NaNoWriMo - The Official November Support Thread!

[Cehrabehra]

I really haven't written much this week. I'm just over 10k but... I've been there a while lol I am hoping that I will get back to it but I think that write or die was a bad thing for me...

 

[Cehrabehra]

I am sitting here watching " a knights tale" and lo and behold, it is SO much like the book I'm writing lol Okay, so it's not about jousting and I think some of my characters are more colorful, but there are elements that are very similar haha... what's funny is that the basic story I've had for years in my head is nothing really like this but as I've been writing the details must have been subconsciously filtering from my memory of this haha... of course nothing is the same, except perhaps some of the *feel* but still... dunno if I'm discouraged or amused

 

[Haven]

I am sitting here watching " a knights tale" and lo and behold, it is SO much like the book I'm writing lol Okay, so it's not about jousting and I think some of my characters are more colorful, but there are elements that are very similar haha... what's funny is that the basic story I've had for years in my head is nothing really like this but as I've been writing the details must have been subconsciously filtering from my memory of this haha... of course nothing is the same, except perhaps some of the *feel* but still... dunno if I'm discouraged or amused

Be amused, it will make writing easier!

I intended to spend this entire day catching up on my word count, and instead I am posting on PS. AAAAAAAH!

AND, my sister and I just had a great discussion over email about a series of YA books that we want to write for Jewish teens, and I'm so excited about THAT that I want to start writing it right now. THE PLOT BUNNIES STRIKE AGAIN!

 

[Haven]

I'm stuck on one sentence, and it's at the turning point of the first third of my book.

Do you want some help moving past it? Post the sentence, we'll help you work on it!

 

[Liane]

I'm stuck on one sentence, and it's at the turning point of the first third of my book.

This one gets me too a lot. First and last sentences in chapters often derail me. I want it to pack a certain punch, you know? Or at least not be totally lame. But sometimes finding the right words in the right order takes FOREVER. So I just put in some lame placeholder and move on.

I can't remember if I said this already so forgive me if I'm being redundant, but a couple of years back when I was first starting out, I read an author (think it was Elizabeth Bear, might be mistaken on this) blog about how her process had changed over her books, and she said that at this point she just writes cheat notes like [fight scene here] or [Character X details his nefarious plans here] when she's not interested in detailing a particular thing, then skips over it to get to the next scene she feels like writing at that moment in time.

When I read this it was totally amazing, like WOAH YOU CAN DO THAT?!

I still don't do it myself -- I think you need a certain amount of confidence that you can fill in the gaps later, and I'm not there yet -- but it might be worth trying if you're stalled out here. NaNo is, IMO, best used as a zero draft, so since you're going to have to go back and fix a lot of stuff anyway, why not just add this to the list?

 

[Cehrabehra]

I'm stuck on one sentence, and it's at the turning point of the first third of my book.

This one gets me too a lot. First and last sentences in chapters often derail me. I want it to pack a certain punch, you know? Or at least not be totally lame. But sometimes finding the right words in the right order takes FOREVER. So I just put in some lame placeholder and move on.

I can't remember if I said this already so forgive me if I'm being redundant, but a couple of years back when I was first starting out, I read an author (think it was Elizabeth Bear, might be mistaken on this) blog about how her process had changed over her books, and she said that at this point she just writes cheat notes like [fight scene here] or [Character X details his nefarious plans here] when she's not interested in detailing a particular thing, then skips over it to get to the next scene she feels like writing at that moment in time.

When I read this it was totally amazing, like WOAH YOU CAN DO THAT?!

I still don't do it myself -- I think you need a certain amount of confidence that you can fill in the gaps later, and I'm not there yet -- but it might be worth trying if you're stalled out here. NaNo is, IMO, best used as a zero draft, so since you're going to have to go back and fix a lot of stuff anyway, why not just add this to the list?

That's EXACTLY how I am writing... for better or worse. I am not even remotely worrying myself with how punchy first or last lines are... I just go like, "... and then they stumbled upon three dancing girls and I really need to describe them later, one is a redhead and they're wearing face scarves and are really ugly on the lower halves of their faces or maybe they aren't ugly maybe it's makeup to make them look ugly, anyway the girls..." or I'll be describing something in a lot of detail and then just stick in 'and then he goes on an adventure' and pick up after the adventure... too funny. Maybe if I had more practice at writing the old fashioned way I would be so bad at this lol

 

[Haven]

I am WOEFULLY behind.

I blocked out my entire day yesterday so I could focus on my novel and get that word count up, but instead, you know what I did? Of course you do--because I spent the entire day here on PS with you guys! I only put about an hour's worth of work in on my novel, and I spent the rest of the day volleying between walking the dogs, feeding the animals, cleaning the house, and posting on PS.

OY to the VEY, I need to focus.

Cehra--Seriously, why did you have to start such a great thread yesterday?!


Okay, I'm finished with my temper tantrum.

How is everyone else doing?

 

[MonkeyPie]

Did we all lose focus? I was so busy last week I barely wrote a thing - now this morning I cranked out a couple thousand. I'm at 11,024 at the moment, but my husband works all week so I will have lots of alone time after Micah goes to bed to work on it. I am determined to get to at least 20 by mid-week, hopefully more. I am woefully behind my region-mates. They are hitting 40k already!

 

[dragonfly411]

I managed to get past the sentence, but am still "woefully behind" as has been said. I got a bit distracted by the weekend and the 1000000000000 things going on. I'm hoping I can get quite a bit in tonight.

It doesn't help that I'm addicted to watching Young Riders on my Lap Top until the wee hours of the morning.

 

[Indylady]

Ok--I realize that it is January now, but..

how did you writing go? Cehra, Moneypiem Dragonfly, Haven, Liane, BEG?

I didn't participate in NANOWRIMO in November, but I just started writing (just for fun!) and decided to look up this thread for thoughts and pointers. Did you finish your novels? Are you editing, revising? I bet it was a rewarding experience, and I am looking forward to hearing from you all!

 

[Haven]

Hi, IndyLady!

I didn't win NaNo, but I am nearly finished with my zero draft of the novel I started writing last January. I know it's taken me forever, but there have been periods of time when I only wrote a couple hundred words a night. Now I'm at 60,000 words, and *just* at the end. It's a middle grade speculative fiction novel.

Next, I get to revise!

How is your writing going? I've been on winter break for three weeks, and I committed to writing for four hours each day, which I've done. Now that the spring semester is starting up again soon I'm dreading it that I'll have to put it aside again and do *real* work.

There are some wonderful writing forums out there on the Internet. I like lurking on them when I'm at a lull in my own writing.

 

[Indylady]

Haven, its good to hear from you!

Its going well--I've probably only written about 1,000 words over the last 3 days, but I'm very glad that I've at least 'started'. Sitting down to start was hard; I've never written any substantive work of fiction, so it took a lot of 'guts' for me to get started.

Hopefully I can ramp up the word count as the days go by. At first, I'd try to re-read what I wrote as soon as I'd written it..but I always feel like what I've just written is cheesy, so I've stopped doing that and I just write with reckless abandon.

Its been fun so far, and almost cathartic.