National Novel Writing Month [Day 4]: The Struggle is Real

~ TMH ~ 5 Comments

Buddy and MacBook

This is not a staged photo.

I am currently typing this one-handed.

Buddy–clearly not a patron of the arts.

My workaround for now is just listing notes for each of my characters in MacJournal.

Day 3 consisted of printing out material I’d prepared–outlines, etc., catering to his majesty’s every need, going to the Oregon State-USC football game...and deluding myself that I would easily catch up on word count today.

National Novel Writing Month [Day 2]

~ TMH ~ 2 Comments

Folks, feel free to click right past. These updates are an accountability tool for me. As you can see, I’m well behind pace right now, but I’ve made up deficits before.

My less than specific story description [excerpt from an email to Sarra of heartbreathings.com]: I keep messing with my plotting strategy in my head. Part of me wants to avoid heavy dialogue because it really slows down the pace, even without the annoying punctuation. Part of me is considering working from three directions [characters] who will converge at various points in the story. Who knows?

National Novel Writing Month 2018 Tally Sheet

10 Writing Prompts for October 28

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writing prompts word cloud

  1. Who would have known a bake-off would be the beginning of a beautiful relationship?
  2. No way were we going to convince him. Until we decided to resort to bribery.
  3. We would learn the hard way…and it would cost us a major wad of money.
  4. “Geez, you’re getting old.”
  5. “Don’t worry about her. She’ll come around.”
  6. Our nightly stroll turned ugly really quickly.
  7. “No problem. We’ll only need to knock out that wall.”
  8. “Trust me…no limitations. Make whatever you want.”
  9. He inhaled. “Something is inside your walls, and it ain’t gonna be pretty.”
  10. People had doubted her all her life…

10 Best Creative Writing Prompts

from thewritepractice.com

The journey to a 50,000 word novel…

~ TMH ~ 1 Comment

starts with one word…

graffitti journey to 50000 words

Because I have 50,000 other things I should be working on…

I’m going to do NANOWRIMO this year and, like 2006, 2008, and 2010, I’ll finish.

I promise! [That’s me talking to me. I’m pretty sure you folks won’t lose sleep over it.]

–I’ll take my own prewriting course over the next few days prior to Nov. 1. Just to see if I know even a nano-iota of what I’m talking about [i.e. stealing from smarter, more experienced writers].

–Plus, a little inner dialogue as I venture ahead…

Critical Me: So, why are you even doing this?

NANO-Me: I need a deadline. I want to do push ahead on a new project. I want an excuse to not look at the clutter in my garage. I have to prove that I can still crank out words, since I promised my wife that a dog would actually make me more productive. [Of course, I wasn’t serious, but it was well worth the good laugh.]

Critical Me: Do you want this to be, eventually, a marketable product?

NANO-Me: Since I’m not great a Round Two Writing, that’s not even on my radar.

Critical Me: Do you have a plan for your story?

NANO-Me: Why yes I do, smarty-pants. In fact, I have a chronology all set up in my mind, a sequence of 180 mini-chapters, if you must know.

Critical Me: And you really think you’ll finish all 180 mini-chapters?

NANO-Me: I mainly want to finish my 50000 words and see which comes first.

Critical Me: What do you like about NANOWRIMO?

NANO-Me: I like the freedom to inject all sorts of detours into a story depending on your mood on a given day. And I like Chris Baty’s No Plot, No Problem book.

Critical Me: What’s so special about that book?

NANO-Me: Well, it’s like this. He’s the guy who started it. And his fly-by-the-seat-of-one’s-pants suggestions are worth the read. And it is just that devil-may-care [am I using too many hyphenated expressions?] approach that inspires me to spend my words like a drunken, well, not Hemingway, because he didn’t waste words…spend my words like a drunken Tolstoy, how’s that?

Critical Me: First of all, yes, you are sucking the well of hyphens dry. Thanks for noticing. Care to share any gems from Baty’s book?

NANO-Me: Sure. I’ll put them at the end of this. I wouldn’t want them drowning in this sea of blather. Time for a break, right?

Critical Me: What for?

NANO-Me: For lunch, that’s what for.

Gem #1 from No Plot? No Problem

“Having an end-date for your quest through the noveling unknown is like bringing along a team of jetpack-wearing, entrepreneurial sherpas. These energetic guides not only make passage easier through the myriad formidable obstacles, but they’ll fly ahead and open coffeeshops and convenience stores along the route.”

10 Writing Prompts for October 23

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warmups word art

  1. “So, we’ll just mix this up and before you know it…”

  2. “Information and entertainment, blended together seamlessly, until you get…”

  3. “This is way more than we’re going to need.”  
    “Just what I wanted to hear…”

  4. “Your story seems to have a few holes in it…”

  5. “You might want to try a little charm and a few pleasantries.”  
    “But that’s just not me!”

  6. We were pretty sure we were about to witness a complete disaster…

  7. “So what are the odds you’re going to implode before you even start?”

  8. “Time for a new wardrobe!”

  9. “Go ahead, give me every detail. I can handle it.”

  10. We had reached the inescapable conclusion that…

How to use writing prompts from betterscribe.com

11 Writing Prompts for October 22

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warmups word art

      1. “I feel that at a certain age, we should all stop being excited about life.”
        Oh, great. And I had another 59 minutes with this bundle of joy.

      2. “Do you even have any cleaning products?”
        He held up a shriveled beige sponge. I didn’t want to know where the beige came from.

      3. So I have some bad news and some really bad news.”
        “Hold on. I have to take this call.”

      4. “Why do you think I’m Native American?”
        All eyes turned toward me as I nodded. It was all I could think of doing–just nod till you think of a reason. Good reason, stupid reason. Anything would do.

      5. “Covering your eyes won’t make it go away.”
        “Yeah, but it can’t hurt.”

      6. “Walking down the middle of the street is only going to…”

      7. “Not too thrilled that you’ve decided on him…”
        “Uh, not too thrilled that you’re saying this with him in the room.”

      8. “I mean, who even thinks of the weird names of these medications?”
        “They’re probably under the influence of the product when they conjure them up.”

      9. She was brave. She was daring. And she stood by me when I faced down the 28 rugrats…

      10. “Hey, the fun starts now!”
        “Define ‘fun’.”

      11. When they told me I had to wear a shirt to school, well, that was it for formal education.

 

11 Writing Prompts for October 20

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imagine word cloud

  1. We saw no reason why he poured that stuff in the tank, but it seemed to work.

  2. “Quick. Tell me two good reasons why we should be together!”
    “Geeez…two?”

  3. The 80’s came and went, but left this guy on our doorstep.

  4. “Right about now would be a good time to buck up and tell the truth.”

  5. We were ju-u-uust about there…

  6. “You really don’t see the problem?”

  7. “It’s time for you to look out for number one.”
    I was hoping he would say that.

  8. ”Pacing myself was not going to help here…

  9. “Your behavior was more than a little provocative.”
    “You’re blaming me instead of the guy with the gun?”

  10. “Why don’t you team up with Snellwood?”
    Anybody but Snellwood, please!

  11. “Yes, it is my fault. But I can’t undo this..

 

10 Writing Prompts for October 18

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Word Art (7)

  1. “Sure—what the heck—I’ll marry you.”

  2. “You’re not a lawyer, are you?”

  3. “Connect the dots, Einstein.”

  4. “Do you really think she’s guilty?”

  5. “It’s time to take the leap.”

  6. “This dog…is he planning to stay on my lap all night?”

  7. “Why do people always ask me that?”
    “Look at yourself. Can you blame them?”

  8. “Your apartment…could it be in a seedier part of town?”

  9. “Hey, enough with the theatrics. Either make your phone call or haul your butt into the cell.”

  10. “You’re kidding! I get a corporate credit card?”
    “Yes, it’s yours. But don’t go nuts.”
    I didn’t hear a word he said.

***

How to use writing prompts, from WikiHow…

As you near project completion, the voices creep in…

~ TMH ~ 2 Comments

statue of man thinking and worrying

You can’t finish this. Just leave it be. No one’s going to care anyway. You’re not going to be a published author. No one’s going to care.

The above excerpt from a Medium post by Christopher Connors, [Don’t Fear Your Doubts and Insecurities — Let them Drive Your Life] reflects the uncertainty he felt as he was editing the final chapters of his book.

Two additional points from Connors’ post

“Fear and insecurities are given life by the voice inside our heads.”

“Please. Do what you want. Go after what you want with maximum effort and energy.”

Read this valuable piece. If you’ve not experienced these doubts, I sincerely envy you. And if you have, well, welcome to the club!

 

 

Musings of a writer during board game development…

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board game
Just think of how many plot twists some of your favorite board games provide.

I attended my first board game creation class last night.

It offers a different way of looking at making something from scratch.

And I realized there is considerable crossover between this process and fiction writing.

I also thought of ways to incorporate game creation into my middle grade novel. I think I’ll have the teacher ask kids to write a story and, as they’re writing it, thinking of ways to turn it into a board game. The teacher will hope that it will amp up her writers’  visualization skills and add interesting plot twists and memorable characters with engaging personalities.

I then decided I should try this same approach for my own fiction projects.

This wouldn’t always apply, of course, but for some stories, I might ask myself the following questions:

  1. How would my current story play out in game format?

  2. Are my characters doing enough to earn a role in this game? [i.e. or are they so boring that I wouldn’t want to include them?]

  3. Would my game/story not only provide characters with clear goals, but enough obstacles to make people want to keep playing/reading?

Okay, thanks for reading. I’m always interested to hear if some of these ideas resonate with you.

Ready! Pen in hand? Go!