well i am posting this new thread cause im bored!!!! i have nothing to respond to so here is a little something from me. ummm i am up to 17,233 words!!!! i am happy! i was writting last night and in an hour and a half i wrote 1,000 words plus ... i just wish i could write as fast as i think...then i would have written more! i wrote so much because i got to a really fun part ... death threats and magic! so of course it was good!!!! my book is moving along so well at the moment and now i am thinking about book two as i have planned number one so far... i am totally lost for ideas in my second book!!! i think i am going to look for inspiration.... and i think if i am luck i might have my book fininshed by the end of next year!!! that will be the end of college for me! so at the moment that is what i am going to aim for. how do you think of good ideas for a book??? i am lost for number two...i had planned the setting and idears for the whole series in a year and a half... it was good that i did it that way because i accumilated heaps of good idears and the whole thing is structured and detailed ... what can i say? i dont want it to be boring!!!! you know a couple of weeks ago i was talking to a librarian about infomation i needed...when i told her i was writting a book her face lit up! it was cool. well i have nothing else to say so bye for now!

Cassie, I can only tell you where I find my inspiration. I seem to get ideas from almost any place at any time. Watching the T.V, listening to the radio, reading, talking to people, eaves-dropping on people in shopping centres - sneaky me - or just from everyday living.
I keep notebooks which I fill with every inspired idea I think of. You never know what will blend together to make a whole new story.

I wouldn't worry about your book 2 yet, Cassie. As book 1 unfolds and winds itself to its conclusion, threads will pop up that will weave together to form book 2. You will suddenly find ideas will spring to mind as you are writing book 1 - write them down - and by the time book 1 is completed you will have a good solid base for book 2.

Well that's how I do things.

deb

Cassie,
Listen to Deb! I think keeping notebooks is a great idea and know for a fact that many of us here in the group take our notebooks, wherever we go, incase a moment of inspiration comes up.. or an idea may strike and we can record it! I hope those websites I listed on the other post help you with some characters names! I used these websites quite often and a name book for babies is a great thing to have - ask Holly, I never put mine down when we were writing scipts together!!
Inspiration can strike at any time, we all know that - so get yourself a nice notepad, something that is small enough to take anywhere, but think enough to hold all your ideas and thoughts on your novel - you can even write all of your research there--easy for you to look back on and find things that you wrote weeks/months even years ago! But NEVER throw an old notebook out, even if you think the ideas it holds are hideously funny - someday you may be able to make a proper use for them! who knows!

Kerrie.

Deb said what I was planning to, Cassie. It's hard to plot out a whole trilogy if you've never written one. My advice is to write to the end of book one and see what intrigues and mysteries turn up along the way. I had no idea of what the action would be in book two when I started book one. It all just...developed because at the end of book one there were so many things happening and unexplained. What I'm discovering is that the real trick is to get to the end of book three and tie it all up! But you don't need to worry about that just yet

Ditto everyone else's fab ideas! Keeping notebooks and finishing book one are great advice. No rush. Just write the best book you can.

when i was in 'that place' i would take my note booka dn head to place i love (the beach, bush or horse paddock)
and just sit and watch!
Your mind will start to say " hey what are doing...?"
but after that phase in comes your muse, ready to pick u up and carry you to dar dar land!
but yes, note books are amazing things.

i have always kept a journal for the past couple of years. in it i write everything personal that im feeling but at the same time also write about story ideas or new break throughs ive had on my current novel. it just helps having somewhere to write it all down rather than waiting to get back home on the comp or trying to remember it until you reach that part of the story.

and as far as my characters... i tend to think of a person i actually know who is similar to how i want that character and work from there...and i often use astrology books to define characteristics. its a fun process.

Well it looks like we all agree; keeping notebooks and journals seems to help our writing, character development, world building and in my case blush memory! Without scribbling all my ideas down I would lose them in amongst the cobwebs that swathe my brain.

deb

thax for your advice... its good. i cant help but lert my mind drift onto the second book. what can i say? i am simply obsessed with my own books. but i appreciate the feed back! thax

I think you should do what ever makes you most happy, Cassie. There are always people out there who tell you otherwise. Just be happy doing what your doing.

deb

i have note books on my book with idears and drawings in them and i have a journal as well. i kind of think of my book as a movie in my mind seeing what the characters with do next! its fun but as far as i have heard not too many other people do this as well.

Another great way to get to know your characters is to dream about them. I don't know if any of you guys have done lucid dreaming, but if you tell yourself several times each night before you go to sleep that you WILL dream about your story, eventually you will. And it's so much fun.

I taught myself to lucid dream when I used to have bad nightmares, when the monster chasing me came close to catching me I would tell myself Iw as dreaming and wake up. Found it not as much fun as dreaming on its own. And I dream waaaaaayyy too much as it is to try to bring on more! I've never tried to dream about something or someone in particular though - only when you wake up in a good bit and try to force your mind to keep on the same thread when you go back to sleep!!!

Been there tried that, Alyson. So hard to do, though, isn't it?

My Rachel has lucid dreams. When she's having a nightmare she tells herself it's time for a commercial break and that's what she gets, some little jingle with cartoons for a minute to take her mind off the scary bits (which then often don't come back).

Another way to lucid dream is Mrs White's Party. I first heard about this when my kids were small. I tried it when we had visiting children or Rachel was particularly reluctant to go to sleep. I'd tell them I'd meet them at Mrs White's Party and we could play together there. Mrs White's Party is like the Land of Do As You Please from the Faraway Tree. There's any sort of food you want, beaches, rides, animals. I usually tell Rachel we'll eat all sorts of chocolates, cakes etc (which never make you sick) then we'll pat kittens for an hour or so before going for a horse ride. Now, Rachel knows I'm frightened of horses, although she's quite the little horsewoman herself, but she can pick me out the biggest stallion and I'm never afraid at Mrs White's Party and I ride it as if I've been riding all my life. She's always wanted to ride with me so it's especially wonderful for her. Personally, I'm more interested in the kittens

But it's just the most wonderful place. I've only managed to dream about it a couple of times myself, and never with the person I was supposed to be there with, but Rachel always manages to get there in her dreams with me in tow and we do all the things we talked about before she went to sleep. She's obviously much better at lucid dreaming than I am.

I just love the idea of Mrs White's Party, though. A land of no consequences. The perfect dream...

lucid dreaminmg sounds like fun but i am happy with my constant daydreaming. its like watching a movie and my characters are in it, this way you get amazing plots from off the top of your mind so when you type its great!!!! i havent writtin much for two weeks ive been really sick but im now getting better...i hate the flu! i have a new plan to write every tuesday thursday and saturday and i hope to end up with a finished book!!! by the end of 2003

I have managed to lucid dream only twice. One time makes me giggle every time I think about it.

I was flying - as I often do in my dreams, but this time I knew I was dreaming. Only trouble was, I was NOT flying over some magical landscape... I was flying through Woolies. Typical!!! Cannot even have a great dream without having to grab a few groceries.
Anyway, I thought to myself during the dream, "I'll snatch up some food off the shelves so when I wake up if they are still in my hands I will know I was realy flying."
Anyway grabbed up a few things, woke up and .... nothing....not even a shopper docket to prove I was there. POOH!

deb

lol!!! that sounds really cool!!! i have had a dream about being at woolies and being able to have all the art stuff there... shows how crazy i am!!!

Cassie, that sounds like a great plan to work towards having your novel finished in 2003. That's why we started the Book in a Year project here, to keep people motivated. And having a deadline is a great prod when you're just feeling slack (as we all inevitably do at some point)

Deb, you are such a hoot. I can't believe in your first lucid dream you went shopping! What a mother. You should win mother of the year.

By the way, I dream of flying a lot too. What does it mean? Anyone know?

I constantly fly in my dreams, though my style is a little unusal. I always hover about head height from the ground and propel myself by doing breaststroke. Well, it works!

Flying in your dreams means:

Narrative personality type: "emotional high" or a "wish-fulfillment," like in the tale of Peter Pan.

Egyptian: 1)Falling is good. It means prosperity.
2) Folding wings about yourself is bad. It means you are not found innocent with your "lower level god." (This association between flying dreams and inhabitants of the nether regions is echoed in Christian era tales of demons, witches and vampires.)

Indian: Birds taking to flight foretell the conquest of a woman.

Mesopotamian: If a man takes wing from the spot where he is standing and (ascends) into the sky, this man will find what he has lost.

Chinese: When one is ill of an excess of lightness and emptiness, one dreams one is rising. When one is ill of an excess of heaviness and fullness, one dreams that one is sinking.

Sorry, I looked it up on google.com and went mad. But hink of all of the millions of story ideas you could grab from these few beliefs!!! I am inspired, perhaps so inspired I will rise into the air and fly .....

I think I've been reading too much Peter Pan as well.  I seem to propel myself by kicking off against the air although I don't remember moving my arms much.  It's more like hover flying, but the view!  I'm always at least 100 ft up flying over beautiful meadows and villages.  maybe I'm astral travelling?

yeah louise i am keepin motivated!!! i write on tuesdays thurdays and saturdays a new rule knowing me i forget or be lazy but im working hard to stick to it!!!!! dreaming of flying means you feel free and really happy you dont have emotional baggage. i have dreampt of flying but i was sailor moon with vilagers with pitch forks comming after me on a cliff...i know im crazy:)

i remember my strange dreams from when i was young, don't even ask about my first nightmare! lol. i used to always dream though, that i could walk on the room, stepping over the tiniest door frames - as the doors were even upside down.. it was strange- but i loved it! it happened quite often when i was 5 or 6. i can also relate to the flying with breast stroke movements, though i was always limited to the house and flew just below the ceiling. sigh i haven't had many good dreams in a ong time now. But i think it is good to talk about it here, as dreaming is said to express what is brewing in you consciousness!

kerrie.

my strangest dream along those lines i suppose was back a couple of years ago when i was mid way through a dream and suddenly the words 'to be continued' flew across my mind. then i woke up...just before my alarm went off. then the next night...just as i suspected...it continued. its funny though, because i cannot remember the actual dream...just that part of it.