NaNoWriMo has started (in France). I'm hanging on the french IRC #nanowrimo channel. I'm watching Lost. You understood correcty : I didn't write a word. Yet.
November is the month of NaNoWriMo. But for our wrists and fingers, it's more like National RSI Month. You will be typing at home, in the train, while eating your Thanksgiving dinner... You see my point.
How do you prevent your hands from melting ? Here are a few tips.
Get Workrave
Workrave is a freeware timer which will prompt you to take breaks and stretch your body from time to time. Your mouse and keyboard will be blocked so you WILL have to move away.
Protect your hands with wrist braces
It will keep your wrists warm and ease the pressure. Ergonomic wrist braces are the best but give you . If you're broke, tennis wrist bands are cheaper but less effective, of course. Learn stretching exercises
Workrave gives you a few basic stretching exercises to do but here's a few more for you to learn.
Don't write in the bed ! Writing in the bed encourages weird typing positions. Get a desk and a chair if you want to write without hurting yourself.
Don't sleep with your hands under your pillow, under your head or under your body. And for NaNo's sake, please stop cuddling teddy bears all night long. It's bad for your hands.
If everything fails : stop writing ! Kidding ! I know nothing will stop you from writing. But you don't have to type, really. Three solutions :
Record your novel and use online transcription services to type it.
Write your novel longhand and outsource the typing (hire a student, contact your old friend secretary, outsource to India...)
I hope this article will help you to get through NaNoWriMo without any pain. And don't forget : if the symptoms become well, repetitive - don't forget to get medical assistance !
Do you love writing ? I do. But when you write a novel, you don't just jump on your word processor and write away. You must pick an appropriate name and description for your protagonists. You must think about a plot which won't fall apart. And when the writing is done, you must cope with the feeling that you've written crap.
So here's a bunch of links to help you when you're in trouble. When you encounter these everyday writing problems.
Get the right name for everything and everybody in your novel
Behind The Name : how do you name your Turkish protagonist ? Need a name borrowed from the Finnish mythology ? This website has everything, including etymology.
Serendipity : a large collection of generators. Characters descriptions, items, places...
Create a plot, some characters, and stay away from the cliches
Sticky situation generator : if you're writing for the NaNoWriMo (especially without having planned your novel) you'll be wondering regularly "what happens next ?". This generator will throw your character in various uncomfortable situations.
20 Master Plots Exercises : you can't find a good plot ? Learn and master the classical plots (betrayal, quest...) used everywhere in movies, novels etc. The website has writing exercises too.
limyaael's Fantasy Rants Index : Limyaael's rants are geared towards fantasy authors but I think anyone can benefit from it. World building, POV problems, creating magical systems and many other topics.
Writing blunders : a humorous (but truthful) listing about mistakes we always do as beginners. Once you spot your weaknesses, you can start working to erase them :)
Timothy Hallinan's Writer's Resources : you have written a first draft. Now, how do you turn it into a novel ? It's a very hard task but Timothy's ebook has all the answers. Plus it's a good motivator when you feel your manuscript is crap.
I hope you'll make good use (good novels ?) of these links ! If you need more writing resources, check my Delicious writing page.
I won't do NaNoWriMo this year. More precisely, I will write a novel which doesn't fit NaNoWriMo regulations : I'll rewrite my NaNoWriMo 2007 novel. And it will take longer than a month.
Doing the NaNoWriMo is a way to learn how to write a novel. How to beat the writer's block. How to create characters and move them around. But NaNoWriMo isn't about learning how to finish a novel.
This year I want to finish a novel. But how do you do that ? It's a brand new world. I won 2 NaNoWriMo's but I never finished a novel... And don't tell me about NaNoFiMo or NaNoEdMo. It won't take a month. It won't take two months. Hell, standard novelists take 1-3 years to finish a novel !
So these weeks, I'll post info on both activities : how to write a novel, for YOU Nanoers ! And my ventures into the novel finishing world.
It's been a long time. But today, I am glad to announce that HED's Writing Mission is back from the dead ! During these 8 months of silence, I created my personal website, got a new job with much less commute time, met new and awesome persons... I also did a fair amount of writing, but most of it was non-fiction. Anyway, NaNoWriMo 2008 is coming and I feel it's time to write fiction, or articles about writing fiction :) Hope we'll all get into the NaNoWriMo mood !
