Another way to begin a novel is with an idea for a setting. This is probably a method that is not widely used by writers (hmm… good idea for a survey), but it can work just as well as the other methods (Get a Character, Imagine an Idea).

Settings that Inspire

The trick here is to locate a setting that inspires you with a story idea. Depending on the genre you write there are many different options for finding an interesting setting. This is one area where the Internet can come in really handy.

Science Fiction/Fantasy Art

Jesse van Dijk has some amazing artwork on his site.

Other 3D Lands has artwork to browse and three collections set up as 2009 calendars for ongoing inspiration throughout the year.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Art – you may have to search a little here to find just landscape type pictures, but there is a LOT to choose from.

Landscape Art

For less exotic landscapes, try Art by Wagner for galleries divided by landscape type (gardens, deserts, mountains, paths, etc.).

Linda Vu has some gorgeous beach and ocean-front paintings.

Beautiful pictures of New Zealand landscapes.

Some interesting cityscape photos.

Tips for Using a Setting in Your Story

The same guideline applies here as it did to using an idea as the basis for your story – you have to include the human element. A terrific setting all by itself is going to be pretty static. Insert a character into the setting to bring it to life.

Determine the character’s relationship to the setting. Does he love it? Hate it? Is he in constant conflict with it? (Farmer battling dry ground to wrest a crop from it. Woman struggling to climb a mountain to reach something on the other side.)

Is the setting open or closed? Can the character leave the setting when he chooses? What are the consequences of leaving? (Imagine a life raft on the ocean. The character can choose to leave, i.e. jump overboard, but there will be consequences, i.e. possible drowning or maybe shark attack.)

Your Turn

Have you ever started a story idea with a setting? How did it work for you?

There are other ways to start a novel than with a character. Sometimes you get a great idea for an event or a situation for a novel, but with no idea who the characters will be.

For example, I once had a story idea about a personal computer falling in love with its user. By itself, it’s just an idea. You need to add details to it to make it into a story. Who was the user? Why was he/she worthy of being loved? How did the computer gain consciousness and develop feelings? Ideas by themselves are plentiful and nearly worthless. Ideas that have been developed with concrete details are priceless.

What If?

A good way to come up with story ideas from situations is to use “What If” thinking.

• What if an ignored girl became invisible one day after years of not being seen by others?
• What if there was an overcrowded world where the entire adult population committed mass suicide, leaving the world and its resources to their children? (I actually wrote this one.)
• What if there was a supercomputer that controlled a country’s defenses and it refused to act when war broke out? What if it forced the people to prove they were worthy of being protected?

How to Use an Idea Effectively

The trick to using an idea/situation as the basis of a story is to add the human element to it. Who is most affected by this situation? Who stands to gain from it? Who will lose because of it? You tailor your situation to a set of particular characters and suddenly, you have a story.

In the case of the second example above (the overcrowded world), I wrote the story from the perspective of the eldest child of a family on that world on the night before the adults implemented their plan to save their world and provide for their children’s future.

The son wanted to leave the planet because there was no future for him, no opportunity for him to find meaningful work due to the overcrowding and diminishing resources. His parents refused to let him leave because in their culture, home was everything. That night they committed suicide with all of the other adults and in the morning, the son found a new world with renewed resources and much work to be done. In his grief and shock, he finally understood his parent’s insistence on the value of home and took on the responsibility of staying.

The human element to the idea is in the details – a specific boy who is affected by the adults’ plan, a particular culture that values home so highly that the adults are willing to take drastic action to provide for their children’s future.

Benefit of Using an Idea to Start a Story

The benefit to starting with an idea is that you practically have your “elevator pitch” already done. Your “elevator pitch” is a sentence or two describing your story, short enough that you could recite it within 10-15 seconds (the time a short elevator ride might take). Your What If statement can serve as your elevator pitch, though it may need some tweaking to add in some of those specific details.

Moral of the Story (or Idea)

You can start a story with an idea rather than a character. Just make sure that you round out that idea by identifying specific characters who will be affected by it.

Writing a novel is a noble undertaking. And a lot of work. A lot more than most people realize. But if it is your dream and desire to write a novel, then good for you! We’re going to cover the basics of writing a novel to help you out.

Big caveat to keep in mind: While there are some generally accepted standards for novels (romance novels are about a romantic relationship between two people, novels have a beginning, middle and end, etc.), there really are no rules for a novel. Every writing “rule” has been broken by some writer somewhere.

It’s good to learn the rules, so you can break them on purpose (to achieve a particular effect with your novel, perhaps). Breaking rules because you don’t even know that the “rules” exist isn’t going to get you very far as a writer.

So, rather than rules, we’ll talk about guidelines. The first guideline is to get a Character.

A Great Character

A novel usually has at least one character, though that character doesn’t have to be human (look at all the children’s books with animals as the main character) or even alive (vampire fiction, anyone?) A character gives your reader someone to cheer for or root against, and you want your reader to be involved in your story.

A Cast of One or Thousands

You can have one character or a few thousand. Though a thousand would be a lot to keep track of and all those people might confuse your reader. (Was that Mary With the Bad 80′s Perm who wanted to marry Jimmy the Grocer’s Delivery Boy or was it Mary With the Desperately Sad Attraction to Polyester Clothing? Neither, it was Carrie the Bungee-Jumping Goth who had the crush on Timmy the Geek With the Velvet-Lined Pocket Protector.)

Good, Bad or Really Bad

Your character can be sympathetic (a hero), a necessary evil (an anti-hero), or the worst villain to ever live. What you want is a character that your reader cares about. It doesn’t matter if the reader wants to see your character roast in a dark pit of burning napalm (which could be the villain or the hero, if your reader is a bit twisted). Wanting the character to roast means that your reader “cares” and that’s what you want. If your reader doesn’t care, they’ll set your book down quickly and move on to something that does engage their emotions.

So, the first ingredient for your novel… a character that your reader can really love or really hate.

As the final post in our series on preparing for NaNo (National Novel Writing Month), how could we overlook the ultimate prep tools for NaNo… Chris Baty’s own books – No Plot? No Problem! and No Plot? No Problem! Novel-Writing Kit. Chris Baty, for those new to NaNo, is the founder of NaNo and he’s written these two books to help you through the NaNo (or any other fast-writing) experience. The best part of these two books is Baty’s sense of humor. His writing is exuberant and over-the-top, perfect for ramping up to start a new novel.

No Plot? No Problem!
Section One of the book covers several vital elements for NaNo:

• the proper mindset for starting NaNo – a willingness to write something crappy
• getting motivated by your loved ones – through guilt or terror
• sustaining yourself through 50,000 words – restaurant meals are essential
• planning your novel with two lists – things you love in novels and things that bore or depress you in novels

Section Two has a chapter for each of the four weeks you’ll be writing and a final one on what to do when your novel is finished. I’ve written a review of the book that you can read here.

No Plot? No Problem! Novel-Writing Kit
The kit is not a duplicate of the original book with a few more doodads. It contains a condensed version of No Plot? No Problem! Just the essentials in 42 pages versus 172. But the kit is long on Rah-Rah, feel-good items:

• a Novelist Affidavit for committing your intention to paper
• commitment coupons for you to fill out – “I promise to (insert awful chore here) if I fail to write (insert # of words) by (insert date).
• inspirational cards for each of the 31 days
• “Ask Me About My Novel!” stickers
• a monthly calendar for recording your daily word count goals and progress with gold star stickers
• a sealed “I Quit” envelope – you DON’T want to open it
• a Novelist! pin that you can wear to announce your victory

Just looking through the package is fun. If you know a writer who could use lots of encouragement, like a younger writer or a first-time writer, the Novel-Writing Kit provides enough structure and instruction without feeling overwhelming along with plenty of encouragement.

For the more serious writer, the original book, No Plot? No Problem!, is the better choice. There’s a lot more meat about getting started and maintaining your momentum all the way to the end.

And this is the end of our series on preparing for NaNo. It starts in two days and I’m excited to get going on my story. Hope I’ll see you around the NaNo site!

Have writer friends who might enjoy this post? Send it to them with my compliments! And add me as a writing buddy at nanowrimo.org so I can follow your progress in November!

So after all this prep work are you still undecided about participating in NaNo (National Novel Writing Month)? Does it seem a little daunting? No worries. Lazette Gifford has put together a booklet on NaNo with the permission of Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo. It’s entitled NaNo for the New and the Insane: A NaNoWriMo Survival Guide and it contains everything you need to know for a fun (and successful!) NaNo experience.

It is 131 pages of tips for NaNo, including sections on Preparing for NaNo; Forums, Blogs and Websites; The Actual Writing; Keep Writing to the End; The After NaNo Blues; and Just for Fun. There is a lot of great information in the book and you’ll be expertly prepared for NaNo.

It’s a free download and can be shared with your friends. Get your copy today!

Have writer friends who might enjoy this post? Send it to them with my compliments! And add me as a writing buddy at nanowrimo.org so I can follow your progress in November!

When participating in NaNo (National Novel Writing Month), you’ll probably need some tools to get your novel written. While you can write your 50,000 words in longhand (and some writers do, believe it or not), that can be quite a challenge. And if you want to have your word count validated by the official NaNo Word Count Validator at the end of November, you’ll need it in electronic format, so you can upload it to the NaNo site.

So here are a few electronic tools you can use to write your novel.

yWriter
This little writing program is marvelous. I use it myself and love it. It lets you set up chapters and scenes within the chapters, has a place for character information, including the viewpoint character for each scene, keeps a running word count for you and allows you to export your novel easily to a word processing document. It’s a self-contained program so you can run it on a flash drive. Best of all, it’s free. You can get more details on it here and also download it from that location. I highly recommend it.

Notepad
Don’t have any of the expensive word processing programs? Try using Notepad. It’s standard with Windows and works pretty well as just a text editor. There aren’t any fancy features to distract you from writing your story (definitely important for NaNo). You can save your novel as a text file and then open your text file in any other word processing program to format it for submission to an agent or editor. Free and easy to use.

Alphasmart
Don’t have a laptop? An Alphasmart might be the gadget for you. It’s basically a portable keyboard with a small digital screen that allows you to see about four lines of text. It’s battery powered and has memory built in so it saves your typed words. You can transfer the file to your computer via a PS/2 or USB cable and some models even have infrared capability so the transfer can be wireless. Portable, durable and again, no fancy features to distract you from your novel writing. You can read more about the Alphasmarts here and can usually find them available on Amazon or eBay for a good price.

You can find more information on tools to use in the NaNo forums. There’s an entire board devoted to NaNo Technology.

When selecting your tools for NaNo, remember that you need something that allows you to type quickly and has minimal distractions. Beyond that, anything goes!

Have writer friends who might enjoy this post? Send it to them with my compliments! And add me as a writing buddy at nanowrimo.org so I can follow your progress in November!

Just got back from the Des Moines region NaNo Kickoff Party. What a blast! Great to meet some of the folks who will be participating in NaNo around Des Moines.

For the Des Moines WriMos (and anyone else who wants a copy), here’s the Excel spreadsheet ( 2008_nano_progress_chart ) that Mary mentioned. You can download it and use it for tracking your NaNo progress.

Today’s tips are designed to help you have fun with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Forget the Rules
Participating in NaNo can be a great rush. You are free from all the conventions of good writing. Want to include backstory? Go ahead. Want to write the entire thing in as action with no dialogue? Why not? What about including flashbacks or a prologue? Do it. NaNo requires you to write swiftly and regularly to meet the goal of 50,000 words. You can’t do that if you are constrained by how you are “supposed” to write. Allow yourself to write any way you want to and just get the words down.

Still bothered by writing bad prose? Remember, a written piece can always be improved, but not if you never get around to writing it. NaNo helps you finish your story in a very short time period. You can then edit at your leisure and refine it into a saleable piece of work. Focus on finishing the novel first. And enjoy the tremendous feeling of accomplishment at the end of November when you can proudly say, “I wrote 50,000 words in just 30 days.”

Bring in the Plot Ninjas
What if you get stuck while writing? Writer’s block can strike at the strangest times and November is a BAD time to get writer’s block. If you get stuck, just bring in the Plot Ninjas. Literally. Have a group of ninjas in full regalia drop from the ceiling into the middle of your story and start attacking people. What would your characters do? Maybe they fight back, maybe they run away, maybe they break out snacks and invite the ninjas to watch a movie. No matter what they do in response to the ninjas, they will give you something to write about and no more writer’s block.

If ninjas don’t fit in your story, have a different unexpected event happen. Maybe the doorbell rings and a rodeo clown busts into the room and starts twisting up mutant balloon animals. If you’re writing a historical novel, maybe a rival clan, outlaw gang or raiding party suddenly starts shooting, slashing or pillaging. A thriller? Have something explode and kill a major character. Make the event unexpected, shocking, even ridiculous, and your writer’s block doesn’t stand a chance.

Go Local
NaNo is infinitely more fun when done with other people. Check the NaNo forums for your region and see if there is a kickoff party planned and write-ins through the month. Communal novel writing is a blast as you type along with 3, 8 or 20 other people. If there isn’t a local group in your area, get together with your writing friends or group or hang out with other WriMos online. Forward Motion, an online writing community, usually has a NaNo chat room going for write-ins. There are a large number of WriMos on Twitter who will be reporting their progress as they write. (Check out the Followers list.)

Tomorrow we’ll talk about some of the tools that you can use for NaNo.

Have writer friends who might enjoy this post? Send it to them with my compliments! And add me as a writing buddy at nanowrimo.org so I can follow your progress in November!

Finally got the upload problems fixed and here is the Excel spreadsheet ( 2008_nano_progress_chart ) you can download and use for tracking your NaNo progress.

Okay, you’re set with characters, some scenes to write, a great mindset and the willingness to pad your word count as needed for NaNo (National Novel Writing Month). The next step is to train yourself to write fast.

Use a Timer
It’s November 1. You’re ready to begin writing. Set a timer for five minutes. Visualize your scene in your mind, the action that is going to happen next in your story. Can you see it? Start the timer and begin typing as fast as you can. Forget about misspellings or proper grammar, just type. Get as much written as you can before the timer goes off.

How much can you write in five minutes? If I’m writing dialogue, I can get up to 250 words done in five minutes. Straight action scenes or a character’s thoughts? Up to 400 words in five minutes. Everyone can find five minutes here and there during the day to write, so this is a great strategy to use for getting your daily words done.

Have a Write-Off
A write-off is a challenge to see who can write the most words in a specified time period. When you do a write-off with friends, you can really motivate yourself to crank out the words. You can hold write-offs with your friends in person, via instant messages, chat rooms, even on Twitter.

First agree on a time frame, say 20 minutes. Then each person starts their 20 minutes when they’re ready and tracks the time on their own. When the time is up, each person posts their word count for those 20 minutes. The highest word count, “wins” the write-off.

Keep Track of Your Progress
Tracking your daily progress can give you great motivation to keep pushing toward your daily goal. I use an Excel spreadsheet that was designed for NaNo to track my daily progress. I enter in my total word count each day and the number of minutes I spent writing. It then calculates my average number of words per hour, average per day, how many words I have left to finish, how many hours it will take me to reach 50,000 based on my speed and what day I can expect to be done. There is even a graph to visually show my progress.

If you don’t have Excel, keep track in a notebook or a document. Track your time spent and the words you’ve written. Seeing your words increase each day can be the push you need to keep going. If you’d like a copy of the Excel spreadsheet, you can get it here – 2008_nano_progress_chart.

Have writer friends who might enjoy this post? Send it to them with my compliments! And add me as a writing buddy at nanowrimo.org so I can follow your progress in November!