Pick up the Pace

I've written before about writing under pressure and thought I would share with you my new self-inflicted deadline.
This is my last week of university (next year I will be teaching high school English) and I've almost finished my assessments. I only have 2 essays and 2 forum posts due by Friday.
There is a bigger project waiting for me - NaNoWriMo!
I can not wait to take on the month of nothing but writing. I have my plot and my usually analytical mind will be making room for Fantasy writing.
So what happens with the novel I've been writing about the young girl who enters dog shows and solves mysteries (Dog Show Detective)? I'm so close to the end and I had promised (before discovering NaNoWriMo) that I would 'hire' myself as a writer to finish the first draft in November/December.
I'm not prepared to leave it for a month, but I want to focus on The Costume Maker (my NaNoWriMo story).
So.... I'm giving myself until midnight Saturday to finish Dog Show Detective. I figure I can end the first draft in about  10-12,000 words. Yep 10-12,000 words in 5 days. That's over 2,000 words a day. And I can't just forget about those darn essays.
If I can get this done, it will work well. I'll work on the NaNoWriMo novel in November and then by the time I get to pick up Dog Show Detective again for editing, it will seem fresh.
Today - finish Chapter 15 - Kitty must start to make an association between the mixed-up dogs and hear about her main suspect for dog napping - they've turned up dead!
I love stress, love it. Love the panic. Love the pressure and the amazing work it produces. Love the searing pain running down my left arm the clutching feeling in my chest... wait... that bit might not be good.

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Wave to the Writer

Give Google their due - they know how to start people talking.

Recently I received an invite to join the secret society of Google Wave testers. Once I had danced naked under the full moon and been annointed with the blood of a new lamb, I was able to delve into the online collaborative tool (okay not really, but it seems that elusive for anyone trying to get an invite). Google restricted access to Wave by only allowing people by invite, those people were in turn able to invite a select few (before you excitedly become my best friend, I'm on the B list, so I did not receive the ablilty to invite anyone).

What is Google Wave?

It's a communication and collaboration platform that is able to operate in real time. Contacts can send each other documents and messages and receivers can edit and/or add to those. Video clips, photos, website and more formats are easily exchanged. To read more about what Google Wave offers go HERE.

What does it mean for writers?

Initially it seemed that Wave was just another online chatting tool, not much different from Messenger, Facebook or Twitter (without the word count). But now I'm seeing the prospects emerge.

Certainly it is an easier application for sharing drafs of writing to allow a writers/editors community to critique. Comments can be inserted at any point by various members, all at the same time and each reflecting on the others' remarks.

And for those of us down in Oz, we can come into a conversation and still add our comments even when it is no longer 'live'.

Creating book trailers (something I haven't really got my head around yet - do people online really want to see more adds?) would be a smoother process with writers, media creators and publishers involved in an online wave during creation. This could also work for book cover designing. Authors having more input to the design - is that a good idea? I'm now picturing a pedantic author saying to the graphic artist, "A little to the left, no right, no, try lower, hmm, still no good, lets try it back where we started..."

A wave appears to be more focused than a twitter conversation, instead of having multitudes of like minded people randomly commenting, you would invite select members with skills and interest to that particular project. You can also have several projects with different members going at the same time.
The big thing that ponders around my head is how it may affect the process of writing.

There are plenty of studies revealing how online reading changes the way our brains process the information, so it would be assumed that writers would adapt their style to create for this new online-wired brain.

Will authors write their novels in wave in the future with their fans reading as they write? And probably jumping in to change the parts they don't like? That sounds like a mix of fun and scary.

Are you an author on Wave? What do you think this service offers for writers, editors or publishers? I'd love to hear your comments (or wave me at charmaineclancy). Don't have Wave yet? Are you wanting it - is Google working marketing magic by keeping it restricted at this stage?

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Fantasy in the Classroom

Took NaNoWriMo into the classroom today.

In my presentation to teachers of English (that's what we call Literature Studies in Australia) today, I suggested incorporating NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program as a class project. In Australia it is exam time, so I would do this with the year 7-9 class.

This project would be a perfect way to finish off a unit outline on creativie writing. I would not put too much emphasis on word count and would ask for a minimum of 5,000 words (with no maximum). Sounds too short to publish? No. I'd gather the stories together, once we've edited and polished, and print them in an anthology.

As a way of tying the stories together, I suggest writing in one genre - I choose Fantasy. This is welcomed by most students because it gives them a lot of freedom and includes magic or supernatural elements. For our class project I suggested we use a common world for our stories to take place.

The class brainstorms ideas for all the type of characters that could possibly be found in fantasy stories and all the elements found in fantasy worlds (such as dragons and castles). Kids will have loads of ideas for this.

I would then have the class collaborate in creating a map of the world - where will everything be located? And we could name our characters. Students can write about any character they want and create their own story set in that land.

Put your students into small work groups of about four. During November, the students can have time in their groups to bounce ideas off each other and after November they can critique and help edit each others work. 
Shared editing is a great way for kids to learn grammar.

After November, once the stories are edited, they can be published together in an anthology of Fantasy tales and sold at school for fundraising (the kids can even become part of the marketing process).
Thank you NaNoWriMo for inspiring me with my favorite lesson plan so far!

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World Building - Where the Action Happens!

My last family workshop for NaNoWriMo focused on Character Building. I'm still in pain over my heroine's name, instead of something mysterious, I kept creating names that sounded like female anatomy or flatulence. Darn it, they can all be called Bob and Sue until I do a naming workshop.

My next workshop for the family will be the first step in World Building.

You may have more than one world to build. My fantasy story will move from the real world to a magical realm. Emily's (miss 11) story will have her character travel through several different magical worlds. She will do a world building exercise for each of those.

Worlds are big things to create, Rome is just one city, but we all know that took longer than one day to build. My intial focus will be solely on the habitat.

I've broken this workshop into two parts, the lists and the drawing. You can do either first, I love the lists, my kids will probably want to draw theirs first. 

Download the free world building PDF form CLICK HERE (download the PDF, then you can edit it to suit your needs or print)

 Step 1: The Written World Description

I will create a worksheet with questions to answer about our worlds covering the following points. Everyone will fill one in for each world.

• Binaries and Parallels - What's the same as our world and what's different?

• Temperature - Is it below freezing or really humid? The temperature of your world will affect the type of vegetation you have, and even the action that can take place (imagine The Wizard of Oz without a tornado). Is your weather seasonal or is it always like this?

• Landscape - When your character stands still, what can they see and how far can they see? Can they see Mountains, ranges, hills or a horizon?

• Ground cover - Dirt, rocks, pebbles, sand, grass or snow? How does it feel to walk under your character's feet? What sound is made when they walk on it?

• Vegetation - Tree varieties, weeds, shrubs, edible fruits, mushrooms and flowers. This can create scents and colour to your story. Plants are used for more than shelter and food. Sometimes they can be medicines and sometimes they are just for enjoyment. Do your characters like to pick flowers? Or maybe there's a plant like tobbacco that they smoke? And maybe it's not good for them and they find out they could die from it. Maybe some yummy looking berries are poisonous.

Now beyond the ground.

• Laws of Physics - Will your land obey them? Is there gravity? How might this affect your characters?

• Sun/Moon/Stars - What is the natural light like or what alternatives are there for light? Does sun or moon or stars play a role in your character's religion?

• Civilisation - Is your world built up or entirely natural? Are there pathways, roads, houses, airports, industry?

Step 2 - Drawing

• Draw rough maps of the entire area and show how your different locations meet up.
• Draw up an outline of each town, where are the homes, the shops, the tavern, etc.
• Then go wild and paint or sketch lots of views of your world, be as artistic as you want!

Want to visuaslise your world but don't have crayon skills?

• Make a virtual world in a game like Sims3 or Second Life or perhaps you can suggest one?
• Search online, steal National Geographic magazines and travel brochures. Cut out all the elements that match your world and glue them onto a large sheet of cardboard. Layout the pictures to align with your map, showing where the rainforest is compared to the Castle and what you pass when you travel from one to the other. You can keep this by your desk while you write.

Next it will be time to populate this world with wildlife and people.
 

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Character Profiles

My last post was on Plot Building and I described the method that works for me. Just to quickly add to that, I also found watching National Geographic and the Discovery channel gave me a few good ideas and lines, such as “If you put the wrong thing in your mouth, you could die.” I now have a list of around 40 events that could happen in my story. Not in any particular order, but to draw on when I’m writing.

Now for my work on Characters. The other night I held a family workshop on NaNoWriMo as hubby and the kids are all taking on this task as well (with my coercion). We did up Character Profiles for each of our characters.

There are a lot of resources for this method, some suggest just focusing on the main characters and not so much the smaller ones. Others suggest very deep and detailed profiles. I’m going somewhere in the middle.

Step One: I did up a generic form to be filled in for each of the characters and on it I asked these questions:

Character Name:
Gender:
Age:
Hair: (include texture, length and colour, dyed or natural?)
Eyes: (colour and shape)
Nose: (shape, length, width)
Mouth: (colour, size, fullness)
Cheeks: (chubby, shallow, high?)
Ears: (stick out, small, pointed?)
Height:
Build:
Skin: (colour, marks, freckles, scars, wrinkles)
Clothing size:
Hands: (large, small, long nails?)
Voice:
Coordination:
Nationality:
Religious beliefs:
Attitude to technology:
Clothing style:
Skills:
Employment/education:
Likes:
Dislikes:

Click HERE to open a printable profile PDF form. (prints better if you click 'download' and then 'open' - it can print without url at top. 
I’ve seen a lot more in-depth profiles, but I want mine to be simple. If you want more questions to ask your character see this blog I found. All the information for each character should be on one page. And I want room in the top right hand corner to add a picture.

Step Two:
A picture helps you to visualise your characters. If you are artistic then create a picture of each of your characters with pencils, paints, crayons, whatever medium you like to use. If not, cheat. I will be cheating. Here are my ideas for pictures.
If you are doing the human variety, search through magazines or Google images to find a picture of someone that fits your descriptions.

Sims player? Create your characters in Sims and print a snapshot of them.

Second Life is an online game you can play where you create characters – they can also be non-human. I don’t have the patience for this one, but if you do, it could be a helpful resource.

There are also many more avatar creators online that you could use.

My plan is to keep a file near the computer with all my characters, so I can easily refer back. I will probably put mine in alphabetical order of last name - you do not need to be as pedantic as me.

The workshop went well and we found out more about our characters. Some of our ideas will help to move our plot along as well.

Our next workshop will be on creating a setting for the story.

Let me know how you create your characters!

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Create a Plot Map

My last template went all haywire on me, so I had to redesign my blog again. I don't like change. Stay good blog!

My story for NaNoWriMo has been chosen!

Based on tweets, messages and comments from readers, I will be writing:

The Costume Maker

Gypsy woman makes the most beautiful costumes by hand and a spoilt teen treats her rudely and bullies her into making a costume for her. The costume maker has powers unknown to humans and can make gowns that whisk you away to her world (medieval, fairies, dragons, etc). She sends the girl there as punishment, but the gypsy's daughter witnesses this. The daughter goes into the fantasy realm to rescue the spoilt girl. Gypsy sends a boy they both like to rescue them. Adventures follow.

I've got some work to do on developing characters, and I'll post about that soon, but first I've taken one more step with the plot. 

This suggestion is a little bit of a mix from the 'First Time Author's Workbook' which I found free on www.thecreativepenn.com and brainstorming tasks.

I start with my previous brainstorming pages (a page of all things I love, hate, fear, crave, etc).

The idea is that once you have your basic plot - a vague idea of your subject matter, you start brainstorming ideas. Just write down anything that comes to your head (write randomly around the page, don't link them yet). Objects, characters and events.

The next step is another brainstorm; now that you have a few ideas, write dot point of all the things that can happen in your book, confrontations, romance liaisons, deaths, adventures, etc. Try to get at least 30 things that could happen. No particular order.

Then see if you can sequence those events, and if you could turn each one into a chapter. If you can write just 2,000 words for each chapter, you have 60,000 words planned for your novel.

You will get more. Because there will be chapters that will link those events. Perhaps when you've got your whole list you might only need 1500 words per chapter.

Get them in order and keep it by your computer for NaNoWriMo time. It will be a map to follow (oooh - put a map in your story!).

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Step 1 - A Plot

New NaNoWriMo writers, need help getting started for November's write-off?

There is much to plan this month (unless you are lucky enough to be able to write 50k words without planning).

Step 1 (for me) is to develop a plot. Do you have a general idea of what your story will be about? What conflict could arise?

If not, don't worry, there are plenty of resources to help you through the planning process.

Did you know NaNoWriMo have a Young Writers Program? It allows the junior authors to become involved as well. They don't have to do 50k of words though, they can pick their own limit. Matilda, (8yrs) is doing 3,000 and Emily (11) will do 6,000. If you have kids who would like to join up, or you are a teacher and want to join up your class - click here.

Where am I going with this? There are some great resources on the Young Writers Program site for beginners too. I'm finding the High School Workbook extremely helpful. It will take you step by step through the process of setting up your plot and characters in a lovely simple format. Priceless. Click here to get it.

Come up with a plot, it does not have to be fancy, you can build on it. Start with a genre or theme you can expand on. I'm still tossing up on a couple of last minute ideas, you can see them here (and I welcome your opnion). What sort of books do you read? Is there one that you wished had been handled differently?

In my next post I am going to work on my characters, create a background for the central ones. Come back with your plot and we can workshop our characters together.

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Planning your 50,000 word novel

October, time to plan for the NaNoWriMo challenge.

Will you be writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days?


It can be a bit scary. I know. This is my first time too. You are not alone.


Click here to check out the NaNoWriMo site, when you sign up you can nominate your region and go to its forum, location groups organise writing get togethers and support.


As I progress through the challenge, I'll update this spot on my planning and executing of my NaNoWriMo novel. If you're feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, you can pop in and see how I've handled the pitfalls and hurdles. And believe me, if I can do it, anyone can do.


I've heard of people who can sit down and write a novel without planning, they just let their muse take over and the words flow. I've also read that plot is not essential to a good novel, that character development can be enough to carry a narrative. If that's the kind of story you want to develop and you are happy letting your imagination wander anywhere, then bully for you.


As for me, read Jack Kerouac's On the Road and Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - didn't care for them. I like a plot. I like planning. I plan my planning.


October is planning time.


November is writing time.


December we will edit.


January we will talk about submitting queries, publishing and marketing.

What first?


What do I want to write about?


I didn’t know. When I sat down with pen and paper, I still didn’t know. When I searched for inspirations from old legends and myths, I didn’t know. When my 8ry old and 11yr old girls came up with their amazing fantasy plots and detailed structure, I didn’t know – and now I was cranky.


Brainstorming helps me, writing random words, ideas, using cluster maps. Alternatively you can pick a genre to start with.

A good prompt for stories is to list all the things you love, like and admire. On my list of things I really like are dogs (we participate in dog shows with our Miniature Schnauzer, which was the inspiration for my WIP novel Dog Show Detective, about a young girl who enters dog shows and solves mysteries).

Or


Write all the things that scare or worry you. That could be the conflict in your story, even if it seems mundane, like debt. A story about a character who has to overcome extreme poverty can be a strong narrative, just check out Oliver Twist!

Once you get your word, ask questions, like – so what? Teapot. So What? Has arsenic in it. Why? Old lady is poisoning her husband of 50years. Why? She’s only just discovered his dark secret. What? He’s a monster… and so on and so on.

Or… Look at the latest technology and think about how that might change the world if taken to the extreme – will our morals be compromised? I recently read about the military robots being created that can fuel themselves on dead meat – hmm, nothing could possibly go wrong with that!

All you need for your first step is a paragraph about your story, your beginning characters, the main conflict and what your protagonist intends to do about it.

Do you want feedback? I’d love to know your plot! In the comments, put a link to your blog or write your plot out line there. If you would like to buddy me on NaNoWriMo click here.

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My Fate, Voted in by You.

Just for something different - a NaNoWriMo post. If you are not already swept up in the writing frenzy project, click here to find out more.

As you may know, if you hear my frantic tweets, I am having trouble settling on a plot for this activity.

Why is it so hard?  I already have two works in progress of children's novels, The Pirate Girl and Dog Show Detective. There is also a couple in the waiting pile after that such as The Warracknabeal Turf Club Mystery.

It's simple. These are stories I care too much about, need to research and think through every step. Writing before editing is a new concept for me. I need a plot I can just go crazy with.

I can't go in with no plot, because I dread the thought of typing frantically for a whole month and ending up with just the gibberish that goes on in my mind. I'm hoping for some value from it.

My solution? I've decided to do whatever most people suggest. How can you help? Please respond with your choice for me to write.

So here are my options so far:

Avatar Wave - thanks to Google Wave, Avatars have found a way to exchange with their user in this world. The time they can spend here is limited (until the computer reboots). There is an exception, one avatar has found a way to stay - he simply kills off his user while he's trapped online. Other avatars must find a way to track him down and destroy him, as he has taken on a taste for serial killing...

The Costume Maker - A gypsy type woman makes the most beautiful costumes by hand and a spoilt teen treats her rudely and bullies her into make a grand costume for her. The costume maker has powers unknown to humans and can make costumes that whisk you away to her world (medieval, fairies, dragons, etc). She sends the girl there as punishment, but there is a problem when she tries to get her back. So... the girls friends and the boy who has a crush on her all head into the world to find her and bring her home.

The Book Publisher's Wife - Mystery. 1940's. Detective who longs to be published is hassling his publisher, as are many other would-be authors. Detective turns up at the house one day and the book publisher's wife said she found her husband dead. But now the body is gone. Detective starts finding suspects everywhere, but as soon as he suspects someone, they turn up dead. Who did dun it?

Ghost Child. SciFi futuristic city is enclosed while ancient tribes live off the land outside the castle walls. Royal spacecraft crashes and the only survivor is a child princess. She is found and raised by a remote tribe. 12yrs later, a young architect ventures to the abandoned land with plans to build a new city. He discovers and reveals the princess' real identity. She returns to city life. This girl finds herself an outcast in both worlds and has a lot of trouble adjusting. Plus romance quandary - does she love the architect or her tribal friend?

Or..

You tell me?

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Looking for Mr Right (side of the brain)

Which side of the brain is the 'write' side?


Lately I've come across a lot of non-fiction writers who are taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge (I am seeing that I will be unable to do a single blog post between now and December without mentioning NaNoWriMo). This excites me.


Why? Because too often I hear people complain that they are not creative, that they are more analytical. 


Truth? You're a bit of both. You might sway more to one side than the other, but by harnessing both skills you can combine them and come up with a wonderful piece of fiction/non-fiction.


Consider the novel Eucalyptus by Murray Bail, this book interweaves folklore style romance with reference style material about Gum trees. Click here to read a review, the book won awards and is a favourite of mine.


Is it just in our heads that we are wired for either organisation or creativity? No (and yes).


Just as different parts of the brain are used for seeing as for hearing, we use different sections of our brain for fiction and non-fiction. We have to exercise both sides of the brain so one doesn’t get lazy.


Have a look at this website here and take the test. Are you a right brain thinker or a left brain thinker?


The trick is, if you stare at it long enough you can usually change the direction and therefore change the side of the brain you are using.


Why do I care about this so much? Teaching English in high school means seeing kids categorize themselves. I don't mind student's feeling pride in being creative or logical, but I don't want them carrying any self-doubt about their abilities for the one they think they can't do.


How do you exercise the other half of your brain? Easy, try this:

Left side: Look at a picture of an animal. Then, quickly write as much as you know about that topic for 10 minutes straight. E.g: How much do you know about ducks? You may start off thinking you know very little, but as you write your mind will prompt memories of data. This is a good warm up to do before writing an essay.


Right side: Look at a picture of a place or animal (not your own photos). Now write freely and imaginatively for 10 minutes about that picture, whatever it inspires.
E.G: If you have a picture of a cat, write what the cat is thinking and what it plans to get up to later.


So here is my dare for NaNoWriMo:

If you are a right side of the brain thinker, I want you to do a little research for your plot and find an interesting topic that you can provide informative data for in your story (maybe your character is learning something cool in class or reading a manual?)
But if you are a Left brain thinker, try inserting an element of fantasy, magic or sci-fi into the plot, perhaps a mythical creature? Don’t question it, just put it in and write it. Remember to include feelings in your story.

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