That's so exciting that you're doing NaNo this year, wild rose! It's a great experience.

Frodo B, I've found that NaNoWriMo is very helpful. Though I really have not written a novel-novel (the one year I entered it was just short stories, and one I planned to make longer) it helped to keep writing something to get the 50k, where as I would have left the story incomplete if I had been writing it another time. I highly encourage you to do it this year, it's great!

thanks for the help @stargazer and @Aslanisthebest. I really appreciate it. ^.^ I'm gonna try and give NaNoWriMo a shot.

Great news! After unpacking a lot of boxes after my move I found my binders with pages full of my fantasy stories I've written when I was a teenager. Looking back through them makes me feel young again. I can't wait to revise them on my computer and one day publish my stories!

I personally find it difficult to just plan out what a character is like and what he does. I've had many characters that simply reveal who they are as you write. Some you try to force in for whatever odd reason and they simply don't belong. Others you throw in there for the heck of it and they end up becoming a major player in the story. I have not officially done NaNo but I tend to write at NaNo's speed, especially on the first draft. Yes, it tends to lead to bad writing but you learn so much about your characters as you join the ride with them. And I also find that it is much more important to finish the story before you edit. Characters are one reason and when characters change from what you planned, so does the plot. It's fun and I hope it works out for you.

Now will I do NaNo this year. My schedule will be much lighter now that I've graduated and my teacher certification program classes from what I hear will be piece of cake. I already have the story I would do for it. It will be a spin-off/prequel to my published novel. When I say spin-off, I mean I have in mind to do a series of books that focuses on one of the major characters from the main one. Either that, I'll re-write an adventure thriller I wrote to test the waters for writing. It needs enough work I need to start completely over, but it would be a really good non-explicity Christian book for me to use as well. So many ideas...

@FencerforJesus, I've developed characters that way before once but I sometimes I feel like I'm putting myself into their character instead of themselves. But I understand what you mean.
I think that's cool that you have a book published. I'm gonna try to read it if I get the opportunity. Good luck on the spin-off prequel!

Check the link in my siggy for info on my published book.

Yeah, it's very difficult to avoid putting yourself into your characters, especially if you ride the journey with them. Some other suggestions I've heard is role-play. Put a character in a given situation and see what he/she would do. What kind of arc do you want the character to have? What situations could induce that arc? How do the characters around act? How do thier interactions with your character come about? There a lots of ways to do it. I've done the ride-the-story-through only on the first draft. Then as I edit, I know more about my characters and I can role-play from there. Other times, I get one scene that I absolutely fell in love with which becomes a defininig moment in the character development and I go back to fill in to make that moment be most effective. Play around with it. Something will work.

@FencerforJesus, I was able to read part of your book through the link and I really enjoyed it! I hope to read the whole thing very soon.

Oh, I've done role-playing for my characters. (I find this rather amusing that I have already done some of your suggestions already. XD) Although my friend and I call it character chatting. I find it can help with some characters but not all. I think that you are right about playing around with it. I probably need to just sit down and work on it without worrying about character development until after it's written.

Hey everyone! Wow, I need to catch up in here, don't I?

Mountie, that's great that you ordered your CreateSpace copy! I never got mine because I'm not satisfied with my novel yet, and I don't want to order something I'm not happy with, even if it's free. Maybe I'm just stubborn.

Riella, about getting published by bigger houses - pretty much all major publishing houses don't take "unsolicited manuscripts", meaning you can't just send it to them. If you wanted to go that route, you'd have to get an agent, and then they'll send your manuscript around to editors at publishing houses. I think I've talked about agents on here before. But agents like your novel to be all finished and polished and all ready for publishing, so don't worry about any of that until you're finished with your novel. You can cross that bridge when you get to it, along with deciding your genre.

Yay Wild! Looking forward to writing with you this November! It's hard work but loads of fun. As for the language...well? I'd write it in whatever feels comfortable, or if you're thinking you'd like to try to publish, whichever language might help you out in that aspect. But I really wouldn't know, would I? I only speak English. I think it'd be cool to be bilingual.

Hi there Frodo B! I hope you find this thread helpful. Character development? Hmm. One thing I'd suggest is write whatever comes to mind and try to think like your characters would. What I mean is, I have some scenes in my novel that I plan on taking out because they serve very little real purpose, but I don't regret writing them because I learned little things about my characters that I wouldn't have known otherwise. NaNo helped me out too with developing my characters because it forced me to write scene that helped develop my characters even thought they may seem a bit pointless. Every little bit helps!

DamselJillPole, I love finding old writing, haha! It makes me remember the point in life I was when I wrote it, and it also works to convince me that I have indeed improved.

I haven't touched my novel in a while, I admit. There's been so much going on, and I felt a little burned out. So I've been letting it sit for a couple of months, and then when I go back to it, I'll be excited and ready to work on it some more!

Thanks @Silver the Wanderer. I'm finding this thread fun and very helpful. I think I'll probably be hanging out here more often. XD Thanks for the advice as well.

Yay for planning to join NaNo, Frodo B!

Your plot idea for NaNo sounds really interesting, Fencer!

Hehe, I ditto Silver. Finding Old Writing sometimes makes me happy, othertimes aware that I have changed in my writing very much. That's so cool that you found your old stories, DamselJillPole!

I haven't been doing much writing at all lately. I can't think of what to write. Little scenes I can think of, but for a plot or anything... ugh. I guess that's the price I'm paying for detesting writing outlines or organizing what I write, and just wanting to go with whatever pops to mind. It sounds all nice, except for the fact that nothing comes to my mind when I call upon it. Oh well. [/ramble]

I can't begin writing again until I get a new computer in Sepember, so in the mean time I have been doing a lot of drawing, completing my world's map, figuring out each cultures look and history.
So with all the drawing I have been doing lately it got me thinking:

If anyone here needs help and is interested, I would be more then happy to help anyone with any drawings they may want for their stories or for their own reference when writing.
character portraits, creatures, armor, swords.
If you have an idea of how one of your characters swords looks, just describe it to me and I would draw it the best I could for you.
Just a thought I had.

Also I have been wondering, how do you describe things without it sounding like your writing facts?
Like In one scene if I picture one of my characters is stressed and puts his hand over his forehead, do I just say "He was stressed and placed his hand over his forehead". Or "She shook her head and smiled as she continued up the path".
I feel like I'm always describing their actions. Maybe it is just me and it sounds fine, or is there a better way to word your characters actions?

Also I have been wondering, how do you describe things without it sounding like your writing facts?
Like In one scene if I picture one of my characters is stressed and puts his hand over his forehead, do I just say "He was stressed and placed his hand over his forehead". Or "She shook her head and smiled as she continued up the path".
I feel like I'm always describing their actions. Maybe it is just me and it sounds fine, or is there a better way to word your characters actions?

If you're just saying something simple like placing his hand on his forehead, I think it's okay to just say it plainly. If you want to know more "flowery" ways of describing things and actions, try reading some Tolkien passages. Or even some passages from Til We Have Faces by Lewis. They really knew how to put more into descriptions.

~Riella

There is a tricky line to figure out between 'telling' and 'showing'. Most authors would advise you not to tell us someone is stressed but show it through motions and dialogue. What does a particular character do when he/she is stressed? Is there a nervous habit (like bitting nails, playing with hair, give a fake smile/laugh) they do? Here is an example for what I did after the advise of several others.

I had a short scene in my book (I cut it out due to pacing) where a father and son had an intense argument. After they cut it off, the father rested his forehead in his hands, and said a quick prayer with bleary eyes. That paints a better picture of what's going on than just to say he is stressed. Based on the conversation, the reader knows he stressed. So what does the father do to express it?

Does that that help?

Hello, everyone...I was just reading about everyone's writing adventures...impressive. Got a totally different question here, though: has anyone ever written anything for Wikipedia? I know it's not fiction and all, and not even really a "book" but I just found something I want to write about but suddenly got shy about posting it. Never done that before...weird, huh?

I was wondering, is anyone here doing CampNaNo? I am