Research

Okay, so my resolution to not write about writing lasted really long. NOT. Anyway. NaNoWriMo is only five days away (and quickly counting down) and I’ll finally be able to start writing my next book. Honestly, you can only edit the same stuff so much, before you just want to start hashing out new scenes.

My favorite part about writing though, is the research required. You can't write something without at least a little research, and since I write in the modern era (aka. here and now), all the more research is needed. I can spend hours and hours on it, trying to find just the right search term, trying to figure out if what I want to happen is really possible.

For my first NaNo, I had no real plan, so I didn’t do any research before I started writing. Each day that I wrote though, I immersed myself in things about Wales, the UK, Jacques Cartier, Newton's laws of motion (don't ask), Vermont, the Boston Airport, weather at different times of year in different places, and all kinds of medical things. I mean, if your character gets hurt, you have to at least make it look realistic, right?

I spent so much time learning about Wales, and the history of Wales, that by the end of the month, there was only one country that I really wanted to go to. Wales. I still really want to go there, and I hope to someday... Along with all the other countries that I had to research ^_^

Being from the US, I also had to learn all about the schooling system over there, and all the differences. Being homeschooled also made writing from that perspective a little harder as well. Oh well, I made him homeschooled for three years :)

Even after NaNo, and I took a break from writing for a while, I still kept researching. Random things would pop up to me, and I think that that would be really good to know about. So I’d look it up. By the time June came around, and I finished writing and editing my book for my proof copy, I felt like I knew a lot about Wales, about Vermont, a lot about all kinds of random stuff.

Even now, I’m doing some last minute researching, including writing out a whole family tree for him, from the 1500s all the way up to the present. Yeah, it’s been interesting. First I had to find names that would've been applicable to those eras, and that took forever. I’m learning a lot more about the country, counties in Wales, and more about the history in those time periods, as I try to give his ancestors occupations. I spent a couple hours learning all about the Royal Navy, trying to find a suitable ship for his ancestor to serve on, and then had to make sure that the ancestors position wasn’t too high that he’d be expected to be in the history books. They have to be invisible ^_^ Research for probably only one or two chapters of the book, but important to me all the same. Hours have been spent researching the most mundane things, from allergic reactions to P.E./Health textbooks that he’d likely use. I will be prepared this year :)

I just hope I’m not taking all the fun out of it ahead of time...

StarLit

T-minus 19 Days

It’s that time of year again, and we all know it. Well, most of us do.

It’s almost NOVEMBER!

And November means a myriad of things. Even more fall colors, college previews for us seniors, Thanksgiving, and most importantly, NaNoWriMo!!!

This will be my second year doing NaNoWriMo, and the first year that I actually have a plan for what I’m writing. A couple months in advance. Okay, actually, I’ve been messing around with this idea for the last five months, ever since I finished the first book. But shhhh, I’m keeping it a secret until November, so you’ll have to wait until then to find out about it ^_^

Last year, I wrote without a plan. I didn’t even have a character until the 1^st of November. Then, it just evolved from there. I didn’t even have a semblance of a plot until halfway through January, when it just hit me, ‘Oh, that’s what I should do’.

The same thing happened with Script Frenzy, a challenge where you’re supposed to write a 100 page script (movie, T.V., stage, etc.) in the month of April. By the end of April I had 200+ pages, and decided to turn it into a novel. Once again, I had had no characters at the beginning of the month, no plot, not even a setting. I finished writing it two months ago...

This year will be a little different, having to base things off of something that I’ve already written, but I’m trying to see it as just a continuation of the first book. Of course, two days in, I might end up scrapping that idea and writing something completely different. We’ll see.

--Star Lit