Category: Big Chunks

New Tips for the 2012 Nanowrimo

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                                                                                 Nanowrimo 2012—Prep Work Don’t wait until Zero Hour to start writing for Nanowrimo. Here are some tips for preparing yourself for the long haul–50,000  words. 1. Place. What’s the main setting for your novel? How many locations do you use more than twice? Where does your Page One open? Does it open in a cave? On a spaceship hurtling past dark stars? Does it open in a laundromat (see Jack Remick’s Blood)? Does it open on a lonely beach road, a car chase (see Robert Ray’s Bloody Murdock)? Does it open in a boudoir with a bidet? Does it open in the cage of a Werewolf? Does it open in the Oval Office? In the Situation Room? In a school with a student shooting a poison dart at the teacher? 2. Character. Profile your five major characters. Protagonist, Antagonist, Helper One, Antag One, Helper Two. For each main character, jot down these info-bits: Back Story Trauma Motive Agenda Want Need Can’t have.   3. Back Story. For each major character, write 3-5 pages of back story. To connect the back story to your Page One, use this simple method of increasing the distance in time: Startline: An hour before the book opens, the protagonist was…. Startline: A week before the book opens, the protagonist was…. Startline: A year before the book opens, the protagonist was…. Startline: Five years...

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Going Cosmic with Timed Writing

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Going Cosmic–The Power of Writing Practice ©2011 By Jack Remick & Robert J. Ray Writing practice, writing under the clock, frees you from the clutches of the infernal ghost in the culture machine – the editor. The editor, wrapped in rules and logic, dresses up like mom, and dad, and the third grade teacher who taught you to dot your I’s and cross your T’s, and begin every sentence with a capital letter. The editor, logic posing as a rocket scientist  puts astronauts on the moon, builds atomic bombs, creates architectural marvels out of steel and concrete and glass – but the editor cannot open the doorway to the creative unconscious. Helpless in the clutches of the ghost in the culture machine, the language dies a cold, cold death. The dead language is all around us. It is around us in Pentagon obfu-speak, it is around us in oprahesque-tele-babble, it is around us in politico-pseudo-psycho chatter, it is around us in the punchless wonders of thickly paragraphed novels marching over the edge of the world like literary lemmings – weak verb, soft noun, zero conflict, washed out, pale skinned three-legged lemmings. With writing practice, writing under the clock, you shoulder the dead language aside to discover the energy of your creative powers. The dead language: “He slipped out of the room to look for the clock, and by his...

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©2010-2017 Jack Remick, Robert J. Ray. All rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, including text and images, without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Short excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jack Remick and Robert J. Ray and "Bob and Jacks Writing Blog" with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.