The joy of wrting

Well almost one whole week into National Novel Writing Month and I'm still really excited about it. Last year I did an exceptionally poor job at it and didn't even finish. This year I will finish! NaNo has taught me a lot of things. Like don't write in first person (it never works out the right way) and descriptions of people and what they are wearing feels really awkward to write ignore the feeling and write it anyway, especially for the main character. Sleep is of course for December as is editing. Also outlines are a beautiful thing! I did my first outline ever for a story for this book and I feel it has helped me so much! Hints for making an Outline. Write down questions and answer them. have a goal for what you want to have happened in each chapter (not how I do it but works for Neinone). Make a simple outline with major plot points (as close to in order as possible rearrange will happen), then make a more complicated outline with minor details and even some dialog roughly written down.


The first question you must ask yourself when writing (after having figured out a basic plot, but even that isn't necessary before this question) is: What makes today different?
It is a really valid question writing a story. Why is this day different than yesterday because if it isn't different than yesterday what makes you think I want to read about it. I don't want to hear about what your character had for breakfast on the normal day. I want to read all about how the aliens disrupted the protagonists breakfast an the non-normal day. If you are writing about an alien invasion, what do you know about space? If all you learned is from Star Wars please re-think this novel. If the alien's aren't really alien's but vampires from the future...this better be going somewhere good. Though the question stands "What makes today different?" if you character is from Men In Black universe and aliens disrupt his breakfast everyday, why is this day especially different? Did your character get a mind wipe the day before and to him aliens disrupting his breakfast is a new event even though it has happened to him every day for the last 20 years and now he has to figure out why they wiped his mind...and that they did it at all in the first place?


I don't want to know about the average day, that isn't interesting. I want to read something interesting. I also don't want something over the top. For example your character was the best at the alien hunting business until his partner wiped his memory and stole his identity and ran off with one of the aliens to Nantucket where they plan on starting WWIV (WWIII happened the year before but your character saved the world from being destroyed but just barely, this is of course why your character's memory was wiped because he was seen as a threat). Yet even though your character's memory got wiped he finds a bunch of clues that leads him to the bad guy just in the nick of time (again) to save the world (again)...this is not interesting it is the Superman syndrome. I do not want a perfect superhero I want someone I'm on the edge of my seat wondering if he is going to even win, maybe he doesn't! That'd be really awesome! End of the book world ends, that'd be unexpected.


So here it is, be mean to your main character. Have them get beat up and put in the hospital and while they are recovering the bad guy makes off with the nuke and drops it on Russia (or somewhere else less cliched please) to start the World War. The war starts and now after your character gets out of the hospital (or even before) they have to stop retaliation (which of course they fail horrible at) and then your character takes a bullet for Dmitriy Anatolyevich. He takes it as a great compliment and decides that in honor of you now dead hero he'll stop firing nukes back (yeah right but that's what stories are for right?). Please don't anyone actually ever right this into a book, it'd actually probably be rather terrible.

Anyway...Have a wonderful November and good luck to anyone doing NaNoWriMo!