Your Novel’s Soundtrack

/ November 8, 2011/ mixtapes, music, prewriting, SFLN/ 2 comments

Soundtracks. We know about them. All movies and TV shows have. Yours truly owns a stupid amount of them. I have playlists for the gym, editing, and for various projects. I’m sure you have these as well. As I was getting ready for NaNoWriMo this year, I worked on coming up with a soundtrack for SFLN. Which is harder than

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Create a Story Bible in 6 Easy Steps

/ October 28, 2011/ nanowrimo, prewriting, story bible, tools for writers, writing process/ 6 comments

You should know what you’re writing about by now if you’re doing NaNoWriMo. If you don’t, then I know what you’re doing this weekend and may I suggest you read my posts on plotcards and character/setting deets? Another tool that I can’t live without while prewriting is the story bible. Most writers have a version of this whether it’s a

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Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Character and Some Setting Detail

/ October 25, 2011/ characters, nanowrimo, prewriting, setting details, tools for writers, writing process/ 4 comments

One week from today will be NaNoWriMo and I completed my preparation last night. My plotcards are written and organized. My characters and settings are in decent shape. By decent I mean enough has been determined to crank out a first draft. That’s the key with character and setting: you have to have enough to make it work. Character Detail

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Review: Fill in the Blank Plotting

/ October 18, 2011/ books, plotting, prewriting, Reviews, writing process/ 5 comments

I promised to review Fill-in-the-Blank Plotting more than once, but never got around to it for some reason. My apologies for that. Fill-in-the-Blank Plotting by Linda George is the easiest book on writing ever. She explains how to combine The Hero’s Journey and the Three Act Structure into a tighter, more cohesive plot. If you’re not familiar with either of

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Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Plotcards

/ October 17, 2011/ nanowrimo, plotcards, plotter, prewriting, tools for writers, writing, writing process/ 10 comments

It’s that time of year, not of foliage or way-too-soon Christmas decorations, but of words and words and words. That’s right. It’s NaNoWriMo time. If you’re new on the block, this weird word stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Sounds crazy, right? To quote the Cheshire Cat, “We’re

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