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

Hey guys!  Sorry about the wait on this post, I had some stuff come up last week that required me to put some things off for a bit.  On the fifth of October, the NaNoWriMo website was all fixed up and prepared for our event of the season, NaNoWriMo 2015!  So it's up and running and ready for you to put your novel up!  Make sure you head over and do that.
Okay, now down to business.
On the Fifth Day of NaNo Prep my Novel Gave to Me… A general plot (part 3).  Here we are at the last stretch of this whole general plot thing.  The middle.  This is the part that I feel like is the most challenging, because this has to be exciting enough to keep the readers reading.  The middle is actually my favorite part of reading a good book, because by now, you should love it, and there's still an entire half of it to go!  I was reading the Fellowship of the Ring the other day and right about in the middle I was at the peak of my excitement.  I loved the book, and there was still a long way to go before it ended.
So how does one get a phenomenal middle?  Well, the midpoint is as middle as you can get, and this is where the excitement gets amped because of an event that happened.  For example, in the Incredibles (Pixar, Disney) the audience's interest level is dwindling, right before Bob's wife presses a homing beacon and Bob gets captured by the enemy.  Woo! That dwindling interest level is certainly not dwindling anymore.  Or at least, something like that.  So think of it as the second of your three plot points.  They all need to be just as interesting and exciting, so they're all equal.  Number one is the beginning, this is number two, and number three is the ending.
Number one in my book is the character enlists in WW1
Number two is his best friend deserts him
Number three is he lives happily ever after (or will he?)
So now that we have the three main plot points, we can fill it in with smaller events that we want to happen.  My recommendation for this is to write each event on a separate index card (I cut my index cards in threes so I don't use up more than is necessary), or a sticky note, then use tape that you can take on and off (I use artists' tape) or a tack and tack it to a cork board, or tape it to a piece of paper.  The reason for all this is so you can rearrange things as you see fit.

So how is your guys' NaNo plotting coming along?  Have you got a middle?  What's your favorite part of a book?  Let me know in the comments!

Viola June, HFA-DGN

On the Third Day of NaNo Prep my Novel Gave to Me

Hey everyone!  Day before yesterday for the NaNo prepping days I discussed the making of your Main Character.  Later I'll be exploring a bit more into this, since yesterday was only meant as a jump start, but I will say this:  Keep thinking about your character!  Write down anything you think you want to add to them, and keep tweaking them.  They'll never be perfect (though that's sort of the point).
Anyways, on the third day of NaNo prep my novel gave to me… A general plot (part one).  This sounds boring, doesn't it?  Hang in there.  A plot in general has three acts, with special features in each acts.  You can go to K.M. Weiland's blog for a very good breakdown on plot structure.  Another label for these three acts can be "beginning" "middle" and "end".  You'll want to discover each in order to have a good idea of where you're headed.
Today I'm discussing the beginning we need something exciting to get the reader hooked on it.  Get them interested in what is going on, get them interested in the characters.  But that's all a bit too detailed for starts, today we'll just start with finding what the beginning of your story.  Not the exact moment that things start, just a general overlook.    My beginning starts with the characters trying to figure out what's going on (they're disorientated for… reasons).  If I were to go more exact, I would stay I start with a kidnapping, but tonight we're not talking about exactness, right now, we're just deciding what we start with.
So my beginning of my NaNo novel is World War One begins whilst the MC is tossed into the midst of it.  Beyond that, I've got absolutely no clue, but that's what we're brainstorming for!  Tomorrow I'll be touching on the middle, so look forward to it (or dread it, your choice).

What do you think?  Do you like to begin with plot, or characters?  Do you have your beginning figured out?  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

Flash Fiction

Hey all!  So today I was thinking about Flash Fiction, and all, a lot, a few, or none of you may be wondering what Flash Fiction is, so I'll start out with a short description of it:  "fiction that is extremely brief, typically only a few hundred words or fewer in its entirety."  If you look "Flash Fiction" up in the search box on Google, that is literally what you get.
So why would one write flash fiction when they can write novels, or short stories?
1. Practice.  They are practice for quite a lot of things, actually.  I have a small problem with condensing everything I say, so flash fiction for me is easier than for the normal writer, so how would I use it to practice?  By expanding it into a short story.  What I do is I write the flash fiction, then I stretch the story out into 7.5k, or something akin to that.  For those of you who have problems with making your stories too long, you can use Flash Fiction to practice being concise.  
2. Satisfaction.  I believe satisfaction is very important in the writing world.  I don't like those "How to write faster" or "Write a book in a week" or "How to get paid easy for your writing" or stuff like that because I believe that you've got to work for your daily bread.  There is no easy way out.  "Nothing ever comes to anyone that is worth having, except as a result of hard work." -Booker T. Washington.  However, if you spend 8 years writing one book, you never feel like you're accomplishing anything.  If you write and complete a short story, or flash fiction in a week (whilst still working on your current novel project), then you feel like you got something done, which should give you more energy to continue on with your project.  Anyways, it works for me.
3. You Gain Experience.  Yep, I said it.  Exp.  You know, in video games (let's use Minecraft as an example) you do stuff to gain experience, or "Exp".  In Minecraft when you mine coal, which you need constantly, you get experience, but when you mine iron, which you don't need, and you don't gain exp when you mine it.  You need to practice writing, and as you write short stories, or flash fiction, either one, you get experience in developing character, plot, and setting, and you can practice with more different situations because you don't need as much time to complete one.  

So my suggestion to you, if you want to write some flash fiction, is to get out and research a bit (Before I put up my own post about flash fiction, of course) about it.  They are easy to write, and don't take that much time to write, at all.  Seriously, just 15 minutes of your day to write 250 words, or half an hour to write 500, or whatever your WPM (Word per minute) is, it's not a lot of time.  Even a Hemingway (6-word story) is considered flash fiction.  You could utilize dishwashing to think up a story in six words, then edit and revise this six word sentence later.  While washing dishes.  That is an incredibly efficient way to use your time.  Of course, there are times when vegetables seem like they have a good idea of life and you just wish to join them, and so you use dishwashing time as veggie time, and in that case, you'll get no judgement from me, actually I do that sometimes too.  

Anyways, what do you think?  Have you tried Flash Fiction?  Let me know in the comments section!

Viola June HFA-DGN

NaNoWriMo

So, last post I wrote about my NaNoWriMo survival kit, and said in a few places "More on that later."  Well, that's why I'm here folks!  This is the more on that later part, and lets get started!
So, this post is about NaNoWriMo (Obviously), and my own experiences with it.
NaNoWriMo is an annual occurrence in November.  It's directed at writers, and it's goal, or challenge, is to get you to write 50,000 words in one month.  Now, generally, there are 9-12 words per line in books, but that isn't an absolute.  But there are about 250 words per page, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.  The Hunger Games, as a total, is about 99k, roughly, depending on who you talk to.  Why am I driving this point about random word counts in a post about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)?  Because if you do choose to do it, it's often a good thing to know what you're walking into.  This is writing half of the Hunger Games in a month, while you still have other occurrences, like forgetting, birthday parties, tea parties, school, Thanksgiving, and a whole lot of other things that can get in the way of writing.  That basically lowers the time amount by half, giving you 15 days of your choosing throughout the month, or less, or even more, depending on how much you write.  The above were just certain scenarios that came to my head on the spur of the moment.
On a side note, how can you tell what the word count of a book is?  Do you look it up?  How can you find it for yourself?  The answer is, normally I do it for myself, but yes, many people have calculated (I'm sure just at the word calculated, many of you yawned, stopped listening, or whatever, but hey, what can I say?) it and have placed their calculations on the internet.  But not every book has an internet solution, so here's how you do it.  One word: Average.  I, personally, take five lines from one page, and count the words on each line.  Then I add them together and divide the sum by five.  In other words, I average the five lines together to get an average word per line.  Then I multiply the average WPL (word per line) with the amount of lines on the page, then I multiply the number of words per page by the page number.  I'm not sure that made any sense, but I'm sure you can figure it out.
So, in the end of November, you enter in your word count, and validate your novel, and win!  Winners get special goodies from the sponsors (50% off scrivener one year) and it's really cool.  If you don't win, the people at NaNoWriMo still support you and let you know that what you chose to do was actually really hard, and just deciding to do it was an achievement.  Either way, they offer lots of support, and you actually get news in your inbox on the site with tips and tricks, and info on the write-ins and stuff.
Another event they have is the Young Writer's program, and that's for students and stuff, and I don't really know that much about it because I've never participated in it, but I do know it accompanies NaNoWriMo, and the students can set their own word count goal.
The last NaNoWriMo event I can think of, or there is as of right now, is Camp NaNoWriMo.  This takes place in April and July and is fantastic.  There is a "cabin" where you chat with several people in your cabin.  I love my cabin mates, and cannot wait to start writing in July (Three days away!).  In this event, you can choose your own word count goal, and wether or not you want to edit, or write a book, or what.  It's also really cool, but one thing you should know, if you set a large word count (like I did), know that you can only change the word count before the winning begins.  You can't change it after.
So, my own NaNo experiences are actually funny and heartwarming, now that I look back on them.  My first NaNoWriMo, I ended up with 4k to write on the very last day, on which I could only write after 2 o' clock or so.  That was very stressful, and once I won, my aunt bought me a venti frappuccino from Starbucks, which was a definite plus. My next NaNo, which was actually Camp NaNo in April 2015 (Yes, July will be my third NaNo) was absolutely stressful.  I set a word count goal of 60k.  THATS A BIG WORDCOUNT GOAL.  Let me say it again.  THAT'S A BIG WORDCOUNT GOAL.  I thought, that since I hadn't worked every day in November for at least an hour, and still finished, I thought that I could write every day in April and finish with extra words.  Fast forward through April, and you end up with me tired of my book around the 30k mark, because I didn't develop it well enough, hence why I'm a plotter, and I was bored with the story.  Fast forward again, now I decide I can't write 60k and decide to go change it when, you guessed it, the winning began THAT DAY.  So then, I'm writing flash fiction and working on expanding the flash fiction into short stories, because I was really bad at expansion in books.  Basically, I ended up on the last day of writing, with 10k left to write.  THAT'S A BIG WORDCOUNT GOAL.  I woke up at three o'clock, A.M., and began writing.  By 11 o' clock, I had finished.  I then went to Physics class (home schooled) and spent three hours in a class that required brain power I didn't have.
Now here's a peek into my personality.  I consider myself good at math.  So, when I see numbers, and that I finished 10k in 8 hours, guess what?   I begin to calculate (There's that word again).  If I write for 16 hours a day, for 5 days straight, I can write 100k in 5 days.  I've often read that writing fast is a good thing.  So, normally, I would begin catching up on sleep, stocking up on chocolate and coffee, putting my word count goal to 100k, and any other manner of things.  But instead, I'm doing the smart thing this July.  I'm setting my word count goal to 10k, and I'm not gonna stress.  (Though next April, 600k, here I come!  Actually, just kidding, but that would be cool, wouldn't it?)
Ever tried NaNoWriMo?  Do YOU like it?  Let me know in the comments!

-Viola June HFA-DGN