Tag: story

NaNoWriMo Day # 10: Follow the Story!

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Is your story taking an unexpected detour?  You may have started out with the most detailed outline for your novel but sometimes your characters may be leading your story in a different direction.  Now while I am all for sticking to an outline, it is, after all, the foundation of the story.  However, if your story is taking on a life of its own (as stories often do) and it is pulling you in one direction, it is completely counterproductive to resist that pull.

Your characters will always be the one’s responsible for telling the story that you are trying to convey.  A lot of times the story you thought was going to be told in the beginning changes into a completely different story, possibly focusing on a different character as the main character then you had originally intended.  Don’t fight wherever the story is leading you.

If you resist the pull your readers will more than likely be able to see the struggle and it will leave them wondering if the story they read was the story that should have been told.  Follow wherever your story is taking you and just enjoy the ride!

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

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NaNoWriMo Day # 9: The Deeper the Character the Better the Story?

jcladyluv

Perhaps by now you are discovering that there is more to your characters then you initially had thought there would be.  Maybe in your outline you didn’t think it necessary to go into grave detail about every aspect of your character’s personality or description.  If you are looking for ways to further develop your character try using a few of these suggestions to bring them to life:

1)      Create an online profile for your character(s).  Think about just how detailed you have to be with an online profile and how much more developed this would make your characters.

2)      Get a poster board.  Visualize your character in your mind and perhaps clip pictures out of magazines of people that resemble what you want your character to look like.  Clip out material possessions that your character owns such as cars, types of clothing that they wear (example of their style of dress), house that they live in, pets that they have.  Clip out pictures of the kind of lifestyle that they exhibit and perhaps items that symbolize what their career is.  Having that visual board in front of you as you write about your character(s) everyday can help give you more insight into your character as you continue your novel.

3)      Talk about your characters to the people you share your story with as if they are real people.  The more real you make them in your mind, the more real they will come out to be in your novel as you write it.  Yes they may think that you are a little nutty but if they are writers as well then they will understand all too well the lengths that writers have to go to in order to make their characters and their story believable.

4)      Create a separate blog for your story and its characters.  This not only help you to better develop those characters but it also gets other readers interested in your story and invested in the characters of that story.  This can provide an immediate response to your characters and let you know whether readers feel anger towards your character or empathy for your character, or whether your characters are even likeable enough.

Hopefully some of these ideas for character development can allow you to get an even deeper sense of who your characters really are and what story they really want you to convey for them.  I have an idea or two that I am planning to use for the development on my next novel.  Happy Writing!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

NaNoWriMo Day # 8: Sharing Can Help Move Your Story in the Right Direction

jcladyluv

Are you starting to wonder if your story is actually any good?  I mean we all have confidence in the stories that we start to formulate but if we are honest with ourselves there are many moments within the construction of our novels where we start to question all the little details that stick out to us like a sore thumb.  What we need is someone else’s eye (or ear) to read (or hear) the story we are developing so they can tell us that it’s great.  Or at least so that if it’s not great you can know before you get too far along and then you can fix whatever problems exist within the story.

Now of course because it’s National Novel Writing Month you are not supposed to go back and edit your story but there’s nothing saying that you can’t join a writer’s group (or forum) and share your work with other writer’s.  That way you can present some of what you are working on, parts that you may want some input on, and get a reader’s perspective on what is working and what might not be working for them.  If they do have suggestions you can jot down notes of what to go back and fix once November is over but you can also make notes on where you might want to go with the story from that point on.

Sometimes talking over your story with others who are not biased towards your story one way or the other can help you see it from a different angle.  It can also help you to gauge whether your story will be well received by readers and you are on the right track or if you need to consider taking your story in a different direction during your editing phase.  I personally have always wanted to join a writing critique group but have always been unable to find the right one.  If you are looking to join a writing forum online there are plenty that you may be able to find through the NaNoWriMo website.  Hope your stories are going well and keep up the good work.  If you find yourself starting to procrastinate, Stop That!  Get back to work!

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress