[NaNoWriMo] Stop posting and start writing

jacripe

Bliss 101 wrote: »

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.

ooooo, me likey! They accept outside submissions or is it local only?

Bliss 101

jacripe wrote: »

Bliss 101 wrote: »

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.

ooooo, me likey! They accept outside submissions or is it local only?

Well the submissions have to be in Finnish. Beyond that, I don't think they care.

jacripe

goddamnit

slacktron

Yeah, that's a real bummer.

Because I never Finnish anything.

jacripe

Had to go there, didn't you?

Iriah

Quoth wrote: »

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

He's currently in limbo. He was last seen hooning through Berlin on a motorcycle chased by baddies. With a wizard in the sidecar, throwing fireballs.

I would very much like to read yours, however.

ducknerd

Iriah, that sounds incredible.

The more I outline my novel, the bigger it seems. I'm not sure whether to keep it, because it has a lot of different perspectives and I can see this giving me 30 my-short-stories' worth of material, or to scrap it, because it's getting ambitious and will require good writing/thinking in parts. I'm really tempted to set it down for November and just write romance, because I really need to work on empathizing with my own characters. But then I'd have to build up an entire new plotline. Argh.

Quoth

You can do what you want, but keep in mind that no matter when or how you write the thing you're outlining, you will probably have to revise it. Don't think that saving it for another time will somehow make it impervious to being a first draft. If anything, you should write it now because you may end up shelving it and then never getting around to actually writing it because you're too busy planning to write it.

But there's no harm in shelving it either, if that's what you really want. Your choice.

zenpotato

This is a very good resource on plotting from someone who is actually a pretty decent plotter, whatever else you might think about his books: http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/

Read that people. It will help you out tremendously during NaNoWriMo.

(Also, remember to get in IRC. It's nice to get prepared for this with other people.)

Quoth

Ah, thanks for that link. Bunch of idlers in the IRC... Come on people, don't be shy, we are really cool and there is free booze.

Monkeyfeet

I decided last year I was going to participate this year. I am going to give it my best even if I have to ignore schoolwork to get it done.

Usagi

I have a pretty good character set going, but I'm having trouble narrowing down my plot ideas.

There are two really solid ideas I could possibly develop and follow, and one sort of straggler that really couldn't stand on it's own but will most likely be incorporated into whatever main story I choose.

So how do I choose? Just keep outlining and developing both until either one seems the clear winner or 1 Nov rolls around and I just guess?

Edcrab

I don't mean to be unhelpful in the classic sort of "hur just do both" sense, but would the two ideas merge together at all?

I only ask because that's what I ended up doing for my current project- it ties together several "high-concept" ideas I've had previously because I realised that there was no reason why particular plot points couldn't be combined with certain elements of background or characterisation from prior projects.

Otherwise, yeah, flesh out everything you've got and then see what you feel like doing once you've got more of an outline!

Usagi

Hmm, in this case it's unlikely the two would merge because they require different personality quirks on the part of the main characters. Though I can see how some of the high concept ideas from the one could be used to support the other...ok, I'll work through this a bit more this weekend and see where it ends up.

Thanks!

Mustachio Jones

I completely forgot about this.

I'm not sure if, for my sanity, I should leave it that way.

let's see how spectacularly i can fail myself.

Iriah

ducknerd wrote: »

Iriah, that sounds incredible.

Well, it wasn't all that flash, which is why he's on holiday in subconscious land.

Monkeyfeet

I need a writing buddy. I imagine they are like an AA sponsor

Quoth

We are all your writing buddies here, Monkeyfeet. This whole thread is like an AA meeting.

Iriah

Quoth wrote: »

We are all your writing buddies here, Monkeyfeet. This whole thread is like an AA meeting.

High five!

InkSplat

Quoth wrote: »

We are all your writing buddies here, Monkeyfeet. This whole thread is like an AA meeting.

Where people will call you a dirty lurker and spit in you face!

joshgotro

It smells horrible in here.

BEAST!

Quoth wrote: »

We are all your writing buddies here, Monkeyfeet. This whole thread is like an AA meeting.

Yes, this.

Monkeyfeet

Except instead of trying to help kick a habit you're enforcing it?

BEAST!

Monkeyfeet wrote: »

Except instead of trying to help kick a habit you're enforcing it?

We're showing you that you can drink purposefully, and that purpose is to stumble blindly through 50,000 words.

Quoth

You could say we're trying to help you kick the habit of being a lazy slug and not writing?

Edcrab

The alternative mental image is one of people sitting in a circle, baring their souls

Each with a trashy novel hidden under the cushion of their chair, thinking they're the only one...

Quoth

Ok, now everyone get on the IRC and talk about your novels.

Monkeyfeet

I would if I knew where it was

Quoth

zenpotato wrote: »

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

Go to the website, select Slashnet from the dropdown menu, put your name in the first box and #thewritersblock in the second box.

Monkeyfeet

ok I'll be doing this during class in like 20 minutes

InkSplat

Uncharted 2 is going to be very bad for my Nano prep. >.> Oh well. At least its only the last act of the story I need to figure out. That'll give me some time, I suppose.

Quoth

Figure it out now.

If you were on IRC I would be typing in all caps.

InkSplat

Quoth wrote: »

Figure it out now.

If you were on IRC I would be typing in all caps.

Aren't you supposed to be trying to convince me to join the chat, rather than stay away?

Fearghaill

I don't have a PS3 for uncharted 2, and can't afford either console to play Brutal Legend. It's Dragon Age that has me worried for my Nano-focus. I just need to arrange to be poor as hell between now and Dec 1st.

That shouldn't be hard.

VThornheart

Yay NaNoWriMo! =) =) Last year I didn't do it because I was busy working on my game... but this November, I want to devote at least some time to trying to beat NaNoWriMo for once. =)

EDIT:

Should we have some sort of NaNoWriMo user name list so we can friend each other? Over there I'm EdgarVerona (I moved away from VThornheart as my screenname some years ago because I was nervous that people thought it meant "Vermont Hornheart" which sounded wrong. =) But I digress thoroughly =) ) if anyone wants to friend me send a message over there! =)

Monkeyfeet

Good talk on the IRC today lady and gentlemen

Slider

The Crowing One wrote: »

Alright!

I'm totally not going to prepare. I'm going to vomit poorly executed automatic writing and hope for the best. It'll be fun, though.

Same. And, in order to minimize effort, I'm also taking requests.

Wank

I think my antagonist needs some more interest. Right now he is sexually repressed and can regrow limbs, but that's about it.

Shurakai

I guess I'll have to write all my papers for college before this thing starts. Not sure what I'm going to do, but I just know that I need to try it this year.

Traikan

I'm going to do it, and my novel will be about SUPERHEROES. I've done a decent bit of outlining and so far I like where it's going. I tried this once, a few years back, but pussied out. I'm counting on being harassed whenever I get on IRC as well as imagined competition with people I will likely never meet to push me to finish.

Though between Dragon Age and Borderlands I'll potentially be quite distracted, I'm sure I can count on IRC based harassment to keep me on track.