NaNoWriMo 2006 officially kicks off at 12:01am tonight - Thirty days of utter writing insanity!? For those of you interested in seeing how Gemini and I are doing during the month, we’ve created a separate page that will continously track our progress.? It’s at NaNoWriMo Progress or you can click the link under Pages in the sidebar.

We may occasionally post progress reports here as well.? Feel free to comment or send emails to encourage, goad, push us to get our word count up!

The idea behind Break Away is to let your mind go and see if it will break away from your normal thought patterns.

The word is “Light”

Here’s how it works:

1. Write the Break Away Word in the center of a paper (or if you’re lucky - a whiteboard).
2. Write/Draw the first thing that comes to mind when you look at the Break Away Word.
3. Write/Draw the next thing that comes to mind.
4. Continue the process for 10 minutes or until nothing new comes to mind

Let your pen or pencil find its own way, don’t try to force any associations into a pattern.

When you’re done, take a look at your paper/whiteboard. Where did you end up? Are there any connections that surprise you?

Here’s this week’s Say What?

“If you haven’t found something strange during the day, it hasn’t been much of a day.”

–John A. Wheeler

Here’s an exercise to get your thoughts moving. Pick a number (it has to be equal to or greater than 5) and write down something in your car that matches each number in quantity.

If you’d like to see an example, take a look at the Gratitude Countdown.

How many times have you turned on the radio and come to a song that just begged for the rest of the story? It’s always been said that there’s a story behind every song and that music inspires.

Well, inspiration comes in many forms. And even the song writer had to have been inspired to write his music. But, what possessed them to write that line or tell that story? While we can’t get their point of view on what works, we welcome yours in this creative bent on lyrics.

We’ll offer you a verse from a song (all credit given where credit is due), and it may or may not be something you recognize. What we’d like to see is your story behind that verse. What do you think happened to have those lines so poignantly written?

Today’s verse comes from In the Crossfire from the Starsailor album “On the Outside”:

I don’t see myself when I look in the mirror
I see who I should be
I don’t see myself when I look in your eyes
Thank God for that

I don’t see myself when I look cross the river
I see where I should be
I don’t see myself when I look from the sky
Thank God for that

An inspiration tag is just a phrase or two meant to give you a jumpstart on your creative expression. So read the tag below and interpret it in a creative way. There are no limitations on the medium. In fact we’d love to see a visual or listen to an audio interpretation. Admittedly, some of the tags will lend themselves more to a written format than any other.

So here it is - Tag! You’re It! Have fun!

One look around the room told him all he needed to know about her firey temper.

The idea behind Break Away is to let your mind go and see if it will break away from your normal thought patterns.

The word is “Darkness”

Here’s how it works:

1. Write the Break Away Word in the center of a paper (or if you’re lucky - a whiteboard).
2. Write/Draw the first thing that comes to mind when you look at the Break Away Word.
3. Write/Draw the next thing that comes to mind.
4. Continue the process for 10 minutes or until nothing new comes to mind

Let your pen or pencil find its own way, don’t try to force any associations into a pattern.

When you’re done, take a look at your paper/whiteboard. Where did you end up? Are there any connections that surprise you?

Here’s this week’s Say What?

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

–Alan Kay

Here’s a simple, but not necessarily easy exercise to expand your creativity and attention. For each letter of the alphabet, come up with an animal.

Can you complete the list without using a reference source? How many can your friends come up with? Which letter was the most difficult?

How many of the animals did you use the latin names for? How many have you personally seen? How many of them brought back memories? Did any make you think of pets, movies, television shows or songs?

Just in case anyone out there is wondering how our NaNoWriMo preparation is going…..:)

As of November 1st, we will have our word count posted somewhere on the blog - probably on a new page, since there isn’t any room left in the sidebar!

ShadowsEdge

I realized today that NaNoWriMo is fast approaching. I’m not sure how ready I am.

Now there are some people who are doing no prep work at all - I’m not one of them. Not only do I have hopes of actually finishing the story I have planned, but I would also like the draft to be decent enough to edit and potentially submit for publication somewhere. *laughs* We’ll see what happens.

So where am I?

Well, my main characters have first names but not surnames. They have physical descriptions and some background information. Some of the secondary characters have names, some don’t. I made notecards of the scenes I knew I wanted to have in the story and put them into an outline. *chuckles* Thanks to the outline, I can now see the gaping plot holes that need to be filled. That’s somewhat depressing, true, but at least I won’t stumble on them by surprise and get stuck in November!

Gemini

Outline smoutline. *laughs* I am so not fully prepared for this. I have some great scenes, but connecting them is going to be the hard part. Have to thank Edge for the use of one of her characters, who has smoothly inserted himself and some of his ideals into my story.

My characters are rather nicely described. I could probably do character challenges with them, and just might before the month is over. Having some extra information on them might be handy and that seems like an excellent idea to get it. There’s four main, one who thinks he’s a main character and a sixth who is a real two-faced, lying, hypocritcal bastage. Can’t wait to get them all into the story itself.

Hmm… maybe I should rethink that outline idea.