NaNoWriMo is over, here is what I learnt
1. Apparently "learned" isn't an word in scotland, I still have to check whether it's an english/american thing or something else entirely.
2. I have a bad case of the passive protagonist. My characters stand there while other characters talk to them or they react to what other people do and it explains why I always feel like what I'm writing isn't very interesting. It isn't. Because the guy who is supposed to do stuff doesn't. Also it might be a symptom of the character I have chosen to have the POV not being the right character for the job. But I mainly need to wonder "what do my character want and how will he achieve it" instead of "what is going on".
3. Plotting, it's a thing I need to do at least a little before I start writing for NaNo. I can work without for short stories like SSBB submissions because I write more slowly and can plot as I go but it doesn't work when you have to make it last for 50k and need to be really productive.
4. I need to make my dialogue scene less static because it makes them hard to write when they're just sitting down and talking at each other. People still do stuff while they talk.
5. This one I learnt partly from reading other books: I need more description and good description is also something that isn't static. So far every time I read "good" description it wasn't something that the main character watched, it was something that showed itself to the main character and there were lots of "verbs of action" involved.
6. Backpfeifengesicht a german word for "a face in need of punching".
2. I have a bad case of the passive protagonist. My characters stand there while other characters talk to them or they react to what other people do and it explains why I always feel like what I'm writing isn't very interesting. It isn't. Because the guy who is supposed to do stuff doesn't. Also it might be a symptom of the character I have chosen to have the POV not being the right character for the job. But I mainly need to wonder "what do my character want and how will he achieve it" instead of "what is going on".
3. Plotting, it's a thing I need to do at least a little before I start writing for NaNo. I can work without for short stories like SSBB submissions because I write more slowly and can plot as I go but it doesn't work when you have to make it last for 50k and need to be really productive.
4. I need to make my dialogue scene less static because it makes them hard to write when they're just sitting down and talking at each other. People still do stuff while they talk.
5. This one I learnt partly from reading other books: I need more description and good description is also something that isn't static. So far every time I read "good" description it wasn't something that the main character watched, it was something that showed itself to the main character and there were lots of "verbs of action" involved.
6. Backpfeifengesicht a german word for "a face in need of punching".