NaNoWriMo Day 12
Forget inspiration.
Hello, writers!
We’re nearly two weeks into NaNoWriMo—can you even believe it?
Let’s turn to the great Octavia Butler for some wisdom today:
First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.
To me, that’s what NaNoWriMo is all about—creating habits. Habit, not inspiration, makes a writer! So if your well of inspiration is running a bit low at this stage in the challenge, keep the faith. Don’t wait around for inspiration. Just grab your ass glue and start typing. How do you write a book? One word after another.
If you’re plot is rolling along, that’s great! Keep going. If you’re feeling stalled, don’t fret. Use writing prompts—mine or someone else’s, there’s no shortage of writing prompts on the internet!—to keep the words flowing. Sometimes all we need to make our way back to inspiration is an assignment. Prompts offer just such an assignment.
Writing Prompts
Throughout my prompts, I am often going to suggest that you write a scene. By a scene, I mean a continuous sequence of events that occur in a limited timeframe. I intend each prompt to be a 15-minute word sprint. Set a timer for 15 minutes and just keep writing until the timer goes off. You’ll be amazed by what you can achieve in 15 minutes. These first few prompts are designed to help you know your main character more fully. You do them one after the other right now, pick and choose, do one a day—whatever works for you!
For the first four prompts in this NaNoWriMo series, click here.
For prompts six to eight, click here.
For prompts eight to eleven, click here.
Put your main character work! Write a scene in which your main character actively chooses to take action toward their goal, except they are going about it all the wrong way. Let them experience a little success on the wrong way street before the dump truck comes screaming toward them.
Complicate your conflict. Write a scene in which your main character runs into a new obstacle on the path to his or her goal. This obstacle can be another person, a force of nature, something supernatural even!
Let’s try something a little different for our final prompt in this set. This is a sentence-starter prompt. I’ll give you some phrases to start sentences, and you complete the sentence and continue onward. You will need a timer for this one. For each starter phrase, give yourself three minutes. Don’t look ahead at all the phrases. I put images in between them to keep your from peeking! Rather, respond to the first phrase for three minutes. When the timer goes off, scroll down to the second phrase, and so on! This is adapted from a prompt I first encountered over twenty years ago. I have no idea who the original creator of it was, but I freely admit that I did not invent it!
First starter phrase: “The sky that day…”
Second starter phrase: “The scent in the air…”
Third starter phrase: “The only sound…”
Fourth starter phrase: “The taste of my lips…”
Final starter phrase: “This is what I [she/he] wanted to tell you [him/her]…” (adjust pronouns as needed for your given POV!)
Show your work!
I’d love to hear how things are going for you! Let me know if you want more prompts like #14, and share a few sentences from your WIP!
Stay creative, friends, and I’ll be back with more prompts on Friday!