Skip to content

Posts by Carol Despeaux Fawcett

Nov 19

3 Comments

A little inspiration for NaNoWriMo

Today is day nineteen of National Novel Writing Month—the month where crazy people the world over take the challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. Besides fighting off a cold (I WILL win) and being slightly behind on my word count, I’m doing pretty good.

Going into the final ten days of the challenge, I have a definite plan: write 3,000 words per day for the next four days (Thanksgiving included) to get caught up with my word count and then continue my daily writing routine into the home stretch. This will be the first time I’ll have completed the challenge and I’m psyched! Read more

Nov 15

Use a voice journal to capture your character’s original voice

Have you ever written a passage of dialogue between two characters who sounded just alike?  I have. After awhile, I couldn’t tell which character was speaking. With a novel full of characters, it can be difficult to make each and every one stand out with a distinctive voice.

One way to find a character’s distinctive voice is keep a Voice Journal. Author James Scott Bell says he’ll do this if he finds one of his characters is starting to sound too dull or pedestrian. Read more

Nov 13

1 Comment

Are your characters too polite?

Since the day we are born, we’re taught to be polite. Civilization depends on politeness. As writers, this can be a handicap. We strive for drama and conflict in our stories. Everyday, we strive to overcome our conditioning.

Reading over a chapter of my novel this morning, I realized the characters in one scene are far too polite. It’s not a scene that requires them to be rude or in conflict with one another but my dialogue could be shorter, punchier, and more direct.

The remedy is easy. Among the plethora of advice I picked up this weekend at the StoryMasters conference was a tip from author and writing mentor James Scott Bell. Sometimes, he says, he’ll just write dialogue down the page–a back and forth between the characters with no tags, actions or anything else. This can help us get in the flow of the exchange. Later, we can go back and add the other stuff in. Read more

Nov 9

1 Comment

Write from the heart to capture your reader’s heart

Sometimes, I forget the simple things. Working on my fantasy novel, I’ve been caught up in figuring out plot points and events and looking at the larger picture which is great–all stuff that needs to be done. But I’ve also been reminded lately of the most important aspect of telling a good story–writing from the heart.

I gave a poetry reading last weekend with two other poets and several people came up after the reading to tell me their favorite poems. In every case, they were the poems that I wrote one hundred percent from the heart–from that space of total abandon and honesty. Read more

Nov 7

3 Comments

How keeping a writing practice list can increase your NaNoWriMo word count

Today is the seventh day of NaNoWriMo and, amazingly, I’m on track with my word count! But I need to plan ahead for the rest of this week because, starting tomorrow, I’ll be attending the Story Masters writing intensive with Literary Agent Don Maass, author and writing mentor James Scott Bell, and Chris Vogler, a Hollywood development guru and author of The Writer’s Journey.

I’m super excited and blessed to be able to attend this event but that also means I’ll have to find snatches of time for writing to make sure I stay on top of my Nano goals. We’ll have writing opportunities in class and an evening gathering of fellow NaNoWriMos so that will help. My plan is to break it up in 500 to 700 word segments until I reach my goal for each day.

I’m also making a Writing Practice list (ala Natalie Goldberg). These are ideas that pop up as I’m writing that I add to an ongoing list and that become writing topics for later. I call it my WP list. Read more

Nov 5

1 Comment

Five tips for increasing your NaNoWriMo word count

If you’re participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), here’s a good short YouTube video with tips for increasing your word count and that will also help you discover more of your story:

Nov 1

4 Comments

Day one of your NaNoWriMo success

Congratulations! If you’re participating in this year’s Nanowrimo, today is day one of your writing success.

To help you along the way, below are two inspirational treats:

Bestselling author and writing mentor Bob Mayer has a great blog that he’ll update during the month with more posts for us Nanos. This post is about what to write. 

For a quick 3-minute break to lift your spirits listen to Nanowrimo A Capella here:

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »