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| Milk Wood |
NaNoWriMo 2020 Pep Talk for the Virtual Writers blog. Posted here for my future reference.
Milk Wood, Virtual Writers
Lizzie Gudkov
November 7, 2020
Time usually flies pretty quickly when we're immersed in a writing project. Yet, it seems to fly even quicker in November! After the fast-paced, highly motivated writing happening at the beginning of the month, your writing pace seems to be slowing down. And you're panicking, right? I know I am... What can we do?
I'm sure you've heard it all before. Write this way, don't write that way, take notes, don't take notes, keep going, take a break. What?! Get me out of here!!
No! Don't go! You cannot give up. Writing is tough. Yes, it is. Life happens. Yes, it does. However, giving up is not an option.
So, here are five ideas to get you unstuck during NaNoWriMo®!
And Then What? – if you go beyond the end of your story, what happens then? What can you bring into your plot from what happens outside its framework?
You Are a Character in Your Own Book Now! - What if YOU waltzed into your own story? Would you admonish one of your characters? Would you encourage anyone? Would you rearrange the furniture? *grin* Would you get annoyed and go wash those dirty dishes in the sink yourself? Get your characters moving around you, and *evil grin* eavesdrop on what they are saying about you behind your back!
Upside Down – what if the good became bad and the bad became angels? How would your terribly evil character act as an angel? What would he do if you told him he has to behave? You can even sneak inside your story again and tell him yourself. How would he react? Would he throw a tantrum? Ha!
A Wombat? A Shoebill? A Glass Frog? - transform all your characters into animals and see how they would relate to one another. Try to think of unusual animals. Make one hate the color of the other! Or love it, and be extremely annoying because he wants to take a photo for his social media!
Who Are You?! – what if a character from your favorite author decides to waltz into your story? How would your main character react? What kind of impact would it have on the other characters? Would all your characters, friends and foes, unite to expel him from your story? And how about the story itself? How would it change? Could there be any secret alliances in the making after this unexpected intruder was kicked out?
These are only a few fun activities that will trick your brain out of being stuck. Will they help increase the word-count? I don't know. Will they trigger fresh ideas for your plot? I really don't know. But one thing will happen for sure. You will not give up!
Keep writing. You can do this!
See you at Milk Wood. :)
Lizzie
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Lizzie Gudkov is a fiction writer born in Portugal. After a career as a teacher of English, she rediscovered writing. In her blog http://lizziegudkov.blogspot.com, she features fiction mostly (micro, flash and short fiction), but also poetry and a few opinion articles. She is also a six time winner of the NaNoWriMo and a five time winner of the Camp NaNoWriMo. As part of her writing path, Lizzie hosts and takes part in multiple writing events, largely in the virtual world of Second Life®.
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