While the idea of the novelist crouched over his paper (typewriter, keyboard) in poor light in a cramped attic may seem romantic it does little to add to your productivity or to your health.
Getting up and stretching or even walking around a bit every 20-30 minutes can relieve cramping and stress in your body and [...]
Garbage in = garbage out.
Writing a novel during NaNoWriMo is a challenge of endurance. If you’re eating too much junk food with the excuse that you don’t have time to eat healthy because you’ve only got so many hours in a day and you need to get this novel done dammit you’re going to crash.
Novel [...]
You’ve written 5000 words of your NaNoWriMo novel and you’ve hit a wall but you’ve got this great idea for a different novel that you’re just itching to begin. You think about deleting that first novel or setting it aside and beginning from scratch on the new novel idea. After all you still have lots [...]
Great dialogue is what makes your characters realistic. It’s what powers your plot plot. Without good dialogue your novel will seem flat and your reader will quickly lose interest.
I’ve a list here of some places to read up on how to create good dialogue:
Writing Dialogue
How to Write Dialogue
Tips on Writing Better Dialogue
I find I get [...]
Many novelists use music to help their writing. For some, one CD seems to resonate with the feel or the mood of the novel they are writing. Imagine writing a novel set in the highlands of Scotland a couple of hundred years ago. Now imagine writing that novel with the sound of the Beach Boys [...]
One of the greatest things about joining National Novel Writing Month is the community. Once you create a free membership at NaNoWriMo.org you have access to the member forums which is absolutely teaming with activity this time of year.
There are local area forums in which you can meet and interact with other people in your [...]
Every good book has a plot but also one or more subplots. Sometimes for NaNoWriMo you’ve begun your book without much of a plot to begin with and now you need worry about subplots?
Much like Tip 4’s suggestions about finding characters, finding plot and subplot ideas can be as simple as watching and listening to [...]
I’ve gotten a bit behind with the tips. I’m on day 8 (or is it 9?) of a nasty flu/cold thing. My voice is completely gone and has been for days so the audio/video posts just aren’t happening. I figured I’d better catch up though so you get to endure a few text only tips. [...]
I’m still sick. Flu is the worst. Anyhow here’s the 3rd tip as promised. I should let you know… I am not even CLOSE to being at my goal of 5001 words by the end of today so if you’re behind. No worries, you can still catch up. I will!
And as promised in the video [...]
