Writing Challenges

Why do we have these preparation challenges before SoCNoC or NaNoWriMo?  It is called preparation.  You don't start a marathon without any training, if you made it to the first mile you would be doing well!

Preparation gives you ideas, feeds your ideas, develops your ideas to the point where you want to keep going with them.  It helps you to find a solution to a particular problem you might have in your story or plot - knowing your story intimately before you write it helps you to solve any issues before they arise. 

Sometimes you don't even have an idea to start with.  Then the preparation challenges help you to find an idea, and nurture it along, until the tiny spark takes flame.  You build the fire with conflict, action, theme, characters until you have a blazing inferno within you that just needs to be put on paper.

It doesn't matter how good or bad that idea is, as long as you have something to start with, an end point and something that happens in the middle, then you have a story.  If it seems to small, grow it.  Add more conflict - have a major riot happen in a tiny little community - think about the bigger impact - develop your characters, and remember to give them flaws.

I guess the biggest part of your story is your character, so don't forget to make them real, give them issues that need to be resolved, a trait that makes them unique and memorable (Captain Jack Sparrow...). 

What about the location?  Do you know what Iceland looks like in Summer?  Bet it isn't covered in snow.  Is it a fictional place?  what does it look like?  Does it have two suns, all day long sunshine?  No sunshine? Underground?

As you can see, there is a lot to consider when you are writing a story, but with preparation, you can have a well documented plan before you start writing.  If you don't like plans, then at least you have an idea to start with and can write from there.

Have you signed up for any of the preparation challenges?  So what are you waiting for?