WWWWW, an H, and a WI Questions (NaNoWriMo Hints and Novel Writing Hints)

Whether you have your book planned or not, it is good to ask questions about your novel. Ask who, what, where, when, why, how and what-if questions about everything you can think of and write them down on the page. I actually recommend doing this weekly so you can see how your book is coming, where it went, and where it is headed.

Some questions might appear to be the same. But, answer them again anyway, even if it is the same answer. It can stir something up in you and give you another idea or cement the one you already have.

Here are some sample questions:

~ Who is in the novel?

~ What is the novel about?

~ What is the theme of the novel?

~ What is the conflict in the novel?

~ What is the motivation of the hero?

~ What happened?

~ What do you smell in the novel? See? Taste? Feel/touch? Hear? 

~ Where does the novel take place? 

~ When does the novel take place?

~ Why is this story being told (novel being written)?

~ Why is there conflict in the novel?

~ Why does the hero do what they do?

~ Why did the novel start the way it did?

~ Why did the novel end the way it did? 

~ Why did it happen? 

~ How did the story happen?

~ How are the characters growing in the novel?

~ How did the novel begin?

~ How did the novel end? 

~ What-if something different happened in the story?

~ What-if there was more to this story?

~ What-if there was less to this story?

~ What if the story started in another scene?

~ What-if the story ended in a different way? 

~ Write any more questions you can think of here. (I recommend cutting and pasting these questions into a new document and then add some of your own.)

Those are very basic questions. But, here is a more in-depth twist. Ask each of those questions about:

~ Each of the three acts of your book

~ Each chapter

~ Each scene

~ The hero/heroine

~ Each character 

~ Each page

~ Each paragraph

Stacy Duplease
Inspirational Historical Romance Author
A timeless kind of love... 

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