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Project River – Day 8 – Characters
25,020 words so far. I realized today that I’m going to have to scrap a scene and a half from earlier in the novel to adjust for new characterization and plot. The characters are finally coming together in my head, so I’ve decided to outline them below. There are many more characters, but these are…
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Project River – Day 6 – More Subplots
I am 1/5 of the way there, with 18,011 words total. That’s on track for 90k! I spent most of this evening working on figuring out the rest of Acts 2 and 3, with many ideas but still a lot of scenes to sort and place. These six are smaller subplots that either are only…
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Project River – Day 4 – Subplots
Four days into November, and things are running pretty smoothly. I’ve written 12,419 words, or about 1/8 of the total. That’s close enough to par for me, especially at the beginning of writing. Subplots Besides the main plot, there are ten subplots that I’ve planned. With the expansion of the main plot, some of these…
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Project River – Day 2 – Main Plot
I sketched out the main plot by hitting upon 9 major scenes that form the scaffolding of the plot. Hopefully I’ll be able to plan scenes to lead into and out of these scenes to fill the rest of the space between them. For those interested, these major scenes are based on K. M. Weiland’s…
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Project River – Day 1 – Beginnings
NaNoWriMo got off to a good start today. I often don’t finish the goal of 1,666 words on the first day, because it is always difficult getting into the swing of a new story. This year should have been especially hard, since I’d only done the briefest amount of planning. But things went fairly smoothly…
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Project River – NaNoWriMo 2023 Prep
How’s the prep been going for this year’s NaNoWriMo? Well, for me, there hasn’t been much. Between work, family, and editing What Happened at Ingvar Bluffs, I’ve put off prepping for this year’s NaNo novel. So far, I only have a few themes, some sketches of the world, and a loose sense of the plot.…
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NaNoPlaMo 2021 – Where to Get Ideas
One question people ask me is “Where do you get your ideas?” The question is not hard to answer on an individual basis, such as how I came upon a particular idea for a short story or novel. However, for me, there is no consistency for where ideas come from. Some form out of the…
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NaNoPlaMo 2021 – A Daily Plan
Now that I’ve determined my word count, it is time to figure out my plan for writing each day. Creating a daily plan is an essential part of having a successful NaNoWriMo. It keeps you on track, breaks your work into smaller steps, and can help push you to write more than you would have.…
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NaNoPlaMo 2021 – Word Count Goal
The normal goal for NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words. They used to list novels that were about 50k words long, such as: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (50,061 words) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (46,333 words) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (50,776 words) This is an excellent word goal for…
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NaNoWriMo/NaNoPlaMo 2021 – What is all this?
What is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, thousands of writers commit to writing a novel in a month. The goal is to write 50,000 between November 1 and November 30. NaNoWriMo is about breaking free of your restrictions and completing a draft, no matter how terrible. It is always easier…