Prepare to NaNo

Get excited! Two more days until NaNoWriMo! I would like to say that now is the time to finish everything you need to finish before December 1st. Read the rest of Allegiant. Finish your homework. You wont have time to do it now! I will be doing daily NaNo updates but they won't be long! Until then, Good luck!

(Sorry this was short! I just got back from vacation and don't have time to do much stuff!)

How to Outline

I have a secret. I've never written an outline before today. Okay that's a lie. I technically started it yesterday. But I have always been a pantser. (someone who writes without an outline) So creating an outline was hard. Am I supposed to do it by chapters? Should I use three act structure? How much detail should I give? In the end I decided to use three act structure, and wrote about two pages worth of outline. It wasn't crazy, but it gave a good summary for each of my acts, and is now a great road map for the beginning of my story.

Now you can outline in any sort of ways. I tried doing it by chapter, but I got bored, and realized that having too many restriction like how to follow each chapter, just wouldn't work for me. I wanted to be able to choose little details to add, how long each chapter was ect. So I made a summary of each act, and it turned out well. The three parts (entitled Curses, Unnatural, and Remedy) each vary in length from short (Curses) to long (Unnatural) to very long (Remedy). 

You could outline the whole book in one long summary, which may work for you, but for me that is a hassle and would be too hard to read.

But remember, if you are writing a series, you may want to outline the rest of the books. Because you can always change what happens earlier in your book, but one something is published, you can't change what you said earlier in the series.

Characters: And why they are imporant

If you are like me, then you have trouble writing characters. It's not that I don't know my characters, I do (maybe a little too well), but sometimes I have trouble portraying how intense these characters are onto the page. It just doesn't come out right. It sound like I'm adding bits of unnecessary information, or obvious foreshadowing, and my characters fall flat on their face. I am a plot-driven author, which I have come to realize, because I think my plots are what make people like my writing. But characters get in my way of writing that intricate plot.

Because maybe what I want to happen, doesn't happen, because that isn't what my character would do. Maybe my character would sit around for seven chapters thinking about what to do, and that would be a very boring seven chapters indeed. So when I start thinking about my new novel (Temporary Title:) The Grimm Society I have to think about what my characters would do during outlining, so this problem wouldn't hit me later.

So here were my ideas.

Add a subplot... or five. If you need too spice up your character without changing too much of the story, add a subplot. Creating romantic twists, or a mini quest can easily make the lives of your characters more interesting without changing the route of the story. I just added two involving the two things that never fail in writing. Love and Death.

A day away with your character. Spend your time getting to know your character. Discover new things about them. Write from a day of their life before the story begins. Discover new things about them like their MBTI type, their favorite music, or even the origin story of why they prefer whole wheat bread to regular. Just spend that day getting to know them. Sure afterwards you'll feel like you know WAY too much, but eventually you will be happy you did it.

Add an interesting phobia or quirk. Will Herondale doesn't like ducks. I will never forget that even thought I read the book (Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare) that it is mentioned in long ago. So A great way to add more to your character (and make them more believable too) is to give them a weird habit or interesting fact. You can even take it from yourself. I bite my lip when I'm nervous, excited, scared, extremely happy, thinking hard, bored, or writing. My main character bites her lip too. It is something I can relate too, and something interesting.

That's all I got, but be sure to tell me more in the comments below!

Insert Blog Post Here

Hi welcome to NaNoBlogMo! This will not be specifically for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) but will focus on it heavily. It will mainly be about me taking writing challenges and my struggle to complete them. This includes NaNoWriMo, A Round of Words in 80 Days, WriYe, and many others. I will do them all to the best of my ability. If there is a writing challenge you want me to do tell me in the comments below.

A little bit about myself: I am a teen writer and my dream is to be published. I love all things books, and can go on all day. if I can't be a writer I would like to be a librarian, English teacher, or something in the publishing industry. I have one dog, one sister, and multiple personalities. I may have minor ADHD and have some case of Synesthesia, which means confusion of the senses. Like musical notes all have tastes and colors, and yeah!

This NaNoWriMo I will be trying to write a ya novel (while working on a short story anthology outside on NaNo) which you can find out more about in the Novels section. If you want to be Writing Buddies, here is my account:

http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/user/867587