National Novel Writing Month

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I've been researching a lot of writing websites lately and have discovered that November is National Novel Writing Month.  November has become quite a busy month, what with Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Movember, and Vegan month!  I feel like I should've known about National Novel Writing Month over those last two, but what can you do?











Anyway, good old Facebook had a resource or two in this department: a NaNo page with hundreds of posts (all of which were helpful and well-written!) by writers striving toward this month's goal of 50,000 words.  A few days ago, the topic of the comment thread was how to stay motivated through this process, and how to keep yourself from giving up on your novel. 

Some of my favorite suggestions for that all-powerful writing tool, brainstorming, were:

(from official NaNo site)

Friday's writing challenge: write a personal ad to catch your novel's eye. Describe yourself and the kind of novel or characters you're hoping to fall in love with! "Melodramatic fantasy writer seeks plucky heroine to star in a soon-to-be-best-selling novel. Must love overly long descriptions, excessive use of adverbs, and plot holes. No dragons."

 

We dare you to anthropomorphize an inanimate object in your novel. Maybe it's a couch that's hiding a dark past. Perhaps it's a tomato with a grudge. The sky's the limit! Or maybe the sky has a secret past?

 

(from a poster on the Facebook NaNo page)

Throw something at your protagonist - and make it bad. Setting it up and figuring out a resolution will keep you writing! I talk about this and other tips for keeping on track and finishing Nano at popcorntheblog.com.

 

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll continue to work on one of the three stories I'm editing right now....but first, I might distract myself at http://www.plot-generator.org.uk/.