The Nighttime Novelist...accomplishes more in about 240 pages than a dozen other "how to write" or "craft your novel" books have ever done.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

NaNoWriMo Tip #16: Fifteen Ways of Getting Unstuck

Write a scene in which...
1. Your smartest character is revealed to be clueless or shortsighted.
2. Your dumbest character is shown to be deviously smart.
3. Your most unlikable character is shown sympathetically.
4. Your most likable character is shown to be a complete tool.
5. Your protagonist, at a moment of truth, is her own worst enemy.
6. Your protagonist, at a moment of truth, does the exact right thing, and it backfires.
7. A hole opens up in the earth and swallows your characters.
8. A character exits the novel pursued by a bear.
9. Your protagonist's external goal, what he wants in the book, looks to be unattainable, but he has to keep going.
10. Your protagonist's external goal looks to be met...and it doesn't turn out to be what he thought.
11. Your character's internal goal is revealed to be at odds with his external goal.
12. A secondary character's motivations are revealed to be other than what they seemed.
13. Your hero is shown to be morally questionable, and it works.
14. Your hero is shown to be morally questionable, and it costs him.
15. Your protagonist suddenly realizes you're the one typing him and looks up and yells, "Hey genius! Why don't you ________?"

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