Listening to Aaron Smith’s explanation (in the recording of Chris Evans’ interview of Aaron and me for WRUV) of the historical situation that forms the backdrop for the novel he was writing during NaNoWriMo, I began thinking about the different ways that facts can be involved in fiction. In the normal course of things, facts [...]
Archive for the ‘NaNoWriMo’ Category
NaNoWriMo: Writing Fiction vs Writing Nonfiction 2 Imagination and Fact
Posted in Fiction, NaNoWriMo, Nonfiction on December 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
NaNoWriMo: Writing Fiction vs Writing Nonfiction 1 Audience and Sequence
Posted in Fiction, NaNoWriMo, Narration, Nonfiction, Writing Techniques on December 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In my interview with Chris Evans on WRUV (University of Vermont radio) yesterday, the subject of the differences in writing fiction and nonfiction was touched on. I’d like to expand on it a bit here. During NaNoWriMo, I began writing a novel, a genre that I had not worked in since my bachelor’s paper—a mystery [...]
NaNoWriMo: Fruits of My Labor
Posted in Character, NaNoWriMo, Reading and Writing on December 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Today I was privileged to have the opportunity to experience a special kind of reward for participating in NaNoWriMo: at the invitation of Chris Evans, I read an excerpt from Chapter 14 of the first novel of my Bent Parallels Quintology on UVM station WRUV this morning at 10. Aaron Smith, another Verimo, was the [...]
NaNoWriMo: How I Made It Work for Me
Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing Techniques on December 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I knew from the start that winning NaNoWriMo in NaNoWriMo terms was not possible for me this year. First of all, I had begun thinking about a novel in 2005, it had grown to a set of five since then, and I had been drafting the first chapter (and redrafting and redrafting) since May. It [...]
NaNoWriMo: Go, Team, Go!
Posted in NaNoWriMo, Online Research, tagged characterization, writing on November 15, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Looking for a name for a fictional sports team that has a role in your story? Seeking the name of a real high school team or school nickname? You’ll want to visit the website High School Nicknames. On this site, you can find: • Many, many high school team names, organized alphabetically (did you know [...]
NaNoWriMo: Valuable Sources for Character Names
Posted in Character, Inspiration, NaNoWriMo, Online Research, tagged writing on November 13, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I ran across some useful sources for character names today that I’d like to share. • Native American names at Writing Adolescent Fiction/Character Names/Native American but be sure to carefully distinguish tribe-appropriate names. • Wikipedia Category: Surnames a listing of a large number of surnames that can be searched by the first two letters • [...]
NaNoWriMo: Text, Story, Fabula
Posted in NaNoWriMo, tagged narrative, story, writing on November 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Mieke Bal in Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative distinguishes between text, story, and fabula as a way of understanding narrative. What do these term mean and what import do they have for NaNoWriMo? In Bal’s explication, fabula refers to the chronological sequence of events that underlies the narrative. Story refers to the way [...]
NaNoWriMo Establishing Place and Considering Narration
Posted in NaNoWriMo, tagged Narration, setting, writing on November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
After beginning chapter 6 of my NaNoWriMo novel yesterday, I stopped short and read chapters 1-5 all together. There is—intentionally—a great deal of dialogue. The action of this novel is driven by communication. But I realized that in focusing on that element of the story, I had not yet given sufficient attention to establishing place: [...]
NaNoWriMo Surprises
Posted in NaNoWriMo on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Even though I’ve been planning my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) story—a YA and up mixed-genre fictional quintology—since 2005, in my first 10,000 words, I’ve already met some surprises: I didn’t know that the story was going to have any significant part, let alone begin, in this world, and the addition of a major setting [...]
