NaNoWriMo Tips

First drafts are for learning what your novel is about.

Bernard Malamud

I've participated in National Novel Writing Month 9 times now. I've hit 50,000 words 7 times. Which means I've picked up a few tips along the way on how to do that.

[What is National Novel Writing Month? An insane challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.]


Here are some ideas I've picked up from successes and failures:

Don't edit.

Even if the story shifts directions so that previous events don't make sense, DON'T go back to fix it. Just make a note where you are and continue on. Not editing can't be emphasized enough!

Your inner editor will protest loudly. That's why it's suggested that you send your inner editor on vacation for the month. It needs to shut up to let you listen just to your creative voice.

Don't think of this as a novel. Think of it as a crappy draft of a novel. If it helps you, you can even title your document Crappy Draft of [My Novel]. The title will remind you everyday that this will be and needs to be really messy.

Set a goal of 2000 words a day. 1667 is the minimum to reach 50,000 in 30 days. 2000 gives you some padding.

The benefit of NaNo isn't creating 50,000 words. The benefit of NaNo is gaining experience pushing past writing road blocks. Until you've experienced pushing past feelings that you can't write anything but crap, it's hard to tell the difference between the common panicky "This is crap!" feeling and the honest "This isn't working" feeling.

Don't fuss over the beginning of your story. You can't write an effective beginning until you've written the end. Keep reminding yourself of that when your inner editor makes an appearance to suggest improvements to the beginning. Make a note of improvement ideas where you are. Continue on.

Don't fuss over names. If a name doesn't jump out at you, call your character (or place) after their dominant character trait. That way when Aristocrat or Belligerent speaks, it will be easier to give them a unique voice.

You will hit The Wall at about 20,000 words. Probably most abandoned novels fall in the 12,000 to 20,000 range. This is the point where writers have spewed out all the sparkly ideas about their character and their world. Then they hit the point where all this set up needs to head somewhere. And they're stuck. This is perfectly normal. At that point you can have a ninja jump out of a cupboard. I like asking questions of my characters.

• Interview your character. Ask her what she wants most from life, what she fears happening most and why.
• Set up a debate between your main character and his opposition to discuss what each hates and admires about the other. Ask them how they think this will all end.
• Interview a minor character about what she likes and doesn't like about her role in the story.
• Ask a "What if?" question. Like "What if this were set in the Victorian era?" "What if the main character worked in a hardware store?" "What if one character were an alien?" Then brainstorm possibilities right there in the NaNo.
• Remember it's supposed to be rough!

If you must rewrite a scene, don't delete the old one. If your story takes a turn and you need a new scene to build up to it, just leave the old scene. You may find a way to combine them in the next draft. (Thanks to Naila Moreira.)

If you absolutely positively must abandon a story, it's not the end! Just move the old story to the bottom of the document and start writing the new one at the top. One woman I know turned the old story into a dream. Later, when you're more confident, you can move it to another document to use if you're running short on words. If you're brave, divide 50,000 by the number of days left in the month to get a new daily word goal. Usually the number isn't as scary as you imagine! The forums are good for other tips.

Get Write or Die. It's a keep-writing-or-"die" motivation app. There are a variety of punishments and rewards. You can, for example, set you goal as 1000 words in an hour. Then if you pause writing for more than 20 seconds the screen starts turning redder and redder until it beeps incessantly at you. There's an online free version. There's a downloadable version you can use offline for $10 (for Mac, Windows and Linux).

It's okay ....
It's okay to not finish a scene.
It's okay to write scenes out of order.
It's okay to write the end before the beginning.
It's okay not to reach the end of your novel at 50,000 words.
It's okay to insert notes about upcoming scenes.
It's okay to have meta-discussions about your story.
It's all okay.

NaNo will fill the time you give it. If you give yourself all day to finish your words, it will take all day. If you only give it 2 hours, it will take 2 hours. And you'll learn a whole lot faster to make the editorial voice shut up and get the words out.

KM Weiland's Character Arc series

KM Weiland has written a wonderful series of posts about growing a story from a character's flaws, what she calls The Lie the Character Believes. While she calls it a character arc, if the character is the main character, this is the core of your story. She helps you grow your character from the damage in his past through all the structural aspects from Act 1 to the climax.

At her website, Helping Writers Become Authors, you can check for additional posts and sign up for her newsletter.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 1: Can You Structure Characters? - What if there were a sure-fire secret to creating stunning character arcs? Would you be interested in discovering it? If you care about connecting with readers, grabbing hold of their emotions, and creating stories that will resonate with them on a level deeper than mere entertainment, then the answer has to be a resounding yes!

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 2: The Lie Your Character Believes - People hate change. We may sit around and wish our lives were different, but when the rubber really starts streaking the tarmac, we usually find ourselves wishing we could just hang out here in our safe and familiar haunts. Characters are no different. They resist change just as staunchly as any of us.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 3: The Thing Your Character Wants vs. The Thing Your Character Needs - The Lie Your Character Believes is the reason for all character arcs. After all, if everything’s hunky-dunky, why change? We might think of the Lie as the cavity in a tooth. Everything might look shiny and white on the outside, but inside there’s decay.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 4: Your Character’s Ghost - What is your character’s ghost, and how does it affect his character arc? Once you’ve figured out the Lie Your Character Believes, as well as Thing He Wants and the Thing He Needs, the next question you need to ask yourself is: Why does the character believe the Lie in the first place?

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 5: The Characteristic Moment - First impressions do count. And your protagonist’s Characteristic Moment is his first chance to impress your readers. Now that we’ve got the basic theory of character arc out of the way and figured out how to set up your protagonist’s inner conflict, via the Lie He Believes, the Thing He Wants and the Thing He Needs, and the Ghost, we’re ready to officially begin writing our character’s story.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 6: The Normal World - Who wants to read about a boring old Normal World? The Lost World? Sure! The Exciting, Unusual, Exotic, and Absolutely Thrilling World? You betcha. But the Normal World? Isn’t that a pretty lame way to begin a story? Nope. Not if you want your character’s change arc to make sense, it isn’t.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 7: The First Act - The First Act is one of my favorite parts of any story. Why? On the surface, the First Act seems to be the slowest part of the story—and it often is. It’s just setup, after all, right? True enough, except for that one little word just. It isn’t “just” setup; it’s SETUP!

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 8: The First Plot Point - If the First Act is setup, then the First Plot Point is the point of no return in character arcs. The setup ends, and the story begins “for realz.” At this point the character commits—usually because he has no choice—to a decision that will propel him out of the comfortable stagnation of the Normal World and the Lie He Believes.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 9: The First Half of the Second Act - In the structure of character arcs, the First Half of the Second Act is where your character ventures (or is thrust) into uncharted territory—and gets lost. He may not quite see it that way himself, but this is where he begins to discover that the old rules (the Lie He Believes) no longer apply.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 10: The Midpoint - In a positive change character arc, your protagonist will have spent the First Half of the Second Act blundering around in foreign territory, making mistakes based on false assumptions, and getting his hand slapped for his every wrong move. But he’s also going to have been slowly—maybe even subconsciously—learning his lesson and figuring things out.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 11: The Second Half of the Second Act - The Second Half of the Second Act is where you cue the hero music in character arcs. Thanks to that major personal revelation at the Midpoint, the protagonist now gets it. The puzzle pieces are falling into place. The light bulbs have flashed on. He sees what he has to do to win the conflict.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 12: The Third Plot Point - If you had pick the single most important moment in characters arcs, what would it be? The Third Plot Point, you say? Well, you’d be right. Now here’s the harder question: Why is it the most important moment? The Third Plot Point is the low moment in your story.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 13: The Third Act - Character arcs in the Third Act are all about intensity. On the story’s exterior, the conflict is heating up. The protagonist is a runaway train thundering toward what has now become an inevitable confrontation with the antagonistic force. But, on the inside, he’s reeling.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 14: The Climax - In character arcs, as in plot, the Climax is the dot on the end of the exclamation point. The Climax is the reason for the story. This is where the author reveals what the journey the character just endured was really all about—and, in a positive change arc, why that journey has turned out to be worth all the heartaches and trauma.

Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 15: The Resolution - The Resolution caps character arcs like the cherry on top of a banana split. In some respects, it almost seems to be an extraneous piece of the story. After all, your character’s arc is already complete. He irrevocably proved his devotion to the truth in the Climax. He turned his back on the Lie so completely that he’ll never again be able to surrender to its thrall.

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KM Weiland mentions 3 types of character arcs: Change, Negative and Flat. The Change Arc is gone into detail above. The following 2 sets dig into how the Negative and Flat Arcs differ.

How to Write a Negative Character Arc, Pt. 1: The First Act - Who in heaven’s name would want to write a negative character arc? Well, how about Shakespeare, Dostoevksy, Faulkner, and Flaubert? Just to name a few small-time wordsmiths you may have heard tell of. Everybody likes a happy ending, but, let’s face it, not all stories have happy endings.

How to Write a Negative Character Arc, Pt. 2: The Second Act - The Second Act in a negative character arc bears a lot of similarity to that in a positive change arc. In both types of arc, the character will be thrust out of his Normal World into a new and strange dilemma, where he will be forced to confront his Lie.

How to Write a Negative Character Arc, Pt. 3: The Third Act - In a word, the negative character arc is about failure, and this becomes nowhere more clear than in the Third Act. If the positive change arc is about redeeming self and the flat arc is about saving others, then the negative character arc is about destroying self and probably others as well.

How to Write a Flat Character Arc, Pt. 1: The First Act - Next to the positive change arc, the flat character arc is the most popular storyline. Also called the “testing arc,” the flat arc is about a character who does not change. He already has the Truth figured out in the beginning of the story, and he uses that Truth to help him overcome various external tests.

How to Write a Flat Character Arc, Pt. 2: The Second Act - The Second Act is the beating heart of your story—and that’s just as true in a flat character arc as it is in a change arc. The Second Act is all about loosing the character into an unsettled world.

How to Write a Flat Character Arc, Pt. 3: The Third Act - The Third Act is where we find arguably the greatest similarities between the flat character arc and the positive change arc, since in both types of story the protagonist will have a full grasp on the Truth by this point.

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These aren't specifically part of the series, but are related. (There may be more at her website by the time you're reading this.)

The Impact Character: Why Every Character Arc Needs One - When we think of necessary characters, we tend to come up with obvious choices such as the protagonist, the antagonist, and maybe the mentor, love interest, and sidekick. “Impact character” probably isn’t at the top of your list. But it should be. Because you can’t create a character arc without one.

Can a Character’s Arc Be a Subplot? - You’ve written an amazing story. Your premise is high concept. Your plot structure is brilliant. The whole thing is killer. But the main character’s arc seems to be, well, lacking. It’s there all right. It just doesn’t get much screentime. It’s more of a, ahem, subplot. Is that even possible? Is it workable?

How to Figure Out WHAT Your Character’s Arc Should Be - Over the last six months and three series, you’ve gotten a pretty good idea of how to structure your character’s arc–whether it’s positive, flat, or negative. But what you may still be wondering is how to figure out which arc you should choose for your character.

Should All Your Minor Characters Have Arcs? - If your protagonist’s character arc has the ability to deepen your story, then just think how much more depth you can create if all your minor characters have arcs! Dizzying concept, isn’t it? And it raises the (somewhat trepidatious) question: Should all your minor characters have arcs? It’s a fair question.

The All-Important Link Between Theme and Character Progression - Theme is a slippery concept. The prevailing wisdom among writers is that if you apply any deliberate force to your theme, you’ll end up with a heavy-handed Aesop’s fable. On the other hand, a story without a theme is shallow escapism at best and an unrealistic flop at worst.

The Muse Convention

It's the annual Writing Muse Convention held December 1st, the day following National Novel Writers Month. All the writing muses have gathered to chat, to attend panel discussions, to meet and greet the muses of famous writers.

The muses feed their writers the wild ideas, but it's up to the writers to turn the ideas into readable prose or poetry. It can be a struggle for a muse whose writer can't do justice to her ideas. It can be envy inducing when it's generally whispered that a muse is taking more credit for a writer's success than is felt he deserves.

The panels this year include:

• What to do when your writer won't write?
  
  
• Has Fate assigned you a talentless hack? How to stay creative. And sane.
  
  
• You are not your writer.
  
  
• When writers think their ideas are better.
  
  
• Who wrote Shakespeare? Shakespeare or Shakespeare's Muse?
  
  
• So your writer has switched genres? When to stick it out and when to ask for reassignment.
  
  
• How to work with other muses. The special challenges of musing song writers, ballet creators, performance artists and other multi-art endeavors.
  
  
• Inside the mind of a writer

Just some possibilities that might feed your own muse.  Or let your muse take it wherever he, she or it wants to.

Create the titles of more panel discussions.

Write the summarizing paragraph of one or more of the panel discussions.

Write the lunch break conversation between two muses. They might be brand new muses. Or rival muses. Or muses of once famous writers now saddled with obscure writers. Or ...

(Sorry, been busy so I've fallen a bit behind! I've got a bunch of warm ups queued and I'll work on queuing the picture prompts so creating the Wednesday prompts is easier to squeeze in :-))

Story Sculptor

This is what has gotten me behind on everything.

No, not the gargoyle! Or even the picture of the gargoyle. (Look at that constipated face being so cute as he tries to squeeze out a story.)

It's what he links to that has kept me busy ...

Story Sculptor

It's sort of a MadLibs-type spreadsheet for your novel's overview. Sort of.

Fill in your main character, his or her goals, adversary and several other tidbits into the spreadsheet. From those it assembles loglines (story summaries). By reading through them you get to see if your ideas flow and play nicely together. Like:

The naive, impetuous farm boy battles to stop the Empire against the ruthless, technology-loving Empire supporter who wants to crush the rebels.

And,

On the verge of another season of moisture farming in the middle of nowhere the naive, impetuous farm boy enters the conflict between the Empire and the rebels; but when the Death Star is finally revealed, he must answer 'Is faith or technology stronger?' before Obi-Wan is killed.

Plus many more. Once you've tweaked your ideas, you can read through a breakdown of a novel with your elements inserted like this overview of Act 1:

Meet Luke from Tatooine, a planet beyond the edge of the Empire being his naive, impetuous self.

Luke's life is stalled facing another season of moisture farming in the middle of nowhere. It may even be a good life but he, in essence, is dying since he's stopped growing. Luke either doesn't recognize that he has a problem or is confused why technology and what he has accomplished so far leaves him discontent. His values have gotten him what he wanted so far. (But can't get him what he really needs.) Luke's life may feel like armor protecting him or a comfortable rut. (Explore at home, work or play.)

And a bajillion more that lay out your whole story right up to the final dramatic finish.

Story Sculptor might be helpful when planning a novel to keep you focused on the elements a good story needs. I've definitely found it useful for editing finished novels. The spreadsheet highlighted where the novel's weak areas were, let me know the person I thought was the villain really wasn't, and generally helped me pull wild ideas into line so it didn't read like a mashup of five different stories.

Give it a try. There's more explanation at the website. It's free for now. (Maybe free forever, with donations gratefully and graciously accepted :-) (And do encourage updates and expansions.)  It can look overwhelming at first, though I think the first page of the spreadsheet does a good job of directing you.

(It's for Numbers '09 (Mac and iPad) and Excel 2007 (and later) (PC and Mac).)

Let me know if you find it helpful. Also problems and improvements. All constructive feedback is welcome. :-)

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The original idea came from  Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder. (Even he didn't believe it was the last since he wrote two sequels ;-)

What's wonderful about his book is the detailed breakdown of great stories (not just screenplays) he explores. As I read through his structure using "hero" and "villain" I really wanted a way to fill those in with a story's characters. Which gave me the idea for a spreadsheet. Then I stumbled across My Story Can Beat Up Your Story by Jeffrey Alan Schechter and The Anatomy of Story by John Truby which added more ways of viewing story structure. (The first two are very easy reads.)

Then I went kind of crazy adding more ideas in. And it seemed a shame not to share it. :-)

A character's random beginning

Historic LOLs

This is part of an exercise we did at a NaNoWriMo planning party. I tried to get it done before NaNo started but obvious failure.

First, we generated a random job. Which is the part that bogged me down for this post. But someone else has done a much better job using the data I was going to use:

Modern Job Title/Occupation Selector and Random Generator. You can go directly to Option #2 to generate random occupations.

There's also the Bullshit Job Title generator.

If those are a bit too real world for you, Seventh Sanctum has a Skills, Abilities and Traits generator. (As well as a billion other speculative fiction friendly generators.)

Second, generate one or more personal interests. More is not necessarily better! One or two is enough to provide character without feeling crowded. You can choose them from the same generator or different ones.

General hobby

Collection hobby

Competitive hobby

Observation hobby

Third, generate the first letter of first and last names. (Or whatever number of names you'd like to give your character.

Letter

Letter

Now, come up with a name that relates in some way to the occupation or hobby.

Fourth, quiz your character. In general, I think character questionnaires can lead you to the false conclusion that the more details, the richer the character.

What helped with this questionnaire is it was done as an interview with a partner. The advantage is you're put on the spot to come up with an answer that somewhat makes sense but you can't think about it too much! What it can yield are some unexpected contrasts and connections.

Get your mom to ask. Skype with your NaNo buddy. Or imagine a reporter asking you these questions. The goal is to do them quickly with a bit of thought. The quiz is from the Gotham Writer's Workshop.

Character Questionnaire 1

This questionnaire is found in Gotham Writers’ Workshop’s Writing Fiction.

You might start with questions that address the basics about a character:

• What is your character’s name? Does the character have a nickname?

• What is your character’s hair color? Eye color?

• What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?

• Does your character have a birthmark? Where is it? What about scars? How did he get them?

• Who are your character’s friends and family? Who does she surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?

• Where was your character born? Where has she lived since then? Where does she call home?

• Where does your character go when he’s angry?

• What is her biggest fear? Who has she told this to? Who would she never tell this to? Why?

• Does she have a secret?

• What makes your character laugh out loud?

• When has your character been in love? Had a broken heart?

Then dig deeper by asking more unconventional questions:

• What is in your character’s refrigerator right now? On her bedroom floor? On her nightstand? In her garbage can?

• Look at your character’s feet. Describe what you see there. Does he wear dress shoes, gym shoes, or none at all? Is he in socks that are ratty and full of holes? Or is he wearing a pair of blue and gold slippers knitted by his grandmother?

• When your character thinks of her childhood kitchen, what smell does she associate with it? Sauerkraut? Oatmeal cookies? Paint? Why is that smell so resonant for her?

• Your character is doing intense spring cleaning. What is easy for her to throw out? What is difficult for her to part with? Why?

• It’s Saturday at noon. What is your character doing? Give details. If he’s eating breakfast, what exactly does he eat? If she’s stretching out in her backyard to sun, what kind of blanket or towel does she lie on?

• What is one strong memory that has stuck with your character from childhood? Why is it so powerful and lasting?

• Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where is she going? What does she wear? Who will she be with?


Character Questionnaire 2

This questionnaire was invented by the noted French author Marcel Proust. These questions are frequently used in interviews so you may want to pretend you’re interviewing your characters.

• What do you consider your greatest achievement?

• What is your idea of perfect happiness?

• What is your current state of mind?

• What is your favorite occupation?

• What is your most treasured possession?

• What or who is the greatest love of your life?

• What is your favorite journey?

• What is your most marked characteristic?

• When and where were you the happiest?

• What is it that you most dislike?

• What is your greatest fear?

• What is your greatest extravagance?

• Which living person do you most despise?

• What is your greatest regret?

• Which talent would you most like to have?

• Where would you like to live?

• What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

• What is the quality you most like in a man?

• What is the quality you most like in a woman?

• What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

• What is the trait you most deplore in others?

• What do you most value in your friends?

• Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

• Whose are your heroes in real life?

• Which living person do you most admire?

• What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

• On what occasions do you lie?

• Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

• If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

• What are your favorite names?

• How would you like to die?

• If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

• What is your motto?

"A deadline is ...:

30 days of literary techniques to increase word cou ... er ......

... the literary value of your NaNo!

A new literary technique to goof with every day of NaNo :-) Some of these you will not want to do in a publishable novel so here's your chance to get them out of your system!

Last year I posted new description challenges each day. So if you don't like the day's technique, here's some alternative suggestions to try: A month of NaNo prompts.

Most of these came from Wikipedia's List of literary techniques. There's an even larger list at Literary Devices. Some are a bit obscure, but the most common are listed on the left.

1. Infodumping and Incluing -- Write out all you think your reader needs to know about your characters and world to understand your story. (Infodump) Then set it "aside" (at the bottom of your NaNo of course! Don't want to lose all those words!) And then reveal it slooooowly (Incluing) as part of the story. As you're writing your novel, don't break to spend several paragraphs describing the purpose of something. Show your characters using it. Show what it does. This will actually increase your word count. It takes far more words to reveal things slowly than all at once! :-)
   
   
2. Cliffhanger -- End your current chapter, even better, every chapter, on a cliffhanger. Dare to be hamfisted and literally hang your characters from cliffs or build up to a big secret reveal. Or more subtly leave the reader wondering what's going to happen next, how they'll get out of the current pickle, get the next clue, get the kitten out of the tree so they'll have to start the next chapter.
   
   (Cliff hangers were originally devised when novels were serialized monthly in newspapers to bring readers back. In The Perils of Pauline, a weekly silent movie serial, they became an expected part of the story. And then took off in modern day as a staple of TV season endings when the whole country spent the summer wondering Who shot J.R.? on Dallas. Which led to annoying the bejeezus out of fans when a favorite show ended the season on a cliffhanger ... and then got canceled over the summer!)
   
   
3. Tragic flaw -- Have your character's main weakness drive him to make a choice that he must but that takes him further from his goal.
   
   If your character is flawless so far, there's Chaotic Shiny's Motive generator, Death Quaker's Big List of Merits and Flaws (scroll down, there are more lists :-) and Dark World's 123 Character Flaws to give you some ideas.
   
   
4. Bathos -- Begin with a glorious, noble, exalted description of someone or something, then bring the description splashing down to pig-wallow level. Try humorous analogies combined with purple prose (elaborate and ornate descriptions which is great for word count!).
   
   Some examples:
   
   "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
   
   "The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant." Jennifer Hart, Arlington. From a Washington Post contest where there are more examples.
   
   (Another definition of bathos is when something intended to be serious is unintentionally funny. But it's kind of hard to intentionally be unintentional!)
   
   
5. Defamiliarization -- Describe something that's so familiar that we hardly notice it in a way that makes people look at it in a fresh way. One way is to describe an adult-familiar object from a small child's point of view. Or an animal's. Or an alien's. For instance a gun might be an object for hurling bits of metal at a moving object to stop it.
   
   
6. Ironic Juxtaposition --Have your character interact with his or her opposite, to emphasize or shine a different light on certain traits. It could be a mirror opposite friend, pet, coffee shop, snack ....
   
   Note: If the character is unaware, it's called juxtaposition. If the character realizes, it's called torment. ;-)
   
   For some visual examples, there's The Most Horribly Awkward Billboard Juxtapositions. (If that site disappears Google "billboard juxtapositions).
   
   
7. Alliteration -- Have the next character you introduce speak alliteratively. Props if it's a major character! :-) Could be a spell or a condition that strikes under certain circumstances. Or a paragraph of description that's alliterative.
   
   The most common alliteration is initial sound (Kathryn's Crazy Corner Kazakhstani Cafe). But it can also be repeated consonants (consonance) or vowels (assonance) in the first accented syllables. (Examples from Wikipedia: "some mammals are clammy" and "yellow wedding bells".) Which should be easier but it probably takes some practice to get your brain to organize words like that. :-)
   
   
8. Aphorisms -- Begin with a pithy observed truth that a character has realized. Have others argue about it. (Maybe you'll find your novel's theme or underlying story among them. :-) (Subscribe to Aphorisms Galore and get an aphorism in your mail every day.)
   
   • "I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution." -- Werner Von Braun
   • "Too much of a good thing is just that." -- Brian J. Dent
   • "Love your enemies: they'll go crazy trying to figure out what you're up to." -- Unknown
   • Egoist: A person of low taste, more interested in themselves than in me." -- Ambrose Bierce
   • Pretty much all of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary is witty, pithy aphorisms.
   
   
9. Plot twist -- By now you can probably see where your story's headed. Which in week 2 can feel like nowhere! So twist it. Have characters not do what's expected. Have them make entirely different choices. Have the mellow character shoot the character you hate. Have the workaholic take Friday off to cosplay (a different character everyday) at the weekend SciFi Convention. Have the least colorful character go home to draw some more erotic scenes in their popular online comic series Ninja Pirate Babes in Space.
   
   Okay, that's stretching plot twist a bit! :-) Plot twists are surprising turns that you then realize make sense. But the beauty of writing is you can go back later and sprinkle in the clues that lead up to one or more of these events as if you had planned them all along!
   
   
10. Dialogue or Interview -- Take a side jaunt in your story and have the POV character's parents -- or ex-girlfriend, former cell mate, previous owner -- talk about him or her.
    
    
11. Anthropomorphism aka Personification -- Give an animal or object human-like desires. Like the controlling alarm clock that won't shut off until it's assigned human is upright. An animal who wants to take its bad mood out on the next human that wanders by.
    
    
12. Back-story -- Reveal the back story of the location your character spends the most time in. (Or the oldest or most interesting if they're usually in a brand new place.) How it began. The scandals, the romances, the tragedies that have given it the personality that it has. The more you can find to tell, the more words. (Words are good.)
    
    Keep writing and you'll uncover the unexpected connections with who your character is, their flaws, and what they desire, which is why they go there in the first place (even if you didn't know ;-).
    
    
13. Motif -- Bring back an object, event, place, personage type (like a teacher, a cat, an old man smoking a clay pipe) that felt connected to your character. Bring back multiple things. (More words!) Play with them until you find the things that resonate with the story for you. (And you might actually be uncovering a theme. Whoa, heavy duty literary technique! :-D)
    
    Little soap box moment here. What bugged me about the way literature was taught in school was teachers implied great writers had memorized all these techniques and why and how they worked and then applied them. But great writers write by what feels right. In their early years, they played. They tried things out. They found things (by reading other writers, by trying things) that sort of felt right and played some more until they felt better. The resulting greatness is way more by feel than by applying "expert" knowledge.
    
    Motif (and theme) especially seems like one of those "How could someone possibly know what will work before they write?" Except for the scarlet letter in The Scarlet Letter, mostly writers don't. So go play with stuff. And let the playing generate lots of words. :-)
    
    
14. Metonyms -- Get your fangs over here, park your butt on that seat, to give an eyeball to my fingerwiggle about name changing metonyms.
    
    A metonym calls one thing by a related thing. (Nicknames are often metonyms.)
    
    For the next 1667 words try naming people, things and actions by something related.
    
    There are loads of different kinds. The details may be inspiring or paralyzing depending on your personality so proceed with self knowledge :-)
    
    • Coke for soda, Googling for searching, dishes for everything used to prepare and eat a meal (specific kind for general kinds)
    • cat for lion, bug for any creepy crawly (general kind for specific kind)
    • police for police officer (whole for part)
    • wheels for car (part for whole)
    • crown for ruler, ear for listen, New York for someone from New York, pink slip for being fired (related thing for the thing)
    • steel for sword, "paper or plastic?" for grocery bag (material for object)
    • (And more :-)
      
      
    There are lists -- which of course you'll resist visiting until you have today's word count achieved ;-) -- at List of metonyms and Synecdoche.
    
    
15. Speech patterns -- I came across these at The Handbook of Rhetorical Devices (where there are lots more devices useful for speech patterns, though mixed in with devices not as useful. <-- An unintentional litotes!) These would have been more useful at the beginning of NaNo when new characters popup like dandelions. Sorry I didn't find them sooner!
    
    Litotes (I keep wanting to "depluralize" it to LIGHT TOTE, but it's LIGH TOE TEEZ) -- Have the next character you introduce frequently negate the opposite of what he means when he speaks. That is:
    
    • good becomes "not the worst"
    • unintelligent becomes "not a rocket scientist"
    • old becomes not as young as she once was"
    I didn't even know there was a word for that but what a handy way to increase word count :-)
    
    Epizeuxis (I haven't even tried to pronounce that one) -- repetition of one word for emphasis:
    
    • The best way to describe this portion of South America is lush, lush, lush.
    • What do you see? Wires, wires, everywhere wires.
    • Polonius: "What are you reading?" Hamlet: "Words, words, words."
    
    Hyperbole -- Exaggeration to evoke strong feelings
    
    • "Why did I not know of this majesty before!"
      
    • "I can die happy now!
      
    • I think I just gave myself a brain anurism laughing. That's like... all of my favorite things. Right there."
    (All cribbed from my daughter who is The Most Amazing Hyperbolist EVAH!!! 8-D) Perhaps another character takes all the hyperbole as literal statements.
    
    
16. Letter - Write a letter from you to your POV character or a favorite character. (To make it part of your novel, it can be an anonymous letter they receive.) Tell them what you love about them. Tell them what irritates you. Tell them what potential you see in them that their author has yet to capture. If they are a minor character, perhaps how they deserve a better role and what that could have been and how things would change.
    
    
17. (Idealized) Author Surrogate -- Have you created a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, eg, a thinly-disguised (to everyone else) wish-fulfillment fantasy version of yourself? There's still time to kill them off if you have! And still time to create one to kill off if you haven't.
    
    To check if you have a Mary Sue, or help in creating a really bang-up one, there's The Universal Mary-Sue Litmus Test. The last part provides some De-Sue-ifiers that you could employ on your Mary Sue instead of death. Both equally guaranteed to add to word count.
    
    
18. Oxymoron -- two words stuck together that seem to create a contradiction. Make up your own or use some generated at Serendipitous Oxymorons. (Each guaranteed to provide at least two words for your NaNo!)
    
    If you'd like a whole bunch to work into your NaNo, there's Jim Wegryn's handpicked list of oxymorons and a "complete" list of oxymorons.
    
    
19. Apostrophe -- Apostrophe is when a character directs speech at an absent person, an abstract concept, or an object. So let hem have a heart to heart with hatred, the Fates, their adversary, the ficus plant.
    
    
20. First person narration -- Write in the first person for a scene. It can be the main character, one of the side characters, an animal, the ficus plant from yesterday You only get to pass on to the reader what your POV character/object can know.
    
    
21. Parody -- Have your character(s) attend a play that's a parody version of the story they've experienced so far. Paint those characters and situations broadly. It's an opportunity to take it over the top in places where you played it too safe. After the play, do your characters recognize themselves and their situation? Do they each see themselves as the most sympathetic character in the play but easily identify others?
    
    
22. Pathetic fallacy -- The name doesn't sound much like what it is. Perhaps let the phrase inspire your NaNo until it runs out of steam. Then give human emotions to nature (or inanimate objects or animals). Bring on the cruel winds, smiling suns, the weeping clouds. Have the environment respond to your character's trials and tribulations with sympathy or callous disregard.
    
    
23. Break the fourth wall -- Allow a character step out of the story and address the reader directly. Let him or her give their frank opinion about what's going on, about the other characters, about how they're being portrayed.
    
    
24. Simile -- No, not smilies. They might not count as words. A comparison using “like” or “as”. "She felt as stuffed as the turkey after finishing Thanksgiving dinner."
    Metaphor -- A comparison not using "like" or "as" when one thing is said to be another. "He is an eating machine who can devour and entire turkey dinner in under three minutes."
    
    
25. Deus ex machina -- Did you introduce some event or element into your NaNo that's gumming up the ending? What simpler way to fix things than a Deus ex machina, a god in the machine. Or a crocodile n the machine. Or an alien body snatching. Or roving band of ninja pirates. Or a sonic screwdriver.
    
    
26. Cliché -- Expressions that are as worn as an old shoe. So try some fresh alternatives at Cliché modifier.
    
    Snowclone -- Have a character who speaks by using cliches as a template such as:
    
    In your X, Ying your Z.
    X, X everywhere.
    X is the new Y.
    I'm a doctor, not a X.
    Have X, will travel.
    The X from Hell.
    I'm not an X, but I play one on TV.
    Not your father's X.
    The mother of all X's.
    
    There's a bunch more, listed by century at List of snowclones (sandbox) (still being refined for Wikipedia) or List of snowclones (the eventual final resting spot).
    
    
27. Eulogy -- Did you kill off significant characters, places, things, ideals? Then have friends, enemies, acquaintances, their third grade teacher, give a speech at their funeral or at a memorial service. Strictly speaking a eulogy is in praise, but characters often don't care about definitions and will say what they want to say ;-)
    
    
28. Onomatopoeia -- words that represent the sound of something. Have lots of sounds in the following scene! Lots of pops and whooshes and words you totally make up on the spot. Unless you're writing a comic book script, or poetry, this would generally be a No. But since it's NaNo, it can be a Yes. :-)
    
    
29. Anecdotes, Fables, Parables -- If you're struggling as the finish line looms, give your characters' inner storyteller free rein as they huddle around the campfire awaiting the final showdown. Let them tell tales of their youth, or couch the lessons they've learned over the past few thousand words in stories where those involved are thinly disguised as anthropomorphized animals or objects.
    
    
30. If you've finished your story but not your words ....
    
    Prologue -- Go back in history to the genesis of the problem.
    
    Character directory -- list all your characters and a brief description of their important characteristics and role in the story. If you still need words, describe the important places.
    
    Chapter titles -- That are excessively long and descriptive. Chapter Seventeen: In which Stoen and Roc invent fire and discover it's a bad idea to bring it in to heat the tent at night.
    
    Table of contents -- Including all your chapter titles, of course.
    
    Blurb -- Some gripping text for the back of the book.
    
    Narrative hook -- Now that you're nearly done and have all those words to give you a better understanding of your story, write a narrative hook for the first chapter to grab the readers. Since the first chapter is the most important you should spend very little time on it at the beginning. How can you write an effective beginning until you know the story?

Get some whispers for your plot before NaNoWriMo starts

October will be done before you know it and National Novel Writing Month will be here!

While there's no need to plan your novel beforehand -- I've written several of my NaNos beginning with the vaguest of ideas -- you are alllowed to plan if you want to. And if you've thoroughly explored flying by the seat of your pants and want to try plotting, Martha Alderson has a nice series of *short* videos on plotting, just enough to get through before November arrives :-)

The first series of videos, "Step -by-Step How-To Plan and Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay", has 27, each about 5 minutes long. They're all available at the Martha Alderson channel on YouTube. (Scroll all the way to the bottom on the right.)

She just started a second series of videos, "Plot Series 2", (the ones you just scrolled past at the top of her channel), where she discusses plot while referring to examples in a different novel each month. (It doesn't seem necessary to read the book to get something out of what she's saying.) The videos come out each week so won't be done before November.

She has a website, Blockbuster Plots, The Plot Whisperer blog, and The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master book that just came out.

What to do after NaNoWriMo

Writing in the Sky by Shinichi Maruyama

If you found a month madly dedicated to one project exhilarating amidst the exhaustion :-) there are more challenges throughout the year, some lasting a month, some a week, some 3 days, some 24 straight hours. :-) (The NaNoWriMo folks aren't affiliated with any of these except Script Frenzy.)

From the I Wrote a Novel, Now What? page at the NaNoWriMo site which might have more challenges added throughout the year (plus a few free contests). (For readers in the future, if you've stumbled across this page during November, the link probably won't work. A fresh page will go up early December.)

December
NaNoFiMo.org - National Novel Finishing Month (December). Goal: 30,000 words.
De-PlotWriMo - Plot Writing Month (December). Goal: Refine the plot arc of your first draft.

Varies or throughout the year
NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month (Year-Round). Goal: Post every day for a month.
WriYe - (Year-Round). Goal: Set a word-count goal for the year and work towards it between January 1 and December 31.
48 Hour Film Project - (Varies; operates via tours around the USA, lasts 48 hours). Goal: Create a short film in 48 hours.
SciFiWriMo - Science Fiction Writing Month (Year-Round). Goal: choose a target word count and reach it in a month, writing sci-fi or fantasy.
750 Words (Year-Round). Goal: write 750 words a day. Includes month-long challenges.

January
JanNoWriMo - Goal: Write either 50k or your own word-count goal in January.

February
FAWM - February Album Writing Month (February). Goal: Write 14 original songs in a month.

March
NaNoEdMo - National Novel Editing Month (March). Goal: Commit to 50 hours of novel editing.

April
Script Frenzy - NaNoWriMo's sister challenge (April). Goal: Write a 100-page screenplay, stage play, comic book, or set of TV scripts in April.
RePoWriMo - Refrigerator Poetry Writing Month (April). Goal: Write poetry using only refrigerator poetry magnets.
April Fool's - (April). Goal: Set a word-count goal for yourself and fulfill it by the end of the month.

May
National Picture Book Writing Week - (First week of May). Goal: Write 7 picture books in 7 days.
NEPMo - National Epic Poetry Month (May). Goal: Write 5,000 lines epic poem in May.
SoFoBoMo - Solo Photo Book Month (Between May first and June 31). Goal: Create a solo photo book within 31 days.
Story A Day - (Throughout May). The only rules: Write a story a day. Finish them. Note from me: this could easily be harder than NaNo if your stories are more than 1667 words each! :-) If you'd like to keep word count under control you might want to check out the various forms of Flash fiction.

June
ComiKaze - Create a 24 page comic in 24 hours. Participants pages are posted at the Pulp Faction forums.
WriDaNoJu - Write a Damn Novel in June (June). Goal: Write 50K in the 30 days of June. It's perfectly situated six months from November so you have optimum time to prepare for WriDaNoJu and NaNoWriMo.
SoCNoC - Southern Cross Novel Challenge (June). Goal: Write 50,000 words of fiction.

July
JulNoWriMo - July Novel Writing Month (July). Goal: 50,000 words for a new or unfinished manuscript.

August
AugNoWriMo - August Novel Writing Month (August). Goal: Write a novel in one month.

September
3-Day Novel Contest - (September). Goal: Write a novel in three days. They've been doing this since 1977. So cool!
SeptNoWriMo - September Novel Writing Month (September). Goal: Set a word-count goal and edit, write, or edit and write throughout the month of September!

October
24 Hour Comics Day - (Date changes annually, lasts 24 hours). Goal: Draw a 24-page comic in one 24-hour period.
GothNoWriMo - Gothic Novel Writing Month (October). Goal: Write a gothic novel in October.

November
NaPlWriMo - National Playwriting Month (November). Goal: Write a play in one month.
NaNoMango - The manga alternative to NaNoWriMo. Either 30 penciled, 15 inked, or 10 completely finished pages of a comic book in 30 days.
PiBoIdMo - Picture Book Idea Month (November). Goal: Write 30 ideas in 30 days.

"The world is a lot more fun ..."

The Purple Monster Costume

Reality bites

Create a reality show around a favorite character, or, if you're doing NaNoWriMo this year and have a story idea, your main character or main antagonist. Putting them in a high pressure situation is bound to bring out some new personality quirks and conflicts.

Perhaps one of your NaNo characters is the central figure of the show and the other competes to win an opportunity to be a partner or be mentored. Or the protagonist and antagonist compete against each other.

---

If you have only an unwilling knowledge of reality TV, there are far more types than you might imagine. (Wikipedia has a good list of subcategories of reality TV shows with examples of each.) Some cribbed from there:

Documentary style shows: Selected strangers required to live together. Recording a celebrity's or unusual person's home life. Or the daily doings of someone in an interesting profession.

Contest style shows: Competitors face a series of physical, intellectual, skill based or creative challenges and are eliminated by the host or the audience. This includes dating shows and career opportunity shows.

Improvement shows: Someone or something is made over.

Swap shows: Someone is inserted into another person's life to sink or swim.

First lines

First Friday in May, any year, NYC

These are the fantasy first lines up for grabs at the Nanowrimo Forums. (The forums are archived before NaNoWriMo each November with fresh genre folders. So there may be a new first line folder there or, if not, you can register and start one :-) And magically it will fill with first lines!)

As you scan through, get a feel for the type of lines that grab you. The most compelling generally create a question in your mind as you wonder what happened or what's about to happen with this unsettling or unusual situation. For character driven stories generally a character's life had or is about to have a monkey wrench thrown into it. They're about to lose something important like the easy life they were living or the rock-free path to an important goal they were traveling.

In a novel, the first line needn't lead right into the main problem but an unsettling feeling can grab the reader, a feeling that bigger unsettling things are coming. Like, "The phone rang in the middle of the night," "The phaser blasted a hole inches from my head." Even if that call or phaser blast isn't a life changing event, you can use the tension like distant thunder as you drop in more rumbles that a Big Thing is approaching.

• "Uh-oh!" He sensed something had gone wrong mere heartbeats before his own fire ball came careening back to explode at the most unfortunate location...
 
• A gryphon tethered to the apple tree in front of the house meant only one thing . . .
 
• The magic was supposed to work. So why was she still standing here, gaping at her hand as though it had grown three extra fingers and a nose?
 
• Why aren't you wearing any pants?
 
• It all started when the dragon left.
 
• An arrow arched across the sky and plunged into the bushes.
 
• A salamander once told me that you never know where you're going until you get there, and even then you might not know. Salamanders never made much sense to me either.
 
• Magic had disappeared, and I was the cause of it.
 
• And the world that had been was no more.
 
• It was a dark, stormy night...
 
• He was a dark and stormy knight...
 
• It was a bright and sunny day ...
 
• It was a dark and stormy night. Actually, it was a pleasant sunny day, but it should have been a dark and stormy night!
 
• No one can go back and write a new beginning, but anyone can start today and write a new ending.
 
• Legend said he would come. Reason said he would not.
 
• The cart rocked from side to side, as the single horse pulled it over the thin, muddy road. The bodies of the freshly hanged robbers lay limply piled on each other, heads lolling back and forth. One started to move, and from beneath her friends, NAME climbed out of the cart.
 
• Watch her, he'd said. Protect her. Maybe he'd forgotten who I am.
 
• "You called on the Thunder?! Great! Just great! What's the Wind going to say about this? You know you always use the Wind."
 
• Seven shadowy figures stood in the light of the fire they encircled, waiting for the arrival of their eighth member. It was time to take action, even if it meant going to war.
 
• The sky seemed serene only seconds before it burst into flame.
 
• What the heck happened to the bologna?
 
• The (boy/girl/etc/ or I works) screamed as I opened my birthday gift. In the box stood a gnome.
 
• Wake up sleepyhead! You've just missed it! The waffles have begun flying!
 
• "Give me blood."
 
• Legend has it that there were three towers at the ends of the world that held up the cosmos. [name] knew that it wasn't true. Of course it couldn't be true; he'd been there. It was actually five towers.
 
• There was nobody left to question the wind.
 
• The dragon looked at him with his sword and armour, uttered the single word "amateurs", and flew away to find some lunch.
 
• There are always beaches of some form or other in all the worlds of the cosmos, on this one sat a crying giant.
 
• The orc stood up, looked at me, and sat down again. "I can't eat you, you're way to short and scrawny. Come back in five years, then I'll consider eating you."
 
• Does your birthday begin with you being snatched out of bed, stabbed with a knife then kicked out of a tenth story window?
 
• Once upon a time there lived a princess who had never been shut in a tower, never been cursed by an evil witch, and was not at all beautiful. Her life was exceedingly dull until the day the sorcerer arrived.
 
• She looked at the emu and burst into tears. "You don't know me at all, do you?" she wailed. "You know my favorite bird is a water ouzel!"
 
• 'That morning the woman came to our village. The woman with her hair as red as fire and as black as the devil. I was afraid of her.
 
• There are three rules to life. The most important one being: Never mess with flying monkeys.
 
• I was not lying when I said that Heaven smells of fresh strawberries.
 
• Nothing in ____'s entire life has prepared him/her for this.
 
• His hair is black as ebony, his lips are red as blood, and his skin is pale as snow. He is my brother, and I love him with all my heart.
 
• "Why the (insert curse word here) would anyone believe in a godsforsaken prophecy?"
 
• Everything started with an explosion sixteen years ago.
 
• I was always obsessed with green Formica counter-tops.
 
• If my counting is correct, this is the seventh time I have died. It really does get annoying after a while.
 
• *insert color here*' eyes opened to a new world.
 
• "Am I... Alive?"
 
• Why don't you try online chat rooms? I'll bet you'll find the right demon there.
 
• "Don't get me wrong, I like dragons. I just don't like them sitting on my chest at three in the morning, demanding Turkish coffee and bread pudding right away."
 
• Demons don't have much imagination.
 
• His sainted grandmother had a good expression for times like this: "life is a bucket of shit with its handles on the inside."
 
• "And just what do you think killing him will accomplish? You'll have to do better than that if you want to make a change in the world."
 
• "Ha! Give me one reason not to kill you."
 
• "Have fun in the labyrinth, then."
 
• "I always knew that the end of the world would come, but I never imagined that I'd be the one ending it."
 
• "These men are the only things protecting us from the Scourge, and you want to use them for that?!"
 
• The rain poured down in torrents, bombarding the two without mercy. "Hey look, the gods are showing how much they like us!"
 
• _____ walked over to him, helping slide the thin shaft from his shoulder. He slapped him on the back and smiled; "These barbarians need to work on their manners!"
 
• ___ had never been lucky still he/she ought to know better than to piss off a fairy.
 
• "Now, seriously...who let the dogs out?" ____ questioned while trying to avoid being licked by a two-headed hellhound.
 
• "May I remind you that he was coming after you with a sword at the time. And he was stark naked."
 
• Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess but this story is not about her.
 
• "You think this is a fantasy? Hehehe... no. This is my world. It is something much, much more."
 
• In their darkest hour, in their time of greatest need, the blade was taken up by a hero... and shattered like glass with the first blow.
 
• Destiny had a way of coming for people, of taking their hand and leading them on their path, but MC had never cared for destiny. The last time it had come for him/her, he/she had butchered it where it stood and gone on his/her way.
 
• It was a time when man's worth was judged by his ability to take life.
 
• Vengeance was a self-perpetuating cycle of eternal life, thriving on the deaths of those that came before. MC laughed. He/she may die, but vengeance never would.
 
• It is not often that you can trace the end of the world back to one person. But in the case of [planet/place/etc], you can do exactly that.
 
• The sky wept as the land beneath it died.
 
• "Oh bother." Lesker said with a sigh as he awoke to the bright morning sky. It promised to be a beautiful spring morning, the birds were already singing and dancing in the trees above and the snow white apple blossoms spread out across the orchard below him. The outer fringes of Rellis could be seen across the tree tops. He was almost a hundred miles in the wrong direction. . .again. He had accidentally teleported himself in his sleep before but it seemed to be happening with more frequency of late. Sitting on the log next to the fire he didn't remember building Lesker began to puzzle his new predicament out.
 
• I love my field partner and boyfriend to death, but he's an absolute danger magnet. Someday I'm going to teach him how to get from point A to point B without trying to get himself killed. No one was even after us last time he was sent to the hospital. We were just walking to school—no disguises, no magic, no mind tricks, no hidden enemies, no ninjas, and no work—just walking to school and he somehow managed to trip on the sidewalk, fall into the open street, and get hit by a car. I mean, who has that kind of luck? Idiot. But I still love him. He's one of those people you just can't help but love, you know? I'll be putting up with his shenanigans and allowing him to scare me silly for the rest of my life, simply because I can't imagine life without him anymore. Sorry thing for an eighteen-year-old-girl to say, huh?
 
• [someone] "Hey!"
  
  [someone else] "What?"
  
  [someone] "I'll give you a ride to the hospital if" . . .
  
  Real life conversation once.
 
• I am the most famous teenager in the United States. That is...I'm the most famous, but no one really knows. Only the dragons.
 
• MC took a breath and closed his/her eyes, willing the power they kept telling him/her flowed through his/her veins to come out of his/her veins and into her ash wand. Everyone else in his/her year could cast this spell. It was a simple spell, a transportation spell that they should have learned in their first month. And most of them had learned it. But not MC. MC could no more manage a transport spell than he/she could fly… something else he/she should be able to do.
 
• MC had never been a particularly brave person. He/she had always prided himself on his/her theory that it was better to run away than to stay and be eaten by whichever tiger happened to be attacking the village that day. The fact that tigers very rarely attacked Location was of absolutely no importance. Nor did he/she care much about the things people told him when they wanted him/her to be braver, things like 'you're only young once,' or 'when i was your age, insects were the size of griffons.' MC wanted to grow up as quickly as he/she could, and he/she did not much care what had happened when his/her parents were young. He/she had not been around then, and he/she was glad for it.
 
• MC looked at the list before him/her, trying to decide which sounded the least dreadful.
 
• In a time before time, villains gathered huge armies and crushed empires. These days, they're more prone to drinking coffee and staging political coups.
 
• By the time I finished sending a perfectly worded email to my adviser, my coffee was stone cold, my lights had gone out, and my heater had turned off of its own volition.
 
• An armchair came flying at my head.
 
• The damsel wasn't looking very distressed; the prince was throwing assorted fruit at his henchmen; and through it all, the dragon was smiling smugly down at his handiwork.
 
• Not many people in the world can say their dinners were interrupted by a pair of elves with swords jumping through the kitchen window.
 
• When  ________ had a dream about fire and magic, she/he knew something in the world had changed. Whether for the worse or the better, nobody could have said.
 
• A cheese quesadilla with Bacon on it when cooked on a dragon's fire is something else altogether.
 
• The best things in life are often products of someone's imagination running amok.
 
• "It was # years ago that Main Villain (MV) suffered a fate worse than death. MV had once been highly esteemed, loved by most of the known world. But because of MV's actions on that fateful day the person MV most loved died in MV's arms. It can only be concluded that MV went a bit insane because of this. And that is why it snowed turnips last Friday/month/summer and we are going off to fight the forces of evil."
 
• In [City Name], you could buy souls on the black market.
 
• Never take advice from a talking plant. It can only end badly. That was the first rule they taught me at the academy. That was also the first rule I broke.
 
• Right after her morning tea, the Queen sent her Master of Arms to awaken her Monster.
 
• It was the ugliest ghost [name] had ever seen, and that including the poor soul at the air terminal with its ribs sticking out of its back.
 
• Before things were peaceful and dragons lived in peace with humans. They were messengers, carriers, and friends.
 
• "What in the name of potatoes are you doing here?" I asked.
 
• "Oh now look what you did! Why didn't you stop and ask for directions, you are such a male sometimes," my friend shouted.
 
• There's no guarantee I'll be able to finish telling you this story, but I'll start anyway. I used to be a princess, but I've been stripped of my crown and banned from my country.
 
• It was raining. Again. It always rained in (country). That wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that the royal messenger was trying his damnedest to keep dry the important documents tucked under his oiled cloak. If even a drop landed on the official-looking papers, (messenger) had little doubt Her Royal Majesty would find something very blunt and shove it in a rather inconvenient part of his body....
 
• Sometimes you have these memories of things that happened a long time ago, but they're so hideous that you don't dare look directly at them. Sort of like scars that you keep hidden from everyone else but can't quite forget, because you know they will always be with you even in your final days.
 
• Before The End, people complained that the world was falling apart. That it was rotten from the inside out, and that our society would eventually crack from the strain of so much filth and corruption like many civilizations before it. But they didn't really expect for it to come, leastways not when they were still alive. And only when The End finally arrived on our world's doorstep did the domino effect begin.