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Post by Keri on Mar 13, 2021 15:02:07 GMT -5
March 13, 2021These are the questions from the Grab Bag planning party on March 13, 2021. Feel free to pop on Discord an answer at any time in the #planning-party channel or answer in your own progress thread!
Q1. How many POVs are you planning/currently writing? Why did you chose that many? Could there be a benefit in adding/reducing the POVs, or would that alter the story you're trying to tell?
Q2. What is the biggest problem your MC faces on a personal level? (For example: They're terrified of the ocean and they have to travel by boat)
Q3. How can your antagonist (be they a person or not) exploit your MC's greatest fear? This may help your MC grow as a character if they're able to overcome it to reach their goal.
Q4. When you picture your MC's town, what stands out the most?
Q5. Are your MC's parents still around? What about your villain's? How does this affect your MC/villain?
Q6. What is your story's theme or central idea in one sentence? (For example: Love conquers all. Persistence is key.)
Q7. Is this story like something you've written before, or is it something brand new to you?
Q8. What sort of weather is common for your story's setting? How does this play a role in your story, if at all?
Q9. What sort of religion or spirituality does your MC have? Your villain? Is it different from the mainstream society they live in?
Q10. Do you have a favorite scene and/or a planned scene yet? What is it about?
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Post by Keri on Apr 3, 2021 11:26:48 GMT -5
The 2021 Schedule
Note: All parties are at 1:30 pm ET unless otherwise announced.
January 1st - OC Challenge
January 17th
March 13th
April 17th - MerMay Theme
May 15th
June 26th - Camp NaNo/Zombie July
July 18th August 19th September 12th
Every Saturday in October - OctoOctober/NaNo Prep November TBD December 18th - 2022 Plans!
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Post by Keri on Apr 17, 2021 13:52:13 GMT -5
April 17, 2021These are the questions from the MerMay planning party April 17, 2021. Feel free to pop on Discord an answer at any time in the #planning-party channel or answer in your own progress thread!
Q1. Are your mermaids-of-a-type your main character, your villains, or part of your world building?
Q2. Describe the place your mermaids live in.
Q3. Do your mermaids-of-a-type live in saltwater? Freshwater? Does this affect how their appearance is? (For example, thinking of fish, saltwater fish tend to be brighter colored)
Q4. Why did you pick that specific mermaid-of-a-type? Or why did you create your own?
Q5. How do your non-mermaid characters feel about the mermaids? Do they live near where the mermaids live? Share a space?
Q6. Describe your plot briefly (or the premise if you don't have the plot figured out yet).
Q7. For your mermaid-of-a-type characters, what aspect do they have which makes them vital to the plot (if they are)?
Q8. Is your story going to be in the POV of the mermaid-of-a-type? Is this first person? Third person? Many POVs?
Q9. What tense are you going to write your story in? Present? Past? How do you think that will affect the reader's experience?
Q10. What connection do you want your reader to have with the mermaids? Do you want them to sympathize with them? Fear them? Find them fascinating and awe-inspiring?
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Post by Keri on May 15, 2021 13:58:41 GMT -5
May 15, 2021These are the questions from the planning party on May 15, 2021. Feel free to pop on Discord an answer at any time in the #planning-party channel or answer in your own progress thread!
Q1. What is your MC's best friend's fondest memory of MC?
Q2. What is your story's midpoint? (when your MC realizes what the real nature of the conflict is)
Q3. If you had to assign a single sight, sound, and smell to your MC's home, what would it be?
Q4. What type of pajamas would your villain (or the person most opposed to your MC) wear?
Q5. What is one of your novel's "pinch points"? (when your MC sees some of the antagonist's real power and gives a hint at what the MC is facing)
Q6. Does the landscape/environment play any role in influencing your MC's journey? (For example: do they have to cross an ocean? Do they need to climb mountains? Do they decide to take a plane rather than a car because of the distance? Does weather influence how they travel? etc.)
Q7. What sense does your MC most rely on?
Q8. What is the scene you are most looking forward to writing/have written between your MC and their love interest/best friend?
Q9. Why did you choose your characters' names? Alternatively, why did you choose these characters (if fanfiction)?
Q10. How old is your MC's longest friendship? Does that play a significant role in their life?
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Post by Keri on Jun 27, 2021 13:59:40 GMT -5
June 27th, 2021These are the questions from the planning party on June 27, 2021. Feel free to pop on Discord an answer at any time in the #planning-party channel or answer in your own progress thread!
Q1. Why did you choose to write this novel? What about the novel's theme, or story, hooked you in?. Q2. Tell me something unique about your novel (character trivia, world building fact, theme) that makes you excited. Q3. If you had to summarize your MC's personality into one word, what would that word be? Q4. How many POV characters do you have? Why did you choose those characters (if they are not your MC)? Q5. There are at least three settings you should know (unless you're pantsing!): Where your MC starts, where the climax happens, and where the MC is at the end. So, where are they? Q6. What is the place in your setting you would most want to visit? Least? Q7. What is something vital to your story's conflict that your MC does not know? What is something vital to your story's conflict that your character's biggest enemy does not know? Q8.If your story ended the way your antagonist wanted (whether it be a sentient antagonist or not), what would happen to your MC? Does the MC know this will be the outcome? Q9. Regarding your MC, what is a talent they do not have but wish that they did? Q10. From your MC's POV, which character could they not possibly complete their "quest" without? (Quest is whatever the plot of the story is)
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Post by Keri on Jul 18, 2021 13:57:52 GMT -5
July 18th, 2021These are the questions from the planning party on July 18th, 2021. Feel free to pop on Discord an answer at any time in the #planning-party channel or answer in your own progress thread!
Q1. Take your MC and think of why they are the force behind the story. What is their motivation? What is their why? For example:
- Boy wants to earn what is rightfully his and save the kingdom from tyranny
Or
- Girl wants to choose her future husband on her own and believes to give away the first kiss is to give away her heart.
Q2. Tell us about the most proud moment in your main character’s life.
Q3. What is your MC's greatest flaw? They all have one. And they all have to have it exploited in order to make the story really shine. When you figure out what it is, think of one way their flaw will work against them either by being exploited by an antagonist or by self-sabotage.
(Examples: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_flaw#Examples)
Q4. The main plot of your story usually revolves around an MC. The plot to this MC involves three different aspects:
- External Conflict (what we think of when we think plot - the battle, the thing they gain, etc.) - Main Relationship (an emotional connection, not necessarily romantic, to someone) - Internal Conflict (some sort of inner conflict regarding what the MC believes and what he must accept as truth)
So for this ten minutes, let's focus on:
What is the main relationship your MC has? Is it romantic? Friendly? Familial?
Q5. What is the main, external conflict? How does this affect the relationship from the previous question?
Q6. Lastly, what is the internal conflict? What does this external struggle reveal to your MC?
Q7. What aspect of your protagonist does your antagonist/enemy find absolutely infuriating?
Q8. What is your MC's favorite way of displaying affection? Physical? Gift-giving? Verbal compliments?
Q9. In regards to your overall character arc, does your character grow for the better? Stay the same throughout? Descend to a worse place than where they started?
Q10. From the enemy/antagonist's POV, give me a description of the MC.
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Post by Keri on Aug 29, 2021 13:47:49 GMT -5
August 29th, 2021These are the questions from the planning party on August 29th, 2021. Feel free to pop on Discord an answer at any time in the #planning-party channel or answer in your own progress thread!
Q1. What is the central conflict of the story?
Q2. Who is the bravest character in the novel?
Q3. In your opinion, what is the most lovable thing about your MC?
Q4. What sort of atmosphere do you have in the beginning of the novel? At the climax?
Q5. What is one physical challenge your antagonist/your MC's enemy faces?
Q6. What character faces the biggest loss during the course of the novel?
Q7. What could be a possible "logline" for your story? (A logline is a one sentence summary of a movie.)
Q8. What is your goal with the story? Do you want it to inspire? Amuse people? Have them come back for more?
Q9. Is there any mystery in your story? If so, what is it? If not, why not?
Q10. What is "victory" to your MC?
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Post by Keri on Sept 12, 2021 13:59:49 GMT -5
September 12th, 2021These are the questions from the planning party on September 12th, 2021. Feel free to pop on Discord an answer at any time in the #planning-party channel or answer in your own progress thread!
Q1. Perhaps the most important question to ask, which is why it is first: If you put aside everything, which story do you want to write the most? Which one is calling to you loudest when you think, "I want to write"?
Q2. Now to focus more on whether or not that would be helpful, we need to think of the future. What are your writing goals in the long term? Are you looking to self-publish? Traditionally publish? Just write for fun? Write as a career?
Q3. Based on that answer, which novel idea do you think would help you best achieve that goal and/or would fit your current writing career? It may not be the one you go with, but depending on your own goals (such as #pub2022 or wanting a book out in six months), it would be good to note those that will propel you forward on your timeline versus something that may be temporarily delaying you. There's no harm in writing for fun/exercise!
Q4. What are the big ideas (the premise) in your story choices? Once you've distilled the plot down to a paragraph, which one sounds the most interesting to write at this point in your year? Sometimes we can find that the best novel to write is something that helps us work through emotions we have and/or problems we're facing.
Q5. Which big idea is the most original? What part of it is something you feel hasn't been offered in the way you're planning to write it?
Q6. Which idea of the ones you have available is the most fleshed out and would involve the least amount of pre-writing work? Which one has the least?
Q7. Which idea has characters that speak to you loudest? Even if the plot isn't quite there yet, would the character be someone you'd prefer to spend time writing rather than a story with a more fleshed out plot but characters that aren't quite there yet?
Q8. Which idea(s) has more than just one conflict? Each one will have a main conflict, but do you have ideas that also have side conflicts, subplots, problems between side characters, etc?
Q9. Which idea would assist you in developing new writing skills? Which would help you stretch your boundaries and become a better writer? Is this something you feel you need to do now or something you want to research more for future writing?
Q10. If this was the last time you could ever write a story, which one of your ideas would you be saddest about not ever getting a chance to write?
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Post by Keri on Oct 3, 2021 13:50:11 GMT -5
October 3rd, 2021
Q1. The first decision is always the hardest: what idea is going to keep us through at least 50,000 words in a month? I'm sure we've all had a thousand ideas in mind so let's go with an old-but-gold question: why this novel?
Q2. Why this genre? Is it a favorite? A new one? Something that you were inspired to do?
Q3. Realistically, how many days will you be writing in November? Will you be someone who hits all 30? Will you need to take breaks for work? Family? Mental health? Knowing this in advance lets you determine the next question.
Q4. Based on the realistic number of days you'll be writing, determine what your personal minimum words per day is to hit that 50,000 words (or more).
Q5. Utilizing your personal writing speed, how many hours a day do you think you'll need to hit your minimum word count goal? Looking at your normal daily schedule (if it varies, use one day as an example for now), where can you fit that time in?
Q6. Next up, we'll focus on our daily plan, the Awesome OctoOctober Outline of Awesome. There's a bit of an explanation in the WriYe thread linked in the introduction. We'll use this time to try and pinpoint options for the big pieces.
First things first: What are some opening images you could use?
Q7. What are options to put in part 16, the turning point/twist/high point? What sort of things could make things worse for your characters?
Q8. The 25th point is the resolution. What do you expect to happen after the most exciting point/climax? Do your characters succeed? Do they fail? What are the actions that lead to the end?
Q9. The last point, 30, is theoretically the ending, which would be the final image. What is the lingering memory you want your readers to take away from this novel?
Q10. The rest of this part is... filling everything in! There's a lot more to do on it, and I don't expect anyone to get it filled in now... So that's a "work on your own" option.
Instead, this question will be: are you going to use a reward system? What rewards work best for you? Food, snacks, presents?
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Post by Keri on Oct 10, 2021 14:01:25 GMT -5
October 10th, 2021
Q1. What is your main character(s) goal? This is a specific goal like marriage, family, beating the big bad, etc.
Q2. What does your main character(s) want? This is something they believe will make them happy but most often, is not what they really need to find that happiness. A good way to find this is to think of what the character will feel if they attain their goal (power, love, fame, etc.).
Q3. What does your main character(s) need? A need is usually a lesson they need to learn in order to achieve happiness. Examples are: acceptance of self, finding courage, learning compassion, etc.
Q4. The important thing to know about the want and the need is that they should be in conflict. The want is not always what they need. Often, their actions in the novel will be following the want and pushing the need further away, and it isn't until they realize their need and achieve it that they are able to grow.
How does your character's want conflict with their need?
Q5. Both of these are usually something that stems from a character's inner wound and their inner struggle that came from that wound. What is your character's inner wound? These are usually something negative that has happened before the story that has influenced the character's outlook, beliefs and behaviors that make up the struggle.
Q6. Now that you know their inner wound, what is the struggle that comes from it? For example, if your character's wound was from bullying and lack of friends, maybe their inner struggle is the belief that they have no worth or they have no self-esteem that they need to achieve.
Q7. These beliefs that they have made in their inner struggle usually can be condensed into their fatal flaw. It is the flaw they have that actively works against solving the inner struggle, usually as a defense mechanism against it. Some examples are arrogance, vanity, stubborn, etc. What are potential fatal flaws for your MC(s)?
Q8. To further enhance this fatal flaw and make it an active one, think of how this flaw would make your MC would behave at... - Losing a game - Attending a dinner party honoring someone else - Receiving praise
Q9. Alternatively, what is your character's most positive trait? What is the thing their friends/family would immediately point out as the best part of them?
Q10. Now for the fun one: what does your MC even look like?!
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Post by Keri on Oct 17, 2021 13:58:06 GMT -5
October 17th, 2021
Physical
Q1. What is the most important physical feature of the main setting of your land? (Examples: a mountain, a forest, a river...)
Q2. How do the physical features affect the way people live? (Examples: mountainous regions make it hard travel; deserts make water a rare resource; rivers mean their main focus is farming)
Q3. How much ground will your story cover? Will it be in one place or will they travel far?
Climate
Q4. Are there any aspects of your setting's climate that might come into play to serve as either a help or a hindrance for your MC's journey/goal?
Q5. Will your main character(s) experience a different climate during your novel? If not, would they prefer to be in a different climate?
History
Q6. What is the most memorable historical event of your MC(s) home town/city/country? It might be something monumental like a battle, or it could be something crazy like a Great Sheep Escape.
Q7. What conflict or major event has helped shape the life of your MC(s) the most?
Culture
Q8. What holiday does your MC(s) always make sure to celebrate?
Q9. What was your MC(s) first job, and was that a typical first job for your setting? If not, what is the typical first job?
Q10. Find a picture of (or describe) the typical day-to-day outfit your MC(s) wears?
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Post by Keri on Oct 24, 2021 14:00:40 GMT -5
October 24th, 2021
Q1. Let's look long term: what is your goal with this story? Finishing for yourself? Drafting to eventually publish? Posting online for readers?
Q2. If you know your novel's genre, what genre conventions are you using? If you don't know about your genre, do you know if you are using any tropes (or twisted tropes)? Readers tend to like conventions/tropes (especially when turned on their head!) when done well!
Q3. What aspect of your MC do you think you're going to have a difficult time with? Their personality? Their backstory? If you think about this now, you can come up with potential solutions or ways to get into characters.
Q4. What is your Point of No Return (When your MC can no longer return to whatever their status quo was)?
Q5. Most novels have a main plot, but also side stories that involve minor characters, side characters, or even villains. These can be B-stories, running concurrent and feeding into the main plot (A-story). Do any of your non-MC characters have a side plot?
Q6. What is the mood of your novel? Hopeful? Tragic? Dark? What sort of things do you plan on using to convey this mood?
Q7. What do you want the readers to feel once they've finished your novel? If this is a series novel, how will you try to prevent frustration at unanswered questions (ones that will be tied up by book Last)?
Q8. Let's talk headspace: what is your biggest fear when it comes to this novel? What do you think you won't be able to succeed in? What do you think will be something that holds you back? How can we, your fellow WriYers, help you with this?
Q9. What can you do to stop your inner editor from popping up and causing trouble, blocking your creativity or stalling you completely?
Q10. Give your novel a tagline, like it was a movie. Write it somewhere where you can see it during the challenge/while writing it. Make it as fancy or simple as you'd like. If you do make some art out of it, share it in our new art channel!
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Post by Keri on Dec 19, 2021 16:12:07 GMT -5
Tentative Dates and Times for 2022
If you would like to join us in the WriYe Discord Chat for our live planning parties, here are the tentative dates and times! All times are Eastern Time, so here is a handy time zone converter if you need it!
Saturday January 1 2pm EST (11am PST/7pm GMT)
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Post by Keri on Dec 19, 2021 16:13:38 GMT -5
December 19th, 2021These are the questions from the planning party on December 19th, 2021. Feel free to pop on Discord an answer at any time in the #planning-party channel or answer in your own progress thread!
Q1. How did you do with your WriYe goal? Was it too ambitious? Did you underestimate yourself?
Q2. Looking through your year (and past years), what month(s) were your best? Which ones were the hardest for you to get words in during? Can you adjust your writing schedule around these months?
Q3. What sort of stories were the most successful this year? Genre, age group, length, etc? Which ones didn't end up as successful as you had hoped?
Q4. Do you have a set of stories that you have benchmarked for next year as necessary to write? Do you know what months you have set aside for them, if any?
Q5. Which WriYe challenges really clicked with you this year? Non-WriYe Challenges? If all things remained the same, and no challenges changed, which ones are you looking forward to next year?
Q6. Knowing all of the information from above, what minimum word count would you need to complete all of those necessary stories and fun challenges that you want to complete?
Q7. Is that total number higher or lower than your word count (so far) this year? If it is higher, do you think you can reach it without undue stress/anxiety? If it is lower, do you think you might want to start at a higher challenge word count?
Q8. All writers are different and some may thrive with every day writing. Some may need to schedule it around jobs/personal life/etc. What sort of self-check can you implement ensure you're on target? A monthly goal? Weekly? Quarterly? Or will you instead go by projects completed/edited and not worry as much about the word count?
Q9. How are you planning on tracking your successes this year? Are you going to use the WriYe spreadsheet? Will you do some sort of bullet journal style tracker? Will you use an external website? a Planner? Do you use stickers or small rewards?
Q10. If you had to make one motto or word for yourself next year to focus on, what would that be? Examples are things like "persistence," or "happiness." (There are thousands to use!)
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Strike a match and hope it lasts, here's to following your own lead...
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Post by Roisin on Jan 1, 2022 15:30:21 GMT -5
January 1, 2022Here is a list of questions that were asked in the WriYe Discord Chat during our January 1st planning party. Feel free to answer them here, in a plotting document, or anywhere!
Q1. A simple question to start off with. Describe your character’s appearance.
Q2. How does your character feel about their appearance? Is there anything they would change about their appearance?
Q3. What is your character’s biggest fear? What is your character reluctant to tell people?
Q4. What are some insignificant memories that stick with your character to this day? Why do you think that is?
Q5. Who in your character’s family do they most resemble? How do they feel about that?
Q6. What or who does your character fear losing the most? Why?
Q7. What is your character’s favorite food? Favorite drink?
Q8. Who was the first person to break your character’s heart (romantically or not)? How do they feel about that person now?
Q9. Your character is on their death bed. Who do they want at their side? Why?
Q10. Choose three words to describe your character. Why those three?
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