Bay 12 Games Forum
Finally... => Creative Projects => Topic started by: Biag on October 23, 2011, 04:24:09 pm
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NaNo! Who's doing it this year? I am! You should too! I asked your mom if she thought you should do NaNo, and she said yes.
For those not "in the know," NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org) is an annual writing adventure in which hordes of people each attempt to write a 50,000-word novel during the 30 days of November. It's a great way to practice your writing, fool around with an idea, motivate yourself to write that book, meet new people, discover new technologies, and cure more than 90% of extinct diseases!
So who's doing it, and what are you all going to write about?
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Well, I've never really written anything more than a crummy short story for English (that apparently wasn't as crummy as I thought), but I've been feeling extra creative lately and I've been thinking I might be able to write something cool if I tried hard enough. Likelihood I'll try to write something soon? Relatively high, if I'm not way too busy over the next month. Chances I'll participate in NaNoWriMo? No clue. I should probably check out the link you have there though.
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I'm doing it. Going to write an additional 50k for my fantasy novel (Essentially 5 x 10k short stories within the book), not sure if this makes me a 'nano rebel' or not but it should be fun anyway. I'm stocked up on caffeine and writing an outline to prepare. :)
The book is about a group of thieves in a medieval fantasy world, welp.
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I'm probably going to do it. I completed it last year as a test to see if I could actually write that much on a single story, since I'd never seriously tried. I think I learned a lot -- both about the process and about myself. Uncovered some weaknesses I hope to address with a bit more practice, too.
Last time my story was fairly serious ... I might try something completely different this time. I'm kind of looking forward to it.
I just need to stay away from all the amazing game releases coming out between now and the end of NaNoWriMo.
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I'm not sure if I will have a go, had a half-arsed effort last year and never really got going seriously.
Nevertheless posting to watch, and good luck to the entrants that do have a go. Keep us up to date with how you are getting on (if you have time ... !? )
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Yeah
(1/50,000 so far, this is gonna be cake)
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I am totally participating, for the first time. Not sure how well I'll do, but I have to at least try.
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Well, I do need an excuse to start writing. I hope I don't end up putting it off :/
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Me last year: That's only 1667 per day! Easy!
Turns out its pretty difficult, especially with school/work. I've yet to decide if I'm trying again this year.
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I'll definitely give this a try. Any suggestions on how to motivate yourself once you start running out of steam?
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I'll definitely give this a try. Any suggestions on how to motivate yourself once you start running out of steam?
Find the next point on your outline, and write toward it as fast as you can.
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Also, Chandler's Law. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChandlersLaw) Although I believe the NaNoWriMo version is "bring in the ninjas!" Seriously, you can never have too many ninjas--which is to say, it's better to write something off-the-wall and borderline silly to get your juices going than to sit and stew and not write anything.
I made it about halfway last year, which is the closest I've gotten. It's all fun and games until you miss just one day, ya know?
Anyway, yeah, I'm doing it again this year. I had a list of 18 ideas, I've narrowed it down to five, and I'm slightly-more-than-halfway-settled on one in particular.
It's called Cold Case, and it's about a yeti P.I. investigating a series of serial murders. Probably. The setting is a lot like prohibition-era America, but with magic being banned instead of alcohol. Hopefully, it will be better than it sounds.
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Hopefully, it will be better than it sounds.
That's going to be one hell of a book! Sounds awesome. Good fortune in your writing!
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Also, Chandler's Law. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChandlersLaw) Although I believe the NaNoWriMo version is "bring in the ninjas!" Seriously, you can never have too many ninjas--which is to say, it's better to write something off-the-wall and borderline silly to get your juices going than to sit and stew and not write anything.
I read the first paragraph, clicked the link, and read the rest of the post forty-five minutes later. Your fault. :P
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I hit about 51,000 words last year in total for the one I completed. The one I completed was outlined a month before I started, but I got a weird idea about three days before the start of NaNo last year. I decided to write the new, non-outlined thing instead. I got about 12,000 words into that during the first week, realized I made the largest mistake ever, and started over using my original idea.
So last November I wrote about 63,000 words in total, and even with that challenge, I didn't write anything for the last 3 days of the month.
I'm hoping to not put myself in that position this year. I've got an unsaleable novel idea sketched out -- unsaleable because I'm mixing Fantasy and Science Fiction a little TOO much, and I doubt enough of either audience will appreciate it unless I do a damn good job -- in fact, writing this unsaleable idea to the point at which I could sell it is my goal -- and this year I'm not going to abandon it three days before November. >:[
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I read the first paragraph, clicked the link, and read the rest of the post forty-five minutes later. Your fault. :P
If it makes you feel any better, I got caught in the vortex myself. T.T
That's going to be one hell of a book! Sounds awesome. Good fortune in your writing!
Thanks much! ^.^
Hopefully I'll actually get it done this year!
On which note, good advice from Willfor! I guess I know how I'm going to be spending my free time for the next few days, now that I've actually got something of a plot picked out.
Also, the fact that you climbed out of a 12,000-word debt is simply staggering. Well done!
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Less than 10 hours till NaNo. Are you guys ready? :P
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Less than 10 hours till NaNo. Are you guys ready? :P
ARMED WITH ONLY MY LAPTOP AND A FEW SOMEWHAT GOOD IDEAS, I WILL DO THIS.
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Sure, I'm ready, but I have no opportunity to start until 5:00 PM tomorrow :(
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Definitely gonna be tryin' to do this sucker!
I actually mentioned it to my creative writing professor and she said she might be persuaded to give extra credit for completing this thing. 8)
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Ain't happening for me this year, I'm still stuck to much on my grand setting.
However, I think that I'll see if I can get 25k words of edited work in this month. Probably won't be doable with all the stuff that I might be having to do, but it'll be interesting to try.
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I am going to write a story about an English gentleman adventurer who is also a skeleton.
I am not likely to finish this, but I have to try.
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I've managed to write some 25k words in a week before, but that was a special circumstance. In any case, not this year or next year, but maybe the year after...
*sigh*
I've got a good idea, characters, and setting. I just suck royally at plotting.
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^ Given that the semi-official handbook is called No Plot? No Problem!, I don't think it'll be an issue :P
Not to mention the fact that NaNo is really about getting that novel out now as opposed to delaying it, although I suppose since this is my first time I can't really speak much on it.
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T-minus three hours forty minutes here in Minnesota, and I'm starting to doubt my setting. Not that it's good, I'm just not sure if I'll still want to write it in a week.
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T-minus three hours forty minutes here in Minnesota, and I'm starting to doubt my setting. Not that it's good, I'm just not sure if I'll still want to write it in a week.
Hail fellow minnesotan! I wish you luck in your writing adventures!
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If someone sets up a non-IRC-based chatroom I will hang out it in it and be a wealth of ideas and suggestions and critiques.
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Well, I've written 1940 words today, which seems like a good start. I'm feeling pretty good about this, though I can't help but to feel I'll run out of story before I hit 50k words. Probably just imagining things, durr.
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2095 so far for me. Give that so far I've just written what amounts to the prologue, I'm not too worried about running out of story before I hit 50k. More worried I won't write fast enough to actually finish the sucker before the end of the month.
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I'm still setting up the world and the characters, nevermind the plot. Should've done this earlier...
In short, the idea is that you follow a mercenary swordsman through a silly medieval world where he does odd jobs to keep himself afloat. Cue adventures/misadventures.
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I'm still setting up the world and the characters, nevermind the plot. Should've done this earlier...
In short, the idea is that you follow a mercenary swordsman through a silly medieval world where he does odd jobs to keep himself afloat. Cue adventures/misadventures.
He he. Excellent.
'ere son ... yeah you with the big metal stick. Can you get up 'ere and rake the leaves out of me gutters?
I've gone and got sucked in again ... 902 words and counting ... 1.8% complete already ... wow I can almost see the finish line ... ???
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Alright, so, I realize now that I've basically outlined a short story which doesn't have nearly enough story for 50k words (hey, it's not my fault, a 'novel' in Finnish is basically a short story, my brain got confused). Fortunately, my current start can just as well be the beginning of this adventure with some reworking of events and characters (though the humorous conclusion will have to dropped, methinks). Now to think up the rest of the story, durr. Need to tie it into a greater plotline somehow.
EDIT: Doing just several short stories instead, works much better for me.
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I'm still setting up the world and the characters, nevermind the plot. Should've done this earlier...
In short, the idea is that you follow a mercenary swordsman through a silly medieval world where he does odd jobs to keep himself afloat. Cue adventures/misadventures.
He he. Excellent.
'ere son ... yeah you with the big metal stick. Can you get up 'ere and rake the leaves out of me gutters?
I've gone and got sucked in again ... 902 words and counting ... 1.8% complete already ... wow I can almost see the finish line ... ???
306 words here. Well, at least I've gotten started, right?
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I wrote 682 words of a story last night after midnight. This morning, I woke up, decided it wasn't grabbing me, and wrote 821 words of something new. Now I have decided that this story is actively preventing me from being grabbed and am returning to the 682. This year's NaNo theme: I am completely lost!
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I'm doing reasonably well with 2286 words and more coming later, thanks to having a boatload of free time :D
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My novel is probably going to be about a Necromancer just getting out of Necromancer University. Other than that I have no idea what to write about...
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I wrote 682 words of a story last night after midnight. This morning, I woke up, decided it wasn't grabbing me, and wrote 821 words of something new. Now I have decided that this story is actively preventing me from being grabbed and am returning to the 682. This year's NaNo theme: I am completely lost!
Apart from the going back to the original part, this is pretty much me exactly! Sorry, yeti detective, but it looks like I'm doing a space opera this year. I did quasi-noir last year anyway, time to do something different. ^^
Kinda feel silly to have wasted a day and gone to a midnight dash for nada, but I'm pretty pumped about this new story, so: yay, NaNo ahoy!My novel is probably going to be about a Necromancer just getting out of Necromancer University. Other than that I have no idea what to write about...
I advise... Master's Thesis!
I mean, really, who hires a Necromancer with a BA? Also, the potential thesis topics are fun:
1) The Cross-Cultural and Psychological Impact of Lichdom
2) The Science and Art of Metaphysical Phylacteries
3) Undead Agriculture: Practical Applications of Undead Labor in Subsistence Economies*
*Totally stolen from Necromancy 101
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4) 'From the Grave to the Cradle' - True Life Cycle Costing of an Undead Army
I'll admit I'm disappointed about the Yeti Detective, but good luck with the space opera.
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Don't forget, guys, there's no need to delete anything. Just take the bits you don't like and copy and paste them into a junk document, and keep counting it for your word count. After all, you wrote it, right, so why not take credit for it?
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If someone sets up a non-IRC-based chatroom I will hang out it in it and be a wealth of ideas and suggestions and critiques.
Yeah someone should do this, it's a great idea.
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Well, since you want it so badly, we can chat at http://webchat.freenode.net/. Channel is #bay12nano. Not sure how much I'll hang out on there, but hey, it's something.
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Well I'll be hanging around there I guess
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8343, w00t! :D That means that I could write nothing in the next two days and still be on par. Not that I would want to, seeing as Friday is no school for me, but whatever :P
If there are any lurkers out there reading this who are on the fence about NaNo, I encourage to join now while you can still catch up! It's a very rewarding experience and you definitely should give it a try, even if it's only token.
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Well, I did sign up, but still can't think of anything to write.
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A description of the first character that comes to mind might make for a nice start.
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If you really have nothing, find something interesting on Seventh Sanctum (http://seventhsanctum.com) or Chaotic Shiny (http://chaoticshiny.com). I would especially recommend Chaotic Shiny's motivation generator.
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Ditched the 4k I was at to start things in a new direction. I'm a maverick!
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I'm at 4603 words now. Really need to catch up and then get ahead a few thousand words since I know there'll be days soon where I won't be able to write at all.
Do you guys find word wars useful? I can procrastinate all day but just the feeling of letting a random person down who's writing with you is enough to get a few hundred words down. :)
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Peeps should really join #bay12nano down in FreeNode. It's pretty barren there.
Being my first attempt at NaNoWriMo, and being awful at time management, I don't see how this will end in anything but failure for me, but I'll try at least.
I've got an idea, plot and pitch that all seems to be good, but I'm slightly out of my water - several parts of it require me having experienced things that I haven't yet and won't for a while (such as unemployment, alcoholism, etc). I'm not sure how to handle this, so would anyone have any advice?
Do you guys find word wars useful? I can procrastinate all day but just the feeling of letting a random person down who's writing with you is enough to get a few hundred words down. :)
Unfortunately, no. I often get lost in the intricacies of plot and perspective, and so end up writing nothing at all until the "perfect idea" (in most cases still only workable) strikes.
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^ Really, you should just try to get things down. Don't think about what you're writing, simply get it down the moment it comes to mind. NaNo is mostly just about getting a first draft done, not an actual novel.
Also, you might find some help on the NaNo forums if you need to research things, in the Reference Desk forum you can ask questions and likely get answers.
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I've got an idea, plot and pitch that all seems to be good, but I'm slightly out of my water - several parts of it require me having experienced things that I haven't yet and won't for a while (such as unemployment, alcoholism, etc). I'm not sure how to handle this, so would anyone have any advice?
Ask a friend (or acquaintance) who's experienced those problems if they're comfortable talking about it. People will talk about a lot of things when you say "it's for this book that I'm writing." Talk about the plot a little to get them interested, maybe promise to let them read it once you've edited it and they'll probably open up. Again, make sure they're okay with the question before you start pressing for information. That's some pretty heavy stuff.
I hit 5k last night! Which isn't particularly exciting, because that was the word goal, but I really thought I was going to start today a thousand words behind. Also, I'm getting very close to discovering the central question (and therefore plot) of the book, which is incredibly exciting. Heading to a write-in later tonight; everyone here should make sure to find & go to one in their region! The NaNo community is positively wonderful and writing with a bunch of other awesome people is one of the best experiences November has to offer.
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Alas, I have absolutely no ability to transport myself. On the bright side, I have
11157 12180 words! Huzzah! :)
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I wrote -3230 words today, interesting. Scrapping my 4k story and starting a new one wasn't that great an idea. I struggled for hours on how to start it, ungh. I didn't worry as much on the first one, but this is an actual book idea I've had for a while. Hopefully I'll be able to write faster and still catch up from now on. Should have more spare time on the weekend.
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I am in the room. -> http://webchat.freenode.net/ #bay12nano
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If you really have nothing, find something interesting on Seventh Sanctum (http://seventhsanctum.com) or Chaotic Shiny (http://chaoticshiny.com). I would especially recommend Chaotic Shiny's motivation generator.
Chaotic Shiny is awesome, but mainly because they have a random tarot card creator and I fucking love tarot cards.
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Warning: depending on how well you react to clocks, you may or may not enjoy this link.
http://altru.istic.net/nanowrimo/
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Warning: depending on how well you react to clocks, you may or may not enjoy this link.
http://altru.istic.net/nanowrimo/
OH GOD, WHY DID YOU LINK ME THIS. I FEEL REALLY DAMN BAD NOW.
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For those of you who would like a bit friendlier encouragement, try this: http://smworth.blogspot.com/2011/09/nanowrimo-report-card-2011.html
It's a really nice report card tool, helps you get a better sense of your progress.
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Alright I started it and I'm a few days behind but I wrote 2225 words today. Let's just say this parody is going very well so far.
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Despite it being my day off, I only managed to net about +700 words after waffling on what direction to take.
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I finally got up to par last night after being behind a few days. Woo. That countup clock scares the hell out of me though.
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I have finally reached 15000! :D
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I have finally reached 15000! :D
Well done that ghost.
You've done the hard part, now to bring it home, baby.
I had a slow writing weekend, but I'm well placed at 9182 (818 below par) and feeling pretty good about my chances. Just need to keep the pace up for another 40000 words and I'm there ... easy! :o
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I'm in it again, hoping to not go through what was last year, because last year I wrote the entire fucking thing in less then a week, because I kept going "oh, I have tons of time left till december the first!".
Of course I still haven't started, because I have two ideas, one which I don't feel like writing, but would be better suited to the format because I wouldn't care about the quality and would be able to finish it, and another which I feel like writing to hell and back, but which I don't want to waste on a speedwriting endeavour :(
edit : I'm also stumped by the new interface. There isn't a wordcheck thingie like last time? Also my previous novel is gone from the site :(
re-edit : I'm also Gravenous, if someone wants to add me as a writing buddy :)
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I find this is a great word counter: http://www.wordcounttool.com/
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18098. Well on track, although I've slowed down a bit :(
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edit : I'm also stumped by the new interface. There isn't a wordcheck thingie like last time?
Edit Novel Info page has a "Validate your word count" link. :) I would suggest doing whichever idea motivates you more. You can always rewrite it if you really don't like where it goes.
7600 here... 400 more words and I'll call it a day, as I'll have written my 1667. Hopefully I can catch up this week!
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Derp derp derp I started late so I only have around 7748 words now. Behind, but looks like I can catch up if I try hard now.
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I find this is a great word counter: http://www.wordcounttool.com/
I like it, it keeps adding 100+ words into my work that OpenOffice doesn't recognize. Sure is a great motivator.
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Coffee and pretentious music. #thisishowinano
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I find this is a great word counter: http://www.wordcounttool.com/
I like it, it keeps adding 100+ words into my work that OpenOffice doesn't recognize. Sure is a great motivator.
Really? In my case it dropped about two hundred. :-\
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I find this is a great word counter: http://www.wordcounttool.com/
I like it, it keeps adding 100+ words into my work that OpenOffice doesn't recognize. Sure is a great motivator.
Really? In my case it dropped about two hundred. :-\
Me too. I want to scream now.
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I just hit 18k
This is my fifth year doing NaNo. Odd's are against me but I'm doing well. My NaNo page is here/url].
Also, the "Official" Unofficial IRC is #nanowrimo @ irc.goodchatting.com (It used to be official, but it's not anymore. Still the most popular IRC gathering for NaNo) I'm in there as AnimaRytak, so stop in and say hi! (http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/animarytak)
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^ You're not hanging around with us Bay12ers at #bay12nano on freenode? Shame on you! :P
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^ You're not hanging around with us Bay12ers at #bay12nano on freenode? Shame on you! :P
I know! I'm awful.
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Seriously, though, we need more people, it's usually pretty barren, which is a shame :(
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Yeah, it was totally empty today except for me and Will, who I think was afk. I only got 600 words done! Shame on you! :o
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Also, the "Official" Unofficial IRC is #nanowrimo @ irc.goodchatting.com (It used to be official, but it's not anymore. Still the most popular IRC gathering for NaNo)
I'm staying on here now. there's like 50 people in the room @_@
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Yeah, it was totally empty today except for me and Will, who I think was afk. I only got 600 words done! Shame on you! :o
I was in school. I'm a habitual chat logger, and have been since I used to have to do it in an official capacity for an official chatroom for a site. :(
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So the site's down for some maintenance, right when I was getting caught up. Dangit how am I going to update my word count now?
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So the site's down for some maintenance, right when I was getting caught up. Dangit how am I going to update my word count now?
Update your word count in your heart*.
*May require anesthetic for the surgical steps involved.
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So how are you all doing so far? Currently I'm around 32500.
P.S. You guys really need to show up in #bay12nano at freenode more :P
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I'm at 13-thousand-some, which is LESS than ten thousand behind. :P
I would probably still be at 11500 if someone at a write-in hadn't introduced me to this (http://writeordie.com). It's a web-app called Write or Die. Basically, you tell it how many words you want to reach and how much time you want to give yourself, and then start writing into its text box. If you don't write enough, it starts punishing you.
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14 689 for me. Haven't had that much time to write lately.
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Just surpassed 30k, despite Skyrim.
I'm gonna finish this year.
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Just broke 16k! Hopefully I can write three or four thousand words tomorrow and start closing that gap. Wednesday is road-trip day, so hopefully I can write until my hand gives out in the car. It's starting to seem possible that I could catch up before Thanksgiving! :D
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23.5k ... About on par and look forward to hitting half way today.
I have, as yet, not required the introduction of Ninjas. Hopefully I can claw my way to the end without them.
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Have you folks skipped sections of your novel with the intention of filling them in later? Because I've already done it twice, yelp. The second scene shouldn't be too hard, but the first is pretty lenghty and not really my kind of thing, hnngh.
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I'm writing this whole thing in order. There will be no going back and editing for me, no sir. That's what a COWARD would do.
Word count around 26k. Not done writing for today yet, though.
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(http://www.zen102301.zen.co.uk/misc/nano_prog.PNG)
Weeeeeeee!
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How many of you guys are participating and have participated in the past?
Last year I never got past 15,000. Didn't have the time or the patience due to downsizing in my company. Aka same pay, more work and longer hours.
This year, I'm balancing military with civilian and trying to find time to even sleep properly... I'm scraping by with my lengthy Scifi RP on the Bay12 forums (in my sig, Pixel Station) and have who knows how many thousand words from that. Hell, if I combine it with the original source information from my Scifi 'novel' I never completed, I could probably muster 50,000 words.
I know you don't have to write a full 50,000 words of coherent fluid writing like a published novel would be, but I don't feel right about a 'novel' not being seamless. Then again, I'll likely NEVER publish due to my need to constantly add more and perfect it. What started as a 200-word short story has become a possibly 4-book (AT MINIMUM) Scifi story ranging from pre-human Earth all the way to Human expansion across the stars following a multitude of galactic wars, genetic experimentation, and the discovery of an ancient trans-dimensional alien race that's frighteningly similar to humans. I've got a few dozen alien races on the drawing board also, though I've only dedicated maybe 5 paragraphs to each.
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Damn it. I completely forgot about NaNo. :P I just stumbled on this thread now, actually, and posted that.
Its halfway through...
Think I'll be crazy and try to nail 50,000 having starting halfway through o_O Considering how I started the new scifi RP within November, its legal. :D
So far I haaaaaaave... 6,000 words.
Sigh. This is going to be rough. I need 3,000 words per day to hit 50k by the end of NaNo.
Yeah, I don't think I can catch up. >_>
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After 44329 words, the climax has been hit.
In two days I will be finished.
FINISHED ???
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Got 5.5k done today. My fingers hurt. Almost to 30k.
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I've been completely slaughtered by work and other dreadful things, so I'm pretty much 'giving up'. Inability to focus on one thing was what slayed me in the end. Keep going, the rest of you, though.
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I thought about doing this this year, but with my 12-hour-per-day work schedule, it doesn't seem feasible. However, I've just remembered that there's a long story I started years ago but never finished. It's already at 21,578 words. It's not really a "novel" so much. In fact, it comes from this very site, though I don't know if the people involved are still around. I hosted a DF-based online QAGS (http://www.hexgames.com/qags/) roleplay using a plot I had designed for the QAGS resource bank. (They later published a full-length setting (http://www.hexgames.com/qags/component/virtuemart/details/15/12/pdfs/herland--perfect-genetic-utopia-pdf) that I wrote, which I still get royalties on if anyone buys, so have a look if you like.)
Basically, we saved the game logs for each playing session (and OH the fun we had!), and when it was finally over, I decided to turn the game into an epic story as a gift to the players. Unfortunately I ran out of steam and never finished it, but I still have the logs and I could use NaNoWriMo as an excuse to push myself to finish it like I always wanted to.
I know it's not exactly the traditional goal of the month, but if it pushes me to finish this project, it'll be worth it. Maybe I won't hit 50,000, but if I finish the story I'll consider it a success.
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Hey guys, how are you doing?
(http://img.ie/31377.png)
I think I'm doing okay. I'm hearing about all these other people who are already 50000+, though.
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I wish there was a way to enter how many words you'd written on past days instead of simply updating it each day and letting it calculate it automatically. What if you don't have time to get online and update one day? It skews your graph.
Anyway, I signed up as kotshka, if anyone wants to add me as a writing buddy. I added another few thousand words yesterday and while I don't think this one will ever reach 50,000, I'm quite pleased that I'm finally pushing myself to finish this baby.
Also, in case anyone is stressing more about their word count than about the quality of their novel, here's a really interesting and thought-provoking blog (http://maxbarry.com/2010/11/29/news.html) by one of my favorite authors, Max Barry, with some thoughts on NaNoWriMo and analysis of various writing methods. I think he makes some good points and it's worth keeping all this in mind when you're worried about meeting that deadline.
On the other hand, I had a brilliant professor in University who was sponsoring me for my senior honors thesis. As I was approaching the deadline and not even close to finishing, too worried about getting everything perfect, he said one thing that made the whole process a thousand times easier: "Just get it done. You have the rest of your life to get it right."
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Okay, so I'm eighteen thousand words in, putting me seventeen thousand words behind today's goal, and I don't have a conflict or a question or even a plot hook. I want to scrap everything that happened in the last ten thousand words. If I'm going to finish this year, I have to establish a central question or goal for the main characters to work towards, and I have to do it fast if I'm going to be any kind of motivated. There's still time to turn this around, but damn the next ten days are going to be busy.
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Of course it makes sense to me that after I officially quit Nanowrimo, I'm given a burst of inspiration and energy for working on other writing projects, like breathing life back into my nearly abandoned website. Here's an article about Infinity Blade and the ebook based on it, clocking in at 2.5k words. (http://www.brodzkybooks.com/?p=169) Took me about an hour to jam out.
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Just bust through the 40,000 word mark, so I'm really well placed, and my outline, to this point, has changed a little bit but has proved far too accurate. I'm only something like 180 words outside my November 1st budget, and I've only revised the chapter list once.
I'm either really good at this, or I don't mind writing crap to a rigid framework. Can't wait to re-read it in December and find out.
I now sit at a little quandary, having bought myself a couple of days, and that is how much time do I spend thinking about a reasonable climax, or do I just continue to push out stuff in accordance with plan A?
Capntastic: That is a remarkable standard of writing for 1 hours work, and a good read. Thanks for posting.
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50050.
Yes, I am now finished. It's really quite horrible to read, but I'm finished. :D
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50050.
Yes, I am now finished. It's really quite horrible to read, but I'm finished. :D
Congrats, Un! That's super amazing of you to be done so quick. Just don't look at it for a month and then gradually dip into it for editing.
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I wish there was a way to enter how many words you'd written on past days instead of simply updating it each day and letting it calculate it automatically. What if you don't have time to get online and update one day? It skews your graph.
Anyway, I signed up as kotshka, if anyone wants to add me as a writing buddy. I added another few thousand words yesterday and while I don't think this one will ever reach 50,000, I'm quite pleased that I'm finally pushing myself to finish this baby.
Also, in case anyone is stressing more about their word count than about the quality of their novel, here's a really interesting and thought-provoking blog (http://maxbarry.com/2010/11/29/news.html) by one of my favorite authors, Max Barry, with some thoughts on NaNoWriMo and analysis of various writing methods. I think he makes some good points and it's worth keeping all this in mind when you're worried about meeting that deadline.
On the other hand, I had a brilliant professor in University who was sponsoring me for my senior honors thesis. As I was approaching the deadline and not even close to finishing, too worried about getting everything perfect, he said one thing that made the whole process a thousand times easier: "Just get it done. You have the rest of your life to get it right."
Simple!
Google 'word counter', copy what you wrote a certain day, paste, and then you know. :) I separate each day's work by a little pillar design, so I know the information might be a little screwy. (Considering how I like to go widely off-topic without meaning to, as I explore vast, profound ideas that end up shadowing the original idea :P)
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I'm writing in Google Docs, so there's no problem counting the words, I just mean it's impossible to see it on the graph if you update the NaNoWriMo site late. I also don't see any way to list the number of words you wrote each day, after the fact. I mean, I know there's a visual representation on the graph, but it's tiny and there's no actual word count. It'd be interesting and possibly useful to be able to look back and see, for example, how many words you wrote on Tuesdays versus Saturdays or something.
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I wrote 2188 words today, and it seemed to me they were pretty good words. The problem? They have absolutely nothing to do with my NaNo story, which is stuck at 23k words. If I counted my first short story, the main story and this one, I'd had a nice 30 411 words written, only 8k behind. Hnnnngh. I can't even pretend they're related in any way.
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I think I'm going to have to officially give up this year... would liked to have finished, but the next week is really busy and I am impeded by disease. Maybe next time.
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50k + words!
Woop-di-do!
Happy about that, now to print it out, bind it and re-read it in a month or two.
Congratz go out to Un67. A valiant effort.
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^ Congratulations! I'd expect that yours is much better thought out than mine :P
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Alright, I made it. 50000 words, but I'm not done yet! Gonna finish it up now.
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I hit 50k this morning.
I'm happier than a dwarf trapped in a room with a lifetime of booze.
Now to finish the novel and try to publish it, woo!
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I decided not to give up after all. Now I just have to write 25,000 words in the next 48 hours! Fun times.
EDIT: I finished :D