How to Develop Your Setting as You Write
In two short days, NaNoWriMo begins. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are putting final touches on their outlines, stocking up on caffeinated beverages, and making other preparations for an epic month of novel writing. You've spent the past few weeks developing fascinating characters and a story for them to follow. If this is your first novel, you've probably also realized that all this planning is just the tip of the iceberg. To bring your novel to life, you'
How to Start With an Archetype and Finish With a Strong Character
Two weeks ago we discussed how to determine whether your NaNoWriMo idea is novel-worthy. Since then you've hopefully spent at least a little bit of time fleshing that story out every single day, maybe even using our Novel Planning Checklist. Today we'll show you how to create dynamic characters by basing them on existing character archetypes. What are character archetypes and why should you use them? For the purposes of this article, let's use the definition of character arch
How to Tell if Your NaNoWriMo Idea is Novel-Worthy
Something you'll hear many experienced writers say is ideas are cheap. Once you know how to recognize ideas, they're everywhere, and some that seem brilliant at first turn out to be disasters. In my first few years of NaNoWriMo, I planned my stories poorly and watched several ideas fizzle halfway through the month. Today I'll help you determine whether your sparkly idea is real gold or the literary equivalent of fool's gold. We'll take a look at what constitutes a worthwhile