TECH: One day to Nanowrimo?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Oct. 31, 2015

Don't panic, just think about it. I mean you could start with the four parts

1. A likable character
2. Opposition/conflict
3. He is, her own efforts
4. A worthwhile goal

Or maybe you prefer thinking about who hurts (characters!), What can go wrong (plot!), and who is going to pay what? (The climax!).

Actually, I think I like the notion of organizing on the run. First, think about your ending! That's right, go ahead and lay out where we are headed, what incredible wonderful climax you are headed for. Write that first! Then you've got a choice, either go back and write a beginning, with that inciting incident and the characters that lead up to that ending, or you could do some pieces for the middle – try-fail cycles are your friend! Your character wants to achieve something, they have something they want to try, for least one scene, and action, cameras, dialogue, all that good stuff leading up to failure (no, and it gets worse!) Or sometimes what looks like success (yes, but new problems rear their ugly head). Repeat as needed.

You might want to think about using a genre, or perhaps one of the beat formulas? Five beats -- inciting event, first doorway of no return, complications, second doorway of no return, no the climax? Or perhaps the Hero's Journey?

Wait a minute, we've been here before. Take a look over here

http://writercises.livejournal.com/313019.html

Where I talk about Save the Cat meets Nanowrimo, with a bunch of suggestions about ways to quickly figure out what you were going to be writing about. And then there's

http://writercises.livejournal.com/313310.html

Which talks about the idea of jumpstarting your daily writing or at least your writing of a scene by thinking about some questions, doing a little brainstorming before writing.

OK? So the starting flag is tomorrow, and the writers are already warming up their fingers, little brain cells, and all that stuff? Sounds good.

Now all we got to do is write?