(these Boot Camps were originally posted in October 2013, but I'm bringing them out again as a refresher for NaNoWriMo #NaNoPrep 2015!) NO, I do NOT mean a GMC car!!! You don’t know what else I could possibly mean by GMC?!??! You think your characters are just bodies to occupy your awesomely fantastic setting or move through your utterly original and mind-blowing plot!???!? WRONG!!!!! WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! Failing on the CHARACTER LEVEL will make your entire book FAIL!! THAT’S ... View Post
NaNoWriMo Boot Camp: Lesson One – Preparation Matters
(this NaNoWriMo Boot Camp series was originally written in October of 2013. However, I like to pull them out and dust them off every October as a refresher! So, if you haven't yet seen them, enjoy! If you have seen them already ... enjoy again! Good luck! - J. R.) OH, so you thought NaNoWriMo started in NOVEMBER, did you!?! WRONG! NaNoWriMo starts NOW, RIGHT NOW! The secret to success in this venture is PLANNING!!! PLANNING, people. “But I’m a PANTSER!” you say??? NOT THIS MONTH YOU ... View Post
NaNoWriMo: The Secret to Success is to …
Winter is coming. More specifically, November is coming. And with it, National Novel Writing Month. If you are a writer or an author, you probably either love or hate this time of year, as your social media will suddenly alight with a frenzy of "NaNoWriMo preparation" posts. You'll hate this if you think NaNoWriMo is just a bunch of rubbish (and you'd be wrong about that), and you'll love it if you think NaNoWriMo is awesome (and you'd be right about that) and plan to take part this year ... View Post
How To Get More Story Ideas (otherwise known as: How To Tap Into the Elusive "Everywhere")
If you are like most yet-to-be-published writers, you attempt to learn all you can from the successful career authors any chance you get. This often includes reading magazine articles, interviews, and online articles about them, and sometimes even traveling to who-knows-where to meet them live and in-person at some sort of writer's conference or author signing. If you have done any of the above, you know very well and good that one of the absolute most common (and most utterly annoying) ... View Post
Writing Prompt Wednesday: "Timed Writing Spiral", an exercise.
Another one from the writing workshop with Deb Sturgess. The whole point of this workshop is finding methods to stoke your creativity and get the juices flowing again if you are stuck. So every week we do different bizarre things that end up surprising me with how well they loosen up the muse. I'm always amazed at what I come up with, especially when at the beginning of these exercises I'm always like, "OMG! COMPLETE BLANK! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!!!?!?!" Here's a tip, for everyone. If you ... View Post
NaNoWriMo BOOT CAMP! Lesson One: PREPARATION MATTERS!
OH, so you thought NaNoWriMo started in NOVEMBER, did you!?! WRONG! NaNoWriMo starts NOW, RIGHT NOW! The secret to success in this venture is PLANNING!!! PLANNING, people. "But I'm a PANTSER!" you say??? NOT THIS MONTH YOU AIN'T!!!! Writing 50k words of aimless story you'll just have to rewrite later DOESN'T COUNT. You don't want to go through the agony that is NaNoWriMo and then just have to turn around and SCRAP most of what you just sweated and bled!!! Only newbies jump into NaNo without at ... View Post
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