Re: NaNoWriMo [2010]

[Ragter the junior greeter]

Didn't really feel like typing/writing yesterday at all; my creative juices just didn't seem to want to get a move on. I'll probably get back into the creative mood much, much later today though(seeing as how it's like...1 AM here).

[xraineyesx]

It's three in the morning here, and I am, again, failing at writing. I keep writing short little outbursts that aren't really adding up to much, and I need them to add up.

Hopefully we both get our creative juices going asap.

[Reffy]

As strange as it sounds ... I've found it helpful to step away from Alonzo/NaNo and work on something else for a moment. I've written two new flash fictions and reworked another two while Alonzo/NaNo was resting against a road-block. Another friend doing NaNo has confirmed the same - he's done at least four poems.

Perhaps stepping away to do something creative and short will ease the stress and get the juices flowing again?

[xraineyesx]

Hm. I don't have any other projects in the works, however. I did post in a couple of roleplays, but I just can't seem to get back in NaNo mode, and I desperately need to get back up on my word count. I'm so far behind, it's ridiculous.

Thanks for the suggestion though, Reffy. I'll keep it in mind!

[Reffy]

Ooooh! Another piece of good advice! This one provided by an Australian friend (ty, Dragonwing).

He noted I was struggling and only updating by 200 words every hour or so. He came and bugged me about it and I told him I was feeling swamped by the word count. I felt I would never make it. He then told me to forget about the word count and get back into the story.

I figured I'd give it a try. Sounds silly really, no? Get back into the story that I had been writing for the last few hours? Duh? Where have I been? What have I been trying to do for the last 3 hours? ... But I will tell you that it did work. I did not look at the word count, I let my imagination take the helm, and my story went on a bit of a meander - Lizzy at work, but it went zooming off again quicker than a spider chased by a shoe!

Forget the word count. Enjoy the story.

[xraineyesx]

Agreed, Reffy. I try not to check my word count every time I burst out what seems to be a million words - because I will only be disappointed by having written only in reality a couple hundred words.

I update every once in a while. I think I'm about to take up the idea that I can only update once a night before midnight. That way it'll motivate me to have something to update before midnight, and I won't worry as much about the word count.

[Ragter the junior greeter]

I think my problem was that I was a bit tired...I'm usually never very creative when I'm tired.

On the flip side, I'm really creative(if I do say so myself) right after I wake up.

[Sunwolf007]

Well, I made the half way point today. I am at 25,500 something words right now. So still only slightly ahead of schedule. Hopefully everything is going well for you guys right now.

[Ragter the junior greeter]

I think I just figured the best possible way for me to stay ahead without typing all at once.

First I hit the words per day it suggests that will get me through on time(which, for me, is somewhere around 1,200), and then after that, I type 200 words every hour.

[Guest]

Today i have not done so well, I managed to get my minimum necessary progress yesterday but today I have only managed to get about 500 words so far.

Edit- I turned it around and managed the minimum necessary amount of words again today. I have reached a point where i am uncertain what exactly comes next.

[Kalon Ordona II]

All this time and I'm only at around 2500 words.
Just had so much going on.

However! I have done a lot of planning for the book I'm doing, so I guess that counts. So like, I'm not counting all that effort into the 2500 words of the actual story, even though it's important.

It's really weird. I know I can write it. I want to write it. I just don't. o.O
Something always comes up, and if it doesn't, I wait around until it does.

So the only way to make 50,000 words on time now is to do, like, 4,000 words a day, since I have to leave time for Thanksgiving, too. Prooooobably not going to happen.

But hey, that's a lot better than the Zero of last year's attempt. xD And I haven't given up yet. We'll just see how close I can get. ^^

[Gadreille]

The point of Nanowrimo though is to pull us fearful writers out of our heads and onto the page - as in, quit planning and start writing! Is the book going to be perfect? No. Good? Probably not. Written? Yes!

Good for you to still go for it though. perhaps you will surprise yourself yet.

And onto my own failure, I did not get my 2000 words written today and I doubt I will, so this is day 2 out of 5 of the "free days" I gave myself...

[xraineyesx]

Glad to hear that most of you are doing well. I personally made a little progress - not enough, but more than I have been this past week. I'm on my way to catching up, and hopefully I will be able to do so.

Kalon, just sit down and write! Go. Go do it now.

And, as soon as I get some coffee, I'm starting my own writing for the day.

[Ragter the junior greeter]

Sorry to hear that you aren't doing so hot Kalon; then again, I can easily see how you would get distracted. If you live up here in Wisconsin, people might be going hunting as early as this week for Thanksgiving; I'm kind of glad that I'm not really suited to that.

Hopefully I'll manage to get through the giant creature scene without rambling too much more. I did that yesterday; the heroes were rushing off to fight the giant creature and since the story is from the viewpoint of one of the said heroes...well, the thoughts tended to go on and on.

[Guest]

I have a 400 word deviation from the main theme to explain the importance of something symbolic. Do people think that is reasonable?

[xraineyesx]

Raptor, do all books have one particular theme to stick to? Not really. And I guarantee most authors aren't counting the words for scenes and worrying did I write to many words for this scene? Don't worry about it; just write!

Also, a little rambling isn't bad. It lets you get to know the character better and get attached and emotionally invested in them. If you have no bond with the characters, you probably won't care about the story or the outcome very much.

I'm still (of course) behind, but I'm working my way back up to where I should be. I have to do laundry, so hopefully I can get some stuff written while I wait on that. Because I have absolutely nothing else to do while I do laundry haha.

[Guest]

That is a good point. Thanks Rainy. Though the passage was more explaining why people were gathered in a certain room at a certain time to set up a scene. I suppose that is ok though. I needed to give some idea of how things worked

Edit- I made it to 25,000 words. I am now halfway done. ^_^

[Sunwolf007]

Nice dude! I am way ahead but I am really getting into my story. It looks to be writing itself. Although I am nowhere near Ragter with his crazy ahead of scheduleness. I am getting closeish. Anyway I am glad to hear that people are keeping up with this and if anyone is struggling I wish them the best of luck. Sometimes it takes a little bit of a tough spot to make a great scene. Anyway I am doing well when it comes to word count. I wish everyone the best of luck and am stopping by to say that I am going to be very busy in the coming weeks. If you don't see me online it doesn't mean that I am not working on my novel. It means that I don't have the internet to post but I am still working on it.

Anyway best of luck to everyone. I couldn't have gotten this far without your support and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for it. It means a lot to me doing this contest with fellow FoGers. Just figured you would like to know.

[Ragter the junior greeter]

You have a point about the rambling; it does get you invested in the characters. *Wonders if the main character will be thought of as a rambler, if anyone ever reads the novel*

Anyway...hopefully I'll reach 35,000 tonight; I can't believe that I'm more than half way finished with this already. To think that I thought this would be an impossible task at the beginning of the month.

[Guest]

I have now developed 4 view point characters. 2 real hero's, one grey area hero, and 1 guy who is a fair portion of the evil people's brains.

[xraineyesx]

Glad to hear everyone is doing so well. I am still struggling a bit, but that's mostly just to catch up. I am, thankfully, writing again, and I agree with what Sunwolf said: I don't think I would have made it this far without FOG's support, and I'm really glad that we are all here to support one another.

[Sunwolf007]

I am attempting to keep ahead of schedule by a few days. I hope rainy can catch up! I believe in you! good job getting caught up Rapter, way to stick with it! I wish you all the best of luck in writing. So how is everyone doing so far?

[xraineyesx]

Thanks so much, Sunwolf! FOG's support means a lot to me, actually.

And I'm slowly catching up. It's gonna probably come down to the wire. >.<

But I have ten days off starting Friday which I can fill with writing and good things!

[Guest]

I managed to get to where I should have been yesterday night this morning. Fortunately I think I may finally really be over the hump, I have much more freedom in where things go at this point.

[Ragter the junior greeter]

Well, at this point, my typing is going just a tad slow; it's tough coming up with ideas for the last leg of the journey, you know? Still, I'm nearly 4/5ths of the way done with it and I'm not quitting now!

I hope to get a lot done this coming weekend; if I'm up to it, I should be able to type 5,000 words on each of the weekend days and finish it off before Thanksgiving.

[Lyonesse]

Computer viruses have derailed my NaNoWriMo. I don't think it'll be getting back on track.

[Gadreille]

I'm having trouble keeping this going; I had two days where I did not write at all and now I am no longer ahead. I struggle to get my 2000 words in every day. Hopefully I will push through this rut, but it has not been easy!

[xraineyesx]

I'm sorry to hear everyone is having trouble! :O

Hopefully we can all get back on track. I have the rest of the month off from school and should be able to make up lost time. I determined to finish it this year!

Good luck everyone with the rest of NaNo. My connection at home is bad, and my laptop refuses to use it most of the time, so I might not be around FOG much. But I hope everyone manages to get back on top and give FOG some NaNo wins!

[Guest]

I am currently struggling as well. I hate my main character, he's a bit of jack--- lol

[Ragter the junior greeter]

Hooray!

I have just reached 50K! Now I will be free to partake in Thanksgiving on Thursday without worrying about Nanowrimo! I want to thank everyone at FOG for even informing me that this existed.

I hope that the rest of you are able to pull through this as well!

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