I bet you're really fed up of hearing about NaNoWriMo following Saturday Andy's post!
But honestly, I've got nothing else to talk about! My life is: NaNoWriMo, Class, NaNoWriMo, Class, Sleep. Barely even have time for food in there! (Okay, jokes, everyone has time for food!)
So yeah. NaNoWriMo.
Bleh.
How do I NaNoWriMo when I can't form proper sentences?
*In joke between myself and the girls at uni... sorry guys...*
Anyway, what did everyone do for Halloween? As someone who doesn't celebrate it, I'm intrigued.
HOWEVER! I do loveeeee me some bonfire night. The fireworks are always really pretty. Lucky me, I don't have to leave my accommodation at university to watch a fireworks display. I've been watching about 8 different ones from my kitchen alone!
Are any of you going to a fireworks display? Or are you like my cousins who hate the noises? (poor cousins! They'll learn to love them :3 )
Tyler, out!
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Saturday, 3 November 2012
NaNoWriMo Adventure Contiues
So last year I undertook the challenge of National Novel Writing Month and successful wrote a 50000 word novel in 30 days. This is something that happens every year in November and it seems to be something that I really enjoy undertaking as I'm doing it again this year!
Along side this I also run a blog writing my experiences and thoughts about the whole month. This can be found here so if you want to follow my adventure go and read, there's also the whole back log of last year's posts and posts from all throughout this year about my new challenge of trying to find literary representation for what I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2011.
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Good News, Everyone!
My post this week is a post the went up on my NaNoWriMo/Writing blog a few days ago, I though I would share this here to spread the good news!
So On Tuesday I sent out samples of my book to agencies, and Wednesday morning I woke up to find... Well, I'll let you all read what happened...
P.S. Award yourself some awesome points if you got the reference in the title ;)
So On Tuesday I sent out samples of my book to agencies, and Wednesday morning I woke up to find... Well, I'll let you all read what happened...
P.S. Award yourself some awesome points if you got the reference in the title ;)
Friday, 11 November 2011
The Zombie Outbreak guide to NaNoWriMo
As you may well know, November, as well as being the month of Movember (In which Matt is participating, so go give some money already! http://uk.movember.com/mospace/528720), is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Because I am clearly wrong in the head, I signed up to participate for the second year running. If you’re crazy like me, you probably need some pointers or tips to get through the month. Coming up with that 1667 words per day is a lot harder than it looks.
Well, look no further kids! In order to help out my fellow Wrimos and geeks, let me present to you the Zombie Outbreak guide to NaNoWriMo.
Getting started
Ok, it might be a bit late for this this year, but still, its useful information. Sometimes you sign up all ‘YEAH LET’S WRITE A NOVEL YO IT’S GONNA BE SWEET’, and then when you sit down in front of your word processing program, you find you’ve got nothing. Nada. Zilch.
It’s a horrible feeling, but fear not! There is a solution! What you need to do is think about your favourite genre, and then find an existing work you can steal mercilessly from. Into sci fi? Why not nick from Firefly or Star Trek? Horror? Rob a monster from Silent Hill! Adventure? Borrow Nathan Drake’s handsome chops!
I’m not saying write yourself a rip off of Fallout 3 or anything, but if you can borrow some plot elements from your favourite franchises, you’ll find you can build a new story around them. Handy!
Characters
Characters are hard. It is scientific fact. Sometimes you can be writing away, but you feel as if your main character is nothing more than a cardboard cut out that you’re projecting yourself onto (oh wait, haven’t I just described that bint out of Twilight?). What do?
Well, I find the best way to build a character is again, by stealing. This time, steal from your friends. Do you have a friend who organises his dice by colour and type? Put that in your character. Do you know someone who can’t play drums on Rock Band without smashing her foot down on the bass pedal and breaking it? Put it in. If you can gather the right blend of traits and idiosyncrasies, your character will be much better fleshed out and believable.
Plot
Sometimes it’s very easy to get bogged down in character descriptions, and have lengthy conversations between people in your story that don’t go anywhere. When this happens, you need to start thinking about plot and pacing.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, think of it like a DnD or table top roleplaying game campaign. If you went through the whole game going into room after room, finding more and more demons to slay, after a while you’d get bored out of your tiny skull and start throwing dice at the GM (or is that just me? Erm, sorry Rich...).
However, if that campaign were to include different elements, such as devious traps, fiendish puzzles, or simply getting a wizard drunk in the tavern (which we did once), then it gets exciting. Apply this to your novel, and mix it up a bit. Bring in a tidal wave. Send your characters on a quest, even if it is just to Tescos. Put a dragon in the basement. It’s your book, do what you want!
And finally...
Honestly? Don’t worry too hard about what you’re writing. I had a moment last week where I thought ‘OH GOD THIS IS ALL CRAP I’LL HAVE TO START OVER’, but I’ve soldiered on regardless. You’ll have that moment too, if you haven’t already, I promise you. And when you do, the best advice I can give is, DON’T GIVE UP. At all. Ever. You might think its crap now, but it’s only a rough first draft. You can fix all the plot holes and glaring inconsistencies later. For now, just have fun with it.
And watch out for that dragon in the basement.
Well, look no further kids! In order to help out my fellow Wrimos and geeks, let me present to you the Zombie Outbreak guide to NaNoWriMo.
Getting started
Ok, it might be a bit late for this this year, but still, its useful information. Sometimes you sign up all ‘YEAH LET’S WRITE A NOVEL YO IT’S GONNA BE SWEET’, and then when you sit down in front of your word processing program, you find you’ve got nothing. Nada. Zilch.
It’s a horrible feeling, but fear not! There is a solution! What you need to do is think about your favourite genre, and then find an existing work you can steal mercilessly from. Into sci fi? Why not nick from Firefly or Star Trek? Horror? Rob a monster from Silent Hill! Adventure? Borrow Nathan Drake’s handsome chops!
I’m not saying write yourself a rip off of Fallout 3 or anything, but if you can borrow some plot elements from your favourite franchises, you’ll find you can build a new story around them. Handy!
Characters
Characters are hard. It is scientific fact. Sometimes you can be writing away, but you feel as if your main character is nothing more than a cardboard cut out that you’re projecting yourself onto (oh wait, haven’t I just described that bint out of Twilight?). What do?
Well, I find the best way to build a character is again, by stealing. This time, steal from your friends. Do you have a friend who organises his dice by colour and type? Put that in your character. Do you know someone who can’t play drums on Rock Band without smashing her foot down on the bass pedal and breaking it? Put it in. If you can gather the right blend of traits and idiosyncrasies, your character will be much better fleshed out and believable.
Plot
Sometimes it’s very easy to get bogged down in character descriptions, and have lengthy conversations between people in your story that don’t go anywhere. When this happens, you need to start thinking about plot and pacing.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, think of it like a DnD or table top roleplaying game campaign. If you went through the whole game going into room after room, finding more and more demons to slay, after a while you’d get bored out of your tiny skull and start throwing dice at the GM (or is that just me? Erm, sorry Rich...).
However, if that campaign were to include different elements, such as devious traps, fiendish puzzles, or simply getting a wizard drunk in the tavern (which we did once), then it gets exciting. Apply this to your novel, and mix it up a bit. Bring in a tidal wave. Send your characters on a quest, even if it is just to Tescos. Put a dragon in the basement. It’s your book, do what you want!
And finally...
Honestly? Don’t worry too hard about what you’re writing. I had a moment last week where I thought ‘OH GOD THIS IS ALL CRAP I’LL HAVE TO START OVER’, but I’ve soldiered on regardless. You’ll have that moment too, if you haven’t already, I promise you. And when you do, the best advice I can give is, DON’T GIVE UP. At all. Ever. You might think its crap now, but it’s only a rough first draft. You can fix all the plot holes and glaring inconsistencies later. For now, just have fun with it.
And watch out for that dragon in the basement.
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