As a prop and costume designer aspiring to be a writer. I built 6 inch scale models on my main character (s), for inspiration. Yup all 8 of them. God what an I doing with my life.😅

@energizer7354

4 жыл бұрын

Great for keeping track of injures what a good idea!!

@AnneSofie999

4 жыл бұрын

Awesome!

@pinkpoison6474

2 жыл бұрын

Me af

after much heartache, i have finally accepted that i'm not an outliner. i'm currently preparing for my next story (no idea how long it's going to be), and even though i'm only nominally participating in nanowrimo, i'd like to get into the writing mood most of the community is sharing, so your tips (great timing btw) are much appreciated!

@raffiki79

4 жыл бұрын

I can related, Eduardo! I have been working on the same story since 2012, I think...adding to it here and there. When publishing houses ask me how long it will be before it's finished, my response is: "I don't know....it hasn't told me yet." I had to fill in some of the blanks in the story, so I started the backstory on it....it's basically the same way....and NONE of it has been outlined, except the basic story beginning as I worked it out in my head when it wouldn't leave me alone.

Glad you started calling us non-plotters 'discovery writers'.

You're a blessinggggg! I was totally sitting here like wait....what...what do I actually prep?! Super glad to go through this checklist with you and realize I at least *somewhat* had my shit together as a pantser. 😂

part of my prep is finding quotes/pictures that make me think of my story. I try to make a mood board for myself, and then I post the quotes on my wall in my office.

I'm trying plotting this year I only got to 15k last year and ran out of steam. Big thing is make sure the house is clean (enough) in October, dishes and laundry done and food purchased. This way it's not visually distracting but also you don't have to stop to do chores.

@lindaweedmark6025

10 ай бұрын

Lol, this just got screenshot and in my phone's gallery for future reference! 😅

When NaNo motivation is "and you're gonna suffer together..."

@raffiki79

4 жыл бұрын

Funny....I have never seen it as "suffering"....

My favorite tip right now is to watch lots of Preptober videos. It’s getting me so excited, and excitement translates to momentum, which is one of the most essential ingredients for NaNo.

Perfect motivation for me! I'm starting my first novel, as a working mother of a toddler with roommates 😑. Working on setting up some boundaries and a work schedule for myself and everyone else in the house to maximize productivity. My writing space will be a recliner in the playroom while my kid "reads" his books!

Ways that I “plan” for Nanowrimo: (since I work full time, these tips have helped) 1. buy or find paper plates (preferably that I can put in yard debris can) so I don’t have to waste time washing dishes. 2. On 10/31 I vacuum- it’s not going to happen for another 30 days, but that’s ok because I’m only getting ready for work and writing and sleeping. 3. Buy corn dogs for dinner or hot pockets or anything frozen that takes less than 5 minutes to microwave. Ok, salad mix also works. Cereal too. 4. Set up scrivener document. 5. Recall 6 essential scenes in every book: First Meet, Conflict Scene, Orchestration Scene, Sensual Scene (i.e. using the senses), Tender Moment, and Resolution- every book has more than one. 6. Procure caffeine. 7. Set up support. Good luck to all!

Always great content, thank you. And a side note: redhead in red? Fantastic! Few can pull it off. Cheers.

@musicalneptunian

4 жыл бұрын

She is brightly burning in red.

@beauteoussounds1156

4 жыл бұрын

Nicely done!

I found Brightly Burning at my local library and I’m gonna start reading it!❤️

@sharaudramey9336

Жыл бұрын

How was it?

Just wanted to say, you are seriously a god send. Your videos motivated me to get back to my first attempt at a (sucky) book. I only have to chapters right now so it isn't much, but I had finished the first chapter 8 months ago and gave up because I figured I couldn't do it...your tough love videos is how I found you and for that I just finished chapter two a few minutes ago, another 3000 words down. Thankyou for being the person you are!

I've tried NaNo several times but I've finally come to the realisation that November is a bad month for me. July is too so Camp NaNo is also a no go xD November is my birthday and Halloween parties and such an extremely hectic month at work that I'm beat when I get home and my mind is just numb and/or blank. My free time in November is basically limited to sleeping, eating and chores x''D That said I'm such a pantser. I used to plan out everything before I started writing. Character sheets, events, twists, dates, everything... But then as I started writing the story would evolve and change and suddenly most of my pre-work would be useless. So nowadays I just keep everything in my head and edit as the story progresses. And there's so much editing x'''D

my "planning" just ends up thinking of the main character and idea of what I want to write about as well as a few key scenes in my mind. I will enter my third NaNo this year as a pantser

I'm so relieved, I've done most of this. I've decided that if I make my word goal I'm going to treat myself to a new pair of boots. I already have a playlist so I'm going to start a pinterest board. 🤗

thank you so much for this video, alexa!! (i'm currently writing and watching this video was my prize for hitting my wordcount goal!)

Hi, Alexa! I'm pretty sure I'm in love your videos; they really put my head in the right place. I was wondering if you would ever consider doing a video on writing a series or how to go about publishing a series?

I joined Nanowrimo this month. I was thinking of doing a live streaming for it. Seeing as I love to write, it was a facebook post that introduced me to the Nanowrimo. I'm excited.

omg! so excited to watch this! I love your videos and I've been wondering how to tackle this nano as it's my first and my writings always better when i pants!!! Thank you so much Alexa

Same Alexa. I figure out the main character and the plot points, and pants from there. Being in the zone on a NaNo project definitely helps.

Thank you, great advice. This is my first time, next year I hope I plan better. Love your positive energy.

I adore this video! The thought of outlining terrifies me! This is my first pretober and nano but so ive done nothing prep at all!! I love your suggestions! Totally going to have a prep day with my best friend whose also a writer doing nano tomorrow!

Playlists for writing projects are my specialty. I'm more likely to just make the playlist than to actually write the novel...

I'm more of a planner and a lot of my prep has consisted of research and cobbling together an outline. But listening to this has reminded me of some other fun and essential prep that I've been neglecting. Putting playlists together struck a particular chord with me. I just...can't believe I haven't thought of it? Especially since I keep going back to the same few songs depending on what I'm doing. Gonna scrape them together into a proper playlist right now and save myself the headache of searching in the future. Thanks!

I’m so good at creating playlists and getting coffee... and.. yeah. 😏

I really needed this.

i love that this came in the middle of oct because Alexa knows we're all a bunch of procrastinators that are staring at blank outlines and crying XD

This is actually very useful!

Oh wow, this is exactly what I was needing

You look nice today !

Looking forward to Nano this year. I need a lot of luck with plenty of seat of my pants.

I love this channel, because the sound/Áudio it's really perfect, thanks for your help Alexa be blessed with we from sento-sé bahia-brasil,hahehi.

You might as well put my name in the title XD

nah you don't sound bitter at all about the price of coffee ;) but thank you!! i hadn't been considering trying nanowrimo this year but i think i might try this year...

Great video. I'll make sure to get some treats to reward myself 😉

I don't know whether I count as an outliner or a pantser. I decide on a few Scenes I want to incorporate and write down the basics of them without any detail. That allows me to change and add things to the book that were never planned while I'm writing. Heck, my favorite character in my book was never supposed to exist.

Explaining to my dogs these are times you can not disturb me. I'm doing nanowrimo.

Watching in Preptember as I get ready for Preptober as I get ready for Nanowrimo

I just realized the best prep I can do is catch up on all the !@#$%^%^ laundry before Nov. 01.

Yea, working parents have a hard time carving out writing time. Usually we only have childcare when we are at work and then are “on” for our kids at every other moment. Maybe I need to consider 5am writing again, which works well for me, except if you’re already only getting about 4-5 hours of sleep it only takes a week of 5am starts to be absolutely shattered!

Another great video! :)

I'm a huge nano fan, participated the last five years, but I'm starting to develop a habit of pantsing about 60-70k and running out (or chickening out) before writing the ending climax. I love writing blurbs and queries, but again, doesn't usually include ending. I have 3 drafts w/out endings and I'm afraid nano and pantsing are partially responsible for this bad habit of not conceptualizing an ending before I start, or maybe just not being brave enough to give the vague ideas I have a try because they seem corny, or don't seem like they will work any longer once I get there. Anyone else?

@GameArts1

4 жыл бұрын

I kind of understand what you mean with the ending. With my current and first novel i am now at the ending, the last chapter, the big climax. I knew from the start what i wanted to do, how to be dramatic, then i found a way to make it more dramatic, then i read the book the first five pages which says: ''The last part of a book makes or break it, as the ending of a good book will always stick with the reader - make it as dramatic as possible''. Now i have an idea which is the most dramatic.. well it will stick (but dunno if its good as it can break the morale of the story). That said - I think if you write like the last 5 sentences of your book in 3 types of dramatic scenes - which do you like the most? capitulate on the best one. I hope this helps. (I will do the same today actually)

I know this totally random, but your shirt is super cute

This is awesome. I have 4 books out, but this year will be my first NaNo. I consider myself a panster until I get a solid mass of a book and then I go through and outline and re-order. (Planster is a word for it I think). I love the idea for getting treats/incentives. I have never done incentives for myself before, but I would love some nice wine or coffee :) Good luck during NaNo

Thanks for the tips! I'm writing a contemporary romance retelling for my first nanowrimo, first time ever writing anything like that. I do have a good idea of my story considering it's a retelling, but it's a Romeo and Juliet retelling, and I want the love story to last more than three days so I do have to make up more stuff. My process; I summarize either on paper or computer, usually paper even though I primary use computer for actual writing. The beginning scene, what's happening, maybe a bit of dialogue, then keep going. If I'm stuck, I go down a line and use the * symbol and basically see what else I could throw in. Really helps me so I don't just stare at a blank document when the writing comes, hope it might help some other people!

this is very random but your eye makeup exactly matches your eye color (also thanks for the video)

I'm making revisions on my 2nd draft. I wish NaNoWriMo included revisions in some way. I'd love to hold myself more accountable!

Have you thought about doing a Nanowrimo cabin for your followers?

Totally unrelated, but that red is a fabulous color on you! 👍

Omg only two weeks left?! 😳 I still have so much to figure out (I'm a low end planner and very behind in my planning apparently)

@jabberwocky7964

4 жыл бұрын

Okay lol I thought I was the only one who was panicking about this

@energizer7354

4 жыл бұрын

@@jabberwocky7964 oh heck no lol you are not alone. Im finding the writing playlist (that I've already created the kinda Pavlov's law with) calming my panic and helping me be productive. Good luck to you!

@jabberwocky7964

4 жыл бұрын

@@energizer7354 that's such a great tip. This is my first NaNoWriMo, and I can't help but have second thoughts! Thanks and good luck to you too!

@energizer7354

4 жыл бұрын

@@jabberwocky7964 awe that's awesome that this is you first year! I deffinatly understand first year doubts. Just know even if you don't "win" you will have more progress on a story then perhaps otherwise, learn a lot about your own writing process and if you are committed youll surprise yourself on just how much you can accomplish. You really have nothing to lose!

@jabberwocky7964

4 жыл бұрын

@@energizer7354 I really needed to hear that. Thank you!!

I am a pantser by nature. I have a very detail-oriented brain, and "big picture" thinking doesn't come naturally to me (in all areas of life, not just writing). Because of this, I find that providing myself with story "fodder" is very helpful. For the month before NaNoWriMo, I read up on books that are similar in style or content to the story I want to write. (For instance, I'm planning to write a dieselpunk story, so I'm doing some research into the WWI/flapper era.) I don't take notes; I trust that if a detail is interesting enough to me, my brain will retain it. Then when I write, I have this pool of informational tidbits that I can trawl for ideas to inject into the story when it seems to be lagging. It's still story-related, in that it helps me explore the world I've built, and sometimes I find that once I write these things into the story, they start generating offshoot content of their own. Oh, and when I do "historical" research for a fictional setting, like diesel- or steampunk, I just check out history books for kids from the library. These give you a good overarching view of the historical period you're researching, without overwhelming you with tons of facts. In other words, the work's been done for you: the authors have ALREADY singled out the more important/interesting bits of the period because they're trying to keep kids interested. And if I need to flesh out my research a bit more, DVD documentaries tend to hold my interest better than 3-inch thick books. Again, the makers of the documentaries are trying to keep viewers interested, so they don't usually get bogged down with extraneous details. Anyway, I hope that maybe these tips help someone out there with their prep. Good luck with NaNoWriMo, everyone!

I'm not a food motivated person but I might buy myself a new video game and only play it once I've hit my goals ahaha.

I've wanted to do NaNoWriMo for the past several years but either something comes up or the 50K word goal makes it seem daunting. At the moment I want to try writing a Japanese Light novel (think serialized pulp print YA) but being American it obviously affects how the work comes out. Thank you for the tips.

I have a LOT of ideas for different stories... I have an idea of the setting and what it's like, however they don't go anywhere. That and I don't know what the middle and/or ending will be like at all! T_T 😣

I call myself a planner discovery writer. I have an outline but am flexible.

@energizer7354

4 жыл бұрын

See i personally don't do outlines but I do story mapping (I call it story boarding and use red string like I'm a detective to go from scene to scene. LOL) Discovery writing is crusal to my planning process lol

@elizalagonia1049

4 жыл бұрын

@@energizer7354 I tape index cards onto my hallway wall so I can see where the story is thin

@energizer7354

4 жыл бұрын

@@elizalagonia1049 YES! Index cards for the win! I find it helps in rearrangement to get the structure down. (as well as splashes of color). I wish I could dedicate a whole hallway to do that, it would be awesome!

I feel called out 😂

How do you make a shared spread sheet to mark down words for nano? I recently became president of the fiction writing society at my uni and I'm running NaNo events through the Society, and doing something like that seems like fun :)

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

Google Docs! I was on a shared word tracking doc on there two years ago and it was fun :)

I'm trying to prep but I'm not doing that well at it!

here on oct 31st at 7pm trying to cram prep into the last bit of october, am i doing nano right yet?

I have to have absolute quiet to write. I wish I could listen to music or eat something but I cant do either.

Cool, never heard of NaNoWriMo before. :D I don't think I'm up for it, but maybe. :)

I dont know about the current site (discourse's UI is a nightmare imo) but you used to be able to go back and edit word counts! It was just kind of hidden/a pain to figure out if someone didn't point it out to you haha

Honestly, I’m a little nervous. This will be my first time doing nanowrimo and I’m not sure if I can do it but if I stop I’ll be really disappointed in myself. It’s like anxious excitement. But I’ve decided I’m gonna do it so I’m going to do it.

Red suits you. That is all.

I am so excited, I wanted to request this kind of video for a bit now but you always post what I need. Can you read minds??

I've tried scrivener and I think I'm the only one who actually gets overwhelmed by it. What doesn't help I suppose is that I had to figure out how to use it myself. Maybe if I had been shown what I needed I wouldn't have been so overwhelmed by it. I don't know... I still like the idea of working in Google Docs and then transferring it to Microsoft for formatting at least for now... I do like the idea of scrivener and how it all divides everything but I just didn't know what to use and how. i am more of an outlines, but, there have been a few things that I have struggled with so I have discovered that I'm more in the middle. I really enjoy all of your videos for plotters and discovery writers.

What do people do when they have several scenes in mind? My ideas start as scenes, stitching them together through the process of writing. Do other people do this?

I've been moving and missed preptober and NaNoWriMo, anyone explain to me what it is? obviously I've missed preptober

My understanding has been that you DONT plan much. It’s supposed to be spontaneous. Do stock up on supplies and snacks. A viking hat maybe. But I just don’t do conflict and I have no clue about conversations.

Lol in person events what's that like

Phew! I'm a panster and I did about half of these things already and was worried if that was enough or if it wasn't and this was gonna bomb for me, but now I feel I at least somewhat have it together lol

Alexa, you are turning more vampire-looking every day. Are you sure your parents are human? 😂 But I have a question for you: how you were able to use Jane Austen's books in your story/stories? I am assuming her works are under copyrights.

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

No, Jane Austen is in the public domain. Most works written before the 20th Century are.

🥳🧚🏼‍♀️

preparing psychologically

I've flirted with doing NaNoWriMo for years but never actually took the plunge. I kind of want to go for it this year, and I have an idea that is pretty well-developed in my head that might work great for this. The thing is, this idea is almost definitely a Middle Grade novel, so would probably be fewer than 30,000 words. Is that cheating?

@energizer7354

4 жыл бұрын

In my book no! Even if it is not 50k you will have finished your first draft! Which is kinda more of the point then writing 50k. Infact there are forums and a whole community in nano doing the same thing. If you want you can still continue to do a word count after compleating by how many words you edit through in starting the revision process if up to it. Good luck to ya!

I love you!!! You crack me up. This was awesome. There is so much planning going on. :shutter: This will work.

I have tried many many stories. Never finished. Then i heard of the snowflake method. I couldnt get past the character sheets. I have wanted numerous times to take part, but I'm afraid of my own inability to finish one thing before something else drags me away. If anyone here watched Jimmy Neutron, think of me as a literary Prof. Thinbar Calamitus.

This is title is too funny.

Ononononono Nope. No! NO! I won't do nanowrimo this year. There is no way I'm going to. I write really slow and don't find the story very pleasing when written fast. I am not a plotter, but-

Oof, no, don't do multiple ideas that are options for you, that's an easy way to write yourself in a loop and force yourself to scrap projects.

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

Uh the thought is to have multiple possible ideas and then pick ONE to write. I'm speaking from experience as a pantser. I prep several ideas and then pick the one I'm most excited about on November 1 (or whenever I start a book, honestly).

@kevin4061

4 жыл бұрын

@@AlexaDonne Ok, but I'm also speaking from experience. I've tried just blasting out ideas and picking something that seems to be the best. I always find myself in a loop and can't write anything past the first three WD pages cause I think of something that gets contradicted or doesn't fit with the rest of the story.

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

@@kevin4061 Perhaps you are not a pantser? If you're an outliner, that's fine, but I'm speaking to pantsers/discovery writers who can take a very strong central idea with maybe one character/central conflict and spin it out into a whole story. Not everyone writes this way and needs more planning up front. Every process is different. Pantsers need less, though per the video there is a reason I STRONGLY recommend coming up with a mid-point turn or third act climax before you start, as well as circling back to ideas that have been percolating for a long time. It aids in story momentum.

@kevin4061

4 жыл бұрын

Alexa Donne no, I'm definitely a pantser, I don't really have the attention span to think more than 3 chapters ahead of time. I'm sorry if I came across too rude in my first comment, I just find writing with that method to be a bit too counterproductive. Thanks for the advice.