With only three days remaining before the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), it’s time to make a game plan. There’s an old saying that “if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”  So even for NaNoWriMo - which has few rules and even less structure - I need to come up with a personal plan to for both my writing project and my life in November.

For life, it’s a no-brainer. I just need have plenty of TV dinners, peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwishes, and dog food on hand.  Sweats and tee-shirts are my garb of choice for the month (ah..the joys of retirement dressing!).  I’ve deliberately kept my calendar free of outside-the-house appointments for November so I can focus on writing. On Tuesday night I’ll record a fresh message on my answering machine.  I’ll probably also go “no mail” on my email groups.  For sharing the moments of accomplishment and despair, I may keep Trillian online so I can check in with a few friends who are also doing NaNoWriMo. 

As to writing my novel during NaNoWriMo, my plan is very simple and direct. I’m going to use a synopsis as a guide to write scenes for one novel.  I figure that writing between six-and-a-half to seven pages a day will result in the 50,000 word minimum for NaNo. My friend, author Dorice Nelson,  aiming for 10 pages a day on her novel.  If I get stuck along the line, I’ll just switch to another WIP.  Surely after 30 consecutive days of writing, I will have produced something cohesive on at least one of my WIPs. Then I will begin the revising and editing process so I can start submitting my novel to publishers in early 2007.  That’s the current plan. 

Here are the working titles and loglines from my WIPs.  I haven’t decided which one to work on yet in NaNoWriMo.  Heck, I might do some writing on each one.

The Blue Line Murders
Logline: When murder and politics collide, reporter Rory Callette fights to save her town and the man she loves.

Murder in Bloom
Logline:  When her ex-boyfriend is found pushing up pansies in her garden, nursery owner Rosie Hart must find the killer before he plants her under the tulips.

Ghost Town
Logline: Schoolteacher Kathryn Laine finds danger and love when in an Arizona ghost town.

Mills Crossing
Logline: A saga of one man’s search for truth and justice in an arena of ambition, greed and murder.

What do you think? Which one should I tackle for NaNoWriMo?

Another evening well spent in a writers’ chat. Every Friday night a bunch of us get together and talk about various aspects of publishing and promotion. Tonight we discussed ways to get ready for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which starts on November 1. These chats are open to all writers, so feel free to drop in at 7 pm eastern time next Friday night.  You’ll find the chat room here.

There are various ways to create well-rounded characters. Two resources I’ve recently explored are 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt and Character Pro.  I also have at least a half a dozen more books on how to create characters, but the honest truth is that I don’t follow any kind of formula when creating a character.  I’ve tried using a character chart – you know: name, height, eye color, favorite foods, etc – but it feels too much like “fill in the blank” for me. 

What has worked best for me is a simple exercise developed by author-editor-agent Alice Orr. You can find the exercise in Orr’s book, No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells.  A number of years ago, a dear friend of mine, Dorice Nelson, introduced me to the exercise, which she learned from Alice Orr before Alice put it in her book, and I’ve been using it ever since. It’s called “Writing Characters From the Inside Out.”  Essentially what you do is answer a series of questions as if you were the character. The trick is that you need to “become” the character – you have to answer from the gut of the character, not from your (the author’s) head.  I liken it to an actor “getting into character.”

I’ve used this exercise to create Rory, one of the main characters in the novel I’m going to work on in NaNoWriMo next month.  Then I tried to fit Rory into the one of the master characters described by Schmidt.  All I got was confused. LOL.  Here I have this perfectly good female character and I’m not going to trash her because she doesn’t fit in somebody else’s “box.”

Then I tried Character Pro , and I have to tell you that I was pleasantly surprised by the results. First of all, my character was validated in that she fits fairly well in one of the Enneagram types. And the software program also “confirmed” what I’d already determined to be her fatal flaw..and what she needed to do to grow in the novel.  Because I could experiment with other Enneagram types, I also came up with some new ideas for both my plot and other characters.  Using both Alice Orr’s method and Character Pro, I’m pretty confident that my characters will be well-rounded and believable.

Of course, a software program or a chart or specific personality types are only guidelines to assist in character development. The real key to creating great characters, in my opinion, boils down to determining why people do what they do and how to recognize what’s really underneath a person’s behavior. More on my take on this approach at a later time.

One of my favorite people in the writing community is best-selling author Vicki Hinze. She was kind enough to grant me an interview a few months ago for Novel Writer Magazine in which she discussed picking the “right” publisher. She’s also released a writing craft book, One Way To Write A Novel.

Vicki has been a consistent source of information and encouragement for me over the years. I’ve read through the articles in her writer’s library numerous times and each time I learn something new, something I couldn’t “get” the first or 33rd reading. (Yeah, sometimes I’m slow, but we all grow in our writing at a different pace, right?)

Now Vicki has a radio show and a new website for special projects. Her latest contribution to my writing education is about creating complex characters.