It’s NaNoWriMo season. Or rather, the month when you can prep for NaNo WriMo, if you want to participate.
For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month (though it should now be called International Novel Writing Month, but InNoWriMo is not quite as catchy). The idea is to write a novel of 50,000 words in the month of November. This is done by writing an average of 1,667 words a day.
If you want to write something other than a novel, or continue writing an existing novel, you are considered a rebel but still very welcome. (I’ve almost always been a rebel when I’ve done NaNoWriMo.)
NaNoWriMo seems quite polarising. Some people love it, other people find the whole idea downright silly.
Whichever side of the fence you’re sitting, you will likely need to start a project at some point. With that in mind, here are a few ways you can go about prepping for a creative burst.
Play “What If?”
This is one of my new favourite creative games. I got it from one of James Scott Bell’s books on writing. He suggests going to a cafe or similar (somewhere you are surrounded by people), mentally picking a person, and then starting to ask “what if” questions.
What if she’s a princess?
What if she’s on the run?
What if the person behind her is an assassin?
You just keep asking “what if?” and see what kind of story your Creativity comes up with. Once you’ve exhausted your what ifs on one person, pick another person and go again.
When my Creativity and I did it the other day, we came up with a worldwide sushi conspiracy, which I was quite pleased with.
This game is wonderful for those times when you’re not sure what you want to write about. It gives you a sudden surge of ideas that you can then cherry-pick to start writing in earnest.
A Voice Journal
This is another James Scott Bell suggestion from his book on Voice (which I have only read the beginning of). Character voice is so important in story, but it can take time to develop and one of the best ways to do that is to get your character talking to you.
You start with a blank page and just ask your character questions. As you write their responses (pen and paper can be used, but I find typing helps me keep up with the answers, and speed can help in this exercise) your character will begin to grow and distinguish themselves.
This is similar to how I got Earnestine’s voice (the eponymous walrus in one of my favourite short stories). I knew I wanted to write her story, but she was just so bland. It was only when I finally got her talking (and giving me the first line of the story) that I knew I’d finally gotten her where I needed her to be.
This is a great exercise to do before NaNoWriMo. While you’re technically not supposed to write any of the novel before you start, you can plan and prepare. A character voice journal is an effective way to prep.
Collect First Lines
Okay, so as I mentioned above, with NaNoWriMo you’re not supposed to write any of the novel before November 1. But if you want to be a little bit of a rebel, you could start here.
First lines can be hard, but equally they can come in a sudden, random thought. You might be looking in your refrigerator one day and then—boom—you’ve got this great first line.
Record them! Keep a notebook in them. Actively look for them. Seriously, first lines are gold. And the best thing is, you’ve likely come up with something really catchy that deserves a whole story written under it.
For over a year I had the line “Mrs. Merkle had three cats: Tinnitus, Reflux, and Mange” on the whiteboard in my bedroom. When I finally got around to writing the story that belonged under it, I got Mrs. Merkle’s Cats. I would never have written that story without that random first line.
So start collecting your own first lines. Then you can pick which one you’ll write under for your next project.
Create a Mood Board
Okay, I’ll hand over to my Creativity for this one.
About time! I thought you’d forgotten me!
Yes! Mood boards. You know those things you can put up on your wall with photographs of darkly lit libraries, smouldering heroes, pressed flowers (or frogs…do they press frogs? They seem to do all sorts of things to frogs. Poor things), and fancy photos of haute cuisine (is that what I mean? It sounds like what I mean. I mean fancy food that costs the earth and never fills you up)?
If images appeal to you, start collecting! Don’t worry about what you think should be in your story (“should” is a bad word, I’m just sayin’). Instead worry about what excites you, what you would absolutely love to write about if you could somehow figure out how to put it into a story.
We Creativities are drawn to things that excite us and that gives us plenty of energy and life to put into what you’re creating. So start collecting! See something you love? Add it to your board. Think of something you love? Go looking for an image that captures it.
Protect your board from your “shoulds.” By that I mean, if dear Aunt Hilderbrand (is Hilderbrand a woman’s name? She’s imaginary, it doesn’t matter) sent you a tired and bland anniversary card with the ubiquitous photo of a hydrangea on it, you do not need to add it to your mood board. Only add things that bring you joy.
Then when you’re writing and can’t think where to go next, pick something from your mood board and bung it in!
So there you have it: four ideas that can help prep you for your next writing project. Will it be NaNoWriMo?
Tell me, how do you prep for writing a story?