NaNoWriMo (sometimes I think it should be NaJaWriMo because it takes me three months to finish) is similar to Thanksgiving Day dinner.
Plot
To outline or not to outline? To pants-it or not to pants-it?
Who wants five guests with the same speech pattern who all bring green bean casserole? Let alone they camp in the kitchen for five days not speaking, not even a whistle?
I’ve learned to plot and write both ways, but I know my time and energy are far better spent if I outline first. This includes a detailed list of characters. (See below.)
What schedule?
A well thought out timeline includes when to make pies and stuffing, when to prepare the bird (or tofu bird), who is bringing what side dish, and when and how you’ll keep it warm. Who wants to serve, let alone eat, half-baked turkey, cool mashed potatoes, cold stuffing and steaming corn? Writing and cooking/baking take learning, practice, organization and time. One can’t afford to waste life, nor put oneself in the hospital from not sleeping. That’s to say, learn to manage demands on your time. Too, your characters shouldn’t solve the mystery before anything is stolen.
All these things to juggle, when can I write?
While working full-time, as well as being a full-time dad, Mystery/Thriller author David Baldacci made time to write. “You want to be creative writing stories; you have to be very creative finding time to write those stories.” He wrote from 10 PM to 2 AM.
Do you cook with spices?
Add details to your meal. Turkey=main character. However, doesn’t whatever kind of main course you’ll enjoy need poultry seasoning, sage or garlic or pepper or Mrs. Dash? Cinnamon? Enhance your characters’ lives with distinct traits only they possess for this story. Give them a lisp, a home that’s a complete dive (can you smell the rug?), no social skills, or put them in the midst of tension. (See: The Great Alone.This story could be a case study on tension.) That’s enriching 1-D figures to create a distinctive personality, or a 3-D identity—a story people want to read.
How are your guests dressed? If you open your story with a plane crash? Anything goes. I suggest characters living on a working ranch might wear snapping shirts and Wrangler jeans—except for that one person who always wears Levi’s, flipflops, and lowcut T-shirts.
Place settings and name cards. I’m not kidding.
If you’re in Florida, sure, dinner under sizzling heatwaves is a fine place to feast. (Also doubles as a food warmer.) This is, of course your story’s setting. The place can always switch from scene to scene. Liken that to say, a lightning bolt hitting Aunt Susan’s foil-covered yams.
Dinner guests rush inside thus changing the setting while creating an inciting incident.
Give your characters great names like, Amos, or Sport, Hannibal, It, Meg March, Julio, or Simba. Note: If your characters’ names begin with different letters of the alphabet, this adds to their individuality. Okay, okay. Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which obviously begin with the same letter. For every “rule” there’s an exception.
Please note: Where your guests sit=how they interact with others, creating some type of tension, at least in your main character. (For example: jealousy, sexual, fear)
Drinks anyone?
At dinner there are those that slug down a chilled Coors, perhaps one winebibber, a “water on the rocks with a twist of lemon, please,” and those proverbial partakers of diet soda. Diet=cut, cut, cut. Do away with repetitive phrases, or use of words such as, like, walk, sit, and of course, daggnabbitt.
Pass the potatoes!
In Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass suggests making an Excel-type table. In the rows type names of your characters. Tops of the columns are where nouns or verbs are written.
Lou calls a potato a “spud.” Char refers to potatoes as “edible starchy tubers.” Their dinner guests, Dara, Antonia, Smitty, Quail and Rey have various names for this dish such as, “tater,” “murphy,” “sweet potato,” “Irish potato,” and “smashed ‘tatoes.” Fred calls the vegetable a “stump spud” because he spends too much time searching the internet and doesn’t double check Google’s information.
There are always ghosts at the table!
A ghost writer=hire a caterer. You’ll have more time to write.
Amusing and informative, Rainey. Water on the rocks, LOL! Happy Thanksgiving!