I'm just going to top this thing twice, and then it will be semi-permanently at the top.  'K?  Please post on this great thread, if I do say so myself!!!

TOP THIS THREAD!!!!!!

Here's a NaNoWriMo tip from a (first-time) participant of 2010 (and winner!): If you have writer's block, just describe a plant or a person's clothes very descriptively until you think of something. I did that. Except it was someone's face. :P 

Hey, Oregano, I thought you weren't allowed on here anymore.

Well, so, since no one's posting, I will.  Tip for coming up with names:  I shut my eyes and stab at the keyboard.  Say I come up with *stabs*:

k

I can have Kevin, or Kyle, or Ken, for a boy, and I can have Kim or Katherine (or however you want to spell that, plus all the nicknames) or Kelly for a girl, or Killer or Klondike or Kermit or Kokopelli for a pet, and last names are easy: Kohler, Kramer, Karente (either a name you know or a name you made up).  And fantasy/sci-fi names are really easy.  Kirithin, Klonudibar, and Katinerella, and Kith, and Kronipo!  So, so, so easy.  Plus with names, I like a lot of names, and I'll usually just pick one.  Katherine/Catherine/[other spelling] is a favorite, because it has a lot of nicknames, so you can use it in a lot of stories with different variants and nicknames and people won't necessarily think that you're being unoriginal.  ;)

This method (the stabbing method) works for towns, planets, cities, etc too.  When I need a name that isn't a normal Earth English name, I'll just tack on letters to any random letter, until it sounds good.  For example - Eridonia, Turneosi, Laproden, Vorilern.  Sometimes I really like these inventions... ;)

If you like some of these names, that is the ones I made up, go ahead and take them.  No copyright. Heh heh heh.

Another way to come up with names is to let Spammy help you. Sometimes, rarely, Spammy will come up with a combination of letters that actually sounds like it could be a name! Like (these are just examples) Mari, Leda, Tero, something like that. If not, just use the letters that you get and change it around to make a name. For instance, this time I got *scrolls down* gwek! Gwek would be a pretty good name for a monster or an alien or something, but for a normal Earth name I could make it Gwen, for a prettier-sounding fantasy name I could make it Gwerra or Gekka or anything else that would sound good. Sometimes you just get something like "wzks" though, so you can use each letter to start a name and choose the one you like best. Wendy, Zara, Katherine, and Sophia could be choices for a girl on Earth.

Oh, I hate writing NF. You can't really let your imagination roam. :( I only write it for school but some tips are:

1. Try to sound enthusiastic

2. If you're writing about an animal you could look for interesting facts.

3. Write about what you know, unless you were assigned something. :)

I hate nonfiction! The only advice I have is to get all of your information down in an outline or rough draft first, then write out the final and make it sound good.

Anyway, I just thought of something I need a little help with. I've had this story idea for a long time, about a girl named Axa who comes from some magical land/dimension and gets stuck on the nonmagical Earth. (Either it's accidental or she's there doing research or something.) Her story is that she's from a previously undiscovered Native American tribe living in the wild. She meets this boy named Jeffrey, and the two become close enough friends that she reveals her magic to him. After that... I can't think of a problem. I'm not good at coming up with problems for stories. :(