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National Novel Writing Month 2019: When in doubt, write Nanomachines!
- Thread starter FlowersisBritish
- Start date
WC: 50875
Woot!. FanFic Nano done for another year in a row.
Will try to find someway to plan for something original for next year I think.
Woot!. FanFic Nano done for another year in a row.
Will try to find someway to plan for something original for next year I think.
First attempt at NaNoWriMo and it's a fail for me. Ended up being my busiest month of the year at work and when I got back I just didn't have the energy or inclination to do any writing. Also probably bit off more than I could chew. On the flip side there are some major positives to take away from it. The main one being that I actually sat down and wrote some stuff. I've never managed to do anything before. Too much mythologizing the act of writing that I usually gave up before I even started.
The few sessions I did sit down to write in I managed about 500 words which I think is respectable, especially because I did very little planning. Just thought of a scene and started filling in the blanks. I definitely learnt some things and I'm going to keep chipping away at the story I started, just to see where it goes. Think next year I'll definitely do more planning. I might not give up the pantser approach completely but it probably didn't help me for my first attempt. I probably also didn't help myself by reading something of the quality of the Shadow of the Wind while trying to write my own stuff. It just had me despairing at the drivel I was producing.
So a fail with some positives. I'll be back next year though. Even if I don't complete it I want to better my wordcount from this year.
The few sessions I did sit down to write in I managed about 500 words which I think is respectable, especially because I did very little planning. Just thought of a scene and started filling in the blanks. I definitely learnt some things and I'm going to keep chipping away at the story I started, just to see where it goes. Think next year I'll definitely do more planning. I might not give up the pantser approach completely but it probably didn't help me for my first attempt. I probably also didn't help myself by reading something of the quality of the Shadow of the Wind while trying to write my own stuff. It just had me despairing at the drivel I was producing.
So a fail with some positives. I'll be back next year though. Even if I don't complete it I want to better my wordcount from this year.
WC: 53035
My final word count for the month, but I still have several chapters left to write; I slowed down and took a break after hitting 50k and plan to get back to it this week.
All in all, I'm proud of myself, even if the story probably stinks. I like the characters and basic concepts so I plan to stick with them and continue editing and revising in 2020 and hopefully getting to work on a sequel.
My final word count for the month, but I still have several chapters left to write; I slowed down and took a break after hitting 50k and plan to get back to it this week.
All in all, I'm proud of myself, even if the story probably stinks. I like the characters and basic concepts so I plan to stick with them and continue editing and revising in 2020 and hopefully getting to work on a sequel.
WC: 92067
New personal best.
After spending 26 hours outside, mostly in sub freezing temps for charity, I've not got any more in me than to nudge the bar up a tiny bit over what I did in 2016. I'm going to keep at it next month until the novel is finished, and I feel like that shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks, all going well.
But I have nothing left in the tank right now, and have to crash hard. Sleeping in a tent three degrees below freezing while christmas music plays on a loop isn't the most restful night of sleep I've had, but we raised hundreds of dollars for Boston Children's Hospital which was the point, so I go to bed feeling extremely accomplished.
Congratulations to all, and espescially the winners and doubly so to Timu for doubling the target like a wonderful mad person.
I'll finish this. Then I'll self publish 2017's successful NaNo before October, and then I already know what I'm going to do next November. Until then...
Stay creative everyone.
New personal best.
After spending 26 hours outside, mostly in sub freezing temps for charity, I've not got any more in me than to nudge the bar up a tiny bit over what I did in 2016. I'm going to keep at it next month until the novel is finished, and I feel like that shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks, all going well.
But I have nothing left in the tank right now, and have to crash hard. Sleeping in a tent three degrees below freezing while christmas music plays on a loop isn't the most restful night of sleep I've had, but we raised hundreds of dollars for Boston Children's Hospital which was the point, so I go to bed feeling extremely accomplished.
Congratulations to all, and espescially the winners and doubly so to Timu for doubling the target like a wonderful mad person.
I'll finish this. Then I'll self publish 2017's successful NaNo before October, and then I already know what I'm going to do next November. Until then...
Stay creative everyone.
Great job dude, and try your best as well. Meanwhile I have to edit some past Nano novels while I work on next year's Nanos for ideas and outlines.
Final WC 64714
Whew.
Gonna take a break before drowning in editing.
Big ups to all the participants and winners for all the encouragement along the way.
Whew.
Gonna take a break before drowning in editing.
Big ups to all the participants and winners for all the encouragement along the way.
WC: 50186
The heart before the couple was smaller than the ones served to guests, too small. Only about fist-sized.
The wife cut into it and took a bite. She shut her eyes, her lizard features curving into an alligator smile. "Revenge is a dish best served hot, don't you agree husband?"
"Indeed."
He stood and clapped a hand on Galos's back and turned him to the crowd, who gasped as the man's shirt fell open to display the gaping hole in his chest where his heart had been.
The trio froze as the couple finished their dinner, plates of food forgotten and the dead-eyed gaze of the undead Galos burning into their brains.
Cutting it close this year, but done. Huzzah!
The heart before the couple was smaller than the ones served to guests, too small. Only about fist-sized.
The wife cut into it and took a bite. She shut her eyes, her lizard features curving into an alligator smile. "Revenge is a dish best served hot, don't you agree husband?"
"Indeed."
He stood and clapped a hand on Galos's back and turned him to the crowd, who gasped as the man's shirt fell open to display the gaping hole in his chest where his heart had been.
The trio froze as the couple finished their dinner, plates of food forgotten and the dead-eyed gaze of the undead Galos burning into their brains.
Cutting it close this year, but done. Huzzah!
WC: 50094
Cutting it very close this year, especially with not being able to find the word count verification to enter text into under this new layout, but I've done it. The groundwork is now in place for the newer, better version of a story I began a few years ago, but it'll be a while before I return to continue it.
Cutting it very close this year, especially with not being able to find the word count verification to enter text into under this new layout, but I've done it. The groundwork is now in place for the newer, better version of a story I began a few years ago, but it'll be a while before I return to continue it.
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OP
OP
Congrats! Really fun chatting with you for a bit at our local nano discord!
HOLY SHIT! Not to be mean, but I didn't actually think you could pull this off! Well done!!!
Congrats on your first win!!
Good job DTL!
It's mostly cause I'm a big Sailor Moon fan but I was really rooting for you to get over that finish line. Good job!!
That sounds like a hell of a story, congrats!
Just want to wish everyone who participated a healthy congratulations! Y'all are crazy, but in a way that's' quite admirable :P
OP
OP
I'll make a more official post about this later but for those who are finished and want to know what's next? We have our newest Creative Writing Challenge up for anyone who wants to join and keep on writing!
I'm not crazy. I'm normal if you define normal as me.
WC: 56032
And that's a wrap for me for this NaNo. I got the story to the intended end of the book (that I'd been intending for a few days, anyways). There are still some major plot threads left unresolved, but since this is, in my mind, book two of a series of at least three, resolving all the plot threads would have been a bad idea.
And that's a wrap for me for this NaNo. I got the story to the intended end of the book (that I'd been intending for a few days, anyways). There are still some major plot threads left unresolved, but since this is, in my mind, book two of a series of at least three, resolving all the plot threads would have been a bad idea.
Final WC: 43533
Not a win, but under the circumstances, I'm okay with it. Between spending a week trying to fix a plot point that wasn't working, and chronic pain making it difficult to use my right arm for typing half the time, I'm happy enough with the number. The trick will be in staying this motivated the rest of the year, so that I can work on other books in addition to my Patreon project.
Not a win, but under the circumstances, I'm okay with it. Between spending a week trying to fix a plot point that wasn't working, and chronic pain making it difficult to use my right arm for typing half the time, I'm happy enough with the number. The trick will be in staying this motivated the rest of the year, so that I can work on other books in addition to my Patreon project.
Congrats to all the winners, a big thanks to Flowers for organizing this thread, and a good job to all the participants this year (finishers or not.)
To all the early finishers and folks who went above and beyond the word count.... mad respect.
To all the early finishers and folks who went above and beyond the word count.... mad respect.
you could try doing the CWCs as jumping points to keep yourself motivated and get some feedback about your writing.
I need to focus my effort on the stories I'm self-publishing. It's too difficult to switch gears to a story idea that someone else provides. (I've got plenty of ideas on my own, but I've never been able to write something based on another person's idea.) Thanks for the suggestion, though.
OP
OP
It has been a while since I posted. I ended up at WC: 21065. So I failed yet I feel like i have a foothold on my novel at least. It really got my creative juices going. Thanks for the praise and encouragement. I will be here next year. This was fun.
Words written and committed too are more than you had at the beginning of the month. Congrats on making the effort, and getting more done on your novel. There's always next year fam.
And with that, we're done!
OP
OP
And with that National Novel Writing Month is over for everybody. Another year, another November, another great slew of participants. We had 106 posters in the thread mention they wanted to give it a try, and over half of them put some words onto the page. This year had 67 writers in the thread working on novels they might not have started otherwise. And of those who put words in, we got 30 winners(holy cow!) with 11 first time winners (or at least first time winning while participating in our thread). So..... pretty good turnout if I do say so myself.
I wanted to give a couple special shout outs. Firstly, congrats to the all new winners who came into the thread with a vague idea of writing a novel and leaving with 50k. We should all give a little clap from behind our monitors to Xita, Man God, BDS, djplaeskool, Cyberglade, Ghostofst4rm4n, Stars_and_Snows, Primethius, Timppis, corasaur, and last but not least Xaszatm! Great job all of you, I hope you had fun whether you decide to take a break, go onto editing your novel, or start planning for next year's!
I also want to give a special thanks to a couple other users. Timu you are 1) a fucking BEAST! Holy shit you did amazing this Nano! I can't believe you broke into six digits and 2) a huge source of inspiration for me this year. I came into the month kinda down and low energy, but your enthusiasm in October and especially November was a huge pick me up during the times I felt really low. Thanks a lot. plagiarize going to be honest, I was amazed you kept up with Timu! Both of you were insane this year! Great work! zulux21 you're one of my favorites on the discord and I'm always thankful for the way you'd bump all the writing threads and engage with posters when you do. Nezumi you're always awesome and its always a blast doing hangouts with you! Thanks for picking up my slack when I can't make it to them! weemadarthur thanks for basically running the discord, and getting the writing bot going. I was really nervous about it (machine apocalypse and all that) but the bot was a lot of fun and I'm excited to play around with it more in the future. spider Thank you so much for the drawings you did, not just of my character, but all the characters you drew! They are all so good and everyone had so much fun with them and you made for a great way to end the last week of NaNoWriMo! Thank you again! And a final GIANT thanks to Cyan who supplied all the winning screen pictures and a lot of other materials when he handed off thread running duties to me. Some may remember him, some may not, but he occasionally appears on the discord like a ghost, doing writing sprints in the dark corners where no one is looking. Thanks for all the work you did over the years, I'm looking forward to reading your book in the future.
Now some of you may be wondering: What's next? Well first I'd recommend taking a break. Relax your hands a bit. Catch up on some reading or games. I heard a lot of giant games came out in November, maybe check out one of those? When you're ready, you can always get to editing. Feel free to continue posting in this thread after all this with status updates on your book whether you're going back and having fun rereading it or going through the struggle of editing through some messy chapters and just want to vent. There is also always the community WritersEra OT for you to come and chat about your future writings or even to just say hi. If you're into poetry/resurrecting the dead we've also got a Poetry Thread that occasionally burst into soliloquies and life at the oddest times
Lastly, if you want to keep writing with a great bunch of people (myself included), the Creative Writing Challenges are starting back up with our latest one themed "White Fields." These are hands down my favorite part of Era. They're a great way to make sure you're writing consistently and a good source of quick feedback about your writing style. Hope to see some of you there!
TO close out, I just want to say I'm always excited for the winners but it's the 67 people who put some words on page that end up meaning the most to me. It took me a lot of tries to actually win NaNoWriMo, and when I did win it was thanks to the enthusiasm and support of this thread. The fact you got some writing done is an astounding feat and you all deserve congratulations. To all the 67 people who found some time to come and write with us in this thread, thank you for coming. I hope you had as much fun as I did. See you all next year.
Congratulations on the win. To you go the spoils,
Timu
plagiarize
djplaeskool
Xita
W-00
BDS
zulux21
Dedication Through Light
MetalMagus
King Alamat
Ghostofst4rm4n
Xaszatm
Grudy
deli
Sonicbug
Timppis
corasaur
Korigama
UCBooties
FlowersisBritish
Narag
Cyberglade
Evilisk
Kalentan
Nezumi
Stars_and_Snows
Ferulci
Primethius
PKthndr
Man God
How do the lot of you want your $10 steam winning rewards? I doubt all you want to be a steam friend though since that is the fastest way to deliver, my steam handle is the same as my resetera handle. For the rest, we can work it out however you prefer.
Timu
plagiarize
djplaeskool
Xita
W-00
BDS
zulux21
Dedication Through Light
MetalMagus
King Alamat
Ghostofst4rm4n
Xaszatm
Grudy
deli
Sonicbug
Timppis
corasaur
Korigama
UCBooties
FlowersisBritish
Narag
Cyberglade
Evilisk
Kalentan
Nezumi
Stars_and_Snows
Ferulci
Primethius
PKthndr
Man God
How do the lot of you want your $10 steam winning rewards? I doubt all you want to be a steam friend though since that is the fastest way to deliver, my steam handle is the same as my resetera handle. For the rest, we can work it out however you prefer.
Is being a Steam friend the way to go? Or the fastest way?
Steam has an option to digitally send codes directly to friends so that would be both the fastest and easiest way.
Oh, ok. I guess I should list my Steam ID then so you can send it to me.
Looks like that would be FutureLarking. Come reap the harvest of your hard labor. Well, I guess the writing itself is it's own harvest, but games are cool too.
Wow, didn't see that offer before, that's very generous of you! I've sent a friend invite directly over Steam. My account name is very similar to my Era one.
Edit: Woops, or maybe it was actually my real name. Shows how often I check that account! I just updated the account there over to this screen name.
Quick update, looks like steam requires people to be friends for 3 days before gifts can be sent. If you prefer another way, let me know.
=O
You're awesome for doing that! I think my steam link is under my real name, but I'll link my account.
Balls, I actually passed the wordcount on the 22, just didn't update here because I didn't want to see a computer again for a few days 😅
Balls, I actually passed the wordcount on the 22, just didn't update here.
Congrats! Nice curve. Glad you're getting the recognition at least now
for @DongsMacabre
i havent done superhero drawings in a long while! hope it came out ok~ 🕷️
i havent done superhero drawings in a long while! hope it came out ok~ 🕷️
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Amazing work :ofor @DongsMacabre
i havent done superhero drawings in a long while! hope this came out ok~
I've been torn on whether to accept your generous offer. On one hand $10 steam is well $10 steam and it covers most of the cost of something like
https://store.steampowered.com/app/587430/I_Expect_You_To_Die/ (it's 12.50 right now but by the time people see this post it might be $25 lol)
on the other hand yes I hit 50k words, but I didn't quite finish what I wanted to finish so I kind of consider it a failure >.>
on the other other hand it's most of the cost of something like https://store.steampowered.com/app/777410/EarthNight/
on the other other other hand I know
" My general morning routing imploded the last couple of months and my November was derailed by losing half of my employees and flying all over the country to mitigate that. It's been nuts "
so you haven't had a good month and thus I think I will land on...
If you still want to give me $10 I won't say no, but if you are doing it because you want to stay true to your word don't worry about me. I respect that you are even owning up to your word given I think your excuse of everything going to crap would have been acceptable to the rest of you saying you can't stay true to your word anymore.
I mostly just hope you end up in a good place and can write like you want to :)
I'm trying to sound nice and all that but deep down I'm a little jealous that your generosity greatly outweighs mine :P
for @DongsMacabre
i havent done superhero drawings in a long while! hope this came out ok~
great work like usual. I would say just give my steam credit to you but I know you won't take it :P
