NaNoWriMo Preptober: Nail Your Main Tentpole Scenes
Writing, NaNoWriMo, Story Blueprint Jana Van der Veer Writing, NaNoWriMo, Story Blueprint Jana Van der Veer

NaNoWriMo Preptober: Nail Your Main Tentpole Scenes

This week, we’re going to tackle the basics of your story structure. I say basics because when I work with clients, this part alone can take weeks to nail down if we were to do all the pieces, including feedback. If you’re starting NaNoWriMo on November 1, you don’t have that kind of time. Hence, this quick-and-dirty introduction to figuring out the major story milestones you need to hit, which will at least give you some goalposts to work towards as you write your first 50K words.

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NaNoWriMo Preptober: Nail Your Character and Their World
Writing, NaNoWriMo, Story Blueprint Jana Van der Veer Writing, NaNoWriMo, Story Blueprint Jana Van der Veer

NaNoWriMo Preptober: Nail Your Character and Their World

Beautiful language, exciting plots... those are great. But in the end, what we remember most from any story is the Characters. Especially your main protagonist, whose arc has to carry the story. We relate to them – or not. They intrigue us, inspire us, sometimes drive us crazy. The protagonist is the one we go on the journey with. Whether we like them or not, we feel drawn to either see them succeed, or we’re fascinated by how they get away with so much (and in some cases, we can’t wait to see their comeuppance).

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NaNoWriMo: You need a plan part II (Or, It’s a marathon, not a sprint)
Writing, NaNoWriMo, Character, Story Blueprint Jana Van der Veer Writing, NaNoWriMo, Character, Story Blueprint Jana Van der Veer

NaNoWriMo: You need a plan part II (Or, It’s a marathon, not a sprint)

Many years ago, before my knees and hips told me that running was not my best form of exercise, I did develop a running practice. I’d always hated running, because I was always the slowest person in any running group, from elementary school on up,  but I found I liked competing against myself, to see how I could improve in terms of distance or time. I eventually worked up to a 5K race, but then ended up turning to other forms of exercise that didn’t involve potentially doing damage to already-fragile joints.  

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NaNoWriMo Preptober Part I
NaNoWriMo, Writing, Story Blueprint Jana Van der Veer NaNoWriMo, Writing, Story Blueprint Jana Van der Veer

NaNoWriMo Preptober Part I

November is National Novel Writing Month – or NaNoWriMo, as it’s usually called. The premise is simple: write a novel in thirty days. Or at least, write 50,000 words of a novel (50K is not novel-length for any but Middle Grade novels). You can formally register at www.nanowrimo.org and get in on all the community aspect of things, which can definitely help during the challenge, because hello, 50K words in one month is more than most people write, myself included. It works out to 1,666 words per day. Which is doable, especially if you are writing fast and focused on just getting words down and not too worried about developing the story. If I’m cruising, I can write about 500 words in a half hour, so this can be done in 1.5-2 hours. Part of the challenge is to keep up that pace every day – including Thanksgiving. 

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