Kaye Dacus's Blog, page 31

#FirstDraft60 Day 14: Review & Catch-Up Day #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

Saturdays throughout this challenge are going to be our days to review what we’ve covered during the week, and to catch up on anything we fell behind with. When doing any kind of a challenge like this in which the goals are cumulative, it’s always good to build in a day (or two) to be […]

#FirstDraft 60 Day 13: A Draft-Writing Assignment #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

In addition to continuing to work on all of the character development projects from last two weeks, today we’re going to try our hands at actually doing some writing. We’re almost halfway through the thirty days of prep work, so now is a great time to try your hand at practicing the type of writing […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 12: Character Backstories #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

As the culmination of everything we’ve done with our characters this week, we are going to pull everything we know about them together and write down—and discover more through the process—their backstories. One of the worst things we can do in our writing is not develop our characters well. This comes either from a lack […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 11: Ambitions, Inducements, & Entanglements #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo #gmc

There are a couple of things lurking in the work you’ve (hopefully) already done up to this point which will be important to dig out and define at this point. No matter how wonderfully complex and well-developed a character is, readers won’t care about her unless they can identify with what she wants, what she […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 10: Your Characters’ Physical Descriptions #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

Sorry this post is so late—I’ve been fighting a migraine all day, and it was all I could do to get through what had to be done for my day job before seeking refuge in bed for a couple of hours. Today we’re going to get into what is, to me, one of the most […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 9: Monday Motivation–Don’t Think. Just Write. #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

Mondays are the day of the week on which I need the most motivation to get going with anything, whether it’s work or writing or any other responsibilities/obligations I may have. So on Mondays, we’re going to take the time for some “motivational speaking,” whether from me or from other writers. Today, I’m actually going […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 8: Week 1 Reflections #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

We hit the road running this week and haven’t had a chance to take a break—and the last two days’ posts are somewhat time intensive, I know, as I haven’t finished my SHAPE charts for either of my main characters yet. As we move on in the challenge, weekends are going to be our time […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 7: Getting Your Characters into S.H.A.P.E. #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

Yesterday, we started building our characters by introducing them to ourselves and to all the other characters in the story by asking four questions. Today, we’re going to go deeper with our characters and chart out who they are as people. Get Your Characters into S.H.A.P.E. This acrostic is something that I picked up at […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 6: Four Character Building Questions #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

This year, this first post dedicated specifically to starting to get to know our characters is going to be different from last year’s. Last year’s post is a basic overview of how to choose viewpoint characters (vs. secondary and minor) and how to figure out what Point of View (first/third, present/past, etc.) you’re planning to […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 5: Lists. Lists. Lists. #amwriting #nanoprep #nanowrimo

When we’re writing, we have lots of stuff to keep track of, both for our story in progress as well as just general writing-related stuff. Which brings me to today’s assignment. Make lists. Lots and lots of lists. Something every successful con artist or pathological liar knows is that you MUST keep track of the […]