Week One:
Outline your antagonist’s story.
You've probably heard that every villain is the hero of his own story, and while that’s true, there’s another, more important reason to start planning your novel by fleshing out your antagonist. Plot holes. If your antagonist doesn't make sense, your story won’t make sense either.
Use one of these worksheets to outline your novel from your antagonist’s point of view.
Develop Your Characters
Like people, characters are three dimensional, and like people, they’ll always find ways to surprise you, no matter how well think you have them pigeonholed. However, it’s still useful to have some idea who your characters are before you start writing.
Check out this list of character traits and pick three for each of your characters.
Next, you need to know what your characters want. Most characters are motivated by secrets, goals, or both. Conflict and tension arise when characters’ motivations are at odds with each other.
Come up with at least one secret and one goal for each of your characters.
Welcome to Week One of Pre-NaNo Writing Boot Camp! Above are the exercises for you to work on this week. Tag your progress with #prenano14 to join in the fun.