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Workshop #2: Discover Your Muse So, by now you’ve committed to RaiderWriMo. You’re going to surrender to the writing muse for one month. But before you can surrender to your writing muse, you must first discover your muse. My muse is a cat. That’s right, you read that correctly—a cat. I met him about ten years ago. He lived with a friend of mine. And the moment I learned his name he became my muse, and I’ve been writing stories about him ever since. Of course, in my stories he’s a person and not a tabby cat, but that’s a minor detail, people. Stay focused.

Where to Look If you want to write a novel, but you have not yet found the inspiration for your story, here are some things to consider:

What objects do you hold dear? Even the least sentimental people in the world become attached to something every now and then. Try keeping a sentimental object or two with you when you sit down to write. For me, it’s the ring that my grandmother left for me. It reminds me of her every time I see it, and wearing it makes me feel brave and capable of doing anything.

When and where do you do your best thinking or daydreaming? Do you ever let your mind just wander? If so, where and when? Think about the environment that inspires you to think or work through issues. Perhaps your muse is hiding there. I’m a perpetual daydreamer, but I do my best thinking when I’m alone in the car. While I do not condone writing while driving, there’s nothing wrong with cruising around for a while and pulling over when an inspired thought comes your way. Who brings out the crazy in you? You know the friends I’m talking about here, the ones around whom you can be your absolute and true self. These are the friends that bring out a side of you that you rarely show the world. Spend time with these people. They just might be your muse.

FIND YOUR MUSE

Your muse is the thing that inspires you to create art. (That is what you’re about to do this November, by the way: create

some art.) The Ancient Greeks’ muses were goddesses. If lyrics are any indication, most pop stars’ muses are current

or former love interests. Your muse can be any person, thing, image, idea, or animal that inspires you.

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Inspiration By Proxy

Sometimes the best inspiration comes from people who have accomplished exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, yourself. That being said, consider:

Which artists do you admire? You can venture outside of authors, here. Are there any musicians, painters, glass blowers, tattoo artists, jewelers, clothing designers, auto body artists, etc., that you admire? Think of people who create things that are worthy of your admiration. Let their complete devotion to their art inspire you. (By the way, have you ever heard of Yulia Brodskaya? She is a master at the art of paper quilling. It doesn’t sound all that impressive until you see her work. She definitely inspires me to want to create.) What stories do you have inside of you? Everyone has a story to tell, even if it’s something that never happened. Let your mind wander and find your story. It’s there, go find it. Which books made you stay up into the wee hours of morning thinking ju st one more chapter . . . ? The stories that speak to you will serve as important inspiration as you undergo this crazy writing frenzy next month. Reread part or all of them. Burrow into the magic that held you long into the night one more time before you create some of that magic, yourself.

Your Personal Dos and Don’ts

As you venture into the world of novel writing, take some time to consider:

What do you love in a story? Believe it or not, it’s really easy to lose sight of what you love as a reader when you’re caught up in the hysteria of RaiderWriMo. Take some time over the next two weeks to write out a list of things that you love to see in a novel. Some of the things I love are: main characters with unexpected quirks, extended families and the hilarity that ensues when they get together, and strong sibling bonds. What about you? What bores or depresses you in a story? It is surprisingly easy to get so caught up in your writing that you end up filling it with things that bore or depress you as a reader. Consider the things you dislike reading about in a novel, and list them, as well. As for me, intricate details about a character’s feelings bore the heck out of me, so I definitely want to keep that out of my own writing.

FIND YOUR MUSE

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What You Should be Doing This Week

November is now only weeks away! If you’ve been keeping up with our workshops, you may have already done some of these things. But here’s the master checklist, just for good measure. The Master Checklist

Sign up on http://nanowrimo.org

o Find other RaiderWriMos on the site and become writing buddies

o Choose USA :: Illinois :: Chicago as your home region

o Set up your profile on the site

o Get active on the NaNo forums! There are so many different forums for so many different purposes, spend some time reading around and get involved in a conversation.

Check out http://www.chiwrimo.org

Convince your friends and family to join you—the more the merrier!

Use the Time Finder (see Workshop 1 handouts) to figure out your writing schedule for November

Find your writing zone, claim it, and fill it with things that will motivate you to write.

Stock up on the writing tools you’ll need to be successful in November:

o Your favorite pens

o Your favorite coffee, tea, snacks, music, etc.! o Find your writing totems!

Find some inspiration books to keep nearby all November

Brag shamelessly about your plans to write an entire novel in one month

Bet on your success

Enlist writer friends, cheerleader friends, and skeptical friends

Dump your Inner Curmudgeon

Destroy the evil time suckers

Find your muse

List your story dos and don’ts

Get excited!!!! November will be here before you know it!

GET READY

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Help! November is Two Weeks Away and I Have No Idea What to Write About!

First, repeat after me: It is going to be okay. Now that we have that out of the way, I want you to consider the following:

What makes you tick?

In other words, what are you passionate about? What drives you to get out of bed each morning and move forward? What do you live for?

Once you can answer this question, you can infuse your writing with things that are uniquely yours, the ideas or activities or experiences that make you tick.

What do you want your story to do to your readers?

Do you hope to entertain? To educate? To teach a lesson? To scare and horrify?

Think about the people who will read your book, and figure out how you want them to react to your story. This will help you determine which genre or type of story you

want to tell.

What defines you?

Have you devoted every free moment you have to working for a personal cause or agenda? (Environmentalism, human rights, animal rescue, etc.) If you’ve dedicated much of your energy to supporting a cause or idea, chances are you will probably

want to focus on it in your book, at least in part.

Who are your readers?

When you imagine people reading your book, who are they? How old are they? What do they do in their free time? Why are they reading your book? You may not have your story ironed out yet, but you may know whom you want your audience to be.

The Rocking Chair Rule

I highly recommend the exercise called The Rocking Chair Rule in Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s Book in a

Month, page 48 – 49. It’s a lovely little exercise, and it may really help you focus your ideas.

(*I used the “Setting and Keeping Goals” section of Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, PhD, to help create the above section.)

WHEN YOU HAVE NO IDEAS . . .

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And . . . I STILL Don’t Know What to Write! SOS! HELP! SAVE ME!

If the exercises on page one didn’t help you find your story, do not despair. There is still hope.

Write it Out

You already know that writing is a process of discovery, so now may be a good time to surrender to that process. November is still a week away, so savor the time while you have it!

To Write it Out: First, you have to give yourself the time and the space to just write. I recommend you first set the mood for writing. Brew your favorite writing beverage, eliminate all distractions, turn on your writing tunes, grab your writing totem, and take a deep breath. This is going to be fun. Then, crawl into your writing zone*, and set a time limit for your writing, say ten to 20 minutes. And then, you just write.

The key is to keep your pen moving for the entire time you’ve set aside for writing. This means writing things like “I have no idea what to write about” if you have no idea what to write about.

This exercise will work best if you focus on the questions on page one before you Write it Out. Keep your mind focused on finding your story, and chances are, as soon as you give yourself the time and the space to write, you will find it. You may not discover your story during your first Write it Out session, but if you take time every day this week to focus on these things, and to surrender to the writing process, it will happen. Think on it, and it will come.

*If you have not yet decked out your writing zone, you must do this. Immediately. Stop reading this

handout and get thee a writing zone!

Tips for the Desperate

If you have given yourself the time and the space to write several days in a row, you focused on the questions on page one, you’ve followed every tip and suggestion I’ve made in all of the prior workshops, and you still haven’t found your story, here are some things to consider:

Why the heck are you doing NaNo? What drew you to this activity? Certainly you must have some reason for being here. Perhaps your story is buried deep beneath that reason.

Play The People-Watching Game for the next several days. Sit in a crowded space, by yourself or with a friend, and find the most interesting people around you and make up stories about their lives. I survived high school using this game, by the way. It’s very entertaining.

What are your favorite books, movies, stories, or song lyrics? Consider writing an adaptation or retelling of a story that you love.

Beg, borrow, and steal. When I taught high school, my teacher friends and I joked that we begged, borrowed, and stole everyone’s ideas. This was actually true. Talk to your friends; see if they have great story ideas that you can borrow for November. Remember: It’s the execution, and not the idea, that makes a story uniquely yours.

WHEN YOU STILL HAVE NO IDEAS . . .

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Workshop #2: Discover Your Story

Discover Your World Now that you have an idea for your story, you can start developing it pre-November, if you’d like. Here are some things to consider:

Who’s There?

Is your character a Mary-Sue? Find out: The Universal Mary-Sue Litmus Test

http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm

Answer these ten questions about your characters: (Baty 90) • How old are they? • What is their gender? • What do they do for work? • Who are their friends, family, and love interests? • What is their living space like? • What are their hobbies? • What were they doing a year ago? Five years ago? • What are their values and politics?

What Happens?

Are you a Plotter or a Pantser?

Plotters like to plan ahead, to create outlines or guides before November hits so they enter November with a structured idea of how their story moves forward and what happens over the course of the book. Plot = The movement of your characters through time and over the course of your book. (Baty 94)

Pantsers like to fly by the seat of their pants, to sit down at the computer on November 1st with either a vague idea of their story, or no idea at all, and see what happens.

Your Dos and Don’ts List from Workshop 3: Avoid incorporating things from your lists of things you do and don’t like in stories. (You created that list, right? If not, somebody has some homework to do!) Check out The Snowflake Method of story development: http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php

DEVELOP YOUR STORY

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Discover Your World Continued:

Where is Your Story?

One great tip for surviving NaNo is to model your setting on places you

know well, or places you really want to visit. This will help you focus on the story during NaNo. You can always go back and add details about the setting after you have your entire story finished and you’ve won.

It is unwise to get caught up in the details of your setting during November, because you may be tempted to research setting, and that will derail your daily word count goals and wreak havoc on your writing momentum.

Which Point of View?

Will you write your story in first- or third-person point of view? Read

sections of novels that are written in both to figure out which you prefer before you sit down to begin on November 1st.

Still Need Ideas or More Support?

Remember this: the details tell the story. If you have ideas for tiny little

details you’d like to include in your book, write them down now and build out from them.

Need ideas? Try one of the Seventh Sanctum’s generators: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

Check out the OCC library’s collection of books on writing. I’ve used ideas from Book in a Month and No Plot? No Problem!, but there are hundreds of books on writing novels out there. We are lucky to have a great collection right here on campus.

The NaNoWriMo forums have several threads on plot development, idea development, writing help, and other things to help you get started with the writing process. Browse the forums for a while.

You may find your story when you least expect it, so be open to ideas every single waking moment of the next week. Carry a small notebook and a pen with you so you can write them down as soon as inspiration strikes!

The Internet is your friend. There are so many helpful websites out there for writers. I will make a list of resources available on the RaiderWriMo page, but a little googling on your part may be just what you need to stumble upon your big idea for November.

DEVELOP YOUR STORY

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For More Information

November is almost here! If you’ve been keeping up with our workshops, you may have already done some of these things. But here’s the master checklist, just for good measure.

OCC’s NaNo Guide: http://researchguides.oakton.edu/nanowrimo Lori Oster’s RaiderWriMo page: http://www.oakton.edu/user/0/loster/RaiderWriMo.html

o I’m keeping an updated calendar of all the local NaNoWriMo events on this page, so check it out and put the November write-in dates in your calendar ASAP!

Contact: o Robin Dillow (rdillow@oakton.edu) o Ruth Whitney (rwhitney@oakton.edu) o Lori Oster (loster@oakton.edu)

We’ll See You Next Week!

RESOURCES

Workshop #3: Cruising for Characters Tuesday, October 23, 1:30 – 2:15 PM Library Classroom 2418, Des Plaines Campus This workshop takes a spin on a chapter from Chris Baty’s book, No Plot? No Problem! Take this opportunity to think about your characters and take them out for a test drive. As always, there will be snacks.

We look forward to seeing you there!