Silus - Shard of Flame he/him Posted October 15, 2010 Posted October 15, 2010 I am! I really don't know what I'm going to do for it. My intention is to brainstorm the week before so I have something to go on, but that's what I'm limiting myself to. Too much worldbuilding doesn't really help when it comes to NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, it's National Novel Writing Month. Go to nanowrimo.org to find out more.
Shivertongue he/him Posted October 15, 2010 Posted October 15, 2010 I am, although the book I was planning to write for it, I actually started earlier this year. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do this year, but I do have a few ideas I might give a shot.
neverearth she/her Posted October 15, 2010 Posted October 15, 2010 I might. It depends on how well I'm doing in my classes, and how much I can miss.
Andrew the Great he/him Posted October 15, 2010 Posted October 15, 2010 Too much worldbuilding doesn't really help when it comes to NaNoWriMo. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I disagree with this particular statement. If you run out of ideas, just write a 500 word generic fantasy prophecy. Have your characters quote from it all the time. Your 20 minutes of worldbuilding just got you two days worth of writing at least. On top of that, if you know a bunch about your world, you can crap out a bunch of description. I did this a couple of times in the last week last year, and it saved my butt. More than anything, it kept me writing when I was out of ideas, which is actually what ended up making my story turn into a much more interesting story. Now if you're going for something where you won't have to cut 80% of what you write at least, this isn't particularly helpful, but if that's what you're going for, why are you doing it during NaNoWriMo? Everything in NaNoWriMo is crap. The only thing that you really get out of it is an amazing sense of accomplishment and much greater potential in your story. You have to revise it to death to actually get it there. (I should probably mention at this point that you're right. The only time it helps to have the extra worldbuilding material is when you run out of story, or don't know how to get from one phase to the next) Or at least that was my experience with it. Still doing the revising to death, actually. I'm only about halfway through my story, and then I get into rough spots again. This year I have a story idea that I think will get me 50k words. I'm going to try to get done in the first two thirds of the month and spend the last third writing on the one I did last year. Andrew the Great on the NaNo site if anyone wants to add me as a Writing Buddy who didn't last year. And I'd like to encourage everyone to try NaNo at least once. It's crazy, difficult, and more than a little painful at times, but definitely worth it.
Shivertongue he/him Posted October 15, 2010 Posted October 15, 2010 Andrew the Great on the NaNo site if anyone wants to add me as a Writing Buddy who didn't last year. And I'd like to encourage everyone to try NaNo at least once. It's crazy, difficult, and more than a little painful at times, but definitely worth it. Expect an add from Shiver at some point soon, then ^^ And this will be my first NaNo. I missed last year due to... something I can't remember, but I've been planning for this one since January. And then I went and started writing Wavepainter, my planned NaNo, back in April, so... yeah. Probably just gonna wing it this year xD
mycoltbug Posted October 15, 2010 Posted October 15, 2010 I'll be doing it this year. First year also. I've already got some of the book written so far just want to use NANOWRIMO to help finish it out. I'll be participating the Springville, utah area.
leinton Posted October 15, 2010 Posted October 15, 2010 Ahhhh I'm totally going to try this! This looks like tons of fun! (In other news, why does it have to be the same month that Towers of Midnight comes out?)
Andrew the Great he/him Posted October 15, 2010 Posted October 15, 2010 I wondered about that too. It doesn't seem fair. That's going to kill at least three good writing days for me (the day before the release, the day of to read it, and the day after to catch up on all my missed homework). And that's being optimistic....
Andrew the Great he/him Posted November 1, 2010 Posted November 1, 2010 Double posting because I can! 2500 words already! How's everyone else doing?
Shivertongue he/him Posted November 1, 2010 Posted November 1, 2010 I wrote 23 words last night, then went to bed. This isn't bad - I had been up since 4am Sunday, and my goal was simply "write one word at midnight, then go to sleep." So I'm 22 words ahead.
mycoltbug Posted November 1, 2010 Posted November 1, 2010 Wrote 965 words last night and forgot all my notes for what I was going to write today while at work So now I've got to skip a chapter and start writing without my guide ???
Chaos he/him Posted November 4, 2010 Posted November 4, 2010 I had attempted it last year, but school got in the way. I'm not even trying this year for the same reason.
Nehex he/him Posted November 4, 2010 Posted November 4, 2010 I'm trying it this year. Hopefully I can finish. What do you guys do when you fall between plot points? I know what needs to happen, but I don't know what to do to get my characters motivated to do it.
Swifftalon Posted November 5, 2010 Posted November 5, 2010 Just write fluffy blah-blah kind of stuff. By spending some time getting intimate with the characters and showing them off to the readers and yourself, you start to get an idea of what needs to happen. Or you could just come talk to me and we could figure something out
leinton Posted November 7, 2010 Posted November 7, 2010 I just improvise. If it sucks, I'll just edit it next month. Once I can afford to lose words.
Andrew the Great he/him Posted November 7, 2010 Posted November 7, 2010 Pretty much. I will say, though, last year, I had virtually no plot to speak of. So I just kind of made stuff up as I went, then tried to think of ways to explain what was happening, motivations for the characters, etc. As a result, the worldbuilding and everything shifted dramatically over the course of the story, and I had to go back and make everything consistant again. But the story became muchly much better. The trick is just to get to know your characters and your world. Make up dialogue between characters, talking about something semi-significant, and you'll often find that the conversation takes weird turns you didn't expect. And then fun plot things happen. But mostly, don't let the fact that you don't know exactly what's going to happen discourage you from writing a scene. Yes, you'll probably have to revise it, but at least you'll have something to revise. And your story will be better for it. On a completely unrelated note, I'm falling increasingly behind for NaNo. Woo.
Silus - Shard of Flame he/him Posted November 14, 2010 Author Posted November 14, 2010 I just got to 22100 words. I'm having a blast fleshing out my world. Figuring out how mundane things work in the setting or making up peripheral characters on the spot. It's quite fun.
Andrew the Great he/him Posted November 21, 2010 Posted November 21, 2010 So yesterday I wrote fifteen thousand words. I'm now where I should have been on like the thirteenth. Sweet. Onward....... But my story is getting to be pretty awesome. Namely, everything is completely different from what I had planned on writing, and honestly much better. This always happens to me. Not that I'm complaining. It just means that I really have no idea where my story's going except for a few specific things toward the end that'll be the same no matter what. And I have to agree, NaNo, as much as it's killing me, is really being a great time this year. Much more so than last year, when I was actually remotely on schedule. Go figure.
leinton Posted November 21, 2010 Posted November 21, 2010 Ah man, when life hits, it hits hard. Now I'm like 10,000 words behind. XD
Shivertongue he/him Posted November 21, 2010 Posted November 21, 2010 Ah man, when life hits, it hits hard. Now I'm like 10,000 words behind. XD Yeah, same here. Well, more like 12,000 words behind. I'm gonna try and close that gap a little tonight, and then there's a write-in on Tuesday which I think should close it a little more. Wednesday, however, I have the entire day off from school and work, and I'm gonna spend the whole day writing. Gonna wake up at, like, 4 or 5 am and write til midnight.. At least, that's the plan.
leinton Posted November 21, 2010 Posted November 21, 2010 That's been my plan several nights now. Plans are fragile things, aren't they?
Andrew the Great he/him Posted November 22, 2010 Posted November 22, 2010 That's been my plan several nights now. Plans are fragile things, aren't they? I second this notion. Thoroughly.
Silus - Shard of Flame he/him Posted October 30, 2011 Author Posted October 30, 2011 (edited) It has come again! NaNoWriMo starts on Tuesday! I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm doing, though there's that I really should get an idea for before I start. Sound off, NaNos! EDIT: BTW, I'm Keys on Fire on the nano site, if you want to add me as a writing buddy. Edited October 30, 2011 by Silus - Shard of Flame
Sigyn Posted November 1, 2011 Posted November 1, 2011 I thought about doing a little NaNoWriMo---30K instead of 50K. Instead of starting today, though, I am taking care of my sick five-year-old.
darniil he/him Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 I'm giving it a shot this year. No idea how it's going to turn out, but apparently that doesn't matter. Same username as here.
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