NANOWRIMO: Pixar #6: Opposition!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting November 6, 2013

A.k.a. Complications, conflict, competition...

"#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?"

Start with the places, actions, decisions that the character is good at and comfortable with. What do they like to do?

Then hit them with the exact opposite. Put them in places doing things that they would never do except they have to! Challenge them, stress them, make them work and sweat and swear.

Then show the readers exactly how they respond to this. Start with the emotional reactions, then go on to careful step-by-step planning and work to overcome it. Go ahead and make even that hard, difficult to succeed, miserable to get through.

Watching a character enjoy a day at the beach usually isn't what readers want to see. Having that character run into problems, ranging from running into old friends that they don't like, through various and sundry minor crimes and whatnot, on up into pitched warfare, shark attacks, red tide, hurricanes or even attacks by the Martians, and seeing how the character reacts to all of that – that's what keeps readers turning pages.

Nanowrimo of course, gives us an opportunity to introduce complication after complication. What does your character like to do? What's the worst thing that could happen to them? All right, let's do it!

And then what happens?

NANOWRIMO: Pixar #7: Start with the ending

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting November 7, 2013

But didn't the Red Queen tell Alice, "Start at the beginning and go on until you reach the end, then stop?" Or something like that... Well, here's what Pixar says:

"#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front."

Aha! Now that's something that we can probably use for nanowrimo. Go ahead and write your story out of sequence. Write the ending first, get it working. Then go back and write the middle and even the beginning that lead up to that ending. Endings are difficult. So spending the time up front to get them put together and figure out what all you need to put into it makes it easier. After all, anyone will tell you that hindsight is better, right? And as an author, you get to decide where you want to start writing. So start with the ending.

How is the main character going to change? What is the climax going to be? How will the ending resolve the plot, with the characters overcoming problems and achieving their goals? One answer is the reader going to get to the story question?

Go ahead and rough that out. Thinking through the ending will probably give you some real insights into what we need to have happen before that. It also gives you a good basis for foreshadowing and building up to the ending. Yes, you may need to revise the ending again after you have written the beginning and the middle, but knowing where you are heading certainly can make it easier.

So start with your ending. Don't worry, you can always rearrange the pieces later.

NANOWRIMO: Pixar #8: finish and let go.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting November 8, 2013

But what if I don't finish during nanowrimo? Well, let's take a look at what Pixar says:

"#8: Finish your story, let go even if it's not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time."

Finish your story and let go even if it's not perfect. Nanowrimo certainly isn't looking for perfection, just word count. When you get around to having a reasonably complete story, certainly the ability to let go of it even though it's not perfect yet is a skill you need to practice. But even during nanowrimo, as we're grinding out words, scenes, chapters... You need to let go of the pieces that you have already written. They may not be perfect, in fact, you may know that there are rough spots and things that you'd like to go back and fix...

Don't do it. Move on. Keep writing. When you finish your first draft, then you go back and revise. But right now, the middle of nanowrimo, just keep going!

As Miles Vorkosigan advises, "Forward momentum!" When you finish something, let go and move on to the next piece.

"Finish your story, let go even if it's not perfect." It applies at the level of the whole story, but it also applies as we are working our way along, sentences, dialogue, scenes, setting, whatever the bits and pieces are that we are putting together – finish it and let go, even if it's not perfect.

Or as nanowrimo puts it, write, write, write. Keep going, get that word count up and keep on grinding out the words.

NANOWRIMO: Pixar #9: What wouldn't happen?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting November 9, 2013

You're stuck? Don't know what to do next, where to go? Wait a minute, take a look at Pixar #9!

"#9: When you're stuck, make a list of what WOULDN'T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up."

There you go. Instead of fretting about what should happen next, start listing what wouldn't happen next. Not in a million years. Not even if... Well maybe... Oh, that would be... Wait a minute, I thought you were stuck. And here you are with ideas just popping out right and left?

If you can't go forwards, go back! Or sideways. Or up, down, and all around! That's kind of the nanowrimo mantra – keep those words coming, and see what happens.

Who was it who said if you don't know what to do, bring in a gun? Ah, there it is. Chandler's law: "When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun." As a matter of fact the page about this on TV tropes http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChandlersLaw makes reference to nanowrimo with a related "If all else fails, have ninjas burst through the wall and attack someone." And you thought it couldn't happen here!

You could always have the Spanish Inquisition drop in. After all, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. Right?

No, write. What wouldn't happen? Unless...

NANOWRIMO: Pixar #10: What do you like to read?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting November 10, 2013

This is one that you should probably not spend a lot of time doing in the middle of nanowrimo. It's really something for the preparation time, when you're thinking about what you want to write. Of course, sometimes even in the middle of nanowrimo we all need to stop and think about just what it is we're doing. That's when Pixar number 10 comes in handy:

"#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you've got to recognize it before you can use it."

Make a list of five stories that you really like. What do they have in common? What makes you like them? How do you feel when you read them? What memories do they raise for you? Now, can you take whatever it is that you like, and turn it into a pattern for your writing? Can you use it to shape a character, a complication, setting, scene?

There's a dark side to this one, too. Think about the stories that you didn't like. What made you grit your teeth and throw that book across the room? Make sure that you are not making the same kind of mistake in your writing. Although you may want to use your feeling that you can do better than that to keep yourself writing.

All right? Remember that you are a reader, too, and what you read should inform your writing. Don't hide from it, use it as a base for your own writing.

Wait a minute! Number 10? That means we're about one third of the way through nanowrimo? Let's see, one third of 50,000... One third of 100,000 would be 33,333 and spare change, right, so half of that – 16,666 and double the spare change? Something like that, anyway. So how are you doing? Keep that word count rising!