Kaye Dacus's Blog, page 47

#FirstDraft60 Day 15 — Draft Writing vs. Regular Writing: A Writing Assignment

In addition to getting caught up with all of the character development from last week, this is going to be a week in which we try our hands at actually doing some writing. Now, halfway through the thirty days of prep work, is a great time to try your hand at practicing the type of […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 14 — Don’t Think. Just Write

One of the hardest parts of marathon writing—what we’re going to attempt to do starting October 1—is shutting off the analytical side of our brains and allowing the creative side free rein as we’re composing our first draft. When I was under contract, I was really bad about not keeping to a daily word-count goal […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 13 — Sunday Reflections

On Sundays, we’re going to take a moment to step back and think about our writing from a wider view. In order to do that, I’ll post some guided questions—feel free to answer them here with as much or little detail as you’d like; or answer them on your own blog or on Facebook. Or […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 12 — Review and Catch-up Day

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 […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 11 — Write Out Your Main Characters’ Backstories

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 10 — What Does Your Character Want, What Will She Do to Get It, and What Can Stop Her? (a.k.a., Goals, Motivations, and Conflicts)

No matter how wonderfully complex and well-developed a character is, a reader isn’t going to care about her unless they can identify with what the character wants, what the character is willing to do to get what she wants, and how she faces the challenges and obstacles that conspire to keep her from getting what […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 9 — Your Characters’ Physical Descriptions including Character Casting

Today we’re going to get into what is, to me, one of the most fun parts of prep work—figuring out what our characters look like! Part 1: Casting Your Characters There is absolutely no point whatsoever in me repeating what I’ve posted before about casting your characters, so here are the links to the series: […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 8 — Getting Your Characters into S.H.A.P.E.

Yesterday, we determined who our main characters are and what POV we’ll be using in our stories. Today, we’re going to go deeper with our characters and chart out who they are as people. When I start developing a story idea and know who at least one of the main characters is, the first thing […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 7 — Who Are Your Characters and What Is Your POV?

Now that all of your systems are (should be) set up, it’s time to start digging into the nitty-gritty of information you’ll need to know in order to be able to marathon-write a first draft. And this week, it’s all about the characters. Schedule for Days 7–11: Day 7 (today): Identifying your characters (main and […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 6 – Sunday Reflections

On Sundays, we’re going to take a moment to step back and think about our writing from a wider view. In order to do that, I’ll post some guided questions—feel free to answer them here with as much or little detail as you’d like; or answer them on your own blog or on Facebook. Or […]