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Source: (consider it) Thread: Doing NaNoWriMo 2016?
Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468

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Anyone else doing National Novel Writing Month this month?

We usually have a thread each year, but I didn't see one.

Explanations and instructions are on the site. While doing 50k words in a month is hard work, it's not necessarily as daunting as you might think. And you can get support and ideas on their boards.

Write on! [Cool]

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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")

Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001  |  IP: Logged
andras
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# 2065

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Lumme! I manage 500 words a day, six days a week.

Beyond that I find I'm getting ahead of myself. 50k a month might have been fine for Enid Blyton or Dickens but not for me!

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God's on holiday.
(Why borrow a cat?)
Adrian Plass

Posts: 544 | From: Tregaron | Registered: Dec 2001  |  IP: Logged
Golden Key
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# 1468

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FYI: It's just for November, not every month. People use all sorts of tricks to put their normal life aside, as much as possible, and to stay motivated. You might find the site interesting, even if you don't participate.

And what does "lumme" mean, please? Thx.

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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")

Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001  |  IP: Logged
moonlitdoor
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# 11707

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It's an expression of surprise in British English. Slang but not rude.

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We've evolved to being strange monkeys, but in the next life he'll help us be something more worthwhile - Gwai

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cattyish

Wuss in Boots
# 7829

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I'm doing NaNoWriMo. I've done it a few times and sometimes won. I do it as Cattyish on the NaNoWriMo site.

This year I have (somewhat through a fixed smile) agreed to write an idea my other half came up with since he's been badgering me to write it for him for months. He refuses to shut up about it or to write it himself.

Continuing the tangent, I think "lummie" is a contraction of "God love me", so fairly mild swearing along the lines of "darn" or "blast".

Cattyish, 6205 words.

Posts: 1794 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
andras
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# 2065

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Lumme is a contraction of As the Lord loves me, used as an expression of mild surprise. Swearing? Possibly if you're very straitlaced, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it!

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God's on holiday.
(Why borrow a cat?)
Adrian Plass

Posts: 544 | From: Tregaron | Registered: Dec 2001  |  IP: Logged
Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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I'm guessing, from the way it was spelled, that GL was mentally pronouncing it as one syllable. Something like "loom". "Lummie" is a lot more translatable.

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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

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Ariel
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# 58

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quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I'm guessing, from the way it was spelled, that GL was mentally pronouncing it as one syllable. Something like "loom".

Spot on. Don't believe any of the above explanations, it's actually an old Swedish exclamation that means "Lord send me light!" and indeed pronounced as you outline above. You don't hear it much in modern Britain, outside the Swedish community areas.
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Brenda Clough
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# 18061

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The great virtue of NaNoWriMo is that it forces you to write in volume, at speed. You don't get to agonize about the quality of your prose, there isn't time. This allows you to evade that Inner Editor, who gets her innings in December, practically forever from now.

This is a useful discovery for the young writer, and once you learn the trick you may be able to exert it in a less exhausting way. (FWIW I have learned that the Inner Editor is a night owl, and does not rise early. First thing in the day the imagination is powerful.)

Once at an apex of productivity and imagination I wrote 10K in one day. But I could not do that in any regular way.

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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page

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Ariel
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# 58

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quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
The great virtue of NaNoWriMo is that it forces you to write in volume, at speed. You don't get to agonize about the quality of your prose, there isn't time. This allows you to evade that Inner Editor, who gets her innings in December, practically forever from now.

In theory. In practice I am that Inner Editor. [Devil]
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

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Those cursed with an overly active Inner Editor can sometimes put the creature off by deliberately typing with the monitor turned OFF. I've had several students find success breaking writer's block this way.

If you absolutely must see the last sentence or two, you can minimize your screen window in such a way that it only holds that last bit of text that you're actually working on, so you're not tempted to reread and edit.

I regret I have no ideas for what to do for handwriters. Working in total darkness doesn't seem helpful.

(Oh! I know, I know! In a tearing hurry once, I composed the curricula for four workshops in two days by hiding out in a broom closet with a tape recorder. It's virtually impossible to edit anything while you are speaking it. The whole thing is even better if you can con some other poor soul into actually typing up your dictation. [Devil] )

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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'm doing it again, hoping to kick-start my current WIP which is going a bit slowly. Although there's so much research I still have to do that I'm writing around a lot of gaps at the moment.

I'm trudyj on the NaNo site if anyone's looking for buddies.

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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
cattyish

Wuss in Boots
# 7829

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Halfway through and a little behind. I have caught up from this far behind the target word count before, so here's hoping. I just found a useful side character knocking on my main character's door. Perhaps there might be some romance to cheer her up a bit.

Cattyish, typing away.

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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Brenda Clough
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# 18061

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Do you work all day every day on it, or only after work or in the evenings?

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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page

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Trudy Scrumptious

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# 5647

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I have been way behind due to having to get grades in last week (and possibly being a little obsessed with following news stories about the US election) but over the long weekend last weekend I managed to get caught up. I am just under 25,000 words, which is exactly where I should be at the midpoint of the month. The huge gaps in my research are starting to show, but the plot is moving forward.

Oh, and assuming your question was a general one for everyone, Brenda, I can usually manage to grab an hour or so in the evening of a working day to work on my book, but get more time on Sundays. That's pretty much my usual writing schedule during the school year; what I like about NaNo is that it gives me a motivation to make sure I carve out that hour, rather than spending it on something else.

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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
Brenda Clough
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# 18061

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I've heard of people taking time off to write in November.

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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page

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cattyish

Wuss in Boots
# 7829

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I'm not taking time off to write, but I will take my laptop when we go up to the far North to visit my Dad shortly. It'll be dark and chilly and windy, so a bracing walk when the sun rises and the rest of the time writing should be fine.

Cattyish, 24033 words.

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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Trudy Scrumptious

BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647

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quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I've heard of people taking time off to write in November.

I would if I could, but as a teacher I don't have that kind of flexibility. July and August are my time off to write, but I still try to put that extra push on to get some work done in November anyway, when the writing would easily get lost between other priorities if I didn't make it one. NaNo really helps me do that for some reason.

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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
cattyish

Wuss in Boots
# 7829

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I wrote on the train this morning, which was very productive and made the journey go by like a bullet train. unfortunately I'm now likely stranded in Inverness (Mr C is stuck in Aberdeen with my broken car) with a dwindling battery. I might try to plug in this old beast in a café or maybe at my brother's sheltered housing if he can stand having me hang around for long enough.

Cattyish, changing plans....

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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Posts: 1794 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
Trudy Scrumptious

BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647

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Who's finished, or still pushing towards the goal in the last 24 hours (more or less, depending where you live)? I technically have about a day left but I really want to finish tonight. 47,000 words down, 3000 to go.

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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
Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492

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My wife, Z, finished it on time but has loads of work to do to finish the book. It is science fiction, involving dolphins and is well over a hundred pages spread over two books.

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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.

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cattyish

Wuss in Boots
# 7829

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I got to 50,000 words, but not to the heart of the story. Because the ideas for the story were from Mr C and largely visual I was struggling to establish deeper character and plot progression. In the past I've started with my own ideas and a plan for characters to develop.

Cattyish, considering when and how to edit.

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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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