We are now at the last week of NaNoWriMo 2010 (or the last seven days if you insist) and we’re nearing the crunch time, when we have to put in the final twists and get ready to tie all the loose ends in our story. Are you ready for a few final twists? Have you figured out how are you going to tie all the loose ends? Are you building up your story to a grande finale?

If not, it’s ok, in the spirit of NaNoWriMo, all those are not required. All you really need to do is make it to the 50,000 word mark safe and sound, no matter how the story is structured or if it’s any good, just make it to 50,000 word count and be happy you made the mark. Continuing my mid term post about ways to get inspired, I would like to offer five more ways to get inspired while writing.

Overheard dialog – Much like people watching or talking to friends, overheard dialog in a public place can provide inspiration and ideas to move your story forward. Sometimes listening to the way unfamiliar people talk, can invoke new ideas about new characters that will freshen your story. Anywhere public can serve that purpose, may it be a park, a mall, workplace, or anywhere you can eavesdrop on people. Just hearing other people’s conversations can provide character traits or storyline ideas. If you happen to overhear a snippet of interesting dialog, jot it down in your writing journal as soon as possible. It can serve as a model or inspiration for later writing.

Travel – Visiting new places you never been to before, can generate many new ideas. Invoking inspiration through travel works especially well if you are the exploring type. Whether it be a day trip to a nearby town or a trip halfway around the world, getting out of your local familiar zone and discovering new places, people and customs can be one of the best inspirations for new ideas. Use these new places to open up new ways of seeing things, new locations and new type of characters.

Freewriting – So you’re going about writing your story for a while and then you go blank, suddenly everything you planned doesn’t pan out and you’re stuck. One of the most effective solutions for being stuck in your writing is … writing. Leave your main story behind, and start writing something else, about something other than your story, doesn’t have to be a new story or even something coherent to be considered anything. Just write! You’ll probably end up with a collection of junk essays, but it will help you get out of your rut and in the end, you might write some good stuff just by doing some freewritting.

Newspapers – Reading newspapers has become a lost practice. Most of us get our news on the net or from TV. Still, there is something special in flipping the pages, the smell and the ink that sticks to your fingers that is lost with modern media. News stories and clippings can be a wonderful source of inspiration and ideas especially for crime and mystery writers. Any need in background stories, parallel plots or twists in the main storyline can be found in any daily newspaper.

Movies – Though both books and movies are means to tell a story, to authors, movies are nothing like books. Telling a story without visual aids is a completely different form of art. Still, in many cases a plot, character, dialog, location or event in a movie can create a “that’s it” moment and generate a whole new idea in a writers mind. Movies can both let your mind rest from the tasks of writing or create a whirlpool of new ideas for ongoing or new stories.

* Photograph by Tony Hall of London, England.

November 15th has come to pass and with it NaNoWriMo’s midterm. By this time many writers already have a feel for the work they are doing and pretty much know if they are on the right track for completing the project or are too far behind, if not given up already. To many writers this may be a crisis point, when they look back at what they wrote so far critically and not always happy with what they achieved. Since it’s very clear from the nature of this project that we are not intended to produce quality writing, many writers do feel that they should produce a good storyline and somewhat likable characters as a minimum.

While writers are taking a critical view of their own work, they may be disappointed with the outcome. Their struggle produced a sluggish slow to develop story, one dimensional characters, missing background stories and empty or missing worlds. There is no time during NaNoWriMo to go back and do a full rewrite of whats been written, in most cases there is just enough time to create some plug-ins to twists that are just about to come.

To writers who feel their stories are dull or characters are flat and not likable, a new twist in the story is required. A twist that will spin the story in new directions, introduce new characters, expose new sides of old characters and test them in new and unfamiliar situations. To do all that, a writer needs a new spur of inspiration and finding that inspiration in the midst of a developing story might be very difficult. I’ve compiled a list of some of my common ways of finding inspiration, I hope it will help you with yours.

People watching – A while ago I sat in Zurich airport with more than two hours until boarding time. I opened my laptop and wanted to continue a developing story, but was blank out of words. Frustrated, I looked around the terminal and saw a British couple in their mid sixties sitting right across from me. I’ve started describing their actions and the environment around us through their activities. 20 minutes later I had a new twist to my old story. People watching is an interesting activity for most writers. You can go to any public area, sit and watch people, you can write out of your sight right away or just observe and absorb for later use.

Books – One of the fundamental requirements for writers is reading. So read, read and then read some more and after that, read more. I read the kind of literature I love and the same type of fiction I write or intend to write. You can get a lot of inspiration through other people’s work, you can analyze their writing and learn new methods through it. Don’t get stuck only with the writers you love, try branching out into something different, where you might find new inspiration.

Friends – Conversations with friends, person to person, on the phone, via instant messaging on the computer, or in any different way, may inspire some new creations. Conversations like these stir up emotions and ideas, ideas coming from external sources who you have emotional bonds with can be surprising as well as strong.

Writing groups – Whether online or in the community, writing groups are a great way to inject new energy and motivation into your writing. Those groups are not only good for inspiration and ideas but also a great place to get critique and help improve your writing or wiring style.

Nature – Stuck for ideas? Go for a walk or a bicycle ride. Get away from the city and into the wilderness of trees, fields and mountains. Appreciate nature around you, and let the inspiration flow into you. Each person has his own favorite place or scene of nature, forests, mountains, snow tundra’s, desert, rivers, sunsets, sunrise, waterfalls, etc. know your most inspiring scene and use it to get some ideas from the nature around you and from within you.

History – History is destined to repeat itself. Great acts and events of history can be a never ending resource for you writing. May it be events, people or countries, any historical fact or story can be a source for a developing story or a background story.

Children – I have three children and watching the interaction between them is one of the most inspiring activities I can find. Their interaction is dramatic, full with spazic ups and downs, the number of relationship changes that span over years with adults can happen with kids in a single hour. Children can make you reflective, about your own life, about humanity, about family and what bond us together. Children, with their fresh outlook on life and the world around them, can enlighten you and change the way you view things. You don’t have to watch your own children, go to the park or the mall and try to have a look at the world through a child’s eyes.

Dreams – In general, I can never remember my own dreams, it’s very rare that iw ould wake up and remember what I dream of. Many others however do remember their dreams very clearly, for those, dreams can be an amazing source for ideas and plot development. Dreams are so interesting in their complete disregard for the rules of reality, that they make the best tool for plot twists and fresh ideas.

Writing journal – Some writers can’t do without it, while others can’t be bothered to write a journal when they already put so much effort into writing. A journal doesn’t have to be fancy, or a diary you write in every day. Just a plain notebook or a word processor document will do. Write down new thoughts, inspirations, quotes, snippets of good writing, pieces of dialog, plot ideas and new characters who just popped in your head. Go back to this journal when you need ideas or inspiration or to recreate a scene you thought of earlier.

Flickr – If you are unfamiliar with Flickr, it is the largest collection of photographs on the internet, or anywhere else for that matter. You can type in the search box any term you desire and receives an endless stream of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of photographs uploaded both by professional and armature photographers. You will find both professional photographs together with vacation photos and some random images all of which can be very inspiring. Use those photos to create scenes, locations or situations.

If you are participating in NaNoWriMo this year, by the end of today, you should have about 5000 words in your novel, that is, if you keep a steady pace throughout the month. This means that by the end of the day today, you should have about 10% of your novel written.

You should also have a somewhat clear idea of where the story is going. Of course, you may continue writing by the seat of your pants, but most authors will have a hard time to continue writing without a predetermined outline, even if it changes often. The outline is the torch that leads the way, it’s the rail on which your story rides. At times, it can cure writers block or prevent you from getting stuck and not knowing where to go next with your story. It may prevent you from getting lost in your own story, leaving you unable to tie loose ends.

Writers, who will manage to pass the 5000 word mark today, are at a good pace to continue, if they can maintain the same pace throughout the month. But let’s not forget, those three days are the days that the enthusiasm is at its highest levels, writers are still running on the initial first push. The next few days and coming weekend will be important possible breaking points. After the initial enthusiasm disperses, the hard work of writing and making yourself write through the hardships might take their toll.

Writers, who managed to pass the 7500 word mark are probably the same ones who prepared well for this years NaNoWriMo, possibly prepared their outline in advanced and already had a lot of their writing and ideas planned before November 1st. Considering the density and the amount of writing required during these 30 days, preparing yourself in advance is a good idea.

Some writers already managed to pass the 15,000 word mark today. Those are semi pro writers who participate in the NaNoWriMo event every year. In most cases, they are well prepared, experienced and savvy in novel writing. This kind of pace is not normal even to professional writers, so no writer should compare him or herself to them or be discouraged by their own progress. Writing is a hard enough work without such discouragement. Remember to stay focused in your own writing and your own progress.

So you’ve decided to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo. You have somewhat of an idea of what you’re going to write about, you have a vague outline in your head, not completely sure how the different events and scenes are all going to come together, but in general, things should work out. You even have a few interesting and unstereotypical characters in mind. And than you sit in front of the blank word processor. Ok …. ummmm …. writing everything that is right there in your head is not that simple. Even after you do start and get into a good pace, at times, you just can’t make yourself put into words the ideas in your head. Even worse, sometimes you just sit there and have no idea what your going to write next, nothing, empty, blank!

It’s hard to start writing, and it’s almost as hard to keep writing. And, there will be times, maybe even every day when you get discouraged or you want to throw in the towel because you feel lost or depressed or incapable or just plain tired, drained, empty. And the only thing I have to tell you is keep going, you can do this!

Keep your hands moving, don’t let those typing hands stop, don’t edit (other than inside your paragraph), and above all, don’t let past failures have any place during the time you’ve preset to do your writing. No matter if those were NaNoWriMo or other writing failures. There’s no good that comes out of trying to see the present creative moment through the overly emotional, shaded lenses of past failures. Just be in your own writing zone with yourself and your characters.

You can read and listen to all the advice you want, in the end, the battle for writing is only with yourself. There are very simple guidelines you have to follow to reach the finish line:
1. Set reasonable goals and honor them – Those goals can be in any timeframe, daily, weekly or monthly (obviously in NaNoWriMo the monthly goal is already set).
2. Write in draft mode – Do not worry yourself with editing and finishing touches while writing your first draft (and NaNoWriMo is all about writing a first draft), those have their own time and place.
3. Focus in your writing – When you’re writing, stay focused and think only about your writing. Not about next months credit card bill, not about your dog’s flees and not about the war in the middle east. Stay in your writing zone.
4. Read, read and read some more. The best way to write well is to read a lot. As you may as well understand, I’m not talking about blogs of fashion magazines, read books, literature, novels, good books by good authors.
5. Write, write, and write some more, just keep on writing, writing and writing. Then write more and finish off with a little more writing. You can never write enough. Practice may not not make perfect but it sure will improve your writing.

November has arrived and NaNoWriMo came along with it. Like every year the 1st of November marks the beginning of the National Novel Writing Month – An event in which participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days during the month of November.

If you value creative writing, you will value NaNoWriMo. This is because the point of NanoWrimo is to get yourself to produce 50,000 words of coherent writing and not to author a best selling novel. The point is to prove (to yourself) the ability to write the required quantity without the inhibitions caused by striving to quality and excellence. This is the ultimate freewriting exercise, and can be a whole lot of fun if you have the time required.

One of the fun aspects of NaNoWriMo is the community feeling of it. In 2009, over 165,000 participated in the event, this year the number is expected to exceed 175,000. While going through tough breaks or fantastic bursts of writing, you can draw encouragement from the fact that all around the world, other participants are riding the same roller coaster trying to reach the final goal.

To participate in this years event, the first step is to register an account at NanoWrimo.org. Once you register, you will receive an email with a link allowing you the first login that will lead you to a page where you can fill in your password and other author details. That’s it! All you have to do is login periodically and update the number of words you’ve written so far and other details if you wish. Updating your totals will help you keep track of how well you’re doing, and it will allow you to share your progress with others. The site also allows you to share your progress and other information with fellow writers as well as participate in the available discussion forums on the site.

When taking this task it’s important to remember the great sacrifice involved. To reach the 50,000 word count, a participant must produce an average of 1,667 words each day during November, that includes weekends and holidays. If a day is missed, the 1,667 words should be added to the next day. This is the reason only about 20% of the participants in NaNoWriMo ever reach the goal.