Hello All! We're moving into holiday season, what with Halloween come and gone and with Thanksgiving and Christmas before us. This time of year also marks a major time for writers, too--especially those writers who participate in NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, it's a contest of sorts where during the month of November thousands of people from all over the world decide to roll up their sleeves, charge up their laptop batteries, and write a 50k novel in 30 days. Now me personally, I've only written a 50k book once in my life. In the last six years, I've used NaNoWriMo to write the first 50k (sometimes I made it to 60k+ in 30 days) of a novel. And you can, too. If you've been thinking and thinking and (you get the picture) about writing your book, take this month to DO IT. Stop playing. It won't get done through osmosis (I've tried).
If you're in a stage right now where you're stumped for an idea to join in on the NaNo fun, here are two tips that I used often to either kick-start a new story or to just do a writing exercise to get the brain warmed up for writing.
What's Your Fortune?
Somewhere around my house, there is an Altoids can full of years' worth of fortunes from fortune cookies. Every once in a while, I like to get the can, flip it open and pull out a fortune. Fortunes are often so broad and encompassing in their statements that they make for great story-sparkers. Look at these, for example:
- Now is the time to do that one thing you've dreamt of.
- The one you love is closer than you think.
- May life throw you a pleasant curve.
- There is yet time enough for you to take a different path.
Each of these fortunes presents a wealth of ideas for a story. For the first one, I can easily see a character who has lived a life of doing everything but the one thing that would truly make a heart sing, and somehow, when she's presented with that dream, there is trepidation but ultimately a desire that surpasses the doubt and makes her go for her dreams. We have seen plenty of movies, read many of books that take on the second fortune. Number 3 is a lot like number 1 in a way. I can see a forlorn character that has not had an easy time and then that pleasant curve arises—does he go with the pleasant curve or stay stuck in his rut? Which connects to the 4th fortune, too. How many of us have read stories where a character, time and time again, seems to do the wrong thing, take the wrong path? I have and I always get irritated with the character, wondering when she will realize that there are other paths, better paths to take. What is the moment that makes that character take the different path? What is the result of having done so? See how just a sentence can send the mind spiraling into Writerville?
Resuscitating Stories of Long Ago
We all have them. In a folder hidden inside other folders: stories we wrote long ago that never saw the light of day. We may have tried to sell them and that didn't come to pass. We may have written them and decided they were garbage but because we wrote them we couldn't simply discard them. There is nothing like time, fresh eyes, and new perspectives to take a has-been story and revise/rewrite it to become a literary gem. Take out a story you've written and have discarded. Ask yourself...
1- How might a gender change for the main character affect the story? An occupational change? A cultural/ethnic change?
2- How might a setting change affect the overall story?
3- How might adding an additional antagonist affect the story?
4- How might a POV shift affect the story?
5- How might a genre change affect the story?
6- How might cutting say the first 10 pages from the story change how the story begins, how it moves forward?
7- How might cutting say the last 10 pages from the story change how the story begins and how you lead toward the new ending?
By looking at major components of a story and examining how major structural changes could affect it might give you the opportunity to take a story you thought died long ago and revive it, turning it into something amazing.
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