Because your goal each day of National Novel Writing Month is a word count, it's very easy to fall into a common trap: writing long passages of narration or exposition.
In other words, telling your readers, either via a narrator or the omnipotent third person, what is happening to your characters.
Do yourself a favor and FIGHT this temptation.
Why? Because what you're doing is "telling", not "showing", your readers.
Instead, craft your scenes with dialogue. It is much more interesting to your readers to have your characters talk to each other.
No doubt, narration or exposition is also important: for adding atmosphere, for setting up your scenes, for describing where the scenes take place, or how the characters look or feel.
And it utilizes takes more words than dialog.
But if your characters don't verbalize their thoughts to each other, they aren't interacting normally.
For the majority of us, telepathy isn't a human trait: all the more reason your characters need to open their mouths to express their feelings.
If you're having a hard time moving from tell to show, pretend you're writing a play. What dialog would you add to each scene?
Snappy dialog. Snarky asides. Anger. Heartfelt revelations. All of these expressed emotions make scenes come alive, and make your readers laugh with -- or more importantly, fall in love with -- your characters.
This NaNoWriMo first draft may not be on par with Arthur Miller or Edward Albee or William Shakespeare, but it will go a long way to being completed if it engages readers.
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? Certainly not you!
(c) 2100 Josie Brown.
