General NaNo Chat Thread '10

[Tiger]

Nov 4, 2010 2:28:18 GMT -5 Celestial said:

Does anybody known of any really evil-sounding bits of music? My villain is about to do something horrible to my MC (which catalyses her character development and helps him further his plans so it's kind of unavoidable. >>) and I need something to put me in the right mindset and set a mood.

Thanks in advance! ^^

From my "sinister" list on iTunes =P:

"Voldemort" - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
"The Stone Table" - The Chronicles of Narnia
"You Look Good, Jack" - POTC: Dead Man's Chest
"Always A Catch" - The Dark Knight
"The Emperor's Throne Room" - Star Wars Episode VI (may be a little distinctively Star Wars, though =P)

[Celestial]

Tamia, that is awesome! The man deserves a medal (and a hand massage. xD).

<3 Thank you for your suggestions for music, everyone! I'll look through them and see which ones fit and the ones that don't, I'll keep them in mind if I have to write anything else which they might fit in the future.

[PFA]

So guys, just out of curiosity, do you do any little things in an attempt to make your wordcount bigger? XD Like how I normally type "alright," but during NaNo I will specifically type out "all right," instead. Or how I never use compounded words like "gonna" or "kinda." Or how I'll specifically rework a sentence just to make it more wordy. And if I'm really desperate, cram in a bunch of filler.

The only thing I have a direct aversion to is things like... well, whenever I write out stammering in Nisus Writer, e.g. "s-s-sorry about that!", it counts each "s-" as a separate word. I also try to avoid doing acronyms with periods in them, since that makes it count each letter as a separate word. And I feel like taking advantage of little application quirks like that is just kind of cheap, so I tend to avoid that. XD; Especially considering the way different wordcount tools count the words differently, which kinda just makes it a null point.

SO YEAH basically I only do things like that if it actually is adding in words and not just an application quirk. What about you?

[be2aware]

Nov 4, 2010 3:50:09 GMT -5 Tam said:

Things to motivate you right now:

1) Someone in my region just passed 50K. Yes, in under 72 hours.
2) He wrote every word by hand.

...So. Keep going, people. =D

That person doesn't go to school. There's no way. It's impossible. School makes it difficult for even 2500 words a day(with extracurricular activities).

That is impressive, though.

[insanepurpleone]

Tamia - daaaaaaaang. That is all.

PFA - I avoid contractions in the narration. If people are talking I leave them in unless they sound okay as two words. Not using contractions just feels to unnatural in their speech to do that just to boost my word count. I add in unnecessary modifiers sometimes too. Well, leave them in.. half the time I write like that naturally anyway. I just avoid editing them out for NaNo!

[Deleted]

I have a minor character in my NaNo who is always reffered to as the passenger. The reason I call him that and didn't give him a name is because 'the passenger' will always take up two word counts instead of just one.
/cheating

[Shadaras]

...I don't actually do anything other than ramble more than usual. xD Which isn't cheating, but just writing more random fluff than normal.

[Tiger]

Normally, I try to edit my sentences as I'm writing so they're a little more concise; during NaNo, I quell that urge. It means parts of my story can turn into word-vomit, but hey, it works =P

[be2aware]

Word litter is fun! In speech class, you lose points. In NaNo, it's the best! Never edit out a word unless it completely destroys the tone of the passage or sentence. If it makes it sound awkward, who cares!

[Lizzie]

I'm so behind D: I need more words.

[Sock]

I find it kinda interesting how my life view/opinions shine through in my writing, even when I don't mean for them to.

Pseudo-philosophical, I know, but still. It's interesting.

[M is for Morphine]

Nov 5, 2010 11:24:59 GMT -5 Sock said:

I find it kinda interesting how my life view/opinions shine through in my writing, even when I don't mean for them to.

Pseudo-philosophical, I know, but still. It's interesting.

I love how your interests and aesthetics can be laid completely bare. It's neat when you look at an author's whole body of work, and you can see the motifs that really resonate with them.

[Sock]

Nov 5, 2010 11:29:46 GMT -5 M is for Morphine said:

Nov 5, 2010 11:24:59 GMT -5 Sock said:

I find it kinda interesting how my life view/opinions shine through in my writing, even when I don't mean for them to.

Pseudo-philosophical, I know, but still. It's interesting.

I love how your interests and aesthetics can be laid completely bare. It's neat when you look at an author's whole body of work, and you can see the motifs that really resonate with them.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've noticed that in other people's writing, but this is the first time I'm really seeing the threads throughout my own writing. It's pretty neat.

[M is for Morphine]

Nov 5, 2010 11:34:57 GMT -5 Sock said:

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've noticed that in other people's writing, but this is the first time I'm really seeing the threads throughout my own writing. It's pretty neat.

That's very exciting. Congratulations!

[insanepurpleone]

Darnit, NaNo! Every time I go to look at my stats, the page is different. >.< I swear, they've either been adding or removing something every day since NaNo started.

Still technically ahead in word count, but we'll see if this weekend doesn't kill it. I might get some writing time if people want to work on homework and stuff, and I think I will have internet, which is shiny. But my time will be limited. Oh well, it might be nice to have a little break for thinking time. I've been struggling a little more than usual to write so much.