October Novel Prep Challenge

The Assignment: Setting: Definitions List ▼

Today is nice because you can pick between choices as you can do the optional item if you don't have a set of words to define, or you could do both depending on how things are going with your story prep. That helps for the variety of novel types since we have people preparing to write all kinds of items. This way you can pick which of the assignments works best for you.

One option is to create a list of definitions. So, if there are some words, terms or something else that is different in your story that might need explaining, this helps. Some fantasy and sci-fi stories, for example, will actually come with a glossary of terms. If you know some of the words that might trip people up, then this is a good time to get definitions. One of my novels is romance, which is one you wouldn't think needs definitions, but since one character is studying music communication and works as a DJ I have been able to create a list of music definitions. Some of the words might not be used, but some that I've found on the site could be interesting being placed in the novel. The words can be something real. If using outside sources, it helps to have a link in the item so that you know where the definition came from if you look back in the future.

Another option is to write about an object that is important to the story. The obvious examples are ones like: the ring from Lord of the Rings, the dresses from 27 Dresses, the weapon from any mystery story... I'm thinking of doing an item in my YA novel similar to the barber's basin from Man of La Mancha, if I can think of something today. Descriptions are fun that can be created either with characters involved or just the description.

It is nice to have options.