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National Novel Writing Month 2019: When in doubt, write Nanomachines!
- Thread starter FlowersisBritish
- Start date
OP
OP
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OP
Seeing some people fall behind and I just want to say you can do this! All you need is one good weekend of writing and you'll be fine! And lucky for you we've got two weekends of writing left!!
edit: oh also im at 33482 words
edit: oh also im at 33482 words
It's been slower the last couple of days, but I'm still slightly ahead of the Day 19 benchmark. I'm going to have to get further ahead though, because I've got family visiting for a few days later this month.
WC: 32098
WC: 32098
you might want to check your math.
we only have one weekend of writing left.
the other one that you are likely counting... the last day... is only saturday. not a full weekend.
so you have 1.5 weekends left :P
OP
OP
Since a lot of us are a good way through our novels, curious if people are having any revelations? I'm realizing how easy it is in a sequel to just unelegantly regurgitate old information from the previous book
I haven't started yet, but I'm already considering changing the POV of the story to the mentor because the
revelation... nah... I knew this but past me sucks at keeping notes.
just because I didn't plan for this character to do anything in this book doesn't mean that I shouldn't have their information on hand to make sure I don't duplicate information as I give new nuggets of what is going on in the overarching story :P
WC: 31266
A smaller starting cast being more manageable compared to the original version of the story I wrote was something I already anticipated, so not really a revelation. Just how much better I was able to make it read through reincorporating content/subject matter into dialogue rather than just excising all of the old rambling prose that so much of it was confined to was a pleasant surprise, though.
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WC: 46781
I anticipate being done on Friday if I can hit the word count before I see Frozen that evening, otherwise it'll be early Saturday. I'll be done with the 50k, anyway, but there will still be another six or seven chapters left after that before revisions.
I anticipate being done on Friday if I can hit the word count before I see Frozen that evening, otherwise it'll be early Saturday. I'll be done with the 50k, anyway, but there will still be another six or seven chapters left after that before revisions.
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WC: 35475
Aside from the fact that my writing's actually devolved in the four years I've been doing this, I think having a set goal is actually detrimental to my stories' momentum and causing me to write them like they're serials instead of novels with a beginning, middle and end. Like my story this year has basically transformed into a series of vignettes of my characters hanging out instead of this meta-commentary on superheroes and where they should stand between order and justice like I thought it would be. A couple of days ago, I actually went back and deleted a passage where half of my cast caught the sixth member doing some 5E cleric shit because I thought it'd be too soon for something like that to go down. Two thirds of the way through the month.
That said, I'm not as down on it as I was my last project, where you can just feel me dying as I posted updates. As shittily as it's written, I believe I can actually break through to the third act if I throw any semblance of pacing out the window. I might actually want to go back and finish it once the new year rolls around, so that's already a major improvement over last year.
Aside from the fact that my writing's actually devolved in the four years I've been doing this, I think having a set goal is actually detrimental to my stories' momentum and causing me to write them like they're serials instead of novels with a beginning, middle and end. Like my story this year has basically transformed into a series of vignettes of my characters hanging out instead of this meta-commentary on superheroes and where they should stand between order and justice like I thought it would be. A couple of days ago, I actually went back and deleted a passage where half of my cast caught the sixth member doing some 5E cleric shit because I thought it'd be too soon for something like that to go down. Two thirds of the way through the month.
That said, I'm not as down on it as I was my last project, where you can just feel me dying as I posted updates. As shittily as it's written, I believe I can actually break through to the third act if I throw any semblance of pacing out the window. I might actually want to go back and finish it once the new year rolls around, so that's already a major improvement over last year.
OP
OP
The smaller starting cast is an interesting detail I've never really thought about before tbh
I'm glad you're having a better time with this than your last project. The set goal stuff doesn't really surprise me. Its tough to call your shots interms of themes. I've found themes are better found after the story is written and you've had time to think and dwell on recurring elements you return to in the story.
WC: 28077
I sat down today at 7 with the intention of writing for 5 hours. Then my friend texted me to ask where I was because art was happening and someone brought me a bucket of tree branches. One flat tire later and then I'm home at 10. Whoops. 7k in the hole for tomorrow. =( I have only myself to blame.
I sat down today at 7 with the intention of writing for 5 hours. Then my friend texted me to ask where I was because art was happening and someone brought me a bucket of tree branches. One flat tire later and then I'm home at 10. Whoops. 7k in the hole for tomorrow. =( I have only myself to blame.
WC: 62863
My biggest single day total so far this year, despite working a full day, cooking and watching three hours of wrestling. No idea how I managed that.
As far as revelations? It's lots of little things for me. This story, my character wakes up in a life that's alien to her, so I filled it with other characters and mundanity she has to navigate as she tries to figure out her identity. A husband. Two step kids. An ex wife still on the scene. Work colleagues. Etc. That stuff was just texture as she got through her first day.
But as the novel continues and gets into the plot, of who she really is, and why she has no memories (and as it ties in to related themes... which I think a lot about before I start usually), I found myself getting drawn back to those characters. Their mundane lives seem exotic to my main, as the short part of her life she can remember is anything but.
Turns out I write six year olds really well. Turns out the teenage step daughter is already involved with the boy next door, that I thought she was just doting on. The young woman who runs the company my main works for is more conservative than she wants to admit to herself, and struggles with the modern Valve-esque office environment she thinks someone like her is expected to make. The ex-wife turned out to be a deputy sheriff which I didn't have in my brief outline *at all*.
I've never taken an idea from conception to a finished draft in less than a year before. Speaking drafts, my first novel was based on a short story I'd written a year or more before. My second was an adaptation of a film script I'd written (and done nothing with... I had ambitions of following that route, but realized I just loved writing and film scripts are soooo limiting). My third took me years to wrangle and almost stopped me writing (2003 to 2010. YIKES). My fourth, was based on a short story idea I'd had in 2010 that I expanded into my first NaNo in 2016. My fifth in 2017 was again further based on that short story that my original novel was based on (it's a stories are wheels affair with the same players, but it's a complete different narrative to what came before).
This, fingers crossed sixth finished 1st draft, is an idea I came up with in Spring.
Next year, I'm already planning to revisit my other big failure. A story I got over 100,000 words into starting in 2010 and writing into 2011 before I abandoned it (and again, didn't write for like five years). It remains the absolute best concept I've come up with. Probably the best I ever will. Hopefully 40 year old plagiarize (OH GOD I TURN 40 NEXT YEAR) can do what 30 year old plag couldn't.
My biggest single day total so far this year, despite working a full day, cooking and watching three hours of wrestling. No idea how I managed that.
As far as revelations? It's lots of little things for me. This story, my character wakes up in a life that's alien to her, so I filled it with other characters and mundanity she has to navigate as she tries to figure out her identity. A husband. Two step kids. An ex wife still on the scene. Work colleagues. Etc. That stuff was just texture as she got through her first day.
But as the novel continues and gets into the plot, of who she really is, and why she has no memories (and as it ties in to related themes... which I think a lot about before I start usually), I found myself getting drawn back to those characters. Their mundane lives seem exotic to my main, as the short part of her life she can remember is anything but.
Turns out I write six year olds really well. Turns out the teenage step daughter is already involved with the boy next door, that I thought she was just doting on. The young woman who runs the company my main works for is more conservative than she wants to admit to herself, and struggles with the modern Valve-esque office environment she thinks someone like her is expected to make. The ex-wife turned out to be a deputy sheriff which I didn't have in my brief outline *at all*.
I've never taken an idea from conception to a finished draft in less than a year before. Speaking drafts, my first novel was based on a short story I'd written a year or more before. My second was an adaptation of a film script I'd written (and done nothing with... I had ambitions of following that route, but realized I just loved writing and film scripts are soooo limiting). My third took me years to wrangle and almost stopped me writing (2003 to 2010. YIKES). My fourth, was based on a short story idea I'd had in 2010 that I expanded into my first NaNo in 2016. My fifth in 2017 was again further based on that short story that my original novel was based on (it's a stories are wheels affair with the same players, but it's a complete different narrative to what came before).
This, fingers crossed sixth finished 1st draft, is an idea I came up with in Spring.
Next year, I'm already planning to revisit my other big failure. A story I got over 100,000 words into starting in 2010 and writing into 2011 before I abandoned it (and again, didn't write for like five years). It remains the absolute best concept I've come up with. Probably the best I ever will. Hopefully 40 year old plagiarize (OH GOD I TURN 40 NEXT YEAR) can do what 30 year old plag couldn't.
HEY NANOERS <3 You are all awesome \o/
Keep up making words appear <3 !!!
...
Also since I'm not doing NaNo this year, but still wanna help out you all who are in it, if you want a free sketch of a character off your NaNo, pelt me with a char description and I'll try to draw some :)
Keep up making words appear <3 !!!
...
Also since I'm not doing NaNo this year, but still wanna help out you all who are in it, if you want a free sketch of a character off your NaNo, pelt me with a char description and I'll try to draw some :)
WC: 27548
Tacked on a short epilogue, currently in a text document titled "The Bullshit Epilogue," wherein one PoV character from my current novel meets the protagonist of my 2017 NaNo project.
I guess all my NaNo horror projects are gonna exist in one universe at this rate.
I'm a hack and it's fun as hell.
Tacked on a short epilogue, currently in a text document titled "The Bullshit Epilogue," wherein one PoV character from my current novel meets the protagonist of my 2017 NaNo project.
I guess all my NaNo horror projects are gonna exist in one universe at this rate.
I'm a hack and it's fun as hell.
WC: 40009
Broke 40k!
Broke 40k!
I have realized that it is really, really easy for me to get lost in aimless meandering. Particularly conversations. My characters can just chat and chat and avoid action. Which makes it easy to reach quotas, but makes it hard to reach story goals. In the future, I'll want to actually try planning out a story and determine roughly how many words I want to spend on each section.
WC: 38237
A woman in her early thirties, long white hair slicked down by rain, red eyes, and a simple white dress with a belt in a more medieval fashion stained brown with mud. She also has heavy boots on.
Wow that's really awesome. Thank you for offering this to us! I got a character description for you if you don't mind.
A woman in her early thirties, long white hair slicked down by rain, red eyes, and a simple white dress with a belt in a more medieval fashion stained brown with mud. She also has heavy boots on.
48,738.
Could probably easily hit the target count in the next hour, but as I've been completely winging it day to day this month I'm going to call it a day now and see if any more ideas develop over the evening.
I skipped over a large chunk of the middle of the story to make sure I actually write an ending this year, so perhaps next week I'll actually go and add more to the actual character development in the middle. Or I'll catch up on all the games I didn't play this month 🤔
Could probably easily hit the target count in the next hour, but as I've been completely winging it day to day this month I'm going to call it a day now and see if any more ideas develop over the evening.
I skipped over a large chunk of the middle of the story to make sure I actually write an ending this year, so perhaps next week I'll actually go and add more to the actual character development in the middle. Or I'll catch up on all the games I didn't play this month 🤔
OP
OP
I think the skill of coming to your ideas sooner rather than later is an important one that is very difficult to learn. Anyways glad you're having fun. Discovering that characters are more important than you drafted them to be is always a great turn of events. I don't think I could write children well at all. Any tips?
Hell yeah! Welcome to the hack club where we are more concerned about cool shit than quality.
How are you two getting lost? Are they just chatting about unimportant things like the weather?
I'll take you up on that. I have a massive giant monster called The Protogod. The basic gist is its a four-armed humanoid that existed at the bottom of a lake. Its skin is covered in moss and dirt and looks like something you'd pull out from the bottom of a lake. Also it has a lake for a head, just a floating mass of water sticking out of where its neck is and is just a roundish mass above it.
No, my characters are usually discussing plot-relevant topics, but they go into too much detail or get pedantic about minor points that don't help move the plot along. I think my next project will be one in which dialogue is summarized rather than written out. I've done that style before and it's still one of my favorite things I've written.
WC: 65016
I had a really bad day at work, so I'm happy to get anything written today. I accidentally upset a colleague so badly that they took the rest of the day off. Felt like shit pretty much since then. I'll take a couple of thousand more words. If I was feeling better I'd start another chapter... this one hit a natural break point... I'm happy with it, but I don't have the energy left to write another entire chapter and I hate walking away halfway through a chapter.
Edit: Messed up my total. Updated it.
I had a really bad day at work, so I'm happy to get anything written today. I accidentally upset a colleague so badly that they took the rest of the day off. Felt like shit pretty much since then. I'll take a couple of thousand more words. If I was feeling better I'd start another chapter... this one hit a natural break point... I'm happy with it, but I don't have the energy left to write another entire chapter and I hate walking away halfway through a chapter.
They need to be misunderstood by adults, but understandable internally. I find it helps to remember stuff you cared about as a child that you don't really dwell on any more, and make that centrally important to them. Also, kids go from 0 to 100 emotionally really quickly, even if they don't want to.
Edit: Messed up my total. Updated it.
WC: 37495
So I decided to pull the trigger and have two of my main characters reveal to the rest of the cast that they have magic powers to save Asshole Korra (her actual name is Naija) from dying in a kumite. I'm leaving it rather ambiguous whether or not her she was on the cusp of death or simply knocked out, I'll guess I'll figure it out tomorrow.
So I decided to pull the trigger and have two of my main characters reveal to the rest of the cast that they have magic powers to save Asshole Korra (her actual name is Naija) from dying in a kumite. I'm leaving it rather ambiguous whether or not her she was on the cusp of death or simply knocked out, I'll guess I'll figure it out tomorrow.
Honestly, plot-related stuff or what I think is counts as it, like my character's backgrounds and hobbies. I'm doing a lot of telling instead of showing, but that's what you get when you decide at the very last second to participate this year.
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WC: 33521
I was sick most of the day, but I had no intention of letting that stop me.
I was sick most of the day, but I had no intention of letting that stop me.
In regards to the works that inspired what I'm writing, which aren't books so much as games with dialogue and worldbuilding so extensive that they may as well be, I had first thought to emulate what the most recent arc among them did in respect to cast size without realizing that they didn't really make such thinly spread focus pan out either (as much as I still liked those games and said cast). Going back to a preceding arc in the same series, which took place roughly concurrently with the first two games of that later arc but in a different part of the continent, its main cast started out much smaller and it benefited greatly from it, so I figured they were onto something.
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