Young Writers Society

Hi there!

I'm Deanie and I'm hear to make a Prewriting Journal although I am pretty sure you gathered all that from the title ^^ I want to sort-of-plan a novel through prewriting for Nanowrimo~

Leave me comments and all that It would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, you're doin NaNo?! Cool! I wish I would do it, but I am in the middle of a novel and I wouldn't have enough time.

@r4p17 xD I am in the middle of two novels now and also really struggling with school, but ... I have a hard time saying no to a challenge

Prewriting Entry 1 – Planning I have done myself beforehand (which basically not techincally prewriting but notes I will be adding to referring to when I do my actual prewriting.)

I am copy pasting all my challenges from a Microsoft document, hence the lack of coding :/

Challenge the Second: Character Profiles.

Ocean



September



Matthew

Okay! I am here to do a little critiquing of your profiles.

A) Their physiques are all about the same. Average or slightly above/below it. You don't want your characters to look virtually the same. Yes they have different hair and so on, but you don't make them very distinct from one another.

B) They don't really have much of a past that has shaped them. Obviously Matthew is too young to have any past, but the others don't either. Just because you were the Anti-Christ (which doesn't make any sense seeing his age) doesn't mean he can't remember!

C) To be completely honest your skills and faults are rather pathetic. Solving puzzles and running well isn't going to get you anywhere in life, especially if you are the Anti-Christ! As for his faults, hating himself can be overcome. It is also his only fault! Also, his faults and skills clash. If he get frustrated quickly, how can he think logically?

Matthew is even worse! Being religious isn't necessarily a bad thing. If anything the opposite is true! Hiding and running isn't really all that useful either. Give him some depth!

Finally September! First she is very dependent on others and then she is motherly. Those seem to clash too! Being motherly is caring for others, while being dependent on others is being cared for. Also, patience isn't all that helpful in life, though it is good or be patient.

Overall I think that these characters need a lot of work. You need to line their past, their faults and skills, and their livelihood's up before before you can get good characters. If you have anything to say in response let me know! I am just trying to help!

As far as the character templates go and r4p17's critique of yours, I don't know what to think. Making one like this is going to be restricted, because you don't actually know the character until you begin to put them down on paper. So until then, it's like building a template for a storybook character. Very restricted and limited - and there are so many more things that you will find the character is good at as you go through.

Funny, isn't it? The character is like ourselves. We have so many things we can do, but we never find out until we take a deeper look into ourselves.

Love their names.

Thanks for all the comments @r4p17!

As for you @TimmyJake I love making character templates because I always have the characters, and how they are going to develop in my head already. I had that with Avril and Naomi, and they still develop along the story right? And there is always editing. Edit along the wayyyy

Um, @r4p17? My plot of my novel is based around the fact that the characters can't remember their past at all. I gave them vague ones because it isn't really that important at all.

Hm, the bad thing about Matthew in his religion is that he is an extremist, or at least beginning to be, because he is so young. I will make that more clear. And I do believe you can actually have dependent motherly people. The moment you take away the people they take care of, they are in pieces and can't seem to function anymore. They rely on having someone to look after, otherwise they can't do anything else.

As for their averageness and their skills, I will work on that more! I will do some edits on the weekend

Okay! Thanks for some of the explanation.ididn't realize that Matthew was an extremist. You may want to mention that in the profile. Other than that I think you explained almost everything.

Some quickie notes on plot points (quick coverage)

Starting point: When Ocean wakes up and takes in everything he can remember and his surroundings.

Climax Tip: When he realises why he was the Anit-Christ, how the government is involved in this and how they are not to blame for the rebooting.

Conflict along the way: The people who hate him and Ocean, the romance (or non-romance) with September and Ocean, Matthew and him constantly judging Ocean and September for not being religious, September’s owner when she was First Lady confronting her, Ocean finding out about his past, Matthew finding out about his, government discovery.

End Point: Ocean starts to reboot directly after having his Euphoric moment.

I should update this more often D:

Challenge the Eight, done vaguely because I am not sure what will be different about this world yet.

Country: Britain (where they are)
Resources: Industry [specifically travel options and weaponry]
Language: English
Government: Military Rule [Raised into Office]
Religion: Christian
Imports: Oil, food
Exports: Weaponry, methods of travel (namely ships, aeroplanes and cars, at a high price).

Country: America (where the government is)
Resources: Huge farming, mass production of corn products.
Language: American English
Government: Military Rule [Raised into Office]
Religion: Catholic
Imports: Oil, clothing, coal
Exports: Corn, food from fields

Country: Dubai (where he discovers the truth about himself)
Resources: Oil
Language: American English, Arabic
Government: Republic [Birthed into Office]
Religion: Christian
Imports: Food, coal (coal is used more than electricity)
Exports: Oil

Challenge the Ninth, about plot holes.

1: What is the quickest way to get from your starting point, to your ending point regardless of what you want to have happen, your characters, or your plot?
The quickest way would be for my main character to immediately meet the two other characters, directly find out who he is, travel to the government quarters and sneak around enough to realise they are not behind the rebooting.

2: What is normal life like for your character?
Normal life is trying to earn a job, get a higher ranking in social status and more money so his next reboot life can be as comfortable as possible.

3: When is normal life disrupted and how?
His is disrupted when he meets other people for the first time and realises everyone shuns him simply because of who he is.

4: What causes the story to go back to normalcy?
The story goes back to normalcy when Ocean accepts his reboot is coming soon, and that even though he hasn’t found out who is causing the reboots and why, he has a diary and hopefully his new reboot self will carry on the work from there onwards.

5: How would a different character solve the problem given to the main character?
A different character would probably force someone to tell them who they are and why, and if failing in that could even resign to the fact that everyone hates them and not bother to change or find a reason. If they did that, they would be too wrapped up in self-pity or hate to bother trying to find out about the rebooting.

6: What are the tools at your character's disposal to discover information?
Libraries are common, and usually the people. The people in higher classes know a lot more than they let on, and he happens to make friends with someone of a high ranking. (September.) There is also a lot of information at the headquarters.

7: What are the tools for your character to end conflict?
The character ends his break in of the government, so he gives up and runs away to be rebooted. The conflict doesn’t end with the book due to there being a sequel. His new reboot self is going to have everyone hate him and the government trying to chase him.

8: How would the plot change if your main character wasn't in the story?
Someone else may be suspicious and wanting to know why the reboot, or they may not be. Oh, and there would’ve never been a second coming, which meant earth would not be called Euphoria but would be much like it is today. The world wouldn’t have changed.

9: Is the plot driven by the character, or outside events in the story?
Part 1 – Finding Himself is driven by the character.
Part 2 – The Government is driven by outside events.
Part 3 – Euphoric Moment is driven by the character.

10: Looking at your story from the perspective of someone who believes that all people are good in some way, what rationality would you have for your plot points?
Then the person would be friends with my main character and not hate him, and would try and encourage others to realise he has rebooted and is someone different from the person who he was before. They would also not think the government could be cruel enough to cause the rebooting, and believe it was just something happening due to the second coming, and not want to investigate.

11: Now, looking at your story from the perspective of someone who believes that all people are in essence greedy and bound to do bad things, what rationality would you have for your plot points?
The person would probably want to kill my main character for the pain they have caused everyone as his previous reboot. And would want to destroy the government rather than investigating the matter.

12: What is the main conflict in your story, Man vs. Man, Man vs. Self, Man vs. Machine, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Nature...?
Man vs. self (Ocean partly thinks he is to blame for the reboot because he was the one who brought the second coming.)

13: What is the main point you want to say through the story?
People change, and they are not what they may have been before. Give them a second chance.
Not all leadership groups are bad and corrupt.

14: If you had to write the story in 1,000 words, what would the plot be?
A man who finds out that he is the Anti-christ and can’t deal with the fact that he brought this suffering on everyone, and wondering why people reboot. (I doubt I would have the words to make him act on the thoughts about rebooting, so I would focus on the discovering himself plot point.)

15: If you had to convey the story in a five minute speech, what would you focus on?
Much what I mentioned before, in the previous point, as well as the concept of rebooting.

16: Do you need all of your plot points to further the plot, or are some of them just for spectacle?
The first part is all about furthering the plot, and the second part is furthering the plot and mystery for the sequel more so. I think the spectacle will be discovering the past of Matthew.

17: Can your story start farther in without interrupting the plot or losing key details about any specific events?
Not really, because the mystery begins with Ocean wondering what life he could’ve had so bad that he wanted to kill himself, and then wondering why everyone else wants to as well.

18: How would you summarize each of your chapters in 50 words or less?
Well, I haven’t quite gotten so far as to draw out chapters yet. It’s one of the last things I want to do in the prewriting journal ^^

19: Where does your character, and your reader, get a break?
When he comes to peace with he was because he now knows he is a different person, and realises he is grateful of having people who don’t remember and don’t blame him. And also when he is contemplating the romance which could spark between him and September, but then doesn’t. (I am not anti-romance but for some reason two of the novels I want to write having no romance in them?)

20: What is the time period of the story?
The future. 2510 – 2520

21: What would the story look like if you wrote it from the point of view of your least-favorite character?
I don’t have a least favourite character! Oh well, let’s make it Matthew. Matthew would understand why Ocean would need to know who he was, but then begin to hate Ocean when he realises he goes against everything his religion stood for. He would believe everyone is wrong because they should be more religious and acting as he did, in case there is a third coming. And he would believe that if the government was behind the rebooting, they could become clean by turning over their souls to the Lord.

22: If your last challenge came first, how would the rest of the story go?
The challenge of finding out the government weren’t behind the rebooting? Then Ocean would probably blame himself all the more and believe he is the cause of the rebooting as well. Which might make him hate himself all the more when he discovered that he was the Anti-Christ, to the extent that he might do something incredibly dangerous or harmful to himself and not care.

: What would happen if your conflicts all happened at the same time?
My character would get very stressed and confused as to what/who is right from wrong.

24: What sort of devices will you write into the story to get your characters out of situations where there is no solution, and how can they be used earlier to avoid getting into those situations?
There would have to be an emotional acceptance, when it comes to his inner emotional conflict. There is nothing else for it or he would be driven crazy from the stress of constantly hating himself. As for the action/government chase part, he would need to have people on the outside to help him, weapons and also a strategy.

25: How do you justify the change, or lack of change, of your character at the end of the novel?
I would justify the change by acceptance and after traveling on a long journey with characters seen as friends who helped him along the way. And he would know the government is not behind the rebooting but he will have a newfound curiosity and could only contemplate that his future reboot self will try and solve the puzzle. And also, he would have decided that in the end of trying to solve all these puzzles with logic, it is time to set his mind at ease and be happy.

Challenge the Fourth, beginning and ending points.

Point A: Ocean wakes up in winter, and chooses his name and finds out the year. Then he starts to find out people gradually hate him, and certain parts of him reboot.

What this means for the story: Already we have a character and a setting. Although the reader does not yet know this place is Euphoria or why, the character now has a goal, which is to find out who he is and why everyone hates him so much. Along the way he will pick up the other two main characters as they embark on this journey. Also, we become aware of rebooting and what it is/does to a person, because it is currently happening to Ocean.

Point B: The try to make their own Euphoric moment, a big ending of doing something good in their life.

What this means for the story: It means the story is ended at a cliff hanger because the reader has no idea who is controlling the rebooting, although we now do have some ideas of who it is not. We also understand that Ocean has come to accept what he did, and realises he is someone new and can’t be blamed for past events. Which I hope brings across the message that no one can be blamed for things they did without being aware of the damage, and should move on and accept themselves for it. And when they have the Euphoric moment at the end and try to do something good in their life, it is to show that anyone can have happiness. Regardless of all that has happened to them, if you want happiness, go and make it happen.

Challenge the Tenth, about tenses. I have already chosen my tense, but it was worth doing The short stories have nothing to do with my novel though, it was just experimenting!

Past Tense:


Present tense:


Conclusion: Those stories are so rubbish xD But I only did 250 words for each seeing as I don’t have much time. I found past tense much easier for me to write in, seeing as that is the tense I usually use. I did enjoy writing in present tense but I had to remind myself to keep it present and I felt past tense slipping in. For Nano I will probably use past tense so I can speed write it, but after Nano I would love to try my hand at writing a novel in present. Just to experiment

I did the mind map! I don't think you can see the images from the quality of the pictures, but I think this is more so to prove I did it Challenge the sixth, character mind map.



The master characters:



The major character:



The minor characters: