NaNoWriMo 2012

muttonchop wrote:

I'm only 390 words in so far, but I feel like I have a much stronger concept than last year. It's not the most original story, but at least I have an idea where the narrative is going this time. Last year I just had a starting premise and nothing else, and things fell apart pretty quickly.

I've been giving Scrivener a try, and so far it seems pretty good. My inner code-monkey appreciates the way things are broken up into nested folders in the left sidebar, it feels very IDE-like. Better than trying to organize everything in one monolithic google doc like I did before.

I'm using Scrivener as well - I really, really like it. I feel so organized.

Now if only that blank page before me had some words on it...

Nano site is down for me again...but today I finally figured away out of the corner I'd written myself into with my detective story. I should probably start those with an idea of "who dunnit" rather than just figuring out who the bad guy is as I write them. Heh. But yay for a break through. I'm up to just about 3700 words, but I'll have to do the math by hand, since I forgot to reset the scrivener session before I started.

Re: Scrivener; I've worked with a lot of publication programs like framemaker and whatnot, and I think that Scrivener is probably the best $40 any writer can spend. For data organization and pure "banging out the text" it's fantastic. I have a number of projects in scrivener files. I like it a lot.

My only complaint is the text formatting you can do, and some of the logic rules for capitalization and whatnot can get annoying...but I figure I'll do my editing/formatting in another application.

That said; if you're using the free download, and you finish Nano, the company that makes Scrivener usually has a 50% discount code that you can use to unlock your copy for $20 instead of $40.

Even if you don't finish, there's a "NANOWRIMO" coupon code for 20% off.

duckideva wrote:

I should probably start those with an idea of "who dunnit" rather than just figuring out who the bad guy is as I write them.

I once sent an email to the late, great Anne McCaffrey about this subject and, rather improbably, she took the time to write back to me. In essence, she said that she always started her books by writing the exciting bits, such as the major plot and character reveals, and then sort of worked backwards to fill in the rest. She said that she generally wrote the first part of the book last. I thought it was rather an interesting method of writing, and I'm passing it along in the hope that it might help some writers here. Regrettably, I really don't have time to fool around with NaNoWriMo this year, but next year may be workable. I have a book inside me that is somewhat akin to dodgy Indian food during a night of heavy drinking: I know it's coming out eventually, but I'm not sure when, nor what it will look like when it arrives.

That seems like good advice. I usually try to start at the beginning, but sometimes this means I just get bogged down trying to set up everything while all my best ideas ideas remain unwritten because they come later in the story. I think this time around I'm going to take the piecemeal approach and try to get all the stuff in my head written down first and then fill in the gaps after.

muttonchop wrote:

I'm only 390 words in so far, but I feel like I have a much stronger concept than last year. It's not the most original story, but at least I have an idea where the narrative is going this time. Last year I just had a starting premise and nothing else, and things fell apart pretty quickly.

I've been giving Scrivener a try, and so far it seems pretty good. My inner code-monkey appreciates the way things are broken up into nested folders in the left sidebar, it feels very IDE-like. Better than trying to organize everything in one monolithic google doc like I did before.

Is this an official rule to NaNoWriMo? I simply don't like how I ended my current segment and want to rewrite parts of it. Especially since I don't even know if I will finish. Plus, as this is for fun, I may just put it online and be like "Have fun".

I think you quoted the wrong person, I'm definitely not the guy to ask about official NaNoWriMo rules.

I did! I meant to quote Dominic.

muttonchop wrote:

That seems like good advice. I usually try to start at the beginning, but sometimes this means I just get bogged down trying to set up everything while all my best ideas ideas remain unwritten because they come later in the story. I think this time around I'm going to take the piecemeal approach and try to get all the stuff in my head written down first and then fill in the gaps after.

That's the really fabu thing about Scrivner. Right now; I have multiple "pages" under an "In Progress" folder; none of which are the beginning of the book. I haven't even figured out how I'm going to create a framework for all the stories...I'm just getting the stories out as fast as the inspiration molecule hits my brainstem.

When I have an idea that fits in to the general theme of this book attempt, I start a notes page for the idea; often write away at it for a bit. I label the pages so that I can glance and know what it is: Uncle Bob vs the Unicorn, Baby eats python, etc.

duckideva wrote:
muttonchop wrote:

That seems like good advice. I usually try to start at the beginning, but sometimes this means I just get bogged down trying to set up everything while all my best ideas ideas remain unwritten because they come later in the story. I think this time around I'm going to take the piecemeal approach and try to get all the stuff in my head written down first and then fill in the gaps after.

That's the really fabu thing about Scrivner. Right now; I have multiple "pages" under an "In Progress" folder; none of which are the beginning of the book. I haven't even figured out how I'm going to create a framework for all the stories...I'm just getting the stories out as fast as the inspiration molecule hits my brainstem.

When I have an idea that fits in to the general theme of this book attempt, I start a notes page for the idea; often write away at it for a bit. I label the pages so that I can glance and know what it is: Uncle Bob vs the Unicorn, Baby eats python, etc.

Imagine changing that stinky diaper. "Sweet balls of mercy, what did this baby eat, a python?!"

3367, met my quota on day two thankfully. I keep finishing at 1:30, which is way too late for me! I gotta get up for spinning class in six hours.

Finally got around to creating a profile.

I'm going to have to change that excerpt as soon as I can. At first I was like "That part was great to write!" Now I'm all "So many of these sentences are terrible! Agh!"

And I thought my biggest struggle was going to be writing a novel without doing much research into some of the subject matter ahead of time.

ccesarano wrote:

I'm going to have to change that excerpt as soon as I can. At first I was like "That part was great to write!" Now I'm all "So many of these sentences are terrible! Agh!"

Don't waste any time on editing. None!

With the exception of removing some stuff and adding a line, I did not do any editing.

ccesarano wrote:

I did! I meant to quote Dominic.

Not editing isn't a rule, it's just something to remember. While yeah, you'll want to edit your novel, you should lock your internal editor in a basement and just keep going. Your novel is going to get much worse before it gets better - or it will just get locked away too because it's so bad. I can honestly say I'd like to get rid of the words I wrote the past two days, but I won't. I might just start another story within this story because I don't like how it started. Or, I'll just keep going. But it is something you at least wrote. You've already accomplished more than most people can say.

May the words be in your favor!

Agreed about locking your inner editor in the basement. There's no time for editing. That's what December is for.

I haven't made wordcount either of the last two days, but I'm claiming the desktop today for maximum efficiency.

My eternal design hero Dave Seah made a spiffy NaNo tracking calendar.

I'm above the word count, but only because I had today to write. I expect production to fall dramatically from here on in.

Toy!

IMAGE(http://www.nanowrimo.org/widget/MyMonth/fieldsofclover.png)

I've fallen a bit behind during a trip to catch up with old college friends and drink and play board games. Still, everyone is now asleep and I'm writing at 2:45 in the morning before getting up in 5 hours to play disc golf, so hoping to get a few more words in.

Okay, I've finally put words toward this. Not many, but I've got my Scrivener project setup on this machine, and got a bit done. Let's see how far this goes.

Nearly day five, how is everyone doing?

Since some of us might write with music playing, anyone have any particular earworms they've discovered and are writing their novel to?

Someone I follow on tumblr posted this. And I have to say, I listened to the sample of the whole soundtrack and it's fantastic. So I purchased the whole album. It's making my novel much easier to write now that I have epic music to help in the process.

Dominic Knight wrote:

Nearly day five, how is everyone doing?

Since some of us might write with music playing, anyone have any particular earworms they've discovered and are writing their novel to?

Someone I follow on tumblr posted this. And I have to say, I listened to the sample of the whole soundtrack and it's fantastic. So I purchased the whole album. It's making my novel much easier to write now that I have epic music to help in the process.

Well, I'm now three days behind in writing...I'm sure I can catch up.

But my soundtrack to my not writing has been the Tallis Scholars and The Ramones. Good times.

I burst ahead a bit in the first couple days, but I knew I wouldn't get to write much this weekend due to college buds getting together for games and drinking. I'm on work travel right now so expecting to have some hotel nights to just chug away and get back up to speed. Got a decent amount of motivation right now, still excited

I woke up on Sunday and decided I'd take a break, partly because I wanted to figure out what the next scene of the story would be. I know some people have spoken about writing the interesting stuff first, but I don't want to have moments that are a slog to write because then they'd be a slog to read. I want to make sure something interesting is going on in every page.

Taking that day break was a good idea, because it was around bed time that inspiration struck. I was too sleepy to do any writing, but now I have something to throw in today.

As for soundtracks, I've found if I have music on while I write it tends to be a distraction.

What do you use for names? Especially supporting characters whose names don't really matter in the grand scheme of things but you just need something.

My book ended up with a built in solution for names... as the theme is that all characters are named after the sword they carry (central to the book's theme). I have Falcata, Pallasch, Pappenheimer so far. Khopesh. Etc.

I need to spend an hour or so building up a stable of names I can use for minor characters as I've just about burned through all the ones I had already while outlining.

I was considering using the first or last 2 syllables of famous leaders or some such thing as that as well. Scrivener actually has a random name generator if you are using that as well. It's in Tools -> Writing Tools -> Name Generator...

Now that I look at it, it's incredibly customizable and pretty spiffy looking.

I always have trouble with names. Sometimes I finally find something that feels right, otherwise I end up just settling.

The best inspiration I've ever had is looking up the names of old Greek culture or looking up the meanings to names, finding names that describe the goals or personality of the characters in question.

I use to put blank spaces in for names I couldn't figure out right away. I don't recommend doing that for more than a page or two. Ever.