{"id":189,"date":"2013-10-03T00:43:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T08:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.writinghope.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2018-09-26T08:39:50","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T16:39:50","slug":"create-your-like-lists-nano-prep-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/create-your-like-lists-nano-prep-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Create Your Like-Lists (NaNo Prep 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Batty wrote a short book about NaNoWriMo<\/a>, designed to encourage the first-time novelist to dive in, whether or not s\/he has a sound story idea yet.<\/p>\n

There are things people can do, he urges, even if they don’t have a story idea yet.<\/p>\n

I am one of those who needs more structure or substance to commit to the process (more than cheer-leaders and personal enthusiasm, I mean), but one big thing I learned from his book I recommend to any aspiring Novelist.<\/p>\n

Get honest about your preferences.<\/h3>\n
\"Image<\/a>

Image courtesy of Davide Guglielmo via stock.xchng<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, I talk about preferences <\/a>in terms of personality, and I mean the word in the same way here: You have things that straight-up fit better and come easier for you. These are things you out-right LOVE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The important thing about “doing what you love” isn’t necessarily that you’re better at it.<\/p>\n

The important thing about “doing what you love” is that you will want to keep<\/em> doing it, and do more, and stick with it when you hit a rough patch. It is such persistence that leads to being better. To being actually really good.<\/p>\n

This is true in your noveling as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take a break and make a list. Two lists, ultimately, so knowing yourself, decide if you’ll do this better sequentially (one after the other) or at the same time.<\/p>\n

List 1: Things I like<\/em> in a novel.<\/p>\n

List 2: Things I don’t like<\/em> in a novel.<\/p>\n

This is crazy-important, even if you already have your story idea.<\/p>\n

First, it’s important that your writing please you.<\/p>\n

Many many writers describe their start as writing the book they always wanted to read, and quite often it was a book their newly discovered fans wanted to read as well.<\/p>\n

Second, if you’ve already determined that ______________ makes you crazy in a story, you will (if you are ready to be both honest and challenged) become a better writer as you find other way to meet your story goals.<\/p>\n

What do I mean?<\/p>\n

An example:<\/p>\n

I Hate (hate-hate-hate) conflict without motivation. And I can’t stand <\/em>“misunderstandings” that exist only to advance the plot, that could be resolved by a simple, open conversation between the two descent people involved.<\/p>\n

And I write fantasy with a romance element.<\/p>\n

Which means that we’re-both-male-leaders-therefore-we-must-fight (I’m looking at YOU Prince Caspian<\/em><\/a>!) and something-has-to-keep-us-to-of-bed-so-I-don’t-like-you-and-won’t-say-why (clich\u00e9 problem to keep couple apart without threatening their imagined perfection) are both off the table.<\/p>\n

I call those things lazy writing<\/strong>— taking the easy route– half defiantly, and half wistfully.<\/p>\n

But it makes me work harder, better, to be true to myself and the sort of story I want to give my readers.<\/p>\n

So, to get your juices flowing, here’s an example of my<\/em> likes. I try to get as many likes in my story as possible, and, well, work around the dis<\/em> likes as much as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

Likes<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Physical (especially trans-species) transformation<\/li>\n
  2. Music as part of story<\/li>\n
  3. Well behaved animals (impeccably trained or sentient)<\/li>\n
  4. \u201cConvenient\u201d sleeping and awake times from the babies\/kids<\/li>\n
  5. Mysteries that go deep into folklore<\/li>\n
  6. Making necessary elements of folk\/fairy tales natural<\/li>\n
  7. Genuine peril<\/li>\n
  8. Threatening villain<\/li>\n
  9. Uncertainty of friends (sometimes)<\/li>\n
  10. Genuine friends (other times)<\/li>\n
  11. Inside jokes, terms and secret codes.<\/li>\n
  12. A thinking character watching the process of his or her thought.<\/li>\n
  13. Mixing folk elements from various cultures and seeing it \u201cwork\u201d<\/li>\n
  14. Complexity (lack of obvious predictability)<\/li>\n
  15. Surprising twists and secrets that the reader discovers with the protagonist<\/li>\n
  16. Cleverness<\/li>\n
  17. Characters out-thinking one another<\/li>\n
  18. Courtesy among enemies<\/li>\n
  19. Truth-telling as a form of riddling and testing<\/li>\n
  20. Witty banter<\/li>\n
  21. Good conversations<\/li>\n
  22. The protective defender<\/li>\n
  23. Dramatic rescues<\/li>\n
  24. Endurance through fear<\/li>\n
  25. \u201cActs of evil are shocking offenses to the way things should be.<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n
  26. Misunderstood identity\/\u201dfish out of water\u201d<\/li>\n
  27. Build on characteristics the protagonist(s) have to begin with, but doesn\u2019t imagine any of them are already complete<\/li>\n
  28. Overcoming an old enemy through what they\u2019ve learned on their journey<\/li>\n
  29. More than one character changes<\/li>\n
  30. Acknowledge (and explore to some extent) the power of relationship<\/li>\n
  31. Thought-provoking observations<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/td>\n
\n

Dislikes<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Conflict without motivation<\/li>\n
  2. Not-talking being the reason something bad happens<\/li>\n
  3. Smart characters acting clueless<\/li>\n
  4. Any character changing to serve the plot, rather than because of the plot.<\/li>\n
  5. Sex without significance (i.e., without the benefits or the consequences)<\/li>\n
  6. Defiant\/disobedient\/\u201cmischievous\u201d children being portrayed as cute and entertaining (I find them irritating)<\/li>\n
  7. Unremitting *Angst*<\/li>\n
  8. Daily details that don\u2019t advance the story (setting is fine, day-in-the-life-of, not interested).<\/li>\n
  9. Over-hinting<\/li>\n
  10. Dragging the There\u2019s-something-important-you-don\u2019t-know wait too long<\/li>\n
  11. *Everything* stacked against the protagonist (They exist to be miserable)<\/li>\n
  12. Too much time is spent on the meaningless, to no end<\/li>\n
  13. I can tell where this is going, it will end badly (and frequently was utterly avoidable)<\/li>\n
  14. Cruelty (a villain chooses a particular evil *because* it strikes so hard and deeply into his\/her victim\u2019s psyche) \u2014 honestly I go back and forth on this one; I see its usefulness, too.<\/li>\n
  15. The fate\/destiny\/end of the characters is utterly outside of their own control\u2013can\u2019t be changed or improved by wise choices or good counsel<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Image<\/a>

    Image courtesy of Davide Guglielmo via stock.xchng<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    How do your likes\/dislikes line up?\u00a0 Any must-haves or must-avoids you want to share?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Take a break and make a list. Two lists, ultimately, so knowing yourself, decide if you’ll do this better sequentially (one after the other) or at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4,2,12,11,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/walk-sign-smaller.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3TVXH-33","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120720,"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/120720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/untanglingtales.com\/WritingHope\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}