Participate in NANOWRIMO

A little less than four hours to go here! I’m so excited to get
started! Wheee! ^_

I think an important question to ask, when you create a
character in the first place, is “What is their purpose in this
story?” What kind of character do you need in the first place?

For instance, a plot I’m saving for next years novel concerns
a female lead that works at an asylum. She’d have to be pretty
tough to work with the crazies in her section so I pictured a
tall, strong, Lucy Lawless type. If needed for the plot she
could swing a heavy weapon without a problem. Someone petite,
frail and pretty as a Mary Sue wouldn’t cut it as the lead in
this story. Think about what’s really going to work. A waif
can’t pick up a huge sword (outside of anime that is…then you
can be made of glass and sakura blossoms and pick up things ten
times your size ;).

Why is it that so many secondary characters can outshine a
main character? I think it’s because that’s where the nuances
and such get put. The hero/heroine isn’t too much different from
all the others we’ve seen before, but the secondary characters
are much more of the following:

Creative
Relatable
Talented
Fun to be around
They aren’t stuck whining about their destinies so they have
time to flirt :) (which is why the main ‘pair-up’ can look so
dull sometimes…)
They have understandable goals and desires (again, you can
relate to why they want what they want, since it’s closer to
home than ‘saving the world’...).
Doesn’t have to play nice with others >:)

Tell you what, make your MAINCHARACTER that interesting and
maybe I’ll stick around. Make them creative, fun and maybe
even flirtatious (instead of embarrassed all the time ;P). Ugh,
no more wet noodle heroes or heroines!

One thing I think should be true of ALL characters is that they
should, every one of them, be very much into the story. They
should all be active and want to be a part of it. They should
throw themselves into their roles with plenty of enthusiasm. A
good example of this is Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. I loved
the energy of the Ankh Morpork Postal Service people. All of
them wanted to participate so much and get the place running
again. Find your character’s passion and it will be a contagious
thing. Your audience will get swept away in that and want to
know what happens to them next! They don’t even have to have
“save the world” on their to-do list (it’s ok if they do
though…).

Just some food for thought :)

Oh, and you can go to this fine site for plenty of good advice!
Lots of helpful rants here!

http://www.forresterlabs.com/limyaael/

One thing I’ve been going over in my search for both
characters and a plot, is the power of story-telling.
In the Arabian Nights setting I’ve chosen, a good tale
could be the difference between life and death. The
story had to be something truely special to save a life.
This is a quality I can’t forget when I write these
characters…

Here’s a good example of the power of story-telling
and the imagination :). (Combined with awesome art!)
It’s fantasy stuff but I hope it’ll inspire you all…

http://www.duirwaighgallery.com/inspiration_aknock.htm

Ok. First thing on my ‘prep’ list this week was to make what the
No Plot? No Problem! book called the Magna Cartas (I and II). If
you haven’t heard of this idea before, it’s a simple thing (and
it will help your novel writing stay a fun experience this
month).

Magna Carta I is the ‘The List of Awesome’. This is stuff that you think is awesome in any book, story, movie, ect. These are
the kinds of things you WANT in your novel because you’ll be,
as the book says, ‘writing your JOY’ and you won’t be able to
wait to dive into writing every day in November. So, do you like
characters with wings? Then wings they should have! You want
intrigue, mystery, suspense, romance? PUT ‘EM IN! It’s a one
month trip to a candy store and everything’s free. There are
so many times where a story veered off in directions I could
care less about. Now it doesn’t have to! It can go anywhere I’m
thinking about. That’s the fun of NaNoWriMo. It’s all treats! No
guilt :).

Magna Carta II (The Evil Twin)—This is the list of all things
lame and NON awesome! If it would make you fall asleep while you
read it, or throw the book across the room in digust, here’s
where you list it! But why? Why list what you hate? So you’ll
have a guide when your story starts getting blocky. If it is,
are you putting stuff from your Magna Carta II in it? I can
tell you from experience that you won’t write what you hate very
well. Even writing antagonists along the lines of what I don’t
like didn’t work. I just ended up hating my entire story. When I
wrote what I loved, my bad-girls and bad-guys (as well as my
heroes), were honestly fun to write for (and they did that
magical thing called ‘taking on a life of their own’).

Write out one page for each Magna Carta. It won’t take too much
time. You know for yourself what you love and what you loathe.
If you have trouble, just use the Flylady method and set a timer
for 15 minutes. You’ll probably fill up both pages in much less
time that that :). Keep both lists around so you can remember
what to keep in and what to keep out. You should be able to
cobble together an idea of what you want to write about from
your Magna Carta I.

For me, I love fairy tales. I love the Arabian Nights type
stories. Everything about them from the costumes to the beauty
of a desert setting is wonderful to me, so I think I’ll be
writing along those lines.

My next post will be on Character Creation! Whee! This is fun!

I’m signed up, and I’ve chosen this entry so I’ll be answerable
to more people than in my other NaNoWriMo goal :). Wishing you
all good inspiration and your caffinated beverages of choice!