I was speaking with a friend of mine who is
encouraging their child to do NaNoWriMo, because they want to be a writer. I
thought that was great and then I asked my friend if their daughter answer the
five questions about this story. My friend she looked at me quizzically and asked
what five questions? The five questions are important and especially if you are
going to do NaNoWriMo. I think the five questions are important for any story
that you write, but if you are going to do, something like this where you tried
to write a novella in 30 days and you're not used to writing every day, it
helps to generally have a plan.
The five questions are what I asked when I was an
investigator; Who, What, Why, Where and When. I used these questions to resolve
issues regarding drug use, sexual abuse, assault, and physical abuse on children
and adults. They actually apply pretty well when you're writing a story.
The first thing is who, who are the characters? Who is a story about and why do we, as the
readers need to care about these people? When you know the who of your story it
does a couple of things, it means you know your characters until it makes us as
readers care about these characters. You want the reader to care because if we
don't care, we will close the book and walk away. I spoke with her daughter to
master what she knows about her characters. She really didn't have anything
other than a generic teen girl that was very similar to her.
I gave her some suggestions; I said start by giving
a brief biography of the character. I actually pointed to my character Bible
and gave her a copy and said use this to help you develop your character. I
also said she should write how other people see her character. For instance,
she's going to be writing about a paranormal events in the teenage girl's life,
I asked her how does the antagonist see her main character? She said they hate
each other, and I asked her why did she hate her how does one character see the
other. Like in life you don't like people for a variety of reasons, it dawned
on her that there was more to their animosity that she initially thought or
envisioned.
I then asked her the character’s name and the names
of the other characters in the story. This is important because they add
credibility, they add depth and they give indication of what we can expect from
the character. I told her that because this is her first time doing a novel
it's okay to use cutesy names now but in the future she should think of more
unique names that add depth to the character. Memorable characters have
memorable names.
Then I asked her what the story was about, she told
me was about a teenage girl who is a witch dealing with her powers in high
school. Great that is a practical and immediate definition of her story, and I
understood exactly what this story was going to deal with. I told her that in
the opening first few pages of her story she needs to let the reader know what
it's about, as we read we need to be able to tell that this is about a teenage
girl experiencing more problems than a normal teenage girl does in high school.
She asked me why, I told her if I don't know what it's about when I start
reading it, and there is no hints to it, I may not turn the page to find out.
The next thing I asked
her is where does it take place, what's the setting of the story? She said that
the story takes place in a small Pennsylvania town, and the local high school,
which is very similar to the one she attends. I told her it's fine to use
similarities of the town and the high school, but she should change the names
and fictionalize the place so that she can do more with this setting. By owning
the setting of the story takes place in, she can breathe life in the town that
says to the reader, that this story could not take place anywhere else but here.
The next thing I asked
her when does a story take place? The really cool thing is that as I was asking
her the questions, I could see the creative juices start to bubble, I could
hear in her voice that she was actually getting excited telling me about her
story. Where before she was shy and didn't really want to talk about it, by
answering the questions and explaining her story she felt the sparks that all
writers strive for. So when I asked her when the story takes place, she told me
was the 21st century, 2012 to 2013 school year when the girl is a sophomore
that's when her powers come to the fore. Since she's basing her fictional town
on her real hometown, a lot of the things a lot of the places would be familiar
for her to write about, which would make it easier for her.
Then I asked her why
does the story take place, why are the characters doing what they're doing?
Characters have motives, in life we have motives for doing what we do. Because
the story is a story about conflict, and it's about the two girls who are both
witches, I asked her what is truly important to both characters. That’s when I
found out it was about a boy, who both girls wanted to go out with.
I look forward to
reading her story, by answering the five W’s she has the bones of a story and
will be able to fill out the story because she answered the questions in
advance, allowing her to write with a focus towards completing the story.
