Post by: Caz on October 08, 2012, 06:02:54 am
In case this is new and confusing to anyone:
NaNoWrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is this increasingly huge community-driven contest/challenge to write 50,000 words, a novel, in the month of November. There's great resources and tools on the actual site (http://www.nanowrimo.org/), and real-life gatherings in most major cities where you can go and write, talk about writing, and imbibe ludicrous quantities of coffee and tea.
But hang on... November is 3+ weeks away! Why am I jumping the gun with this post?
Planning. I'm sure loads have started Nano on the day, or even day two or three and still finished. But if you have time to think about what you're writing and properly plan it out, it's a lot less headache inducing than getting to page 54 and trying to find the PERFECT name for the supersecret hidden castle of doom that houses the main antagonist. After 73 hours of sleep deprivation and a 3-quart mug of java.
IRC
#nano for those who use irc.darkmyst.net server
or use the webchat link ( http://client02.chat.mibbit.com/#nano@irc.darkmyst.net )
Post by: Skyrunner on October 08, 2012, 06:16:39 am
...intimidating, mostly. >.>
Post by: mendonca on October 08, 2012, 06:51:49 am
Think I'm going to struggle this year (won last year though, go me), but good luck to anybody that is
Post by: Digital Hellhound on October 08, 2012, 09:40:55 am
Post by: Johuotar on October 08, 2012, 10:48:44 am
Post by: USEC_OFFICER on October 08, 2012, 03:07:28 pm
Post by: SilverDragon on October 10, 2012, 06:33:24 pm
Post by: RulerOfNothing on October 10, 2012, 07:33:43 pm
Post by: mcclay on October 10, 2012, 09:48:19 pm
Post by: SirAaronIII on October 11, 2012, 01:09:10 am
... It was a Half Life Full Life Consequences fanfanfic. That doesn't diminish the accomplishment at all though. Not one bit. Nope.
Post by: Scelly9 on October 11, 2012, 01:12:32 am
Post by: Yoink on October 11, 2012, 01:16:35 am
There are a decent few people in my nearest groups.
Post by: Skyrunner on October 11, 2012, 02:04:21 am
Also, I don't know if I can keep up the writing style I like for a whole novel without it becoming stale >.>
Along with all the usual issues.
Post by: Scelly9 on October 11, 2012, 02:05:45 am
Post by: Yoink on October 11, 2012, 02:12:12 am
Post by: anzki4 on October 11, 2012, 02:41:56 am
On one hand I'm waaaay better in Finnish, but on the other I like writing in English more.
Post by: Ancre on October 11, 2012, 07:16:06 am
Post by: Tiruin on October 11, 2012, 07:44:23 am
Always wanted to break the 40K character limit again so...
Sign me up here.
Because I don't want to post on another site. No, I'm too afraid of posting on another site. D:
Post by: Yoink on October 11, 2012, 10:13:15 am
Post by: Digital Hellhound on October 11, 2012, 10:36:53 am
Post by: Scelly9 on October 11, 2012, 11:39:26 am
Post by: Yoink on October 11, 2012, 11:42:56 am
I think all/most of the Aussie Bay12ers are from a state or two south of me, sadly.
Post by: Ancre on October 11, 2012, 12:52:36 pm
Post by: Caz on October 11, 2012, 12:56:25 pm
On NaNo planning, I've managed to get a little summary of each chapter in the novel and update my synopsis to be a bit more fleshed out. Next up is fixing all these characters I barely have names or personalities for, one of the big bad's in the story is called "Bluemage" lol.
Afaik you can write in any language you want. Nano is a personal contest, no one is going to check your novel to see if you've followed the rules etc. There's some standard things like writing 50k in november, and that it has to be one work and not many short stories, but there's always the non-traditional nano group..
Post by: Ancre on October 11, 2012, 01:10:35 pm
Post by: Flying Dice on October 12, 2012, 12:09:19 am
Post by: JanusTwoface on October 12, 2012, 03:22:12 am
I'm considering posting each day's progress, either here or on my blog. Has anyone tried that? Helpful for motivation or a pain to keep up the posting?
Post by: Un67 on October 12, 2012, 09:25:48 pm
Post by: Yoink on October 12, 2012, 09:28:07 pm
Post by: Caz on October 13, 2012, 07:45:32 am
Oh, and last year we used webchat.freenode.net with the channel ##bay12nano, think we should all make an effort to get online and do word-wars and give each other ideas and whatnot. Last year we kinda tapered off in activity by the end, and it would be better if we all stuck around.
[13:44] == Cazpea [02692@gateway/web/freenode/] has joined ##bay12nano
[13:44] == mode/##bay12nano [+ns] by rowling.freenode.net
Post by: Scelly9 on October 17, 2012, 07:28:30 pm
Also, there's a character survey on the site, so let's fill that out and post it here!
Post by: Yoink on October 18, 2012, 06:28:28 am
Post by: SITCID on October 18, 2012, 11:32:27 am
Post by: SITCID on October 18, 2012, 11:33:21 am
Post by: monk12 on October 18, 2012, 02:40:58 pm
Still don't know what I'm going to write about. This'll be
Post by: Yoink on October 19, 2012, 12:39:14 am
I think a part of the premise is to not worry about editing/fixing things during the month, just focus on word output. Then in December, go back and polish it all up. I think. Don't have time to check the site at the moment.
Post by: JanusTwoface on October 19, 2012, 12:42:06 am
Post by: Flying Dice on October 20, 2012, 05:44:19 pm
Post by: Caz on October 21, 2012, 08:01:07 am
On preparing for nano:
Making balanced characters from thin air is hard. I need to do D&D-style char sheets or something. :)
Post by: Tiruin on October 21, 2012, 08:20:37 am
Post by: Caz on October 21, 2012, 08:48:26 am
So...we can't post here [despite the fact that the site is the official place for it]?
Wha? Of course you can post here. I just meant using the irc for wordwars and discussion. The NaNo forums are great but once November starts they turn into total chaos. At least we can keep each other going on here. If I missed what you were saying, forgive me. :-\
Post by: Un67 on October 21, 2012, 09:08:37 am
Post by: Skyrunner on October 21, 2012, 09:33:07 am
Post by: Caz on October 21, 2012, 10:07:31 am
I like Freenode because it's easily accessible, from the webirc. Other IRC servers need a client to get on.
You can always use mibbit to get on to pretty much any server and channel through http://client01.chat.mibbit.com/
I made one on darkmyst called #nano. Don't wanna step on anyone's toes so I'll still be around on freenode, just seems easier to keep to as few servers as possible (server notifications are already hell, lol)
I'll add them to the firstpost also.
Post by: Un67 on October 21, 2012, 10:13:11 am
Post by: jc6036 on October 22, 2012, 04:28:07 pm
Post by: Un67 on October 22, 2012, 05:18:45 pm
Convenient link is convenient!
Post by: Justiceface on October 22, 2012, 09:20:15 pm
What am I gonna write? I have either no idea or too many ideas. And yes, I have used DF as inspiration before. I wasn't happy with that story. But then I'm never happy with my stories... *shrug*
Post by: Yoink on October 22, 2012, 10:25:02 pm
I should really start working out my story.
Post by: Scelly9 on October 22, 2012, 10:29:53 pm
Post by: SirAaronIII on October 23, 2012, 12:43:02 am
It'll probably end up being really dumb, but who cares it'll be fun.
Post by: Yoink on October 23, 2012, 01:04:27 am
It'll probably end up being really dumb, but who cares it'll be fun.
This is probably a good thing for us all to bear in mind during the whole thing! :)
"No matter how dumb, so long as it's fun!"
Post by: mendonca on October 23, 2012, 03:02:22 am
This is probably a good thing for us all to bear in mind during the whole thing! :)Even if it's not much fun .... JUST KEEP WRITING!!! :D
"No matter how dumb, so long as it's fun!"
Post by: jc6036 on October 23, 2012, 08:07:26 pm
Post by: Caz on October 25, 2012, 06:10:51 pm
Post by: FearfulJesuit on October 26, 2012, 01:56:58 am
Post by: SirAaronIII on October 27, 2012, 02:17:32 am
Totally not just videogames or anything
nope
Post by: Sirus on October 27, 2012, 02:54:01 am
And yet every year, Stuff Happens (tm) and I'm lucky to have a hundred words :-\
Well, why not give it a shot again?
Post by: Caz on October 27, 2012, 11:37:13 am
Post by: Un67 on October 28, 2012, 03:08:27 pm
Post by: Yoink on October 28, 2012, 08:17:45 pm
I just need to get some notes written before the month actually starts...
Post by: Sirus on October 28, 2012, 08:35:40 pm
Post by: USEC_OFFICER on October 28, 2012, 08:38:37 pm
Went to a Kick-off Party yesterday. :)
I just need to get some notes written before the month actually starts...
Lucky bastard. I've barely know what my characters I'm going to have.
Post by: JanusTwoface on October 28, 2012, 11:12:09 pm
Went to a Kick-off Party yesterday. :)
I just need to get some notes written before the month actually starts...
Lucky bastard. I've barely know what my characters I'm going to have.
Started with nothing last year and let it grow organically. Definitely went in an interesting direction. And from the looks of it, that's what I'm going to end up doing again this year. :)
Post by: USEC_OFFICER on October 28, 2012, 11:19:10 pm
Went to a Kick-off Party yesterday. :)
I just need to get some notes written before the month actually starts...
Lucky bastard. I've barely know what my characters I'm going to have.
Started with nothing last year and let it grow organically. Definitely went in an interesting direction. And from the looks of it, that's what I'm going to end up doing again this year. :)
Well I was kinda planning on including time-travel, but who says that I need to write the novel in order? I'll just wing it and hope that I come up with something good.
Post by: Cthulhu on October 29, 2012, 07:59:06 am
But, the joke: The storm isn't that bad. Everyone's just really overreacting.
Post by: Skyrunner on October 29, 2012, 08:24:51 am
Post by: Caz on October 29, 2012, 04:17:19 pm
I think I'm not doing this after all. :c
Stuff got in the way? :/
I've been doubting attempting this year either. Will have to try though.
Post by: bulborbish on October 29, 2012, 04:48:04 pm
I feel like my novel is strange.
Post by: Psyco Jelly on October 29, 2012, 05:21:35 pm
I have a decent plotline and set of characters thought out, but now I'm a bit worried that it's going to become Breaking Bad with necromancy instead of meth.
Post by: Prometheusmfd on October 29, 2012, 06:20:42 pm
Post by: Yoink on October 30, 2012, 08:34:48 pm
And then it started to expand. At first I thought, "Oh yeah, that's kinda cool, I might use that for next year's NaNo," but then it kept growing. It grew and grew and grew in this tidal wave of awesomeness, and now I'm torn between using my original idea or the new, far darker one. :-\ Eep!
Post by: SirAaronIII on October 30, 2012, 09:04:58 pm
Post by: EnigmaticHat on October 30, 2012, 09:21:39 pm
Post by: monk12 on October 30, 2012, 09:25:43 pm
if I liked writing, I'd do it.
but I hated English, including the (semi) free-writing coursework.
"I don't like writing, I like having written" ~Somebody or other
Post by: Yoink on October 31, 2012, 04:12:36 am
Combine them. Do it. :D
Well, at first I was considering it. I was just gonna include the idea into the first story, as a recurring villain or something.
But then it outgrew that plan. The first idea is light-hearted and surreal, the latter is dark, grim and rather violent. :-\
Must choose one or another. Maybe my comrades-in-writing can help me out tomorrow, at my first regional write-in! That is, if I manage to find my way there, hehe.
Post by: Shinotsa on October 31, 2012, 07:53:32 am
Do this now kids, before you start having night sweats in college due to there being too few hours in the day and too many things to do during them.
Post by: Cthulhu on October 31, 2012, 09:57:28 am
Post by: CJ1145 on October 31, 2012, 12:50:08 pm
Either that or something closer to an expanded bedtime sort of story about a young wizard in a magical academy accidentally creating a creature that sucks all the magic out of a wizard through their dreams. This creature was created at midnight. So, chaos naturally ensues on a madcap chase through surreal, magically-infused dreamlands.
Post by: anzki4 on October 31, 2012, 01:56:32 pm
I'm going to have to write a short story for school anyway so I'll write it about the same subject and use it as a basis for the novel.
Post by: inEQUALITY on October 31, 2012, 08:41:38 pm
Now, to decide what to write... I have a little less than two and a half hours until it begins here.
Post by: Cthulhu on October 31, 2012, 08:51:39 pm
Then from the Old Country comes a bona fide thousand year old Strigoi out to make people remember what the undead are all about, and the tenuous friendship between human and vampire is blown wide open.
Post by: Sirus on November 01, 2012, 12:55:59 am
Post by: Scelly9 on November 01, 2012, 12:57:37 am
Post by: Sirus on November 01, 2012, 12:58:28 am
Post by: kaijyuu on November 01, 2012, 12:59:37 am
Post by: Sirus on November 01, 2012, 01:01:26 am
Post by: TSTwizby on November 01, 2012, 04:26:38 am
Novel is written in something like 30 chapters.
First chapter is from the perspective of an earthworm, which goes around doing earthwormy things and eventually gets eaten by a centipede.
Next chapter is from the perspective of the centipede, which goes around doing centipedey things and eventually gets eaten by a crow. And so on.
Make sure while writing to give the animals appropriate senses and behaviors, so don't talk about the earthworm looking around at the bright blue sky. And only animals which have been shown to have a sense of self (either by the mirror test or through social interaction) get pronouns.
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 01, 2012, 09:28:58 am
I'm going to be posting my progress on my blog each day, so if any one wants to follow along you can see it here:
- First update (http://blog.jverkamp.com/2012/11/01/confession-day-1/)
- RSS feed (http://blog.jverkamp.com/category/writing/novels/nanowrimo-2012/feed/)
Spoiler: Excerpt (click to show/hide)
If anyone else wants to post the same, I'll at least try to follow along. I can't promise much in the way of feedback as my PhD quals are rapidly approaching, but I'll at least read it! Heck, NaNoWriMo itself is probably not the best idea, but whoever let something like that stop them. :)
Post by: Sirus on November 01, 2012, 02:03:35 pm
Post by: Cthulhu on November 01, 2012, 02:26:06 pm
Post by: jhxmt on November 01, 2012, 03:03:57 pm
...sigh. I DON'T CARE. LET ME WRITE.
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 01, 2012, 04:05:38 pm
Post by: monk12 on November 01, 2012, 04:10:06 pm
...it's more interesting than that, I swear.
Post by: CJ1145 on November 01, 2012, 04:38:33 pm
Back to the drawing board...
Post by: Scelly9 on November 01, 2012, 05:48:30 pm
Spoiler: Day 1: 1696 words (click to show/hide)
Post by: jhxmt on November 01, 2012, 05:55:39 pm
Post by: majikero on November 01, 2012, 06:07:22 pm
I only have an idea right now and a few scenarios at various points in the story. I'm just putting names on places and characters right now.
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 01, 2012, 06:40:12 pm
Post by: Un67 on November 01, 2012, 07:40:08 pm
Post by: Euld on November 01, 2012, 08:31:13 pm
Post by: Caz on November 01, 2012, 08:48:24 pm
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 01, 2012, 10:35:06 pm
Post by: Sirus on November 01, 2012, 11:50:47 pm
Post by: Yoink on November 02, 2012, 01:29:08 am
And then I completely lost my enthusiasm over my half-baked story idea. On the plus side, though, I've now settled on a far more interesting idea and started writing that! Now, if only I could shake this bloody headcold...
Edit: Oh, and someone on Bay12 linked to this generator. (http://www.theyfightcrime.org/)
My first result kinda maybe works for my story idea, so now I feel compelled to include it. Whyyyyyyy :'(
Post by: CJ1145 on November 02, 2012, 08:29:09 am
Post by: Cthulhu on November 02, 2012, 03:39:21 pm
I'm ending day 1 at 2,180. That's not bad, right?
1667 is the minimum per day to win, so yes
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 02, 2012, 10:27:25 pm
I only have an idea right now and a few scenarios at various points in the story. I'm just putting names on places and characters right now.Hmm. Now I'm curious how many NaNoWriMos plan ahead and how many just wing it. In my own story, I just met two new characters today that didn't exist until I started their chapter (one of which already died). So perhaps you can guess which way I tend.
Ended Day 1 at 4090 words. I feel rather accomplished. And exhausted. Mostly exhausted. But it's well worth it. Shooting for my personal NaNoWriMo goal of 85,000 words!Dang. 85,000 within the month or stretching over into December?
Personally, my goal is 50,000 words in November and then continue with the same 1,667 words per day until it's done. Not sure what I'll do if it ends up working better as a sub-50,000 word novella. Maybe just keep writing and cut it down later?
Or rather 1,667 is the daily average you'd need if you right every day. If you tend to write more during the week and less (or not at all) on the weekends which would mean a target of 2,272 words per day, M-F. So it looks like you need to step it up after all. :)I'm ending day 1 at 2,180. That's not bad, right?
1667 is the minimum per day to win, so yes
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 02, 2012, 10:56:33 pm
Ended Day 1 at 4090 words. I feel rather accomplished. And exhausted. Mostly exhausted. But it's well worth it. Shooting for my personal NaNoWriMo goal of 85,000 words!Dang. 85,000 within the month or stretching over into December?
I'd like to finish it in November, but at this point that means somewhere between 2800 and 2900 words per day. I don't know if I'll be able to crank that out consistently, but if I don't make that by the end of November, then I'll just continue on into December. This novel is something I'd like to further refine when it's finished and seek publication, even if it's unlikely to ever be published.
EDIT: Forgot to mention my progress! Currently at 5951 words and two chapters under my belt. The 'prologue'-ish first chapters are done, and on to...
PART ONE: Of Armored Devils, and Fallen Angels
Post by: monk12 on November 02, 2012, 10:57:14 pm
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 03, 2012, 12:19:06 am
Ended Day 1 at 4090 words. I feel rather accomplished. And exhausted. Mostly exhausted. But it's well worth it. Shooting for my personal NaNoWriMo goal of 85,000 words!Dang. 85,000 within the month or stretching over into December?
I'd like to finish it in November, but at this point that means somewhere between 2800 and 2900 words per day. I don't know if I'll be able to crank that out consistently, but if I don't make that by the end of November, then I'll just continue on into December. This novel is something I'd like to further refine when it's finished and seek publication, even if it's unlikely to ever be published.
EDIT: Forgot to mention my progress! Currently at 5951 words and two chapters under my belt. The 'prologue'-ish first chapters are done, and on to...
PART ONE: Of Armored Devils, and Fallen Angels
Shiny! You could always go the self-published route if you wanted. It's not so hard to put something up on Amazon. Alternatively, you could serialize it on a blog or the like. (I've been doing the latter and hope to add the former if I ever get enough time to buckle down and seriously edit for once.)
Also just by the title alone, I'm intrigued. :)
Post by: Sirus on November 03, 2012, 12:20:38 am
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 03, 2012, 10:03:13 am
Ended Day 1 at 4090 words. I feel rather accomplished. And exhausted. Mostly exhausted. But it's well worth it. Shooting for my personal NaNoWriMo goal of 85,000 words!Dang. 85,000 within the month or stretching over into December?
I'd like to finish it in November, but at this point that means somewhere between 2800 and 2900 words per day. I don't know if I'll be able to crank that out consistently, but if I don't make that by the end of November, then I'll just continue on into December. This novel is something I'd like to further refine when it's finished and seek publication, even if it's unlikely to ever be published.
EDIT: Forgot to mention my progress! Currently at 5951 words and two chapters under my belt. The 'prologue'-ish first chapters are done, and on to...
PART ONE: Of Armored Devils, and Fallen Angels
Shiny! You could always go the self-published route if you wanted. It's not so hard to put something up on Amazon. Alternatively, you could serialize it on a blog or the like. (I've been doing the latter and hope to add the former if I ever get enough time to buckle down and seriously edit for once.)
Also just by the title alone, I'm intrigued. :)
It's something I'd considered, but I'd prefer to continue refining my work until I'm good enough to be published than to self-publish. I'll look into the suggestion, though. The blog idea is something I've considered for other ideas; kind of like a series of short stories revolving around the same cast of characters and/or setting. I'd be interested in reading your blog!
If you're interested in reading and have the time to spare, drop me a PM. :D I'm hosting chapters on Google Drive for linking to my NaNo on a different message board, so I could just as easily give you the links as well. Despite the way the name of Part One sounds it's Science Fiction, not Fantasy. Just, for the record. :P
Post by: anzki4 on November 03, 2012, 10:54:02 am
Also the word count on Finnish text is way lower than in English one, because there are no preposition in Finnish. For test purposes I Google translated my text (it gives a rough idea) and it would be 500 words in English. So the whole 50 000 word text in Finnish would be roughly 62 500 words in English. [/smallish rant]
Post by: majikero on November 03, 2012, 11:31:54 am
It's mostly a slice of life thing of a regular guy summoned to a fantasy world as one of the possible saviors of the world.
Post by: teknoarcanist on November 03, 2012, 12:33:25 pm
http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/da-head-dwarf
Buddy me or whatever.
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 03, 2012, 12:40:36 pm
It's something I'd considered, but I'd prefer to continue refining my work until I'm good enough to be published than to self-publish. I'll look into the suggestion, though.I think that there's a pervasive idea in society that self-published authors are ones that weren't good enough to go the traditional route and thus are somehow worth less. But when you look at some of the utter crap that gets published nowadays, I just can't believe that. It's even worse in genres like scifi/fantasy. Granted, there's also quite a lot of crap in the self-published market, but so it goes. (And no, I'm not trying to imply that this was what you were saying, just that that's the feel I get most times people talk about self-publishing. :-\)
The blog idea is something I've considered for other ideas; kind of like a series of short stories revolving around the same cast of characters and/or setting. I'd be interested in reading your blog!That sounds neat! I've thought about the same, but I have a hard time writing short stories. I think it's that I tend not to plan where I'm going until I'm at least a half dozen or so chapters in which doesn't really work so well in a short story.
So far as my own blog, there are links in the forum signature. I'm serializing a novel I've already finished on Tuesdays and Fridays (it's on Chapter 20 out of 24 right now) and posting my NaNo progress each day. It's... interesting.
If you're interested in reading and have the time to spare, drop me a PM. :D I'm hosting chapters on Google Drive for linking to my NaNo on a different message board, so I could just as easily give you the links as well. Despite the way the name of Part One sounds it's Science Fiction, not Fantasy. Just, for the record. :PI think I'm even more intrigued now. :) I like a lot more Science Fiction, less so traditional Fantasy (although I'm a fan of Modern / Urban Fantasy). I'll PM you my Google handle shortly.
Also the word count on Finnish text is way lower than in English one, because there are no preposition in Finnish. For test purposes I Google translated my text (it gives a rough idea) and it would be 500 words in English. So the whole 50 000 word text in Finnish would be roughly 62 500 words in English. [/smallish rant]Interesting. I hadn't thought about that. I wonder how some Asian languages would be counted? Things like Japanese where most words are 1-3 characters and they're in general not space separated.
If it really bothered you, you could always Google Translate before submitting the word count to NaNo (if you're even doing that). It's all on the honor system anyways. :)
Howdy all! Doing nano this year. I've done it before, even won once or twice, but this is the first time where I'm writing for nano with the intent to later publish (just published a book, actually.) Finished Friday at 6400. Might even take the weekend off :PDid you go through the Kindle Direct Publishing? How has that been?
http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/da-head-dwarf
Also, how much do you get from Prime Lending? I've got Prime, so it doesn't do me any harm to at least take a look at it. Particularly if it throws a few dollars your way.
Post by: teknoarcanist on November 03, 2012, 01:02:11 pm
(snip)
Did you go through the Kindle Direct Publishing? How has that been?
Also, how much do you get from Prime Lending? I've got Prime, so it doesn't do me any harm to at least take a look at it. Particularly if it throws a few dollars your way.
It's been good! The hardest part was formatting the e-book. If you want it to look a certain way (rather than just converting it from a word document and letting the formatting do whatever it likes) it's kind of an involved process. There's some good software out there for it though -- Alkinea if you use OpenOffice, Sigil for formatting the ebook, and Amazon's own Kindle Previewer for seeing how the book will look on the devices.
It's been good so far. Book just came out a week ago, so I've only sold about 20 copies, and most of those to friends and family, but that was about all I expected for the first week on a debut book on an unknown/self-published author. Got no visibility yet.
In answer to your question, I do get money for Prime borrows. I forget how much exactly; I know it's not a flat fee though, there's some kind of formula. I think it has to do with how many times my book is borrowed, out of the total number of borrows in the Prime library, or something like that. But yeah, go for it :D I won't post the link here, for fear of an ad-ban, but you can find the link on my nanowrimo page.
http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/da-head-dwarf
It's something I'd considered, but I'd prefer to continue refining my work until I'm good enough to be published than to self-publish. I'll look into the suggestion, though.I think that there's a pervasive idea in society that self-published authors are ones that weren't good enough to go the traditional route and thus are somehow worth less. But when you look at some of the utter crap that gets published nowadays, I just can't believe that. It's even worse in genres like scifi/fantasy. Granted, there's also quite a lot of crap in the self-published market, but so it goes. (And no, I'm not trying to imply that this was what you were saying, just that that's the feel I get most times people talk about self-publishing. :-\)
There's a lot of great stuff being self-published today. It's not like it was a few years ago; Kindles and other e-book readers have kind of leveled the playing field, and turned publishing on its head. And it's hard to claim publishing is a bastion of quality, when shit like Twilight, Hunger Games, and 50 Shades tops the charts. Or is published at all.
In fact, a lot of self-published authors will build success on their own, and then publishers come courting THEM.
You should check out "Wool" by Hugh Howey. If you have any preconceptions that self-published fiction isn't up to the same caliber as traditionally published stuff, that will dash them utterly and completely.
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 03, 2012, 01:37:11 pm
I think that there's a pervasive idea in society that self-published authors are ones that weren't good enough to go the traditional route and thus are somehow worth less. But when you look at some of the utter crap that gets published nowadays, I just can't believe that. It's even worse in genres like scifi/fantasy. Granted, there's also quite a lot of crap in the self-published market, but so it goes. (And no, I'm not trying to imply that this was what you were saying, just that that's the feel I get most times people talk about self-publishing. :-\)
Christopher Paolini is first on my list of reasons why the self-publishing market has such a bad rep, even if his parents publishing it for him isn't quite the same thing and it was a long time ago that Eragon saw publication. I agree that there is absolute rubbish on the standard market, but that's because it sells. There's a few publishers I respect highly enough that publish novels of at least "above adequate" calibre, that if I can't be published by then I have no doubt that I need improvement. I'm sure that self-publishing =/= poor quality, but I'm very weary of most self-published fiction. I'd rather not fall into it. I'm tempted to read into it more, however. It just seems more work and attracts more stigma than it's worth.
That sounds neat! I've thought about the same, but I have a hard time writing short stories. I think it's that I tend not to plan where I'm going until I'm at least a half dozen or so chapters in which doesn't really work so well in a short story.
I've never been able to finish long fiction before, only short stories, so NaNoWriMo is a huge first for me assuming I finish. I know what you mean about planning, however. The same method can work with a 'short story serial' though, I imagine, if they're very tightly interconnected.
So far as my own blog, there are links in the forum signature. I'm serializing a novel I've already finished on Tuesdays and Fridays (it's on Chapter 20 out of 24 right now) and posting my NaNo progress each day. It's... interesting.
I'll check it out!
I think I'm even more intrigued now. :) I like a lot more Science Fiction, less so traditional Fantasy (although I'm a fan of Modern / Urban Fantasy). I'll PM you my Google handle shortly.
I have privacy set up so that anyone with the link can read it. If you want, I'll send you the links. No need for you to bother with your Google handle. :)
EDIT: I did a little reading about Amazon self-publishing. It seems like it would take more work on my end, for less profit, but without rejection by a publisher getting in the way. So long as the contract allows me to retain all rights to my material, including the ability to cancel the availability through them at any time, I'm sold. My only issue is that even though I can end the publishing through them, I have a feeling most major publishers won't publish a book that's already been published in any other form, so if I go through a major publisher later, it would be with new material. At any rate, this is getting ahead of myself; I need to finish the novel first. :P
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 03, 2012, 01:57:51 pm
It's been good! The hardest part was formatting the e-book. If you want it to look a certain way (rather than just converting it from a word document and letting the formatting do whatever it likes) it's kind of an involved process. There's some good software out there for it though -- Alkinea if you use OpenOffice, Sigil for formatting the ebook, and Amazon's own Kindle Previewer for seeing how the book will look on the devices.Interesting. I've been writing my content using Markdown (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/), since I don't really have that much in the way of formatting needs. I used to use Sigil, but since I write on a bunch of different devices and sync my content over Dropbox, it's easier just to use a plaintext format. Still, knowing about the Kindle Previewer is helpful.
In answer to your question, I do get money for Prime borrows. I forget how much exactly; I know it's not a flat fee though, there's some kind of formula. I think it has to do with how many times my book is borrowed, out of the total number of borrows in the Prime library, or something like that. But yeah, go for it :D I won't post the link here, for fear of an ad-ban, but you can find the link on my nanowrimo page.That's how I already tracked it down (and thus why I asked about the Kindle Direct thing). Personally though, I don't think most people would mind a single link, seeing as this is a thread for novel writing and the one on Amazon is in the same world as the one you're writing now (if I read that correctly). Plus, I don't think that Toady One has ever banned an actual person for link spamming (just ad bots with no other content), so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Or heck, put it in your forum signature. :)
EDIT: I did a little reading about Amazon self-publishing. It seems like it would take more work on my end, for less profit, but without rejection by a publisher getting in the way. So long as the contract allows me to retain all rights to my material, including the ability to cancel the availability through them at any time, I'm sold. My only issue is that even though I can end the publishing through them, I have a feeling most major publishers won't publish a book that's already been published in any other form, so if I go through a major publisher later, it would be with new material. At any rate, this is getting ahead of myself; I need to finish the novel first. :PI haven't looked through all that it entails, although I didn't think that it was too terrible if you already had your book in an easy to convert to ebook format.
And so far as the profit, is it really less? From the research I've done, publishing through a traditional market will get you 10-20% royalties. On Amazon, you'll get 70%. Granted, you don't get an advance which could be painful. Still, most royalties are in the sub $10,000 range, so if you really do think that your book could do well, I think I'd personally rather go for a higher percentage over time.
And I don't know about removing it from Amazon, but one advantage that they have is that you keep the full license. So you can sell it on the other eBook sellers as well, such as iBooks / Google Books.
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 03, 2012, 02:21:36 pm
And so far as the profit, is it really less? From the research I've done, publishing through a traditional market will get you 10-20% royalties. On Amazon, you'll get 70%. Granted, you don't get an advance which could be painful. Still, most royalties are in the sub $10,000 range, so if you really do think that your book could do well, I think I'd personally rather go for a higher percentage over time.
And I don't know about removing it from Amazon, but one advantage that they have is that you keep the full license. So you can sell it on the other eBook sellers as well, such as iBooks / Google Books.
It probably says up to 70%. A 350 page print book (a normal sized book for the adult SciFi/Fantasy market) priced at as high as 12.99 (too high to be competitive), would only make $2.83 royalties off of Amazon, according to the CreateSpace royalty calculator. Maybe you're referring to a different publishing strategy, such as with e-books, so you'll have to clarify that for me.
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 03, 2012, 02:28:39 pm
Ah yes. I was talking about ebooks RE: Amazon. So I guess it is sort of an apples to oranges comparison, as I'm not actually sure what royalty a traditional publisher would give on ebooks (if they even offer that in all cases). In most countries, non-public-domain content on Amazon's ebooks is a flat at 70%.And so far as the profit, is it really less? From the research I've done, publishing through a traditional market will get you 10-20% royalties. On Amazon, you'll get 70%. Granted, you don't get an advance which could be painful. Still, most royalties are in the sub $10,000 range, so if you really do think that your book could do well, I think I'd personally rather go for a higher percentage over time.
And I don't know about removing it from Amazon, but one advantage that they have is that you keep the full license. So you can sell it on the other eBook sellers as well, such as iBooks / Google Books.
It probably says up to 70%. A 350 page print book (a normal sized book for the adult SciFi/Fantasy market) priced at as high as 12.99 (too high to be competitive), would only make $2.83 royalties off of Amazon, according to the CreateSpace royalty calculator. Maybe you're referring to a different publishing strategy, such as with e-books, so you'll have to clarify that for me.
Part of that is a personal bias, I read a lot, but I don't actually remember the last time that I read a paper book. They have a nice traditional feel to them, but I already carry around my Kindle / phone pretty much wherever I go, so the convenience factor of just randomly reading a chapter while waiting for something else to finish is too much to go back.
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 03, 2012, 02:32:38 pm
Ah yes. I was talking about ebooks RE: Amazon. So I guess it is sort of an apples to oranges comparison, as I'm not actually sure what royalty a traditional publisher would give on ebooks (if they even offer that in all cases). In most countries, non-public-domain content on Amazon's ebooks is a flat at 70%.And so far as the profit, is it really less? From the research I've done, publishing through a traditional market will get you 10-20% royalties. On Amazon, you'll get 70%. Granted, you don't get an advance which could be painful. Still, most royalties are in the sub $10,000 range, so if you really do think that your book could do well, I think I'd personally rather go for a higher percentage over time.
And I don't know about removing it from Amazon, but one advantage that they have is that you keep the full license. So you can sell it on the other eBook sellers as well, such as iBooks / Google Books.
It probably says up to 70%. A 350 page print book (a normal sized book for the adult SciFi/Fantasy market) priced at as high as 12.99 (too high to be competitive), would only make $2.83 royalties off of Amazon, according to the CreateSpace royalty calculator. Maybe you're referring to a different publishing strategy, such as with e-books, so you'll have to clarify that for me.
Part of that is a personal bias, I read a lot, but I don't actually remember the last time that I read a paper book. They have a nice traditional feel to them, but I already carry around my Kindle / phone pretty much wherever I go, so the convenience factor of just randomly reading a chapter while waiting for something else to finish is too much to go back.
Mind, I was talking about self-publishing; a traditional publisher will typically only net you 20% - 30% royalty at most, but they also do their best to sell thousands, if not tens of thousands, of copies. It may just take a long time if it's not well-received or marketed well.
I don't happen to have a Kindle or iPhone, so I have to rely on print and internet. I do read ebooks on my computer using a Firefox plugin, but I can't sit in one place long enough to read unless it's very compelling. Most of my reading, I have to do by borrowing books from a library, unfortunately.
Post by: teknoarcanist on November 03, 2012, 02:36:38 pm
EDIT: I did a little reading about Amazon self-publishing. It seems like it would take more work on my end, for less profit, but without rejection by a publisher getting in the way. So long as the contract allows me to retain all rights to my material, including the ability to cancel the availability through them at any time, I'm sold. My only issue is that even though I can end the publishing through them, I have a feeling most major publishers won't publish a book that's already been published in any other form, so if I go through a major publisher later, it would be with new material. At any rate, this is getting ahead of myself; I need to finish the novel first. :P
Hell no! You DEFINITELY make more self-publishing.
(Spoilertexting this post, because it's long as hell, and doesn't need to clog up the whole thread.)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
If your book is already earning on its own, publishers will fall all over themselves to get a piece of it.Post by: Un67 on November 03, 2012, 03:50:49 pm
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 03, 2012, 05:21:54 pm
6654 now. I guess my usually-bad habit of having all conversations involve people spitting out an entire paragraph at a time at each other is working for me. But there's fantasy for you.
I haven't actually used much dialogue at all. As much as I want to hit my goal each day, I'm prohibiting myself from doing anything just to purposely hit a higher word count. I wish I could bring myself to do it, but my inner editor yells at me if I consider it. :P
Post by: Un67 on November 03, 2012, 06:15:39 pm
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 03, 2012, 06:34:20 pm
Ehh, it's just how I write dialogue. It's not exactly intentional, but it ends up inflating my word count anyways.
Seems like I'll be hitting one of those scenes myself now, so I can't really say anything. :P
Post by: majikero on November 03, 2012, 10:03:31 pm
Intro is done at 1130 words. I'm at least 4k words behind.
Post by: monk12 on November 03, 2012, 10:17:33 pm
The bear situation is... well, more circumvented than resolved, but good enough. The characters just got on an elevator, hopefully I figure out what's at the bottom before I start writing tomorrow!
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 03, 2012, 11:05:54 pm
Finished at 5525 total. I like how I keep ending on nice whole numbers.
The bear situation is... well, more circumvented than resolved, but good enough. The characters just got on an elevator, hopefully I figure out what's at the bottom before I start writing tomorrow!
Your story sounds like an interesting read from what I've read in your posts! Are you putting it up anywhere so others can read it? It sounds entertaining. :P
As for myself, I had a slow start on Chapter 3, but it's progressing nicely. It's now just shy of 1800 words.
I feel like my writing has upped in quality for this chapter, now that the 'prologue' chapters are behind me and I'm getting into the beginnings of the meat of the story. It helps to finally have names put to characters instead of the vague references used in the first two chapters.
I have a little ways to go with this chapter, but I should be able to tie it up tomorrow if life doesn't get in the way, like it almost did today. I'm at a grand total of 7745 words, and well ahead of the curve. That's how I like it.
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 03, 2012, 11:15:29 pm
Post by: monk12 on November 03, 2012, 11:34:12 pm
Finished at 5525 total. I like how I keep ending on nice whole numbers.
The bear situation is... well, more circumvented than resolved, but good enough. The characters just got on an elevator, hopefully I figure out what's at the bottom before I start writing tomorrow!
Your story sounds like an interesting read from what I've read in your posts! Are you putting it up anywhere so others can read it? It sounds entertaining. :P
I don't know as it'll ever see the light of day, but certainly not before it gets edited to hell and back :P I'm doing a pretty good job of not constantly rewriting things while I type, which does keep the story going but unfortunately means I cringe every time I have to reference something I wrote earlier. There's one bad stretch where I seem to have run out of synonyms for "quickly"...
Post by: majikero on November 04, 2012, 12:09:45 am
I reached 2403 words!
I'm half way to the current word count. Almost.
And I did it with no stupid padding.
Well chapter 1 did start with a recipe for sweet spaghetti but that's relevant to the story.
Post by: Tiruin on November 04, 2012, 12:11:34 am
I don't think I'll be entering this NaNoWriMo, because RL and stuff.
Well, God Speed all ye fellow writers! :D
Post by: majikero on November 04, 2012, 12:20:50 am
Post by: Scelly9 on November 04, 2012, 03:30:09 pm
Post by: USEC_OFFICER on November 04, 2012, 04:13:25 pm
Post by: EnigmaticHat on November 04, 2012, 04:30:27 pm
Suffice to say, productivity has suffered. I can still work, kind of, by going on school computers and gmailing my work to myself. But its distracting, most of the computers aren't available at night when I work best, and I keep getting distracted by things like hunger and noise that would be much easier to solve if wasn't stuck in one place. Oh, and many of the school computers are macs that don't even have word(?), and I can't figure out how consistently to do the mac version of right clicking, so that's an issue. My parents are sending over a crappy spare laptop, so hopefully that will help me improve my pitiful ~1,100 words. Learning to turn off "agonize over every word" would definitely help.
Post by: Sirus on November 04, 2012, 05:26:32 pm
Post by: anzki4 on November 04, 2012, 05:58:32 pm
Post by: majikero on November 04, 2012, 06:10:12 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It's has a light novel feel to it though. That's unintentional.
Post by: Scelly9 on November 04, 2012, 06:14:23 pm
Post by: majikero on November 04, 2012, 08:52:48 pm
I'm not sure how our hero will react accepting the summon from the fantasy world only to be told that only women can be the savior.
Will he react with sarcasm about the symbolism of that claim or will he just call bullshit and make snide comments about the world being doomed?
Both are equally in character for him so I can't decide. This is only the start of chapter 2 as well.
This is important because this will set the tone of how he acts for the rest of the chapter.
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 04, 2012, 08:56:07 pm
I'm stuck.
I'm not sure how our hero will react accepting the summon from the fantasy world only to be told that only women can be the savior.
Will he react with sarcasm about the symbolism of that claim or will he just call bullshit and make snide comments about the world being doomed?
Both are equally in character for him so I can't decide. This is only the start of chapter 2 as well.
This is important because this will set the tone of how he acts for the rest of the chapter.
Why not a little bit of both? :P Maybe even have him monologue about it in a rant? Good way to pad word count, at the very least.
Post by: majikero on November 04, 2012, 09:03:54 pm
Both is always an option. Gonna waste more time thinking about this to get it right.
Also, what he's gonna say will be foreshadowing! Or is it genre savvy?
Post by: monk12 on November 04, 2012, 11:23:35 pm
Post by: Un67 on November 05, 2012, 06:19:31 pm
Post by: Dsarker on November 05, 2012, 06:31:10 pm
Post by: SirAaronIII on November 05, 2012, 08:45:28 pm
Post by: Doomblade187 on November 05, 2012, 08:59:17 pm
Don't worry, behind-people! I started a few days late and I was able to pull through!
Thank you. That is reassuring. Nearing my first 1000 myself.
Post by: teknoarcanist on November 05, 2012, 10:24:56 pm
I'll have to play catch-up tomorrow, I guess.
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 06, 2012, 01:19:02 am
Post by: Mr.Zero on November 06, 2012, 05:38:48 am
Post by: anzki4 on November 06, 2012, 07:15:49 am
Do you just write in word and look at the word count at the bottom? Or is there a way to do it on the site?My NaNoWriMo -> Edit Novel Info -> I am ready to validate my novel -> Do what you are told.
Post by: Scelly9 on November 06, 2012, 01:28:41 pm
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 06, 2012, 01:52:39 pm
Post by: teknoarcanist on November 06, 2012, 02:50:23 pm
Just a not for the behind people. Writeordie.com is a great, great tool. If you stop writing for more than a few seconds, it begins deleting what you've written already. It works very, very well as a motivator. I've gone from struggling with 750 words a day to doing four or five blocks of 500 words. There's also a desktop version, if ya wanna buy it, but the online works very well.
Yeah, Writeordie is awesome.
Q10 is also a very good program. It's a super-minimalist word processor that goes fullscreen by default, can't be minimized without closing the program entirely, has no formatting tools, and has a whole suite of wordcount and timer features. It's basically a word processor tailored from the ground up to enhance productivity in creative writing. I started using it a few months ago, and now do all my rough drafts in it.
Post by: Caz on November 06, 2012, 04:13:50 pm
Post by: jhxmt on November 06, 2012, 05:55:18 pm
So many cups of tea consumed.
Post by: majikero on November 06, 2012, 06:34:38 pm
Post by: inEQUALITY on November 06, 2012, 09:19:58 pm
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 07, 2012, 04:38:44 am
Perhaps tomorrow I can convince myself to finish before midnight rather than starting after...
Post by: Skyrunner on November 07, 2012, 04:50:28 am
Post by: monk12 on November 07, 2012, 04:39:13 pm
Quote
Misty blanched. “Oh. I see. Well, alright then. What now?”
I don't know, Misty! If I did we wouldn't be stuck at 8148 words!
Post by: Un67 on November 07, 2012, 08:02:56 pm
Post by: Doomblade187 on November 07, 2012, 11:01:10 pm
Post by: monk12 on November 08, 2012, 11:34:29 pm
In terms of what's actually happening, they've gotten past the riddle door at the bottom of the elevator, through the trap guarding the quest item, and teleported out of the Dungeon of Easy Plot Advancement. Ideally, this would be a good point in the book to introduce a third character to provide new characterization opportunities for the main heroes as well as to reveal some more information on their unique relationship and overarching goals without resorting to "As You Know." Hopefully I can think of some goals to reveal and a character to introduce by the time I start writing tomorrow morning :P
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 09, 2012, 02:53:56 am
Post by: Skyrunner on November 09, 2012, 04:40:08 am
Post by: jhxmt on November 10, 2012, 09:47:44 am
Post by: majikero on November 10, 2012, 10:00:41 pm
My word count will pick up once I get to the more interesting parts.
Post by: Un67 on November 10, 2012, 10:19:44 pm
In any case, 21780 words. I really can't say that I'm enjoying how the story is going, I've got almost 30k left and I've almost exhausted what I have planned. I can draw out the segment of the story I am currently on over a couple of days, I think, and I have a few assorted ideas of what must be done in the next few days, but after that, I suspect that I might end up resorting to my favored tactic of last year, "make up random stuff to extend the plot to the final section".
Post by: monk12 on November 11, 2012, 01:08:26 am
I need to write 3k-5k words tomorrow if I wanna keep up. Not looking forward to that.
My word count will pick up once I get to the more interesting parts.
I was stuck for a solid day on a boring part, so I resorted to my new technique for dealing with that- skip ahead to the next interesting bit and write that. Not only has that kept my production up, but it has revealed that the part I was trying to write was not terribly important to the narrative- all the information I was going to introduce there I can reveal in passing as it comes up.
Didn't write as much as I wanted to- I'm at 14188, which is still a good 2k behind where I need to be. Fortunately, I've got an idea of where I want this little plot arc to go, and I've got what character I want to introduce pretty well formed in my head. Hopefully I can keep up a full head of steam the next few days here and try to narrow that gap.
Post by: Un67 on November 11, 2012, 09:38:40 pm
Post by: Caz on November 13, 2012, 07:08:59 pm
Post by: Un67 on November 13, 2012, 10:46:21 pm
This all however predicates on my ability to continue the plot, which might be a little complicated seeing as I have pretty much steamrolled past my initial planning and have been drawing out the last planned segment, with only a few fuzzy ideas to go on for chapters after this ::)
Post by: Putnam on November 13, 2012, 10:46:50 pm
Post by: monk12 on November 14, 2012, 01:07:34 am
Post by: Scelly9 on November 14, 2012, 01:09:54 am
Post by: Doomblade187 on November 14, 2012, 06:23:53 pm
EDIT: Good progress today. Hit the 2k, plus a tiny bit.
Post by: Un67 on November 14, 2012, 10:29:02 pm
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 15, 2012, 12:57:43 am
So far, my story has had a few strange turns and perhaps an inconsistency here and there, but that’s what you get for writing without a clear outline in mind. I’ve always known roughly where I wanted the story to go, but large parts of it come about as I go, such that I’m almost reading the story as well as writing it. It’s a lovely interesting feeling.
Post by: monk12 on November 15, 2012, 10:59:22 am
I'm at 15k
I won't give up, if you don't give up. (http://youtu.be/NcdoHn-FV_s?t=3m15s)
I've got a rough idea of what happens next (something of a plot arc, even,) so let's see how far I can ride this train.
Post by: teknoarcanist on November 16, 2012, 03:34:29 pm
Oh well. I'll keep shooting for 50, but if I hit 30-40, I'll consider that a personal success. The novella I just finished was about 50k, and that took me the better part of three months. So 30-40k in one month would be a nice boost.
Post by: Sirus on November 17, 2012, 12:42:24 am
Post by: monk12 on November 17, 2012, 12:51:37 am
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 17, 2012, 01:12:04 am
I just had a discussion about how the gender of angels relates to physics (specifically the observer effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics))) and a fake psychic gone full tilt poltergeist for apparently no reason at all (and I'm only half sure where I'm going with it tomorrow!).
I think I've finally gotten to the point where the characters are taking on / coming into something of a life of their own and pushing forward the story rather than waiting for me to do it. Now I just have to see if I can keep that up for (at least) the next two weeks...
Linky (http://blog.jverkamp.com/2012/11/17/confession-day-16/) if that managed to intrigue anyone. :)
Post by: Eek-A-Mouse on November 17, 2012, 03:59:21 am
Post by: Un67 on November 17, 2012, 10:39:27 pm
Post by: SirAaronIII on November 17, 2012, 10:52:12 pm
I wonder where the stats page for past years and old novels is? I'd tell where I was on this day last year, but I can't find it.
e: Just kidding, found em. Day 17, I was at.. 29871 words. Sounds impressive, but my "novel" was really really terrible.
Post by: Un67 on November 17, 2012, 11:04:00 pm
Post by: monk12 on November 17, 2012, 11:15:07 pm
Quote
And then they spend a lot of time getting down the cliff, it's tricky since it's tall and junk.
And that's how I skipped over Chapter Eight since I was bursting with ideas for Chapters Nine/Ten. Ripped off 2422 words of entering the city and describing the feeding habits of the vampire girl to bring my total to 22079. I don't quite need 2k a day, merely 1995, so I've totally still got a chance, Thanksgiving notwithstanding :P
Quote
“I didn't know she was an Outsider!” Lorrie protested. “This is why you shouldn't be all mysterious and vague when somebody asks a question about your backstory!”
I realized I had a plot hole, and that sentence fixed it. I don't know when she'll get a chance to deliver the line, but there was no way I was letting that one go to waste. Sometime after everyone goes to court, then.
Post by: SirAaronIII on November 18, 2012, 02:16:07 am
I don't think it could have been much worse than my last year's "novel", better described as "a long string of random encounters".No, for serious, it was a Half Life Full Life Consequences fan-fanfic. Terrible... but fun to write at least.
Post by: Doomblade187 on November 18, 2012, 09:35:46 pm
I realized I had a plot hole, and that sentence fixed it. I don't know when she'll get a chance to deliver the line, but there was no way I was letting that one go to waste. Sometime after everyone goes to court, then.
Ah, you're sending your guys to court also? Admittedly, I just broke 20k today, but I might have a decent shot if I use this week well.
Post by: monk12 on November 19, 2012, 12:51:08 am
I realized I had a plot hole, and that sentence fixed it. I don't know when she'll get a chance to deliver the line, but there was no way I was letting that one go to waste. Sometime after everyone goes to court, then.
Ah, you're sending your guys to court also? Admittedly, I just broke 20k today, but I might have a decent shot if I use this week well.
Yeah, I figured it would be a good change of pace from the constant dungeons and tombs they've been dealing with. Originally I was going to challenge the muscle guy to solve a problem without just punching it to death, but then the lawyer character got too many good lines in my head, so I think this chapter will just explore some more character backstory. Also the fact I just finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attourney might have something to do with the whole plot arc
Total is at 23332, which is nice and reversible. It's also how many words I was supposed to have four days ago, but whatever.
Post by: monk12 on November 20, 2012, 11:53:25 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Un67 on November 21, 2012, 10:11:53 pm
Well, that's if I can be bothered to write on Thanksgiving when I just got Conquest of Elysium 3, that is.
Post by: Caz on November 22, 2012, 02:53:00 am
One of those days...
I love that gif.
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 22, 2012, 06:16:26 am
And I totally said that I would avoid a POV character getting knocked out during the story. For whatever reason, it always seems to happen.
Oops.
(In my defense, he just got shot. Twice. So unconsciousness seems a small price to pay.)
Also:
48043. I've got the final battle against a horror from the void coming through a hole in the world and some epilogue left, I think. I'll be done tomorrow! :)Holy crap. I'm barely on target and here you are more than 10,000 words ahead of schedule. How do you find the time?
(Also that sounds neat. Are you going to make it available anywhere?)
Post by: Un67 on November 22, 2012, 09:14:17 am
I can't say that I try to do anything special in particular. Usually I just try to find around 45 minutes around the end of my day and then write 2000-2300ish words, which while not super quick is at least a fair clip above the par rate. As for the story, I dunno. The way I executed most of the story is a little... lacking. Mostly it's a matter of pacing and giving some parts of the story way too much weight and others not enough (mostly because when I got to the story I was running out of planned things so I stretched one subplot to cover at least half to story).
Post by: mendonca on November 22, 2012, 11:37:55 am
Usually I just try to find around 45 minutes around the end of my day and then write 2000-2300ish words, which while not super quick ...
Sounds super quick to me!
Last year, I think I was going at 1500/hour once I had built up a head of steam. 700-1000 for the first hour at most - and I hit 50k by the 24th November!
I'm slightly in awe ... :)
Post by: Un67 on November 22, 2012, 12:44:14 pm
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 23, 2012, 01:51:42 am
The last words of (mini-)chapter 58 came as a surprise even to me. Believe it or not, that's not who that character was originally going to be. But it works so much better than my original idea that I just had to roll with it.
@Janus
I can't say that I try to do anything special in particular. Usually I just try to find around 45 minutes around the end of my day and then write 2000-2300ish words, which while not super quick is at least a fair clip above the par rate. As for the story, I dunno. The way I executed most of the story is a little... lacking. Mostly it's a matter of pacing and giving some parts of the story way too much weight and others not enough (mostly because when I got to the story I was running out of planned things so I stretched one subplot to cover at least half to story).
That's a heck of a pace even so. I've managed to put out 2000 words in an hour a few times, but it's not something that I can consistently do. For example tonight I think I hit about 1000/hr. So none too shabby.
So far as long scenes, that's what December is for. Going back and cutting up those 50,000 words, making them even stronger. It's next to impossible to write a perfect first draft, but the entire point of NaNoWriMo is to write *something*.
Post by: Un67 on November 23, 2012, 10:26:17 pm
Post by: monk12 on November 23, 2012, 11:45:22 pm
Spoiler: Congrats Un67 (click to show/hide)
In sadder news, it looks like I won't be winning this year. 29,184 thus far, and I need to average ~2600 a day to win, which isn't going to happen. I'll see how close I can get, though, and I like enough of what I've written that I'll definitely finish out the book. I'm just about done with the trial scene. I don't know how much I like it- it went on longer than I thought it would, and it's a lot of pages of the main characters not saying or doing much. Ah well, that's a problem for the editing phase- right now, I need to worry about whether to give my characters horses. I had a good bit of fun with it earlier, making fun of the various inaccurate horse tropes, but now that I've pointed out how much work it is to care for a horse I can't really ignore it. Current options are to give them horses and just be conscientious about it, give them horse-analogs like Chocobos where I can handwave inconsistencies as being the result of fantastic biology, or give the vampire girl a pet weasel or something to snack on and let them walk.
Post by: Doomblade187 on November 25, 2012, 01:55:22 pm
Post by: JanusTwoface on November 29, 2012, 02:25:36 am
At 4,923 words today alone (first half here (http://blog.jverkamp.com/2012/11/29/confession-day-29/), second half I'll post tomorrow), that was one heck of a finish. At least I don't have to worry about making sure I finish writing before midnight on Friday as I did last year. I'm sure it could still have counted, but this way I've already 'verified it'.
Unfortunately (or not), that doesn't mean I'm actually done. In the very first chapter, the priest confessed to three mortal sins. In (mini-)chapter 78, I think I'm just getting to the first one. I think the full thing will come in closer to 100k. Perhaps it's overly wordy, but that's what editing is for.
I know Un67 has also already finished (I'm still impressed at a full week early), how about anyone else? Anyone think they're going to make it just under the wire on Friday?
Post by: Un67 on November 29, 2012, 04:08:14 pm
Post by: Eek-A-Mouse on November 29, 2012, 07:32:37 pm
Post by: Eek-A-Mouse on December 01, 2012, 12:51:01 am
Post by: monk12 on December 01, 2012, 12:19:30 pm
Gratz to the winners!
Post by: Doomblade187 on December 01, 2012, 12:32:28 pm
Post by: Cthulhu on December 01, 2012, 12:49:46 pm
Post by: Doomblade187 on October 19, 2013, 09:54:38 pm
Post by: monk12 on October 19, 2013, 09:59:17 pm
Post by: Doomblade187 on October 19, 2013, 10:24:25 pm
Tell me if you have any complaints.