Check Out Your Imagination... Discover Real-Life Characters

This year, we’ve invited you to tackle NaNoWriMo and check out your imagination at “The NaNoWriMo Library”. We’ve asked some real-life librarians for their best tips on finding inspiration in the stacks. Today, Trena Taylor at the Danville Public Library challenges you to keep asking “What if?”:

Show me a library without colorful patrons and I’ll show you a library that has yet to open its doors.

When I’ve come to a dead end in a scene, or have characters who have absolutely nothing left to say to each other, I’ll wander one of our patrons into the room with them, or sit a character down at the table with one of our more lively regulars and… see what happens.

Give it a go when you hit a rough patch, whether you’re in the library or the grocery store, sitting in a classroom or at a stoplight. Imagine that guy—the one inexplicably wearing a red spandex leotard or talking to a plantain—he just called your main character’s name, saying, “Baby, it’s been years!” What happens next? 

That too-cool Quad Squad you pass by every day? What if one of your characters grabbed a seat with them? You know their moves and grooves; write the scene that follows.

Open the door to the Library of Inspiration that’s right in front of you… and check it out!

Trena Taylor is a reference/adult services librarian at Danville Public Library in Virginia. She is a 14-year NaNoWriMo participant who started her first NaNo in London, meeting up with fellow WriMos who grew to be the writer’s group Zokutou. Trena now hosts Write-Ins in Danville, Virginia, where she continues to make fun writer’s tools such as Murphy’s Law Writer’s Blockbusters. This is her first year as a Municipal Liaison.

Find her #writingprompts on Twitter: @DANoWriMo