Board 8 > NaNoWriMo

(+) Yeah! (+)

azuarc posted...

trdl23 posted...

Fuck it. I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack about this.

Fuck it, you quit; or fuck it, let's do this?

LEaning toward the former. I don't know why but I'm actively terrified.
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Mobilezoid posted...

I'm debating whether I should try to get another idea ready even though now I'll be a few days behind or if I should just drop out entirely

Definitely run with a new idea.

The idea here is to do.

You can worry about how good it is later and benefit from the doing regardless.
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Planning is usually my favorite part of writing because sometimes everything about an idea falls into place like magic. Then there are other times where it's like the story is fighting against me, and today was one of those times.

Still, I took FD's words to heart and began considering other ideas... only to realize that getting any of them ready would probably take exactly as long as working through my plot issue with this one. I spent the last few hours buckling down and I think I've figured it out. That means I finally have a ramshackle framework for the basics (theme, setting, characters). Hopefully I'll have that all finalized by the weekend, along with a rough outline of all the chapters. Then I can start catching up on the word count.
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Nice, Roba!

And does anyone have a place online where they are hosting their projects as they are working on them?

It would be nice to check out some works in progress.
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Forceful_Dragon posted...

Nice, Roba!

And does anyone have a place online where they are hosting their projects as they are working on them?

It would be nice to check out some works in progress.

Are people really interested in that?
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Yes, there are entire nanowrimo communities where you can track your own progress and view other people's works.

I'm more interested in reading the b8 offerings than peeking through some random person's writing, but suffice to say there is interest in things like that.
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I'm at a convention this weekend... but I figured out my stress was actually coming from work. That's a little more under control now, so maybe I can get to it next week after all.

I'm not starting at the beginning though; I'm starting with scenes I already have mapped out first.
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Alright. I guess I can post what I have tomorrow. My work is a horror novel.
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I have been to the airport five times in the past two days and taken a test and other stuff and my brain is melted. I will need to be catching up significantly once Extra Life starts and people in my house are entertained and I don't have to run around fixing things and stuff all day
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Anagram posted...

Alright. I guess I can post what I have tomorrow. My work is a horror novel.

If it's easier for you then you can always just post it as a read-only google doc. That way you don't have to repost it every time you add more.
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I know my vague updates about planning my idea are riveting, so brace yourself.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I chose an idea centered around a decaying futuristic society and a multi-layered conspiracy. How in the world did I l see that and think 'yeah I can plan this in two days'? Just building a foundation of the story alone took three. I also just spent the last few hours writing disjointed plot points onto slips of paper in order to sort them into a coherent order. I felt like a conspiracy nutcase trying to build my way to the truth.

Still, it paid off in the end. I finally have a rough thirty chapter outline, and that means I know exactly what problems I still need to work through before I can begin seriously writing. I'll be starting a bit late but hopefully I can catch up on the weekend.
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I'll post what I have after the weekend and I am certain mine will be among the shortest of what people have done so far.
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I feel like people are competing to insist that they have written less than anyone else. :D
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Forceful_Dragon posted...

I feel like people are competing to insist that they have written less than anyone else. :D

Not me! I went to bed with 12k written. (And I had ~7k before the month began as well.) Act 1 is over.
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Just surpassed the 8000 word mark myself. I'm making good progress but I worry if I can keep up the pace.
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AHHHHHHHH.

I'm doing it!
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Here's my contribution to the topic. I'm still writing. I'm currently on chapter 10, but it's still not done, so have the first nine chapters. This is roughly Act 1 of my book. Any suggestions or critiques are welcome.

Forgotten
Genre: Horror (Slasher)
One-Sentence Pitch: Six wealthy teenagers are terrorized by a ghostly killer after they win the school prom.
Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=148QbFNclUdz5tmVdxHZ3TnUP33RODEJDOl-WtS3XjVY
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HaRRicH posted...

I'll post what I have after the weekend and I am certain mine will be among the shortest of what people have done so far.

have barely started, have a friend visiting for much of the weekend, have a paper due monday

you're gonna be ahead of me
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Zero progress for me aside from the two scenes I wrote back in September for this.

Been overdosing on candy and writing my Survivor blog for Sunday so... yeah... no time, too @__@, less interest in writing something romantic when the girl I like is keeping her distance despite showing interest in me (because she has a boyfriend; her interest in me seems out of character so I might have a shot), etc.

It's not going to happen this year :|
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I am interesting in reading other people's stuff, but I will probably not look at it immediately.
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So I only just now realized that google docs removed all of the indents in my story. Wonderful.
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I wrote five sentences yesterday buuuuut....extra life is happening.
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My sad little start:

Rowan stood near the end of the long, twisting driveway that led up to her grandmother's colonial mansion. The rustling of the surrounding red and orange foliage carried the earthy scent of the forest to tickle Rowan's nose. She heaved a sigh, tightening her burgundy leather jacket around her chest, buried her face in her scarf, and walked towards entrance to the mansion.

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My work is up to 27000 words now. All of it is on the google doc, though I don't expect anyone to actually read it. I do wish I could fix the indents, though.
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ive done nano for like 7 years straight and never once finished. closest i got is 20k words
i keep saying "maybe this year" but this year ive got 328 words and its already day 4 so well we'll see how it goes
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tabiicat42 posted...

My sad little start:

Rowan stood near the end of the long, twisting driveway that led up to her grandmother's colonial mansion. The rustling of the surrounding red and orange foliage carried the earthy scent of the forest to tickle Rowan's nose. She heaved a sigh, tightening her burgundy leather jacket around her chest, buried her face in her scarf, and walked towards entrance to the mansion.

I like it! Constructive criticism: it's a bit too thick with the adjectives, and you're missing a "the" before the last word. It's a good start though, and it really gets me immersed in the mood.

Anagram posted...

My work is up to 27000 words now.

And you said you were at about 10k at the end of Halloween? So 17k for November? That's some very good progress. It's right around what I've done, and NaNo people keep telling me I'm going crazy.

Actually, just checked. I'm at 19.3k for November. But, like you, I also had material to start -- 8.5k. So we're actually right around the same totals. If I thought we could continue these stories at this rate without hitting the end, I'd challenge you to a duel. =p
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azuarc posted...

Anagram posted...

My work is up to 27000 words now.

And you said you were at about 10k at the end of Halloween? So 17k for November? That's some very good progress. It's right around what I've done, and NaNo people keep telling me I'm going crazy.

Actually, just checked. I'm at 19.3k for November. But, like you, I also had material to start -- 8.5k. So we're actually right around the same totals. If I thought we could continue these stories at this rate without hitting the end, I'd challenge you to a duel. =p

I'm still chugging away, but yes, this is already by far the most productive NaNoWriMo I've ever had. In four days I've done more than I usually manage in a month, and I'm not even done with today.

I had an advantage in that I prepared. In September I wrote up an outline of everything that I wanted to happen in the book, so the broad strokes are already plotted out.
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I'm finally about to start seriously writing my story. I just worked through the last thing I was stuck on, an aspect of a character's personality, and I have a rough outline of Chapter One. I'm good to go.

Usually when I write, I inch forward one scene at a time. I write roughly 700 words and then I go back and edit it until I like it (which can take weeks). Obviously that strategy won't work with NaNoWriMo so I'm going to try pushing forward as much as I can without looking back at all. I'll be lucky if I wind up with anything coherent, let alone good. Still, I like editing so I guess I'll have something to do in December!
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Robazoid posted...

I'll be lucky if I wind up with anything coherent, let alone good.

I already have entire scenes I know I'm going to need to cut. I'm not proud of that, because I'm trying to focus on quality, but in order to create, sometimes you have to allow some stuff to slide off the wall.
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gravitazzo posted...

tabiicat42 posted...

My sad little start:

Rowan stood near the end of the long, twisting driveway that led up to her grandmother's colonial mansion. The rustling of the surrounding red and orange foliage carried the earthy scent of the forest to tickle Rowan's nose. She heaved a sigh, tightening her burgundy leather jacket around her chest, buried her face in her scarf, and walked towards entrance to the mansion.

I like it! Constructive criticism: it's a bit too thick with the adjectives, and you're missing a "the" before the last word. It's a good start though, and it really gets me immersed in the mood.

Yeah, I have a problem with being wordy. When I go back and edit I plan to pare down all of that but I don't want to forget the mood I was going for haha!
Thank you for the cc :)
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Progress: 5000 words (up from 300), and I got through Chapter One

That might look like exciting progress but this was some epically bad writing. I basically never stopped to consider anything because I knew if I did I'd get bogged down forever in the crumminess. I'm sure all the vital details about plot, characters, and setting are in there somewhere but I don't even need to reread it to know that none of them link together to my satisfaction. I'm not sure I've even accomplished anything more than creating a super rough guideline to follow while hopefully writing actual sentences on some later date.

Still, the beginning of any story is always the most difficult for me. Even if I don't necessarily introduce all the details very eloquently in this opening chapter, maybe once they're all out there I'll eventually hit a good rhythm and write something halfway decent, even in the first draft.

It's not like I was going to accomplish much in November using my old methods anyway. I'm willing to dedicate the month to this zany experiment.
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Sounds about right. I went into this knowing I was retrying a story I got a decent chunk of the way into, but needed to expand on some stuff, and it's looking like I've expanded too much. Every scene is loose, the plot is anything but tight, there's a bunch of garbage that needs to be fully cut, and every bit of dialogue is longer than it needs to be. I was trying to restrain myself into not spewing word vomit, thinking that a little self-control would lead to higher quality, but no. I'm making realizations as I go that I need to make changes left and right, and the story's probably way too slow to be interesting right now. I think I'm going to resolve myself to just let it rip, and at the rate I'm going, I might have time to start a second sweep. Or maybe my first draft will end up being 150k and I'll be just finishing that at the end of the month.

The one plus is that I stumbled upon an interesting potential secondary arc. Too bad it's also with my MC. My supporting characters need some love.
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Chapter 13 beated. Up to 30000 words now. I wonder how long my novel will end up being. I'm shooting for at least 80000 words, which is the generally accepted minimum length for a normal novel. I don't know what I'll do if I come up too short.
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Anagram posted...

I don't know what I'll do if I come up too short.

This was part of the reason I started this one over. I was at 40k without much story left.

Now I'm at 25k and I've barely done anything. Or have I? It's hard to tell. I might actually be in a comparable place. There just aren't a lot of plot events in this work.
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Okay, I'm out. Self-doubt and lack of knowing what the fuck I'm doing win this year.
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That's unfortunate, trdl. If you reconsider, you still have plenty of time.
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I'm going to dive into the genre instead since I've only played a few, and my angle (presenting it as intersecting "chapters" instead of "routes" or independent timelines) isn't something I've in those. I'm sure somebody has done it though. I need to have a reference point.
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trdl23 posted...

Okay, I'm out. Self-doubt and lack of knowing what the fuck I'm doing win this year.

The idea isn't to know with certainty what you are doing. The idea is to give yourself an ambitious (albeit arbitrary) deadline and utilize that to just start putting the words down. You don't have to have a meticulously planned story or have done months of prepwork. Just throw caution to the wind and start putting one word in front of the next. You can work out the quality after the fact.
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Progress: 6000 words

I spent most of the day gripped by nonspecific terror about writing. Then finally right before bed I sat down, planned Chapter Two, and got through an opening scene, just to accomplish something.

I'm still not sure about the quality of the writing while rushing, but it is kind of nice how doing this is forcing me to consider things that I hadn't before. I knew this chapter would be primarily babout talking to a few side characters but now I've actually fleshed those guys out.
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Getting fresh surroundings has helped me this time around. I went to a write-in at a local library, they had word wars lasting 30, 15, and 10 minutes respectively. The rest of the time you just got to write, plan, and eat free pizza.
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Forceful_Dragon posted...

The idea isn't to know with certainty what you are doing. The idea is to give yourself an ambitious (albeit arbitrary) deadline and utilize that to just start putting the words down. You don't have to have a meticulously planned story or have done months of prepwork. Just throw caution to the wind and start putting one word in front of the next. You can work out the quality after the fact.

Indeed. The idea of doing Nano isn't to write a novel. Novels are usually more than 50k. The idea is to allow yourself to write a novel.

The reason I never wrote anything before I tried Nano six years ago was because I felt like I had to have everything figured out ahead of time. Now that I've done it, I know what I really need to have going in and how much can be left to the wayside. That experience is invaluable.
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trdl23 posted...

Fuck it. I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack about this.

You should do what is best for your mental health, trdl
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tabiicat42 posted...

trdl23 posted...

Fuck it. I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack about this.

You should do what is best for your mental health, trdl

I thought I was on page 2 when I read this and didn't see you had resolved some things. Still - mental health first!
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Chapter 15 is up. I'm really happy with how much progress I'm making.
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Chapter 16: Beated

I'm plowing through this thing.
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I know that the purpose of NaNoWriMo is the writing, but Anagram, your formatting is actively preventing me from trying to engage with your story
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CherryCokes posted...

I know that the purpose of NaNoWriMo is the writing, but Anagram, your formatting is actively preventing me from trying to engage with your story

Whats wrong with the formatting? Are you talking about the lack of indents? Because I couldnt figure out how to get google docs to accept the indents I have in my word docs.
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Forgotten
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RMCOXeng-CNnvSqXyNNMfm2UP57JGvgtVN0Bc8iwPHg
Genre: Horror (Slasher)
One-Sentence Pitch: Six wealthy teenagers are terrorized by a ghostly killer after they win the school prom.

Sixteen chapters up so far, 35000 words.
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Anagram posted...

CherryCokes posted...

I know that the purpose of NaNoWriMo is the writing, but Anagram, your formatting is actively preventing me from trying to engage with your story

Whats wrong with the formatting? Are you talking about the lack of indents? Because I couldnt figure out how to get google docs to accept the indents I have in my word docs.

the lack of indents was an absolute drag

glad to see you've fixed it!
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