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| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - Writing - NaNoWriMo |
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Rydain Sir Kibble Blaze Phoenix Runs with the Dragon Within                 Since: 11-18-05 From: State College, PA Last post: 6299 days Last view: 6295 days |
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| a.k.a. National Novel Writing Month, in which the goal is to write 50,000 words of a brand spanking new rough draft over the course of November. NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality. As long as your manuscript passes their word counter before the deadline, a winner is you.
Have you attempted NaNoWriMo? How did it go? Is anyone thinking about giving it a shot this year? I first heard of NaNoWriMo on November 6, 2005. Upon discovering that I hadn't missed the signup deadline, I figured that I'd go for it and see if I could get anything halfway decent out of a scary story idea I'd had for the last two years and never managed to develop. I wound up with a winning manuscript that taught me quite a few dos and don'ts and helped me develop my style. The backstory fleshed itself out pretty well, and I liked a bunch of the locales I came up with, but reading the manuscript felt like watching someone play a video game. I was rushing my character around in a linear progression from Point A to Point B and throwing all manner of arbitrary obstacles in her path. (Example: a giant nonsensical hole in the road.) I also learned that vocabulary overload makes text flow awkwardly. Common words tend to be more transparent to the reader and feel more like the natural thoughts inside someone's head. I still use Big Words(tm), especially if the connotation or exact description is just right for the context, but I feel that moderation is key. I would say that I'm about 75% done with the second draft of that novel, which is more like an overhaul. I'm having trouble planning the last part, but I've been forcing myself to sketch it out a bit at a time. It's going well, though. I think I kept the best aspects of the rough draft while cutting out the crap. 2006 rolled around, and I had another scary story beginning in mind - a vague dream I'd had a while ago about a guy who was sleeping restlessly and would soon be climbing out his bedroom window because something was in his house. I kicked it around well before November (prewriting and planning are allowed as long as you don't write any of the actual draft) and came up with some developments that I liked, so I went with it. I won, and I felt that as a rough draft, it was hella better than last year's story. I thought my writing flowed much better, and I didn't shove the character around or subject him to any silly video game-esque deus ex machina. A friend who charitably critiqued the 2005 novel, explaining why certain obstacles came off as out of place, agreed that 2006 was a major improvement.  I've done a bit of prewriting for the first revision, but I need to let the story sit a while before I start. I also have to come up with a reason for the weirdness that befalls my poor main character. The rough draft never managed to figure that out, though it did wind up with the beginnings of some ideas that I may develop.
As for 2007, let's just say that Pittsburgh suburbs look surreal as all hell when you're driving down a main highway on a rainy Christmas night. They look so surreal that my imagination started running away, and it looks like I'll be doing yet another rubber reality horror story for NaNoWriMo. Huzzah. |
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Silvershield   580     Since: 11-19-05 From: Emerson, New Jersey Last post: 6307 days Last view: 6294 days |
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| It's certainly a worthy goal, but I can't see myself ever succeeding at that sort of thing. I need to be in a very particular mood to write with any sort of enthusiasm, not to mention the environment has to be just right. And I feel like my mood is right, and the environment is right, so rarely when I'm living away at school; too often there is a drunken party or a booming stereo somewhere in the dorm building, and that ruins it. It's generally easier here at home, but as soon as I go back to campus I know I would struggle with it again, which is really frustrating.
But, like I said, it's a worthy goal. |
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Hiryuu Sword Maiden Retired Admin   Since: 11-17-05 From: Nerima District - Tokyo, Japan Last post: 6294 days Last view: 6294 days |
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| Honestly, I couldn't really find the time to look at this. I know I could do it if I took the time and the effort, but originality would kill me in that resolve within the deadlines that are necessary to complete this. Given the jobs I have and the low amount of free time I have, that kinda hurts me in any chance of writing. :\
Least I still have my solo write. That one's about to clear 70,000 words and I'm aiming for about 250,000 when it's all said and done...which it's already taken 2 years of work off and on. That said, I'd rather write at my leisure. Not under time constaints. (edited by Hiryuu on 01-04-07 01:12 AM) |
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Bloodstar 660 blue boar boobies Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 35 bytes) in /var/www/acmlm.org/board/profile.php on line 42 Since: 11-17-05 Last post: 6294 days Last view: 6294 days |
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| I couldn't do so hot in something like this.
I mean, my writing's decent and all, but I can only write when I'm feeling motivated. Which isn't too often. It usually passes in waves, for me. That said, I'd be interested in seeing what you have when you're finished. And good luck with your story for NaNoWriMo this year. |
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C`aos Porcupo  Since: 03-02-06 From: AB, Canada Last post: 6295 days Last view: 6295 days |
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In 4+ years of writing fanficiton, I've found that if I ever get close to 50,000 words in the creation of anything, I usually end up doubling or tripling it in the process of bringing a coherent closure to it 
It does seem very interesting though, I think I may give it a shot when the time rolls around. |
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Gideon Zhi Keese  Since: 12-05-05 From: ...behind you! Boo! Last post: 6297 days Last view: 6294 days |
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| I've done Nanowrimo... five times, I think. I started years ago, so keeping track is starting to get confusing. Haven't finished either, not once, but I don't use it for its stated purpose; rather, I use it as a way to get a lot of writing done in a short span, which I'll be motivated to continue later.
In past years, I've always tried to write the same novel, and I'd always failed. Last year I got the farthest I'd ever gotten - about 22,000 words I think - but I did eventually go on to lengthen that into a complete 75,000 word novel (which I just sent to Random House last weekend, in time for their First Young Adult Novel contest deadline). I'm extremely pleased with how it came out, and am in the process of crafting a half-sequel (same setting, character cameos, new plot and central cast.) I managed about 10K words during this year's Nanowrimo before folding under the increasing burden of romhacking projects, hah. I rather like it so far though; it's got some very cool characters and some fantastic twists planned, so I'll definitely be finishing it at some point. |
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jordan_mega_gamer Red Goomba Since: 11-25-05 From: Vermont, USA Last post: 6321 days Last view: 6320 days |
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| I started NaNoWriMo in 2005 as well. I started with a semi-vague idea about this farmer and magician having to travel through time to save the world. I finished in time, but I think I stuck a lot of filler into it. I still haven't really looked at it much. I think it could make decent Young Adult fiction though.
I tried again in 2006, but with an even vaguer idea. I only managed 10k and still had a good amount of filler. It was supposed to be about an alcoholic who murders his wife and gets stuck in jail with a hippie. What happens next? I don't know. I threw in an ominous voice called "The Narrator" for extra word count.  All I knew was that this one was going to be decidedly non-Young Adult. Or something. I blame the rigors of being a junior in high school. I'm pretty sure I'm not trying again this year. But I'm taking Fiction Writing class this semester, so we'll see... |
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Rydain Sir Kibble Blaze Phoenix Runs with the Dragon Within Since: 11-18-05 From: State College, PA Last post: 6299 days Last view: 6295 days |
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Originally posted by jordan_mega_gamerI remember that story...and I still have your rough draft. I haven't looked at it since I finished reading it, but I enjoyed it, and if I were you, I'd consider revising it. There was plenty of good stuff in there. I especially liked the magic system and the differences between experienced and inexperienced spellcasting, e.g. the wizard called forth a bucket of clear water and the farmer could only manage a few muddy drops. I also enjoyed the characters' attempts to figure out things in the present day. The laundromat scene was one of my favorites. |
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jordan_mega_gamer Red Goomba Since: 11-25-05 From: Vermont, USA Last post: 6321 days Last view: 6320 days |
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Oh, that's right! I still have that PM of yours too.  I'm glad somebody liked it. I don't really think any of the other guys doing it at my school cared for it. Theirs were all violent and such, y'know, not quite kid-friendly books. Still, I guess maybe. I'd probably have to add it to my horrifically long list of "things to do when I happen to have extra time".
Maybe I should upload the start of my 2006 Nano too. It's not much, but I've at least learned that diving headfirst into NaNoWriMo without a shred of preplanning doesn't work for me. Maybe I can rework and rewrite it for Nano 2007. Do you think I could look over one of your Nano manuscripts? If you thought mine was good, well, I can only imagine how great yours would be. |
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