your protagonist is an assassin or someone similarly "unlikeable," never fear! I love Vlad Taltos, the professional assassin . You can make us love your character, too. *Submit your BITEM or ENTRY link by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday, Oct. 07 to compete. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you may still post your assignment completion for the grand prize, per the standard Challenge guidelines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Brust#Vlad_Taltos Sunday, Oct. 07 - OFF/FREEBIE or BONUS ASSIGNMENT Take a break or catch up. BONUS: Complete a bonus assignment and earn extra prizes. Post your completed assignment in the forum and tell us what you did. *** BONUS ASSIGNMENTS Choose one from the list at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* Monday, Oct. 08 - CULTURAL SETTING Describe the cultural, political and/or religious setting in your novel. What do your societies believe? In what practices do they engage? What kind of government rules your world? What laws or rules of society are in place? Who enforces them? How successful is enforcement of laws and rules? Tuesday, Oct. 09 - OUTLINE REVISION #2 The second draft of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outlining or index cards, write your climax and several key conflicts/disasters. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Expand your sentence to a paragraph. Include the beginning, conflicts/disasters, climax, and end. *** NEED DISASTERS? See the Plot Twists generator at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* Wednesday, Oct. 10- SETTING #1 DRAWING Get out your pencil (or Excel or Visio or Autocad if you're the nerdy type) and draw a physical sketch of any setting in your novel, which we will call Setting#1. This can be a map of a town, woods or valley, a layout of a room with furniture and walls, a floor plan of the castle, or any other physical setting. It doesn't matter if your art skills are lacking. Just get a feel for where obstacles and objects are in relation to one another. Thursday, Oct. 11 - SETTING #1 DESCRIPTION Describe Setting#1 (with words.) Use all five senses, and make your reader experience the setting as if he or she were there. Friday, Oct. 12 - ANTAGONIST PROFILE Complete a character profile of your antagonist (your "bad guy" - the character creating conflict for or your protagonist.) If your antagonist is a situation rather than a person, write about what it is and how it will create the narrative conflict. Further clarification: - Wikipedia's definition of Narrative Conflict http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_%28narrative%29 - Newsletter Article: "When The Bad Guy Isn't a Person" http://www.writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/4663-When-The-Bad-Guy... - "ANTAGONIST (Re: A LOT of confusing things)" http://www.writing.com/main/forums/action/view/message_id/1795089 Saturday, Oct. 13 - CONTEST ROUND: ANTAGONIST BACKGROUND STORY Write a story about your antagonist that takes place outside of your novel. Make your reader empathize with the motivations of the antagonist. If your antagonist is a situation rather than a person, write a background story about that. *Submit your BITEM or ENTRY link by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday, Oct. 14 to compete. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you may still post your assignment completion for the grand prize per the standard Challenge guidelines. Sunday, Oct. 14 - OFF/FREEBIE or BONUS ASSIGNMENT Take a break or catch up. BONUS: Complete a bonus assignment and earn extra prizes. Post your completed assignment in the forum and tell us what you did. *** BONUS ASSIGNMENTS Choose one from the list at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* Monday, Oct. 15 - PLOT BACKGROUND STORY Write a story that sets up your plot. EXAMPLE: The Lord of the Rings story revolves around the One Ring, its significance, and how it's destroyed. But how did Frodo get the One Ring in the first place? We learn that in The Hobbit. You obviously can't write a full-scale novel in 15 minutes, but you could write the scene where Bilbo encounters Gollum and stumbles across the ring. That would be a background story that sets up the plot in Lord of the Rings. Tuesday, Oct. 16 - OUTLINE REVISION #3 The third draft of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outlining or index cards, fill in some of the gaps and start developing subplots. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Write a one-paragraph summery of each key character’s personal storyline. Wednesday, Oct. 17 - MINOR #1 PROFILE Write a character profile about a supporting or minor character, whom we shall call Minor #1. If you have a second protagonist or antagonist, use this assignment to profile that character. Thursday, Oct. 18- MINOR #1 BACKGROUND STORY Write a background story about Minor #1 (or your second protagonist or antagonist.) Friday, Oct. 19 - SETTING #2 DRAWING Complete a physical drawing of a second setting. Saturday, Oct. 20 - CONTEST ROUND: SETTING #2 DESCRIPTION Describe Setting #2 with words. Use all five senses and make your reader experience the setting as if he or she were there. *Submit your BITEM or ENTRY link by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday, Oct. 21 to compete. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you may still post your assignment completion for the grand prize per the standard Challenge guidelines. Sunday, Oct. 21 - OFF/FREEBIE or BONUS ASSIGNMENT Take a break or catch up. BONUS: Complete a bonus assignment and earn extra prizes. Post your completed assignment in the forum and tell us what you did. *** BONUS ASSIGNMENTS Choose one from the list at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* Monday, Oct. 22 - OBJECT DESCRIPTION Describe, in detail, an object critical to your story. Tuesday, Oct. 23 - OUTLINE REVISION #4 The fourth draft of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outlining or index cards, fill more gaps and flesh out subplots using traditional outline format. Optional: Add a timeline. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Compile a synopsis of your story by expanding each sentence of your summary paragraph into its own full paragraph. All but the last paragraph (which describes the story ending) should close with a disaster. Wednesday, Oct. 24 - MINOR #2 PROFILE Write a character profile about supporting or minor character #2. Thursday, Oct. 25 - MINOR #2 BACKGROUND STORY Write a background story about supporting or minor character #2. Friday, Oct. 26 - PROCRASTINATION LIST Write a list of all the things you tend to do to procrastinate and establish a schedule for the month of November outlining when you are and are not allowed to procrastinate. Schedule time to write and put your schedule in writing. Saturday, Oct. 27 - CONTEST ROUND: COMMITMENT LETTER Write a commitment letter to yourself promising to do your best during the month of November and vowing to not allow distractions or procrastination to keep you from your goal. Explain in the letter why you are awesome, how you plan to complete NaNo 2011, and what you will do to celebrate when you win. *Submit your BITEM or ENTRY link by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday, Oct. 28 to compete. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you may still post your assignment completion for the grand prize per the standard Challenge guidelines. Sunday, Oct. 28 - OFF/FREEBIE or BONUS ASSIGNMENT Take a break or catch up. BONUS: Create your own assignment. Post your completed assignment in the forum and tell us what you did. *** BONUS ASSIGNMENTS Choose one from the list at the bottom of the calendar. *Down* Monday, Oct. 29 - OUTLINE REVISION #5 The fifth and final revision of your outline. Options: *Bullet* Using traditional outlining or index cards, flesh out the logistics of how your protagonist gets from the beginning of the story to the climax of the story. Add more timeline details and consider plotting out scenes by chapter. *Bullet* The Snowflake Method : Using your synopsis, list the scenes needed to create your novel. Each scene should include the POV character and the action. Tuesday, Oct. 30- SETTINGS LIST Using your outline as a guide, list other settings in your novel. Sketch OR draft a brief description of each. Wednesday, Oct. 31 - PROTAGONIST INTERVIEW You are a journalist. The story of your novel is complete. Interview your protagonist and ask the following questions: 1. How did the events of your story change you? 2. How is life for you now? Thursday Nov. 1 - NANOWRIMO BEGINS Start writing your novel! BONUS ASSIGNMENTS and PRIZES: (Optional Assignments. Click each for instructions and prizes.) WORLD BUILDING Instructions: Spend 15 minutes developing history, geology, ecology, or maps for your world. Prize: 2,000 GPs (per assignment completed, max one per freebie day) CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT Instructions: Profile another protagonist or antagonist. Prize: 2,000 GPs (per assignment completed, max one per freebie day) QUERY LETTER Instructions: Draft your query letter. Prize: Query Review DIALOGUE 500 Instructions: Enter the current round of "The Dialogue 500" [18+] using a main character. Prize: A chance at a Dialogue Merit Badge *Bullet* Include the words "NANO PREP" in your Dialog 500 forum post. *Bullet* Include the date of the bonus round you're fulfilling in your D500 forum post. *Bullet* Book Entries are eligible entries to the Dialogue 500 for this round. WRITING SPRINT Instructions: Test the time it takes you to write 1,667** words. Prize: Membership in the elite "NaNoWriMo Sprint Writers Group" [E] (1) Choose any character in your novel and brainstorm a new related background story. (2) Set a timer and write for 15 minutes. Stop writing with the timer. (3) Count the # words written in 15 minutes. (4) MATH ALERT (sorry!): Divide 25,000 / # words. (5) The result is the number of minutes required* to write 1,667** words. (6) Finish the background story as needed. * Not considering interruptions or fatigue. **1,667 is the number of words per day required to reach 50,000 in 30 days. CREATE-YOUR-OWN Instructions: Create an assignment that helps you prepare your novel for writing. Prize: 2,000 GPs (per assignment completed, max one per freebie day) *Bullet* Work for at least 15 minutes on your assignment. *Bullet* Report exactly what you did in your forum post. *Bullet* Your activity is fair game for next year's bonus assignment list. BONUS GRAND PRIZE: Earn a NaNoWriMo Unblock. Complete four bonus assignments (one per freebie day) and earn a NaNoWriMo Unblock: Say you get stuck during November. Your characters are in a rut. Your plot is spinning in circles. You can't find the motivation to get out of bed, let alone write 1,667 words today. You're blocked. Cash in your NaNoWriMo Unblock, and you get a sympathetic ear. A brainstorming partner. A kick in the rump. Whatever it takes to get you past your block. WRITING TOOLS: (Optional tools to help you complete the assignments. Click each for more info.) BRAINSTORMING TOOLS *Bullet*Brainstorming and Mind Mapping http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/quickrefs/25-brainstorming.xml *Bullet*Free Mind Mapping Software http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page WRITING PROMPTS AND OTHER GENERATORS *Bullet*Plot Generator http://funstuff.pantomimepony.co.uk/writers-plot-ideas.htm *Bullet*First Line Generator http://funstuff.pantomimepony.co.uk/writers-first-lines.htm *Bullet*Plot Twist Generator http://funstuff.pantomimepony.co.uk/writers-plot-twists.htm *Bullet*Character Name Generator http://funstuff.pantomimepony.co.uk/writers-character-names.htm *Bullet*Seventh Sanctum: Name and Fiction Generators http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index.php *Bullet*Behind the Name: the etymology and history of first names http://www.behindthename.com/ OUTLINING TOOLS *Bullet*Novel Outlining Worksheets http://www.creative-writing-now.com/novel-outline.html NANOWRIMO TOOLS *Bullet*NaNoWriMo Survival Guide http://www.lazette.net/Free%20Stuff/NaNo.htm |
| The car flipped on its side. James held on the steering wheel with his gloved hands. Even with his helmet elimination most of his peripheral vision, he saw the sparks coming from the metal of his car scraping on the concrete ground. The car shredded over the finish line and came to a halt several yards behind it. James climbed out of the driver's door completely unharmed. Yes, he was last. He'd been driving a terribly uninspired race. Each of the fifteen laps wore him out more and more. By the thirteenth lap, James was just about ready to pull over and stop caring. But he kept depressing the pedal and holding on to the steering wheel. Walking up to his team, he raised his hands in winner pose. No, he didn't win anything. Yes, his car was ripe for the junk yard. But he was alive, in full health, and he had held out for fifteen rounds. |
| Moss grows on the north side of a tree. If you are lost in a forest, look for the moss on the trees and then decide which direction to walk in. That's what they told me. They didn't tell me moss could grow all around the tree. Now which way do I go? |
| Since this morning, I wondered what to make out of an image showing a bundle of red-orange millipedes. Yeech. I hate them. I thought few things would make me gag, but this image grosses me out. I have to write something creative about it, but all that comes to mind is the desire to look away. |
| "Titanic 2. What a bust." Janet held on to the mast of the raft her and a handful of survivors had fashioned in the frigid waters right north of the polar circle. |
| Glass. I like that glass tunnel. It makes me want to walk through it. It reminds me of the zoo in New Orleans. There isn't any tunnel like it, but the lush tropical greenery often made the light appear just like it is in this image. My first reaction upon seeing the image was to say out loud that I wanted to walk through it and to think inside that it reminded me of a woman I used to go to the zoo with. We never became super close friends, but we went there together a few times with our young children. Her daughter was almost the exact same age as my son. Running after our toddlers and chatting away. She used to have clouds around her eyebrows. Her and the child's father were going through a long, drawn-out divorce and she lost both her parents only a couple of days apart during that time too. Last time I saw her, she had met a nice new partner who appeared to be just stunned to be with her. That was a few years ago too now, but I think they both have to be doing well with each other. Mimi is her name. She makes a living writing articles for magazines. Funny, when I knew her, I would have never thought of myself as a writer, yet, here I am. |
| "You come with me now!" Ace noticed Julian pointing a gun at her. She asked, "Where do you want me to go?" His somber face broke into a wide smile. He let the gun dangle carelessly by his side. Walking up to her, he took put a hand behind her neck and pulled her close for a smooching kiss. "Time to go home." "Yes," she breathed. |
| "So you turtles get really old, I hear." "Who do you call old? You don't live very long, I hear." "No need to get upset." "Man, I'm too zen to get upset." "Zen, eh. I had a cousin who wasn't zen at all." "I heard of him. Went all the way to Sidney to get his son from some dentist's aquarium." "Ha ha ha. That's fiction, man." "I'm not a man." "Sorry, woman." "Ugh, I'm outta here." "What's up duuuude?" "This isn't a Disney movie! I'm not a dude!" "Couldn't tell. You all look alike." Snap! "You all taste the same too once I've got you in my beak." |
| Finally! The floodwater had receded. Well, not according to their parents, but the four boys couldn't stand sitting still one more minute after weeks of being stuck in the boats to live through the annual flooding. Life giving, their parents called. Boring, the children called it. Now, it was over. Sung-Ho called to his friends, "Let's play ball!" Sung-Ho and his best friends ran out onto the field still covered with a couple of hands of water. They didn't care. Covered in mud and their bright young faces red with excitement, they came home after hours of playing to their parents. Mothers gently scolded over dirty shorts. Fathers shook their heads over schoolwork going undone for the day. But all were glad the wet season was almost over and the families could go back on land, rebuild their huts, and use the fertile silt to grow the harvest needed to survive next year's flooding on their boats. |
| Head: "I saw something!" Dragon: "It's something small. Evil, I think." Body: "Where is it? I can't see." Head: "It's because I have the eyes, dummy." Body: "Don't call me that! What would you float over without me? Nobody would take a pale floating head serious." Dragon: "Stop arguing you two. We have to take care of the evil thing that ran through the room on the far end." Head: "Body, zap it with your magic staff." Body: "Is it edible? Can't Dragon hunt it?" Dragon: "I am not going near that devil creature." Head: "I think it's looking at us." Body: "Let's run." Dragon: "Yes, lets." At the far end of the room, a little white mouse watches a dragon, a robed body with a long dangerously sparkling staff, and a pale floating head hastily run toward winding stairs to a different floor. |
| Celine was in the garden behind the house with her little watering can. Her plan was to carefully water the small patch of herbs her mother helped her to grow. Celine gently pushed the flowers that grew on the edge of her little patch aside. Mother would never use pesticides, but Celine knew to be on the lookout for snails and carefully carry them away from her patch. As she pushed two flowers apart, a big green frog jumped up and onto the rock border of her garden. Its skin appeared dull to Celine. Since she learned that frogs need to have wet skin to breathe through it, she decided to pour water over the frog. As she reached for her watering can and kept her eyes on the frog, he jumped closer to her, causing her to dump the can over and spilling all the water onto the ground. Panicked not to be able to wet the frog as he clearly needed, Celine grabbed her watering can and ran inside for more water. When she returned, she found the frog happily splashing in the puddle she had inadvertently created before. |
| Titus took Jessica's hand and tenderly brought it up to his lips. He planted a soft kiss of the back of her hand. "I've been an ass. Forgive me." She gave a tortured smile. "I've been a bitch. Will you forgive me?" He pulled her close until her body was closely up against him. He put both arms around her. "We both had some growing up to do." He planted a soft kiss on her lips. "We're going to be okay, you, Daniel, and I." |
| About two thousand years ago, Mount Vesuvius blew its top and annihilated the town of Pompeii in a rain of lava and hot ashes. What was once a thriving city, was now dead. For hundreds, even thousands of years, the city stayed a myth. It wasn't until a man who was digging for a well found the hand of a statue that the city was found. I wonder how many things are hidden in the ground that are now relegated to myth? Are there things hidden in the sky? In remote areas of the world? In the ocean? How much truth can there be to a creature such as the Yeti if for so long a time the city of Pompeii was thought to be the fabrication of a writer? Pompeii proves that myths are true. At the least, each myth contains enough truth to make them real, even if story telling had its way with the original and changed it up until it wasn't even believable any longer. Just recently, scientist found a frog in India that was believed to be extinct since the Ice Age. Go Yeti. Go Bigfoot. Go Chuppa-Cabra. Go all you creatures nobody want to believe in. |
| Nowadays, everything can be bought online. Small things like electronics, things you should try on first such as pants and shoes. There are online shops that sell furniture and even houses. You can also buy education online. There are online universities and even online public schools. When you buy something in a brick and mortar store and you don't like it or it stops working, you bring it back, and, if needed, you can bitch out the manager. When you buy something online, you have to hope the sale goes smoothly. You have to hope your stuff ships in a timely manner. If you need help with any part of the transaction, you have to hope somebody either picks up the phone or answers emails. Now, all of those things that can go wrong with buying tangible items can also go wrong when buying education online, especially when it replaces public education. Since you're not directly paying for it (you pay for it through taxes), the administrators make sport out of finding out just how long they can stretch it until they answer you. Try calling a phone that never gets picked up. Try sending an email that never gets answered. Maddening enough when it's about an iPod. Really messed up when it's your child's education being squandered. Moral of the story: Don't believe the hype. Ever. |
| After all that reconciling, Titus and Jessica stood together, arms around each other, in the living room. Titus felt glad things were going to be different from now on. Jessica was back with him. Daniel would now get to have a real family as he deserved. Jessica's relatives would stop being angry at him. He slowly eased his embrace around Jessica. "Are you hungry?" She shook her head. "Mama made me eat at home. A big meal. You know how we eat at home." He laughed. "I know." He put a finger under her chin and lifted it to look into her eyes. "Let's go to bed then." She blushed and batted her eyelashes quickly. It was a nervous reaction. She whispered breathlessly, "Yes." They went to the bedroom. A couple tonight. Titus undressed her and she held still. His voice raspy, he said, "Everything is different. We have to get to know each other again." She tugged on his shirt to pull it over his head. Once his upper body was free of cloth, she slowly ran her hands over his ripped abs and bulging pecs. "I'll enjoy taking it slow with you this time." She opened his belt buckle and let his pants drop around his ankles. "Step out of those." Titus obliged. He quickly shed his socks and boxers. He held a hand out for her to take. "Come to bed, love." |
| Steamed, Titus went back inside his house. He was angry at Alex, but he couldn't deny that Alex's accusation had merit. He had only himself to blame for Daniel's perception of his parents. He hit the speed dial for Jessica. As soon as she picked up, he snapped, "Your boyfriend just came here, taunting me. If you think this is going to work, think again!" "I told him not to go to your house." "He told me so. Didn't keep him from telling me it was my fault Daniel thinks he's the other daddy." Titus sat down on his couch and said quieter. "And he's right about it. I've got nobody but myself to blame. I'll bring Daniel home to you tomorrow. It'll take as long as it'll take for him to know he only has one father." Jessica said, "I want to come over there. Did he cry again?" "No. Daniel was asleep by the time he was in bed. I made him play and run all day long." "My dad and uncle are on their way to your house." "To beat me up?" "To talk to you." Titus snorted. "As if the officer and tío would make the journey to talk." At that moment, the doorbell rang. "There they are." Titus clicked the phone off and went to the door. He opened it. Jessica's father, a Los Angeles police officer, and her uncle, the pool guy, stood outside. Wordlessly, Titus opened the door wide to let them in. He waved to the table. The three men sat down. "Titus," tío started, "You and Jessica are both not putting Daniel first." "You get right to the heart of the matter, huh?" Mr. Aragon, Jessica's father said, "We've watched your games for the past four years. It's time both of you grow up. Jessica broke up with that silly boyfriend of hers. Time for you to take your wife back into your home. No more of this separate living nonsense. Your son is not being raised properly. You are a disgrace to the family keeping another woman next to your wife. You are going to end this too." Titus leaned back in his chair. He grinned. "I already have. Two weeks ago. Jessica didn't tell you?" The two men shared a glance. Tío said, "She didn't. Either way. When do you want the truck and help to move her here?" "You two aren't playing around." "We're not." Jessica's father said sharply. Titus leaned forward and took a minute to look each man sitting across from him a long and deep gaze in the eyes. "Jessica can come home tonight. We'll go pick up her clothes and personal belongings tomorrow in my station wagon. I'll rent the place out as a furnished apartment." He sat back and asked, "Okay with you?" "Yes," the officer said. He picked up his phone and sent a text. Less than a minute later, the front door opened and Jessica let herself in. Titus chuckled. He got off his chair and held his arms open for her. She came to him and hugged him back. Her father and uncle stood up. From the door, her father said, "No more games, hija. Mamá and I are tired of this nonsense. You picked him. Now you take him with his faults." "Sí, papá," she said. "Sí, papá," Titus echoed. |
| From Jessica’s home, Titus took Daniel straight to the beach. He kept Daniel busy through his usual nap-time and kept him running until the toddler was but a shell. Certain that Daniel wouldn’t give him trouble for going to sleep without his mother present, Titus took him home. As he expected, Daniel snoozed off in his arms on the short way home. As he entered the yard through the front gate, he saw somebody sitting on the patio. Coming closer, he recognized Alex. Titus whispered sharply, “I’m bringing my son inside. Then, it’s you and me.” Daniel was too sleepy to stir during the diaper change or getting undressed and put into his pajama. Titus kissed him tenderly on his forehead before leaving the room. He stepped into the front yard. “What do you want?” Alex stood up. “I haven’t come for trouble.” “Didn’t think so.” Titus crossed his arms in front of his chest. Taller, stronger, and a trained killer, Titus didn’t fear Alex one bit. Alex bit his lips. “She asked me not to come here.” “Why did you then?” “Don’t keep the boy from her.” Titus snorted. “She had him for three years. It’s my turn.” “Neither she nor I told him to call me his other daddy. He said that by himself.” “That makes it even worse. If that is the impression he has at his age, I’ve screwed around long enough. Time to show him who is his one and only father.” Alex took a step backwards. “I don’t want that. I don’t want to take that from you. But ask yourself if you can with good conscience keep them apart for being angry at me.” He took another step toward the garden gate. “You have only yourself to blame for the way Daniel sees life.” |
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