The region's first everyStory Wall Party is Sunday, Oct 9th from 1-4 pm at the Glen Ellyn Public Library hosted by Sam McAdams (samcadams).
Description:
Do you have a great idea for a novel, but are looking for help on how it should start? Have you created an amazing new world and a long list of interesting characters, but are in desperate need of a plot? Is there a story burning inside you, but youre not sure how to turn it into a novel? Is your story mostly planned, but there are still a few nagging issues you want resolved before you start writing? If you answered yes to any of these questions or are looking for ideas to help complete your novel planning, come out to the Story Wall Party. During this brainstorming event, participants will present their novel plans/ideas and receive advice on anything theyre struggling with. Come prepared with note cards or visuals to quickly describe your novel ideas and explain your trouble spots. Then let the brainstorming begin.
Please RSVP to the thread and let us know what genre you plan to write in. We will do our best to group Story Wallers by genre.
What is a Story Wall?
The year round writing group spawned from NaperWriMo, called the Journey, has been using story walls over the past several years to help authors brainstorm solutions to issues in their with their novels. The concept is to provide a brief summary of your story and its main characters, so that other authors can brainstorm ideas to solve trouble spots in your novel, such as:
How do I end my novel?
Ive built this great world but not sure what the story is?
The middle is too boring. What can I do to add excitement and keep the reader engaged?
Where should my novel start?
I want to include zombie caterpillars, but how?
Story wall time will be short
The story wall time will be only 30 minutes per author
We plan to keep the author'scharacter and story summation to 5 mins, allowing for 25 minutes of brainstorming
It is recommended you create the following set of index cards:
Protagonist card
Antagonist card
Support characters card
1 to 3 cards summarizing your story (for example 1 card for each Act)
Cards with your brainstorming questions/prompts
Example (for my BarnYard Heroes Cow Novel):
Protagonist - The Cow:Self proclaimed leader of the BarnYard Heroes, who wants to keep the gang together and safe. She regrets suggesting they join a secret government agency because it has put all the other animals at risk.
Antagonist - Agent X:Traitor who sold out for countless riches to an alien corporation that wants to wipe out the human race and take over the Earth. He relishes in the suffering of the cow and his fellow human beings.
Secondary Villain - Grandma Marjorie:Appears to be a sweet old lady, but is a ruthless sociopath who has also sold out to an alien corporation that wants to wipe out the human race and take over Earth.
Story Summary: The cow unwittingly started a cow zombie apocalypse and then lost the human strain of the zombie virus to Agent X, who plans to use it to wipe out the human race. After watching her mentor die, the cow becomes a zombie. She is cured of zombism and is ready to stop Agent Xs evil plan.
Questions/Prompts
I want better motives for the villains than greed
Should the two main villains be working for different companies?
Looking for creative way for the cow to stopAgent X from unleashing the human zombie virus
I will be attending the story wall party. My story is mainstream, slice of life fiction. If you have too many authors to cover I am happy to see the suggestions for the other authors and you won't have to use my cards.CJEGV Carol Gaus
I am a newbie and interested in attending the StoryWall event on Sunday. Is this how you register? I have an idea that could probably be classified as post-apocalyptic fiction. I am not sure whether it will be targeted to YA or adults yet.
So, I work all the time because I am a crazy person and the weekends are next to impossible for me to get out... Any possibility of doing another story wall party? Or a virtual one? Or someone just telling me what the heck to do with my story? Haaa... Wouldn't that be nice.
Hope y'all had a great time and things got figured out!
Squiddish wrote:So, I work all the time because I am a crazy person and the weekends are next to impossible for me to get out... Any possibility of doing another story wall party? Or a virtual one? Or someone just telling me what the heck to do with my story? Haaa... Wouldn't that be nice. Hope y'all had a great time and things got figured out!
Thanks, Katherine. I had a blast at the story wall party; I found the insights very useful.
We will do a virtual workshop or two. Thus far I've heard Ellie ask for a webinar on how to use XMind to do plotting; and your request for a story wall (virtual). Be sure to join our new slack-based chatroom.Let me know if you have some date/time preferences. I'm currently thinking one of the weekday evenings (maybe this Friday???).
The region's first everyStory Wall Party is Sunday, Oct 9th from 1-4 pm at the Glen Ellyn Public Library hosted by Sam McAdams (samcadams).
Description:
Please RSVP to the thread and let us know what genre you plan to write in. We will do our best to group Story Wallers by genre.
What is a Story Wall?
Story wall time will be short
I will be attending the story wall party. My story is mainstream, slice of life fiction. If you have too many authors to cover I am happy to see the suggestions for the other authors and you won't have to use my cards.CJEGV Carol Gaus
I am a newbie and interested in attending the StoryWall event on Sunday. Is this how you register? I have an idea that could probably be classified as post-apocalyptic fiction. I am not sure whether it will be targeted to YA or adults yet.
Yes, you are registered. See you Sunday.
Hi, Carol,
We'll be dividing the attendees into smaller groups; everyone will have an opportunity to do a story wall.
Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow. I will be bringing this year's Hipster PDAs (that Sarah J/anobi designed).
--Tim
I will be at the story wall party today and I might have something to share.
So, I work all the time because I am a crazy person and the weekends are next to impossible for me to get out... Any possibility of doing another story wall party? Or a virtual one? Or someone just telling me what the heck to do with my story? Haaa... Wouldn't that be nice.
Hope y'all had a great time and things got figured out!
Thanks, Katherine. I had a blast at the story wall party; I found the insights very useful.
We will do a virtual workshop or two. Thus far I've heard Ellie ask for a webinar on how to use XMind to do plotting; and your request for a story wall (virtual). Be sure to join our new slack-based chatroom.Let me know if you have some date/time preferences. I'm currently thinking one of the weekday evenings (maybe this Friday???).
--Tim