The Write Life

Character Trading Cards

This is for my main character. *Picture was found doing a google search and is just an idea of what I imagine my character to look like.

My Male Main character.  *picture is a stock image..just for reference

Crafting during the Hurricane

Set up a canvas in the bathtub (its sitting on the soap holder) and took our paint brush and splattered the canvas.  We used acrylic which is a water based paint.  It came right off the tub with no stains :)

Rainbow cloud made out of buttons.  I dumped out my button jar and organized the buttons into color and then drew a cloud shape onto water color paper (that's all I had that was stiff paper).  I laid the buttons out how I wanted them and then glued them all down.

Storm cloud made out of buttons.  Made the same way as the above.

Hoop cloud with button raindrops.

Helped Mom make a plot bunny

Also as a side note, if you haven't read the latest message from Nanowrimo headquarters then you definitely should! It maps out the month ahead.

My next post will be on Thursday, Day 1 of Nanowrimo! I will be blogging every single day!

Happy writing,
<3 Andrea

This week's topic for the PracticeMakesProse Challenge is to share links that will help aid in the planning of your novel.

Today is "Nano Prep Day" and a lot of great website links were given out in the forums and on twitter. In this blog entry I will compile a list of helpful links I found through those sources and also ones I had previous knowledge of.

Character Preparation:

• Character Questionnaires:
• Character Traits Form
• 100 Character Development Questions for Writers
• 100 Questions to Ask About Your Role Playing Character (Can be used as interview questions for your Character)
• Character Questionnaires
• Character Questions

• Character Development:
• Character Development Tips
• 8 Ways to Write Better Characters
• How to Craft Compelling Characters
• 38 Ways to Check for Character Life Signs

National Novel Writing Month Preparation:

The handsome man with the guitar is my Grandfather

"Research is a word that fills many creative writers with dread. But unless you want people reading your story to roll their eyes and say “that would never happen,” then it pays to do your due diligence."

National Novel Writing Month is fast approaching and this months theme for the PracticeMakesProse challenge is "Planning" so this weeks topic is "Researching".

This topic is actually a very important one for me this year.  Since my story is set in another time period (The 1940s).  I have needed to do a ton of research so that my story will be believable to the readers.  So because I have been doing a lot of research I thought I would share the different types of research I've been doing and hopefully this can help you if you are doing research for your writing projects.

Before I even started thinking about researching I did a complete outline of my story.  Having the outline in front of me helped me to know exactly what needed to be researched.  Also as I was writing the outline I made a list of questions that I didn't know the answer too.  For example, "Did restaurants have Juke boxes in the 1940s?"  Having these questions also helped me to know what needed to be researched.



I used several different methods for research.  The first and most convenient is internet searching.  I searched things like: teen clothing in the 40s, restaurant menus in the 40s, grocery stores, church buildings, popular names of that time, etc.  Also for those of you who are Nanowrimo participants, the "Reference Desk" forum is a wonderful form of research! If you can't find the answers to some of your research questions then you can post your questions in the forum, chances are you will get an answer that can help.

Page out of "Welcome to Molly's World, 1944"

Another form of research I used was good old fashion books.  I went to the library and looked through different books about life at the home front.  I ended up finding an excellent book entitled "Welcome to Molly's World, 1944: Growing up in World War Two America"  The character of Molly is a bit younger than my main character but the book was still quite helpful.

My Grandmother and one of her brothers in front of the house she grew up in

Since my story is roughly based on my grandparents I did some research by looking through old photographs and letters.  I was able to find some great photos of my grandparents when they were teenagers and photographs of the house my grandmother grew up in.

Several years ago when I had originally come up with this story idea I had done a few interviews with my grandmother.  Interviewing is another great way to research your topic.  Unfortunately I was not able to be around during the 1940s and I do not know what it was really like but my grandmother does and being able to interview her has helped out tremendously.  Especially since she grew up in the type of neighborhood I am wanting in my story.  She described the layout of her town and how her house and yard looked, she shared the types of things she did for fun as a teenager, and even retold a few hilarious scenes from her childhood (my grandmother and her brothers were always getting in to mischief).

While doing all of your research it is important that you find a form of organizing it so that you don't have to do a lot of searching during the writing process.  The way I am organizing all of my information is by using the program "Scrivener".  This program has been a life saver for me and has helped me to have all of my information in one easy to reach place.

So to recap, the types of research methods I used are:

1. Internet searching
2. Use of the Nanowrimo forums
3. Books
4. Old photographs and letters
5. Interviewing

Now if you have decided to be a "pantser" this year I would recommend making sure you write about something you already know a lot about so that you don't have to take time out from your writing to do research.  As a former pantser I know how precious that writing time can be when you are wanting to reach 50K by the end of the month.  You will need to devote all the time you can to writing.  And if you do come across something that needs to be researched, if it is possible, you could write down what needs to be researched and come back to it in December should you choose to edit.

Also I just found out about something exciting.  Tomorrow, October 17th, is "Nano Prep Day" over at Nanowrimo!  So check out the website's front page for more details on what that entails.

Excited for November to get here,
<3 Andrea

Helpful sites:

• "How to Plan out Your Novel"
• "How to Research Your Novel"
• "Nanowrimo Survival Guide"
• "Why Winning isn't the Main Reason to Tackle Nanowrimo"

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." --John Steinbeck

Bunnies awaiting decoration

"These little lovelies will come to you with all the sinuous promise of nubile temptresses, clamoring for your affection and posing suggestively before you. The only way to stop their onslaught is to grab your pencil and dash off their basic premise and then file them away until December 1st. Mark my words: if you just try to shut them out they will haunt you one way or another. They’ll either keep yapping in the back of your brain like an ice pick chipping away the gray matter or dissipate until all that remains is the vague feeling that you just lost the best idea you ever had." - Bullish Nanowrimo Survival Guide

During Nanowrimo as I get ideas for other stories I write them down in my everything notebook and file them away for another time.  Now during non-nano months I have a plethora of ideas to write about and maybe some ideas for future Nanowrimos.
Since we are still in the planning stages for Nanowrimo, some of you may want to be visited by plot bunnies because you might not even have one idea that you want to write about.  Well have no fear! There are some things you can do to get those ideas flowing.
First check out my post about inspiration and if that doesn't help then there is a forum thread over on Nanowrimo where people drop off their unwanted plot bunnies that you can use.


Off topic but still helpful: Today I came across an excellent blog post on how to survive Nanowrimo and I would recommend reading it, especially if you are new to Nanowrimo: Bullish Nanowrimo Survival Guide

Happy Planning,
<3 Andrea 

Last night Nanowrimo.org did their site relaunch! I am very excited and looking forward to November!  I am planning on blogging every single day during November.  Each of my blog posts will include an update on my word count and how my story is going, a different interview question each day that my main character, Millie, will be answering and a task or question that I will be answering, I will also include advice and info to keep you going through out the month.
So follow my blog if you are interested in that.  I would also gladly answer any questions you have about participating in Nanowrimo if you are new and I can also be here to give encouragement!


Now onto my topic for today!  So you have decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month and now you need to ask yourself that very important question...Should I be a pantser or a planner?
If you are new to Nanowrimo you may be asking yourself...What the heck does "pantser" mean??
Well I'll tell you.  A pantser is a name that came about in the Nanowrimo forums.  It is short for a person who "writes by the seat of their pants", someone who goes into Nanowrimo with a vague idea of what they want to write about or maybe no idea at all.
Planner is just that...someone who has their novel all planned out.  Now some planners may have a short and simple outline or a very detailed outline.
So how do you decide which one is right for you? Because there is nothing wrong with doing either one.
Every time that I have done Nanowrimo (except for camp august this year when I did a vague outline) I have been a pantser.  The first year I did Nanowrimo, back in 2007, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write.  Was it a fantasy, mystery, adventure? No idea! Who was my main character? A girl, boy, alien? I didn't know.  I just sat down and wrote and my story evolved as I went.  Was it fun to write like this? Absolutely! Was it extremely hard at times? You bet.  Why? Because I had no idea what I was writing! :)  Would that story be a nightmare to edit? It sure would be and that is why I won't edit it unless I do a complete reworking, rewrite.
So from my experiences I would say that if your goal is to have fun, to get yourself just to write and see where your imagination takes you, and you have no plans of trying to publish your story then pantsing would be for you.  Now don't get me wrong.  It is not impossible for a pantser to get that story published but it will most likely take planning after the fact along with a complete rewrite.
In August's Camp Nanowrimo I did a little bit of planning before hand and for November's Nanowrimo I have been doing A LOT of planning.  I have a very detailed outline from beginning to end including a prologue and an epilogue.  I also have details about my settings and my characters and since my novel is set in the 1940s I have been doing a bunch of research on that era.  Why have I been doing so much planning? Because I am serious about getting this novel published and I want to make the editing job a bit easier come December.  Please see my previous post "Outlining Your Novel" for more on the importance of planning and outlining.  Also in that post I have a few outline templates.
The point is, if you are serious about an idea you've had floating around in your head and you want to get that novel published one day, then being a planner would be your best choice.  At least having an idea of what your novel will be from beginning to end will help you out tremendously, not only while you're writing during the month but also when you go to edit that novel.  Editing in itself is a lot of work but can be made so much easier when you have planned out your novel ahead of writing it.  Also having an outline will be your road map during the month.  Of course you shouldn't try to stick exactly to your outline but it will be helpful on those days when you get stuck and just in general.
Whether you are a pantser or a planner, there will be times during Nanowrimo when you feel like giving up or that your story just isn't good enough but don't give up!!  Remember remember that this is just a rough draft and it isn't going to be perfect no matter how much planning you do or don't do ahead of time.  In the Nanowrimo welcome pep talk they said,

"There will be times you’ll want to quit during November. This is okay. Everyone who wins NaNoWriMo wanted to quit at some point in November. Stick it out. See it through. Week Two can be hard. Week Three is much better. Week Four will make you want to yodel.And we’re talking the good kind of yodeling here."

It is true.  Every time I have won Nanowrimo there have been so many times during the month that I wanted to quit and some times that I almost did but I didn't and I reached 50,000 and I was so happy that I hadn't given up and you will be too.  Stick it out and have fun with your story!

Remember Nanowrimo doesn't start until November 1rst so do all the planning (or not planning) that you want but don't write even one word of your story until the clock strikes midnight on the first!

<3 Andrea