[NaNoWriMo] Stop posting and start writing

Gandalf_the_Crazed

Some sites that may be of use, if you're not interested in defacing your wall/don't have sufficient usable space:

Scriblink

Dabbleboard

Skrbl

ImaginationCubed

Scribblar

NOTE: I haven't tried all these out. I've played around with Scriblink and Dabbleboard before, and I played with ImaginationCubed for a minute just now, but I really can't answer questions about any of them. Experiment with features, see if any of them have what you want in a planning board.

InkSplat

If you use a mac, Scrivener is awesome. And if you can avoid closing it every day, the trial will easily last you all of November.

joshgotro

[URL="http://http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html"]ywriter[/URL]

Gandalf_the_Crazed

joshgotro wrote: »

[URL="http://http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html"]ywriter[/URL]

At first I was like, "Meh."

But the more I think about it, the more I like this idea.

Burnage

I considered doing this last year. I failed spectacularly.

This year will be different, however. Oh yes it will.

PolloDiablo

Would it be too cliche to use the Questing Beast in my nano story? It would fit thematically, but I'm wondering if it's too famous of an element to fit in without people saying, "The Questing Beast again? What a hack."


Also on that note, in my quick search on it, the first page of images has a furry version. Is nothing sacred?

Quoth

I wouldn't say the Questing Beast is overused... Where does it show up besides Arthurian stuff?

Silvoculous

Megazver wrote: »

You might ask, why do all this work for NaNoWriMo? You're supposed to just wing it, take the story in your heart and run with it for a glorious hundred pages! To this I say: if you really could just wing it, pulling scene after scene out of your ass on the fly, without breaking a sweat, you wouldn't really be asking for advice in the thread, would you now? Hell, you wouldn't be doing NaNoWriMo.

And if you guys think that's work, don't ever plan on editing your novel.

Usagi

Quoth wrote: »

I wouldn't say the Questing Beast is overused... Where does it show up besides Arthurian stuff?

I thought the Questing Beast was only linked to Arthurian legend

jacripe

PolloDiablo wrote: »

Would it be too cliche to use the Questing Beast in my nano story?...
Also on that note, in my quick search on it, the first page of images has a furry version. Is nothing sacred?

The hell is the Questing Beast?

And of course nothing is sacred. Not since Rule 34, anyways.

PolloDiablo

Huh, that makes me feel better, if you guys don't think it's too bad. Wikipedia says it was in a few books by one guy fairly recently, but other than that I haven't seen it anywhere. I just thought it might be the kind of thing that people didn't find interesting anymore.

edit: "one guy" sounds kind of dismissive. He's Jasper Fforde, and although I haven't read anything of his yet, it looks pretty interesting. We have similar taste in imaginary creatures, anyway.

jacripe wrote: »

The hell is the Questing Beast?

It's a monster with the body of a leopard and the head of a snake, sometimes with other parts, too. Different knights chased it all over the place in Arthurian stories.

Quoth

How trite is it to have some kind of body-stealing tentacled monster? How about a mercenary who will do anything for money, including doom the world to destruction by the Elder Gods?

PolloDiablo

Sounds interesting. I don't think I've come across either of those before.

joshgotro

He wouldn't do that. That's stupid. Unless he owns a spaceship docked at port.

Quoth

joshgotro wrote: »

He wouldn't do that. That's stupid. Unless he owns a spaceship docked at port.

Which he doesn't. Would it be unreasonable for him to either not know the potential outcome of his actions or not think that such things can actually happen?

And for the record, since my story is a variant on Indiana Jones, I was concerned because such mercenaries figure in several of the films if I am not completely addled.

Edcrab

It's reasonable to think they expect dire consequences, just not that dire. Otherwise where would they spend it all?

slacktron

Usually such mercenaries sell out this world in order to be rich in the next one.

The Old Ones argue that the world is going to be theirs eventually anyway, but hey, if you help speed things along not only will you not be killed, but we'll put you in this awesome immortal monster body that has six extra tentacles and a really big hat.

Who can turn that down?

Quoth

Well, that could be the line they feed him, and they could even believe it, but I was going more for a Lovecraft "help speed things along and you get to die first" angle.

So can I have cultists who think they are getting power over mankind and a mercenary who thinks he is getting money and immunity from whatever happens but who doesn't actually believe any of that nonsense?

Edcrab

That could work. If a prospective employer was evidently rich and evidently crazy, it's no big leap of the imagination to think that a mercenary might take work while believing the line about riches but disregarding the part about dying mercifully in the coming apocalypse.

It also depends whether you're taking the angle of the Outside intending to make us all suffer because they hate us, or merely because they can, or whether the things beyond our realm barely comprehend that we even exist and we'd simply be consumed/destroyed like ants before a lawnmower if they crossed over. People are divided over what makes the best cosmic horror!

slacktron

Seems that you could use your mercenary as a contrast to the cultists, where he is going along precisely because he doesn't believe in all the Elder Gods nonsense.

So long as they pay the bills, they can believe whatever they want.

EDIT: beaten by the Edcrab!

Quoth

Ugh why am I writing Raiders of the Lost Ark.

...

Because it is awesome, that's why.

Edcrab

Yes

When people ask why Cthuluian terrors are involved

Because it's awesome, that's why

When people ask me "why is the janitor a killer cyborg anyway?"

Because it's awesome, that's why

When people ask "why would they send a trillion-credit robot there in the first place?"

Because it's awesome, that's why

When people ask "how could they have worked together on that mission when they only met ten years ago?"

...because it's a gigantic plot hole, that's why

joshgotro

I might steal all this.


Because it's awesome.

Wank

I think the shifting perspective I have set up will work pretty well for NaNoWriMo. Whenever I get stuck, I'll just jump to another character's viewpoint and work from there.

jacripe

Wank wrote: »

I think the shifting perspective I have set up will work pretty well for NaNoWriMo. Whenever I get stuck, I'll just jump to another character's viewpoint and work from there.

I tried that and ended up with 25,000 words without direction.

zenpotato

Quoth wrote: »

How trite is it to have some kind of body-stealing tentacled monster? How about a mercenary who will do anything for money, including doom the world to destruction by the Elder Gods?

I think one of the most interesting things about Lovecraft's work, and what really makes it all come together and gel, is his stereotypical rational, learned man narrator. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and "The Color Out of Time" come to mind as good examples of this.

I think if you really want to get that pulpy Lovecraft vibe going, you should take a hard look at a few of his protagonists. The monsters are so creepy because they're framed by such reasonable narrators.

Wank

jacripe wrote: »

Wank wrote: »

I think the shifting perspective I have set up will work pretty well for NaNoWriMo. Whenever I get stuck, I'll just jump to another character's viewpoint and work from there.

I tried that and ended up with 25,000 words without direction.

I already have a pretty good idea of the direction, though, so hopefully the perspective shift just keeps me from getting stale.

Quoth

I'm mixing it with Indiana Jones though... the protagonist is an archeology professor who specializes in acquiring occult artifacts and rare books. She has to stop a cult from getting the MacGuffins that will let them summon something with an unpronounceable name.

Edcrab

C'dwthauhtl'ocht!

Or Bob.

Iriah

Quoth wrote: »

I'm mixing it with Indiana Jones though... the protagonist is an archeology professor who specializes in acquiring occult artifacts and rare books. She has to stop a cult from getting the MacGuffins that will let them summon something with an unpronounceable name.

I am suddenly paying attention

Quoth

Iriah basically I am writing the female version of your pulp character I think. Go write some more of that guy this instant.

zenpotato

There should be lots of NaNoWriMo slashnet.org IRC chat soon. Get on that people.

joshgotro

I'm gonna need a step by step to get back into IRC. it's been a year or two.

Quoth

I just need the link because I forgot where it is. I should bookmark it.

zenpotato

Ugh, you're going to make me find all this info and post it again, aren't you? Evil bastards.

irc.slashnet.org #thewritersblock

I suggest using a web client like Mibbit if you don't already have an IRC client preference.
Go to http://mibbit.com and then click the server link, enter in the server name (irc.slashnet.org) and then your nickname and the channel information (#TheWritersBlock). Or watch this video to see how: http://screencast.com/t/AGIEEGEy7A

InkSplat

Hm. What's a good way to suggest that a character's paranoia is being enhanced by an outside force/factor? I don't want to spell it out right away, but I also don't want the character's quick downward spiral to seem completely unbelievable up until the reveal either.

Bliss 101

InkSplat wrote: »

Hm. What's a good way to suggest that a character's paranoia is being enhanced by an outside force/factor? I don't want to spell it out right away, but I also don't want the character's quick downward spiral to seem completely unbelievable up until the reveal either.

How about switching to another character's POV, and have them observe something that'll give the reader a clue (even if it may be totally meaningless to the observing character)?

Fearghaill

Maybe have them make leaps of logic/assumptions that seem to use knowledge they don't have?

BEAST!

jacripe wrote: »

Wank wrote: »

I think the shifting perspective I have set up will work pretty well for NaNoWriMo. Whenever I get stuck, I'll just jump to another character's viewpoint and work from there.

I tried that and ended up with 25,000 words without direction.

I tried that and ended up with 50,000 words without direction.

Bliss 101

There's another local writing competition here for which I might use Nanowrimo as a draft factory. It's a short story competition in the crime genre, with "murdered mind" as the theme. So it's supposed to be about the destruction of one's self esteem and will to live, with some prison psychiatrist as the main judge. Cheerful! But probably suitable for my current state of mind.