Monthly Archives: August 2010

Stuff to Listen to in prep for November

Read books, articles about writing and listen to podcasts: The Secrets from stormwolf SFF Odyssey Writing Excuses Writers on Writing (Barbara DeMarco Barrett)

A metaphor for preparing for writing your novel

Today as I was driving home from work (which, oddly enough, is one of the times when I get creative thoughts), I was thinking about the upcoming Jabber meeting for the Journey and the topic of how best to prepare your novel. My own 2010 NaNo novel planning has proceeded fairly well: I have a basic plot (an orphaned teenage girl with artistic talent travels through a painting into a world where paintings have magical power), a set of characters (the girl and her boyfriend (in our world); a king and queen in the other world who lost their own daughter (she was actually murdered); the queen’s brother, an artist who brings the girl to his world; and the son of the queen’s brother, who has (hidden) political aspirations) and a setting (the world where artists have power over whatever they can paint). What I didn’t have yet was that living feeling that novels get when they begin to write themselves in your head. Then, while I was sitting at a traffic light, it hit me.