Wordcount Jumble


Wordcount Jumble makes a game out of your daily writing session. Play it as you write a novel or participate in NaNoWriMo. It can help take characters to new locations, do unexpected things and interact with other characters in surprising ways.

List Locations, Characters, and Actions
List up ten items in each of the following categories:

Locations in which your story will take place. For example: The deserts of Tatooine. Mos Eisley cantina. The command room of the Death Star. The corridors of the Death Star. The home base of the rebellion. Aboard the Millennium Falcon.

Characters who will be featured in your story. For example: Luke Skywalker, a new hope for the galaxy. Han Solo, the pragmatic rogue. Princess Leia, the rebel leader. Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mysterious elder. Emperor Palpatine, dark ruler of the cruel empire. Darth Vader, loyal right hand to the emperor.

Actions the characters will do in your story. For example: Bond. Argue. Learn. Teach. Fight.

Number-List Each Item
Order the items in each category in a numbered list from from 0 to 9. If you have fewer than ten items in a category, consider which item you'd want to occur more frequently in your story and include those items multiple times in the list. In all cases, lower numbered items will appear in your story more frequently. For example:

Locations
0-2 The deserts of Tatooine.
3-4 Aboard the Millennium Falcon.
4-6 The corridors of the Death Star.
7 The command room of the Death Star.
8 Mos Eisley cantina.
9 The home base of the rebellion.

Characters
0-2 Luke Skywalker, a new hope for the galaxy.
3-5 Darth Vader, loyal right hand to the emperor.
6 Han Solo, the pragmatic rogue.
7 Princess Leia, the rebel spy.
8 Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mysterious elder.
9 Emperor Palpatine, dark ruler of the cruel empire.

Actions
0 Bond.
1 Argue.
2-3 Learn.
4-5 Teach.
6-9 Fight.

How to Play
Now, as you write your novel, keep track of your word count each day. When you're done writing for the day, the day's word count gives you the basic outline of a scene that will happen in your story when you continue writing tomorrow. The locations correspond to the thousands-digit of your word count. The characters correspond to the hundreds-digit. The actions correspond to the tens digit. Optionally, you can use the ones digit as a character to whom your first character will perform that action.

Example: Today, you wrote 2,459 words. Tomorrow, when you continue writing, there will be a scene that takes place on the deserts of Tatooine (Location: 2). There, Darth Vader [Character: 4] will teach [Action: 5] Emperor Palpatine [Character: 9].

Figuring out how to set up, execute and resolve this scene will give you a goal in your next writing session. Even if the exercise doesn't lead to anything useful, it gives you a goal for the day's writing and can help break you out of a rut.

Try expanding and varying the categories, too, like a category for Motivation or for a set of important Objects. You can also try setting your favorite locations and characters at higher numbers, pushing you to write just a little bit more so you can bring them into a critical point in the story.

Comments

  1. Daniel M. PerezNovember 9, 2011 at 7:58 AM

    Excellent little game, Daniel!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adam MinnieNovember 10, 2011 at 11:05 AM

    Simply amazing. I'm not even doing NaNoWriMo, but now I definitely want to do something like it!

    I understand why the lower numbers in thousands and maybe hundreds would be more frequent, especially at first but less so the hundreds and tens, right?

    Adding motivations, objects would be neat, maybe reference a die table the number is even/odd. So an odd in the hundreds place could lead to an object, or odd in the tens place brings a motivation to the fore.

    This is also essentially a pacing mechanism, like you said about making yourself want to write more to get to whatever compels you. That being the case, a table of twists could peg to highest places (ten thousands?) to mix up something once it's decently established. Twists depend on the genre...

    Yes, nice Daniel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joseph Le MayDecember 16, 2011 at 11:54 PM

    You should probably base this on total running word count rather than daily count, since the location on daily word count is going to limit most people who have jobs (or school) to the first location or two, ever. And that'd just be a shame.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Daniel SolisDecember 17, 2011 at 7:07 AM

    You could also break them down into smaller possible options, maybe only three locations at 1k, 2k, and 3k-9k.

    ReplyDelete

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