With a novel to concentrate on; other (more usual) crap popping up in my life; Camp NaNoWriMo to complete; and a pile of hefty university assignments mounting up, I can’t justify the time to sit down every single day and not only come up with a decent idea but also try and make it interesting…and a decent length.

Maybe if I had planned this year’s posts out beforehand, then things would be different, but as it stands I’d have to devote too much time each day to coming up with something appealing out of the blue.

I’ll still be posting about Interesting Ideas and Crazy Concepts, so pop back later for those. They won’t be daily, but they will be here…and hell, once everything has been sorted (or at least dialled down a little) I’ll treat you all to a month of typically bizarre posts!

]]> http://stevenchapmanwriter.com/?feed=rss2&p=1360 12 http://stevenchapmanwriter.com/?p=1345&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=b-is-for-bibliomancy http://stevenchapmanwriter.com/?p=1345#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:16:56 +0000 Steven Chapman http://stevenchapmanwriter.com/?p=1345 Bibliomancy refers to divination by opening a book at random…or in our case, getting a bloody good idea from poking a random book with our index finger. Hell, I’m not picky, you can use your middle finger, thumb, nose, or *cough* other various appendages. It’s up to you really, but whatever fleshy prodding device you choose, thrust it and thrust it hard.

Thrust it numerous times, in numerous books.

Be a thrusting book whore when choosing your starter words.

I call them starter words because obviously luckless limb lunging is not going to be the sole means of writing your story. If it was not only would it take a bloody long time but you’d have a bloody short stump for a finger by the end of it.

The reason for plunging your digits into the nearest dictionary, or arbitrary paragraph of text, is to remove the strain from your brain by having Lady (or Sir) Luck choose your path for you.

If you sit down and try and come up with a brand new story from scratch then the possibilities are endless. But if you pluck inspiration from the finite book resting next to you, you are suddenly bound by the predetermined words you hastily scribbled onto your otherwise blank page.

Let’s try an experiment…a “live” version of the above if you will. I’m going to pick up a book (Stephen King’s ‘Full Dark, No Stars’…yes I do have a copy at work) and pick three random words from three random pages. Doing so gives me:

• Didies
• Montpelier
• Hatbox

Ok, at first glance it seems I may have picked the three worst words to form a story around, but remember these words aren’t the be all and end all of your story. They just have to give you enough inspiration to get started.

It doesn’t have to be about someone changing nappies (didies) on a train to Montpelier and throwing the uses ones into a hatbox.

It can be about a well to do upper-class assassin waiting to kill someone in a Montpelier shopping mall but being disgusted by the smell of baby changing facilities from the toilet door wafting open and closed, so he moves position to get away from it and misses his target leaving the store. The hatbox can come into the story later on when he uses it to smuggle a weapon somewhere or to transport his victim’s head back to the crime lord who wanted him dead…

See! The possibilities are endless but getting there is suddenly a lot easier because your brain isn’t stuck like a deer in headlights waiting for inspiration to flatten it onto the highway.

Try it now; pick up anything with words in it. If you’re on a computer (or phone) with no books around you then do a Google search for “random word generator”, there are plenty of them!

Let me know in the comments section if it worked for you, or if you’re still struggling trying to find a way to connect your random words.

Good luck!

Last year I had an overall theme of motivation and encouragement, and the year before that it was the Deadly Sins of Writing. This year I’ll be trying to stick to the topic of Interesting Ideas and Crazy Concepts. For those of you that know me you know it won’t be that hard sticking to the crazy part.

If anyone has any suggestions of topics they’d like to see covered during the month I’ll see if I can fit them in. I’m more of a punster than a plotter anyway so I haven’t really planned the rest of the month.

Don’t forget to comment on as many blogs as you can, we’re all in this together and it’s nice to know someone out there is reading our efforts and appreciates what we are doing.

Good luck to anyone else taking part, and I’m looking forward to reading your posts!

Of course it’s also the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo 2013…which means it’s going to be one busy month for me and a lot of writers I know. But where’s the fun in something if it isn’t hard? Giggedy.

Basically you post every day during April (apart from Sundays) which handily results in 26 days, allowing you to theme your posts around the letters of the alphabet. Stick to one topic, such as writing, or bounce around like a loon and change theme each day. As long as you blog each day and use the appropriate letter, it’s all gravy!

You might want to take some time to plan out your posts or you might want to jump in at the deep end and surprise yourself. Whatever you do just make sure you remember to keep up to the daily posts.

Find other participants on the A-Z blog and have fun finding new and interesting blogs to follow. The more comments you leave on other people’s blogs the more you’ll end up receiving (in theory).

Check out my blog for the past two years I participated in the challenge.

For me 2011 was themed around the ’25 deadly sins of writing’ (post A was an introduction to the challenge before some smart arse points out there are 26 letters in the alphabet).

During 2012 I chose the theme of motivation and encouragement.

This year’s theme? I have no idea, it will be as much of a surprise for me as it will be for you. I’m open to suggestions if anyone has any thoughts on the matter.

Check out the following links for more information:

A-Z Blogging Challenge

What is blogging from A-Z?

Sign up here

WARNING: Camp is taking part during different months to last year. The months for 2013 are April and July.

For those of you that took part last year, you already know the rules. For those that didn’t, listen up:

Camp is slightly different to “Normal” NaNo…even more so this year. The idea is the same – write a huge chunk of wordy goodness within a calendar month. Other things are different. For a start Camp happens twice a year, to make sure everyone has a chance to take part…or if you’re feeling hardcore, so you can do it twice! The months for 2013 are April/July, so if you’re doing both you get a nice rest in between.

This year you can modify your proposed word count, so you don’t have to stick to the usual 50,000. This means people with little time to spare in the summer, or people who think 50k is a little overwhelming for 30 days work, can choose a smaller target (the minimum is 10k). Or if you’re feeling adventurous you can up the count to a higher number (maximum is 999,999!).

I’m playing it casual this year and going for the boring yet standard 50k.

Instead of relying on the forums for communication and group activities Camp relies on ‘Cabins’, which are effectively small private chat rooms for 4-6 campers. This means for the duration of the month you will make a few new writing friends (aww, just like real camp!). You can set up various options to determine the type of people you’ll get in your cabin. At the moment the options are:

• Campers with a similar level of cabin activity
• Campers with a similar word-count goal
• Campers in my age range
• Campers writing in my genre
• Request specific campers by username

Alternatively you can choose ‘surprise me with random cabin mates!’ or be a miserable Tard cat and select ‘I don’t want to be included in a cabin.’

Surprisingly, as grumpy as I am, I always choose to be in a cabin. You never who you might meet! Although for the past few years my cabins have always been deathly quiet or full of idiots. Ah well, better luck this year…maybe.

Buy some Camp merchandise and geek out with other writers when you turn up to a meet with the same t-shirt on. Or just throw your money at the Donation page to help the cause.

Good luck if you decide to take part!

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