There were no questions for O’Abby this week. I guess everyone is busy doing #NaNo! Like I am…
We’re well into week two now, and if you’re working at the
pace to finish your 50K by 30 November you should be hitting the 20K mark
around now. But don’t worry if you’re
not there yet. There’s still time to
catch up. Personally, I don’t get a lot
of writing time during the week, so I tend to blitz my word count during the
weekends. I have also been taking one
day off work per week to write, and that’s definite motivation to crank out
those words.
Just do whatever works for you and make the most of whatever
time you can scratch together.
Around about this time is where I often feel like my story
is stagnating so I thought I’d give you a few ideas for ways to shake things up
a little in your story. Ideas for how to
push your characters into doing something new that might move things along in a
significant way.
These are just some ideas that might help push your
characters. They don’t need to happen to
your protagonist directly – sometimes something dramatic happening to one of
your secondary characters will motivate your MC more than if it happened to them
directly.
The point is to shake things up to propel your MC into some
kind of action. And whatever obstacle you
put in their way, whatever challenge, make sure it isn’t easy to overcome. Your characters need to struggle. They need to make the wrong decisions more
often than the right ones. Every choice
they make needs to make things more difficult for them, throw up more
challenges for them to face.
Hopefully this will be helpful if you reach a point where
you feel flummoxed and can’t move on. If
there are no questions for O’Abby next week, I’ll share some more tips for
getting past potential roadblocks to finishing.
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| Me recording my audiobook (coming soon!) |
Wow, it is day 10 of National Novel Writing Month (NaNo)! The word count total for today is 16,667 for the traditional 1,667 words a day. The Reverse NaNo goal for day 10 is 2,298 and a total of 28,157.
While I am nowhere near the end of my story, I am pleased to have hit the point of the B Story, according to Blake Snyder's Save the Cat.
If you have not written your favorite scene or most anticipated scene, now might be a good time. With the week two blues setting in this week, I recommend reminding yourself why you are writing this story in the first place. What was your inspiration? I am doing a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to study one of my favorites and make the story my own.
To help with plot, I recommend looking at the hero's journey, Story Grid, and an exemplar story. An exemplar story is an example or model story that can inspire the plot or characters or theme of your novel. While I am writing a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I am finding that my story is similar to Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Look up the plot structures of your exemplar story, read a summary, watch the film. This is all part of self-care and a working break.
There are still 20 days left in the challenge. Every word is one more than you had in October, each one a victory.
Save your work and back it up. How are you doing with your NaNo goals? What is the inspiration for your NaNo project and what is your exemplar story?
Happy writing!
Wednesday is Veterans Day here in the US. Are you looking for books to read for Veterans Day? Books written by veterans? Here's a few lists for you:
Veterans Day books to read aloud
Children's books about Veterans Day
Books to read on Veterans Day
Veterans Day books on Goodreads
Even if you're not in the US, it's always good to thank a veteran for keeping your country safe. Thank a veteran this week!
Dear O'Abby,
Like so many other writers, I'm doing NaNo this year. I started with a bang and wrote almost 5,000 words the first day and have been managing close to 2,000 words each day since. So I'm rocking in in that respect.
The problem is, I've written all this, and I feel like I still haven't reached the real start of the story. I've introduced all the key characters, I've introduced the world they exist in and I've set the key plot elements into play, but I still feel like the story hasn't really started yet and I'm not sure when it will.
Any advice?
X Mired
Dear Mired,
It's only day four or five and it sounds like you're working at a feverish pace. It's NaNo. It doesn't matter what you write. The goal is to write. And you're doing that.
Sometimes it takes a little while to bed into your story, to find out who the characters really are, what their voices sound like. None of what you have already written will be wasted, even if you do end up cutting the first three or four chapters or dramatically shortening them later. That's what editing and revising is for.
So don't worry about it. They are not wasted words. They are your words and have helped you get to the place the story really starts, and having written them, you know your characters better, you know their unique voices, you know how they react to one another. Anything you write from here will be better informed because you wrote those words.
So keep going. You haven't failed at all. You've just done a little workshopping for yourself. I tend to do this too, with every novel I write. I get about 10K in, and realize I'm just starting the actual story. And that's even when I'm not writing at NaNo pace.
Be kind to yourself and just keep writing. The story you want to tell is there, and you'll get to it once your characters are ready for it.
X O'Abby
(image source) (Corgi writing his novel)
Wow, it is day 3 of National Novel Writing Month (NaNo)! The word count total for today is 5,001 for the traditional 1,667 words a day. The Reverse NaNo goal for day 3 is 3,101 and a total of 9,663.
But do not stress the word count! Remember the goal is to write your story. There are still 27 days left in the challenge. However, I do recommend bulking your word count with some sprints, where there is a timer, and you write as much as you can. There will be days where it is harder to write and days where it is easier. Every word you write is a victory.
And if you need some help increasing your word count, check out some of the tips below:
1. 1. Write notes to yourself in () or @@ or ## so you can easily find these sections later and delete. But do not delete them until December 1! Every word written counts toward your goal, even if you know it will not make it to the next draft.
2. 2. Add adjectives. The typical order is quantity, opinion, size, age, color, shape, origin, material, and purpose, according to this source. I tend to not include description of everything in my first draft unless I am experiencing a brief writer’s block. Then I start describing everything!
3. 3. Do a word sprint for 5, 10, 15, 20, or however long. I like the shorter sprints because then I can focus on the story and typing as fast as I can. Then I can take justified breaks before going into the next sprint. Check out your local NaNo Region on the site and find people to do sprints with. I enjoy the bots on Discord who keep track of your word goals and counts for the day. You can earn raptors for your region!
a. The Legend of Raptors: So, raptors are a throwback to the old IRC. Timmy is the bot over there and he is insane and spends a lot of time announcing raptor sightings. Over the years it evolved- eventually he started counting how many raptors were in each region, then the raptors would attack other regions, then they started running away and or running to your region to rehome. Then Utoxin introduced pet raptors, where you could adopt a raptor, name it, and it would track your word war totals through the month & go steal plot bunnies from other regions. It was a delightful and silly way to be reminded other places in the world were doing nano, too, and often inspired people to hop over to other regional channels and make friends. ~~ StephanieRidiculous
4. 4. The usual adding “and,” breaking down
contractions, and naming characters with multiple names can also help. Watch
out for hyphenated words. They may have a different count for validation near
the end of the month. Do not worry about that now, of course!
5. 5. Stop spellchecking. This is a difficult habit for me since I check it whenever I see those squiggle lines. Keep adding words instead! I am always amused by which words are my most misspelled. It changes every NaNo, and I still cannot spell “restaurant” or “apocalypse” without spellcheck. My favorite is “Yoda” instead of “yoga.”
Do not forgot to save your work and back it up. Comment below how you are adding words to your story this year. Feel free to tell us the genre too!
Happy writing!
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| Note to Scammers |
It's November 2 and here's a fun break for those of you slaving away on your NaNo manuscript.
Last week's “outing” of the Kindle Books Promo scam has resulted in some interesting activity. When we last left our favorite scammer, the account on Twitter had changed its name to @superbookpromos and then to @kindleclubpromo. Once that last ID was outed on Twitter, the name changed again to @promo_kindle
