NaNo Prep: Outline Your Story Like a Subway Map

We’re deep into NaNo Prep Season, and this week, we’ve asked participants to share their thoughts on how to craft great plots and build immersive worlds. Today, author and entrepreneur Gabriela Pereira shares her method of mapping out her story:

As a New Yorker born and raised, I think of an outline as being like a subway map. What I love about this approach is that it allows you to see how the various threads of your story work together, but you can also tease those elements apart and look at them individually to see how each thread holds up on its own.

When you make a subway map outline, each line represents a different subplot or story element you want to track. The dots (or stops) represent scenes in your story. Some scenes are like local stops on a subway and apply only to one story thread, while other scenes are like express stops and represent intersections between the story threads and mark key moments in your story. For an example of this technique in action, check out the subway map of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.

Want to learn how to put together a story map like this? Here’s a step-by-step guide.

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3 Edits to Make Your Manuscript More Engaging for Your Readers

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Today, ProWritingAid—a top-notch editing software—shares some tips for making your manuscript more engaging for your readers. ProWritingAid is a NaNoWriMo 2020 sponsor.

Your first draft is just that: a draft, which will likely need some significant edits to make it as engaging as possible for your readers.

As a writer, your job isn’t just to create compelling characters or craft a tantalizing plot. You also need to get your meaning across clearly and effectively. If your writing is too complicated or hard to follow, then you’re not doing your job. You might have created the coolest character in the history of the universe—but if what makes them cool is hidden in awkward and confusing sentences, then your reader will never know.

During the editing process, it’s important to hone in on sentence-level edits that can increase the clarity of your work. Let’s take a look at three issues ProWritingAid flags that can make your writing more engaging for your readers:

1. Check Your Readability

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3 Tools for Your Worldbuilder’s Toolkit

Are you new to worldbuilding and looking for some tools that can help you craft the perfect setting for your novel? NaNoWriMo Participant Jaluna Rolik shares some of her favorites with us!

Have you started worldbuilding yet, or are you planning to make it up as you go? Even pantsers should have some idea of the world they’re going to work in before they start! 

Worldbuilding is a long, sometimes tedious, process, but it’s well worth the work. Even if your novel is set in a world that looks very similar to the one we live in, you’re probably going to want to do some worldbuilding to prepare. I generally work in worlds of my own creation. Today, I’d like to share some reasons worldbuilding can be useful, things you can include that might help you, and some (free!) tools that can be a great help in keeping it all together:

1. Keep track of your world’s calendar.

There are lots of reasons to worldbuild. Getting a feel for the cultures and calendar(s) of your world gives you more scenes you can include, ranging from religious festivals and rites to cultural anomalies or troubles that come from the social construct of your system. If you’ve got a lot of different kinds of magic, making a list of spells and methods to use magic can be a great worldbuilding exercise to keep you organized.

2. Visualization is your friend.

I have a condition called aphantasia—which means that I have no ability to visualize things in my head. As such, visual constructs in front of me, such as maps, calendars, etc., are extremely vital for me to keep track of things without getting a headache. Thankfully, there are lots  of resources out there to help people like me to worldbuild! I use plenty of different programs to help guide my worldbuilding. Here are some of the tools I use when building up my setting:

3. Keep your planning notes in order.

Worldbuilding can include almost anything—planning out the species of animals and plants, making languages for the different cultures of the world, time-lining the history of the world, and even denoting how the world was created. It’s all worldbuilding, and it all can have a great effect on your story’s potential! 

So please, if you’re a planner, plantser, or even pantser, don’t skimp on worldbuilding. Plan anything and everything you think will make your world really feel like a reality for yourself and your readers—it’s sure to give a new layer to your story that will surely wow everyone—even yourself!

Jaluna Rolik was born and raised in New Jersey, and still lives there today. Though her life has certainly had some rough patches, she always does her best to find the positive in life’s woes. In her endless free time, she can usually be seen playing video games, writing, or reading manga. She lives with her father, also a writer, who is always helping her through life’s mysterious ways. Folllow her on Twitter!

Top photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash.

Pro Tips from a NaNo Coach: Organize for Novel-Writing Success

NaNoWriMo can seem like a daunting task sometimes, for NaNo newbies and veterans alike. Fortunately, our NaNo Coaches are here to help guide you through November! Today, author Yvonne Ventresca is here to share her advice on how to set yourself up for noveling success:

Congratulations on your commitment to write a novel! As your word count grows, it can be difficult to keep track of your novel’s details. Here are five organizational tips to help:

1. Keep track of your novel’s timeline.

Print out a blank calendar for the time period when your story takes place. I use this free site to choose the months and years I need. Then mark fictional and real-world events on the calendar. This helps for planning how your story unfolds around weekends and holidays. 

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I DO NOT HAVE AN EATING DISORDER - Page 274

This is it folks. We actually made it. 

9 years ago I was diagnosed with anorexia. At the time I didn’t believe it, and I started writing this comic to prove to everyone how wrong they were. I never expected it to take the direction it did. This comic turned into the guiding anchor of my recovery. Every new hardship, every milestone, every time I felt a little bit stronger, and then 2 days later felt like it was impossible and I would never make it. I documented it all, and shared it with you. 

Having an audience sharing this with me has been so crucial in my recovery. So often when I would write these pages, I would be ashamed of the story I was telling. But in sharing it, I discovered that so many people were going through the same things I was - I was not alone in my recovery, and so many people not only shared their empathy with me, but encouraged me to keep going. No matter how hard I found it on any given day, when I came to my safe little corner of the internet, people like you listened to me and encouraged me. There were days when that was the one thing that made me keep trying. I can’t thank you enough for that. 

So now, here I am. I am officially recovered. I can proudly say that I no longer have an eating disorder. I live such a healthy life now - I eat regularly, I exercise without passing out, I sleep through the night, and most amazing of all, most days I feel pretty good. I like my body and what it’s capable of. I enjoy life. I have hope for my future. I never would have thought any of this was possible if you had asked me back then. I wish I had been able to see, when I was first diagnosed, just how GOOD life can be when you make it out the other side. 

To anyone who is in the process of recovery right now, please take strength. Recovery is so, so hard, and you may feel like it’s killing you, but I promise you, it gets so much better. You can’t believe how much your life can change. You deserve to feel happy and well. You deserve to be at peace with your body. Please keep fighting for yourself. You are worth it. 

Thank you so, so much for everyone who came with me on this journey. Your support has meant so much, and I couldn’t have done this without you cheering me on. 

Next year, after a pretty major life event in March which is currently taking up a lot of my time and attention, I will put the work into editing this body of work so that I can start pitching it to publishers. I know it’s a messy story, but I think it’s important, and I’d really like to see it as a book that you can actually hold or give to someone who may need it. 

Finally, the big question is: what next? If you’ve been following me on social media, you will have seen hints at my next big project. My new story scares me so much, because it is going to force me to confront a lot of stuff that makes me feel incredibly vulnerable. The fact that it scares me so much just affirms to me that it’s an important story to tell. 

I’m going to take a couple of weeks off over the Christmas and New Year break, to mark the end of 9 years of I Do Not Have An Eating Disorder. For those of you still on tumblr, I hope you’ll join me back here in the last week of January for the launch of my new comic project:

TRIGGERED

A Story of PTSD, a Plebiscite, and the Patriarchy

Thank you for everything. Really. 

All my love, 

Khale xox

This page brought to you by my generous Patrons!

Previous page

From the beginning

『After hundred long years, now the darkness is gone, The princess and her knight have their new lives, hard won.』

you know what still kills me?

this

entire

scene

with the way they were looking at eachother

and the fact that

they were this close

with link literally on the verge of dying

in zelda’s arms

laying down on her lap

and it’s all canon. and it’s angsty. and it’s sad. but holy sht still can’t believe they did that to our beloved zelda and link (also the fact that they played zelda’s lullaby in the background? just fck me up fam why don’t you)

Hateno Morning

WIP 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Yay, it’s finally finished! Sorry for all the detail shots, but I put a lot of work into this one and I’m really happy with it. 

Breath of the Wild Zelink having a quiet morning at Link’s house in Hateno Village; Zelda fell back asleep while playing with the Sheikah Slate.

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PLEASE DO NOT REPOST OR REMOVE ARTIST COMMENTS

“FATE…”

i dont think i’ve ever drawn anything this cheesy

“i’m a serious artist” i say, making another shitty meme comic

break it down now………..no not like that guys

Get you someone who looks at you the way Link looks at Zelda

Silent princess

Their little Rhoam. <3 

“Glad to be back” or “Glad you’re back” lol This was a pain. I don’t think I ever want to draw that dress again. lL

Someone’s a bit jealous ;-)  I WANNA HOLD THAT WOLFIIIIE!! D: