Category: writing tips
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NaNoWriMo Day 11: I Scene It
One thing that keeps happening to me as I write is a scene needs to become two scenes. Or even three scenes. If only one thing happens in a scene then cut. When a new setting starts or a new event happens then it’s time to write break into a new scene. For example I…
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NaNoWriMo Day 10: Death and Oops
Even though I outlined in Preptober, I decided to kill off one of my characters. Rather violently. I think I had a bad day at work and I was taking it out on this poor fictional being. But later I realized that character was needed for a couple of functions in the story. Oops. No…
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NaNoWriMo Day 9: Inside and Outside Action
As I plan and write scenes, one thing I do is what I call the ‘outside’ action and also the ‘inside’ action. During Preptober, I created an Excel spreadsheet and wrote the point of view from each character in that scene. This point of view plans out the physical action each character performs (outside action).…
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NaNoWriMo Day 8: Word Sprints
One practice I’ve put into play with NaNo 22 is writing sprints. I’ve done them in the past, but I pretty much use them exclusively to get my word count done. I do one or two before work and about two or three after work. Word Sprint: a short period of time in which a…
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NaNoWriMo Day 6: the 4th step
My writing process for NaNoWriMo 2022: I am working on two novellas for NaNoWriMo 2022, but to be honest, I will only get through one of them. I will reach 50,000 words by the end of November, but I will probably only end up with a rough draft of one of them which is called…
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NaNoWriMo Day 5: the 3rd step
Just to review, here’s my NaNoWriMo plan: Step 1: Write one complete sentence summarizing each scene Step 2: Turn each sentence into a five sentence paragraph. Step 3: Turn each paragraph into five paragraphs. (I’m writing step 3 in red to help it stick out) Step 4: Turn the five paragraphs into a narrative (Not…
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NaNoWriMo Day 4: the 2nd step
I’m done with steps 1 and 2 of my writing process. I’ll be spending the next week marching through step 3 which is expanding my scene paragraph summaries into 5 paragraphs. These 5 paragraphs are a brain dump of details I may or may not include down the road: scraps of descriptions, dialogue, interior monologues…
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Nanowrimo Day 3: The 1st step
The first step I took on day 1 of NaNoWriMo was to take the phrases I created to describe the potential scenes and turn them into complete sentences. For example: Phrase: Bandonn orphaned as a child Complete sentence: In this flashback of Bandonn as a little boy in the burg where he grew up, The…
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NaNoWriMo Day 2: My four-steps
Was my first day of NaNoWriMo 2022 was a huge success? I wrote over 1700 words. The story is coming along wonderfully and I’ve come up with some ideas as I’ve composed. During Preptober, I made a list of phrases describing scenes. I also compiled a list of characters for the two novellas I’m writing…
Andrew M. Friday 