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November 10, 2005
Pole Dance, Anyone?
One of the great features of NaNoWriMo is the genre forums. Though I now officially categorize myself as "other" (being schizophrenically dragged from chick lit to fantasy to comic fantasy to horror to urban fantasy back to chick lit), I can access all of the genre forums and see who's playing where.
On the genre forums, people post dares. As in, "I dare you to include a scene in your novel where the female MC shoves gummy worms up her nose and gets caught by a) her love interest, b) her boss, c) her psychiatrist. Bonus points if the person who catches her can actually be described as d) all of the above." (Actually, that's a really great dare. Excuse me while I go post it.)
It's a good way to get plot ideas, to put the fun back into your story if you're stuck, and to chip away at writer's block.
So last week, one of our Municipal Liasons told me about a dare she'd just posted challenging writers to get their characters to pole dance on a city bus or subway. And? Today I took up that thrown down gauntlet and rose nobly to the challenge. Not only did the dare give me another scene to write, (and 2,100 words), it helped me figure out how to get my main character and the demon she hangs with together.
OOOOOOHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...
And by the way? I am at 23,445 words, 47% of the way to 50,000 words. It feels good.
Posted by sally at November 10, 2005 01:33 AM
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