Thread: National Novel Writing Month Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
This is an annual event that spans several different countries. The object is to start a novel on the first of November and accomplish putting 50,000 words in print by the end of the month.

I tried and failed to succeed two years ago, falling short by over 7000 words but my wife, Z, has some good ideas and will be participating actively while I am probably sitting on the sidelines. She is already a published author, having done quite a few reviews of young adult books for a scholarly journal. She is a high school English teacher and very much looking forward to "NaNoWriMo"!
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
It is only fair to add that 50K would make for a very short novel indeed. One should not look to finish a work in one month; even professionals have difficulty doing that and the resulting books are usually written under the gun (a bio of Princess Diana ground out in time for her funeral, for example) and not very good. A good novel is not written, it's rewritten.
What you will get in NaNoWriMo is a good basis for the work; if it's not going to take off after you write 50k then the novel is stillborn and you should start anew. The pressure is great for getting you to just crank stuff out.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
The North East Loon got a book published which started life as a NaNoWriMo, but it went through many rewrites after that.

I am intending to do it this year, though I can't decide. I reached 17,000 words last year, and would like to continue and try to get to 67,000 words, but I'm not sure if that's in the spirit of the thing.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Spirit, pooh. This is not the Ten Commandments, eh? Anything you need to do to get it done is good. I would go for it, if you find NaNoWriMo helpful at all.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
I'm a many-times veteran of NaNoWriMo and I think I've said here before: if it's useful to you, do it in a way that works for you. When I'm at the phase in any writing project where I need 50,000 more words -- either to kick-start a new project, or push to the finish on an older one -- I'll do NaNo. I'm doing it this year because the current book is half done and taking forever, so I'm hoping the discipline of trying to reach my word count goal every day and checking in with others who are doing the same will help me get this very rough first draft finished. Nearly every book I've had published in the last 10 years has had a good chunk of it written during NaNoWriMo, so I'm a believer -- I just don't believe you have to follow "the rules" (why would you, as it's a program that runs entirely on the honour system?)

Some writer friends of mine eschew it completely, which of course is also fine -- if shooting for 50,000 words in November doesn't serve your overall writing goals, why bother?
 

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Posted by Doublethink. (# 1984) on :
 
In that spirit I am going to try for a poem a day, of any length or style. Idea being to then rewrite and refine those I pick out as worth persuing at the end of the month.

[ 23. October 2015, 20:54: Message edited by: Doublethink. ]
 

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Posted by Zeke (# 3271) on :
 
I am going to a local gathering for people who are doing NaNoWriMo next month. It's this evening, so I am looking forward to meeting some people and maybe getting inspired. I agree, 50K is a very short novel and I am not sure that what I have in mind is feasible, but it will be an interesting month. I have done all the recommended things, registered on the NaNo site and joined the Facebook group, so I hope I can change my usual routine in the evenings and sit at the computer instead.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
It is astonishing how encouraging it is, to know that tons of people around you are working on the same thing.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I went to my first local event tonight! It was lots of fun!

Talking about my story really motivated me-- I really want people to meet my characters. I am gonna try to hit a meet once a week.
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Keep up the good work, ladies and Godspeed. My wife was amazed when I told her she had to write 1667 words a day!
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
That's a good rate of production, true. Under the spell of powerful inspiration I have written as many as 10,000 words in one day, but that is rare. I am happy if I can write a thousand words a day.
 

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Posted by agingjb (# 16555) on :
 
I've signed up, with the vague intention of a sustained verse narrative. We'll see.

I'd have to say that the forum software they use seems to make that of SoF look state of the art.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
My advice, if you want to crank wordage, is to be a plotter. Have as much plot laid out as you can in advance. Know before you set finger to keyboard that the work is going to begin in Hobbiton and go through Rivendell and the Mines of Moria before winding up at Mount Doom. Know who is going to be where doing what when.
Build the car, the engine, the seats. Then on November first you get behind the wheel, gun the engine, and fly down that highway. Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run!
And...if you are not a plotter? Then you hope that your Muse, sitting over there on Mount Parnassus, is doing all that work for you. Because on November first the pantsers, the seat of the pants writers, get into the car and turn the key, and see if she starts up.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
I had such illusions about how much of my other writing-related work and my real-life work I was going to get out of the way by tonight, so that I'd be free to focus intensely on NaNoWriMo starting at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Well, that wasn't quite how it worked out, but ... I'll still start, even though there will always be other things on my to-do list.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I am really lucky-- the kids I worked with on Friday gave my first chapter's material.

(Oh and look for me as Bunnywithanaxe on the Nano site.)

[ 31. October 2015, 20:23: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

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Posted by Surfing Madness (# 11087) on :
 
At the last minute I've decided to give this year a bash, as the beginnings of a plot came to me today.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
The other tip, with NaNoWriMo only, is to be like Elsa in Frozen and Let It Go. Just pour it out, all the digressions, the discussions about whether Fluffy should be spayed this month or not, the characters wasting their time trekking through the fenlands east of Rohan in the pouring rain and quarreling with Gollum. Let them discuss for page after page the doctrine of the Transubstantiation or whether the Mets have their pitching game together this season or whether Donald Trump's hairpiece is acrylic or not. Cranking wordage is not necessarily cranking novel. You will either toss, prune, or modify most of this stuff. And you never know. The Muse is powerful; somewhere in and amongst all that Transubstantiation stuff may be the theme, the germ of the entire work.
 

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :
 
I am starting afresh and instead of continuing with last year's Victorian lesbian, I am writing about a different Victorian woman.
 

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Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :
 
I've completed/won 2 or 3 times, and participated other times. This time 'round, I've started and will participate as I can.

A few FWIW suggestions:

--For any kind of reference information, try Refdesk.com. I recommend using the sitemap to navigate. (Link in the leftmost column, under "Site Information.) It's amazing.

--There are all kinds of plot, character, name, etc. generators online--good if you like to write in response to prompts. I think one is called "Abulafia".

--Don't worry about grammar or spelling. Don't go back and edit. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SHOW THIS TO ANYONE!!! Word count and daring to write are all that matter.

--DO be wordy. Avoid contractions, if you can. (E.g., use "can not" instead of "can't".) Or, if you're using a word processor, you can always replace all the contractions with their long form, before you upload your work for word count.

--Basically, just about any way you can think of to increase your word count is ok, as long as it's pertinent. So song lyrics, passages of poetry or scripture, recipes, itineraries, etc. are ok.

--You can get ideas, help, and support on the NaNo forums.

--Try rewriting or adding to a fairy tale, Shakespeare, a favorite show or movie.

--Your story does NOT have to be good enough to publish, or share with anyone. You can rework it later. All you need to do this month is get words on a page.

--There are various rebel ways of doing Nano, and you can find such rebels on the forums. They may do non-fiction, poetry, comic books, rewrite something, etc.

--Do this for you. Don't judge yourself. This isn't schoolwork, so no grades. And have FUN!

ETA: Important: Save multiple copies of your work, every day. Set your word processor to automatically back up everything, and to auto-save every minute or so. Save extra copies to a different folder. If you have more than one e-mail account, upload your story and e-mail it from one account to the other. Use a USB drive. If you're writing by hand, then copy, scan, or photograph your work as often as you can.

[ 03. November 2015, 03:09: Message edited by: Golden Key ]
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Caught my first teacher cold of the school year last week. Three days achieving nothing but work and crashing. Day four I manage some words, and by today I feel I am writing at a pretty good pace.
I check my word count stats:
Daily average: 925
At this pace you will be done by: Dec 25.

Me: Oh HELL no.

Plus, I am jealous of Trudy's pie chart thingie and it motivates me to catch up.

I did figure out a way to compartmentalize one of the most difficult parts of the story, though and by tackling it section by section-- literally in terms of story, compart by compartment-- the words are coming easily

[ 08. November 2015, 04:51: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
The pie chart thing was entirely my attempt to motivate myself -- I do use the word count bar on the NaNo forums, but since I use Facebook a lot more than I use those forums, I wanted something big and obvious that would smack me in the face each time I opened Facebook. I find I'm very easily motivated by graphs and charts if they're made visual and I can see them frequently.

Don't be discouraged if you're behind at this point -- carving out a few segments of time when you can sit down and churn out a bunch of words can get you back on track fairly quickly at this stage in the game.

I'm doing well so far in terms of word count (14,000) but I find myself thinking as I type, "Well, a lot of this is going to go in the next round of edits -- is this whole chapter even necessary?" But I don't worry about that when writing a first draft. Also, I have a character who keeps dying and rising to life -- which suggests I'm writing fantasy, sci-fi or something very spiritual, but in fact it's quite straight historical fiction. I just can't decide at what point in the story this character dies, and sometimes I write scenes as if he's already long gone and then in the next scene he's there talking and playing the accordion. So, clearly some tidying up to be done there in edits, but there'll be plenty of time for that later.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Heh. Timeline issues are fun.

Strangely, the part I am having the easiest time writing at the moment involves some of the most difficult subject matter, and while I want to ride this out, I know I better jump ahead to a fun part some time before I lose my shit.

And Trudy, knowing accomplished authors such as yourself need to aggressively kick themselves in the butt is comforting.

[ 08. November 2015, 11:41: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

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Posted by Doublethink. (# 1984) on :
 
So far, I have managed to write nothing, I blaming the timing of the latest Assassin's Creed release.

[ 08. November 2015, 16:01: Message edited by: Doublethink. ]
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
It does not particularly matter how you do it, so long as in the end you get there. Some very famous writers were leap-ahead-to-the-good-stuff writers. Gone With the Wind was written that way -- Margaret Mitchell wrote all the key scenes (Rhett proposing to Scarlett and so on) in advance of everything else, and then connected it all up later.
I prefer to start at the first sentence and write straight through to the end, no skipping. If I skip there tends to be a hole that I have difficulty filling in later, like a donut. You have seen the cartoon of the physicist, who has an elaborate equation filling an entire blackboard. In the middle, connecting the two halves of the equation, is this in brackets: "A Miracle Happens Here." That's what I get into, unless I keep on the straight and narrow.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Gone With the Wind was written that way -- Margaret Mitchell wrote all the key scenes (Rhett proposing to Scarlett and so on) in advance of everything else, and then connected it all up later.

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This is more or less what I have been doing. I am definitely at the stage where I need to have some narrative to which I can attach my vignettes.

I just miss one of my leads, who kind of steals the show down the line, and am temporarily coping with this by imagining what I am writing now is a series of notes written to him by the other main character. But I want to play with his voice again.

[ 08. November 2015, 19:27: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
As you possibly know, I am a pantser to the core. I live, for that moment when the character sits up on the laboratory table, the Tesla coils buzzing above him, and the cry goes up, "He's alive!" So if I were you I would immediately cozy up to that character and let him talk. Lean into the mike, dear. Talk to me! Take the story, my love, over hill, over dale, to galaxies long ago and realms far away -- but perhaps you are a more organized writer than I.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I intend to. Basically he's gonna be my reward for finishing the secion I am working on.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
I find that when I write out of sequence -- which I sometimes do -- if I write a scene that's far ahead in the story's timeline, by the time I later get to the point where that scene was supposed to occur, the bit I'd already written sometimes doesn't fit anymore. I find myself saying, "This character has developed in ways I didn't originally plan, and she would NEVER do what I have her doing in this scene" ... so I end up having to rewrite it anyway.
 

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Posted by VirginiaKneeling (# 18414) on :
 
I've wanted to do this for some time.....and wouldn't you know it, I have a rock and gem show scheduled smack in the middle of the month, which requires that the first week and a half be devoted to prep, and from the Thursday before Veterans' Day (travel there) to the Monday after (travel back) be devoted to it. For a couple of days afterward I'm to beat to even contemplate writing. Oh, I know, I could start early, but what's the fun in that when there's no one encouraging you?
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
What I have found helpful is to have two quite separate documents. I have a Word document, which is the True Novel. This is the one with the word count, and which is written from the first sentence to the last, in order. All the stuff that spins into my brain that should go into chapter 20? Off into another document. I keep this second one in an entirely different format, over on Internet Typewriter, along with links to wiki pages about shipwrecks in the proper period, URLs for visual references, and so on. Over there is the compost heap, everything pitched in on top of itself. Whenever I need it back again, I go over there and root it out. Cut and paste moves it from Typewriter over to the Word document, and then it's real.
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
My lovely bride is doing quite well: she has something in the neighbourhood of 11,000 words. Our daughter started just yesterday afternoon and she claimed to have over a thousand words.

The location of Z's novel is northern San Diego County, California. I am helping her out with place names and suggested background material as well as cars - thus far it is entertaining and very readable!

I lived there for parts of ten years so I know the area well.
 

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Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :
 
I am doing NaNoWriMo too, and I've done 14,425 words so far. 'No plot, no problem' seems to be the case for me!
 

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Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :
 
I'm playing at NaNoWriMo this year. I don't really have a plot, just a concept. It involves mountains and legends and annoying teenagers.

I've done completely out of order scenes identified by a time signature, linear historical fiction, futuristic science fiction, a prequel to MacBeth and I've written about running and genetically engineered werewolves in the past. It's all good fun.

I like the list of published NaNoWriMo novels.

Cattyish, friend to a published NaNoWriMo author or two. Or is it three?
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
My wife is too busy writing to post. She should have 14,000 word by lunchtime...
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I intend to. Basically he's gonna be my reward for finishing the secion I am working on.

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See below. This is why I love this character, he constantly says awesome shit like this.
 

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Posted by Liopleurodon (# 4836) on :
 
I'm a little late to the SoF nano party, but I'm fully immersed in nano hell. If anyone wishes to buddy me up I'm MightyBitey.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Every month for me is NaNoWriMo, but I will report that today the WIP (Work in Progress, a knitting term) stands at 26K. I began before Halloween, but not much before.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I am behind, but had to take break today.

Here is my quandary-- I write really well when I have coffee. Like, really, really well- the prose flies from my fingertips. But if I drink coffee I simply don't sleep. So, tonight is about sleep. tomorrow-- and the weekend-- is all about catchup.
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Z must write 1889 words everyday in order to stay on track: she have 16,000 and change now!



 

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Posted by Amorya (# 2652) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
My advice, if you want to crank wordage, is to be a plotter. Have as much plot laid out as you can in advance. Know before you set finger to keyboard that the work is going to begin in Hobbiton and go through Rivendell and the Mines of Moria before winding up at Mount Doom. Know who is going to be where doing what when.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Amorya:

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
My advice, if you want to crank wordage, is to be a plotter. Have as much plot laid out as you can in advance. Know before you set finger to keyboard that the work is going to begin in Hobbiton and go through Rivendell and the Mines of Moria before winding up at Mount Doom. Know who is going to be where doing what when.

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I only decided to do it on Nov 2nd. But then I spent a week plotting. Ended up with a bunch of character vignettes, a 2000 word synopsis, and a list of scenes and expected word count for each.

I now need to write 2400 words a day, but that's surprisingly attainable. I broke 10k yesterday!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I have this thing where I know exactly what the characters are going to do, in what sequence, but I have to flesh out why they do it, what leads up to it, etc.

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Isn't that where the problems come in?
 

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Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :
 
I have no plot at all, and I've done 27,000 words so far. I'm writing about myself as a fictional version of me, meeting the various characters I've created over the years, when I make up stories and characters in my head, and my conversations with them. It's incredibly fun, and they say some unexpected things.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
That sounds interesting!
 

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Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :
 
Yes, it's interesting, and weird, and a little bit exhausting! And ridiculously meta.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Honestly it sounds like something that would be a blast to read.

Drinking coffee and trying motivate self! Speak, oh Gentle Muse...
 

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Posted by Doublethink. (# 1984) on :
 
(I am Thinkable on the site - feel free to buddy )
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
YES! took me all day, but I finally caught up.
 

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Posted by Doublethink. (# 1984) on :
 
Well done

[ 15. November 2015, 08:21: Message edited by: Doublethink. ]
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
My wife expects to have 25,000 words before dinner.


 

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Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Doublethink.:
(I am Thinkable on the site - feel free to buddy )

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I would buddy you, but I'm not using the site this year. Whenever I've used it in the past, I've never got very far in my writing - I get totally distracted by the site itself. Especially last year when there were all these things you were supposed to do to gain points. This is the first year I think I stand a chance of completing 50,000 words, so I'm just focusing on writing and not the site.
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Z wrote 5000 words yesterday; she'll have 25,000 by the end of the afternoon,
 

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Posted by Amorya (# 2652) on :
 
Broke the writers block yesterday, and pushed out 3400 words. I'm still behind, but moving again at least!
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I am at 31K, entirely without any conscious effort on my part.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
Just got to 30,000, but it definitely DID take a lot of conscious effort to carve out writing time. The second half of this November is much less busy for me than the first so I'm hoping to get past 50,000 and maybe even have this first draft completed (though it will be very very rough) by the end of the month.
 

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Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :
 
Yay, ladies!
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Taking the damn night off. Will regroup tomorrow.

Seriously i think it is a good idea o schedule in recovery time. i am on vacation all next week, and plan to spend most of it writing, but I can't stay cooped up in the hotel room all week.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
I've hit 40K for Nano, which makes just over 90K for the whole book so far. If I have as productive a last week as I'm hoping for, I will meet (hopefully exceed) my NaNo goal and also have a very, very, very rough draft of the whole story complete, which would be awesome.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
42K, but it is only fair to say that the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh. Also, I have got over the hump of the plot and we are now schussing down the snowy slope, faster and faster, butt tucked, ski poles clamped under the arms, and the ski jump is just ahead, where the entire thing zooms into the icy sparkling air and accumulates ten thousand words a day.
 

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Posted by Doublethink. (# 1984) on :
 
Congrats people with serious word counts, I have somewhat stalled again myself.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Join me in the poop out corner-- me, too. I think my were actually suffering computer fatigue, I just got really sleepy for the past two days.

I am heading out of town, though and am staying in a sleepy little town with not much to do, so hopefully will get a lot done.
 

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Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :
 
I am catching up! My cooker is broken, the washing is half done, I have yet to pack to go off to Edinburgh tomorrow but I knocked out 4000 words today and am still hopeful about reaching the summit of Mount NaNoWriMo by the end of the month.

In other news, I suspect that some Nanoers will have an unfinished masterpiece to refer to for next year's inspiration. Also, if you're anything like my friend Alex then you'll write 10,000 words a day for the last three days and win at 1 minute to midnight.

Cattyish, off to eat something other than chocolate.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
47K, and my miserable characters are in the pit of despair, surrounded by agonies on every side. And it will get worse, yes it will. We have not yet hit bottom. Along about 55K it will be the bottom, and then they can spend 30 or 40 thousand more words coming back up.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
I'm about 45K for the NaNo goal, which is about 98K total on this book. The biggest problem I'm encountering right now is that the part I'm writing involves quite a lot of technical legal, police procedural and financial details about which I know absolutely nothing. Just to move the story forward and have the human interactions for which the legal problems are the backdrop, I am pushing ahead and just making stuff up to fill in the blanks, with all the research to come later. So I'm writing away to get to the end of the story, all the while knowing that a huge chunk of what I'm writing at this point will end up getting thrown out and rewritten.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
Perfectly acceptable, everyone does that. It is dangerous to do the [and then a miracle happens here] thing -- what if you can't pull a miracle out of the hat in the rewrite? But everybody does the [big battle here, bang, boom]. Or [squishy sex, lot of fluids]. Or simply [more stuff here].
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
Oh yes, I tend to do that anyway in first drafts, although it's more extreme when I'm trying to make a deadline. And most of my minor characters are named X and Y at this point.
 

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Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

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Trudy Scrumptious: And most of my minor characters are named X and Y at this point.

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quote:

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Brenda Clough: I also find Russian novels, with all the characters so similarly named, confusing: Natasha, Natalya, etc.

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Hehe, Cien años de soledad, where everyone is called Arcadio or Aureliano
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I agree, too close. Names like Rob and Bob are bad candidates for global search and replace, however. All occurrences of those letters will be replaced, and thus things like "discombobulated" becomes "discomrobulated."

I am rather pernickety about names in novels, and am not above playing little games with them. All the minor one-shot characters in the books I am writing now are derived from obscure Broadway musicals, for instance. I do not believe anyone will ever notice this, but it entertains me.
 

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Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I agree, too close. Names like Rob and Bob are bad candidates for global search and replace, however. All occurrences of those letters will be replaced, and thus things like "discombobulated" becomes "discomrobulated."

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quote:

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Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I agree, too close. Names like Rob and Bob are bad candidates for global search and replace, however. All occurrences of those letters will be replaced, and thus things like "discombobulated" becomes "discomrobulated."

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...and even if you have a competent search-and-replace facility that can be instructed to match only "Rob" surrounded by non-letter characters, you'll find that you now have someone going out to bob a bank.

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quote:

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Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:

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Brenda Clough: I also find Russian novels, with all the characters so similarly named, confusing: Natasha, Natalya, etc.

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Hehe, Cien años de soledad, where everyone is called Arcadio or Aureliano

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quote:

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Lamb Chopped: Meh, this is where you tell it to search for capital-R lowercase-o lowercase-b space/period/comma/semicolon. Four searches (changing the last character each time) will cover them all.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Meh, this is where you tell it to search for capital-R lowercase-o lowercase-b space/period/comma/semicolon. Four searches (changing the last character each time) will cover them all.

Guess what I used to do for a living?

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"Rob banks?" asked LC incredulously.
 

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Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
thus things like "discombobulated" becomes "discomrobulated."

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quote:

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Originally posted by Fineline:
I am up to 48,675 words. I'm going to get to 50,000 very easily and this will be the first time I've ever 'completed' NaNoWriMo. I put 'completed' in quotation marks because, although I could make the story end at that point, I don't want to. It wants to be longer. There is more to write - more needs to happen for me to reach a satisfactory conclusion. I'm not sure how that works though - not sure what the NaNoWriMo rules are. If it goes on for longer and I'm still writing it in December, does that mean I didn't finish NaNoWriMo, or would the fact that I reached 50,000 words mean I finished it?

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Congratulations I think you win if you reach 50,000 regardless of what happens afterwards.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
50K is definitely a win no matter how much of the final manuscript it represents.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
I am at 56K. All the characters are lying prone, sobbing in misery, as ashes rain down on them and the fields are sown with salt. Misery reigns supreme! I figure another 40K will get us back up out of the hole to the ending.
 

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Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
(I say leave them there )
 

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Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :
 
Thanks, Doublethink and Trudy Scrumptious. I have now gone past the 50,000 mark, so I guess I've finished NaNoWriMo, but not finished the novel yet.
 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
I've also passed the 50K mark now but am also quite close to the end of this draft so am pressing on for now.
 

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Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :
 
I'm getting closer, but the eking out of plot is so thin that it would put a thrifty post-war housewife's use of butter to shame.

Cattyish, comtemplating a break to allow some new ideas to percolate.
 

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
When you run out of plot:

- select two random characters and shove them into bed together. (A friend of mine, who was writing Ethnic Epics, did this. Looong trilogies about The Sicilians Or The Hugenots or whatever, and he had to work to fill the pages.)

- See this. They have vastly expanded the coding for Medicare and Medicaid injuries. This is inspiration, raw and on the hoof. Just select one, at random, and sock it onto your characters: bitten by dormouse, left side, secondary visit. Fall from hot-air balloon. Crushing injury, ball-peen hammer. Entire novels lurk here.

- Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back, and ponder: what is the worst possible thing that could happen to these characters? Yes, do that. It never does a writer any harm, to have a good wide streak of sadism in her. They need to suffer. Make them feel pain.
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by cattyish:
I'm getting closer, but the eking out of plot is so thin that it would put a thrifty post-war housewife's use of butter to shame.

Cattyish, comtemplating a break to allow some new ideas to percolate.

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