NaNoWriMo - The Official November Support Thread!

[Cehrabehra]

hehehe - that was the quickest 600 words ever! Now I need a cigarette ;D I certainly hope the next 45k words are not so smutty bahahahaha

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Ok, I'm starting late, but I just started writing 20 minutes ago! Yay! It took me a while to decide which idea to go with, and the one I decided on isn't even one I thought of until like an hour ago. I have 524 words so far, and I've decided to go ahead and just write. No thinking it out, no prior world building, just ... go. It's a science fiction book that uses a lot of military sci-fi for inspiration (i.e. Ender's Game, Starship Troopers, Old Man's War), but I also wanted to add a twist. My hero isn't going to be one of those "can do" do everything right super soldiers. Instead, he's going to be a total bumbler who tends to get really lucky - that is, lucky enough to snatch victory from a doomed mission (doomed because HE caused all these mishaps). I'm modeling him on Rincewind from the Discworld books. And I'm hoping to have enough good satirical sarcastic descriptions ala Terry Pratchett, with the funny dialogue of Bujold's Vorkosigan books. Basically, I'm trying to borrow a lot but without ripping anything off, and having it all meld into something new. That's all I have so far. I'll make up the adventures as I go.

ETA: Liane, I will definitely take you up on your generous offer when this is done!

ETA 2: I'm not entirely sure how much I'll be writing this for NaNoWriMo and how much I'll be writing it with the intent of trying to get it published. Regardless, I'm glad I have the deadline.

ETA 3: I wish I had a critique group! Though my BFF and her husband are both doing NaNoWriMo so maybe we can make our own group!

 

[MonkeyPie]

hehehe - that was the quickest 600 words ever! Now I need a cigarette ;D I certainly hope the next 45k words are not so smutty bahahahaha

Oh now I REALLY want to read this lol.

I was tempted to turn my novel into something kinda smutty ala Anita Blake but my mom is so excited for me and she wants to read it, so I think I better be a little more tame with this one lol.

BEG! Your idea sounds like so much fun! And a unique idea, at that. I am basing my characters off other books and movies I have seen, too, so you aren't alone.

 

[Liane]

I'm considering joining my friend's critique group, but I'm very intimidated by them as they all met in a master's program in creative writing at one of the top universities in this country. I feel a bit, ah, unworthy in their presence. My friend has been critiquing my other novel for some months, and he says that I will more than fit in, but I am INTIMIDATED! These people are PROFESSIONALS! I'm just a teacher with a passion for writing.

My first instinct was to say "don't be intimidated!" but I know where you're coming from. I went to a reception a few months ago for a much more accomplished novelist and could hardly say a word because I felt like absolutely everyone at the table was a Real Writer with Real Books except me. Which is absurd, but man, it is hard to shake that sense of being a fake. So yeah, that definitely goes into the bin of things that are easy to say but hard to believe.

Anyway. You've taught creative writing for years, right? That makes you as much a "professional" as any MFA student. And unless you're Tyra Banks, nobody in publishing gives a crap about your credentials anyhow; all they care about is your manuscript. So my suggestion would be to go ahead and join the group... but if you want more reassurance before taking that step, I am more than happy to enable that just like we all enable jewelry purchases on the board.

And I totally count as a professional too. For a certain value of "professional," anyway.

 

[Haven]

Liane--Thank you for your reassuring words.

And I definitely consider you a professional. The reason that your offer is so much more intriguing is that it doesn't come with the expectation that *I* will be providing a critique for *you* in return. That's what has me so intimidated! I'm happy to let this critique group read my writing, as I typically have no shame, but I fear I would be terrible at providing constructive criticism in return. (This probably makes me sound like a horrible teacher, but the difference is this: student work tends to be in need of very typical feedback, whereas the work of professionals, I'm guessing, requires a much more studied eye than my own.)

Anyway, I hope I didn't offend you with my last post. (It doesn't seem like you took it that way, but just in case, I had to say it.) I think you are so kind to make your offer, and if you had said "I'll read your work if you read mine" I would be equally intimidated by your offer, as by the offer of joining that critique group.

I really do hope to have something to share with you in the not-so-distant future. Thank you again for offering, and for your help in this thread!

 

[dragonfly411]

After sitting and trying to figure out where my story was going last night, I've decided to switch directions. I had had a historical western idea at first and now I am going to go ahead with it instead of the more modern fic. Besides, this will be a bit more beefy than some of the traditional "westerns" available on the market. Yippeee

 

[Liane]

The reason that your offer is so much more intriguing is that it doesn't come with the expectation that *I* will be providing a critique for *you* in return. That's what has me so intimidated!

Oh! That honestly didn't even occur to me. No, I have no intention of asking for a crit in exchange -- for one, I'm only offering to read five pages, and it would hardly be fair to say "yeah okay so now you get to read 500 pages in return, have fun with that!" Also, by the time NaNo wraps up, I'm not going to have anything available to crit; my current project needs to be put to bed well before the end of the month, and I won't have enough work done on the next one to be worth anyone's time. So even if you were generous enough to offer (or wanted the vindictive revenge!), I wouldn't have anything to hand over.

I mean, if you want to artificially bolster my Amazon rating with a couple of puffed-up five-star reviews*, I'm not gonna say no, but I'm not intending to ask for anything back here. PS is a great community because people offer help freely when and where they can, and to me this is just an extension of how the board works.


(* -- JOKING. Please nobody actually do this.)

 

[Haven]

Liane--I *wish* I knew your name so I could read your work!

 

[Kismet]

Liane--I *wish* I knew your name so I could read your work!

I don't know Liane at all, but my guess is "The River Kings' Road."

 

[Liane]

Will neither confirm nor deny on a public forum...

...but I did say I wasn't hard to find.

Now get back to today's word count!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Will neither confirm nor deny on a public forum...

...but I did say I wasn't hard to find.

Now get back to today's word count!

bwahahahaha er, I mean

 

[Cehrabehra]

I'm feeling good right now - I wasted tons of time today, not really wasted, but just still doing more research. The information that comes out from it totally reinforces the ideas I have which is fantastic and I feel like some things are getting narrowed down and others are becoming looser.

It's been hard to find actual info about the profession my MC is but I've started to find some new sources today which is great.

So I did "write or die" and it was awesome. I set it for 30 minutes and 500 words and I actually wrote 1100 words. Got a new character and developed a really strong subplot, or motivation to the story. Not quite my daily goal, but I was impressed with it being only 30 minutes.

Now I'm going to go make an apple pie and see if I can do another 30 min before my kids get home from school!

So I'm at 6072 now. 1/10 of the way there

 

[MonkeyPie]

Word count - 5941. I bet it goes up tonight, I am itching to write more!

And just for you, Pricescope - the plot centers around a diamond the size of a basketball

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

I just wrote for an hour straight and I'm up to 1700 words. Just needed to get into the swing of things, I guess!

 

[Clio]

I'm off to a slow start, thanks to a very busy week and a migraine, but I'm back into it and having fun.

 

[Liane]

Pretty jealous of these word counts. I don't think I've managed 2000 new words in the past week.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Okay I am at 8952 - I'm falling behind. Had a couple days where I just did not want to do it I did 2200 words yesterday and I'm certain I can punch that much out today, but my indecisiveness is really hindering me. I get that this is zero draft and TRUST ME it looks it - it looks more like an expanding outline that is 20 pages long with little notes to myself tucked right into the story, sometimes mid sentence. I accept all of that but I refer to one character by 3 names and don't like most of the others, but I don't even know what part of the country these characters will come from. Oh well - the minstrel's dog has a name lol Forte Of course that could change lol I want the minstrel's name to be Legato but right now I have written him as Irish (well, from what would later become ireland) and I'm wondering if I should make him from southern italy. UGH!! I need to let go of these details but the details are the parts that are easy to write. I have lots of great juicy details!!

I don't understand - I had a complete story in my head, at least a very strong basic story - and it seems like the more I try to fill in details (and do bloody research) the more complicated it is and the more wrong I feel in having this or that happen. I need to seriously let go of history and just make a fantasy book with all make believe everything even if there are no elves or magic. ::::::sigh::::::

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Ooookay I don't think I'll be finishing mine. Because I decided in the last two days to apply to PhD and MAT programs and the earliest apps are due Dec. 1 and now I have a TON of stuff to do in that direction. Eep.

I'll make Dec. my own personal NaNoWriMo?

 

[MonkeyPie]

Ooookay I don't think I'll be finishing mine. Because I decided in the last two days to apply to PhD and MAT programs and the earliest apps are due Dec. 1 and now I have a TON of stuff to do in that direction. Eep.

I'll make Dec. my own personal NaNoWriMo?

That works! I think PhD and MAT are more important but I do want you to finish your novel eventually.

I'm at 8444. I didn't have time to write Friday or Saturday and it killed me. So I cranked out a couple thousand today. It's going so easily I am really enjoying myself!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Ooookay I don't think I'll be finishing mine. Because I decided in the last two days to apply to PhD and MAT programs and the earliest apps are due Dec. 1 and now I have a TON of stuff to do in that direction. Eep.

I'll make Dec. my own personal NaNoWriMo?

bummer! but I totally understand and heck yeah that's way more important!

Monkey Pie - looks like you and I are in the same boat lol I thought I would have MORE time on the weekend but there were so many other things I wanted to do. Originally I wanted to do 2.5k a day so that I could have 10 days off (like thanksgiving) but I am only at HALF where I would be if I was doing that lol

 

[MonkeyPie]

Monkey Pie - looks like you and I are in the same boat lol I thought I would have MORE time on the weekend but there were so many other things I wanted to do. Originally I wanted to do 2.5k a day so that I could have 10 days off (like thanksgiving) but I am only at HALF where I would be if I was doing that lol

Haha! I plan to bust my butt every night this week and crank out about 2k each day to bring myself more ahead of schedule. So many people in my area are at 10k or higher!

 

[dragonfly411]

Today = Research

 

[Cehrabehra]

Well, I am only up to 10,034 but I feel way more organized. I was getting frustrated with the chaos so I found that even though you're not supposed to "edit" along the way I really needed to sort through a lot to see where I really was and get a good idea of things that needed to be expanded on. I am feeling much better about tomorrow. WAAAAY behind though to the tune of about 5k. So tomorrow's "demand" is 7k but I don't think I'm going to put all of that on myself lol I think if I do 2-2.5 I'll be happy with that.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Today = Research

How is it going? I have you as a buddy...

Haven - how are you doing?

 

[Cehrabehra]

So how is everyone doing? Has the honeymoon worn off? I'm behind but I'm not down and out.

Haven? MonkeyPie? Dragonfly?

 

[MonkeyPie]

I epic failed the past few days. I barely wrote anything - baby has been sleeping badly, plus DH's grandfather is in the hospital (triple bypass on Thursday), so not enough hours in my day! I am going to bust butt this weekend hopefully, but I am still moving along, I'm just slow

 

[Haven]

I AM SO BEHIND! I'm stuck at 7,500 words, and haven't written since last week. AAAAAH!

We have a write-in at school this morning, so I'm going to attend that, and Thursday is Veteran's Day, so no teaching that day, and my plan is to do some serious writing then.

Cehra--I'm SO PROUD OF YOU FOR REACHING 10K!!! You'd have two stickers on my NaNo poster if you were on it! (1 sticker for every 10% completed, it's really fun. Each sticker is a letter, and when you're finished it reads NaNoWriMo*.)

 

[dragonfly411]

You guys make me feel like a total failure..... I am so getting on it tonight

 

[Haven]

I went to the write-in and now I'm up to 8,730. But I'm still so far behind! I'm hoping to do some catching up tomorrow on my day off.

Don't feel bad, Dragonfly! The month is still young, you can do it!

 

[dragonfly411]

I'm stuck on one sentence, and it's at the turning point of the first third of my book.