Get Your Write On - The NaNoWriMo Thread

[maudmac]

Oooh, FlyingPoppy! Yay! Congratulations!



Yeah, if you can write a novel in a month, I think you can do anything now. For me, it seems like now a whole lot of things I thought I couldn't do are just...pfffft, piece of cake.



I'm so addicted, I'm about to start an outline for something new.



I'm really happy for you, FlyingPoppy.

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i got a dance ain't got no steps  /  i'm gonna let the music move me around

[xita]

FlyingPoppy, congratulations! I completely understand your reasons for not saying you were doing it though. Awesome!



*still cheering for you justin

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"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"

[FlyingPoppy]

Aw! Thank you.



Today has been weird, some of you know I've been stuck at home for a while so I kind of started this to give me something to do. I've been sitting around today thinking 'I should do some writing soon' then remembering I don't have to.



I agree it's addictive, my story's really the first part in a series, so maybe I should just get on and write the rest of it while I have the time. This part ended on a hopeful, but bum note.



Anyone else nearly finished? I have to say I have the greatest respect for people doing this while holding down a job or studying.

Life can suck, but at least there's chocolate - Cicca

[justin]

well friday and saturday were rather poor writing wise and I only mamged a total of 2,500 words in the two days.



Yet today I managed to write the 5,000 words needed to take me up to 50,100 in total



Thanks to everyone who was cheering me on. It really did help to stop me from giving up on the last stretch.



As I always say s are the bestest



Good luck to anyone else who's making a mad dash for the finish in their last few hours.

Anya in a wimple...I'd pay full admission for that. Gods Served And Abandoned - by Antigone Unbound


You know the worst thing about people in a relationship? The fact that they're in a relationship. - Hilda Spellman

[BytrSuite]

Yay! Congratulations, Justin!





Good luck to anyone cutting it down to the wire!

________
"Boogers are true."

[xita]

Yay Justin! I had confidence in you! I am jealous of you guys but proud too

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"Hard work often pays off after time but laziness always pays off now!"

[Tempest Duer]

Congratulations, Justin! I wimped out halfway through because I'm an absolute perfectionist who wants every sentence to be a work of out. I wish I had your drive.

[justin]

TempestDuer it wasn't so much a matter of having drive that let me finish as not having a life. Not being a perfectionist helped as well



Thanks for all the congrats - you're making me blush

Anya in a wimple...I'd pay full admission for that. Gods Served And Abandoned - by Antigone Unbound


You know the worst thing about people in a relationship? The fact that they're in a relationship. - Hilda Spellman

[maudmac]

Keep blushing, justin, keep blushing...



Congratulations!



About perfectionism - that's what made me glomp NaNo so hard in the first place, because, if it were up to me, I probably wouldn't have gotten very far because I'd be editing and rewriting any perceived imperfections and, eventually, I'd be so paralyzed, I'd have to scream and go do something else.



Now that I've learned how good it feels to let all that go and just tell the story, just let the characters frolic about and do whatever's in their hearts and minds to do, I think I'll never have that particular paralysis problem again. Since I've started on an outline for something new, I do feel a little of that trying to creep back in, my Internal Editor peeking out from under my desk, looking at me all disapproving-like. But now I have a handy weapon with which to beat it into submission - "Huh? Pfffft, whatever. I wrote a whole book without you, thankyouverymuch, so...Fuck. Off."



Once my outline pleases me (me, not my Internal Editor), and I'm ready to start the actual writing, I'm going to write it somewhat NaNo-istically. I'll probably shoot for something like 5000 words a week maybe. I think I need a hard word count goal like that.



Congrats again, justin. I knew you could do it.

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i got a dance ain't got no steps  /  i'm gonna let the music move me around

[WebWarlock]

Excellent stuff Justin!



I'll have to see how I did later, I have mine spread out over various word files (1 per chapter). I know I have done about 12,000 words in the last week or so.



I would have more but had to run my littlest to the doctor for ear infection. poor little guy.



But in the end I didn't finish it, which is too bad, but hey it is the effort that counts right?



Warlock

-----

Web Warlock

The Other Side,
home of Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks. Available Now!

"I don't want to believe. I want to know." - Carl Sagan

[justin]

Next month is NaNoEdMo - the National Novel Editting Month. This is the perfect opportunity to start editting your NaNoWriMo novel.



I don't know about anyone else but I haven't even looked at mine since I finished it.

Postel's Prescription: Be generous in what you accept, rigorous in what you emit.

[maudmac]

You know, I haven't either. And right now, I don't really even want to. I guess it all depends on what motivated you to write a novel for NaNo in the first place. Because, for me, it wasn't about crafting a good novel, it was just about proving to myself that I could write one at all.



But I did fall head over heels in love with my characters, so they are characters I want to revisit, absolutely. I miss them! And I like the world I put them into, so I want to revisit that place, too. And it definitely needs plenty of tweaking. But not just yet. Down the road a ways, perhaps.



Part of it is that I feel like that story served its purpose and I've moved on. I don't need to know whether I have what it takes to write a novel, because I've confirmed without doubt that I do. So it's time to take that and move forward and to edit what I did for NaNo seems to feel to me like it would be moving backwards. I guess I feel that way because I did no preparation whatsoever for it and flew entirely by the seat of my pants. The next things I write are being meticulously planned, because what I want from the experience of writing them is very different from what I wanted from my NaNo novel. I hope that makes sense.

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go         donut           go

[FlyingPoppy]

I think the reason I started NaNo was because it was something that I could actually do to pass the hours. It became more than that and turned into me trying to prove something to myself; that I had a use. I did and I don't think I'd want to go back and edit it. I'm sure I'd find too many faults and virtually rewrite the whole thing. I have instead taken this story and am using it as the back drop for something else, for Pens. It is becoming a monster and currently looks like being three times the length of my NaNo story. I may at some point go back and continue where I left off with the original story, it was dangling over the edge of a pretty big cliff last I knew.

For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision; but today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
It's never too late to be who you might have been.

[justin]

There's just a month and a half till this years misnamed National Novel Writing Month begins. Is anyone else planning to take part this year?



Personally I'm planning on working on the sequel to a W/T story I've been writing for the last year and a bit called the Cathedral & the Bazaar. The sequel is called Pandora's box and I'm hoping that by making it my NaNoWriMo project it'll take a bit less than a year to finish.

"VOOM"?!? Mate, this bird wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised! - The Parrot Sketch

[maudmac]

Ooooh! NaNoWriMo!



I am definitely participating this year. Since the pre-NaNo activity has picked up recently (4 new t-shirts Oct. 1st, including one for NaNoWriMo widow/ers), I was wondering if you were going to do it again this year, justin. I'm glad to hear you will be. And W/T fic, too!



Anyone else planning insane scribbling this November? I highly recommend it.



I'm working on something right now that I hope to have finished by the end of October. And its the sequel to that story that'll be my NaNonovel this year. It's basically about going home, I guess, and relationships and family, and how they change and don't change and...stuff like that. It's got goats and goat-suckers, hog farms and conspiracies, more ex-stepfathers than you can shake a stick at, sensitive artists who cry to be understood, flocks of chickens, fast cars, queers, and a massive, impossible dilemma that threatens to tear a family apart.



The sequel, which I'll be writing in November, is less ambitious (well, I think it is, but I predict I'll prove myself wrong come November) and is more focused on my main character, who will discover that the man she's always thought was her father wasn't. Then she'll have a massive, impossible dilemma that threatens to tear her apart. More



I'm pretty excited.



Oh, Kathy, by the way, don't think I didn't notice that last year you said, and I quote, "I'll do this one of these years, I think, just not this year, heh." I think that means that 2004 is your year, heh. So...how 'bout it? I vote yes! You have nothing to lose, except your sanity...and...um...well, yeah. *cough*



Anyone interested in more information or learning just what the heck NaNoWriMo is, info here - National Novel Writing Month.

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when i hear music it makes me dance

[BytrSuite]

Ha, you know, I was reading this thread thinking about how this sounded interesting, and how I remember kind of wanting to do it. But then I thought about how much work it is and how I'd probably be too lazy to do it. Eh. I don't know.





Good luck to all who do participate.

________
Bender: Y'know, I was God once.
God: Yes I saw. You were doing well until everyone died.

[demelzie]

although i think this is a US thing, ive decided id love to take part too!! (live in UK btw)



wow so fun i shall start planning what it will be...always wanted to write a book but havent yet cause always wanted to improve my writing skills first...get into the whole writing frame of mind ya know but i guess this time it really doesnt matter how much rubbish i write!! great!!



something to put on my CV maybe??

[beautifultrgdy]

OoOoOo! NaNoWriMo is here again! Things have never looked so good!



I will be participating this year, even if I have to stay up nights and work during the day.



This should be fun. I encourage every one to do it - writing is good for the soul.

Jessica

Adia I'm empty since you left me...

[Insanity]

Oh boy.. I'm really tempted to give it a try this year.

I have plot bunny hopping around for a while now and it really sounds like fun.



But to stand a chance to reach the 50k I'll write in German, so if I really get the story finished... anyone interested in helping me translate it afterwards to share with the Kittens??



Insanity

German Fanfiction

It's always sudden! Tara; the body

[Tempest Duer]

I'm going to try again this year... I was just so picky last year about the quality of the story that I failed miserably. Maybe this year I'll be able to free myself of my high standards.

It's insulting to the whole gender[sic] of rap.



~Eminem

[maudmac]

Aww, Kathy, come on, it'll be fun! You can write that Amy Grant/Donna Reed fic you've always been wanting to!



demelzie, people from all over the world participate in NaNoWriMo. Lots and lots of UK folks. Check out the forums, you'll see a whole UK/Continental Europe section there. The forums are about to be wiped, though, and will reopen October 1st.



And it definitely doesn't matter how much rubbish you write. That's what's so great about NaNo - you can write complete shit - because the only point to it is to finish 50,000 words.



beautifultrgdy, Insanity, and Tempest Duer, glad y'all are doing this. The more, the merrier. Tempest Duer, I hope you have better success this year letting that perfectionism thing go. It's fucking hard, I know it, because it's what kept me from writing for a long time. But I feel like I stared down my perfectionism and it blinked. Then I chased it down and decapitated it with a shovel.

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when i hear music it makes me dance

[justin]

demelzie, and other fellow uk nanowrimo-ers, if you have a Live Journal account there's an LJ community UK Nanowriters



At the moment I'm working out what I'm going to try to accomplish with this years Nanowrimo. Last year it was about proving I could write 50,000 words in a month.



Well this year I'm going to finish with some time to spare, I don't want to be up late on the last day desperately trying to reach the needed word count. But I'm not sure what else I want to gain from the experience.



Anyway good luck to everyone else taking part.

"VOOM"?!? Mate, this bird wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised! - The Parrot Sketch

[dulcinea]

I was just reminded on a mailing list about this - I thought about it last year, but never did anything about it. So this year I think I'm going to attempt it. Although right now, I have absolutely no idea what I may possibly write about.



But I used to have no problem with meeting word limits, I could write forever - although since I left university all my creativity seems to have gone away. So having a go at this is an attempt to rescue my imagination...

[robotguru]

I think i might get involved this year.



I know one character already (ok a slight cheat) but i've wanted to get her into a none Buffyverse story for ages lol.



What is everyone's fave genre? Mine tends to be fantasy.

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There can be no rainbow without rain, you cannot know true happiness until you know sadness first.

[justin]

Robotguru, there's nothing wrong with planning out your story in advance. The only thing that's considered cheating is actually starting writing the story before november.



The new style website is now up and running and it's possible to register. I'm using my account from last year (justin_jarh).



Good luck to everyone else who takes part.

A good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument...and the occasional bar fight. -JMS

[robotguru]

I've officially signed up for NaNoWriMo this year, it all depends on me getting a few pesky assignemts done first though.

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There can be no rainbow without rain, you cannot know true happiness until you know sadness first.

[StrangeQuark]

It's great to see so much interest in this. I hope that everyone shares their work at the Inward Eye when it's all done. I'd love to see it.



I won't be entering, myself, since every Mo is NoWriMo for me



Good luck to every kitten clacking those keys in November!



Remember-- If you stop enjoying yourself, then you're REALLY writing



-SQ

Edited by: StrangeQuark at: 10/7/04 10:14 am

[maudmac]

Kitten Wrimos! NaNoKittens! It's November!



How's it going for everyone? Did you start yet? Huh? Did you? Did you?!?



I'm off to a good start. (And I should probably go to bed now. )



Happy writing to you all.

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rain ain't gonna hurt me

[Vogelscheuche]

Yes!!! I started right away at midnight and got about 1200 words out before I crashed.



I'm in the first chapter and my characters are already doing what THEY want, not what I want but... we'll see. It still fits into my rough plot so it's all good.



Now I'm off writing again. I would like to make 4000 to 5000 words today to get a head-start for bad days *g*



(if anyone wants to contact me on NaNo board my name is Scarecrow there, the translation for Vogelscheuche)



Happy writing everybody!!

(AKA Insanity)

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"It's always sudden", Tara

German Fanfiction

[bowieinberlin]

I was totally scared going into today. Since I'm not working right now, I figure my prime writing time will be in the afternoons. So I procrastinated a little, then got busy. I'm up to 2,089 words.



I decided to break my novel into what I consider essays, so it's easier for me to write them every day. They're basically chapters though. I just have to think of it in essay form so my brain can get wrapped around the idea of writing 50,000 words.



So everybody's on target so far today? That's great! Yay NaNoWriMo!

"My pants are reaching a crisis point!" -- MST3K