How many of us have started with their Nanowrimo-novel?
How far did you get so far?
I’ve got a very satisfying 5654 words now, and also spend time working out my timeline (with Aeon) which helped a lot. It also helps that I made the outline before I started writing and that I decided to fall back on a technique I used as a teenager.
Basically:
“Write down whatever scene you have in your head!”
As a teenager I used to write in a scattered way. Whatever scene I’d come up with, I’d write. At times I felt more like writing the story chronologically (well, in the order that it happened in the story) and whenever I’d get to a scene I’d already written I’d either just toss it in or did some rewriting of it (a second draft) right then and there. For some reason later on I thought I had to write in a linear way…
Yesterday and today though, I haven’t. I have scraps of scenes, and some full scenes. I have a start and have written my two most important flashbacks way before the scenes surrounding the flashback (and I like that, I’ve found that I semi-refer to the events more in the other scenes now that I’ve worked out the flashbacks. It adds more depth.) My brain bounces from left to right and up and down.
I’ve got 4,453 so far, almost all of it yesterday. I’ve basically finished all the set scenes I’d had planned (obviously not very many), however, and have no real idea where to go next yet. Still, I’m trying to plug away at it. This is my first NaNo and I’m still hopeful.
I’m not writing on Sundays (I’m a sabbatarian), so I need to get 2k words a day. I have 2108 words now. I intend to work on it some more before bed tonight, for at least 2500. For once I actually know the full plot outline and have it outlined—I’ve been working on this project for years, but I can never seem to write it right—so I’m starting from scratch with the outline.
I suspect I’m (yet again) working on a book that really should be the middle one of a series or trilogy, but I’ll muse on that more once I get this one done.
I’m at 9,108 words. A good many of them are utter crap, so I’ll be editing a lot in December, but there’s a decent story coming out of it. I’m trying to get 75,000 words done by Nov. 26 (Thanksgiving), if possible, but I’m giving myself some wiggle room in terms of word count and deadline to allow for the unavoidable, such as swine flu.
I’m at just over 4,000. A lot of my words are crap too. Mostly the adjectives. The nouns are fine. The verbs are doing whatever the hell they want and please don’t ask what those prepositions are up to.
…And I wasn’t feeling well and fell behind yesterday, despite the insomnia that kept me up. Endeavoring to catch up the 250 words I fell behind yesterday to write a total of 2250 today.
About 5000 words behind due to a few very long work days where I only managed 200-300 words before falling asleep, but starting to catch up again, slowly. Got a couple of 2000+ days, and maybe I can get a 5000 word day - that would catch me right up!
The story is half outlined. I am discovering more as I go along. The vast middle is as yet unmapped.
I used to write whatever scene I felt like writing, and I never finished anything because I kept spending time fixing scenes to match whatever changes had come up. The more scenes I had, the more time I spent editing instead of writing. Then I wrote something straight through (for NaNo) and actually finished it, so for practical reasons (want to finish the first draft!) I write straight through now. If I have an idea for a scene I make a card for it with a synopsis and toss it into its spot in the binder, and write it when it comes time to write it.
Note to self: outlines do NOT work, particularly when I don’t know my characters very well, nor the setting, nor the style in which I want to write this story. This NaNo is definitely going to be scrap material.
At least I’m caught up, except for today’s words. (I was a full 2k behind.) And this project is helping me flush out the characters, their backgrounds, and their motivations more. I didn’t realize Pinocchio was quite this sociopathic.
F gawd sake! :open_mouth: Cut the youngster some slack! Hes only a wooden kid!
Would you like me to arrange a consultation with Dr Mulality, for him.
In cases such as Pinnocs, however, the Doctor usually zooms in on the source and cause, of the characters delinquency, i.e., the author/creator of the character.
…I actually understood that, vic-k. Idk if that means you weren’t using as many alternate spellings as usual or if I’m just getting used to you.
shakes head No, he most definitely is not “just a wooden kid”. He’s a sociopathic faerie who loses his body and ultimately ends up putting himself into a young girl’s male doll.
Apropos of all of this, I am up to 14,000 words (despite a toddler birthday 400 miles away) in my second NaNoWriMo. Some of it is disgustingly childish stuff, and one or two Scrivener sections are rather pleasing.
Now, back to the project…
BTW, I should mention how much I enjoy this forum. I visit it weekly and it’s almost like having a support group.
Precisely! And by visiting it, (borderline) sane folks like sorrel feel all the more secure in their sanity!
:mrgreen:
On-topic: I still haven’t written my 2k for tonight, & I’m not sure that I will. I am not liking my NaNo project—and my WiPs are begging for my attention.
shoves vampires in ‘Later’ box and sits on lid and hopes they’ll respect the intent behind the author’s minimal weight and not send her into the ceiling
This NaNo is definitely going to be scrap material.
…I actually understood that, vic-k. Idk if that means you weren’t using as many alternate spellings as usual or if I’m just getting used to you.
I am