;)
10 Things: To Throw into Your NaNo Novel (A Special NaNoWriMo 10 Things)
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 10:56AM I am totally breaking my own rules today by blogging before meeting my writing and editing goals. In fact, I’m not sure a day has passed that I didn’t break that rule in one way or another. Naughty.
The first week of National Novel Writing Month has ended. If you’ve been keeping up with the minimum daily goal of 1,667 words, you should have finished the weekend with nearly 12,000 words. Don’t worry if you’re not there. The pressure of the deadline can often inspire a burst of words. So can getting through the beginning and figuring out where your story is going (if you hadn’t worked that out already, ahem.)
The trouble with the end of the first week, of course, is that the Euphoria of Starting is wearing off, and now we’re all realizing that this is going to be a bit of a slog to get through the murky middle and hit 50,000 words anytime in the next year. Such is writing.
One way that we can try to keep the excitement alive is by throwing surprises into the novel now and again. Call them Challenges, call them tossing Wrenches into the works. Last night I suggested to @Bego that she set fire to something in her novel. She giddily reported burning a field. I love how this can work!
Here are 10 Things you could throw into your novel to shake things up and create interest for you the writer. You never know, maybe they’ll also actually make your story better.
These 10 Things were chosen at random from the Tim Horton’s Coffee Can, so you know there is a universal wisdom to them. Seek not to question the Tim Horton’s Coffee Can.
10 Things To Toss into Your NaNoWriMo Novel:
1. Something red
2. A sticky doorknob
3. Someone driving too slow
4. A kiss
5. A mention of temperature
6. Something/someone smashed (or have a character smash something, Hulk-style)
7. A toenail
8. A game of tug-o-war
9. A Parade
10. A jar of pickles
Bonus: A cup of coffee. No, wait, maybe that should go in the Writer, not the Novel.
Write hard friends. I’m at 16,235. Sound off your count or your favorite Challenge/Wrench in the comments.
Reader Comments (1)
Come on people! What ideas do you have?
A blender? A pair of handcuffs? Some Ceilidh dancers? Three guys named Baldy? A nose-picking stiltwalker with eczema? Surely you have something interesting to toss out here.
I'll tell you what, just to encourage you, the most outrageous suggestion I get (as judged by me) between now and this weekend will go into my NaNo.
Bring it.