When I first approached the idea of writing a book of my own instead of reading one and enjoying its marvels, well, I was really excited. I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for NaNo though. As for NaNo, I did it! I won!
Aw Yeah
So what did I get out of it? The foundation to really make my story. For NaNo I decided to make a story in a whole new different world. At the start I barely knew anything about it, I’ve thought of how it would work in the past but only in general terms, not in detail.
Then came NaNo and bam, I use that world I’ve been thinking about. A month of slaving at the story, writing with no plan whatsoever, and here I am. I have a better understanding of my world now, much better in fact. Even though I didn’t think about anything in detail in particular, but all that story I’ve written has given me a much better understanding of it now.
I think that if you’re trying to make something, a character, a town or a world, you should write blindly and quickly. Make a short story, write 2000 words once a day for a week blindly about adventures your characters have. At the end of it you’ll have a deeper understanding of who you’re making, what you’re making. That’s when you can sit down and detail them. Then you can plan their next adventures, you’ll know how they’ll react and what they’ll do.
How does this work? I figure each one of us is constantly churning through their ideas in the background of their heads, moulding and forming what’s to be their creation. It’s as simple as giving it the resources and the time to let it all process. Then when we return to it we should be able to work on a deeper level with what we have.
That brings me to another thing. Think you’re finished writing something and you possibly can’t make it any better? Think again. While I was perusing the internets I found a post. This is what I’m talking about, let it sit in your head. Be it a day, a week or even a month. Well, a month might be too much waiting, it helps not to forget what you wrote. After you come back to what you did, you can almost always find something you can improve immediately. Other times you can just stroke your ego by how perfect your creation is. Like I do.
Purple Squares 