N is for NaNoWriMo

In 2009, I signed up for a contest called NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is held over the month of November each year and the idea is that you start and finish a 50,000 word novel (minimum) in that month. It seems fast paced and the emphasis is definately on quantity rather than quality, but oh the whimsical fun!

I mentioned that this is a contest, but with a difference:

Who are you competing against? Yourself. If you beat the hurdles and excuses that prevent 50,000 words, then you win.

What do you win? Other than being listed as a NaNoWriMo Winner and receive some cool badges for your blog, you win 50,000 words of a first draft for your novel. Come join the madness, and friend me at NaNoWriMo. November will be upon us before you know it.

Fact is, I usually write two manuscripts a year. One takes me 11 months and the other takes me 4 weeks. Why? Deadlines. I make sacrifices and push myself for November, also my family and friends understand my pressure and give me the space and support to write. For some reason I just can't drag that on for the rest of the year.

In 2009 I worked out my plot by starting with a brainstorming (also known as Clustering) session. 2010, I had my story prompt from a character exercise I did at the CYA Writer's Conference (you can see my post about it at Character to Plot Workshop).

Already a NaNoWriMo participant? 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. Last year my girls did 6,000 words, Emily with her paranormal mystery (about dragons used for murder) and Matilda with her Greek God mystery (Greekafied). 

There are some great resources on the Young Writers Program site for beginners too. I found 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. And it's free! 

My tactics: 

• Don't tackle anything that needs constant research, and if it does, skip that and fix it later (you can edit in December, you won't have time in November)

• Plan your plot - If I try to write constantly for 50,000 I'm likely to start with a family story and end up with space porn, but only after going through a period of postmodern zombie/military action. I need structure.

• Don't start something you've been planning. Start something new that you are not yet attached to. Come December you can get crazy about your plot and characters, but you won't have time to dwell in November - there's writin' to do!

• Tell everyone you're doing it. Put it on your blog. It will make it a lot harder for you to drop out after 539 words.

• Drag your friends and family into it, or join a region group (you can do that on the site). If you have writing buddies you will urge each other on and help with plot barriers. 

What I love most about this challenge is that it is international and although there are would-be authors struggling over manuscripts every day, now I feel part of that group knowing we are all busily typing at once. Join me... join me.. join me....

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M is for Metaphors, Magic for Manuscripts.

Metaphors can be magic for your manuscript, spells that weave enchantment through figurative language. Okay, enough playing with the metaphor, it's when you say one thing is another, as a way of creating imagery in your writing. For example; Sophie lost all composure and became a pig at the dinner table, an aggressive sow, her snout greedily munching on the slops. Now, Sophie is not actually a pig, we are creating an image for the reader to picture Sophie eating in a way that disgusts the other dinner guests. If we wanted a simile, we'd say Sophie was like a pig, meaning she is similar.

Like all figurative language, metaphors can be a device that enhances your writing, but be careful not to overuse it (you will tire out your reader) or make it cliche like it's raining cats and dogs or people drowning in each other's eyes (hmm, like being a pig when you eat? Um, yeah. Okay, sometimes the cliches comes to mind first - sorry). But, they could be used effectively as dialogue for a character that would use a lot of trite expressions.

Another problem is when metaphors are mixed in a sentence or paragraph and provide conflicting or confusing comparisons.

For example: I could see by her expression she was a crazed dog with a chip on her shoulder. I tried to leave the shop but she drove at me like an angry bull. There are too many different images here that do not organically sit together well. The safest route is to keep metaphors simple, just one comparison for a passage, however, clever writers can continue with a metaphor and keep the flow cohesive. Take this example from English Essential (Mem Fox & Lyn Wilkinson): Writing is a bumpy road, full of obstacles, potholes and loose stones. ...If you can avoid these problem areas your writing stands a better chance of reaching its destination without being wrecked on the way.

So how do we master the extended metaphor?

In Manuscript Makeover, Elizabeth Lyon suggests:

• Use riff-writing (explained in an earlier post) to explore the connections that come naturally when you write without restriction.
• Look up your word in a dictionary and thesaurus to expand your 'language' on it.
• Consider your character from different angles, not just what you 'see'. Think about the geographical location, era, setting, and emotions. 

Start a section in your writer's notebook for cool metaphors and similes. Copy them from other narratives that work well and then try to add some of your own. If you want to build up a bank of metaphors/similes try doing some writing exercises finding metaphors for commonly used adjectives and adverbs. For example, find a metaphor/simile for fast, slow, happy, evil, white, black, red and whatever else you can think of.

Manuscript Makeover is a book I recommend to ALL writers. It's one of my favourites.

Some other links for metaphors/similes:

Copyblogger

Writer's Community

Infoplease

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L is for Learning to Write

My thoughts on the topic of learning to write is that it is the information and skill that matters, not the process in receiving it. And, ideally, we would gain information from academic resources and by hands-on training. I'm a bit of a study bug, I love doing courses on just about anything, but mostly writing. Here are some ways I think we can learn the craft:

Degrees in Literature/Writing. I've seen some writers poo-ha this method, saying that you can't learn to write by studying literature and you don't need a university degree to write. Of course you don't need one - but I learned a lot about the structure of novels and the various genres by studying. It's not for everyone, but it is rewarding.

Online Courses. I took on a course with Sydney Writers Centre, they have many great courses on creative writing, including Writing Books for Young Adults and Children. You get great feedback on your submissions and  lots of online support.

Self-paced Courses. This takes some time-management skills. I've enjoyed Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways as a way to learn while I write. The information is extensive and the activities are directly related to your work in progress. My favourite self-paced course though is Lisle's How to Review Your Novel - this is an amazing course that teaches you absolutely the BEST way to edit that first draft.

Writers Festivals. I went to my first last year. It was AMAZING. I picked up so much in the CYA Conference in just one day, I'll be back again this year. I'm hoping to attend a few more this year too (if I can get the time from work). If you need to know why you should attend these festivals, check out my post 8 Reasons to Attend Writers Festivals.

Books on Writing. There are so many available (and so many on my bookshelf), that I won't list them, but you can judge books by the star rating that Amazon provides and read the reviews to see if they are helpful (or search through my blog, I often list the ones I recommend). Choose books that address your weak points. If you are new to writing you might want to try some writing exercises, or maybe you need help with plotting, or dialogue. There's a book for every step of writing a novel.

Audiobooks. How have I gone so long in my life before discovering these? There are some great books that include writing exercises. Those ones seem to work best for audio. The text book information is hard to focus on for long periods, but some run like classes. The best thing about audiobooks is the time-saving, you can listen while in the car, walking the dog, washing the dishes, etc.

Blogs. There is an endless depth of knowledge being shared through blogs. I am amazed and warmed by how friendly and supportive the writing community is. Mostly we search through and blog information is disposable, but when you see something really helpful, bookmark it or print it off and file these in categories such as plotting, character, dialogue, editing... etc. So when you do need help in that area, the information is easy to find again. I create pages of links under those headings, so I can use them again and can share them with you. For example, here is my list of links for Novel Writing Structure.

Reading Fiction. Take notes while you read of any great examples of dialogue, metaphors, writing style, etc. Try to mimic your favourite passages, this is a great exercise in strengthening your own writing style. Make lists of what you think the author did well and what you would have done differently.

There are many more ways to learn writing such as finding a great mentor, receiving feedback, practicing, etc.  You can check out a few more resources at 13 Best Resources for Writers.

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K is for Kindle Books for Writers

I'm a Kindle addict. Which comes as no surprise, I'm also a book addict and an audiobook addict. But, in particular, I am an addict of books on the craft of writing. Here are some I've found on Kindle for 99c. There's lots out there, but these are the ones I think show potential (I haven't read them all yet, but am reading  How to Write a Great Query Letter at the moment).

How to Write a Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman

Write or Die by Scott Nicholson

Publishing Exposed by Daryl Sedore

Are You Still Submitting Your Work to a Traditional Publisher? by Edward Patterson

Ask a Literary Agent by Noah Lukeman

From Words to Brain by Liva Blackburne

The Nasty Little Writing Book by M. Rovenhauer

A Book Inside by Carol Denbow

Rather than seek help for my addiction, I choose to lure you in as well, come, buy, enjoy...

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J is for Jester

Readers like the bad boy more than the 'nice guy'. There's another character that wins us all over - The Jester.

The Jester, or the Fool is a traditional character that adds wit to a story. Their purpose is not only for laughs though, they are often pertinent to the progress of the narrative. Shakespeare's jesters were traditional political humorists, it was their job to keep the King grounded by mocking his political decisions (much like comedians do for politicians today - like The Chasers show). But what if you're not by nature a comedian? Is it hard to write humour? I think it's no harder or easier than writing any style you're not used to (my weak-writing is in romance). So what type of humour should you employ?

The one-liners.

The witty character that is always coming up with quick one-liners. Sometimes these remarks are at the expense of others, this makes the character seem a little heartless. Cordelia from Buffy or Dr House from House are examples. There's two ways you can deal with that; make the receiver of the wit deserve the line, or, make your witty one-liner character get their just deserts at some stage. This is the Trickster character, everything he does is for his own amusement.

The fool.

He's there for us to laugh at. He gets it wrong, but monumentally wrong. He's goofy and harmless, but at some stage in the story, despite all our assumptions of this character, he will actually help the situation where no one else could. No one will be more surprised than the fool. Think Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, or Morgan from Chuck.

The scenario.

Sometimes life is funny. We get ourselves into things that seem so absurd that we can laugh at them latter, these make great novel moments. You can draw on family stories or your own to create a humorous situation. 

For example, I don't swear, well, not the really bad words anyway. While at Uni, I took a course called Psychobiology of Sex, mostly it was about monkeys and alpha-males, but a little touched on the language we humans use. We were asked to write down all the names we knew, including swear words and slang for the female anatomy. Some of mine just used the first letter, followed by dashes. The teacher asked me to read my list. OMG. My face went red and I just read out the first letters. The teacher pushed me to read out the C word. No way. She kept at me and insisted it was just a word. She said it several times. No way. Next, she got the rest of the class to chant the word so I could join in. No way. This went on painfully for about 5 minutes, with the whole class chanting C..., C..., C... I kept seeing students walking past our open door and wondered what they must think of the situation. It was bizarre, like a weird dream where you realise you have a test for a subject you don't know and you're naked. Anyway, it was weird enough to be funny.

Humour can reveal an oddity in what we accept day to day. It can be used in fiction as a way of mocking itself (Pretty Little Liars had a scene in the woods with four scared teens, a branch cracks and a girl says to the others, 'Did you hear that?' This happens all the time in movies, but this time, one says "Well, yeah, I'm standing right next to you."). It can also break the tension, it's very common after a fright for people to laugh, it's our body's way of using up all that adrenaline. Humour is a good way of introducing the unexpected. Plus, humour just makes stories fun. (Click on the pic to read a funny)

Here are some more links to help you with writing the funny:

Make Your Writing Funny - A great post on All Freelance Wrting, with specific examples. I found this most helpful when trying to funny-up one of my characters.

Building Characters with Jung - One of my previous posts, includes a chart of character types and what their motivations are.

Top Ten Tips for Writing Humour - A few ideas for you to play with.

Write on the Funny - Gives some funny scenarios.

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I is for Ideas

Keep those ideas handy!

It seems almost every author interview includes the question 'where do you get your ideas?' Ideas spurt from our imaginations at an alarming rate, too fast to ever record them all. The trick is to find a plot worthy idea, one that can extend through a whole novel. 

One way to check your idea for substance is to dot point all the things that could possibly happen in that story. If you can come up with at least 20 points, then you could write a chapter for each and there's your novel outline. I like to aim for 40, because some will be rejected or changed as I go.

But if you really need some inspiration to kickstart your ideas (or more likely, just to recognise them as they surface - because I know you have them already), then try these:

Keep a Notebook

You hear it over and over again, but how many of us remember to carry ours around with us at all times? I try to, but if I forget, I have an 'inspirations' section in my iPhone notebook, or I can even record a message (if I'm driving). I've blogged about the sacred notebooks in:

The Writer's Notebook

Record Your Dreams

You will feel silly at first and have lots of random images that don't seem to tie together, but flesh it out and you'll see a possible plot emerge. My previous posts on dreamwriting:

7 Tips for Keeping a Dream Diary

Turning Dreams into Stories

Forgetting Dreams

Steal from Headlines

The newspapers and current affairs programs are filled with great ideas for stories. Take a headline, without reading the article and start to see what plot-line you can come up with. Who would the characters be and what would the main conflict be? If you want to try this, visit:

Plot Ideas from Headlines

Just Write

There are plenty of writing exercises you can try to come up with new stories. Here's one of the many books I use for writing exercises:

Now, get to that notebook and write! *Should heed own advice*

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H is for HTML for Writer Blogs

Um... yeah, sure.

Mention HTML and a lot of people break out in a sweat. It's really not that scary, it's just computer language. I can't claim to speak it fluently, but have learned a few greetings to communicate my needs with my blog design. Today I'll share a fairly easy code you can use. 

Blog link

Have you noticed some comments have the author's website or blog linked? Would you like a tag-line at the end of your comments that you can link back to your blog? Here's how you do it, below is the text for my link that I like to put in the bottom of my comments on other people's blogs:

It shows up like this:

Wagging Tales - Blog for Writers

All you have to do is change my url (http://clancytales.blogspot.com/) with your own, and, change Wagging Tales - Blog for Writers, with the name of your blog. All the other bits, like the <, a, ", / should all stay exactly where they are.

If you've mastered that, perhaps you'd like to make yourself a Blog Badge, that's the button that other bloggers put up on their blogs to link back to your site (mine's in the sidebar). Here's a previous post where I show you how I made mine:

Badge Craze

Good luck with it!

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