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Author Topic: Nano Support Group 2008
gobi13x
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While I have gotten a good deal into my story, I have been trying something different. I have not been putting my story into chapters. It seems to be working out fairly well so far, but I am sure that I will have fun editing it later. I did not reach my daily goal today, but I am still ahead so it is all good. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
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KayTi
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I'm up to 5200 words, recovered from the slow weekend. Decided I do not like my ebay-purchased older style apple keyboard and am now debating shelling out the $80 for the new model. Sigh. I'm a technology junkie.

I still have no idea where my plot is going, which is a bit of a challenge, and laugh at the idea that there's something called chapters in this thing. I just don't quite write that way yet. They will break naturally into chapters eventually, but right now it's all one big lump.

I'm trying to keep other mid-grade fiction works in mind (I'm aiming for that 5th-8th grade level, ala Chasing Vermeer and Peter and the Starcatchers) so I can keep the writing style simple and direct enough. In a way, that makes it easier, in another way that makes it harder.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Have to vote, maybe go see friends (they may get put off in service of meeting my nano goals) and do a big work meeting (living in fear that there'll be 2+ hrs of work in my inbox in the morning meaning I can't do any of those things in the AM.) Sigh. Tiring week.


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Cheyne
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Kay-Ti:
I too am tackling a younger audience for the first time. I figure I can tone down my vocab in revision, but to keep me focused on my target I am listening to an audio version of an old Heinlein YA novel on my way to work. The language makes me laugh when he uses outdated teenspeak but overall the sound of the language is helping.

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Broda
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Ok, I think I'm nuts but I'm going to try this. I registered on NaNoWriMo - user 456740.

Maybe this will force me to stop pre-editing and just write.


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Unwritten
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Welcome Broda--you don't have a name on Nano? just a number?

You probably are nuts, but it's a good kind of nuts. Good luck!
Melanie


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Broda
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Broda over there too.
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Broda
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The NaNoWriMo site keeps losing some of my info. Earlier I had someone else's excerpt on my novel page, my title & synopsis were both gone. I changed my password just in case. This evening my title and synopsis were gone again as well as my forum post count (1). I changed my password again but I don't have much faith in the site at this moment.
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sjsampson
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Fell a little behind tonight. I'm only at 6300 words. Stupid cold.

This is turning out to be a lot of fun. I can't wait to see what I come up with next. I keep telling myself I'm going to edit the heck out of it later. I hope I don't get so sick of it that later never happens.


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Unwritten
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I haven't spent too much time over at Nanowrimo yet. I thought I'd wait for a week or two when their server starts working better. Broda, hopefully your page will work better in a few days.

Today was a rougher day for me in the writing world. Not only did real life keep intruding, but I wasn't sure what I really wanted to say. I'd been mulling over the first chapter for such a long time that I didn't have to think about it much, but the second chapter was very fuzzy. However--if I sit at the computer and start typing, the words will meld themselves into a story. THAT is the great lesson of Nanowrimo.

I finished at 5067 words. Not stellar, but not too far off the mark either. And now my bed is calling...
Melanie


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tempest
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i have fallen way behind in my word count, which doesnt seem to be stressing me too much. i've been sick and not able to sit at the computer, so i've taken a notebook to bed to jot down ideas. i hope to resume on the computer today. real life does intrude alot, but with the kids back in school today, hopefully life will be a little quieter.

i'm really enjoying writing, its mostly been backstory, i hope to actually find some forward moving plot soon.


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Cheyne
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Does anybody know a good hitman? There is a certain inner-editor I need excised. Speed not good.
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darklight
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>>>>DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME<<<<

You know how I said in an earlier post about splitting the daily amount into sixteen blocks of one hundred words? So, as I was at home yesterday, I decided to crank it up a little, and do sixteen blocks of three hundred words, starting at eight a.m., ending at midnight. The net result was: Sixteen blocks of three hundred words plus 1,972 extra words, giving my a total word count for the day of 6,428 words.

All that plus the usual daily stuff, plus being witness to a traffic accident litterally inches in front of me, becoming irate on the phone because the superstore wants to keep my son's almost new computer for two weeks, just to find out something I ready know; it's broken. Freaking out over a HUGE spider in my living room, and thinking, around nine p.m., that my head was going to explode.

Believe me, I am never doing that again.

For the rest of the week, I'm working now until friday, I'm settling for a nice and easy 1,000 words a day.

How's it going for you all?


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aspirit
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I've been at my home computer all day, yet I've gained only 1,200 words since Monday. When I attempted to write yesterday, I started replacing paragraphs, so I ended the day without any net gain worth mentioning. As I post, I'm at 4,600 total words.

Two issues are hampering my progress, other than my inability to let BS remain on screen. Firstly, I know little about the setting. The story starts in colonial Pennsylvania and remains in the area while progressing to modern day. I've only been to Pennsylvania once. Secondly, I've realized the story is about sex and death... Worse, my husband joked that I'm writing alien smut. I'm now wondering what's wrong with my subconscious.

If anytime during this month you need a break and want to discuss 19th century rural Pennsylvanian life, please email me. I would also love external reminders that I said I would not attempt to publish the story and so should not worry about how it reflects on me as a person or writer.

Yeah....


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LAJD
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So I'm now at about 11,000 words. I've managed to dictate all of them, and so I'm writing and my neck is getting better. I'm feeling pretty good about this, and probably will be right up until the point where I try to edit this novel.

I haven't been able to jump around in the timeline like some people suggest. But I have been able to turn off my internal editor, or at least mostly.

I think I'm going to go back tomorrow and work on my outline a bit more. Since I'm a bit ahead of where I thought I would be at this point.

I'm worried that the week of Thanksgiving is going to throw a wrench into all of this. I just found out that we are hosting all of my in-laws. That's going to mean 15+ people for Turkey and that's just the relatives, will probably pick up a few more stragglers. We do every year. It's not that I mind, I like having people in the house, but it will make writing hard that week.

Has anyone thought about strategies for Thanksgiving?

Leslie


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Broda
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I think we're going to leave town for Thanksgiving and stay with my wife's best friend. I'll probably get more writing done that week than any this month because babysitting duties will be mostly off my plate.
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sjsampson
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I got stuck and had to skip forward in my story for the first time since starting. What resulted was the only part of my story I'm happy with right now. I guess it was worth it. I'm finishing the day at 8370.

As for Thanksgiving, my not-so-well-thought-out-plan is to dictate into my cheap mp3 player during my 10 hour drive and then type it out like a mad woman when I get home. I am almost hoping I can reach a point where I can skip this plan for something better.

LAJD & darklight - you guys are really dumping it out there! I'm jealous! Good job!

aspirit - I don't know how much I'd be able to help with 19th Century rural PA life, but I went to undergrad in PA - Millersville in Lancaster county. Amish country.


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Unwritten
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asprit: I've been replacing paragraphs too. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing a little bit of that, as long as you don't go out of control. This year, I let myself go back and read what I just wrote and then do ONE edit--skipping things that don't have any bearing on the story and that are annoying enough that I'm sure I'll catch them later.

About Pennsylvania--I'm sure you could find some experts if you ask in the open discussions section. I've got relatives there, so I've been there many times. I'm not sure if I'm an expert, but if you have any questions, I'll have an answer(no guarantee that it's the right answer of course.

Sadly, I'm not an expert on alien smut, so you're on your own with that one.

LAJD: This week has been crazy hectic for me. Thanksgiving should be much calmer. My rule for this week has been that I stay up late and get at least 1300 words written, no matter how long it takes me. Sometimes I just want to cry at the thought of doing it, but as soon as I start I remember that writing is the FUN PART of life. So my advice is: force yourself to write even if you don't really feel like it. It'll be the best part of the week.

Melanie

[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited November 05, 2008).]


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KayTi
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BIG HINT to the paragraph replacers:

Leave in the old one. Use your word processor's "strikethrough" feature to mark the text for deletion. Your word counter will still count the words. After all, you did write them during National Novel Writing Month, you're entitled to claim them, even if you never want to see them again.

Remember, it's all about getting words on the page. I don't look back at what I've written much except to figure out if I've said X about something before or to look up the name I came up with for something. I also then try to copy that stuff to a list i have at the front of the document that's the basics for the world I've created. That actually adds to my word count over the days, so I have a two part word counting spreadsheet. One half I enter what I can tell I wrote (from where I left off last time to where I left off this time) and the other is where I just put in how many words my word processor claims the document has.

Meanwhile, I'm only at 7400 words which is a little behind. I'm finding it really slow going this year and I know it's because i did virtually no prep work. As soon as my day job slows down enough that I can breathe and not be so panicked about getting my word count in, I will go back and do some more brainstorming for scenes and conflicts. It'll help me keep from staring off into space as I wonder what will happen next or wonder if there's any way I can possibly escape this scene without barfing on it.

And in other news, I have already had the opportunity to use some of the Hatrack Utility Belt's Handwavium Pellets (tm) - fantastic for filling in those places that you know require research but you'll never get your word count in if you stop to research. So I sprinkled some on a first aid situation and poof! I'll deal with that later!

Good luck to everyone.


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Unwritten
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And now, after all of my big talking, I am going to bed after having only written 500 words, all of which are misspelled and every single one was telling, not showing, and I sat and stared at the screen and couldn't figure out anything worth showing, so good night. I'll try again tomorrow.
Melanie

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gobi13x
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I have been doing very well so far, but I am behind where I wanted to be. I hope to be done before the 22nd, because then I will have family issues that will block my writing. The biggest problem that I have noticed with my story is the pacing. Either the story is going too fast or it is going too slow. I am still trying to figure out a good pace. Also I have no idea what genre to put it in. It fits in between fantasy and sci-fi. Maybe by the end of it, I will know what genre it is.

[This message has been edited by gobi13x (edited November 06, 2008).]


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Warbric
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I like the numbers I see for our Hatrack people at NaNoWriMo! Keep going everybody.

Don't let my word count fool any of you. Even though I'm doing okay -- far better than last year's "loss" (I may have an odd-year NaNo Curse!) -- I'm still having a devil of a time of it.

My excerpt is posted. I have no idea where some of that came from. My muses delivered it more or less that way. But that character in the excerpt -- what a stage hog! I can't get him to shut up to make room for anyone else. He's not even the MC.

(Make me explain some other time why his stallion -- a male horse -- has a female persona within it that seems to reside also within Sethuur's head. Truth is, I'm not yet sure. Just kind of came that way and I'm running with it for now.)

I started out with a beginning and an ending, and I had a decent idea about what would go in the middle to drag the two together into a novel, but my characters aren't giving me their full cooperation yet. Things are slipping slightly askew in a few places and may require much editing later.

But the words are coming -- maybe not super easily, but they are coming -- and I'm just going to have to tuck my chin to my chest and blunder on.

Oh, yeah, that's kind of the idea in the first place, huh?

(This post was prepared under the influence of copious quantities of an unregulated caffeinated substance. The management takes no responsible for any rambling, duplication, or nonsensical alliteration.)


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annepin
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well, i'm officially the most far behind. i haven't written a lick. that's right. not a word. i'm gonna try to go for it this weekend, but this might be the year i don't finish. my new job (yay!) is squashing me, turning me into dough, and cranking me out a pasta machine. i'm having a hard time shedding my work shell every night and stretching my fiction wings. anyway, i'll see how it goes this weekend.
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Wolfe_boy
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I'm struggling mightily too, annepin. Almost 8,000 words behind today. I usually use the first full weekend to stretch my lead out, not struggle to make up missed wordcount. I'm trying to be persistent too, keep writing every day, but it's hard to find a lot of time to crush out more than a few hundred words at a time.

I guess persistence is the key though. Hopefully a few hundred will become a few thousand without too much more effort. Keep it up, girl!

Jayson Merryfield


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Unwritten
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It's annoying the way the world keeps revolving, meals keep needing to be served (and eaten!), clothes keep getting dirty, deadlines keep steadily approaching, kids keep needing help with homework...don't they know we're trying to write a novel here? Just leave us alone!

I finally got some time to work on my novel during the day! I had an hour an a half before my son needed to be picked up at preschool, so I went to a nearby library and wrote the whole time--with only one foray into a calvin and hobbes book. I was really picking up steam, and I looked at the clock and I was 10 minutes late! Yikes.

annepin, couldn't you write one little word? That's how books are written, you know.

I was trying to think of something we could do to boost our word totals. We can't really do a one hour challenge, because we're not all on-line at the same time. I think we could all use an energy boost. Does anyone have any ideas?

A word war? A midnight rally? (What is a word war anyway?)
Melanie


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annepin
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Thanks for the support, Wolfe_Boy and Unwritten! I've got hopefully some of this afternoon and most of tomorrow free, so I should be able to write at least one word then, right? Then another one? Hopefully they'll make sense...

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Unwritten
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I've never known a word that didn't make sense. It's when we combine them that there are issues.

edited to say: Sorry. It's been a particularly long day, and I'm in a pretty goofy mood.

[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited November 08, 2008).]


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annepin
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One word makes sense... two words probably will. Three words? Not necessarily.

But yay! I've got 2184 words! And yes, they do make sense. At least to me, and right now, that's what matters, right? Okay, how far behind am I now?


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Unwritten
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Good for you, annepin!

You are catching up with me, if that makes you feel any better. Will you be able to work on it during the week? or is work just too brutal?

I had to take a few days off to finish up some other major projects and then to recover. I'm hoping my kids will give me a while to write today (no school...) I can dream can't I?

On the positive side, I'm feeling excited about my story again.
Melanie


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darklight
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I'm a little over the half way mark right now. I love doing NaNo, love writing a story that I can some time later polish up and use, but I'm dissapointed with myself right now. My output is right down at the moment, and I'm having days now when I'm thinking, do I really have to write today? But I absolutely want to finish this and don't want to have a day when I have a zero word growth.

I'm home alone tomorrow and am going to give myself another mini challenge, though nothing as severe as last Tuesday. Then I'm home from Firday to next Wednesday so hope to get another big chunk written.

Anyhow, I've just put my MC in peril, and he has a dangerous time ahead of him. I'm hoping that will perk me up a bit.

Hope everyone's word counts are going up nicely.


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annepin
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I'm looking forward to a nice writing holiday tomorrow... hubby will be asleep, I should have ample time to write!
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gobi13x
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I had a slow weekend, but I knew that it would be. It has put me a bit behind, but I made it up today. I knew what my ending was going to be since I started, so after writing a bit of my story, I thought why not write the ending. So that was the biggest thing I did today. Now I have to go back and connect the rest of the story to the ending.
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tempest
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i didn't get anything written over the weekend. i did however, string my plot together which was very exciting. now i just have to write it.

i added about 2000 words this morning, and hoping to add some tonight after the kids go down. that would put me way behind instead of desperately behind.


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Unwritten
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I did pretty well today. I wrote just over 2000 words, for a grand total of 9795. That's nowhere close to where I want to be, but I'll take it. I really thought I could push myself over 10,000 words--I mean come on! I'm so close! But I couldn't do it. I didn't write my ending, like gobi13x, but I did skip ahead and write a scene I was excited about. Now if I could only fill in the missing scenes that easily...

It sounds like most of us are still plugging along. Tomorrow I really need to figure out the specifics about the next few scenes so that I don't stare blindly at the screen like I did today (until I decided to skip ahead).

Keep up the good work! 12000 words, here I come!
Melanie


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Unwritten
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It's me again. Where is everyone? Probably off writing their nano stories, which is something I'm really struggling with at the moment. When I did it last year, I just wrote with reckless abandon, and I can't make myself do that this year. I spent a whole year learning about POV, not overusing adverbs and not starting every sentence in a paragraph with the word "she" and I can't unlearn all of that and go back to the orgy of just writing. But right now, I'm going to give it my best shot. I'm going to try and write 1000 words in an hour, starting...NOW!
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KayTi
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How did you do, Melanie? I'm at just under 18k, which is right on spot (I got a little behind, then caught up. I'm 400 words behind for my daily total today but I will sneak those in before I go to bed) - but I share your pain. This book sucks compared to what I wrote last year. It's partly that I know what I'm doing and I know this sucks, but I'm going to attribute 75% of the suckage to the fact that I planned very little in advance this year (I probably spent 3-4 hrs planning last year, not like I planned for eons, but those couple hours were pretty key) The book is just meandering, I clearly don't know where I'm going. My MC is an 11 year old on a space ship that's going to be making a colonist run to another planet, but I'm at 18k words and the ship isn't even beginning the colonist boarding process, the Governor and her family have just moved onboard and that's about it. I am finding the writing so much slower this year because I just don't know from scene to scene what's going to happen. It's a good lesson for me, it's clearly a lot harder to write this way, I don't think I'll do this again.

Meanwhile, my personal writing hell for the day is that my characters' only reactions to one another seems to be to laugh. Uh, really? That's the best I can come up with. Pathetic! If anyone wants to suggest some alternatives I'd be forever in your debt.

What other stupid things do you find yourself doing in your WIPs? Last year I figured out at some point that I was always having my MC notice things, instead of just writing them. I write third limited, deep immersion POV, but that doesn't mean that every thing that happens in the world has to be expressed through the MC noticing or seeing or sensing things. I can say "The wall was white" instead of "MC noticed that the wall was white." Oh boy, that was a mess!

So the rest of you, spill. What are your bad Nano habits??


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Unwritten
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Hey KayTi! I DID IT I DID IT I DID IT I DID IT!!!!

I wrote 1,104 words in one hour, and yes, probably much of it needs to be deleted, but I actually had fun. If I can write this many words in an hour, I might be able to salvage this contest. I was feeling mightily discouraged, but now I'm pumped! That puts me at 11,916 words. I am sure I can get past the 12,000 mark before I go to bed. Tomorrow's goal is 2,500 words.

There really is some magic in turning off your inner editor. Now, if she'll just stay off until I catch back up.
Melanie


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sjsampson
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I am at around 19k right now. I was struggling really bad from scene to scene, but then I went back and started on something I was going to consider as backstory. I have been doing much better ever since and I am thinking about how I might want to reconsider my strategy on telling this story.

I did very little planning before Nano started, and this is my first one, so I have nothing to compare with. In the future, I might plan more. But what I like about this approach is knowing since I had very little to go on at the start, I am not as picky about how things have to be. My writing is crap and I know it. I am happier with certain story elements I am coming up with on the fly than I am the writing.

I have probably used the word "that" an astronomical number of times. "Already" has found its way in there quite a bit too, or at least I was noticing it a lot tonight. My MC is a clutz. I think he got knocked out three times and fell down twice in the first three pages. I will fix that - in December.


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KayTi
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Hey Melanie - just so you know, my inner editor is in Tahiti. I plan to join her there after Nano. Doesn't Tahiti sound dreamy in December? Me and my laptop and some white sand beaches and someone willing to fetch me beverages...I think I need to book that trip...

Good job Samj - and who cares, at least something is happening *to* your MC! Mine has things happen around her but she doesn't do much other than follow along. Gotta fix that, send her on an adventure. Toodeloo!


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tempest
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well this must be my reckless abandon year- the time to write and not worry about it. ignorance really is bliss.
i love my story and my characters. i enjoy sitting down to see what is going to happen next and have been surprised a few times. i know generally how it will end, but the anticipation of how we will get there is sweet. im really excited about how this is going.

im sure when i learn about POV, true character development, adverbs, cliches, and all the other "good writer" stuff, i'll cringe and hide under my computer desk. but for right now, who cares.....

yesterday i only had an hour to work before i collapsed, but i did get in around 1000 words. i plan to make up some of my word count today.

in the back of my mind i sincerely hope that there is some quantity of salvageable stuff in what im writing.

good luck everyone


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Unwritten
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quote:
im sure when i learn about POV, true character development, adverbs, cliches, and all the other "good writer" stuff, i'll cringe and hide under my computer desk. but for right now, who cares.....

That was the beauty of last night. I made myself ignore all that stuff and just write, and to my liberating surprise, it wasn't half bad. I may be telling parts of the story that I'll cut out later, but at least they're getting on paper, and out of my head.

quote:
just so you know, my inner editor is in Tahiti.

My inner editor loved that idea, and wonders if there might be a spare hammock she could curl up in. All she needs is a spot to set some books and a good looking waiter.


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darklight
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Advice please

I am at a point in my story that my characters have to go on a journey, about eighty miles, by foot. But nothing really happens on the journey, it's what happens when they get there that matters. Can I just skip the journey and go to when they or arive, or do I need a paragraph or two about the journey?

I know it doesn't really matter because its NaNo, but until I get over this, I'm stuck and can't take the story forward.

A few thousand words ago, I thought I wasn't going to have enough material to complete the story, now I don't know how I'm going to fit it all in. I realise with this, the story doesn't have to be complete, just have to have 50,000 words written, but if I don't finish the story, I probably wouldn't for a long time, if at all.

Louise (31,000 words in and ready to collapse. I need to sleep!). And need to learn how to spell.

[This message has been edited by darklight (edited November 12, 2008).]


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Broda
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I'd skip the journey if it's your stumping point. Don't let it block you. Maybe later you'll come back and add 10k words about it or maybe not - doesn't matter - just don't let yourself be blocked.
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Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
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What Broda said, darklight. Tell yourself that you'll save the journey in case there's some set-up you need to insert to foreshadow some later development in the story, and then go on to what happens at their destination.
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KayTi
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Just summarize it.

"The journey was long and arduous, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. Josephina and Lornal found themselves at the foot of Mount Desolate 3 days later with considerably lighter packs and downcast attitudes."


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Unwritten
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darklight: My advice: get some sleep. Sleep in. Stretch out and wiggle your toes underneath the sheets. Maybe I'm just jealous that you're so far ahead of me, but you'll be surprised how much more creative a well-rested brain is than that over-extended one you're using right now.
Melanie

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LAJD
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Wow! it sounds like everyone is doing great.

I had a couple of slow days, but I am back now and rolling.....I have had a serious lack of inspiration and then I looked up and saw a bunch of crows rattling away in the trees and realized that they were in the story and were spies....

8)

Really, just high on life...

Leslie

[This message has been edited by LAJD (edited November 12, 2008).]


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gobi13x
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I am progressing nicely. My story has taken a turn that I had not thought of before and it working out nicely. I am behind where I want to be, but still ahead of where I thought I was going to be.

[This message has been edited by gobi13x (edited November 13, 2008).]


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Unwritten
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I think that little minichallenge I gave myself completely kicked that writer's block/teetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown crisis I was going through. I'm still not breaking any records, but I'm hovering around a very respectable 2100 words a day. I closed today at 16,155 words, which is
quote:
behind where I want to be, but still ahead of where I thought I was going to be.

Melanie

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Cheyne
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I took the course of writing the more interesting scenes first. This left me with the task of writing the in-between scenes out of sequence and as a consequence, some scenes that I thought were a couple of quick scenes away from each other are growing alarmingly distant. At 10k I have hardly attacked the main conflict and I have laid the groundwork for many subplot/conflicts that were not in my original outline. I am finding new plot lines developing that may preclude or at least alter a lot of what I have already written...

Anybody else writing in a non-linear manner?


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tempest
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I was writing in a non-linear manner, writing scenes that came to me, skipping stuff i just couldn't see. I thought it was really enjoyable, because i wasn't sure where i was going in the first place. Alot of good stuff came out. One morning, however, the plot just came together and I realized where it would go and how it will end(it was a very exciting!). Most of the stuff i wrote before will be cut out and the surviving stuff that is to be woven in is driving me crazy. I started writing from a pivotal point in the story and have progressed dramatically from there. I am now hanging on to linearity with both hands. I will have to go back and write the beginning though (errrrrr).

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