#campnano2016

but back to the writing prompt… Wrap Ups… since this is that last day, I decided to give you all a quick prompt, and then a guide to improve and play with your novel once the first draft is finished… sooo the prompt??

take one of your secondary characters and work on dialogue and actions… you can use them to more the story along, add humor, lighten the mood after a serious moment, spark a fight or cause the MC to need to save them… again… :P

lol… I love sarcasm… now for the warp up – prompt… use the following pinterest pics to work on showing vs telling … body language and word usage… I also suggest The Emotional Thesaurus and other similar books…  I also like the ones on positive and negative traits…

now… instead of grouping photos like I have been, I am putting each one up by itself… I’m not sure if this will make things easier, but hopefully, you will able to save them and then print them out if you want…

Body description…

some of these are good for non-fantasy characters… if you know your characters job you will be able to picture what they look like, what type of gestures they may use more than others…

don’t make your  characters perfect… good or bad guys, add a flaw or two… muhahahahaha

work on word usage in your wiritng…

what does your MC’s pain feel like…

there are all kinds of ways to take your novel to the next level… these are just a few of them… I hope they helped… just remember to enjoy your edits… I have found that playing with showing vs telling and using examples like these help make the editing process fun… and I seriously hate edits.. lol :P

that’s it for this month of nano writing prompts… here is your pinterest prompt to wrap things up… happy wordage, tracey

I had the opportunity to travel to Europe as a teen… and hopefully one day I will work those wonderful destinations into my novels… I find that experiencing an area firsthand helps to bring it to life when you are writing… in this day and age, the internet can do a lot for you, but being there and experiencing it for yourself is always better…

make it fun… before you go into your edits, take a road trip tot he area you want you MC to come from… not only will you be able to add important details to your story, you just might be inspired for your next novel… going before you write is good, but it is never too late to take that trip… not until you put ‘the end’ on the last page…

now I have some USA maps here, but that is because that’s my home country… it is always easier to start with what you know… what you love…

what area does your MC come from… what landscapes and hometown treasures can you incorporate into your story… people love to learn little know facts, especially if they are weaved into a story without becoming an informational text… you have the perfect opportunity to show something/someplace that you love/enjoyed through your novels…

for me that will always be Kentucky… I love my state… from the caves and the lakes, the horse and the bourbon… the waterfalls, changing leaves in fall, and the Appalachian mountains…. I love it all…

I had someone ask me once ‘why Kentucky?’ for my story… and I had to ask ‘Why not Kentucky? Kentucky rocks…’ lol… so where is your MC from…

okay… that’s it… tomorrow will be our last writing prompt as Camp NaNoWriMo comes to a close… for now… here is your pinterest writing prompt… happy wordage, tracey

do you need a death scene that isn’t immediately solved… here are a Murder riddles that should be easy to work into your novel…

After you have brushed up on mystery elements and vocabulary… I have found this helpful worksheet, your own personal cheat sheet to writing your mystery… one thing that I heard over and over when I first started writing… ‘try what you think you will enjoy, and then try genres outside your comfort zone’… because you never know what you will like… and if you try multiple genres in short story format, you’ve lost nothing… and very little time… consider these shorts appetizers that have to the ability to wet the palate of potential readers…

and as always… read, read, read… so that you can get a feel for what works in the community of reader for that genre… most writers will tell you that they accumulated a stack of rejections before they managed to start to gain readers/an agents/or a publisher… today it is insanely easy to publish what you write… but we still need to find people willing to read our work.. no matter if you are an indie writer, a traditional writer, a self-published writer, or a hybrid author… we need readers… I don’t know near enough about PR but I do know one thing… your book must be worthy of the genre, otherwise no one will get past the first few pages… so find your style, try different things, and then get someone that has been in the game a while to help you label your genre… (Omg… do I hate picking the exact genre and sub-genre for my novels…) there are a number of choices out there these days, and that is great for readers, but my head hurts just thinking about typing… grrr…

alright, alright… I am being less than helpful… maybe a couple of you guys can write in and tell me what genre you think I write (if you’ve read one of my books… Shocking Finds, or an ARC for one of my upcoming novels)… I could soooo use the help peeps… but back to our Mystery Prompt… though reading the genres you enjoy writing is important in my book, I also think that you should check out movies from mystery genres… sometimes the visual can be even more helpful than the written…

and my final mystery suggestion… have fun with your learning… throw a murder mystery party… or go online and play one of the many mystery hunt games… soon they will be nicknaming you Sherlock… muahahahaha

and here is a pinterest writing prompt to kick off your mystery writing… start you story with a misunderstanding that leads to the unknown… happy wordage, tracey

Mythology can give you either an overview or a how to guide… what are you looking for??? are you writing paranormal/fantasy??? or contemporary??? even the contemporary writer can read through myths and legends and then make the stories more realistic… or for the fantasy lover, you could find something that will help you tape into your imagination…

reading about serial killers can help to take your villain from bad guy to down right evil… they guy (a 16 year old kid actually) that killed as if he was a vampire… now that story is down right scary… and just proves that even reality can come across as mystical and unreal…

what do these killers look like… well, hell… from dad of the year to the happy couple, from demonic ogre to knife wielding teen… these are all pictures of actual killers… so how will the average person pick them out of the crowd??? they don’t and that is how you make your villain real…

okay… this was a relatively short one… but here is your pinterest writing prompt… happy wordage, tracey

when your character learns something about themselves that they had overlooked, or ignored most of their life (like my MC-Marin… and the verbal abuse she learned to avoid and expect from her aunt as a child… ) not all realizations have to be big, but each one can change your character/challenge them…

other than emotions, your MC can face and deal with fears… a fear is only silly to those that have never felt one… facing and pushing past a fear can be uncomfortable to dang near impossible… is there anything that you MC would rather sky away from if possible?? check out the writing prompt on fear if you need some help freaking out your MC… muhahahaha…

also… realizing there is something that your MC truly hates/enjoys can help you to put them in uncomfortable situations, or put them in a relaxing/rejuvenating space where they can think… or… a place to ambush them… muhahaha… apparently I’m feeling a little evil today…

realization can come out of nowhere… you can have another character point something out to your MC, but you can also do self-realization… it all helps your characters to grow…

Alrighty… here is your pinterest writing prompt… I see it as the way that your MC can hide aspects of their character from others, or even from themselves… and break… :P happy wordage, tracey 

good mother to bad, there is a certain amount of manipulation to be expected… a mother shapes a life… it is a responsibility that can result in a leader, a caring artist, an adventure seeker, or…. a closed off individual, afraid of the world, or lashing out at others… but a child will always look for a mother’s love, no matter if it is there or not… how was your MC’s upbringing…

there are many different ways to manipulate… I found these guides on pinterest… from the everyday manipulations to the killer trying to get what they want… any character can help to manipulate your story forward… you get to decide if it is an everyday little manipulation or something that will bite them in the arse if they are caught… and of course there are the bad guys… they are always manipulative… though not really in pleasant ways…😛

what happens when your MC realizes that they have been manipulated??? how do they respond??? is the bad guys someone they trusted, or someone they can identify with??? depending on the characters involved and the previous relationships, manipulation can be quite dramatic…

I love a little manipulation with my entertainment… and the greatest manipulator of all time???? Red Reddington on the Blacklist… I love watching James Spader move the people in his life around on his on chess board… heck, I just love James Spader… Red is by far the best example of a good, bad guy… he actually makes me want to cheer him on when he shoots someone… lol… I am a vicious thing today… 

alright… thats it for today… here is your pinterest writing prompt… happy wordage… tracey