The First Month - Michael Palmer

I'll be starting my novel at midnight, the start of NaNoWriMo 2007 (see my NaNoWriMo post). With the beginning of NaNoWriMo, I also begin my No Shame Novelist project. November is Michael Palmer Month for the project. For those who don't know, Palmer writes medical thrillers, including The Patient, Miracle Cure, Natural Causes, and Extreme Measures. His website contains a detailed page of writing tips on every stage of the noveling process. Thank you, Michael Palmer! So, following along...his advice (which I will summarize - go to his site for his words) will be in regular type and what I'm doing for each step will be in italics.

1. His first step is to choose a "what if...?" question as a basis for the book. It should set up an interesting potential conflict.

I've already gotten this far in my no-shame novel. My question is: What if there were a secret gateway between a world inhabited by gnomes and a child's basement?

2. Next, pick the protagonist. What does the what-if situation call for? Does the protag need to be of a certain gender or age or background? What is it that forces the protag into the story? What does the protag have to lose?

My what-if scenario would work equally well with a girl or boy and I feel like writing about a boy. Because my intended audience is young but not too young to read a book of some length, I'll make my protag eight years old. I already know he will become fast friends with these gnomes after accidentally discovering them in his basement. Therefore, the logical thing he has to lose is his friendship with them.

3. Instead of writing a proposal, which Palmer says is more important for published authors wanting to write another book than for unpublished authors, I'll skip to writing an outline.

I've done this very minimally, without writing down any dialogue, but plotting the main action points from beginning to end in third-person present tense. To see Palmer's detailed outlining technique, see his writing tips.

5. The last element that I find relevant to this stage of noveling, though it's not the last on Palmer's site, is conflict. Conflict is what makes a story a story. Is there compelling conflict? Is there a resolution? Is there catharsis?

I've looked for and found conflict, resolution, and catharsis in my outline, so I'm ready to move ahead with the writing.

Note: My posts on authors' advice are simply summaries of my understanding of their words. I'll give you websites and book titles as we go along so you can go directly to the source.