Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Getting to Know Your Characters Before November 1st
Tips for Fiction Writing During National Novel Writing Month
The power behind National Novel Writing Month is positive peer pressure and deadlines. Participants are racing to the finish line with thousands of novel writers and the resulting word count from their efforts is displayed for the whole site to see. With a writing event of NaNoWriMo's magnitude right, it's little wonder that many participants enjoy preparing for NaNoWriMo a few weeks in advance.
Most of this preparation involves rearranging schedules and buying extra coffee and snack foods; however, there are a few ways for participants to work on their fiction writing.
While participants are not allowed to write on their actual 50,000 word novel before November 1st, they can begin taking notes and outlining their story ideas, if they wish to do so. Some participants prefer to be a blank slate when midnight strikes and the countdown begins. If you're less daring than those writers, one fantastic way for you to prepare for NaNoWriMo is by getting to know your fictional characters before the event begins. You can do this by filling out character bios; however, writing a short story involving the character might be a better way to prepare for writing the novel.
Writing a "Backstory" or "Character History" Story before NaNoWriMo:
As you're preparing for November's NaNoWriMo challenge, explore a past experience involving one of the characters you're planning to use in your novel. You don't necessarily have to use your main character for this personal challenge. Writing for any character will give you insight that will allow you to tackle the difficult job of finding the character's "voice" during National Novel Writing Month. Events of our past create the person we become in the future, so, by writing a short story involving one of your characters' pasts, you will be able to build on that knowledge in your novel. By writing a "backstory" short story, you'll be creating, in the process, a fictional person who is three dimensional and not limited by stereotypes and cliches. Also, you'll be practicing your writing skills during the process.
Other Tips for Pre-NaNoWriMo Character Development:
Draw a family tree for the character . If you're planning to write a story where lineage is important or large groups of family members are present, a family tree might be just the reference you need to keep your facts straight.
Find a photo or sketch a picture of the character to use as a quick physical description reference. A fixed image of what your character looks like is invaluable when you're 20,000 words in and trying to remember the length of your character's hair or the shape of their nose.
Do research on your character's job/career. Most of us don't know what archeologists or lab technicians do during their day to day work. If you're wanting to give your characters a career in a field outside of your own job, do your research. Do you have any friends in your character's field? Check out books on careers at the library, especially in the children's section, where books about complex jobs are put in basic terms. Do an internet search and find out what kind salary your character makes--this will determine his or her standard of living.
Find a photo or sketch a blueprint of the character's home or main location throughout the duration of the story. Scenes are much easier to write if you already know that the door your character is about to slam actually exists. By creating quick blueprints, you'll be able to easily picture your character's movements.
Organize your sketches, notes, and photos in a folder so that they're easy to access. During NaNoWriMo, you simply won't have the time to go searching for a lost family tree.
Here are a few links to Character Development (Bio) Sheets:
These are basically long questionnaires for characters. While these sheets are time-consuming, simply reading over the questions will give you an idea of what kind of information you need to know about each character in your NaNoWriMo novel.
http://www.pameladowd.com/Adobe/CharacterDevelopmentChart.PDF
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976908598
Sources:
Personal Knowledge
My writing group's blog, http://fantasticquill.blogspot.com/
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Published by ADSpencer
AD Spencer is a working writer living in Alabama. Her speculative short fiction is due to appear in anthologies by Pill Hill Press, Horror Bound Magazine, Whortleberry Press, The Library of the Living Dead... View profile
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30 Comments
Post a CommentExcellent advice, I got farther ahead than I thought then ran into character history problems :)
Sounds like a lot of work. Good job on this!
These are great ideas! I'm participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time this year and all advice is welcome :)
Great advice! I've done it both ways over the last 6 years: having characters first probably leaves you with less to fix on your second draft, but winging it is definitely more fun. :)
Robert Mitchell, you "are" just writing and selling a novel by yourself. NaNoWriMo is just a deadline (as I stated above). They don't read your novel or try to sell it. They simply provide thousands with the challenge to attempt to finish an unedited novel within 30 days.
Really helpful stuff!
Excellent article. I've been living with some of my characters since last year's (failed) NaNo, but new ones keep popping up. And I'm still trying to figure out what my main character's childhood was like.
You don't have to write very fast, Jeffrey. You just have to write daily. (Harder than it sounds, but not impossible.) In fact the daily word count is under 1700 wds (about an hour/hour and a half of writing).
i wish i could write that fast...
Fantastic tips. Excellent read.