Wikipedia

The online encyclopedia called Wikipedia is a fantastic resource. If you haven’t experienced Wikipedia, go there now! Where have you been? You are missing out!

Wikipedia‘s definition of Wikipedia (brief):
“Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based free content encyclopedia project. The name Wikipedia is a blend of the words wiki and encyclopedia. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by almost anyone with access to the website...”

My response to the Wikipedia controversy of its authenticity and accuracy is “If your doing a serious research project/paper. always check your sources.” Its common sense drilled into to all of us throughout our academic years. Wikipedia is launching point where information can be found quickly and easily and direct you to further research into creditable sources.

Wikipedia is perfect quick search/info resource for NaNoWriMo writing for when you absolutely need to look up “Geohintonia“ in order to move forward with your writing. Quick search, find, scan, and return to writing.

WARNING: Wikipedia can be addictive or used as a distraction from your novel. Search for what you need and immediately return to your novel or you will be sucked in for hours. I speak from experience.

Morning Pages

The Aritst’s Way by Julia Cameron

For the last month and a half (I’m on Week 5 going on Week 6), I’ve been reading the Artist’s Way and working through the weekly exercises. My favorite central exercise/tool Cameron introduces/emphasises is the “Morning Pages”.

“The morning pages are three pages of stream-of-consciousness longhand morning writing. You should think of them not as "art" but as an active form of meditation for Westerners. In the morning pages we declare to the world—and ourselves—what we like, what we dislike, what we wish, what we hope, what we regret, and what we plan” -Julia Cameron FAQs

Or, in Cameron’s more simple explanation (and my favorite), Morning Pages are a “brain drain” where you can drain all the daily crap from your mind so you can concentrate on the more important and creative tasks/projects. Eventually, the daily dumping will expand into your creative endeavors, including prose, fiction, and poetry.

The Arist’s Way Official Website
Morning Pages Tips and Techniques
Writing Morning Pages

How can they aid you during NaNoWriMo?
- writing practice - stretching your writing muscles with daily exercise
- unblocking - working through any writer‘s block along the way
- working out problems & plot points
- interviewing characters
- character journals
- outlining scenes and plot
- writing really rough version of scenes & dialog
- or really anything you need them to be for 3 pages every morning

Even though it equals an extra half hour to hour of writing each day (unless you do choose to write your novel in the Morning Pages), its free time to productively work out the novel and organize your thoughts without the pressure of novel time. My favorite use for the time and page space is asking a lot of questions.

Later in Artist’s Way, Cameron suggests asking yourself questions the night before and allow all the possible answers to flow onto the Morning Pages the next morning.

I love the Morning Pages so much that I have become very protective of them to the point that I even resent any Artist’s Way exercise that requires you to use them. I highly recommend the Pages whether or not you’re doing NaNoWriMo but I believe they will add and enhance your NaNoWriMo experience.

Pressure Writing

The method or concept of Pressure Writing fits perfectly with NaNoWriMo.

“The 10-15 minutes you spend dumping all of your thoughts onto paper allows you to have a record of ideas you have for other stories and relieves the pressure of trying to remember it all.“

For more information...
Pressure Writing: What Time Is It?

Advice on Novel Writing by Crawford Kilian

I discovered some more novel writing advice.
Except from Crawford Kilian

“Why am I doing this? Well, a year or so ago someone e-mailed me with that very question. I thought for a minute and then replied to this effect: When you're young, and you think you have the talent, you wonder how you can make the talent serve you. When you're older, you wonder how you can serve the talent. This is some small part of my service. God bless, work hard, write honestly, take pride in your craft”

Advice on Novel Writing by Crawford Kilian

Scene Building

I keep reading about using index cards for plotting. I’ve never been a big index card user but I’m thinking of using the method for this novel to see how it works out for me.

Pamela Templin outlines how she does her scene building with index cards at her blog Write Pam Write!

“to work out my scenes - I first have to work out the next stepping stone across the river. Not every little word and action; that’s the writing of the scene. I just need to work out what the major change or point is. That’s what I write down as the sentence or two on my cards.“

Continue Reading..
Scenes

Angela Booth’s Quickstarts

Angela Booth has a great NaNoWriMo Quickstart series on her blog.

NaNoWriMo QuickStart 1: Pick a genre
NaNoWriMo QuickStart 2: Be a squirrel
NaNoWriMo QuickStart 3: Your characters' professions
NaNoWriMo QuickStart 4: Write a character journal
NaNoWriMo QuickStart 5: Interview your hero and heroine
NaNoWriMo QuickStart 6: Gear up with story boards
NaNoWriMo QuickStart 7: Get organized


Other writing advice posts:
Top Five Tips To Generate Ideas For Your Writing

How to write a novel by Hal Spacejock

More interesting advice from Hal Spacejock. Yes, you read rcorrectly. Hal Spacejock .Check out the rest of the blog for more posts on writing.

“So, what does it take to write a novel? Only five or ten percent of those who embark on the process end up with a finished draft, and while I may not be an expert I can at least share the experience from the perspective of someone who has done it before. I can't promise these tips will work for you, but they might work for the next writer to come across my web site and they certainly work for me.“

Continue Reading...
How to write a novel

NaNoWriMo 2006 Progress Forms

Another NaNoWriMo spreadsheet but with an added form.

“The one-day catchup form! Force yourself to write 7500 words in a single day! I don't recommend using this method regularly, but it's a fantastic way to boost your word count.“

Click the link below to go to the post and download the forms
NaNoWriMo 2006 progress forms

Free Digital Graph Paper

I discovered this site throughPamela Templin’s blog. It coffers various forms of graph paper free for download and printing. You can even create graphs to you specs. Great for maps and other world building tasks. I think I’ll try them in Photoshop to do my mapping and building ground planning.

Free Online Graph Paper / Grid Paper PDFs

Favorite NaNoWriMo Spreadsheet

I found a link to my favorite NaNoWriMo spreadheet. I’m not sure of the true source.
Its a Microsoft Excel formatted spreadsheet that is a great tool for keeping track of your NaNoWriMo progress.

Click the link below to download the spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is an Microsoft Excel document so if you have Microsoft Office that includes Excel, it should work properly for you.
NaNoWriMo Spreadsheet/Report Card

Advice to NaNoWriMo fantasy writers: Read less fantasy?

I’m not sure if I agree with all of the NaNoWriMo posts on this blog but this nugget of advice is interesting.

“By now you've probably read enough fantasy novels to be far too familiar with the genre conventions to which so many such tales slavishly adhere. Now: forget them. They're like grammatical conventions. You learn them to be competent, forget them to be good, and come to them afresh to confront greatness. And maybe NaNoWriMo isn't about any of those things, but it could be. If you want to write a Decent Book as well as a Passable Imitation of the Other Fantasists, you've got to remember that the conventions of fantasy come after the conventions of serious storytelling.“

Continue Reading...
Advice to NaNoWriMo fantasy writers: Read less fantasy.

Word Count & Novel Length Advice

Advice on word count and novel length from Pamela Templin’s blog “Write Pam Write.

“Most novels are between 100,000 to 150,000 words. Seems like a lot, and in some ways it is, but it can be managable if you break it down into smaller chunks. Don’t think: I have to write 150,000 words! Think: I have to write 2500 words today. NaNoWriMo is coming up, and even for the regulars, knowing you have 30 days to write 50,000 words can be a bit like facing a stairwell in the Sears Tower and knowing that it will take you 2,109 steps to get to the Skydeck!“

Continue Reading...
General advice I’ve found on: Word counts, novel length, and getting through the first draft

The Snowflake Method for Writing a Novel

Another interesting method for writing a novel.
“Frankly, there are a thousand different ways to write a novel. The best one for you is the one that works for you. In this article, I'd like to share with you what works for me. This page is the most popular one on my web site, and gets hundreds of page views per day, so you can guess that a lot of people find it useful. But you may not, and that's fine by me. Look it over, decide what might work for you, and ignore the rest! If it makes you puke, I won't be insulted. Different writers are different. If my methods get you rolling, I'll be happy. I'll make the best case I can for my way of organizing things, but you are the final judge of what works best for you. Have fun”

Continue Reading...
The Snowflake Method for Writing a Novel

Holly Lisle

Holly Lisle is a published genre fiction writer with fantastic advice on her site such as:
Questions About How to Write
Notecarding: Plotting Under Pressure
Questions About Worldbuilding
The BIG THREE Questions at Forward Motion
How to Revise A Novel
Notecarding: Plotting Under Pressure
The Character Workshop -- Designing A Life

Also I’ve bought her great ebooks called:
Holly Lisle's Create A Character Clinic
and
Create A Language Clinic

Holly Lisle also has a podcast called Holly Lisle On WritingHolly Lisle On Writing Website
Holly Lisle On Writing direct iTunes Store for subscription link

Start With The Leaves

“This isn’t to say that a grand idea can’t be the beginning point of a great genre novel. However, I personally find it much harder than the reverse: starting zoomed in and zooming out. That’s the technique my professor taught me to get better beginnings. She called it “starting with the leaves” instead of “starting with the forest...When you start with the leaves, you tend to focus on the little things that make stories interesting as well as the people and their conflicts that will drive your story.”

Continue Reading...
Nanowrimo Novel Writing Advice - Start With The Leaves

D*I*Y Planner

Check out D*I*Y Planner. Its a great site.
Their slogan: Paper, Productivity & Passion

“We are a community of people who see the value of paper as a medium for planning, productivity, creative expression, and exploring ideas. We encourage visitors to share advice and inspiration, and we love to see submissions for templates, kit images and story articles. We are also the official home of the free D*I*Y Planner kits. Please enjoy your stay, and make yourself at home”
D*I*Y Planner

Favorite posts:
D*I*Y Planner Kits
The Artist’s Planner
Artistic Planning
It’s That NaNoWriMo Time of Year
The Art of Agile Plotting
D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition

Advice from D*I*Y Planner

I found some more terrific advice at DIY Planner. Its from last year but still relevant.
Its a new method of “project managemen”.
Break out the index cards because post describes how you can use:

The Project Card
The Character Card
The Setting Card

Here is the URL for the full post:
It’s That NaNoWriMo Time of Year

Renewed My Participation

Its official!
I’ve signed onto the NaNoWriMo site and renewed my account for the 2006! I’m officially a NaNoWriMo 2006 participant! I’m so excited!




My NaNoWriMo Profile