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Post by Kessie on Nov 10, 2011 12:53:10 GMT -5
I'm still formulating a story. Right now I'm pondering the Knot, as Jeff puts it, and the overall theme. This story has no point, so far, so I'm trying to find the point before I launch into it.
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Post by Kessie on Nov 11, 2011 9:50:56 GMT -5
Got 1548 words last night. Those first couple of paragraphs are the hardest, but I think I've got it working. :-)
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Post by dragonlots on Nov 11, 2011 17:20:35 GMT -5
2184 words today, total is 9619. Getting laid of yesterday put me further behind. However, have an interview with a staffing company on Monday.
Anyway, 2-4 more chapters and then 'God's Gift' is complete. Then, I start on short stories with rapidly approaching deadlines. All part of my count for NaNoWriMo.
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Post by yoda47 on Nov 11, 2011 21:36:46 GMT -5
20,258 word total, averaging 1,841 words a day.
That should go up later tonight. I usually write about 400 words in the morning, then about 1,200 words before I go to bed.
I love the idea of keeping the momentum.... and espescilly with this group. Reading the fourums at nano makes me wonder if 3/4 of the participants have studied the craft of writing at all... but I digress....
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rjj7
Full Member
Today I'm a drake
Posts: 202
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Post by rjj7 on Nov 11, 2011 23:23:48 GMT -5
Yoda, I'm tired. I read your comment about the forums at nano and for some reason thought you were speaking of here. I had to reread it a couple times trying to figure out whether you really meant to insult all of us before it finally clicked.
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Post by Kessie on Nov 12, 2011 0:37:21 GMT -5
1272 words tonight, bringing me to 2825 words.
Yoda, are they all, like, making all the newbie writer mistakes? I know a lot of people only write once a year during Nano, and it shows ...
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Post by yoda47 on Nov 12, 2011 9:52:34 GMT -5
[quote author=kessie board=workshop thread=2025 post=23671 Yoda, are they all, like, making all the newbie writer mistakes? I know a lot of people only write once a year during Nano, and it shows ...[/quote] Well, I doubt all of them are, but it feels like it sometimes. There's a thread over there titled "Want to get to 50,000? Ignore the latest pep talk." Said pep talk was all about tightening your writing by leaving out minute details. (e.g. He took two steps forward, placing one foot in front of the other on the orange shag carpet. Then he stopped, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and raised it to his face as his sinuses quivered... you get the picture.) And the thread is full of people saying "You can't possibly get to the impossibly large goal of 50,000 words if you don't include this stuff!!!" I tried to post something encouraging, and several people apparently took it as a personal attack... And it's not just that thread, there are many like it. Now, I'm certainly not a professional, but I have written an 84k word novel, and I've read several dozen books on different aspects of writing, and I know that if you practice bad habits every day for a month all you'll do is cement said bad habits. It's discouraging. On the other hand, I've no doubt there are many talented writers doing NaNo as well... They are probably too busy writing to post. I should probably just keep hanging out on the forums here instead of over there. ... you know, in all my spare time....
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Post by Teskas on Nov 12, 2011 10:16:35 GMT -5
I'm just keeping up with the 1,667 words per day, and it is a struggle. I am putting in a lot of prepositional phrases that in ordinary circumstances I wouldn't dream of writing just to hit the 50K mark by the end of the month. I think Yoda--and our recent pep talk--is right. Write bad style for 30 days and you'll end up with bad habits.
I feel really compromised. I've found myself writing reams of narrative. (Yes, very bad. Sorry, Jeff), but I wasn't prepared going into NaNoWriMo. It was a last minute decision--I didn't even have the protagonist's first name (it was only when I started writing that I realized what I had picked seemed wrong), and I don't have a handle on all the characters. The plot sags in the middle, and the hero's journey isn't clear any more. I am actually not remotely writing a novel in the way Jeff has been trying to teach us.
However, if I get anything out of this by November 30th, it will teach me the discipline of sitting down and writing every day. Even if its drivel. I've been in a writing funk for a little more than two years, so for me there are benefits which probably don't fit the ordinary NaNo participant. It has been a revelation to me what going through the motions can do for a mental state. One word after the other, and before long there's a sentence and a scene, and a minor character turns from cardboard cutout into a plausible fictional personality.
So I won't have a first draft on November 30th, but I will have a panorama on paper, and I can spend the next year working on the story.
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Post by Kessie on Nov 12, 2011 10:21:23 GMT -5
Teskas: Good for you! Nothing like a little discipline to snap you out of a funk, right?
The story I'm writing, I've been nibbling at the edges of it for about four years. These characters keep coming in to other stories and making cryptic remarks about their adventures, but I don't actually know what they did. So now I'm finally writing it to find out.
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Post by Teskas on Nov 12, 2011 10:53:27 GMT -5
Kessie, it sounds as though you are having a creative experience very similar to mine. Some things seem simply to emerge as a person thinks and writes his fiction. It must come from the unconscious. Learning about a character's past, or his experiences, seems marvelous, and yet often it is accidental. That has really surprised me in the NaNo experiment. Which is why--having had this happen to me the last couple of weeks--I'd advise anyone in a quandry for a story to just start writing. See what lands on the Word.doc
Who cares whether it hangs together! Cleaning up the plot can come later, if you want it to.
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rjj7
Full Member
Today I'm a drake
Posts: 202
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Post by rjj7 on Nov 12, 2011 13:20:02 GMT -5
Personally, I think that one needs to be in the habit of just sitting down and writing. If what you write is bad, don't worry about it. But spend some time going over what you've written and noticing the errors. Keep those errors in mind, but don't obsess over them.
I guess what it boils down to is: Don't worry about a particular error unless you know you have a predisposition for it to show up in your stuff; and even then, don't obsess over it. You can edit it later. Same goes for everything else. Don't worry about all those writing tips, just write.
The hypocrite will now step down.
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Post by newburydave on Nov 12, 2011 15:29:13 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]GO TEAM ANOMALY, GO !!!![/glow]Last year I followed the advice of several other NNMW veterans from the Anomaly and just wrote flat out, without any in process editing. The whole point they said was to get the 50k goal nailed. What came out was the Zander novel I'm working on now. I'm currently at about Revision 4+ and have had two major resets, but the novelization that came out of the exercise has taken on a life of it's own. The Lord has already given me the germs of the central plot conflicts for two parallel, follow on novels which will track two different characters who we met in Zander. I'm even trying to rearrange some of my other story worlds to fit them into the Zander timeline (that may or may not work but I'm looking at it). Bottom line; if your inspiration is solid (see the discussion in the thread "Do your characters run away?" that Kessie started in this heading); and you have a reasonable grasp of the craft of writing then just go for it and write. "Give yourself permission to write junk" was the advice they gave me. At the time I was skeptical, but now I'm a believer. I was chasing the unfolding inspiration that my characters provided. Yes, I have to go back and edit it, extensively in some cases. Yes, I'm embarrassed at some of the Gaffes I committed. Yes, I didn't show the rough draft to anyone else. Yes, I have a major editing job to get done before I try to get it published. But I learned two things: 1. Editing my own work is the best way to discover and correct my own bad habits. 2. Story telling is a different dimension from authorial craft and style. Good Story Telling is what sells books, style does not. My Zander story is still kind of rough around the edges but it's a lot better Story than many novels that I've seen published in the CBA market and the Amazon eBook market. I've started some books and thought to myself "I write better than this guy/girl, how did they get published?" Okay, Okay; If my assessment is correct I need to make it happen, Right? I guess getting published is all about effort..nuff said. Write on Sibs, and Go Team Anomaly, you can do it!!!SGD dave
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Post by Kessie on Nov 13, 2011 0:36:40 GMT -5
Got 1358 words tonight, bringing my total to 4172. Halfway through chapter 1!
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Heather Titus
Full Member
a writer, a nerd, and lovin' it
Posts: 121
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Post by Heather Titus on Nov 13, 2011 7:40:50 GMT -5
Well, I caught the Dreaded Cold that my husband & all my friends have... I was desperately hoping to avoid it, but no such luck. Word count for the last three days has been a miserable 160.
The bright side is that, since all I've done is sleep and read, I seem to be coming out of it earlier than everyone else. Maybe I can get some work done today.
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Post by Teskas on Nov 13, 2011 8:49:57 GMT -5
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