Now that inspiration struck me like a lightning bolt on top of my head with regard to 2018 NaNoWriMo, it’s time to start pre-working aspects of the story. Because once November hits, it’s a mad rush to spew forth as many words as one can before the magical thirty days are over.
My story takes place in two time frames – one, during the summer of 1984, and two, present day. I’ve decided on a high school girl gang of four, some privileged, one not, and one in-between. There will also be at least two high school boys, the objects of the girls’ attention.
I love doing this kind of story, where the characters are not the same as they were as children. (Who is? It’s a great place for a writer to go.) Right now, I’m concentrating on the younger cast of characters, trying to assign them traits and physical descriptions, all the while sketching out the in-between years to explain later behavior.
There are many tools in books and online regarding character development. (I’m pretty sure the final product will not even resemble what I’ve come up in my head these next few weeks. After all, these are sketches, not masterpieces!) One I like to use is the twenty-questions method. I’m not sure where I found the original – probably at the San Francisco Writers Conference. Each character answers the same twenty questions. This really aids in developing very different characters.
Then I like to grid off all my characters (usually in a notebook situation, so I can see everyone at one time). One set of grids might answer the questions “What do I want?” and “How will I get there?” or “What am I afraid of?” and “How can I get over this fear?”
I can be visual, so I might actually sketch a map of where the characters live, or draw a prominent house. This helps get a sense of where the characters are in daily life. I’ve used Pinterest to post photos of characters or neighborhoods or anything else I find I might need.
All of this preliminary sketching crystallizes the characters in my mind. They become more real, making it so much easier to write about them (quickly) when November rolls around.
At this point I’m super excited! I’ve yet to finish a novel during November, but I do get enough information down, making the next edit easier to do.
Believe me, you don’t have to have a plan (I’m definitely NOT an outliner) but having the characters in concrete certainly helps in getting the story to gel.
