On the Second Day of NaNo Prep my Novel Gave to Me...

Hey all!  So today, I won't be rambling on and on about why you should join NaNoWriMo, I'll just get straight to the point.

On the Second Day of NaNo Prep my Novel gave to me… my Main Character.

I feel like character and plot play off of each other, and it doesn't particularly matter which on you start with, except for preferences.  If you start with plot, you end up with morphing your character around your plot, and if you start with plot, the character shapes the plot.  I personally prefer the latter, so I start with character.
So there are a few things you should know about your character before you write them, for instance, their gender.  That's slightly (not slightly, it's really a lot) important.  Let's go over a few!
1. Their Name.  Okay, so actually, I have heard of someone who has began their book without a name, but I feel like even a name adds conflict, and personality.  Why do you need these for your first draft?  Well, actually, I'm not sure you do.  But preparation for your first draft in ways like this lets you edit easier later on.
2.  Their gender.  Yes.  This is important.  Boy or girl, it matters.  I am not really sure if you can bypass this, but either way, I wouldn't.  It's a bit of easy prep (It should not take you hours to decide whether or not your MC is a gal or guy) that is pointless to bypass.
3.  Their favorite color.  Okay, this probably does seem a bit excessive, but I have heard multiple quotes about knowing much more about your character makes them feel more real because they actually have their own opinions and thoughts backing them, even though they may not show it.  You know I'm opinionated when I state my view on the Civil War with as much passion as I am wont to do, but you won't know my favorite color, my political position, my favorite book, or anything like that, unless I tell you.  However, even though I don't tell you what they are, you still (should.  I promise I'm not cardboard) get this sense or knowledge that I have a favorite color, political position, and a favorite book.  The same goes for a fiction character, because we're trying to help the reader trick their minds into thinking they're not reading fiction, but instead, living in fantasy.  The characters should have things like a favorite color (among other favorites [my friends will tell you that this is my favorite introductory question.  What is your favorite everything]).  Again, this you could probably skip, but knowing the most about your character before sending them into their story is better, because weaving personality into an already woven work is a lot harder than weaving it as you weave the work.
4.  What they look like.  I'm sorry, yes I did say things you need to know earlier, but I actually do consider these all necessary when I make characters.  I'll go on Pinterest and find who looks like them, then I'll save that mental image in my head, as well as to my board.  Why do this?  Because as your readers read, they don't hear the name, they see the face.  Our brains remember things so much better when we have a mental image of it.  If you, as the writer, don't see their face every time you type their name, picturing how they act in the scene, then you probably don't know what they look like enough to keep that mental image in your head, which means the readers don't either, which means they're probably seeing a blur when they think of the character, which ruins the illusion that they're in a real place.  This can be edited in later, but again, it's so much harder to put it in later, because it's part of the character's fabric of reality.
5. Their MBTI (optional).  See, this time I put optional down.  But I do highly recommend it.  Knowing their MBTI is very helpful in creating a cast for your character so they don't occasionally slip out of character and shake the reality of the book.  (I believe I've said it before, but I'll do so again, I don't believe that using whatever site you're using says you are [i.e. INFP] as a cast for you.  You can be whatever you want to be, as long as you're not being fake, but characters are a different thing because in reality, they are fake things pretending to be real, and in the long run, you decide what they do, not them.)

So I like to take all the information I deem necessary and I like to spill it out onto a single page.  I'll give you an example of one of my character sheets (I make them even if they don't have a book they belong to.)

SAGE OWENS- ENTJ
Female; 22; Ginger hair; Pale skin; British; Freckles; 5'5; 120lbs (Yes, I know the Brits use a different measuring system for weight); ...  Despite her TJ (Of the ENTJ) part of appearing evil, she's actually a good girl at heart, and always endeavors to see things from other people's perspective, even though she mostly fails.  She's very smart, though she never planned on following her parents' plan of several doctorates.  Instead, she simply decided on a doctorate in engineering...She hasn't got time for relationships, since her parents siphon money off her like a blood bat, but she secretly hopes that one day a tolerable man would come along.  ...  She doesn't make jokes often, but when she does, you'd probably miss them.  Emerald eyes; thin upper lip, thick bottom; round face; long legs, short torso; delicate skin.  She's allergic to dairy, and doesn't like it anyways.  She adores flowers, but doesn't tell anyone that.  Born February second.

So why did I give you half my info load on one of my characters?  As an example.  When she is in a book, you will probably never know she loves flowers, or is allergic to dairy.  So why in the world is it there?  Because it adds to her, giving her a richness she wouldn't have if I simply put:

SAGE OWENS
Female; 22; Ginger hair; Pale skin; British; Freckles; 5'5; 120lbs (Yes, I know the Brits use a different measuring system for weight);  Emerald eyes; thin upper lip, thick bottom; round face; long legs, short torso; delicate skin.

One feels more real, doesn't it?  Writing the latter Sage Owens would be hard because I wouldn't know her.  Writing the former would be much easier, having spent time with her.

So what are your thoughts?  Do you like to think of plot or character first?  How do you get to know your characters?  Let me know in the comments!

Viola June HFA-DGN

On the First Day of NaNo Prep My Novel Gave to Me...

Hey guys!  So I decided to do a blog post series on NaNoWriMo preparation, and because I'm way too excited for the holiday seasons, I am naming each post something akin to the 12 days of Christmas, though it might be 31 days, or it might be 2 (let's hope not).
So First, why participate in NaNoWriMo?  Well, there are plenty of good reasons, and you can find them all over the web, or even come up with some of your own, but here are a few of mine.
1. A strong sense of accomplishment at the end.  Honestly, it feels so good to be a winner.  If you're still in High School or younger, you could do the Young Writer's Program (YWP) and set your word count for what you think you can do, or you could go for the 50k, or even shoot for more, if you're up for it.
2. It kills your inner editor.  Why am I excited about this one?  Because I believe in small goals.  Let me explain.  I like to have checkpoints periodically spread out through everything, because if I don't, then I look at the entire project as a whole and get discouraged as I take "forever" to complete it.  Using a book as an example, The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas.  This is a long book.  Not as long as some, but still long.  It can take a very long time to read it, and without chapters, I would never have finished it.  Reading a chapter a day is doable (Though with this particular book, I finished it in three days because I couldn't put it down), but what happens if there aren't any chapters to finish?  You get discouraged because it seems like you aren't getting anywhere fast.  (This is mostly hypothetical for example's sake).  With an inner editor, you go back and fix your typos, correct clunky sentences, and rewrite character's lines over and over again till they sound like the character.  You sit, blocked at a certain point in the book because you can't climb the hill nicely.  Without an inner editor, you get a first draft like my current one (which shall never see the light of day, by the way).  The amount of typos, out of character sentences, and clunky sentences is embarrassing.  (This is probably because last NaNoWriMo I killed my inner editor stone dead.  When editing time comes around I'm gonna need a major miracle).  So since my inner editor is dead, I can finish the first draft sooner.  Checkpoint no. 1.  Then I edit the first draft of all typos.  Checkpoint no. 2.  You get the idea?  Cutting the steak into small pieces is easier to eat than stuffing the entire thing in your mouth.
3.  It's fun.  Okay, this can be opinion, but as a writer, writing, is fun.  Writing in a semi-social, extremely encouraging "you can do anything and we're all here to help you" is amazing.  I honestly didn't know that writers were all super supportive of each other until I joined NaNo.  People make it fun by making sure that you know that they believe in you.  Even if you procrastinate until two days are all you've got left, I've heard of someone who wrote the entire 50k in those two days.  (Also, Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 450 [about 46k] in nine days)  Some great authors have written entire novels in 6-8 weeks, (Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is one of them) and the word count is way above 50k.  So you can do it!  1,667 words a day, isn't actually that much, all things considered.  You may be thinking "But I'm not like that", but how do you know, if you've never tried?  In the words of my favorite band, Superchick, "Failures are flyers who touch down, only they know what it's like to leave the ground." and the song (Rockstar) goes on to say that it's okay to fail sometimes, as long as you try, and keep trying.  Honestly, it's fun to fail for the first time in NaNo because you see that this gigantic community of writers, don't judge you.  They understand the challenge, and that everyone is different.
4. It's a reason to drink excessive amounts of coffee, sit around in sweats and a t-shirt all day, and write.   Okay, I don't need a reason to do this, because I do college online and sit around, drinking coffee all day, in sweats and a t-shirt, but what I like about NaNo is it's a celebrated action.  I'm just kidding... sort of.  When you do this in your daily life, you get dressed up to go to social events.  When you do this in NaNo, social events are write ins on Youtube, and they expect you to be nice and comfortable for it all.  Anyways, it relates back to No. 3.  They (Wrimos) understand.  And that is very amazing.

So now that I've rambled for a bit about why, I'm going to talk about some prep in this the first installment of "The days of NaNo Prep" (Yeah, I just made that up)

On the first day of NaNo Prep my novel gave to me… An idea.
Whoop.  Yep, that's it.  You can't write anything without an idea.  So this fancy schmancy idea is a genre, and a basic setting,  or maybe a character, or maybe even a single line of dialogue that inspired you to write a book centering on it.  Mine was the genre and the setting.  This NaNo I'll be writing historical fiction (yeah, yeah, I know, I've already dug myself a hole with all that research) set in the Great War (WW1), and actually, I got the moral of it, which is a little bit of a different take on the conventional method of looking at forgiveness.  This is all very hefty stuff, so I'm probably going to mull it over for a few days, whilst brainstorming (and researching).
So how does one get an idea?  Well here's a few of my suggestions, and ideas.
1. Go for a walk.  Whaaaa?  Yep, I said it.  Leave the house?  You bet.  Look about at the trees, listen to the wind (or swelter under a blazing sun, depending on where you are), and just generally be aware. Think about what ifs, and such, because, what if you get a story idea that really inspires you?  Also, exercise and clean air (Okay, where I live the air isn't exactly clean, but it is refreshing from the stuffy house) are great at clearing your head and opening new thoughts.
2.  Look at items in front of you.  Right now.  Yes, now.  You probably have your device (whatever you're reading this on), some sort of piece of furniture, maybe a few embellishments.  I have a coffee table, pencil box, binder, three books, three coffee cups, a water cup, some hair stuff, scissors, and some other misc stuff.  What story ideas can I get from that?  Maybe a character wake up every morning and drinks their cup of coffee.  What they don't realize is every morning, their cup is clean, and they didn't wash it.  So they're taking for granted that someone in the house loves them enough to clean up after them every single day.  They can go on to realize that you don't miss something until it's gone, when they realize one morning their coffee cup isn't where it normally is.  It's still on the table, still dirty.  Then you can have a bunch of subplots and stuff.
3. Listen in on people's conversations at your local cafe.  People watch.  You can get a lot ideas just from the daily life happening around you.  You just need to open your eyes (no.2) and ears (no. 3) .  Pay attention, and take notes (not necessarily literally).  I wrestle with my brother, quote endless movies with my family, break out into song with my entire family (Actually, literally.  Me, my brother, and my aunt made one of our friend's mom look back at us from her conversation with my mother in confusion when we all broke out into some song together).  So what story ideas can I get from my daily life?  Maybe a character sings all the time, until one day somebody they look up to tells them to be silent for once, and they live the rest of their life endeavoring to climb out of the insecurity that one person, who had a lot of influence over them, tossed them into.  There is so much you can get from life by just paying attention.

So what do you think?  Do you have any specific ways you like to find inspiration?  Or reasons you like to participate in NaNoWriMo (if you do participate in NaNoWriMo).  Let me know in the comments section!

Viola June HFA-DGN

3D Characters-Voicing

Hey guys!  Today I would like to discuss voicing, and how you can help your characters to each find their own individual voices.
When you speak to your friends, you probably don't use the same phrases and terms as they do, do you?  I sure don't.  (To be honest, I think I'm the only person I know to use words like "groovy" and "radical").
So why are character voices so important?  Because without different voicing, it becomes all one blended, muddled voice that, should you clear it up a bit, turns out to just be your voice.  There's a type of music that is in Baroque music (Yeah, yeah, I know, "if it ain't baroque, don't fix it") called Polyphonic.  This music means there are several voices, enabling the music to feel more 3D, instead of just notes on a page.  Different voices for the characters are exactly the same.  All the same voice equals 2D writing, and different voices equals 3D.  It's actually amazing how much this is true.

Here's a tiny bit of what my character's different voices sound like, so you know what I mean:

Ember:  "Could you please find something else to do?"
Winter: "It'd be nice iffen ye could find something better to do."
J.P.: "I'd be mighty pleased if you would be findin' somethin' more productive to be doin'."

Now these characters really are extremes, which is handy for the sake of example, but a change in voicing could be as small as changing one word in a sentence, like asking "anything" instead of "something", but all the other words stay the same

So how do you find, and differentiate your character's voices?  There are several methods.
1. Journal your characters!  Write a journal entry from your character's perspective.  I found this method in James Scott Bell's book "The Art of War for Writers".  When I used this method in particular, I didn't find it entirely helpful, but it did allow me to dig a bit deeper into their personalities.
2. Role Play your characters.  I DID find this one helpful, though I didn't learn about it from any particular source, me and my friends were just trying it out.  It's very helpful because you learn how the characters interact with other people.  You can use any of your characters and squeeze them into any setting you think fit then watch them run.  Once I used three characters from three different projects.  Your characters can gradually find their own voice when they interact with others.  Let them speak their words.
3.  Just write their story!  I didn't quite find the three above's voices until I began actually writing their story.  They came out of their shells then, and really came into their own.  Now I can almost hear J.P. before I write what he says.  (Ember and Winter DO need work, still, but what are edits for, if not for fixing your mistakes?)

So what do you think?  Do you have different methods for finding your character's voice?  Have you tried any of the three I listed?  What did you think of them?  Let me know in the comments section!

Viola June HFA-DGN