Preparing for NaNoWriMo

by Sal Florentine

It's cold and chilly today and I haven't dared to leave the house yet. That's why it's the perfect morning for the last preparations concerning NaNoWriMo (add me if you're participating, I love having writing buddies --> SalFlorentine).

Many of youz have already blogged about their NaNoWriMo-tactics, offered tips, advice and general encouragement. As a first-timer, I feel I cannot add to the good stuff that's already out there, but here's a list of what I did to get ready for NaNoWriMo - and what I do for any writing project:

Hunting for inspiration

I make a list of things I find interesting and about which I'd like to write a. I look for additional inspiration in the news, history books, and things that happened to me personally.

Picking a subject to write about

The first inspiration that I wanted to write for NaNoWriMo seemed to promise so much fun putting it to paper, but after having outlined the whole thing I felt totally indifferent about the protagonists.

I found a different prompt on my inspirations-list and did another outline. When I came to the point where I needed to find the reason why the murderer had killed a bunch of innocent teenagers on a party I couldn't find one. Plus, the whole storyline was one large cliché.

On to the next topic on the list. Writing down the first outline was like floating. Ideas kept coming. 

Everything feels right about this one so I'm going to stick with it during NaNoWriMo.

Outline 

If I like a story, I write more than one outline.

The first one is pretty rough, it doesn't contain any names or places. I only refer to City A and Person B.

The second outline is more complex. I add names and subplots. Conflicts get more complex.

That's what I did for my NaNoWriMo project, too: write three outlines.

Characters

Sometimes I know a character before I know the story. Sometimes I come up with plot and don't know the cast yet.

But no matter what, I always write down some basic stuff about a character.

• What's his/her name?
• Who/what is he/she?
• What's her/his job?/What does she/he do?
• What does he/she want? Why?
• What does she/he fear? Why?
• Details about her family.
• Details about her appearance.

One-sentence blurb

I like the idea of one-sentence blurbs very much. One has to stop and think about a story's basic conflict and sum it up in one sentence only. 

Having done all that, I start writing.

What about you? How do you prepare for NaNoWriMo and/or any other project?

On Plotting (or: Why do murderers murder?)

Have you ever experienced a total lack of ideas when it came to deciding why the villain in your story committed murder? 

That's my problem right now. I wouldn't call it writer's block because I'm only stuck at that part of the plot and the inspiration for the rest of the story is still flowing, but I still don't know what to do about it.

I've tried using questions to solve the problem because that usually works:

1. Who was murdered?
2. How was that person murdered?
3. Who committed the crime?
4. Why was the crime committed?
5. What did the murderer gain by killing that person?

I can answer questions 1. and 2., but I have no idea about 3. and 5. I mean, I do have certain ideas - I just don't like them.

Answers to 4. could be: greed, jealousy, envy, the voices in the antagonist's head telling him to do it...

What do you do when you get stuck like this? Pick the less convincing choice? Pick the fist thing that comes to mind? Leave that part of the plot until you're ready for it?

I spend most of today doing research about plotting on the Writer's Knowledge Base, in the hopes to find a solution in one of my fellow writers' and fellow bloggers' posts. And I did find great advice - I just still don't know how to get unstuck.

However, I highly recommend the Writer's Knowledge Base. But be warned: you'll spend hours doing research.;)

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Ist es euch jemals passiert, dass euch ausgerechnet dann die guten Ideen ausgingen, wenn es darum ging zu entscheiden, warum der Schurke einen Mord begangen hat?

Genau das ist mir passiert. Ich würde es zwar nicht Schreibblockade nennen, denn die Inspiration für den Rest der Handlung fließt munter weiter, aber ich weiß trotzdem nicht, was genau ich jetzt tun soll.

Ich habe es mit der Fragetechnik versucht, weil diese meistens gut funktioniert:

1. Wer wurde ermordet?
2. Wie wurde diese Person ermordet?
3. Wer hat den Mord begangen?
4. Warum wurde der Mord begangen?
5. Was hat der Mörder durch den Mord erreicht?

Mir fällt zu allen Fragen etwas ein, aber einige Antworten finde ich unbefriedigend. Während die Antworten auf 1. und 2. schon feststehen, tue ich mich schon mit 4. schwer. Natürlich fallen mir Motive ein (Neid, Eifersucht, Gier, die Stimmen im Kopf wollten es so...) , aber ich finde sie unbefriedigend. Zu 3. und 5. kann ich fast gar nichts sagen, was mir nicht vollkommen missfällt.

Wie löst man das Problem, wenn man an einer bestimmten Stelle stecken bleibt? Entscheidet man sich für die zweitbeste Lösung, auch wenn man damit nicht zufrieden ist? Widmet man sich erst dem Rest der Handlung und stellt sich diesen Fragen zu einem anderen Zeitpunkt?

Ich habe einen Großteil des heutigen Tages damit verbracht, auf der Writer's Knowledge Base nach Artikeln zu suchen, die mich der Überwindung dieser Engstelle etwas näher bringen. Und ich habe auch tatsächlich großartige Beiträge und Ratschläge gefunden -, nur weiß ich leider noch immer nicht, wie ich weiterkomme.

Wie auch immer, ich kann euch die Writer's Knowledge Base nur empfehlen. Aber seid gewarnt: ihr werdet Stunden mit der Recherche verbringen. ;)