NaNoWriMo

Talk about anything under the sun or stars - but keep it civil. This is where we really get to know each other. Everyone is welcome, and invited!
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Jayelle » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:24 am

Guys! Stop talking like November is soon. It's at least 6 months away.

...no?
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Young Val » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:39 am

Right? I can't think about how fast time is flying by because it freaks me out too much.


As for Nano, I've signed up I think two times? I've never come close to winning. I don't even think I've made it through the first week. I NEED to finish a draft of this book, though, and Nano is a good excuse, but....

Ugh. Hard.
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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Mich
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:28 pm

That's why now is the time to do the impossible, think the unthinkable.
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.

Row--row.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby VelvetElvis » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:34 pm

I have a couple ideas in mind, but they all seem sort of lame.
Yay, I'm a llama again!

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Claire » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:37 pm

Ahh. Last year wasn't the year. Maybe this will be it? I have an idea...

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby LilBee91 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:37 pm

The lamer the better.

At least that's what I tell myself. Obviously it has not worked out so well for me.
I used to hate gravity because it would not let me fly. Now I realize it is gravity that lets me stand.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby VelvetElvis » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:39 pm

I meant for the solidarity project, lol.
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:21 pm

Hey, guys, come on. Don't believe in the you who believes in me. Don't believe in the me who believes in you. Believe in the you who believes in yourself.
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.

Row--row.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby VelvetElvis » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:25 pm

So what about a quilt? Would that be lame?
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby LilBee91 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:01 pm

Pff. I keep the Neil Gaiman one in my inbox because it's so good.
I do not seem to have that one. For sadness.

And a quilt would not be lame at all. Quilts are awesome! And quilts with always writing-themed fabric are even more awesome.
I used to hate gravity because it would not let me fly. Now I realize it is gravity that lets me stand.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

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Mich
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:28 pm

Here!
Dear NaNoWriMo Author,

By now you're probably ready to give up. You're past that first fine furious rapture when every character and idea is new and entertaining. You're not yet at the momentous downhill slide to the end, when words and images tumble out of your head sometimes faster than you can get them down on paper. You're in the middle, a little past the half-way point. The glamour has faded, the magic has gone, your back hurts from all the typing, your family, friends and random email acquaintances have gone from being encouraging or at least accepting to now complaining that they never see you any more---and that even when they do you're preoccupied and no fun. You don't know why you started your novel, you no longer remember why you imagined that anyone would want to read it, and you're pretty sure that even if you finish it it won't have been worth the time or energy and every time you stop long enough to compare it to the thing that you had in your head when you began---a glittering, brilliant, wonderful novel, in which every word spits fire and burns, a book as good or better than the best book you ever read---it falls so painfully short that you're pretty sure that it would be a mercy simply to delete the whole thing.

Welcome to the club.

That's how novels get written.

You write. That's the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

A dry-stone wall is a lovely thing when you see it bordering a field in the middle of nowhere but becomes more impressive when you realise that it was built without mortar, that the builder needed to choose each interloc king stone and fit it in. Writing is like building a wall. It's a continual search for the word that will fit in the text, in your mind, on the page. Plot and character and metaphor and style, all these become secondary to the words. The wall-builder erects her wall one rock at a time until she reaches the far end of the field. If she doesn't build it it won't be there. So she looks down at her pile of rocks, picks the one that looks like it will best suit her purpose, and puts it in.

The search for the word gets no easier but nobody else is going to write your novel for you.

The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I cou ld abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathising or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm---or even arguing with me---she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, "Oh, you're at that part of the book, are you?"

I was shocked. "You mean I've done this before?"

"You don't remember?"

"Not really."

"Oh yes," she said. "You do this every time you write a novel. But so do all my other clients."

I didn't even get to feel unique in my despair.

So I put down the phone and drove down to the coffee house in which I was writing the book, filled my pen and carried on writing.

One word after another.

That's the only way that novels get written and, short of elves coming in the night and turning your jumbled notes in to Chapter Nine, it's the only way to do it.

So keep on keeping on. Write another word and then another.

Pretty soon you'll be on the downward slide, and it's not impossible that soon you'll be at the end. Good luck...

Neil Gaiman
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.

Row--row.

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Mich
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:13 am

OH EM GEE GUYS WE HAVE LESS THAN HALF A MONTH.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

GET IN HERE.
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Row--row.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby LilBee91 » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:25 am

I'm scared.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby LilBee91 » Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:01 pm

*double post*

Question for all you NaNo veterans out there. Do you have an outline written out before you start? How detailed is this outline? And do you actually follow it?
I used to hate gravity because it would not let me fly. Now I realize it is gravity that lets me stand.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

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Mich
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:42 pm

*double post*

Question for all you NaNo veterans out there. Do you have an outline written out before you start? How detailed is this outline? And do you actually follow it?
The one time I've actually written anything that I felt the need to continue writing post-November I had a pretty good outline, separated into three acts. I really want to do it for this one, and just need to take the time to do it. It really helped me set goals and be like "okay, that bit is done, what do I write next? I know, I'll check the outline!" So if you get stumped by things like that, then an outline will be best!
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Syphon the Sun » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:49 pm

I'm still on the fence this year. Because I have no ideas.
Step softly; a dream lies buried here.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:39 am

Well, good news about being frustrated and unable to sleep: finished my outline! It even helped me reach a few conclusions about how to advance the plot at certain points, let me roadmap stuff, decide where to have flashbacks; heavily advisable, I guess.
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Young Val » Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:56 am

Holy s***, you guys, I'm going to do it.
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby LilBee91 » Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:15 am

Holy s***, you guys, I'm going to do it.
:stamp:

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Jayelle » Tue Oct 18, 2011 10:16 am

Holy s***, you guys, I'm going to do it.

me too.
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Claire » Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:25 am

*Sigh*

I just set up my profile...

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Wind Swept » Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:07 am

This sounds to me like I can set up a Pweb word count scoreboard.
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Mich
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:08 am

Woo, gang! We can all do this! It'll be fun and you'll be proud of whatever you accomplish! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.

Row--row.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Young Val » Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:00 am

So, I'm using Nano to finish writing my damn YA novel, which is kind of cheating. but not REALLY cheating, since all I really have done on my YA novel so far is one chapter and a ton of random notes scrawled on enough pieces of scrap paper to fill a house.

here's the thing that is making me panic, though. I don't know the NAMES of things. I'm inventing a lot of stuff here, this being speculative fiction and all. And right now in my notes and stuff, I have things like

[evil minions]

and

[mythological figure]

and

[random powerful object]

scattered ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Because I have NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING in this genre.

Can I write my nano project that way? Is that...acceptable? Or do I need to figure this crap out ASAP?
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Caspian » Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:17 am

I definitely think you can add names later.
It's not "noob" to rhyme with "boob". It's "newbie" to rhyme with "boobie".

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby LilBee91 » Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:10 am

I think placeholders are fine. I always put in random names that I don't like. Sometimes if makes it more annoying to write, but better than waiting a billion hours for me to come up with a good name. It's words that matter with NaNo, not whether they're good words or not.
I used to hate gravity because it would not let me fly. Now I realize it is gravity that lets me stand.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

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Mich
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:02 am

Ugh, I had one where I changed the name of a character about halfway through, then my friend who read it got really aggravated at me when I missed changing the name in a few places with tense that I didn't think of. But no! No points lost for placeholders, in my book.

I really hate that it asks for a book title on the official website, because I never want to think of a real one beforehand, but then I can't stop thinking about it until I have one.
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby LilBee91 » Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:40 am

Crap. There are 41 days in October right? Because I cannot be this close to November.
I used to hate gravity because it would not let me fly. Now I realize it is gravity that lets me stand.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby LilBee91 » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:07 pm

*Double Post*
Schnikeys! My outline isn't done yet! I'm already falling behind and November hasn't even started.
I used to hate gravity because it would not let me fly. Now I realize it is gravity that lets me stand.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

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Mich
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:22 pm

Quick quick quick! One night left!

Brush up on those character details (if you do that)!

Round out your outline (if it's your thing)!

Finish up your "I'm awesome and can write anything" music (because it totally is)!

Believe in me who believes in you!
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.

Row--row.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Claire » Tue Nov 01, 2011 12:21 am

If anybody wants to be writing buddies (and hold me to this 50k thing) my nano username is frankieharriet!

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Mich
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Mich » Tue Nov 01, 2011 12:28 am

Oh yeah, me too! I'm Mich. In case I didn't say that elsewhere.

I added you, Claire. ACCOUNT.
Shell the unshellable, crawl the uncrawlible.

Row--row.

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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Young Val » Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:32 am

Oh, CRAP.
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

Jayelle
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Jayelle » Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:00 am

I added you, Mich and Claire. I'm JayelleMo (obviously).

:mrgreen:

and....GO!
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Re: NaNoWriMo

Postby Young Val » Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:39 pm

A little short today. Wrote 792 words.
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant


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