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Finally... => Creative Projects => Topic started by: Telgin on October 05, 2022, 02:10:37 pm

Title: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on October 05, 2022, 02:10:37 pm
Well, it's almost that time of year again already, and is technically the first week of "preptober."  As before, Bay12 is pretty slow these days so it may end up just being me talking to myself, but I'll post weekly updates as I go.

In case you aren't familiar with NaNoWriMo:

What is NaNoWriMo?
NaNoWriMo is an informal challenge to anyone who wants to write.  The idea is simple: you simply have to write 50,000 words of a story during the month of November.  You don't necessarily have to finish the story, so long as you write that many words, and it doesn't matter what the story is.  This isn't going to be published anywhere without you doing it, so it can be fanfiction for all that the challenge cares.

The point is to just get words down.  A lot of writers agree that this is the hard part, and you can easily get stuck trying to edit or world build.  From experience, I can say that it's very true, and anyone who wants to give this a shot is strongly encouraged to not fret about the quality of your work and just focus on getting a first draft down.  I did last year and hate how it turned out, but I'm still glad I did it since it puts me in a better place to try it this year.

Is this a competition?
Not really.  You're only challenging yourself.  You can certainly compare your progress to others, but it's informal and you won't get anything but a warm, fuzzy feeling for beating someone else.

Is my writing safe?
Sure.  You don't have to publish anything you write, and nanowrimo.org just has a tool for inputting word counts.  They have a word count utility as well, which supposedly scrambles the text so that nobody could possibly steal it, but in seriousness there's no reason to be afraid of whatever you're writing getting out in the wild without you doing it.

Can I win anything?
Only personal satisfaction, which is a surprisingly good thing in my experience.  Supposedly you can get some discounts on software or other sponsored goodies if you "win" by hitting 50K words, but I don't actually know how this works.

Can't I just cheat and enter whatever I want in the word count tool then?
Sure, but you're only cheating yourself in the end.  The whole point is to make something of your own and prove to yourself that you can do it.

Official website:
https://nanowrimo.org/ (https://nanowrimo.org/)

Links to previous years:
2021 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=179152)
2020 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177492)
2019 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=174917)
2018 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=172256)
2017 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=167748)
2016 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=161111)
2015 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=153572)
2014 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=144886)
2013 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=132259)
2012 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=117442)
2011 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=95254)
2010 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=68261)
2009 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=42628)


I've been doing NaNoWriMo for a few years now and ironically I think only the first year that I did it led to anything that really felt satisfying at all, even if I ran out of story ideas near the 50K word mark and never finished it.  Every year after that has been easier on a technical level as I've gotten used to the writing, but less satisfying with the end results.

To help combat that, I've spent time writing a few stories during the year to help shake out plots and prepare for NaNoWriMo, with the plan of redrafting them and fixing problems I found.  I haven't decided for sure which I'll go with, but had a few ideas.  Most likely I'll go with the story I've been working on the past few months, which was a futuristic fantasy story about space farers who find the first known alien space station and as a result the answer to the Fermi paradox: where are all of the aliens?  Magic allows FTL space travel, but also allows... certain self destructive possibilities for civilizations.

Failing that, I may try to redraft one of my stories from previous years.  The idea of rewriting last year's story from the perspective of the main villain's depressed assistant is appealing, even if I don't think the story will really work from her perspective.  Or I could fall back to a couple of years ago with the sapient dragons in the undead apocalypse.  I don't have a great second half for that story yet, so probably not.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Iris on October 07, 2022, 07:41:58 pm
I've always been intrigued by these sorts of events, but they combine two of my most crippling weaknesses: Writing under pressure/with a time limit and writing long form. Still posting to watch, though; let's see how this turns out.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: EuchreJack on October 07, 2022, 09:13:13 pm
Also interested but not participating.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on October 08, 2022, 03:06:56 pm
Quote from: Iris on October 07, 2022, 07:41:58 pm
I've always been intrigued by these sorts of events, but they combine two of my most crippling weaknesses: Writing under pressure/with a time limit and writing long form. Still posting to watch, though; let's see how this turns out.

That's pretty understandable, but I've found that the deadline helps with making me actually write.  Outside of NaNoWriMo I've tried sticking to the advice of writing something every day, but I usually don't manage to commit to it,  Knowing that I've got a 30 day deadline to write 50,000 words and a solid goal of 1,667 per day adds a lot of motivation to it.

But, I do understand not wanting that kind of commitment.  Some people aim for smaller word goals, but if you don't like writing long form then it's probably not a good match for you regardless.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Quarque on October 11, 2022, 12:52:07 am
I'm participating, but writing in Dutch. Working on a long term project.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on October 25, 2022, 08:55:39 pm
We're at one week until go time, so I've started rereading sci-fi fantasy story I wrote earlier this year in the preparation of redrafting it for NaNoWriMo.  I think I've got a much better handle on the characters this time, but still don't really know how the third act should play out.  I guess having a month of working hard on it will give me a chance to brainstorm some, but having no ending or only a weak ending is a problem I've had with NaNoWriMo every year.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Magmacube_tr on October 26, 2022, 05:39:01 am
Alright. Here's my novel.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: a1s on October 26, 2022, 08:38:45 am
Quote from: Magmacube_tr on October 26, 2022, 05:39:01 am
Alright. Here's my novel.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Heh.
That inexplicably reminded me of this comic:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on October 26, 2022, 08:46:11 pm
I immediately shared that with friends, so that's appreciated.  It's also a cute looking comic series I hadn't heard of before now, so I'm going to be looking for more of it.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on October 31, 2022, 10:41:06 pm
NaNoWriMo officially starts in 30 minutes for the eastern timezone, so I'll begin then.  Really not feeling up to starting today, but it's important to start strong I think.  I definitely find it crucial to write every day during the challenge as well, and always try to hit at least 1667 words.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: delphonso on November 02, 2022, 12:24:45 am
Good luck Telgin!
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on November 02, 2022, 09:32:49 pm
Thanks.  :)

So far I've written a bit over 4,000 words and beaten my goal for the first two days.

I'm already not liking how this is opening tough, and if I finish the story I'll come back and rewrite the beginning.  It's tricky to introduce people and setting while making an introduction interesting, and it's easy to fall into the trap of treating a book like a movie.  A 15 second cut in a movie might be 5 pages of very dry material in a book.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on November 15, 2022, 10:36:40 am
Today is the halfway point, and so far I've written a little under 30,000 words, averaging about 2,000 per day.  I'm hoping to finish a few days early, since the end of the month is usually pretty busy here in the US with Thanksgiving and all.

While having a first draft to work from made the challenge really easy so far this year, I can confirm that this is probably the wrong way to do it.  I'd planned to come back and redo the first draft I wrote earlier in the year, but NaNoWriMo doesn't really give you the time to properly digest and revise something like that, and instead you should really use it to write a first draft that you revise later.  I don't think my second draft is any better really, but not probably not worse either.  That said, I'd planned to get to the point faster in this drat and yet somehow managed to end up 20 pages longer at this point of the story...
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on November 24, 2022, 03:45:10 pm
I finished today, hitting 50,044 words and averaging just over 2,000 words per day.

The results were the same as usual, with me realizing that there were a lot of problems with the story and it would need at least one more serious rewrite to be worth publishing.  Considering that it's a story told from the perspective of what essentially boils down to alternate Earth aliens who find that the galaxy is dead because aliens keep accidentally inventing necromancy, I'm not sure that the story would be worth publishing anyway.  It's really hard to distill the needed world building down enough to get to the point, and it took me over 40,000 words to really get to where the characters were starting to realize any of that.

I think next year I'm going to make a serious attempt to outline first so I have a solid idea of where the story is going and I can hopefully pace things better.  This story would probably take close to 80,000 words to finish.  I may keep plugging away at it to see where it goes but I doubt I'll truly finish it.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Eniteris on November 24, 2022, 04:22:07 pm
Congratulations! I did this twice when I had more time, but it's still quite the achievement.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: EuchreJack on December 02, 2022, 12:54:16 pm
Quote from: Telgin on November 24, 2022, 03:45:10 pm
Considering that it's a story told from the perspective of what essentially boils down to alternate Earth aliens who find that the galaxy is dead because aliens keep accidentally inventing necromancy, I'm not sure that the story would be worth publishing anyway.

See, now that sounds interesting.  But maybe the initial version doesn't need to be 50,000 words, since it's a setting and not a story.
Then you set a story in that setting, and boom 50,000 words.

One idea that I struck on is an outline of the setting, then fleshing out the setting, then putting in the story set in the setting. The first step got me almost to the 1000 words, which was my specific goal.
Title: Re: National Novel Writing Month 2022
Post by: Telgin on December 02, 2022, 04:04:59 pm
That's certainly a feeling I've gotten over the years of doing this, and writing in general.  It is so much simpler to write a story in an established setting, like with fanfiction.  Interestingly, I've written two stories over 50K words long as fanfiction for a setting a friend created, and both of those were some of the easiest writing I've done.

Setting building is definitely a different problem from writing a story, and I tried to do some of that in my head before writing anything.  For example, the story's protagonists are from an interstellar "high kingdom" with a few relatively recently founded colonies that are just now starting to really take off after 70+ years of development for the oldest ones.  Magic powers FTL travel and communications, allows artificial gravity, shields and limited replication and transmutation.  There are also sapient robots of a fairly standard variety from sci-fi (namely Alien), which occupy a stratum in society where they're mistrusted by a non-trivial number of people.  The high kingdom sends out manned survey vessels to chart star systems of interest, and the ships are manned because their society has come to expect that people need to work to be happy and some people are happy doing that.  Despite 150 years of SETI style searching and active space travel, they've never found evidence of aliens.

Weaving all of that into the story is doable, but tough.  The main character is the captain of the ship, who has cybernetic lungs due to an autoimmune disease and has a robotic daughter because he was lonely.  The engineer's mate doesn't trust the realistic looking robots in society and doesn't like how they're second class citizens either, which brings conflict with the captain and offers some chance of exposition.  Two of the crew are scientists who outsiders and offer a chance for exposition to a point.  One is a democratic reformist, which the government doesn't like.

So... the pieces are there, but mixing them together is harder than I expected.  I never even got to mention the reformist thing.  The conflict between the engineer and captain's daughter felt forced at times.

I feel like one of the biggest problems in the story is the fact that it doesn't start at the right time, which is very common with first drafts and new writers.  I spent maybe 20,000 words going from "the crew arrive in a system and discover an unexpected space pyramid" to "now they're inside of the pyramid", then another 20,000 words getting to "and the zombies wake up."

So, I'd like to cut to them just arriving at the station at the beginning of the story, but there really needs to be some build up to explain how finding aliens is such a big deal.  Lots of pacing issues like that.