Novel In Thirty Days

All of my blogging activities have been moved from my multiple small blogs onto my new main website which I'll be devoting most of my time too.

For example:

How to buy a cheap iPhone

Save 82% on Magazines and Newspapers

Save Money using the 30-Day-Rule

If you want to know more information, please contact me at dean@artofstinginess.com .

Thank you,
Dean Sherwin

Owner and Editor of ArtofStinginess.com

Well it’s Halloween today and I’ll be sitting down tomorrow to begin my 50,000 word novel. The first of November is almost here!
A quick word about how this blog will function during NaNoWriMo

• I’ll be giving status updates every few days
• I’ll be talking about the software I’m using and the writing process
• I’ll post informative articles about keeping your chin up and getting rid of the dreaded writer’s block.

Well there’s nothing more than I can say really. I’m just waiting for NaNoWriMo to begin.
Good luck to all the participants this year, myself included! XD

Here's a video about NaNoWriMo entitled 'The Starting Line'.

In the first post in this two part series we discussed how your characters form and personalities affect your story and how critical it is that you make them just right. Now, I’m going to discuss setting very quickly.

Choosing the Right Setting for Your Novel

This is an important step. Time and place. How to choose.

Firstly consider what your novel is meant to achieve. Is it supposed to be an ultra modern piece of work. If so, an urban location set in the present or even the future may work well. If your novel is about reflecting on something, perhaps a bad point in your character’s life, perhaps you would like to set it at some point in history in a dreary location such as in a run-down part of town or a poor country.

Consider your choice of setting carefully but keep it original. It’s not something you can simply pluck out of the air. Jot down a few ideas and analyse each one asking yourself three important questions about each idea:

1. What does it say about my novel in general

2. Does my character suit this period/place. Maybe he/she isn’t supposed to fit in or maybe she is.

3. DO I know enough about this period in time or this place? (although a certain amount of research is inevitable).

Also, you don’t have to stick with just one setting. Consider having multiple setting whether one is in the past, another the present and another in the mind of your character. This can help keep the story interesting without using the clichéd flashback!

I got this e-mail today from the NaNoWriMo organisers. It pretty much sums up the whole NaNoWriMo process from planning to having your first draft.

 

Dear National Novel Writing Month Author,

Hi there! NaNoWriMo Program Director Chris Baty here. It's so great to have you writing with us! Before we get rolling, I wanted to send you a quick guide to our upcoming month of literary abandon.

Here's the plan:

Today: If you haven't already, please make a tax-deductible donation to help us pay for National Novel Writing Month and NaNoWriMo's Young Writers Program. NaNoWriMo is a non-profit, and we've spent nearly half a million dollars getting this swashbuckling adventure ready for 150,000 adults and 35,000 kids and teens around the world. Our goal is to pay off this year's expenses and set aside enough to expand and improve both programs next year. With your help, we'll do it! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far!

Tomorrow: Make sure you've set your time zone correctly (it's under User Settings). Some word-count features appear and disappear at midnight on November 1 and November 30, so dialing those in now will save you stress later. Join a local region, and find out when and where the first novel-writing get-togethers (called "write-ins") for your city or town will be held.

October 31: Get your first pep talk email. You'll receive about three of these a week; one from NaNo staff and two from our panel of esteemed celebrity pep talkers. Spam filters love to eat pep talks, so if you don't get yours, just drop by the pep talk page (under Fun Stuff) where they'll be posted as soon as they go out. Our first guest pep talker will be Jasper Fforde; he'll be parachuting into your inbox next Wednesday.

November 1: At midnight, local time, start writing your book. You need to log 1,667 words per day to stay on par. The website will be very slow for the first few days of the event, but with patience you can update your soaring word count in that box at the top of our site. Watch your stats graph fill. Send a link to your author profile to your friends so they can follow your progress. Revel in the majesty of your unfolding story. It's November 1! You are an unstoppable novel-writing machine!

November 2: Stop writing. Wonder if you should start over. Keep going. Feel better.

November 8: As the first full week of writing comes to a close, you will be at 11,666 words. This is more fiction than most people write in their lifetimes, and you did it in a week. Go, you! This is also Municipal Liaison Appreciation Day, a raucous international holiday that celebrates NaNoWriMo's volunteer chapter-heads (the folks who organized the write-in you went to last week). Chocolate, flowers, and gifts of expensive electronics are appreciated.

November 13: Nothing really happens on November 13.

November 15: After the second week of writing, you will be at 25,000 words. This is the approximate length of such legendary works of fiction as The Metamorphosis, Of Mice and Men, and Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion. You're halfway to winning! Attend a Midway Party in your town.

November 16: The second half of NaNoWriMo dawns. Writerly confidence builds. Your book comes to life, and characters start doing interesting, unexpected things. Nice. Weird.

November 22: After the third full week of writing, you stand at 35,000 words, the NaNoWriMo milestone universally recognized as The Place Where Everything Gets Much Easier. This is also when you fly out to San Francisco and join us for the Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon, where you'll help us set records for group noveling and candy consumption.

November 25: Novel validation and winning begins, and Word-Count Progress Bars turn from blue (under 50K) to green (over 50K) to purple (over 50k and a verified winner!). Check our FAQs for details on uploading your manuscript and winning. A limited number of 2009 Winner T-shirts will appear in the store. These will make you smile, and will feature a squirrel.

November 26: American Wrimos celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving by gathering together with friends and family, wolfing down a huge meal as quickly as possible, and then ditching those friends and family to hide in the bathroom with a laptop.

November 30: By midnight, local time, we will all be the proud owners of 50,000-word novels that we barely could have imagined on October 31. Plan to attend your local NaNoWriMo Thank God It's Over Party, where grins will abound, champagne will flow, fives will be highed, and wrists will be iced.

You did it. We all did it.

December 1: Sleep will fall heavily across NaNoLand, as 150,000 writers close the book on a crazy, oversized dream.

December 2: The "I Wrote A Novel, Now What?" page goes up on the NaNoWriMo site, containing some special items for our winners from sponsors CreateSpace and Scrivener, along with advice on revision and next steps from published NaNoWriMo authors.

December 3: Rewrites begin.

It all starts very soon, brave writer! Here's to a great month together!

Chris
NaNoWriMo