Ten Things for the NaNoWriMo'ers
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
1. Characters: Novel I: Imagine -- my post about the three questions I use to create characters and conflicts; Holly Lisle's article How to Create a Character; and Kleimo's Random Name Generator, aka my favorite character name generator on the web.
2. Dialogue: Peder Hill's article on writing effective dialogue; Holly Lisle's Dialogue Workshop; John and Marcia tackle the problems with overly-polite dialogue in my post Protagonism.
3. Linkage: Freeware & Online Tools for Writers -- my lengthy link list of freeware, shareware and online tools; Margaret Fisk's massive and enormously helpful library of writing links; and Seventh Sanctum, my favorite online generator/writing tool site.
4. Miscellaneous: generate your own languages and a lot more with the scripts over at Chris Pound's Language Machines; break a writing block with The Bonsai Story Generator; get free writing software designed by a writer (science fiction author Simon Haynes) over at Spacejock Software; and for those moments when you've got a concept but no word for it, stop by Onelook's Reverse Dictionary.
5. Notebook: Another ten list for the Writer's Notebook; also my own Revised Novel Notebook -- a how-to project that still needs some revising and refinement, but that has my plot templates, character worksheets, example synopses, etc. To download directly in .pdf format, click here.
6. Outlining: Novel Outlining 101 -- a simple method I use to create a novel outline by timelining events as they will happen in the story.
7. Plotting: my virtual workshop Plotting with Purpose also has some links to other online articles, workshops and so forth on plotting; this ten list has plotting links and freeware.
8. Scenes: Scenes: The Building Blocks of Novels by Kim Kay; my post Scene Building 101 on how I compose novel scenes.
9. Setting: My post about online generators for Place Names; my post World Check on worldbuilding and how much I do.
10. Writing Inspiration: my post Courage; Creativity Portal's page of writing prompts.
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Thanks for these! I'm always on the lookout for new things to learn about the writing craft. Particularly since my goal is to finally finish a complete novel. Short stories? I love writing them. But a novel, at least for me, is now my own personal Holy Grail.
ReplyDeletePBW, you are my NaNo hero. Thanks so much.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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