Author Archives: NewMexicoKid

Some exercises to prepare for NaNo

Here are four exercises you can do to help prepare yourself for NaNoWriMo: take one or two of your characters from your novel-to-be and place them in an uncomfortable situation: e.g., kidnapped or captured by someone. How do they react? What do they do? What do they say? Did any of your characters experience tragedy […]

October 4, 2010 – 8:38 pm | By NewMexicoKid | Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Need a title?

Check out the title engine that collates titles from NaNoWriMo’s Title Adoption thread in the Adoption Society forum.

October 3, 2010 – 10:39 am | By NewMexicoKid | Posted in NaNoWriMo | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Pictures from the first prep session

Yesterday’s prep session, our first for 2010, was informative and fun. We had 29 people in attendance at the Nichols Library in Naperville (many of them were first-timers in NaNo). Katherine gave a great presentation. Here are some of the points I picked up from the session Strategies for NaNo/writing Use the temptation as a […]

October 3, 2010 – 8:09 am | By NewMexicoKid | Posted in NaperWriMo | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

36 Dramatic Situations

Recently I ran across a reference to this list of universal plots, which included a reference to 36 plots from a book by George Polti. I did a a little research on this and found the actual 100-year-old text to the Polti book. You can read it online (nifty interface!). I’m always on the search […]

September 13, 2010 – 5:49 am | By NewMexicoKid | Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

2010 NaperWriMo flyer + Meet and Greet at Andersons

Our 2010 NaperWriMo flyer is now available. Feel free to download, print out and post around to help advertise our free regional events. Thanks to Barb and Lloyd, we will have a meet-and-greet event from 1-3 pm Saturday, September 18th at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville. Come on out and say hello. Lloyd, Barb and I […]

September 10, 2010 – 9:48 pm | By NewMexicoKid | Posted in NaperWriMo | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

A metaphor for preparing for writing your novel

Today as I was driving home from work (which, oddly enough, is one of the times when I get creative thoughts), I was thinking about the upcoming Jabber meeting for the Journey and the topic of how best to prepare your novel. My own 2010 NaNo novel planning has proceeded fairly well: I have a basic plot (an orphaned teenage girl with artistic talent travels through a painting into a world where paintings have magical power), a set of characters (the girl and her boyfriend (in our world); a king and queen in the other world who lost their own daughter (she was actually murdered); the queen’s brother, an artist who brings the girl to his world; and the son of the queen’s brother, who has (hidden) political aspirations) and a setting (the world where artists have power over whatever they can paint). What I didn’t have yet was that living feeling that novels get when they begin to write themselves in your head. Then, while I was sitting at a traffic light, it hit me.

August 9, 2010 – 4:52 pm | By NewMexicoKid | Posted in Writing | Tagged | Comments (0)

Editing workshop at DucKon 19

I experienced my first ever SF convention and writers workshop at the recent DucKon 19 in Naperville (18-20 June 2010). It was a blast! Lot’s of fun and very interesting. Met some nice (and talented) people. I would recommend it to anyone in the general vicinity, though next year the writer’s track may move to […]

June 21, 2010 – 9:04 pm | By NewMexicoKid | Posted in Writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)