NaNoWriMo 2018

[clueliss]

Anyone else attempting NaNoWriMo this year?  

I have lost my mind.  I'm doing this.  We'll ignore the fact that this is my busy season in the day career.  

I'm stealing characters I worked on for something 20 or so years ago.  And reworking a mystery novel/procedural into Urban Fantasy.  (I told you, I've lost my mind).  

[AmazonGrace]

I would love to do it this year but I'm not sure if I have a story idea that would work.  I might start with a fan fiction I wrote years ago and make the characters more of my own. 

[clueliss]

Hey - it worked for Fifty Shaes.

[AmazonGrace]

A Fifty shades type of thing would be a great nanowrimo project: if you're stuck, write more sex scenes.

But i can't really write sex, I'd need a plot...

I just read somewhere on Amazon that an author said she didn't know who the murderer was until she'd written 75% of the book... I guess that's one way of doing it.

[Alisamer]

I am going to try again this year - I'm debating whether to work on something completely new, or try to beat this leftover behemoth into some sort of finished product. I really want to FINISH this thing I've been working on for years now. But it'll be a lot of re-working and editing, more than new writing, so I'm not sure that counts. Still, I really, really want to get something, anything, finished. I have one like 80% done, one like 25% done, and two more partial beginnings. I'm better at character development and scenes, and not so great at wrapping up the story.

I think in the next couple weeks I'm going to re-read what I have so far, pick which one to focus on, and start a new document to put it together for this year's NaNo.

[Alisamer]

So yesterday I took some time at lunch to review the random bits and pieces (scenes, really) I had hanging around not yet incorporated into the near-finished novel I've been working on for ages, and I realized that part of my problem is that I really don't like the main characters that much. I mean, I love them and they are important, and one of them's not really meant to be that likable, but I'm way more invested in the interactions of the side characters. I'm not sure where to go with this. I think this largely comes from doing my first NaNo having read the suggestion "don't write characters you already have" so I came up with a new character. Who within ten minutes became the younger sister of a character I'd had around for quite a while. I probably should have just started with him to begin with.

On the other hand, I found an outline I'd begun of a completely different book in the same world. So far it looks promising, I just need to bridge the gap between where things started to the final ending. If I can get this outline whipped into shape, I may go with this for NaNoWriMo this year!

I may drop a random short-story scene (backstory, all side characters so far, but doesn't fit into any of the real stories at least yet) into the critique section here later tonight, just to get some feedback. My sister is my beta reader, but we used to live together and know each other too well, and she knows a little about the characters already, so I'm interested to see what other people think.

[clueliss]

I find writing Nano easier with characters I already have.  Mainly because they're already talking to me.  

In the last couple of years I was introduced to the concept of zero draft (rather than first draft).  The zero draft is the writer telling themselves the story.  So perhaps you are zero drafting and still trying to figure out the 'real' story here.  

[Alisamer]

45 minutes ago, clueliss said:

I find writing Nano easier with characters I already have.  Mainly because they're already talking to me.  

In the last couple of years I was introduced to the concept of zero draft (rather than first draft).  The zero draft is the writer telling themselves the story.  So perhaps you are zero drafting and still trying to figure out the 'real' story here.  

I like that concept! I think I really am, in many ways "zero drafting". I really want to get these into some sort of finished product (my sister is all excited to read them, if I ever finish anything), so maybe this NaNo I can go through and cut ruthlessly and polish up something worth sharing! 

It just occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I could cut out the 30,000 words of backstory entirely and just start closer to the major action. Backstory could become a prequel, maybe. Or be just for me, or worked in elsewhere later. There's like a long section of setting the world, disrupting the character's life, showing her falling for her beau, etc. And THEN the real action starts. 

Maybe I've just been working on this too long. Maybe I'll just start new with the action where it is, and go from there to the end, then add back the beginning as needed, if needed. I think I just need to look at it from a new perspective, get to the END, and then it'll be clearer what needs to be done. 

I think I'm just going to throw Sabrina into the hold of the pirate ship and go from there. I like the pirates better than her, anyway.

[molecule]

I started last year and enjoyed it as far as I got. I really liked outlining the book, but once that was done, I kind of felt like I'd finished it. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try it this year. 

If any of you are serious about writing and have thought about using Scrivener, they have a special trial period that starts before NaNoWriMo and extends through the entire month of November. Then they have a discount for purchasing the program (a bigger discount if you win). If you try Scrivener and don't like it, you can compile your novel into a Word document at the end of the month. Details are here: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/nanowrimo

Scrivener is definitely not intuitive, but there are some good free tutorials that walk you through things. I don't yetvknow how to do much with it--but it has so many features I've never seen elsewhere. I do most of my other writing in Word, but the books I'm working on are all in Scrivener and I can't imagine going back to Word for those.

[clueliss]

Dedicated Scrivener user.  And the trial period for Scrivener is awesome.  It is 30 days of USAGE time not calendar time.  

[Alisamer]

Love Scrivener. I got it to try several years ago during NaNo, and bought it with the discount afterward. 

[LilMissMetaphor]

I'm pantsing, again.  I don't even really have vague ideas of what I want to do this month.

[clueliss]

Since this year's October headache (Inventory) has been shoved into November I've already gone into my tracking spreadsheet (because bean counter and it keeps my left brain semi-occupied) to account for losing 2 (at least) days of writing.  So my 1667 words/day (which I round up to 1700) has been adjusted to 1786 words/day (or a nice round 1800).  

I have 30 scene ideas (which I know is 2 more than the days I have word count/day set for) in a kinda/sorta/maybe outline format in Scrivener.  Merely a roadmap as I seem to be part pantser part plotter.  

[AmazonGrace]

On 10/16/2018 at 6:04 PM, Alisamer said:

I think I'm just going to throw Sabrina into the hold of the pirate ship and go from there. I like the pirates better than her, anyway.

Mate ,  this sounds arrsome. Who cares about backstory, pirates is where it's at.

[Tryamon]

Me me me!

I’m gonna do this but I don’t know what about yet. 12 days to work that out....

[Alisamer]

23 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Mate ,  this sounds arrsome. Who cares about backstory, pirates is where it's at.

LOL! I do love the pirates. They're pretty awesome. I'm not sure if I'm just tired of the main character after all this time or what, but she's way less interesting to me than the interactions of the other characters.

I found an attempt at an outline that I had made, and I think I had better try to use that - I still may start on the pirate ship though, for NaNo. If I can get from there to the end, I can carve up the rest and make it work, I think. I'm really really really wanting to get this finished. It's been so long! I need it done!

[AmazonGrace]

I have some of the characters now... I just have no idea what's going to happen to them  lol

[Alisamer]

Y'all. I know it's not time yet. But I just wrote the final scene!!!!!!! I've been agonizing over that forever! Now the thing has an end! I still have to get to there from the middle, but at least I know where the end is now. I feel like I can see the end of the road from here, finally.

[Alisamer]

How's everyone doing? I'm feeling especially positive, I got a lot done last night, and I really think I'm closer to being finished than I'd expected. I think the first half of the month will be writing, and then the second half spent revising. I absolutely cannot wait to give this a read-through and feel like it's complete, so I can let someone else have a read-through and give me feedback.

[clueliss]

Grumpy (work).  But I did get 1914 words yesterday.  They are SEVERELY horrific drek words, but they are words.  (Daily goal = 1800 not 1667 - or what I would have rounded up to 1700 - because our inventory got bounced into November and I know I'm gonna lose a couple of days worth of writing because I will be that tired and if writing happens then it is just bonus.)

[HerNameIsBuffy]

4 minutes ago, clueliss said:

Grumpy (work).  But I did get 1914 words yesterday.  They are SEVERELY horrific drek words, but they are words.  (Daily goal = 1800 not 1667 - or what I would have rounded up to 1700 - because our inventory got bounced into November and I know I'm gonna lose a couple of days worth of writing because I will be that tired and if writing happens then it is just bonus.)

Good for you - I need to develop this kind of discipline.

[Alisamer]

6 minutes ago, clueliss said:

Grumpy (work).  But I did get 1914 words yesterday.  They are SEVERELY horrific drek words, but they are words.  (Daily goal = 1800 not 1667 - or what I would have rounded up to 1700 - because our inventory got bounced into November and I know I'm gonna lose a couple of days worth of writing because I will be that tired and if writing happens then it is just bonus.)

Words are words! Even if they are drek, they move things along. I'm also trying to get ahead a bit - I'm not going to be able to write at all this evening (going to a cat cafe, and then to see Hamilton!) but I'm hoping to get a bit ahead this weekend so there's less pressure later in the month.

[AmazonGrace]

Probably not going to make it as I haven't written a word yet but I am closer to a plot so I guess that's something. 

[Tryamon]

@AmazonGrace that’s still fine. At most you are three days behind. Even if you can’t make that up, so what? Write anyway!

[clueliss]

Just over 7500 total,however this is turning into more deep character work than legitimate draft work.  I’m being a rebel and counting it all.