And Then I Fell Down a Research Rabbit Hole

So remember last week when I was all like "hey I'm going to write a fantasy novel in 30 days and use this master outline as a template as an insane cool, fun experiment"?

Yeah. About that. As I've mentioned before, I've never written fantasy or sci-fi that wasn't a fan fic of some kind. I love reading the stuff, but I don't have much confidence in my world-building skills. Or my ability to weave an amazing plot. I am hopeful that using the master outline will help somewhat.

When I'm anxious about something or I want and need to build confidence, I research. I probably over-research in some cases. So I took to the interwebs. Pinterest came first. I pinned images that reminded me of my dragon-owning princess warrior. There were also resources on there about writing fantasy, dialogue prompts and how to make your magic realistic. Then I found the fantasy name generator.

Guys.

I loved my name generator I listed one as part of my writing and story resources top 10 list. That one is pretty basic. It gives you real, normal-sounding, non-generic names. This one has that too, if you want or need it. But it also has a data base to give you randomized names that 100 percent sound like they come out of a fantasy world. You can use it to generate dragon names, warrior names, names for your knight or royalty names. Have a cave you need named? Got it. Want a great sounding name for your kingdom or country? Yep that too.

I started generating lists of names. And then I could not stop. For three hours. Three. And then again for four more.

So now I have between three and seven names in about a dozen different categories. I have my kingdom and related countries. Neighboring kingdoms. My king. My princess. My dragon. A few yet-unamed creatures. A few castles and a forest or six.

It's gotten a tad out of hand. That's what happens when you fall down a research rabbit hole. Or into research worm hole? Whatever you call them...you find yourself on the other side of them tired, yet excited. I myself looked at the clock, saw it was 3 a.m., realized I never ate dinner. Oops.

All in the name of art, I guess!

Scared to Write? Try Fan Fiction First

If you're not a writer this might sound strange: sometimes I'm scared to write. If you are a writer, then you have probably experienced this at one point or another. For me it's usually a fear the plot isn't good enough, the characters aren't fun or the world I'm building is boring or doesn't make sense. This is especially true when I'm writing longer pieces of fiction. I can usually hold a story-line together for a short story, but plots get muddled the longer a story gets.

One way I have battled my fear of writing is to go play in someone else's world. It's almost like playing Role Playing Games online. When I'm having trouble thinking of plots and characters of my own, I hop on over to the Wizarding World and jot down some Harry Potter fan fiction. J.K. Rowling has an intricate world already set up for me and her characters are already fully formed. I can come up with new scenarios and settings for them, use old stand-by's and have them interact with characters both old and new. There's also no pressure when writing fan fiction, or at least there shouldn't be. You can't pubhslih Harry Potter fan fiction anyway, so it doesn't need to be perfect. You can write it just for fun while honing your craft.

I have found writing, and writing well, becomes easier the more you do it. The more times you sit down in front of your computer or with a pen and paper the easier it becomes to write something. It's almost like working out, but it doesn't make me sweaty and short of breath or give me a stich in my side.

There are also a multitude of websites out there that welcome fan fiction. People even get friends or other online writers to beta-read and edit their works of fan fiction. It's really kind of cool. I only have experience writing Harry Potter fan fiction, so I don't have a lot of examples of other fan fiction websites for other book series, movies and TV shows. Figment, however, is a good writing resource for youth and young adults and there are entire sections of the forums and tags for fan fiction specific pieces of writing.

My favorite Harry Potter exclusive fan fiction website is www.harrypotterfanfiction.com. It gives you a place to post your writing, get feedback and read really, really good Harry Potter-themed stuff. Founder's Era, Marauder's Era, Post-Hogwarts, Next Generation...everything!

So the next time you find yourself scared to write or if you are new to writing novel-length stories, try some fan fiction first. It works for me!

Writing and Story Resources

Most of my attempts at writing a novel have come during National Novel Writing Month. I have a few projects scattered over the past 8 years or so that I've started in a month other than November, but typically I start my projects during NaNoWriMo. I bookmark resources during November and beyond that are designed to help writers in need of ideas, plot bunnies, character traits and more.

Some of the resources I have collected are just about writing in general and how to improve your craft. Others are great places to find plot ideas and random extra characters. And some are just places for creative inspiration.

Here is my Top 10 list for writing resources (in no particular order):

1. Better Novel Project

I found Better Novel Project while listening to a Harry Potter podcast. If you're a fan of Harry Potter and literary analysis, you should head on over to MuggleNet Academia for a listen. It's really good. It also helps me feel smarter than I am. Better Novel Project is the research and analysis of Christine Frazier. Christine breaks down the first book of three popular science fiction/fantasy series: Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Twilight. She has a master outline that discusses chapter by chapter, point by point, the story elements these three books use to tell the stories of their heroes and heroines. 

2. Write Like Rowling - The Friendly Editor

If you're a fan of Harry Potter and you are a writer/aspire to be a writer, then you should also check out Write Like Rowling. C.S. Plocher has blog posts, guest features and handy tips on being a more successful writer. There's a ton of stuff on there about J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter. I also found this website while listening to MuggleNet Academia.

3. TV Tropes

I don't even know where I found this one. Probably in a forum on NaNoWriMo's website. The TV Trope site has...so much stuff it's overwhelming. What makes this website cool is that everything on it is a story element of some kind. A trope is an element of story telling that may seem cliche but it's used often for a reason: because it works. A trope might be "heartwarming orphan" or "parental abandonment" or...just anything that seems like a common story element. The website is just waiting for you to fall through the rabbit hole and find yourself staring at the computer screen at 3 in the morning and wondering how and why you missed dinner.

4. Pinterest

This one might seem weird but I think Pinterest is weirdly obvious. The best way to storyboard your idea is to literally create a storyboard. I save images that remind me of characters or links to research pertaining to my plot. Last year one of my characters owned and managed an alpaca farm and also grew organic vegetables for her own recipes for restaurants she owned. So I saved pins pertaining to raising alpacas and statting your own mega gardens. There are also links to writing resources on Pinterest. It's a cool way to bookmark your interests and save it in a beautiful format. Plus you can access it from anywhere with the internet if you have a smartphone, tablet or computer.

4. NaNoWriMo Word Sprints

This one is actually a Twitter feed. It's a great resource because it gives you plot bunnies, story prompts and challenges to write so many words in so many minutes during National Novel Writing Month or Camp NaNoWriMo. I even head over there when I'm not working on a NaNo-specific project. It's a great way to meet fellow writers online as well.

5. Figment

I don't remember how I found Figment originally. I think I was looking for online writing contests. I had lost my full time job and was only working part time so I needed something to fill my time. I found Figment and I have been pretty active on the website every since. There are forums to chat in and get story ideas from and contests for short stories with some really cool prizes. It's a site meant for youth and young adults, but all are welcome to participate. I'm 30 now so I am not really their core demographic but it really is a great website to post any style of writing in a welcoming environment.

6. NaNoWriMo

I pretty much talk about National Novel Writing Month in almost every blog post, but it really is such a terrific event and an awesome website. There are writing resources and the sponsors each year always have such cool tools for established authors and newbies alike. There are forums upon forums upon forums. You can find a local writing group or meet up online with other people from across the world. Even if you don't participate in November or write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, I highly recommend you join the website and check out everything on it.

7. Family Echo

Another weird one but one I found vital during last year's NaNoWriMo project. Family Echo is a free family tree maker. It's perfect for fake genealogy and keeping track of who is half siblings or step siblings and what everyone's birthdays are. And it's free.

8. Inflation Calculator

If you write historical fiction...or any fiction that jumps even a few years back in time, then you need this inflation calculator. It's perfect for any story that takes place in the United States or with the U.S. dollar. It was invaluable over the course of my last few years of NaNoWriMmo.

9. Random Plot Generator

I love this random plot generator because it gives you two characters, a setting, a theme, a situation and a character action randomly. You can change each point individually or all of them. The website also has other "random generators" related to writing and story telling.

10. Surname Generator

If you're like me you can think of first names but last names are hard. This surname generator helps you make sure your last names aren't all Smith, Jones and Miller. You can save your favorites and compare. It really is fun.

Ghosts of Plots Past

This past week I recveived a writing prompt in my inbox from Figment (a great writing website and resource for youth and young adults...or well anyone actually). The prompt was to write a story about your characters when they find out you've abandoned their story. The thing is...I've abandoned a lot of characters. Sometimes that makes me shrug my shoulders. Sometimes that makes me feel like a failure. Instead I tried to look at it as one of those funny things that happens to writers and their characters.

So I sat down and hastily typed out 1,300 words about my three most recent characters. All three are women I abandoned midway through their stories. It's worth noting that all three of them are characters from my most recent NaNoWriMo stories. Two of these three stories were part of "winning years." You can read more about NaNo and my "wins" over here.

I wrote about Leonora being trapped innside Jane Eyre. And trapped inside my story about her being trapped inside Jane Eyre. I wrote about Arianna finding her village street abandoned and her husband's sudden unwavering silence. I wrote about Marigold's confusion when Mitchell suddenly stopped kissing her. Poor girl. He just sat there staring blankly despite her best efforts.

And I wrote about how each of these three young women walked and walked and walked until the settings around them disappeared. They found trees and grass and fields of wild flowers. Then the trees and flowers disappeared. Then the grass. The ground became barren. The sky's color desaturated. They were still...someplace. They each found the edge of their stories. The edge of my plots. They found the points beyond my plans for them. They also found each other.

Leonora figured it out first. She is, of course, well-versed in finding herself within a story. When she and her love interest fell into the pages of a book, she figured it out quickly. So when she noticed the story had stopped progressing, she walked until she found the edge of her own story.

I'm not sure what this discovery means for my three heroines. All three of the plots were interesting and challenging in their own ways. All three of these women are fully developed characters in my mind. I know why they do the things that they do. Even when they do things I don't orignally intend. Maybe in this little meta-story where my characters are self-aware they'll be able to convince me to finish their stories and give them places to make out with potential boyfriends, husbands and love interests in peace.