Nano Log: Writing Communities

One of the most important things that’s helped me along not only this month but through all of my writing journey is the amazing support network that I’ve found among fellow writers. Whether these writers are from Nano events or from Twitter or other writing groups, having them by my side has helped me to grow so much as a writer and a person. Collaboration is one of the most powerful and important tools that we have as humans.

We can collaborate through actual shared projects (such as writing a novel together or creating a written roleplay), we can edit each others’ work, and we can offer general assistance or advice, like letting a friend bounce character ideas off of you.

It’s also great to have writing communities there for support. From the writers in my communities, I’ve learned about writing as a craft and as a business. Not only have I gotten a lot of practical creative advice from them, but it’s from members of these communities that I’ve learned most of what I know about independent editing and self-publishing.

They’ve also been there to offer support in the form of encouragement. It’s not hard to get discouraged when looking at the garbage of a first draft or when drowning in an abundance of plot bunnies. But I’ve always had other writers to pick me up and keep me going.

Not only has surrounding myself with other writers given me opportunity for collaboration, but it’s also helped me to grow and develop, both as a person and as an artist. These other writers have showed me how to move past periods of self-doubt and keep creating.

Whether I need someone to give me feedback on a novel draft or answer worldbuilding questions or offer a friendly dose of encouragement, I’ve always been able to rely on my writing friends. And, of course, writers are just a lot of fun to have around. We’re pretty wacky people, constantly straddling the line between artistry and insanity. Without the other writers I constantly interact with, I don’t think my writing would be nearly as good as it is. I take so much inspiration from other writers during the creative process.

Having these amazing other writers in my life has meant so much to me. I’m blessed to have each of them in my community.

Nano Log: Strike a Match with Music

Whether your goal as a writer is to teach, to inspire, or to entertain, there’s a good chance—especially if you’re writing fiction—that you’re trying to ignite a fire within your reader. You want to intellectually and emotionally move each person who reads your work.

But creating this fire requires an initial spark of inspiration. Finding this can be one of the hardest parts of writing, whatever kind of project you’re working on.

Too many people wait for inspiration to strike them like a bolt of lightning. The problem with this is that it’s unreliable, unpredictable, and unsustainable. You’re unlikely to be struck, you’re less likely to be struck often, and if you are struck, the results aren’t always what you’d hoped for. Try managing the fire that results from that mess.

Inspiration, contrary to popular myth, is something that writers have to create for themselves. If we waited for these sparks to happen on their own, we’d rarely have anything to write. So instead of standing in the rain with a lightning rod, we go back inside and search the drawers for a matchbox.

For a lot of us, that matchbox is actually music. Listening to music as we write is one way that we can use to light a fire and keep it going. It doesn’t guarantee us the next great American novel, because pretty much nothing does. It does, however, make it easier to write when we take the power away from the unpredictable elements and start the fire ourselves.

This one tool, it turns out, is different for many writers who use is.

We choose our music differently. Some of us prefer songs without words or written in languages we don’t understand. This makes it easier to concentrate on the words that we’re writing and keeps us from being distracted by the desire to sing along to a catchy song. This is what I’ll usually do, depending on what I’m working on.

Sometimes we like to pick songs based on genre or personal preference. Whether we tend to listen to country or electronic or pop, that’s what we choose when they’re writing.

Other writers will choose their music based on song lyrics. They pick things with lines that connect somehow to their plot or characters. Since discovering musician Dalton Rapattoni, I’ve found that a couple of his songs really speak to the main character of my current work-in-progress.

How do you choose your music? Do you find lyrics distracting or inspiring? Do you stick with whatever genres you usually listen to?

We organize our music differently. Some of us will categorize music by mood, meaning that we have a different list to choose from for whatever emotion we’re trying to convey. This can be characters’ moods or the overall mood of a scene. Something with a racing beat, for example, for a chase scene or something dark and sad for the character battling depression.

We can also organize our music by character or project. You could create a playlist meant to represent a character or even an entire project.

So how do you prefer to sort your writing music? Do you have playlists of sad music, happy music, etc.? Or do you have lists that relate to characters or stories? I personally do both.

We use our music differently. Some authors prefer to manually switch from song to song as they write. If you know what you want to listen to and when you want to listen, this method may be right for you. Working off of a playlist isn’t for everyone.

Some like to listen to a specific song or playlist on repeat. I think I’d go crazy doing this, but if there’s a single piece or collection of music that creates the spark for you, then listening to it constantly may be the best way to keep your fire lit.

Some writers, including me, prefer to create a “smart” playlist. Using music apps like Pandora (my personal preference) you can put together a list of songs and then sit back as the algorithms suggest others that may appeal to you. Pandora learns pretty quickly what I like to listen to on each of my stations and saves me the time of having to manually collect songs. And I also stumble across perfect songs for my lists, often songs that I hadn’t known before.

How do you listen? Do you put together a list, listen to one song at a time, or let a program select songs for you?

Chasing lighting isn’t the most reliable way to get your fire going strong. But by strategically including music in your writing process, you can strike a match whenever you want and create a flame that you can control.

If you like to listen to music as you write, do you use any of the methods that I’ve mentioned for collecting, organizing, and using your writing music? Or do you have your own system that I didn’t touch on? Let me know in the comments below!

Nano Log: Creating and Developing Characters

The character creation process is, for me, a tricky thing. Because there’s no such thing as a “usual” when it comes to the people who populate my stories or my methods of developing them. Some I have to psychoanalyze before they start to open up to me; others show up, introduce themselves to me, and tell me exactly what they’ll be doing in the story they want me to write. There’s plenty of room for variation in the process.

We’re a third of the way through Camp Nano, and one of my biggest priorities in the past ten days has been adding words to my draft as quickly as possible. But I’ve also been taking all the time I can afford to develop my characters.

Though character creation and development can come in many forms depending on the writer, the type of project, or even the character themselves, there are a few key practices that I follow.

I let my characters form naturally.

When a character idea first comes to me, it can be incredibly vivid or frustratingly blurry. What remains constant is that I get a general “feel” for the kind of person that they are. That character “core” is almost always the first thing that materializes in my mind.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. For me, a character idea can be inspired by something random that I see going about my life, like a stranger that I see on the bus or a cool knickknack I come across at a thrift store. Or a character can suddenly appear to fill an empty spot in my story. For example, if I need a sometime-antagonist that can double as a part-time role model, sometimes someone will just show up who happens to fit those qualifications.

Once a character idea is in my head, I usually leave it alone to incubate for a while. I try not to act too quickly so I don’t lose those core characteristics. Character ideas are elusive when they’re first forming. And if I can’t hold onto them until they’re more concrete, they change on me.

I write down details as they come to me.

Right now, I have a template that I’ve been working off of. I like to use this as a character development exercise and also as a reference sheet that I can look back at during the rest of the writing process. I’ve created the form by collecting and adapting character development material from a variety of different sources. I’ll link to a blank version of this form here.

There are a few of things to remember with this form. The first is that each writer’s process is different. The items on my form may or may not fit your needs. And if that’s the case, feel free to play with it to make it into the tool that best suits your style and your project. That’s how I created this resource in the first place.

The second is that I’ve purposely left certain fields up to interpretation. When I’ve shared this with writers I’ve collaborated with, I’ve had a lot of questions about what’s supposed to go in certain fields. The answer is simple: write whatever makes sense to you. If you’re going to be using it as a reference, it only makes sense to use structure and language that will make your job easier.

Finally, this resources is very extensive but not exhaustive. What you put into this form will not be all there is to your character, but feel free to add fields or categories if you want addition info. Similarly, don’t feel pressured to fill out every detail the form asks for. One writer friend complained to me that there was just too much to fill out. If it’s too much for you or for your character, then just skip over what you don’t want or need.

I track changes with my characters as they occur.

I’ll often continue to develop my characters through personality tests or interview questions. There are a lot of good character development threads on the NaNoWriMo website. Whether I’m giving a character the Myers-Briggs test or the Pottermore Hogwarts house quiz, I learn a lot about them with the questions I ask.

I also like to develop my characters by roleplaying them a little. I might, for example, write a scene where a character has to choose which Divergent faction to join or a scene where two characters from different stories meet and push each other’s buttons a little. I’m also a fan of written roleplaying, so I’ll sometimes throw in characters from works-in-progress to see how they do under completely different circumstances than their own.

Finally, I add to my characters as the plot deems necessary. Sometimes the story will need something very specific to happen and there’s only one person for the job. When that happens, it will usually fit with a character that I already have.

I like to just build on my characters’ core traits as I go. Characters can change within their own arcs or through the writing process. Sometimes storytelling will reveal something about my character that I never knew before. Maybe he’s a closet nerd. Maybe she’s secretly in love with her best friend. When I learn interesting little things like this as I go, I’ll add it to that character’s form.

This might even mean overriding something that I’d thought before. That’s fine, especially if the new information fits the character better or makes the plot more interesting. Don’t resist change. Former Pixar writer Emma Coats says, “Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.”

Whether because of story planning or character arcs, you’ll want to write these changes down so you can remember them.

I trust my characters to reveal themselves to me in due time.

Don’t be afraid to leave blanks on the form! Just because there’s a field doesn’t mean you need to use it. When I write, I only fill half to three-quarters of the fields I’ve provided for myself. Sometimes I put random information in as a placeholder just to test it out.

But don’t force anything that doesn’t fit. If I test run something and it isn’t working, I remove or replace it and continue to develop my character form there.

If you approach character development with the mindset that each person in your book needs to develop organically, both in-universe and out-of-universe, you’ll be setting yourself up to create more believable and relatable characters.

I create and develop my characters by letting ideas form naturally, writing down as many details as I can about each character, keeping track of changes in my characters, and trusting each of them to reveal themselves to me in their own time.