At this point I’m diverging from BiaM and You Can Write a Novel. Both mention setting briefly. Smith goes as far to suggest treating settings like a character. Instead, I’m leaving these books at the wayside for now and concentrating on the setting sketch from FDi30D.
I know where BK will be set. I’m listing the settings in yWriter and in my notes software. This is the first part of this step. Once I have the settings down for further reference, I start the setting sketch.
What I used to do is start this in my notes program in a tree view. I really don’t like this, nor do I want to use the worksheets from the book. So this time I’m looking towards yWriter to get this down. One of the features of yWriter is the ability to assign locations to scenes. Combined with scene notes I think I can pull this off.
First I write down the names of the setting in the order I think they’ll go in the novel. This could be by country, city, places within the city or times of day.
I create a chapter and a scene, naming the scene “Setting Sketch”. I add the location for that chapter by dragging it over. In the notes tab, I do the setting sketch or what I think what will happen at that setting.
The actual setting sketch details the place, time, who’s there, a summary of what happens and how many chapters I think it’s gonna take to write it out.
There are two things going on here. I’m not just getting down the where and when, but I’m also getting down the basic plot at the same time. I’m not going to go back on this part. Once it’s down I’ll reference it only once more before deleting it.
Tips for Today:
WD: I am not an Exception: That is learn the rules and follow the guidelines. There are rules on writing, submitting and publishing.
NaNo: Study your favorite authors, their voice style and content. NaNo advises practicing to write like them for awhile. This is great practice but it doesn’t belong in a finished piece.
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