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The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
"The first draft of anything is shit." [NaNoWriMo]
smof
[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered User regular
[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered User regular
It's October, in case you weren't paying attention. Which means in less than a month it will be November (keep up!) Which means a number of authors and hundreds of thousands of insane people all over the world are going to once again attempt to write 50,000 words of a thing in the space of 30 days.
Are you insane? Do you have ideas hot off the steamy coals of your imagination? Have you been "writing" a "novel" since you were fifteen which is still mostly in the abstract brainstorming phase? Do you hate yourself and need a new method for causing yourself suffering? Well then NaNoWriMo may be the thing for you!
For anyone who doesn't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's actually international, and you don't have to write a novel, but the month bit is accurate at least. The goal is simple: write 50,000 words of atrocious grammar and shoddy punctuation between Nov 1st and Dec 1st. That's an average of 1,667 brain melting words a day. It's a rollercoaster of emotion soaring over an ocean of coffee and tears. The great part is if you lose it doesn't matter and nobody cares, and if you win you have a crummy novel and can also get some neat things from the sponsors.
Here is the official website where you can sign up and throw your metaphorical hat into the metaphorical ring. There are forums there for many different regions around the world so potentially you can talk to, and even meet up with, people doing NaNo in your local area. Fair warning: they may be weirdos.
Here are some helpful things that I came up with all by myself and totally didn't steal from Fearghaill's last NaNo thread, which he totally didn't steal from Quoth:
So, yeah. Are any SE++ers planning to NaNo this year? It's still three weeks away but I thought if we had the thread now while there was planning time it would spur people to give it a go.
I wasn't going to do it. Now I'm thinking I will probably at least start. I just signed into my NaNo account for the first time since last year and apparently I won last year? It says I got 50,200 words. I was pretty sure I lost! So now I need to try and find my story from last year and see just what the hell I actually wrote.
Are you insane? Do you have ideas hot off the steamy coals of your imagination? Have you been "writing" a "novel" since you were fifteen which is still mostly in the abstract brainstorming phase? Do you hate yourself and need a new method for causing yourself suffering? Well then NaNoWriMo may be the thing for you!
For anyone who doesn't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's actually international, and you don't have to write a novel, but the month bit is accurate at least. The goal is simple: write 50,000 words of atrocious grammar and shoddy punctuation between Nov 1st and Dec 1st. That's an average of 1,667 brain melting words a day. It's a rollercoaster of emotion soaring over an ocean of coffee and tears. The great part is if you lose it doesn't matter and nobody cares, and if you win you have a crummy novel and can also get some neat things from the sponsors.
Here is the official website where you can sign up and throw your metaphorical hat into the metaphorical ring. There are forums there for many different regions around the world so potentially you can talk to, and even meet up with, people doing NaNo in your local area. Fair warning: they may be weirdos.
Here are some helpful things that I came up with all by myself and totally didn't steal from Fearghaill's last NaNo thread, which he totally didn't steal from Quoth:
Seven Steps to the Perfect Story: http://www.the-cma.com/news/seven-steps-to-the-perfect-story
NaNoWriMo Blog: http://blog.nanowrimo.org/
NaNoWriMo Forums: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums
NaNoWriMo Forums – Writing 101: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101
The Snowflake Method: http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php
Worldbuilding Questions: http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/
The Art of Dramatic Writing – Premise: http://www.writerswrite.com/fiction/egri.htm
Jim Butcher – Story Skeletons: http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/1308.html
The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot: http://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/dent.html
How to write a novel in three days: http://www.wetasphalt.com/content/how-write-book-three-days-lessons-michael-moorcock
Fun plot generator: http://fictiongen.inky.me/
Writing.com’s NaNoWriMo prep calendar: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1998261-October-Nano-Prep-2014-Calendar
A map to get out of writer’s block: http://nybookeditors.com/book-editing-copy-editing-proofreading-self-publishing-blog/2013/3/12/a-map-to-get-out-of-writers-block#sthash.AuWOZpt7.dpbs
Jeff VanderMeer’s Wonderbook site: http://wonderbooknow.com/
Stephen King on imagery: http://www.wordplayer.com/pros/pr13.King.Stephen.html
The Emotion Thesauraus: http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/p/the-emotion-thesaurus.html
Stuff from Chuck Wendig’s blog, which is generally NSFW due to saucy language:
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/09/25/25-things-you-should-do-before-starting-your-next-novel/
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/01/17/25-things-writers-should-start-doing/
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/05/14/25-things-you-should-know-about-outlining/
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/09/14/25-ways-to-plot-plan-and-prep-your-story/
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/11/27/how-chuck-wendig-writes-a-novel/
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/10/08/welcome-to-nanowrimo-prep-school-word-nerds/
A massive conglomeration of random characters, premises, generators and challenges for the folks who need some inspiration: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13xS8Klc7HdTI5vC2nisrys_ixQgh6sp0d5Szq4TUJ5g/edit?usp=sharing
So, yeah. Are any SE++ers planning to NaNo this year? It's still three weeks away but I thought if we had the thread now while there was planning time it would spur people to give it a go.
I wasn't going to do it. Now I'm thinking I will probably at least start. I just signed into my NaNo account for the first time since last year and apparently I won last year? It says I got 50,200 words. I was pretty sure I lost! So now I need to try and find my story from last year and see just what the hell I actually wrote.
smof on
+6
Posts
I'm pretty dedicated to finish this year! I have a smutty sci-fi story lined up that should fill up at least 50k words and I should hopefully have all the free time needed, so the biggest obstacle in my way is writers block. Thanks for the awesome post by the way smof, I'll be sure to check through some of those resources.
At the moment, I'm on track with the first draft of a screenplay that is scheduled to be done in mid November, and the plan was to immediately begin work on a play to be done in february... but perhaps if I'm efficient and finish off the screenplay early enough, I... still have to dedicate time to my film school application.
So I guess no dice for me this year, either.
Problem is, I'm terrible at plotting. I like worldbuilding and coming up with characters but am rubbish at working out what they're actually supposed to do between the beginning and end of the story. So I think that's what I've got to try and figure out over the next three weeks. At least last year proves I am capable of producing the word count.
If you need any help, you can talk to me, I'm not that great either at coming up with stories but I found that talking to someone usually helps.
i'ma try to write 50,000 lines of code for this project
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Maybe if I do enough world building a plot will just... happen?
plot doesn't come from the world, it comes from the characters
figure out who your characters are, and what they want. "Plot" is what happens when those wants conflict with each other.
I'm juggling two ideas for now. The first is an alt-history story set in a world where alchemy works, and a cabal of alchemists with the ability to grant eternal life control much of Europe's leaders. The main character is a young woman, daughter of an infamous mad scientist, living in anonymity in an early North American colony. She wants to use her talents to help and protect her fellow colonists, and to pursue her love of science without calling too much attention to herself or her heritage. The main antagonist is a British nobleman trying to buy his way into the "eternal youth" club, and is secretly backing a group of pirates that is raiding towns and shipping in the New World.
The second is urban fantasy/cyberpunk. The main characters are a police officer forced to work with a corporate agent to investigate a magical murder unlike anything anyone's seen before, and a bodyguard protecting a music producer who is convinced his former client, the biggest star in the world, is trying to have him killed. I'm still working on the antagonists' wants right now. I know how the murder was committed, still working on motive, but the protagonists' wants are "wants to solve the murder" and "wants to do so in a way that makes himself & the RCMP look good, and the corporation and it's agent look ineffective"
luckily I already have an outline going!
Will update the links when I'm next at my PC, Quoth, cheers
That sounds waaay more fun than my idea.
I got my idea it's just, well
that's a lot of words for one month with everything else I have on right now!
However, the ring will never leave your finger, and you will be unable to ever describe to another living person what you see.
1667 words is a lot, it's true.
But you know what's not that much? 200 words. If you can take a break 8 times in your day to write 200 words, you've basically hit the quota.
This was my winning strategy last year. I would sit at my PC for a few hours and get about 1000 words done, then while at work I'd try and bash out a couple hundred words on my phone between deliveries a few times per shift. It worked.
I'm taking that advice to heart and writing a stream-of-consciousness diary-type novel about the process of writing a novel. It will be terrible.
In a month?
That's one way to make Wilt Chamberlain look practically impotent.
Geth ban chriahallett
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Why I fear the ocean.
Last year I started on time and only got to 5,000, so I guess I'll try again this year!
Sometimes I am a helper
I need to rewrite the piece of shit I failed to pump out last year anyways.
Also the NaNoWriMo website has now reset for this year so you can sign up and register your novel. Anyone wants to add me as a writing buddy my username is smof.
No, no, you're looking for Chri S Hallett. This is Chri A Hallett.
I do that all the time with books that have a big cast, because I'm rubbish at keeping names straight unless I have a face to associate them with.
So I'd be like "Wait, who's this guy again? Oh right, he's the one who looks like Liam Neeson."
Yuuuup, big time.
You ever watch The Borgias? Sean Harris in the role of Micheletto was my inspiration for a character which then spurred the whole idea for the story I've spent the last three or four years trying to write.
this dude
Dat haircut.
PARKER, YOU'RE FIRED! <-- My comic book podcast! Satan look here!
I
suck
at
endings.
If a picture is worth a thousand words and one comic page=one picture then 2 and a bit issues would cover it (an issue is about 24 pages). But plenty of people do the 24 hr comic day where they do one issue in a day. So I think I will need to do more than 3, but I sure as heck ain't gonna do 30 issues.
Looking at a list of graphic novels that I like it seems that 500 pages would be a good aim point:
From Hell - 572 pages -
Habibi - 672 pages -
A Contract With God - 196 pages -
Rasl - 472 -
Tumor - 239 -
So, 500 pages, that works out to roughly 20 issues.
So the story begins with the protagonist being hounded for an unknown reason. And I need to turn this into the protagonist going on the attack and the obvious way to do it would be to have the protagonist join up with a group who can explain things to them. Like the Council of Elrond in the LotR or a billion other stories. But, I want to avoid that cliché.
Cool, my laptop autocorrects cliché to have the little dash.
Anyway, if I can do that then I will have no problem. But if I can't then I'm stuck with a protagonist who only reacts to things, which will get boring and won't go anywhere.