5 Days Left of NaNo WriMo
According to their website (www.nanowrimo.org) in order to finish on time, I’d need to have 41,667 words written by today. I’m kind of behind, but it’s been long and hard. I hope to be able to catch up before the 30th! Good luck to all of you competing in National Novel Writing Month! Push yourselves [...]
Functions of a Prologue, Part 9
Establish a distinct mood as you deliver important information, setting the atmosphere for the rest of the book. This function is widely used and very effective for any genre or length of novel you are working on. This is especially effective if your story involves a myth or historical (or made-up) fact that is hard [...]
Random Writing Exercise #12
Write a stand-up comedy monologue and incorporate it into a scene of your novel without the readers realizing that’s what it is. Incorporate this into a situation in your novel you’ve already been working on. Don’t make it obvious what you are doing; just tell the story as if you were doing a monologue for [...]
Overuse of Adjectives
Readers don’t want to see “he hit the wall extremely hard, showering and spreading strips of rough, chipped, splintering pieces of wood”. Every once and a while, it might be easy to skip, but a whole manuscript with that kind of writing will get put down fast, likely not to be picked back up again. [...]
Functions of a Prologue, Part 8
Use your prologue to introduce the rules of your story world. This is particularly important when history or complicated events preceding the novel’s main plot line are involved that affect the story. This use of a prologue is so helpful in fantasy and speculative fiction where your novel is likely set in a world only [...]
Fanfiction, Anyone?
Fan fiction is something that can either be very poorly written, or completely brilliant, or anywhere in between, just like an original novel. I have to say, there are usually more of the former, but when you find a well-written story, it really stands out above the rest. One thing I’ve noticed in particular about [...]
Random Writing Exercise #11
Choose two paragraphs from different writers (preferably thrilling, suspenseful ones) and write a “bridge” in between to connect the two. To challenge yourself at different degrees, repeat this exercise with paragraphs seemingly too different from each other, or written in distinct voices that you have to blend into one. The two biggest jobs in this [...]
Functions of a Prologue, Part 7
A prologue can serve the purpose of creating a hook, or question that begs to be answered. A hook at the very beginning, before the main section of the novel, creates an interest in the reader that draws them into the rest of the plot. A sense of foreboding, mystery or suspense can be developed [...]
Professionalism
Whether it’s the receiving of a rejection letter, or a writer’s conference, or chatting on the phone with a possible future agent, make sure you always treat the influential of the publishing industry with respect and professionalism. I read a story in a writing reference book about a writer who responded to a rejection letter [...]
