Revising is often the death knell of getting it done. That's why Chris Baty specifically advises against it.
Nothing I have is good, other than maybe a few brief flashes, but I have it. I'll rechew that cud after and pull out what's worthwhile, digest again what isn't, and hopefully spit back something useful.
(Er. Not revising here, either.)
However, I'm not afraid of belting it out anymore, and that's a big step for me. Continually revising was what kept me from writing, and I think it's that way for a lot of people. Not everyone, but a lot of folks.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Look, in my opinion, if you get what you want out of it, you win. Maybe not technically, but for your own intents and purposes. The first time I managed to sign up, and that equaled win for me. (I hid in my closet, but you know, baby steps.) The second time, I managed to get my friends on my friend list and come up with a plot. Win. The third time is now, and I have a chunk of words under my belt. Win, baby, win.
You don't have to give up revising as you go. However, I think CB was specifically trying to get people to force past that internal editor, because the continual analysis of the internal editor was keeping a lot of people from writing. For me, this is liberation: I had always edited as I went, obsessively reworking, and I never got very far with anything. Now I'm amazed at how far I can go, and I am sure my internal editor will have a field day of things to chomp on when I'm done.
YMMV, of course.
Congrats on you for taking it on, however it works out for you.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Turning off the internal editor, plus writing every day, is how I've gotten this far. Without my internal editor on this amounts to little more than freewriting off of a loose outline, but I'm actually getting somewhere with a story I've been chewing on in my head for a few years now, and discovering how the story might play out, and coming up with new characters and new conflicts, all because I've decided not to second-guess myself. I don't even go back to read what I've written before I start writing again. I don't even backspace more than a few words to correct something. I put it on the page and I leave it there, and I do my best to use it. That's how I've gotten as far as I've gotten.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I'm sitting at 41k and change and still going for the NaNo finish. The novel itself is proving to be longer and more detailed than I thought, so it's probably going to wind up being done when I reach 120 to 140k. My writing time starts in... three minutes. Better get cracking!
Shan, sorry to hear about your kid. Good to hear about your wonderful ideas. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I gave up around 10k. I kind of feel like I wimped out, but what with my course load this semester and various distractions from my social life it just wasn't going to happen.
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I'm at about 42k right now and definitely shooting for a win. I'll have to take some extra time in the next few days to make up the words.
Like quid, I'm thinking my novel will be much longer than 50k. I'm just barely getting to anything important happening. Of course, on the next draft, it'll all get tightened up. But that's my internal editor talking.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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quidscribis -- you are such an inspiration! You go, girl!
Nathan will hopefully be out of the splint tomorrow and into something smaller. I've told him NO MORE broken anything. Poor kid.
I am actually feeling some excitement about the project ideas, and over Turkey Day I did start in with interviewing my grandmother. She's a tough nut to crack, but once she got into it she really didn't want to stop.
I have two projects.
One is to simply capture the family history on the maternal side. A corollary is to get with my father on his side and take the family history book and some of the more interesting stories from the 15th-20th centuries and create a kids' story book.
The other is to write a definitive parenting manual. *evil grin* Everyone keeps saying they weren't handed one at the birth of their child . . . I'm gonna get this puppy written up and it'll go like wildfire, I'm sure!
It certainly won't be a "tell you how to do it" sort of book at all -- I am hoping for fun, for thinking, for room to grow, for recognizing and building on parental strengths, for tidbits of information and useful ideas along the way and places to maybe find more information if needed . . . I have lots of nifty ideas . . . *grins*
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Um, Shan, I'm confused. Not that I mind being an inspiration or anything, you understand. It's just that I don't see why I'm an inspiration when, for example, afr has a higher word count than I had when I posted that.
I'm currently at 43k and change, and hoping to plug the gap between here at, oh, 44k by the end of the day. Oh, now that I think about it, probably not too realist. Dinner's in, what, 15 minutes? Oh dang. Then Fahim's cousin is coming over.... Okay, so rest of the day is now shot. Skip that. Tomorrow...
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Mine may become massive. I'm about half-way through, story-wise, and I'm at 44k. Not only that, looking back over the beginning, I think when I edit what I've written so far it will at least double in size. Pacing's good, but there's a lot of extra scenes that ought to be in there.
Expect a fat little fantasy novel. Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I think I'm not even going to reach 10,000 at this rate. Work and wedding planning have just become too much.
I'm keeping up the fight... just at a slower rate. Then again, at this rate, it might be 2011 before I finish. Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I'm in the 40's, but I'm not proud of most of it. I was spending too much time trying to get dialogue and description just so -- and taking time away to go start a grass-roots organization -- so I fell back to essentially describing the novel to myself so I could fill it in later. Call it the .5 draft.
"Here's where she'll discover the secret path. Put in some description of the area, mention how gloomy it is, prolly add some mental argument as she tries to decide if its worth it.
"Peter will try to jolly her along but she's still mad about the romantic overtones he's started using (assuming) so she'll fight his suggestions even when they're good, like this one. They'll argue, again, and not notice the demonbeast that has crept up behind them, interested."
"Describe the demonbeast."
Somewhere between insanely detailed notes and an actual draft.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'm at about 5000 words and it doesn't look like I'll get any further in November. I like what I've got so far though, so I think I'll try and keep going even though NaNo is over. Silly school distracting me from my life pursuits... The more I think about it the more I like the idea of taking a few years off to just do whatever and work however before going to grad school...
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I'm very happy with how this is going. A new character stepped in a few days ago, and he's giving me a lot of fun to write. I'm so happy with how this month has gone, and I think I'm going to try working as a municipal liaison next year.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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So is the site not accepting word count updates or did they move the button? I'm at 7,145 now, and I'd like credit for my recently renewed progress. It's lame progress, but it's mine and I want it.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I'll have about 47,500 by later tonight, and will do the last leg of the home stretch tomorrow. Whoohoo! I'm gonna win, baby!
I'm amazed at how much I've been able to write just by not going back at all, ever. That's the only way I've gotten so many words down. This draft is crap. I wouldn't even favor it with "rough draft." Maybe "scratching." But it's given me a good idea of how a decent story could be laid out. Pounding it out has opened up a bunch of unexplored avenues. I think I could build a fairly good outline from what I've written this month. Plus, I have a better feel for roughing out a novel now, and what it's going to take to get a complete draft done. So this has been a very positive experience.
P.S. Avid Reader, I can still see the text field where I enter my word count, and the submit button, on my Author Info screen. Is that where you're looking?
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Well, I'm finally done with 50,471 words. Yay! 4:24pm, so I still had hours and hours of time. Piece of cake...
Shan, that whole sticking to writing times thing - blame Fahim. No, seriously, he's so good at helping me develop habits, but then it's my own fault when I fall out of them. He also cuts me off of certain websites *cough*HatCrack*cough* from 8am to 4pm - with my permission - to help encourage my productivity. And, happily, it WORKS! He's really really really good for me.
But still, I'll take your compliment. Definitely. Thank you.
Chris, what you're describing for your novel, I've heard called a zero draft. It's sorta between a long detailed outline and a first draft. And, you know, since there's a name for it, it should be obvious that there's whole entire bunches of people out there who employ that method. I say, as long as it works.
My novel is nowhere near done. I've barely gotten to my MMC messing about with things he's not supposed to mess about with at all, and I can still see a lot of places where fleshing out needs to take place. This is going to end up being my longest work ever. It's also the one I'm the happiest about thus far in terms of quality. Yeah, it's a first draft, and yeah, it definitely needs work, but it also needs less work than any other previous draft I've written, I think. It really feels like my writing is improving, so happiness reigns. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Thanks, afr. I thought I remembered it having its own button on the left in the blue area. Hooray for updates.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I can't scramble my file, though. My computer won't do it. Is it really necessary, or just an exercise in paranoia? I mean, no one has access to these, right?
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I have no idea about the access or how the rights work in this case. Can you break it up into smaller files and scramble it that way?
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I think it's pretty much an exercise in paranoia. I used the replace feature in word and replaced all my vowels with consonants - that was good enough for me. But if you don't want to/can't, I wouldn't worry about it.
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5816 words- so a tenth of the way. I also did around 3000 words on my progress review (which has a maximum page limit of 8 so that was what it had to be) I didn't let myself write fun stuff until work stuff was done and since I HATE writing progress reviews, I spent a ridiculous amount of time staring at that file.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
I have seen the NaNoWriMo threads here several times without really checking out what it involved. Maybe next year.
My wife started writing sometime this last month and is sitting at 60-70 single spaced pages. If I had known I would have directed her to the site as I would imagine she has met the 50k limit. Oh, well.
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4:24pm, so I still had hours and hours of time. Piece of cake... ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
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