{"id":284,"date":"2012-11-13T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/2012\/11\/13\/nanowrimo-tip-13-three-secrets-to-save-you-from-writing-torture\/"},"modified":"2012-11-13T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T14:00:00","slug":"nanowrimo-tip-13-three-secrets-to-save-you-from-writing-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2012\/11\/13\/nanowrimo-tip-13-three-secrets-to-save-you-from-writing-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"NaNoWriMo Tip #13: Three Secrets To Save You From Writing Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

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These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Here are three devices that can save you centuries of torture in that special writer\u2019s hell reserved for writers who describe a nine day week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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1. Calendar<\/h3>\n
Start with backstory and continue to the end of the book or beyond. Put ever offstage and onstage action onto a calendar. Account for all major characters. Trust me. This will save you so much grief! (I have such a hard time with this that I often STILL don\u2019t do it, even though I know better, and then I suffer for my stupidity. O ye gods how I suffer.)<\/div>\n
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2. Map<\/h3>\n
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If your story take place in the \u201creal\u201d world, Google Maps is your friend. If you\u2019re writing fantasy, you must make your own, or hire mapmakers from the Renaissance Faire. If you\u2019re writing a historical, don\u2019t just make up crap, crack a history book. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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3.\u00a0Mugshots\u00a0<\/h3>\n
Keep a record of all names of characters (with the correct spelling). Pretend you\u2019re the secret police and this is your file on them. Add any pertinent information, like parentage\u00a0 or priors. A brief description of them is also helpful\u2014you can consult it if you need to refer to it in a scene.<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s fun and surprisingly helpful if you actually find pictures of people who look like your characters. Since this is just for you, you can choose famous people, actors you\u2019d want to play them in the movie version of your book, or you can just grab photos from the internet like a crazed troll. (Just don\u2019t use it for commercial purposes, like your book cover.) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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It works for places too.\u00a0 Identify where each scene takes place. Find pictures that look like these castle tower chambers, ski slopes or high tech prison cells ahead of time. Even non-exotic locales can be enriched if you look at photos of what you have in mind. It can inspire you to add details to the description of the setting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Finally, for action scenes, you can find almost anything you need demonstrated on YouTube. I\u2019ve found dance sequences, fights with Zulu hand to hand combat weapons, and how to add henna to your hair. Do this research ahead of time, because you know you\u2019re going to get lured into an hour of kitten Abba videos if you\u2019re not careful. You don\u2019t want that to happen right in the middle of writing your scene.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works. Here are three devices that can save you centuries of torture in that special writer\u2019s hell reserved for writers who describe a nine day week. 1. Calendar Start with backstory and continue to the end of the book or beyond. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}