NaNoWriMo is Coming

[Tama]

How does Tarot help you write?

[Kristev]

It can show you secrets that you hadn't thought of, or remind you of storylines that you'd alluded to earlier but got too busy to remember that could be brought back in. It's like a whole deck of plot twists. It can help you develop characters by showing you their past, or it can tell you that it's time for a character to die. Unexpected love (The lovers or 2 of cups), betrayal (10 of swords), theft (7 of swords), nightmares (9 of swords), someone taking a stand no matter how many opponents she's facing (7 of wands), marriages (the sun or 2 of cups), mystery and deception (the moon), someone waiting for their ship to come in (3 of wands), alliances (also 3 of wands), death (Death or 4 of swords), disaster (the tower), miracles (the star), parties (3 of cups or 9 of cups), every card has a meaning. It's like an entire deck of plot twists.

They can even tell you which character should be doing what. For example, if your story has reached a dead end, throwing in a new character can start the story going again, and the tarot can show you who they are. For example, take these five cards:

The hierophant, (or pope or high priest) card of religion and tradition. This tells you your new character is a priest or a teacher, or an admixture.

Why is he involved in the story: The lovers. This tells you he's in love with, or at least looking out for, one of your other characters. But if he's a priest, this gives you opportunities for conflict. Is he willing to throw away his faith for love, or is he a stalker, a secret enemy (basically a new villain.)

What, exactly, is he to do in the story: 3 of wands. He offers help to your characters, perhaps by teaching them something they need to know, or giving them a place to hide for the night.

His past: 4 of coins - the card of the miser. This person is a very rich man, who's main goal is amassing more wealth for himself, and protecting his own security. Don't be surprised if he lives a very asture, poor life, for example, dressing in rags and buying generics. He came from wealth, which gives you some ideas about how he thinks. So does he see an opportunity to make a financial killing, or maybe he's lost his wealth and sees the character he's obsessed with (perhaps a hot young debutaune) as a means of restoring himself to wealthy status.

His outcome: 10 of swords. Not good. This man is ultimately a traitor and will do his best to ruin your heroic characters for his own gain.

The cards can also be used, at least with certain packs, to suggest a setting for your story.

For example: The high priestess suggests a school or a church, while temperance would suggest a river or a hospital, the queen of swords means either a mountain or a field near the mountains, and the 10 of coins always means a marketplace of sometype, either a garage sale or a big retail store, and the 9 of cups is simply the card for restaraunts.

Or they can give you a country if you wish it. For example, the page/princess of wands is often seen with pyramids, which suggests Egypt.

[fireheart]

Kristev, not to insult the tarot cards or your use of them, but for some reason, that scenario just made me think of an improv sequence (i.e. give me a name and an occupation...uhh...."High Priest" "Marketplace"!). I'm loopy O.o

[Jetfire]

My muse for a change has been active again lately; 6 sequential stories since September, each in the 15-25k word range, with the 7th already at the 15k mark. I probably won't officially participate, but I'll probably try to participate in spirit at least.

Lately for my writing style, I find it helps to get the ideas I want for the story down first, to touch on the points I want to hit on it.

Then I'll often outline it, do broad stroke descriptions of what I want to do for each scene. Finally I'll start fleshing out the scenes. Usually at that time the characters will decide they want to go somewhere else and invalidate most of the outline points, but you adjust and keep going.

I'm just hoping my muse can keep it up; I'm starting to get a bit of fatigue from the stories and having trouble completing the last 3 sections of the latest story, but I should be able to wrap it up soonish I hope. Then I'm not sure where I'll take the characters next.

(I've got a 77k word story that's stuck in standby for a couple of years now because I ran out of focus for it, about 3/4 done. It's long enough it tends to break GoogleDocs when I load it up. )

I just toss my stuff up on a wiki for my interests, but they are fun to write at least, when my muse cooperates. It tends to go sulk for a year until a new setting grabs my attention. (If anyone is really curious, I can provide a link)

[bhskittykatt]

Aaand.....I still haven't done any prep.

The plot I have in mind (so far) is at least simpler than last year. Last year's Warriors & Wizards vs. Aliens & Zombies had a pretty complicated plot. I had three main characters with their own plotlines that didn't really start to intersect until midway, where they began to weave together.

Outlining half at first and then coming back to it worked out pretty well. I had one character I intended as a throwaway who ended up being a significant supporting character. I had another character I had big plans for that never materialized, who I think I'll probably cut out entirely in the revisions (I either have to cut him out, or come up with a new purpose for him...either way it's a big revision). I used a simple outline, and by only doing part of it at first I had some guidance while still having lots of flexibility to let the story roll on its own. I also had a map of my world and figured out how long it took to get between places so I could make sure my characters had consistent paces.

Since I'm short on time, I think this year I'm just going to write down a list of major plot points I would like to make, and then figure out how to weave them together on the fly.

[Andara Bledin]

I've done zero prep. I almost always do zero prep, except for the one year that I actually did an outline because the story was about me doing Na-No and all sorts of things (the wheel falling off my car, a friend turning out to be a werewolf... you know, the usual ) conspiring to keep me from finishing.

And, until about five minutes ago, I didn't even have an idea of what I was going to write.

However, I have to thank Mytical for providing me with a ready-made base. My character form his forum game's origin. I know where she has to end up, so now I just have to write down how she got there.

^-.-^

[Jay 2K Winger]

I should contact my old coworker CR and tell him to get involved in NaNoWriMo. We had been working on a jokey sort of story between us at work. I left a notepad at the door, and we'd take turns writing parts of the story.

It was called Aliens & Zombies: They Will Mess You Up.

[Miss Maple Leaf]

This is going to be my first year participating in NaNoWriMo. Previous years I thought about signing up but always procrastinated until it was too late.

For the first time, is it normal to feel both so nervous that you want to hyperventilate and so excited that you want to type until your fingers fall off?

[Jay 2K Winger]

Brothers and Sisters of the Quill!

The time of the Great Writing is upon us!

May the creative odds be ever in your favor.

...now that that bit of pretentiousness is out of the way, I've finished my writing for today, and I'm already up over 2000 words. Thus writing more than double what I wrote for 2010's NaNoWriMo, and a little less than half what I did during last year's.

If I can keep up this rate, I'll easily beat 50K!

[Aethian]

3219 words so far for me.

[Tama]

1,640 according to the Nano site.

[Andara Bledin]

.... I haven't managed to get started, yet... >_>

In my defense, today is the Day of the Dead thing on World of Warcraft, which only lasts a couple of days.

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

I got to 1,794 words (why not 6 more, sheesh, at least I could have hit 1800!) before I quit last night. Feel like hell today; rotten cold is like having a balrog in my lungs.

[Andara Bledin]

I've managed to write my blurb. Tho that doesn't really count.

I'm getting a really slow start this year, but I'm starting to actually come up with an idea for where I'm going with it, so that's something.

^-.-^

[Kheldarson]

Several days without power is great for writing >.<

Okay, not really. It's worse.

But I'm currently at 2,041 words, so life's good. Still more hours to get on schedule.