NaNoWriMo: The Log Line
You saw my sprawling blurb earlier, which needs lots of work. Â A blurb is critical in the success of selling a story. Â A log line is also extremely valuable. Â I’ve bought books more than once on the power of the log line alone. What is a log line? Â It’s the one sentence description better known in movies. Being able to sum up your plot in one sentence that has the hint of a unique and interesting plot gives you a fast way to connect with readers. Â The ability to write a pithy one line is also great for author bios and tweeting. Â It’s not a skill that comes naturally to me! Here is a good overview of writing a log line for a novel. And here are some examples of book log lines that I think are really good. These have gotten me to click on the link...
Read MoreNaNoWriMo: The Biggest Challenge
What is the most challenging part of NaNoWriMo for me? Â Letting the writing be bad. There are two major ways that people write. Some push themselves to write a first draft very quickly, turning off the inner editor and letting the writing be bad until they can polish it later. Others have a hard time ever getting a book written because they can’t move to a new section until what they have is completely perfect. Most of us, I think, fall somewhere in the middle of this. I know I do. Â I produce a fair amount of writing, I don’t have trouble finishing books. Â Yet I also polish a little bit as I go. In a day I might write a couple new scenes and also revise and polish some other scenes. To get the crazy word count of NaNoWriMo, one needs to be able to set...
Read MoreNaNo By the Numbers
Even though I’m not good at math, I still love to measure progress with numbers. Â It motivates me and excites me to break down my writing into word counts. So, my personal goal for NaNo is 80,000 words. (That is more than I’ve ever written on any project. My novel (W)hole is 65,000 and that’s the longest I’ve ever written). I have an outline with, as the moment, 95 scenes. That means that if every scene were of equal length, they would need to be: 843 words, which is about three pages. Â To make sure I have enough words, I’ll probably work to try to get every scene at least that long. Â Three pages is a lot for me, though, so I might try to break down the outline into more basic scenes, see if there’s anywhere that I’m...
Read MoreProgress Trackers
At proofreaders; available for pre-order
What Is Meant To Be
Second draft
Homework & Homicide (working title)
Second Draft
Book Montage
RFW winner October 7, 2011
