Guest Post: ‘Tis The Season (To Write A Novel)

I’m so excited to host guest author, Alison Martin, today on my blog who is here as a fellow NaNoer to share personal opinions, tips/tricks, hints, advice, strategy and so on all about NaNoWriMo. So be sure to thank her for this awesome post, show her some love and if you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to follow her blog. Enjoy!

With just days to go until November, many writers are shaking in their seats. Why? Possibly because they drank too much coffee and are on a buzz. Or possibly because November 1st marks the first day of NaNoWriMo, a 30 day writing marathon with one simple goal in mind – write 50,000 words within the month. Many writers have signed up for the challenge, will you? For those of you who are still on the fence, here’s a list of 10 reasons why you should participate in NaNoWriMo. [This should be a link to an article on my blog. I’m not sure if it’s working or not, so here’s the link again, http://notanotherwriterblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/10-reasons-you-should-nano/

So, of course by now you’ve all decided to participate in NaNoWriMo, right? Well now you need a plan. Since NaNoWriMo is so close, it’s time to get serious. Whether it’s the first day or the tenth day of NaNoWriMo, the secret of success is to go in with a plan. Try to take a day off of your writing and get some planning done.You may think that planning is taking away from your actual writing time, but if it helps you to write with your next few scenes in mind rather than wondering what to write next, then it’s entirely beneficial. Here’s what you should be doing:

• Research – It’s not just for high school book reports anymore. If you expect to have a well-written novel, you need to do your research. This can include anything from researching the time period your novel is set in, to the clothes that people wear, down to the mythical creatures and the town your character is living in. (If your novel is set in the future or a land you’ve made up yourself, your research will actually consist of your own world building, which we’ll be covering next.)

• World Building – World building is extremely important when it comes to planning your novel. As a reader, I want to be sucked into a great book. I need to know the setting for that to happen. If you’re sticking to the current time period or any time in the past, your world building will consist of a lot of research on that time period. If you’re making up a world of your own, there’s a few things you need to specify.
- Where is your story taking place? The planet Earlon? Okay, then I need to know:
- Does this planet support any life forms?
- What kind of creatures live there?
- What are the rules of this planet? (Every world needs rules, learn the rules of your story and stick to them. If your planet outlawed Cheez Whiz for lack of healthy ingredients, then there can’t be hundreds of people eating Cheez Whiz in the President’s/Mayor’s/Overlord’s face without punishment.)
- What kind of clothes do people wear on this planet?
- What is the typical life span of a person who lives on this planet?
And so on and so forth you would continue on this world-building journey until you have a believable setting.

• Character Bios – Some people do them, some people don’t. You want to have a good understanding of all your characters, their names, their physical features, their likes/dislikes, etc. If this is all something you know off the top of your head, that’s fantastic. If not, you should make character bios. One great thing I’ve found is filling out a job application for your character. You get all of the basic information down, as well as learning their tics; such as weaknesses, skills learned, what they consider their strengths to be.

• Outline – Once again, some people just don’t do an outline, but I find this to be a very important step in planning for a novel. When you have all your scenes outlined and in order, you won’t be sitting around for hours on end wondering where your story is going next, you’ll already know. Another thing each writer differs on when it comes to outlining is how much they actually outline, and in what format. Personally, I don’t think any format matters, so long as you’re getting the actual outlining done. Whether you outline like this:

Scene 1: Brady’s stuffed dog dies.

Scene 2: Brady’s mom has a funeral for Brady’s stuffed dog.

Or like this:

Chapter 1: Brady’s stuffed dog dies.

A. Brady’s stuffed dog is found torn in half. Brady suspects his real dog, Molly, to be the culprit.

B. Brady’s mom buries Brady’s stuffed dog. Brady scolds Molly.

It doesn’t really matter. Both are efficient in getting your ideas out on paper. Obviously in the second example outline, we learn more. We see that Brady has a real dog named Molly, who he scolds. This could be important in future chapters. However, if you think you can remember those facts without writing them on the outline, then kudos to you.

I also think it’s a great idea to have a secondary story in mind. For this year’s NaNoWriMo, I had originally planned to do a YA fantasy. When I set out to planning, everything turned out wrong, my characters were cardboard cutouts and I was lacking in interesting ideas for scenes. I knew there was no way I could fix all my problems by November 1st. Luckily I had another idea in mind that was more ready for the planning phase then the first.

Some of my personal tips on surviving and conquering NaNoWriMo:

• Don’t use the back space on your keyboard or the eraser on your pencil. NaNoWriMo is about reaching 50,000 words of writing, and helping you to complete the first draft of a novel. When November is over, you can edit as you wish.
• Begin writing first thing in the morning. Most of us can’t complete 1,667 words in one sitting. If you have a good writing session in the morning and still don’t seem to reach word count, you have the whole day to write in small or large bursts, and should easily achieve word count.
• Have supportive friends. Even if it’s strangers who you met on the Internet, supporters are your best buddies during NaNoWriMo. They’ll keep you going on week 2 and week 3 when you’re ready to give up yourself.
• Keep well-rested, well-hydrated, and well-fed. If you’re not feeling up to par, your writing probably isn’t up to par, and that’s harder to work with when you’re in the editing phase.
• Make sure to stretch between long writing sessions, it will prevent cramping.
• The number one tip for writer’s block? JUST WRITE ANYTHING. Most of us experience writer’s block because we can’t think of the words that best express what we want to say. NaNoWriMo says it best: you’re going to write a bunch of crap. So just get to writing your crap, and stop stressing over it.
• Have fun. It’s hard to think of it now in all the nervous excitement. We’re all wondering, “have I planned enough?” “can I even do this?” In the end, it’s a whole novel, it’s your pride and your baby. But for your own sake, don’t take NaNoWriMo too seriously. Add a laser-shooting puppy dog into your novel, or you know, something crazy. When it’s time for December, you can take those 50,000 words and really make them mean something.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 Alison Martin is an aspiring author who attends college where she majors in English. When not writing, she entertains herself with her high pitched goat-like singing. She resides in an old New Jersey home along with her two cats who she believes may have hidden motivations for staying indoors. Follow her musings and the progress of her first novel at http://www.notanotherwriterblog.wordpress.com and on twitter at @Alison_Writes

Dr. Hansen’s Remedies For Writers’ Block

With the impending NaNoWriMo, this is something I thought I should share. I promise to write many more posts throughout November – some of which will be guest posts – with tips/tricks and encouragement for NaNo. But now, for this.

We all get writers’ block – we ALL do – and since NaNo requires an immediate, simple solution if you want that gosh-darned novel to finally be complete, I have decided to share my advice and insight on the subject. Be sure to bookmark this along with my other upcoming NaNoWriMo posts – all with tips from me and other authors – so when trouble arises in November, you’ll have yourself a quick and easy solution. Sound cool? Well, here it goes:

As authors, we all become ill, at some point in our lives, with the highly contagious writers’ block epidemic. This irksome disease is
often transmitted through mad and unsuccessful attempts at writing stories and, sadly, there is no vaccination for it, nor can one build up immunity to it. It lurks in words and soon-to-be-formed pages, watching, waiting, prepared to infect yet another helpless writer. And as much as we, as writers, try to prevent writers’ block from infecting us in the first place, a vaccine has yet to be developed, but it will never. So if we cannot prevent writers’ block that begs the question: how can we cure it?

There are a number of successful home remedies used to cure writers’ block, but you requested Dr. Hansen’s opinion and it’s Dr. Hansen’s opinion you shall get.

1. Don’t force yourself to keep writing – This, surprisingly, is a very common mistake. When some authors get writers’ block, they seem to think that by forcing themselves to continue writing, they will overcome the writers’ block. This is not true at all since that is not how writers’ block works. It’s like saying that if you break your leg, the best way to heal it is to force that leg to be constantly active as if the pain would suddenly go away because of this. It just doesn’t work.
2. Relax, take a deep breath – So if you shouldn’t force yourself to write, what should you do? Well, first of all, don’t worry too much about writers’ block. It will go away soon, I assure you. Instead of cursing at yourself to come up with the next sentence and the next sentence and the next sentence (this does not make for quality writing), I advise you to sit back, turn away from your computer and take a deep breath. Don’t get worked up over writers’ block – that never helps – just calm yourself, clear your thoughts and pay no heed to the blinking cursing on your computer screen that seems to be sneering at you.
3. Walk out of the room – The best cure for writers’ block seems too easy to be effective, but it is. After your have relaxed, stand up, stretch your legs and walk out of the room. I recommend walking around your home for a few minutes and then return to your computer afterwards. This will help to rejuvenate the creativity within in you, dispel all that anxiety, and a little fresh air – not the stuffy atmosphere of your room – will clear your head of those irksome cobwebs.
4. Splash water on your face – You wouldn’t believe how well this works. If writers’ block has you so stressed out that you can no longer concentrate, simply go up to your sink, fill your hands with cold water and splash it on your face, again and again. This will help to revive your sleepy muses and invigorate your creativity. Cold water does wonders. After several splashes of that icy water, you’ll be ready to conquer that gosh darned writers’ block, guaranteed.
5. Find something to distract yourself with – A great way to rid yourself of writers’ block is to find something else to occupy your time for awhile, even as short as a minute. Talk to someone, watch a funny YouTube clip, visit those beloved online forums, admire your blog site stats – do anything you want; it doesn’t matter as long as you are distracting yourself from writers’ block with an alternate activity. The advantage of this is that it will help to clear your brain of all thoughts, worries and whatever else lurks within the confines of that messy head of yours and will allow for a fresh start when you return to your computer.
6. Don’t be afraid of failing: just write! – Once are finally ready to conquer those malicious words, it is time to return to your
   computer. Do not let your computer’s imposing presence deceive you; you are its master, you are its keeper, you control it and all of the words it will form. As frightening as it may be, to overcome your writers’ block don’t stray away from your computer; just strut right up to it and write. And write. And write. Once you have done this, you can kiss writers’ block goodbye. At least for the day…

Thoughts? Opinions? Anything? Please share! I know that these solutions all sound so simple and easy to work but they really are effective. Honestly. I get awful writers’ block and these techniques have a funny way of curing it. On a more random note, I have reached that 49 followers! I’m one away from meeting my October goal. Woot, woot! Also, I will be having a 50th f0llower contest for all of you. I have a great, fun idea but I won’t unveil it until I have that gosh-darned 50th follower! Have a great day, everyone, and, if you are participating, I wish you all the best on your NaNoWriMo endeavors!