Day Sixty-seven (67/100)

Day forty

of @the-wip-project‘s challenge

Q40: How do you start a new story?

A40: I start with the scene that the idea came to me with. I write out that scene as completely as possible. Afterwards, I re-read it and think of what is needed to make this scene make sense.

---

I’m going to try this!

how to make a story file

As I am preparing for Camp NaNo*, I have been working on my story file. It occurred to me this might not be common or popular practice. “Story File” is a name I gave it and maybe some of y’all have a different name with the same contents. 

*There’s still time to apply to join my Camp NaNo cabin!

My Story File contains everything about my story that doesn’t go in the outline.

It’s broken up into major categories and specific templates. So without further ado, here is how I structure my Story File. 

Intro

Title

Logline

Synopsis

Genre

Estimated Total Length (word count)

Draft Length Goal (word count)

Character Bank

Main characters and brief, one-sentence descriptions with ages

Themes and Character Development

Central Question

The Yes/No question that is being asked through the whole story

Should have objective qualities, rather than subjective

i.e. “Will they fall in love?” (subjective) vs. “Will they leave their partners and become a couple?” (objective)

Thematic Questions

These are the internal conflict questions that reside in your character(s) and your story

ex. “Can there really be a successful government?”

ex. “Does grief excuse bad actions?”

Themes at a Glance

Words or phrases that relate to the themes of the story

ex. person vs. nature

ex. isolation

ex. grief

ex. first love

Motivation / Stasis State / Final State

for each main character, you should write a sentence or two pertaining to these three things

Motivation: What is the drive behind this character and their past, present, and future actions? What part of their background makes them the way that they are? What are they looking for? What do they want out of this/a situation?

Stasis State: What are they like before the inciting incident? What problems and questions do they have?

Final State: What has changed about them and their outlook? What questions have they resolved? What has happened to their internal conflict?

Relationships

I usually make a little web of the MCs and their relationship to one another. One for the stasis and one for final.

Stasis: How do these characters see each other? How do they act toward the other? (All before the inciting incident)

Final: How do these characters see each other now? How has their idea of one another shifted? 

Even if a character dies before the end, include the most recent relationship status in the Final web.

ex. this is how I organize it, using the Draw feature of Google Docs

Character Bank

This is just a very preliminary character bank. If you prefer a more in-depth one, check out my 6 Box Method.

Per (relevant/important) character:

Name

Nickname/preferred name

Age

Field/Occupation

Physical Description

Personality

Personal History

Education/Occupation History

Extra Notes:

Worldbuilding Bank

(Check out my worldbuilding posts on Categories Pt. 1 and 2 for better context)

Seasons and Climate

Languages

Other Cultural Pockets

Folklore and Legends

Fine Arts

Dress and Modesty

Classes

Jobs

Currency and Economics

Shopping

Agriculture and Livestock

Imports and Exports

Literature, Pop Culture, and Entertainment

Food and Water

Holidays and Festivals

Family and Parenting

Relationships

Housing

Religion and Beliefs

Government

Health and Medicine

Technology and Communication

Death

Transportation

Plants, Animals, and Human-environment Interaction

Education

Beauty Standards

Gender and Sexuality

—————————

I hope this helps y’all and supplements what you’re probably already doing. I know it’s helped me tons to have everything in a central place.

Best of luck!

---

---

Fantastic

Presented without comment.

EXCEPT to say- commonplacecaz.

---

site that you can type in the definition of a word and get the word

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition 

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word

site that gives you synonyms and antonyms

---

clarke griffin constantly taking the commander’s breath away.

---

It is kinda exhausting and it sucks cause Clexa is like my safe place and it's always been there and so it sucks to see it hitting the fan a little but! I guess I'd prefer tea to an empty party if that's what we got for a while it's cool to see so many people sharing their thoughts too even if it's not the usual straight up Clexa. What are your favourite Clexa comfort fics?

I always loved the clexa fic: something suspiciously close to hope. It’s cute and very well written and i love clexa families

---

Day Twenty-five

of @the-wip-project‘s #100daysofwriting challenge

Q25: What have you learned recently,  about yourself, about your writing, about your story?

A25: I’ve learnt all kinds of things recently, part of it during this challenge the most important ones to me are:

It’s difficult for me to “find time” aka force myself into a chair and actually write. Part of this issue is because I do have little time with a young family, a full time job and elders whom I support. But ... more and more I am concerned that I am not writing because when I finish this current wip I will have to say goodbye to the wip’s world and characters and I’m not ready to give up that part of my brain.

I have no shortage of creative ideas. I have difficulty putting them into a cohesive plot.

I tend to rework my plot every few months. I try very hard to stick to one but ... then ideas that are better occur to me.

---

Day 7: Do I have a writing day? When do I get most of my writing done?

The majority of my writing occurs after I’ve dropped my kids off at school and before I start work. During my drive back from dropping them off, I think about my wip. By the time I’m back home and brewed myself some tea, I’m ready to write down my ideas. I usually get half an hour in before I check work emails.

---