Long time no write! I’ve had a lot of blog posts percolating in my head that I can’t wait to get back into. In the meantime, I’d like to announce the release of a dark fiction collection that I’ve edited and designed. It’s twelve short stories, poems, and non-fiction, including two stories and a poem by yours truly. Our first volume is themed on ‘Feast & Famine’—with a good mixture of both.
You…
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This year a friend introduced me to a writer — Gabrielle Wittkop and her book, the Necrophiliac. I fell in love with her poetic, grotesque style despite the disturbing content. This obscure, tiny book, (less than 100 pages,) felt like some illicit artifact from its own story! I have compiled a safe-for-work list of her romantically macabre vocabulary that you may use for good or for otherwise…
NOTE: the original is in French, so I have collected these words from this translation.
Check this post to learn how to make a vocabulary sheet for your own favorite books & authors.
In my previous post on naming characters, I discussed how I research names but only briefly covered how I choose them. In this post I will give some tips on finding strong names for your characters.
I generally create a list of potential name candidates, narrow them down, then assign them to characters. This is the most important thing I consider:
Setting — the time period & location
This is a good time to know the relative popularity of names at different points in history. Justin and Jen are probably in their thirties or forties now, and Steve and Linda are probably not from the Victorian era. ‘Willy’ is more likely to be a great-great-grandfather, ‘Billy’ a great-grandfather, ‘Bill’ a grandfather, ‘Will’ a father, and ‘William’ a child. However, baby Richard in A Stir of Echoes worked in a 1950s setting.
For fantastical settings, you could use some ‘Earth’ names if they’re unusual enough, but probably want to avoid a Rachel or Jared in your high fantasy.
Considering the time and place, I create a list of candidates based on what catches my eye. First, I would eliminate any that are too similar. Eleanor and Leonora sound too alike, as well as Marcus and Julius.
Next, I would remove any that are just a little too strange or ill-suited. One day I will include Edmundina, but probably not soon.
Now some practical considerations–
Does it sound/look different from the other names?
A couple guidelines — Avoid names with the same starting letters. No Andrew & Anders and avoid even a Jaden & Jennifer unless the cast is large. Keep rhyming in mind. I once had a couple named Julie and Ellie before I noticed. Try saying the names aloud.
Try to mix up how many letters are in a name. Jennifer and Winnifred would be better as Jen and Winnifred. Ben, Ann, Lee, Ted, and Kai differ enough, but are difficult to tell apart in a group.
Names that are very ‘normal’ can be hard to differentiate too. I remember a story with a Peter, Mary, Tom, Ellen, and David. One was a child, and the other two were adult couples, but I kept mixing them up. Very confusing and off-putting to think someone’s husband is their son for a whole scene until they kiss!
You could also add a ‘Dr.’, ‘Mr.’, ‘Agent,’ ‘Professor,’ etc as appropriate. An initial name like JT or CJ can mix it up even more.
Is it easy to parse?
Avoid names that can be mistaken for common words. I’ve heard of a story with a character named Even, so sentences starting with this character’s name could be confusing and make the reader have to go back and re-read.
Have I used it before?
As I showed in my previous names post, I keep a file of potential names. I mark off the ones I use and try to avoid using them twice. A modification might be okay; a Jim and a James are sufficiently different in my opinion.
Now you should have a good list of names that are easy to tell apart and suit your setting. But how to assign them? Here are some considerations…
Character’s circumstance — their role in society
Names seem to divide on class lines. Baby Henry is more likely to be upper-class than Baby Jaxon. Statistics on this phenomenon can be found, but one simple way to get a feel, is to look up the names of royalty versus the most popular names. These days working-class parents tend to pick exotic spellings like Kaelynn but in the past very plain, standard names were more common.
An unusual biblical name like Japheth might imply something about their upbringing, as could a name like Rainbow or Hamlet.
Character’s personality
Though we rarely get to choose our own names, they can imply a certain temperament. You can play with expectations — a genocidal villain named Laci could be interesting, but you’d be fighting against stereotypes. Victor probably doesn’t seem like a sweet softie, but he could be with some effort.
We also display our personalities through how we modify our name– Jen, Jenny, Jennifer, and Jenna are very different people, likewise are Alex, Alexa, Alexandra, and Lexi. Someone might prefer to go by their last name, or a completely unrelated nickname.
Avoiding cliches
On that note, there are no doubt thousands of villains/anti-heroes named Vincent and thousands of video-game protagonists named Jake. Look up your potential names and try to avoid ones very common to certain kinds of characters. Russian names for villains and British names for fussy professors can be dull and play into stereotypes.
Here is a mind map I used when choosing some names for my story. Like in that previous post, I wrote down the connotations people voted for on the names, including keywords in comments. (These words are not my opinions, just ones I noted from users.) I used some other name review sites and marked down any significant notions. I wanted the names to seem unique compared to the others. One might end up with a list of super manly-men, or only studious types. Is one of your characters more childish than the rest? Their name should reflect that by being the most childish of the bunch.
You may have noticed I did not include name meanings. While this can be interesting, as I noted in my previous post, I don’t find the meanings significant. It can be fun for a reader if they look it up, but most people don’t know the meanings of names other than their own. Some names can have strange or arbitrary meanings that aren’t pertinent. Do all Calvins have to be bald? Does Mallory have to be unfortunate? Must Persephone be a murderer? Of course not! Consider the meanings if it helps you decide or if you think it’s fun, but to me this is the least important consideration.
I hope this has given you some things to consider as you name your characters, but don’t stress about it too much. Renaming your characters down the road is as easy as running a find-and-replace. Also, you can run the names by people, but don’t let them decide for you. Just because some people dislike a name or have certain ideas about it, doesn’t mean you can’t buck the trend. Remember– they’re your characters, and what you say goes!
Today’s post will be quick and simple. Sometimes when you feel demotivated to write, you don’t even know where to start. Starting at the beginning or from where you left off feels obvious enough. Yet often those points are the things holding us back. You’ve run into a problem with a scene, or just lost interest. Getting some words down is better than none, and we don’t always have to be ‘productive,’ especially when it’s paralyzing us. Why not skip ahead to something you enjoy?
I call these fun-to-write scenes ‘chocolate chips.’ They’re similar to the pearls in my String of Pearls method, but with more focus on what’s entertaining for you as the writer. Do you like writing silly conversations? Action? Bloody gore? Romance scenes? A self-indulgent dream sequence? Skip ahead to a scene that would be fun and maybe a bit frivolous. You can always cut it later, but it will get you started, and you might end up liking what you write.
Why ‘chocolate chips?’ Well, it’s the best part of the cookie, isn’t it? 🙂
Camp NaNoWriMo begins July 1st! If you haven't heard of it, NaNoWriMo is 'National Novel Writing Month', though it has since become international. The goal is to write a brand-new 50,000 word novel in 30 days. November is the main event, with two 'camps' in April and July. The camps are a bit different, in that the goal is flexible. Most opt for a smaller word count or to continue a previous project. I usually do new projects for Camp, but this month I'm opting to finish my November novel. Here's why I love NaNoWriMo so much...
The first time you win a NaNo is such a heartening experience. To know that you can finish such a big undertaking in only one month makes writing seem more possible. To see that we can still write with full-time jobs and all the usual responsibilities. It can be hard as hell, but writing 1,667 words a day adds up. It proves that we can just throw ourselves into a project, and the stars don't need to be perfectly aligned. The first draft is a wild mess that needs plenty of revising, but spontaneity can make it more fresh and creative.
I've done NaNo many times (over ten years) but I still have so much fun with it. The structure is helpful-- this is time to WRITE! I can't dilly dally line-editing and fussing around. I enjoy writing with friends and get most of my words during 'sprints' -- races to see who can write the most words in a set time. Peer pressure works!
A few years ago an infamous article complained that NaNoWriMo produced too many amateurs who would somehow junk up the scene and obscure more talented writers. That 'real writers' would write on their own. This is hogwash; how is more art in the world a bad thing? Writers are infamous for their lack of confidence. We're surely missing so many wonderful stories due to their authors' bad self-esteem. So how does it hurt to give people some encouragement? Not everyone has to be a published 'professional' either. As I mentioned in my previous article, there are many reasons to write, even if no one reads a word of it.
I'll post more about NaNoWriMo, but I'll end by saying I recommend everyone give it a try. Stick with it for the whole month, even if the goal feels unreachable. Even if you don't win, you'll have more words at the end of the month than you would have otherwise. If you are participating, let's be friends!
For today’s post, I will discuss how to identify pearls in media, as well as your own writing. Be sure to read part one to get started, and also my post on ‘imagery pearls,’ which this post will expand upon.
Do you have a friend like this — They say, “Ah, I read a great book,” and you ask, “What’s it about?” And they say, “Well, there’s this woman living on a farm, and she’s got two kids and her husband works for the post-office. So the husband dies, and that leaves her to raise the child alone. Oh, and this takes place in the first World War…” On they go, for ages and ages about every little scene in order and you realize five minutes in that you’ve actually read the same book. If pearls are memorable scenes, this friend is nothing but string!
When we think about our drafts, we can get stuck thinking about them as scenes that must go in a certain order. ‘ Well first, the character does such -and-such, and runs into so-and-so…’ But our stories are so much more than a series of dry events and checkboxes for us to mark. This can lead us to ‘stringy’ stories and boring info dumps. So how can we get ourselves out of this mindset, and find the pearls? Here’s a two-part exercise…
To start, I’d like you to watch this trailer of one of my favorite films of all time, Kairo by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. If you ignore the ad copy, there is nothing but pure imagery and motion, and the repeated ‘help me’ at the end in Japanese. No narration, no plot synopsis.
Pearls are those little bits that stick in our minds. The crashing plane is just a few seconds in the full film, but I could remember it perfectly years later. That scene doesn’t actually affect the plot too greatly, and would likely be left out of many synopses. Yet, it wouldn’t be the same without it. Due to not having dialog, the pearls in this trailer are most reminiscent of ‘imagery pearls’ from my previous post. But a pearl can be more than a strong image.
Pearls can be scenarios– great set ups for gags, or when the tragedy all comes tumbling down. A brief image shown in the trailer was someone switching on a light to reveal someone lurking against the wall. In the film, this was the character’s missing friend, suddenly reappeared. That bit of context adds to the pearl, without depending on it. A pearl is a distinct thing, it may be improved with context, but it could stand as interesting on its own.
Seeing a woman with a gun pull a garbage bag off her head is intriguing. We don’t need to know her life story or what city or year it is. A certain book I enjoy is well known for having a scene where starving children eat rats and drink their brother’s blood. You don’t need much context for that to be shocking and memorable!
Search for trailers for your favorite films in your genre. Watch more than one for the same movie. There’s an art to trailer making, and there are good and bad trailers, but you will likely see the same scenes used over and over. Separate the ones that are strictly informational– the detectives describing the murder scene, the camera pan over the haunted mansion. What is there to be tantalizing? Those are pearls! It might be an exciting action scene, a great joke, an unnerving situation. You should be able to describe a pearl in just a sentence or two. I find it helps to do this with films you’ve already seen; you can recognize a flicker of imagery for a memorable scene.
Now that we’ve spent some time identifying pearls in trailers, it’s time to think of our own writing. This leads me to part two of the exercise.
Imagine your draft, or future story, was a movie trailer. Not one of the over-explaining info dumps with boring narration. Think of a cool, stylish trailer that focuses on interesting clips. What scenes would you include? Make it as spoilery as you like. When you show your main character for the first time, what are they doing? Are they trading barbs with their BFF, or investigating a crime scene with a determined expression? What ‘clip’ would allude to the big conflict? What exciting scenes would be hinted at to get people interested?
Do you find that your current draft only has ‘clips’ of characters saying good lines, but no action? Or all intrigue and no hint of payoff? Does something interesting happen in the story, but it’s not shown ‘on-screen’ so it couldn’t go in the trailer? This is a sign that you need to develop more pearls in these areas.
A story made up of pearls with no string could be an interesting bit of avant-garde art, (I’m talking to you, Inland Empire,) but for a strong conventional story, we need to line those pearls up and give them some structure. It doesn’t need to be showy at all, just enough to hold it all together elegantly and let the pearls shine. I’ll cover that in my next post!
I love Poppy Z Brite’s prose; it’s always so lush and vivid. No matter what you think about his plots, you have to admire his way with words. For today’s vocabulary list, I have used his first novel, Lost Souls. I chose words I feel are a good representative of his style, which makes use of all the senses, whether appealing or repulsive.
See my previous post about how to make your own author vocabulary lists, and what to do with them.
For today’s post, I will give a general overview of how I look for names for characters, including using the site Nameberry and Behind the Name. I have a variety of other methods, but this is a good way to find not-too exotic, but fitting names for your characters, particularly in a contemporary setting.
To begin, I will use the site Nameberry. This site is designed for people looking for baby names, so get ready for lots of pictures of babies all over the shop. This site is a little hipper than some other baby name sites, and I find it less hideous to behold. I have two paper books of names written by the authors, which are also not too bad. This is a good starting point with a more visually interesting interface than Behind the Name, and is, in my opinion, a little easier to browse.
For my example, I chose the name ‘Blake’. Right away we get this binary gender option, but there isn’t a vast difference between either page in most cases. I chose the male one. Notice the ‘similar names’ section, which might be good to look at later.
Here we get the meaning and origin of the name, along with commentary from the site’s authors. Take this with a grain of salt; they are just their (sometimes amusing) opinions.
When I’m looking for names, I don’t put very high priority on the meaning, as most people don’t have these memorized. It can be a fun easter egg for your readers though, if they look it up. Mostly I want to give a good picture of the character’s personality and their time/place in the world.
The similar names feature is interesting, as they aren’t directly related, but often have a similar feel. This can be good for relatives of the character, or just some other options to choose from.
Looking at the popularity can be helpful, though the charts rarely go back further than the late 19th century. But it’s good to know if a name is in the top ten for babies now, before you name your Victorian protagonist the same.
The famous people/pop culture references section is very handy too. It’s good to make sure you’re not choosing the same name as a very popular character. Don’t feel bad if it was claimed by JK Rowling though, because she apparently claims most names in existence. These can also give you some idea of how the name is viewed– is it mostly used by men or women? Are the fictional characters villains or heroes? Don’t be afraid to buck the trend, but it’s good to be aware of the trends that are out there.
Nameberry has a comments section, though it isn’t often used. Take a look if you dare… I’ll talk more about these kind of comments below.
Next, I will use the site Behind the Name. This site is not so focused on baby names and has a much simpler interface. If you are sick of looking at babies, this is a good stop. It also has a much broader database, especially for non-Anglo names. There are a lot of other fun features on this site, but I will focus on looking up names for now.
Here is the landing page for ‘Blake’, that has the meaning, origin, pronunciation, and some popularity charts. Breaking popularity down by location can give you some useful information, depending on your setting. Next I will go to the ‘ratings’ tab.
Here, users have voted on how they feel the name comes off. Take this with a hearty sprinkling of salt. The more users vote, the more down the middle it seems, but it can give you a general idea of what people think of it. Particularly ignore the ‘good/bad’ rating, since this is for a character and they might not need a ‘good’ name! I like to make notes of any categories that are marked over 65 percent.
Now, the comments. Sometimes you will find a helpful anecdote or piece of information. The comments are often cruel and vapid though, with fussy complaints and erroneous notions. I once saw someone complain that they didn’t like the name ‘Clement’ because it sounds like ‘cement.’ (?) Particularly annoying are misunderstandings of foreign names, so it might provoke too much rage to be worth looking at.
For some common names, you may find the ‘related names’ tag, which can be very useful if you are writing for a particular setting. Want to name someone the Czech equivalent of ‘Paul?’ How about the Italian one? This can help you tailor names to your setting.
Now, here is a less commonly used name site that I really enjoy: British Baby Names. It doesn’t just have British baby names, but many interesting articles about historical names and curated lists.
You won’t find the meanings on the site, so you’ll need to look them up elsewhere. One of my favorite type of lists are real names from historical censuses. There are some really strange entries that might surprise and delight you. (‘Pickles’ as a first name in the 19th century!)
Now, you might be looking for the names for a specific character you are currently writing about, but it’s good to start stockpiling names for the future. When you run into interesting names, save them to a document. This includes when you see them in movie credits, headstones, patron lists… anywhere! I use Scapple to organize mine by theme:
Don’t forget about surnames! A surname can be used as a first name, and vice versa. When I use a name, I grey it out so I don’t use it again, and I bold the ones I’m particularly interested in.
So that’s a simple overview of how I research character names. Think of what is most important to you about your character’s names– Do they portray the setting well? Do they imply a personality? Are they interesting and distinctive? I may write more about my general philosophy on naming characters in the future, but they’re your characters! Saddle them with whatever clunker you prefer, or bless them with an elegant sobriquet. It’s all up to you…
This is a fun exercise that can give you a new appreciation for your favorite authors, teach you unique new words, and help you focus the style of your writing. To begin, choose a writer you’d like to emulate, and gather samples of their writing that you can copy and paste. You could find it in sample pages from their Amazon page, review quotes, or even just type it up yourself. A hint for searching — search for an unusual sentence in quotes.
For my example, I will use Edgar Allan Poe and I’ll include my vocabulary list for anyone hoping to capture his unfathomably spooky style.
Edgar Allan Poe is a great author for this project, because all of his writing is available online in the public domain. You could hone your samples to a particular book you’d like to emulate, but the more text you can input, the better. For these images I used the Fall of the House of Usher, but for my ultimate list I used a broad sampling of his work.
Once you’ve found enough samples, put them all into a word document and paste the contents into this tool: https://www.online-utility.org/english/filtered_word_frequency.jsp
This great utility makes a list of word frequencies but filters out the very common words like I, the, my, etc. I like to filter out as many words as possible, but you can experiment with the settings. I’ll do a future post about other fun uses for this tool. Here are the settings I use:
You should end up with something like this:
You will probably see the names of the main characters appear first, but after that you’ll see interesting tidbits. Maybe important locations like the ‘tarn’ and mansion from Usher. Note any interesting words and copy them into a document. Look up their meanings if you don’t know them and copy the definition. The words only used once are sometimes very intriguing and potent.
Once you’ve got a good list of words, you can alphabetize them to get a better look. I use this tool, personally: https://alphabetizer.flap.tv/
Go through your list, and strikeout or delete any words that are too odd, too specific, or just don’t fit your writing. Next, bold the particularly juicy or relevant ones. Now, try to fit as many of these words into your writing as possible! Don’t just shove them in hamfistedly; try to find natural points to use them, or replace a plain word with one of these vivid ones. I always need good synonyms for ‘old’ or ‘dark.’ Sometimes I’ve added new scenes as an excuse to work in a great word. (And I make sure they’re good scenes too, of course!) Since these are unusual and vivid words, try to use them only once per story.
Here’s my list for Poe:
Check the Wordpress Post for a copy-pastable version.
Many of these are best suited to an old-fashioned story, but could be adapted for more modern gothics with some consideration.
I wouldn’t try to fit every single word into a story, but try to do as many as you can! You can always scale it back in a future edit. When you edit, make sure you’re using the words correctly, and that they fit your scene. I may post more vocabulary lists from my favorite authors in future posts. Have fun and be sure to save your vocabulary lists for future mining.
NaNoWriMo recently added a fix, where some projects that didn’t carry over their stats could be manually imported. That gave me an opportunity to look at my progress charts for the first time in ages, and it brought back a lot of memories of my time on those projects. I thought I’d share some of my charts through the years, and talk about my successes and miserable failures!
The time I got a little too cocky…
This is probably the most ‘on par’ I have ever been on a project. I had some drama and travails with this one, but generally was able to keep up. At the very end though, I was hit by some heavy despair about the quality of my writing, and maybe felt a bit too secure in my ability to catch up. I had to pull a few big days at the end, and barely made it in on time.
Stop and go…
I had an okay time with this project, but was having some trouble with a new format, (epistolary style.) I kept having very productive days, followed by several days of inactivity and distractions. This creates the tell-tale ‘stair step’ pattern. Toward the end I got into a better groove for writing everyday (mostly doing sprints with my writing group; they’re a life-saver!) But even then, I was consistently under par until I pulled a big day at the end. Amusingly, on that last day I was constantly updating my count every half hour or so, probably praying I’d finally made the cut.
A nice success story
I started a writing group for this project, who were so encouraging that I actually raised my goal and won a week early! I had a great time that camp, and some big days where I got really into my story and wrote more than I even planned to.
A torturous failure
This one hurts to look at. I won my first NaNo in 2010, (though the stats were apparently lost.) The next year, I was working a terrible, stressful job, and having some very bad personal problems. I had a slow start, and then a week in, realized the story was going to be an arduous disaster and decided to start over. (See the big dip.) After that, I kept going steadily, though never quite able to catch up. I even did a huge push halfway through, before falling into despair for a week and a half. I gave one last effort at the end, but it was too little, too late. I’m proud that I kept trying through the month, but I had a very bad time with it, in a very bad time in my life.
Misery...
This one hurts even more. Right on November 1st, I had a seizure in the early morning, the first time I’d ever had one. The trauma and stress delayed me for a few days, but I got going… and had another seizure. It hurt a lot to give up, but I knew I’d have to throw in the towel with so many bad things going on. I wish I’d given it another go later in the month, but I understand why I didn’t.
A return to form
The next year I was determined to win. I tend to always have slow starts, but I kept it up and even started getting ahead halfway through. I remember having some trouble with this story, (got made fun of by some old people for using a laptop at Denny’s too,) but I got into the swing of it, and won handily, even doing some big word days at the end just because I was feeling it.
A tough challenge
This year, I had a group of friends writing with me. I tend to have more free time than others and wanted to be understanding of others’ busy schedules. I encouraged them to be NaNo ‘rebels’ and set their own goals, which ranged from the usual 50k all the way to 2k. To feel like we were on an even field, I decided to go for a triple NaNo — 150k. I always wanted to try it, and actually had a pretty decent time, ending up at 165k! (Although that included an abortive start, counting for the extra 15k.) The odd part was, the lower people’s goals were, the less likely they were to reach them. Someone going for 2k only made it to 200. Maybe a challenge boosts your motivation?
Consistent under-performing
This one is a bit embarrassing. I was feeling lazy this July (as I often do in that hellish summer season.) I had an early slump as is my usual, but didn’t do a big push to make up for it. I was never above, or even at par for the whole month! I had to do a really big push at the end, and barely made it. Worse, I didn’t get to the end of my story either, which is always disappointing. But it was more words than I would have written otherwise.
Good times, but inconsistent writing
I’ll end on this one, one of the most pleasant times I’ve had writing. I can’t really explain the stoppy-starty progress, because this story flowed quite well in my memory. It was an incredibly dark and personal story, but I breezed through it and was actually in a pretty good mood. I do, however, remember typing ‘the END’ at 11:55 PM on November 30th and flailing to get it in on time. That’s not the only time I did that, but maybe I’ll save that other one for later.
I’ve been pretty successful with NaNo, but it hasn’t been easy, and I had some disheartening moments. I always try to stick with it until the end, and have faith that I can get make it through, even if it means a last minute marathon. I hope this can be encouraging to anyone having a rough time writing. Even if you don’t get to where you’d most like to be, just showing up every day and doing your best is an amazing feat. Don’t be hard on yourself; there’s always another chance to try again. You don’t even have to wait for November; your story will always be there for you.
Sometimes I have trouble getting comfortable with my characters when I first start writing. I’m not sure who they are yet, or I’m not sure how to introduce them. This is a simple exercise to get started, get some useful words down and learn a little more about your character.
Choose an important, personal space for your character. I usually choose their bedroom, but it could be their office, car, the bridge of a spaceship… anywhere that would be personalized and significant.
Begin by describing the space. General at first, but start going detail by detail. What’s on their desk? Is their bed made or not? What’s the lighting like? The temperature? Do they have any books and what are they? How about their clothes? Is there junk and trash all over? How does it smell? Does someone share the space, and what is their contribution?
Write way more than you ever would for a single space. Think of every piece of furniture. Look up reference photos if it helps. Once you’ve exhausted every detail, (or get sick of it!) have the character enter, and start interacting with the environment. Maybe they flop on the bed because they just had an argument with someone in the other room, maybe they sigh and get comfortable in their favorite chair. What do they normally do in this space? Then if you’d like to go further, have another character enter the space. Maybe their partner or friend, or maybe a roommate that barges in. Does your character feel happy to see them, or annoyed that their private space has been invaded?
Even if you don’t include this scene in your writing, it can be a good intro to your character, and learning a little more about them. Plus, it gets you writing and that’s the most important part! See my previous post for another block breaker to get you going.
This method of research is so fun, that I’ve done it to kill time when it’s not even for a story! This is a great way to generate story ideas, research a specific area, or just brainstorm for your own imaginary location. You should end up with lots of interesting notes, and useful reference pictures to use while you’re writing.
This is most useful for contemporary settings, but I will advise on how to use this for more historical/rustic settings as well.
This post will be very image heavy, so be forewarned.
To begin, go to maps.google.com and look for your location. My story is set in 1700s Bohemia, in an imaginary town. I chose the city Brno as my starting point, though I’d likely keep looking around other areas in my research. In the bottom right corner, I grabbed the little yellow guy, and dropped him onto a route that was traveling through a patch of green. I find it’s helpful to switch to the satellite view for this exercise.
I was dropped here, on a rather unassuming country road. By clicking forward on the street, I could ‘drive’ forward, but I can also rotate in all directions.
Turning to the side, I got a good look at the natural plant life. I could make notes here, like what kind of trees are those? Do I happen to see any birds or animals? Take screenshots of anything interesting that you see. (Windows users can hit the windows key + print screen to take a screenshot that saves to the Pictures folder, typically.)
I ‘drove’ along until I ended up on a little dirt road. Try taking random turns and see where you end up. If you’re inventing your own town, try mixing up areas– for example, I wanted a location that had a similar downtown to Tacoma, but wasn’t as urban, so I took some shots of buildings in Tacoma, and mixed in shots from a more rural mountain town in my folder. When I look through them, it’s easy to imagine it’s the same place.
For historical settings, you may have to search for patches without modern trappings, though you will probably have to ignore things like power lines.
Also on the map, you may find blue circles, which are panoramic images users have taken. These are often in natural areas that cars cannot go and have some very nice views.
Don’t forget to look around the satellite view too, it can lead you to your next destination, or just be interesting on its own. This is some research I did about Detroit, for a different project.
For contemporary settings, you could plan a route that your character might take, and ‘drive’ along it, looking at all the things they might see. Just on one route through Detroit, I found these intriguing sights…
Make notes about any useful details– how do people dress? How clean are the roads? Do you see homeless people? What do the cars look like? In Detroit, I saw so much construction and demolition happening over the years, showing a city in extreme flux while Berlin had the cleanest streets I’d ever seen.
In the upper left corner, you will see a date and month, which is when the image was captured. If you click it, you can visit previous times, which can give you a look at a different time of year, and the environment may totally change. This building in Brno didn’t change drastically over the years, but in Detroit I saw buildings crumble, be torn down, and rebuilt in the course of a few years.
You may find special locations on the map where you can go inside buildings, for example this ossuary in Brno. Sometimes they are made up of panoramic shots, other times you can ‘drive’ through the building.
It’s a fun way to ‘explore’ a place without having to really go there. In combination with written accounts/reviews, you can get a good picture of a place in your mind. (More on that technique later!)
I hope this was useful, and that it at least taught you a fun way to kill some time when you’re bored!
There are a lot of guides out there about how to create mind maps, and this will be another one! I work in a pretty free form way, so I hope my take on this method will be a bit different from your average mindmap.
Again for this tutorial, I will use Scapple. I highly recommend it– it’s simple to use, and has such a generous trial that you might never have to buy it. (It only counts days as days of actual use.) If you do want to buy it, it’s quite cheap and anyone doing NaNoWriMo can get a discount. You can use your favorite mind map software for this technique, make it in Photoshop or even do this on paper.
My mind maps begin with humble origins. I just free associate words related to my theme. I was creating a mind map for my vampire story, so I just thought of themes and images that had been floating around my head. When I found topics particularly notable, I capitalized them and made them red. I drew some loose associations, but my focus is identifying the main themes of my story.
From there, I took each broad topic and began listing associated ideas. For example, being a vampire story, I took extra time on ‘vampires.’ I thought of their physical and emotional traits, and related objects. You could be more messy than this if you like.
Here I’ve done this with blood, trying to group and expand where I can. Don’t be afraid to get weird and tangential. It was fun to go from blood all the way to a dam; you never know where your imagination might take you.
For this technique, I tried to think of good (or neutral) and bad versions of concepts, and then symbols to demonstrate. I would be very unlikely to use even half of these, but it was interesting to think of the ‘good’ side of imprisonment as being hugs!
Try taking ideas from their very broadest to the most specific. Starting with plague, I broadened it to disease, and further to entropy. What other concepts could be grouped? Think about each topic, and what it might say in a general sense, what philosophical statement might you make about it.
Here’s another way to free associate I found very fun. Once I’d chosen my main themes and images, I stacked them as a list, and made a copy. I offset the second stack by one, and then thought of them as (thing 1) + (thing 2) Once I’d gone through the list, I moved the second one up a place, and continued until I’d looped all the way around.
For example, LOVE + SICKNESS is obvious enough, as well as heart break. CRUELTY + LOVE could be abusive relationships. NIGHT + FAMILY could allude to being snug in a family home at night. You might end up with more kooky things too. For BLOOD + NATURE I came up with tree sap! Try to push yourself as much as you can to list more than you normally would. Those last few weird things you pull out of yourself could be something very special.
Now that I had a big jumbled list, I started tying them together into a more traditional mind map. Connect your main topics first, then start connecting more tangential ideas, and draw even more from there. In order to not just have an unreadable tangle, if I wanted to connect an idea to something on the far side of the map, I just added a note (SEE: TOPIC X) I kept all the ideas I came up with, and just faded the ones I ruled out. (In Scapple, you can hit Ctrl+Shift+F to do this automatically.)
When I came up with a specific idea RE: my story, I would add a note and leave it unconnected. I also made notes of any important facts I discovered, like that the association of hemophilia with royalty did not appear until the 19th century.
On I went, using Wikipedia to come up with even more associations. I use what I call the ‘three click rule’, where I won’t go over three clicks deep into a topic before stopping myself. In reading about Judas, I discovered the term ‘potter’s field’, which led me to reading about grave robbing. I might bend the rule if I end up somewhere really interesting, but I try to restrain myself to not fall down too much of a rabbit hole. (More on that later!)
Once you’ve ended up with a decent amount of material, look over the wild mess and make notes of the most interesting ideas you’ve come up with. Try to think about how you could use them in your story. Even the simplest connections could be interesting. I learned that part of a nail is likened to a crescent moon; maybe that will come up in my story. I’ll write more about mind mapping but I hope this gives you some insight into my technique.
There are many ways to make an inspirational image collage, but this method is simple and pretty quick. It also gives you the greatest amount of control, compared to automatic utilities.
To begin, you need to gather images that suit the mood of your story, and inspire you. I like using Pinterest, but you could use google image search, or just random browsing on the web. I’ll describe how I use Pinterest.
To begin, I search for a word like ‘vampires.’ You’ll probably get a pretty random assortment, or need to try other terms. I also used ‘gothic,’ ‘martyr,’ and ‘macabre.’ Once I found an image that interested me, I pinned it and saved it to a folder on my hard drive.
I continue this process, pinning characters, art, fashion, and locations, and save them to organized folders with my writing project. Try to select images that are high-res enough that you won’t have to scale them up much. Big ones can be scaled down, but it won’t look great to have high-res pictures mixed in with blurry, pixelated ones.
I don’t organize elaborately, but you can be more specific if you’re saving a lot of images.
Once I’ve got a good collection, I select my favorite images, trying to get a good balance of characters, art, and locations. About 5-10 images should give you enough to work with. Then I create a blank canvas in Photoshop. (You can use your preferred image editor.) The size doesn’t need to be huge unless you want to print at a large scale. Next, paste in the images. I used a portrait format, but square images can also work. Long strips could look interesting too. Whatever gives you enough of a glimpse of your inspirational images.
Once you’ve pasted in your favorite images, move and scale them in a way that looks interesting. Don’t be afraid to crop edges off center. This isn’t to show the full image but just to create an evocative look. After you’re satisfied, save out each layer as its own file. Thumb01.jpg, Thumb02.jpg, etc. The images will all be the same size and proportion.
For this collage, I used Scapple, a mind-mapping program that I use often. It has a pretty generous trial version if you want to try it out, but you could use Word, Photoshop, or whatever other program you like. Next, I arrange the images into rows. I thought it looked more interesting to have one larger image with overlaid text. I’ll talk more about generating this sort of text in a later post. Save your file and stick it on your desktop, print it out, or just keep it handy. Look at it when you feel inspired to write, and to remind yourself of the mood you’re trying to create!
There are of course lots of ways to make collages, including some automatic utilities, but I find I enjoy the control of doing it manually. This method can still be handy to crop the images just how you like for a nice composition. I’ll be writing more posts along these lines later. Hope this was helpful, and please comment if you have any questions or suggestions.
Making a cover for your upcoming project can help it feel more real and give you motivation to keep going. (After all, you spent time making a great cover, better not stop!) If you don’t need something elaborate, Adobe Spark can be a simple way to bust out a basic image. You can use this as your project thumbnail on NaNoWriMo or the cover of a draft print. Later I will do a tutorial about general cover design for more complex/unique images, but for now, here’s how to make a cover in about a half an hour or less.
So first, you will need an Adobe account to use at Adobe Spark. Once you’ve signed up, click ‘create a project’ and choose ‘Flyer.’ (It gives you a book cover-esque proportion, since they don’t have a special book cover option.)
On the right side of the screen, click ‘templates’ and browse around. The ones with the shield icon are premium, but there are still decent free ones. Search around until you find one you like and apply it. Be open-minded; applying different colors, fonts, and images to a template can make it look very different. I won’t hew too far from this base image for my example, but you could really personalize it with some effort.
So first things first, I click on the title and select ‘edit.’ A window will pop up for you to change the text. On the right side, you will see font options.
I’ve filled in my very creative title and author name and played with the font. You could move the elements wherever you like, but I will stick to the template for now.
That big X is actually an icon. There is a big selection of images to choose from, or you could upload your own. I changed it to a rose, because why not?
Now I’ve selected the top left picture. On the right I can move and scale the image, apply filters, etc. For now, I will replace it with a different picture.
I found a picture of a crow, zoomed it in and centered it. On the bottom right corner, you can see the shape vignettes that change the overall shape of the picture. Besides using the search to find a stock picture, you could upload your own.
Now I’ve changed the top right picture and selected filters to darken and make it black and white.
If you scroll below the filters, you have the option to blur the image, which can be useful if you want text in front of it to be more legible.
A fun thing to try is to select ‘Design’ and then ‘Variations’, and try out different layouts. Be sure to save first! It will automatically recolor and rearrange the images/text you selected. As you can see, it rearranged the text so the title is no longer on top, so you may need to adjust that kind of thing. Play with the variations but don’t select a new template, or it will replace everything you’ve done. (It automatically saves the old project and starts a new one if you do select a new template.)
A warning — If you close the window or navigate away, it will save your project in its current state. I’ve lost some important work that way! If you want to edit a project, be sure to duplicate it first on your projects page so you don’t accidentally lose your original work.
Don’t forget!
So here are some variants I made by just selecting different options. You can change the colors and images just like as before. Even if the variation shows a different orientation/size than what you have, it will automatically rearrange to fit your current dimensions.
Once you find a layout you like, you can select the colors option on the right side and choose a color palette that will automatically recolor everything for you. When you have a palette selected, you can randomize where the colors are used, or rearrange them manually.
You can also choose custom colors or select their suggested ones.
When you’re satisfied, be sure to title your project in the upper left corner, and make sure it’s saved. Then you can download the image in a larger size on the right side of the window. For free accounts, it may tag the image with the spark logo, but it’s very easy to crop out or paint over. All your projects will save to the ‘projects’ section on your main Spark page.
I’ve made a lot of quickie covers this way, that I usually replace down the road, but it can feel good to have a cool looking thumbnail for your story. Experiment with all the options and filters. At first you might end up with some wild junk, but you can make something decent once you get used to the tools.
I hope you found this tutorial useful, and I’d love to see what covers you make for yourselves! Feel free to share them with me, and I’ll write more extensively about covers in subsequent posts.
I’ve been known to engage in what I call ‘wiki-binges’ from time to time. I begin with an interesting topic, then just start clicking topics within the article, on and on through rabbit holes. Besides just being a fun way to kill time, this can be a great method for generating ideas for stories. Here’s one method I use.
Whether you’re writing a historical piece or not, it can be fun to look up either the year your story is set or just slightly prior to it. First, try reading about the decade, then go year by year into the future.
On each page, you’ll find an assortment of events with a broad mix from all over the world. Some are big, earth-shattering events, some are just the time Denmark outlawed snowball fights.
Page through, looking for anything that catches your eye. Keep in mind, these would be the background of your characters, the sort of things going on in the world at the time or things they would remember or have heard about. They don’t even have to be from the same time/place, just anything that strikes you as interesting. Be sure to take notes!
I just copy paste interesting articles into a notepad to look at in further detail later. Sometimes I try to find people that lived at the same time/place as my characters and read more about them. Another method is reading about the history of your location, or somewhere similar.
I’ll write more about how to mine Wikipedia for ideas in future posts.
tangentwithtanner
titsay
snowghoul
gummygunk
yousharknotpass