General NaNo Chat 2012

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Well, I don't make references to other works of literature, but I do make references, hidden or otherwise, to other media. For example, one of my characters is nicknamed 'the White Devil', a fan nickname for a character from an anime series.

[PFA]

ugh, i feel so behind but

so sleepy

seriously need to catch up, but too tired and sick to do so atm

(but i will win *shakefist*)

[Kristykimmy]

Dang, the dreaded week two I've heard so much about is hitting. I'm 33k in, and all of a sudden my brain is screaming, 'Kristy, your story is soooooooooooo dumb. You should be ashamed of yourself. It really sounded better in your head than on paper (or whatever since it is actually on a computer.). Let's give up and do something else. Like reading comics, or playing video games. Or we could just crash on the couch and watch whatever the kids are watching currently. Curious George has a lot of actors you like in it.'

I'm not even joking, my mind talks like that.

But, I'm seriously not going to give up, I won't. Even if it turns out that this story really is crap, at least it was practice right? Besides, that horrible little voice is known for being a notorious liar, so what I've got could be halfway decent with some polishing. Time will tell.

How are you guys holding up? Are your evil little voices coming out to play, or are they happy with how it is coming out?

Edit: Holy Professor X's shiny bald head, Batman, are these people psychic? If you haven't seen it yet, I'm asking that because I just got today's NaNo pep talk.

[Chao]

They are not psychic, but Week 2/Return of the depressive Inner Critic is a well-known phenomenon. (Though it is also known to hit in week three for those who escape it in week 2.)

I think, in your position, Kristy, the strongest argument you have is that you have already 33k done, so it would be an utter waste of time to no finish it to 50k and win. Simply tell your mind that it's all fine, but that it has to wait till you have reached 50k before you seriously consider listening to it. Plus even if it's crap you are writing, you are having fun at it, which is most important

I'm still in full swing, still trying to catch up, but by now I'm only 1667 words behind (compared to 3k at the beginning of the week). Today however was rather boring to write as my word-sprint partner did not show up. Not for our 12:40 session (which in my case was dedicated to finishing a story which is due by Sunday and which thanks to the cold I did not finish before) and not for our 16:40 NaNo regulars (which usually is 16:40, 17:40 and 18:40 with 20 minute sprints which usually give us about 600-700 words per sprint so with three sprints we are well done for the day). I still kept those times, but it was boring when you know there's nobody on the other side doing the same.

[M is for Morphine]

I've been having doubts about my work since the very beginning. How I've dealt with them so far is by writing down whatever bad thoughts I have about my work in a list of 'future edits'. It's really good for me, because I get the pleasure and calm of 'addressing' the problem without actually losing time or momentum. Plus when edit month comes I'll have a really good idea of where to start.

This is what mine looks like (without the cusses):

Editing notes
Expand:
description of city on the first page.
Basically every conversation (what is each one trying to add to the story? How can you convey this better? Check for voice)
Don't rush the workshop so much (what does it look like?)
More pamphlet
More personality in descriptions. Less “here is a thing. And here is another thing”
A little humor wouldn't kill you
Establish the scientific, logical side of magic in the workshop scene. Like electricity.
Check for consistent and correct punctuation in quotes.
Make sure all conflict is clear and to the fore
pro and anti beast
reason and mysticism
More Aalim, and earlier.

As an added bonus, my descriptions have already improved because I am consciously aware of the problem. But obviously f I tried to fix all that now I'd just stall out.

[Kristykimmy]

I'm going to retract my earlier statement about week 2 hitting and call mood swings instead. I kinda realized it when I noticed that I couldn't stop cleaning things and hadn't actually managed to sit at anything all day. 'Cause that's what I do when that strikes, hate everything, clean nonstop, and have overblown hysterical reactions to stupid stuff.

I'm actually feeling significantly better and have written 2k so far. Going to shoot for another 1k before I call it a night.

But, this worries me, because now I'm like, 'Well, if that wasn't week 2, when is that going to happen? DDDDDDD=' I'm sad, I know.

M is for Morphine: That is a really cool idea. =D I'll have to borrow it if I notice anything that I really need to change later.

Update: Got to 4k. Woot! Yay for still making progress.

[PFA]

i did it hahaha

That was a looot of writing. XD; *collapses* But I got to the interesting part so yey!

[Vapor]

Oof. Officially 3522 words behind, counting the fact that I haven't written anything yet today. It could be worse, and I've certainly made up more, but I'm really just trying to focus on getting back onto schedule.

It seems like November just so happened to arrange itself to be the most difficult month to start off a novel in. First there was an event-filled Halloween, and November first was a hectic mix of smoothing-out and cleaning up and emotional exhaustion. But that was cool, I still managed to keep the quota, I could handle this. Then two days later was the Harvest Bowl, a big football game.. final? thing? with our rival school. It tends to be cold and loud and long, but it is a pretty big event in the social sphere, so it's required that all of us working for the school newspaper cover it. Unfortunately for me, living in the second or third town over, that means getting home at about 11. To just put the icing on the cake, our advisor was gone, so we were two dozen very confused, beginning to panic writers clamoring for guidance from the editor in chief and her second-in-command, the copy editor (me), who, for instance, did not know where the press passes or the tickets for the game were... It all worked out in the end, but man. But still cool, still cool, it's only one day, I could totally make that up (and did). Aaand then at the end of that weekend, it was one in the morning and I was throwing up for a good half hour. So that's a few days of congested, hacking misery, plus the work I had to make up... And then mom had her surgery for her hand, so everyone in the house is a bit stressed out... and, well, it was a tough week.

The moral of the story is, with all that, I'm still feeling really sick, so my creative energy is really sapped, slapped on with the beginning of the second-week dives in confidence.
My immediate reaction is to keep on writing and push through it, but it was a struggle to even breach 1k the last couple days.

So here's my question: oh great writers of the Nano, do you have any tips on boosting your enthusiasm- or, at the very least, tips to getting yourself feeling less like you have an alien sponge creature huddled in your chest and pawing wetly at your brain when you're sick?

[Chao]

Nov 10, 2012 13:02:05 GMT -5 Vapor said:

So here's my question: oh great writers of the Nano, do you have any tips on boosting your enthusiasm- or, at the very least, tips to getting yourself feeling less like you have an alien sponge creature huddled in your chest and pawing wetly at your brain when you're sick?

My advice is: Find out the length of your normal attention span. Perhaps 10 minutes, perhaps half an hour. Then set yourself a starting time and write for that whole attention span. It gives you a good start for the daily quota, whether it's be 300 words or 700 words, no matter, you have started. Then see if you are in full swing - then continue. If not, simply repeat the part of setting yourself the starting time and write the next attention span. In the end it all adds up nicely.
I use the :40 to :00 to write and then the :00 to :40 to relax, browse the internet, read some nonsense... and then start writing again. It even works with a full-fledged cold as I was to prove this whole last week.
And this method works even better if you have another Wrimo partnering with you and writing for the same time, so you get the extra momentum of competition by comparing words written during that sprint.

[PFA]

Speaking of setting aside chunks of time to write, would anyone be up for word wars at some point in time? I haven't done any since like... the first year I did NaNo, I think, but I remember having fun with it back in the day and I was just curious if anyone else is interested in giving it a shot. XD

(For anyone who doesn't know, word wars are where you set aside a certain chunk of time where everyone writes as fast as they can and then at the end of it, we post how many words we wrote in said chunk of time and see who got the most.)

[Kristykimmy]

PFA: You can PM me and we can try to set up a word war. I've been loving the 15 minute ones on the NaNo site.

[Vapor]

Ooooh. Thanks, Chao, that seems like really good advice. I'll give that a go and see if it works.
I can agree with using a writing partner. Icon and I did a few prompts things together and it was probably what induced the most writing in a single period. But I know he's going to be more busy now. Anyone else around up for getting prodded up on skype or pm randomly for writing challenges?

In the same vein- it sounds like something I'd be up for, PFA, sure.

[PFA]

Whoo. :3 We could set one up the three of us if you guys like.

(If we do, we might want to set up a thread for it before we crowd up this one. XD; )

[Kristykimmy]

Guys, guys, guys. I'm 5.5k away from 50k and I'm so tired but my Muse is like, 'Look how close we are, we can do 5.5k more today!' and my body is, 'No, sleeeeep.' and I think my Muse is currently beating the little voice that cried out in favor of sleep to death right now. Somebody, save me please, the people who live in my head scare me.

Regardless of whether I write more tonight, I did 7.4k today, after wasting all morning doing who knows what.

(I seriously have no clue what happened to most of my day. One moment it was like nine a.m. and I was like 'Let's write' and then it was time to watch MLP and I ate lunch while watching, and then I was back and again with the 'let's write!' and then it was four p.m. before I actually started. I could write great amounts if I actually started seriously writing before 4 p.m.)

But, anyway, *breaks out the pompoms to cheer everyone else on* I hope you guys are still going strong, especially to Vapor. I hope life eases up enough to let you write.

[Kristykimmy]

Guys, I'm at 50k! I made it, I win NaNo in 11 days. =DDDDD

Still have ways to go plot wise, but 50k in 11 days, I thought I'd be lucky to make the 50k in the month, I can't believe I made the 50k already. I'm hoping that maybe I'll finish the entire novel this month though.