NaNo Week 3: Do Something Fun!

This week, I challenge you to do something fun with your novel. “What?” you ask. “Writing’s not fun?”

Not all the time. At least not for me, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only writer who feels that way.

I’ve found that every once in a while, you just need to do something extra with the world you’ve created for your story. Maybe you’ve built up a fantasy world. Now’s the time to get out of that chair and create a popular game that the kids there play at recess. Or maybe your story is about an alien colony on Mars. Draft up their world’s equivalent of a Constitution. Anything fun that isn’t necessarily writing your story. Because hey, you’re still discovering things about your story, and anything to keep your mind on your story throughout the day is good! Who knows what else you might come up with just because you’re thinking about your story instead of the Saturday morning cartoons.

My brother is great with computers, so we scripted a video game based on my book. (Hasn’t happened yet, but hey, it gave me some great ideas!) He also helped me make (okay, it was mostly him) an online puzzle for the cover of my first book, Dreamweaver. So even if you’re not writing a fantasy, you could do something like that. Now I can just move my mouse around on the screen and stare at main character Audrey’s face being formed and call it writing.

Whatever it takes to keep going in NaNoWriMo! Sometimes even these idle moments of play can give you an idea that changes your whole story.

And if you’re behind in NaNo, don’t stop! Let’s see what we can show for this at the end of the month.