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Source: (consider it) Thread: Ye Olde NaNoWriMo - and beyond
Figbash

The Doubtful Guest
# 9048

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Yes, it's mid October, and I revived myself just for the purpose of asking: is anyone giving NaNoWriMo a go this year? Anyone apart from me that is? 'Cos if so, here's your chance to run like mad and form a private little NaNo huddle far, far away from me.

No, it would be nice to know. To have co-sufferers. And all that.

[title edit]

[ 21. November 2012, 20:35: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posts: 1209 | From: Gashlycrumb | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58

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I was on the verge of starting a thread for the same purpose! I might be up for it this year myself - will decide in the next few days if I have enough ideas to hand to make it work.

(I'll need to think of a change of screen name, though.)

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Firenze

Ordinary decent pagan
# 619

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I've committed to a series of one-dayers over the winter with a local University, on finishing a ms. My subject material will be drawn from previous NaNos. The first of these will be on the 3rd, so I will be writing in November, at one remove as it were.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001  |  IP: Logged
la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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I'm waiting to see how my November looks. I have to admit that if I do join in I will be kind of cheating - I have about 30000 words of a novel already written so I might use Nano to kick my butt into getting a bit closer to Finishing™ the sucker.

--------------------
Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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Boadicea Trott
Shipmate
# 9621

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I'm hoping to, for the fourth year running. It is the craziest, most manic and enormously enjoyable creative activity ever :-)
Posts: 563 | From: Roaming the World in my imagination..... | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged
Figbash

The Doubtful Guest
# 9048

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quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
I have to admit that if I do join in I will be kind of cheating - I have about 30000 words of a novel already written so I might use Nano to kick my butt into getting a bit closer to Finishing™ the sucker.

Exactly what I'm doing; I'm 50,000 words and about half way into a monster, and I want the thing out of my life.
Posts: 1209 | From: Gashlycrumb | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

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I'll be cheating too--I have a freakin' nonfiction book on spiritual warfare started, and need to get the thing out of my life quicker than possible, as the enemy has noticed and is sending crap my direction faster than a hyperactive sh*t machine. I have now learned to get up early to write so as not to be derailed by various crises that pop up after work oh so magically. Must.Be.Done

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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

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Trudy Scrumptious

BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647

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I never consider that cheating and often use NaNo to add 50,000 words to an existing manuscript. This year I'm starting a new book, so I may have a bit written before NaNo or may not, but will defintely be joining in the madness. I find that having a word goal and thousands of others doing the same thing helps me focus!

I don't usually post a whole lot in the NaNo forums but may a bit; however I'll be checking in here to see how others are doing!

If you note the link in my sig, during November I'll be using my Wednesday vlogs to talk about the NaNo process too.

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Books and things.

I lied. There are no things. Just books.

Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
jacobsen

seeker
# 14998

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OK guys, what's this about? I'm all at sea in a leaky boat. Throw me a lifeline, someone, please. [Confused]

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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.

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crunt
Shipmate
# 1321

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http://www.nanowrimo.org/

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QUIZ: Bible
QUIZ: world religions
LTL Discussion
languagespider.com

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Firenze

Ordinary decent pagan
# 619

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quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
OK guys, what's this about? I'm all at sea in a leaky boat. Throw me a lifeline, someone, please. [Confused]

There you go. Write a novel in a month. Well, 50k words. Great fun.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001  |  IP: Logged
Spiffy
Ship's WonderSheep
# 5267

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11th attempt will be undertook.

This is the first time, however, I don't have even a character wandering about in my head. I'll start worrying about that on, oh... November 29th.

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Looking for a simple solution to all life's problems? We are proud to present obstinate denial. Accept no substitute. Accept nothing.
--Night Vale Radio Twitter Account

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Firenze

Ordinary decent pagan
# 619

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quote:
Originally posted by Spiffy:

This is the first time, however, I don't have even a character wandering about in my head. I'll start worrying about that on, oh... November 29th.

So you're seeing a rather long descriptive passage, followed by an action-packed final 5,000 words?
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Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175

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I do have a good idea this year. Whether I'm brave enough to try it and inspired enough to write 50k is another matter! I do like that now self-publishing is so easy, you can always tidy up a nano failure later and then self-publish. I may not be a fan of EL James' writing but I can't fault her publishing methods.

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Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]

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Ceannaideach
Shipmate
# 12007

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After failing last year due to distractions I'm going for it again this year. But this is the first year that I have no idea what the plot is.

My first year as a pantser! Whee!

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"I dream of the day when I will learn to stop asking questions for which I will regret learning the answers." - Roy Greenhilt OOTS

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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748

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Not a hope in hell.

I'm currently 283,000 words into an expected 300k ms [Help] , and when I'm there, I am so done with writing for, oh, at least a couple of weeks.

Deadline is early Dec...

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Forward the New Republic

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Lady A

Narnian Lady
# 3126

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Yes, I'll be in this year. Have no idea what I'll be doing about it though. The last three years were all on the same time/place. But this year? I'm not at all sure.
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orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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1,667 words per day?

Not a freaking chance. I know this is different from my usual professional writing, but...

There's a legislative drafting joke I've heard about an experienced drafter who was asked how his day had gone. "It was very productive", he replied. "This morning I decided to add a comma. After further thought, this afternoon I decided to take it out again."

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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.

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Evangeline
Shipmate
# 7002

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quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
1,667 words per day?

Not a freaking chance. I know this is different from my usual professional writing, but...

There's a legislative drafting joke I've heard about an experienced drafter who was asked how his day had gone. "It was very productive", he replied. "This morning I decided to add a comma. After further thought, this afternoon I decided to take it out again."

I've generally seen that quote attributed to Oscar Wilde, who I don't believe was a legislative drafter "I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma...in the afternoon-well, I put it back again."
Posts: 2871 | From: "A capsule of modernity afloat in a wild sea" | Registered: May 2004  |  IP: Logged
Firenze

Ordinary decent pagan
# 619

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quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
1,667 words per day?

Not a freaking chance. I know this is different from my usual professional writing, but...

You'd be surprised. As Bunyan remarked, when you get an idea -
In more than twenty things, which I set down.
This done, I twenty more had in my crown;
And they again began to multiply,
Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly.


You can get quite readily to a point where you happily give up distractions like food, sleep and talking to people. It 's NaNo's mission to help you access such states.

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orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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quote:
Originally posted by Evangeline:
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
1,667 words per day?

Not a freaking chance. I know this is different from my usual professional writing, but...

There's a legislative drafting joke I've heard about an experienced drafter who was asked how his day had gone. "It was very productive", he replied. "This morning I decided to add a comma. After further thought, this afternoon I decided to take it out again."

I've generally seen that quote attributed to Oscar Wilde, who I don't believe was a legislative drafter "I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma...in the afternoon-well, I put it back again."
Ah well, we clearly adopted it on the grounds that it fitted us perfectly!

I honestly don't know how well I could just let words flow out, now. I'd spend lots of time re-editing existing material on the Ship, if the edit window wasn't so short.

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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.

Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008  |  IP: Logged
Trudy Scrumptious

BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647

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That is actually the whole point of NaNoWriMo -- to help writers break out of that "edit as you go" perfectionist mindset and focus on just creating a first draft. The word count goal redirects your energies from producing perfect writing towards just getting words on paper (or onscreen). The end result will, of course, have to be heavily edited later to be remotely readable, but at least you end the month having something to work with, which for some people, gets them past that stage where they've been working on Chapter One of a book for ten years.

It doesn't work for everyone, though.

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Books and things.

I lied. There are no things. Just books.

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Amorya

Ship's tame galoot
# 2652

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If anyone's a Mac user, Scrivener is on sale as part of the MacHeist bundle for $30. It's a writing app that a lot of people swear by, and it's quite popular amongst NaNo-ers.

http://macheist.com

ETA: there is a Windows version of Scrivener, but of course that isn't included in a Mac-based bundle.

[ 17. October 2012, 09:44: Message edited by: Amorya ]

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orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
That is actually the whole point of NaNoWriMo -- to help writers break out of that "edit as you go" perfectionist mindset and focus on just creating a first draft. The word count goal redirects your energies from producing perfect writing towards just getting words on paper (or onscreen). The end result will, of course, have to be heavily edited later to be remotely readable, but at least you end the month having something to work with, which for some people, gets them past that stage where they've been working on Chapter One of a book for ten years.

It doesn't work for everyone, though.

Duly noted.

Will have to think about it. I did dream up an idea for a novel about 20 years ago... always thought it was a great idea, but not one I necessarily had the skills to implement.

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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.

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kaytee
Shipmate
# 3482

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I'm giving it a go for the first time, despite November being my busiest month at work. I have had an idea in my head for about a year and I need some motivation to get the words out onto the page. Deadlines tend to work well for me, so I'm hoping I will get to 50K, but I'm not too worried if I don't, so long as I keep writing.

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'Lying is a vital survival skill – and a terrible habit.' ~ The Doctor

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Boadicea Trott
Shipmate
# 9621

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I'm hoping to NaNo again this year.
I'm writing as Snakebelly :-)

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X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett

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Mr Curly

Off to Curly Flat
# 5518

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Having struggled to get back into writing since I was ill in August, I'm planning to kick start in Nov. Not sure whether I'll start a new novel, or aim to do a couple of episodes in my (stalled) novella series. I doubt I'll do 50,000.

It will all depend on getting the final edit of the current novel dusted in teh next week ready for launching into the world by end of November.

mr curly

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My Blog - Writing, Film, Other Stuff

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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37

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Well I've signed up again (latepaul if you want to friend me). Maybe this'll be the year I win.
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58

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OK, I've reactivated my account. I'm Melusine, on Nanowrimo, if anyone wants to link up. Lots of little mini-ideas so far, but whether they can be strung into a coherent whole, I don't know.

Only 10 days to go!! Better get thinking [Ultra confused]

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Curiosity killed ...

Ship's Mug
# 11770

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Oh goody, more procrastination. And only because the advice says
quote:
3) Tell everyone you know that you’re writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who’ve had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.
will I fess up. Same user name as here.

Rumbling bits of ideas, no idea if it's a book or several short stories.

Oh, and an instruction to complete three pieces of personal writing. Apparently, according to Pennebaker and Chung (2011)* personal writing has been shown to help people into work and help them when they are in work.

*not sure this link will work full title is Pennebaker JW & Chung CK (2011), Expressive writing and its links to mental and physical health in HS Friedman (ed) Oxford Handbook of Health psychology, New York, NY, OUP

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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat

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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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Yep - I've re-activated my account too. Real life means that I haven't actually done any writing for an age and I hope this will get me going again. My name is GussieR there.

Now where did I put my notebook with the outlined chapters for a proposed novel.....

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58

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Curiosity, your link works fine. I haven't been able to find you on the Nanosite though - a search for "Curiosity" generates 407 results, none of which seems to be you!
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Curiosity killed ...

Ship's Mug
# 11770

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I've friended you - but I couldn't find Gussie.

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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat

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Figbash

The Doubtful Guest
# 9048

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I'm Gashlycrumb.

quote:
Originally posted by Gussie:
Yep - I've re-activated my account too. Real life means that I haven't actually done any writing for an age and I hope this will get me going again. My name is GussieR there.

Can't find [Waterworks]
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58

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Me neither. Gussie, you're going to have to come and find us...
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37

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I think it takes a little while to update the search indexes or whatever. I couldn't find Curiosity when I first tried.

However I discovered how to 'find' someone's profile page if you know the username. Just add the username in lowercase to http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/ e.g. so mine is http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/latepaul.

From there you can add the person as a buddy. You can also see their buddy list so you can get to Ariel, Figbash, Curiosity, Gussie (and a few others) from my page.

HTH

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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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Thanks Late Paul - I think I've got everyone added as buddies now,

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

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Mr Curly

Off to Curly Flat
# 5518

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I'm martyboymedia, if that buddy request seems random!

mr curly

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My Blog - Writing, Film, Other Stuff

Posts: 2645 | From: Curly Flat | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
MrSponge2U

Ship’s scrub
# 3076

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I am jumping in for another November bit of madness. I am SpongeJim on the Nanowrimo boards.

I have decided that I will govern my Nanowrimo writing by the principles I have learned by watching Doctor Who:

- If I get tired of my main character in the middle of the month, I can regenerate him into a new character,

- If I get stuck for ideas, I can always create a Dalek invasion,

- If I get stuck trying to explain some sci-fi kind of thing, I can always pull out a sonic screwdriver.

Happy November Insanity!

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sig? what sig?

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Twilight

Puddleglum's sister
# 2832

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My cap is off to all of you brave and talented ones!

I just learned about this a month ago. I saw the nanowrimo thread last year and figured it was some sort of text writing thing like the LOLcat. This year I actually read about it and was psyched to try.

I did as suggested and wrote an outline and character bios for my novel set in the 1880's. The historical fact checking had me bogged down in no time plus I realized I wasn't geared to the comedy aspect this was going to require.

I had just read The American Woman's Home by Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. It's online and it's amazing. The chapter headings alone are awesome and I planned to use them as subtitles for my novel's chapters, with my main character a young woman, raised in household of servants, landed far from home with nothing but this instructional book to help her manage her new household. Jane Smiley could make a fine novel of this idea.

So I scrapped that and wrote a new outline for a contemporary novel about a woman I saw on Dr. Phil four years ago and have been worrying about ever since. I thought it would be cathartic if nothing else.

What I learned, before giving the whole thing up, is that it's possible to read 6000 books over a lifetime and still be absolutely incapable of writing one myself. Why is that?

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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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I think 50 000 words in a month is going to be too much of an ask for me. Instead I'm going to try to get my existing manuscript up to 50 000, which would still be significant progress (tbh, adding 50 000 would make it an 80 000 word novel and I'm not convinced it's going to be that long anyway).

I haven't signed up, since I'm aiming at a rather lower word count but I shall follow along here.

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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Curiosity killed ...

Ship's Mug
# 11770

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Having dug around on the NaNo site, you can sign up as a NaNo rebel if you want to write something slightly different. The rules say fiction and a full novel or novel-style piece of fiction. Non-fiction people can play along as a NaNo rebel, or finish off books, or write short stories or screen plays.

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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat

Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006  |  IP: Logged
Joan_of_Quark

Anchoress of St Expedite
# 9887

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I have signed in again. It could be a great release from real work, or the beginning of something I might eventually turn into a finished article, or both.

Last year I completed the challenge, despite having drastically changed circumstances and a huge workload. I got an amorphous blob of a manuscript that I never tried to edit later. To be honest, it'll probably stay at the bottom of the queue of first drafts for quite a long time. My 2009 NaNo is now in its third draft, being worked on occasionally when real life doesn't intervene.

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"I want to be an artist when I grow up." "Well you can't do both!"
further quarkiness

Posts: 1025 | From: The Book Depository | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
North East Quine

Curious beastie
# 13049

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My son's doing it for the third time. This year he's away from home in his first year at Uni, so won't have me nagging about his lack of sleep, odd eating patterns and homework avoidance.

He's just finished a short story ahead of NaNoWriMo - see my sig line.

Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Paul.
Shipmate
# 37

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OK. So I had a little trip away last week and part of the purpose of that was supposed to be to "get inspired" about my Nano novel and think about ideas. Apparently I decided listening to lots of podcasts was more important instead.

So it's 3 days to go and I still haven't got an idea what I'm going to write about. I am planning to meet up with an old work colleague who's doing Nano for a beer and brainstorming session, but I'd like to show up with more than a blank page. He won last year and he says that for him the biggest thing was having lots of ideas to throw in, which is why he wanted to do the brainstorming thing.

What I may well do is what I did last year and raid my old short stories to see if there's anything that can be expanded. I tried this last year and I think part of my problem was that it was already pretty complete as a short story and expanding it felt like padding.

Anyway, long ramble aside I have a specific question. I can see how having lots of ideas to throw into the pot will help you get to the finish line in terms of wordcount BUT I worry that in my hands this will end up as a bit of a mess. So, do you think a novel should have one big idea running through it or do you think it's ok for it to be more of a patchwork affair?

Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Curiosity killed ...

Ship's Mug
# 11770

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My current plan is to go with the first idea I have and see how far I get with it, and if that doesn't work out, try the next idea, and etc. So I've got four or five ideas that I was just going to play with to get the words.

I read the NaNo boards, and loosely connected short stories counts if that works for you, but straight short stories puts you in the rebel camp

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Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006  |  IP: Logged
Firenze

Ordinary decent pagan
# 619

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quote:
Originally posted by Late Paul:
So, do you think a novel should have one big idea running through it or do you think it's ok for it to be more of a patchwork affair?

Perhaps the ideas may not be as disconnected as you think? Writing them out could turn into discovering the hidden connection between an Andalusian plumber living in Swansea, an autographed 2nd edition of On the Origin of Species and a party at an Italian villa on the be of WW II (or whatever).
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58

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Mine is going to have to be like that. I don't want to repeat the mistake a couple of years ago when I plunged cheerily in with no ideas and crashed out three days later. So far, some disconnected ideas seem to be stringing themselves together in some unexpected ways. You'll find as you go along that tangents take on shape and develop life, anyway.

It's good to get back into this sort of thing: I spent a lot of time on visual arts in the past couple of years, so time for a bit of a switch of direction.

Is anyone actually going to put their excerpts up, visible to the public, or are you just going for the word count? I've always just gone for the word count so far.

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Figbash

The Doubtful Guest
# 9048

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quote:
Originally posted by Late Paul:
So, do you think a novel should have one big idea running through it or do you think it's ok for it to be more of a patchwork affair?

I tend to have one reasonably big idea, but then take a couple of days to elaborate it with any other ideas I think I could hang off it in some way or other. So do a bit of free association as it were. Then I try to write all that down in a coherent way. Then I start and just let it go where it takes me.

The one other point I would make is that I prefer character-driven stories to plot-driven. If you have one or two interesting characters, you can just let them talk at one another and they'll fill up as much space as you want them to. Or they want to, as it sometimes seems.

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kaytee
Shipmate
# 3482

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I'm having a last minute panic. [Eek!] I have an idea, I know how the story begins, and I have an idea for how it might end, but no real clue what will happen in the middle.

I've been practising by writing something every day for the last couple of weeks, but only managing about 300 words per day. [Help] I will have to devote more time to it in November which will be hard.

Incidentally I agree that allowing the characters to talk is a good idea. I started trying to put some character sketches together by describing them myself, but then found it was easier to ask them to describe themselves and each other.

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'Lying is a vital survival skill – and a terrible habit.' ~ The Doctor

Posts: 152 | From: Hertfordshire, UK | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged



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