Board 8 > NaNoWriMo

(+) Yeah! (+)

Who's doing it this year?

I'm gonna see how much I can knock out on reviving an old idea for a play, probably my most dramatic and "serious" piece yet if I stick with it...definitely not my standard thing, but the thought's lingered a long time so it's go-time.

What idea are you about to excel at creating?
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I'm trying to get my brother to do it. He's been trying to get back into creative writing and he always has ideas for things.

@DoomTheGyarados might be doing it as well? I'm not sure who else regularly writes.

As for me I will follow and encourage others on their creatives pursuits.
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I am, yes.

My story is a very dark story (with comedy) about a man named Alexander who is haunted by literal demons since he was a small boy, that for the most part only he can see and interact with. They also have matching elemental types of the four basic elements.

Fire: Anger
Ice: Sadness
Air: Anxiety

With only Earth seeking to actually be useful to him and ground him.

It's really a story that's based on in concept with my battle with mental health issues, although the main character isn't meant to be modeled after me in any real way. The entire story is going to be a metaphor and a telling of mental health and how the struggle can manifest in the mind's eye. For example the Ice Demon will love to straddle the main character and passionately kiss him, signifying that sadness loves to cling to us and caress us until all we can feel is her addicting and draining touch.

I have a lot more details planned out, but don't want to give up the ghost. Hoping to subvert a lot of cliches of a story like this and tell something that is compelling and humorous.
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I might

I've had an idea rattling around in my head for a while.

Grad school is kicking into gear though, so it's hard to know for sure if I'll be able to.
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You know what, I think I will participate. My problem is that I keep getting hung up in editing. I love coming up with ideas and planning those ideas (I have like 300+ book ideas from over the years) and I enjoy editing maybe a little too much, but despite all of that I'm just not sure I have it in me to be a decent writer. I hate basically every sentence I create, and since I don't mind editing I always get so bogged down trying to fix Chapter One that I never write Chapter Two.

NaNoWriMo might be good for me to actually try and clear that hurdle. I don't think I'll participate officially, though. They only allow ideas with no prior writing and the only two ideas I feel like doing already have 10k and 500 words respectively. Still, I'll try for 50k words and follow along with others. I guess I have two days to settle on an idea...
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I'm KIND OF participating. I have a novelette project for my literature class. I need to write 10k to 12.5k words for it. The novelette is supposed to engage in themes and genres discussed in class (what constitutes a novel, etc). So I'm writing a gothic novelette heavily inspired by eternal darkness.
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Have done it last 6 years. Been working on a paranormal series and need to draft the next sequel. On phone, so I'm really just taggong.
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I'm already working on a horror novel. I'm about 10000 words in so far. I don't know if I'll finish during NaNoWriMo, but I hope to get some work done on it.
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Unfortunately I don't have the time to participate. I have way too much going on this month. I really like to do this too.
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I just wrote my plot summary to share and then GameFlux lost my post.

Fucking discouraging, boo. I'll try again later.
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Mobilezoid posted...

NaNoWriMo might be good for me to actually try and clear that hurdle.

This is precisely what Nanowrimo is good for. I always got hung up on that same problem because I kept feeling like things had to be perfect, until I did nano and was told I wasn't allowed to go back and edit. So I just went.

And my first year kinda sucked. The story jumped the tracks, and was a total mess by the end. But the subsequent years I've had a decent enough story.

HaRRicH posted...

I just wrote my plot summary to share and then GameFlux lost my post.

Fucking discouraging, boo. I'll try again later.

Losing anything story-related or that you spend more than a couple minutes on is pretty back-breaking. Consider that a reminder to save and back-up constantly when you're writing your novel.

And write your big forum posts in a text editor, and then copy-paste them.
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Better yet write them in Google drive. Saves every few seconds!
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The forum posts or the novel? Because if you mean the novel, there's good and bad to using google drive. And you can configure text editors to autosave that frequently, too. I know Scrivener did until I told it not to because it kept freezing up too often while it backed up my WIP.
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azuarc posted...

The forum posts or the novel? Because if you mean the novel, there's good and bad to using google drive. And you can configure text editors to autosave that frequently, too. I know Scrivener did until I told it not to because it kept freezing up too often while it backed up my WIP.

Forum posts! But I will probably write mine in Google drive for ease.
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I want to, but with a 4 year old and a 4 month old, I don't have the time. Looking forward to 5 or 6 years from now when I can give it a real shot.
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I'm going to use this topic to post progress and whatnot, hopefully I don't bother anyone.

I decided that continuing a story I was already bogged down in was asking for trouble so I searched my idea list and chose a new one. I like its concept, but it also isn't one of my favorites just in case this experiment in speed-writing results in an unworkable mess. Usually I don't start writing until after roughly a hundred hours of careful planning but my old methods have never resulted in a finished work so I may as well take a risk. I'll spend most of Halloween trying to flesh this new idea out but that's it. Then I'll get home from work right after midnight on November 1st and start swinging at the word count.
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I lost so much of my writing when my computer shit the bed a few years ago.

That's all it takes to always back it up forevermore.
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I haven't written in over a year, so I really need to participate. Tons of ideas going in my head. Just wish I weren't so self conscious about my skills :/
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Robazoid posted...

I'm going to use this topic to post progress and whatnot, hopefully I don't bother anyone.

I decided that continuing a story I was already bogged down in was asking for trouble so I searched my idea list and chose a new one. I like its concept, but it also isn't one of my favorites just in case this experiment in speed-writing results in an unworkable mess. Usually I don't start writing until after roughly a hundred hours of careful planning but my old methods have never resulted in a finished work so I may as well take a risk. I'll spend most of Halloween trying to flesh this new idea out but that's it. Then I'll get home from work right after midnight on November 1st and start swinging at the word count.

In that case, I might as well explain what's going on in mine, since I've already started it. (I'll keep a fresh wordcount for November.)

My MC, Abby, is an elite athlete who hopes to some day be in the Olympic heptathlon. She was also born with an angel in her head (who she calls Kim), and has really done all her athletic training in order to hunt demons. In my first book, she's discovered by the supernatural underground, "The Organization," after avenging Kim's old host. The Organization brings her to LA to work for them, while maintaining a day job as a fitness trainer for Hollywood clients. Adventures ensue.

The main thrust of this one is that Abby's sister, Rachel, comes to town to cheer her on when Abby decides to try to finish a triathlon. The Organization defends their area from rogue supernaturals in order to keep their existence hidden from the public, but a sorcerer new to the area also spectates the race and mind controls a whole slew of people there, including Rachel. (He tries to charm Abby as well, but she's unaffected because of Kim.) The guy is basically a one-trick pony, but he's impossible to approach by anyone other than Abby because he just converts them to his side.

I wrote about 40k of this previously, and didn't like where it was going so I decided to reboot it. Last week, I experimented with the idea of starting in a different place to better develop the characters. It wasn't my intent to start early, but I think I like what I have, and I'm going to roll with it. No sense in rewriting it just because tomorrow is Nov 1.

So there's your background. Now as for the story itself...

Abby gets called in by her handler, Harvey, who is also a film agent and manages her career in her day job. He informs her that they have a mission that requires her presence because Kim, her angel, can sense people's souls within a small radius, and they need to use that. One of their own people, a fae illusionist, has gone rogue, and they need to take him out before he exposes the public. Because Kim can tell the difference between a human and a fae soul, she can positively identify him regardless of what he does to try to hide.

Abby is driven by another (field) agent to the mall where the fae has been doing street performances, using real magic to wow the crowd. The guy realizes he's been made, a chase ensues, and Abby is the one who manages to corner him in a secluded area. While the guy tries to talk his way out, the other agent catches up and kills the guy, which Abby was hoping to avoid after hearing the guy's justification for his actions. She's haunted on the drive back by the fact that they had to kill one of their own people just because he was making a little money on the side.

The opening serves to give the reader background on Abby's capabilities and infuse some action into a beginning that's not going to have much while we introduce and develop some new characters. I'm kinda leery that the subsequent chapters might drag the story down, but that's a problem for the editing phase!
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I'm in it, hopefully I can pull 50k words again, though I'll be a lot busier this month compared to last november.
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I might give this a shot for my game script. Ive had blank page syndrome for over a year.
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Do it! Even if it's rougher out of the gate than you want it will still help just to get the ball rolling.
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I have no intention of hitting 50,000 words this month -- I looooove editing while writing and I've got a few things happening this month -- but I'm gonna keep at it and see where it gets me.
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Id like to try. Just started a new job though, so Im sure Ill be busy acclimating to that. Im always thinking up projects but have no follow through. Itd be nice to actually finish something for once.

azuarc posted...

In that case, I might as well explain what's going on in mine

Nice, it sounds interesting! I'm typing on a phone and there's still a lot for me to work out but I can write a quick summary of my idea

It's a science fiction book set in an enclosed city on an otherwise inhospitable world. There's no danger or scarcity because everything is controlled by a powerful AI, but after hundreds of years this has resulted in a complacent society, clearly on the decline. Then a popular artist disappears, something that shouldn't be possible with the AI monitoring everything and everyone. Investigations soon reveal countless flaws that have accumulated in the AIs programming over the years, as well as an entire depraved community that has arisen in areas where there are cracks in the security. This acts as a sudden existential threat to an entire city that'd never feared anything before.

That's the overall plot, anyway. The story mostly follows a young woman as she braves the underground society searching for the missing artist, who was her only friend.
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Oh, are we talking about what are our ideas are?
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azuarc did so I figured it was okay. I probably would have posted something about my idea later anyway once I'd fleshed it out a bit more

EDIT: by which I mean that I've never really followed a NaNoWriMo topic before, I'm not sure how much people discuss the idea itself vs just the word count, but delving into plot seems interesting
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My idea:

Cutting Ties

How far would you go to protect your late grandfather's tie -- a gift just given to you at his funeral -- if it got in the way of your dreams? Would you risk your life for it? Physical pain? Financial gain? Social pressure? ...anything? Christopher discovers his red line after leaving his parents at Poppo's funeral to become a movie star.

Meanwhile, while still coping with the loss of Poppo, Christopher's parents learn to cope with how to live without their son close anymore too. They also have their own life challenges -- Johnathan faces retirement while Janice faces cancer. John and Jan lean on each other while Chris faces his life struggles on his own.

Personal goals for this piece include learning how to write about death (never wrote a permadeath in a long piece before) and how to write in a more dramatic tone (though I'm still in firm belief there will be humor).

First line's in a funeral home: "I'm still leaving."
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Poppo is a bad name for a character
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Well he's dead.

Nah but seriously I might be trying too hard to invent a grandfather's name for a grandchild.
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I tried to write a pitch my idea, but I can't do it. It sucks ass. Maybe I should sit this out if I can't even do that.
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trdl23 posted...

I tried to write a pitch my idea, but I can't do it. It sucks ass. Maybe I should sit this out if I can't even do that.

I actually find writing decent summaries to be really hard. It takes a deep understanding of an idea in order to know what to include. Being able to write one also isn't indicative of much, I just spent the last few hours fleshing out my idea to the point where what I posted earlier is no longer entirely accurate. Don't give up yet, trdl!
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Well that's the thing -- I've kicked this thing around in my head for over a year. And I still can't make it sound good.
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This is the synopsis I wrote for my project proposal.

My novelette will tell the story of Rowan Darnell, who inherits a New England mansion from her paternal grandmother, Willow Darnell. Her grandmother left her the mansion, a fortune, and a supernatural mystery. The mansion boasts hidden passages, cults, and a power that manifests in every other generation of Darnell women. More specifically, I plan to offer a new version of the novel-form that illustrates its relationship to 18th century gothic novels and the evolution of the gothic and the sublime into the 21st century.

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November 1st update: 300 words

Not the biggest start, but I still have a decent amount of planning to do before I'll really feel comfortable speeding forward. At least I managed to knock out an opening that I don't hate. Now I suppose the goal is to not get too bogged down in trying to fix it when I read it again tomorrow and start seeing problems...
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Current tracker: 900 words.

Lots of dialogue at the moment, but I'm trying to build up something even though I basically had to scrap the two or three chapters prior to this because of logistic issues.
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I finished chapter 6 of my book yesterday, which should make it easy to keep track of the words because I divide chapters by documents. Now all I have to do is actually start writing.
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I'm gonna try, but I doubt I'm going to have the time to do it.

I need to come up with ideas as to where my plot is going to go. Reason I failed last year was because my idea was only suited to be a short story.

My story is a lucky guy suddenly has three of his love interests all become single again... right after a fourth asks him out. So it's going to be a mental mindfuck as to which girl is right for him.
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trdl23 posted...

I tried to write a pitch my idea, but I can't do it. It sucks ass. Maybe I should sit this out if I can't even do that.

Pitching is harder than writing. If you know what it's about, just go ahead and write it. Someone who reads it can help you determine how to pitch it later.

tabiicat42 posted...

This is the synopsis I wrote for my project proposal.

Well, I have no idea what your story's truly about, but I'd be willing to give it a chance long enough to find out.

I've had a reasonably productive first day, currently 4115 but I also had everything that existed in my schedule run screaming out of the way, and I knew what I was going to write at the beginning. It will get harder from here. Considering I once wrote 150k in a November, it's a good start, but nothing to write home about.
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VNs are usually written in 1st person, right?

I feel immense shame admitting this is the "novel" style I'm using here
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Oh man VNs are great. I'd seriously consider writing one if I knew anything about programming and had some artistic skills.

I've seen VNs that aren't first person, too. They can be written either way
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Well, a major factor is that each character has his/her own chapter leading up to the final scene, so 1st person is probably best.

I have an artist friend and a programming friend. I just need to get over being terrified of actually doing this.
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azuarc posted...

trdl23 posted...

I tried to write a pitch my idea, but I can't do it. It sucks ass. Maybe I should sit this out if I can't even do that.

Pitching is harder than writing. If you know what it's about, just go ahead and write it. Someone who reads it can help you determine how to pitch it later.

tabiicat42 posted...

This is the synopsis I wrote for my project proposal.

Well, I have no idea what your story's truly about, but I'd be willing to give it a chance long enough to find out.

I've had a reasonably productive first day, currently 4115 but I also had everything that existed in my schedule run screaming out of the way, and I knew what I was going to write at the beginning. It will get harder from here. Considering I once wrote 150k in a November, it's a good start, but nothing to write home about.

I will write a better "what it's about" kind of thing soon. I'm pantsing a little bit with some of the plot elements but I think I have a pretty good idea of what I'm gonna be doing.

I haven't gotten to write today because of Extra Life prep and classes. I have to read an entire book tonight that I should have read over the course of a week so I'll be spending time on the writing more tomorrow.
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3588 words so far today. I plan to do some more if I can.
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Fuck it. I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack about this.
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Anagram posted...

3588 words so far today. I plan to do some more if I can.

what else have you done today
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CherryCokes posted...

Anagram posted...

3588 words so far today. I plan to do some more if I can.

what else have you done today

Classes
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trdl23 posted...

Fuck it. I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack about this.

Fuck it, you quit; or fuck it, let's do this?
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I've hit a pretty major snag while planning my idea that I don't see myself fixing any time soon. I'm debating whether I should try to get another idea ready even though now I'll be a few days behind or if I should just drop out entirely

I really should've given myself more time to prepare but I swear NaNoWriMo always sneaks up with me.
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Another 1100 words done. Excellent.
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