NaNoWriMo 2016

[SummerSnow]

Well, if you find that you'd like to do one Rose, just let us know-it would be really fun to do one together! Well, that's a nice 700 words to have and while it might be scrapped during editing, one never knows.
Perhaps not when it comes time to edit, but it's always nice when characters are rather talkative (or at least I find it so during NaNo). I have the opposite problem with a few of my characters right now. They absolutely refuse to say much of anything. You seem to have a solid beginning amount of words, which is always good!

Lady Arwen, if you are up for word wars (regardless whether or not you are doing NaNo), that would be fantastic! And you can always be a very rebellious rebel and write mainly for word wars.

How has everyone started out? I keep on finding myself rushing through scenes and I have to remember that details should be in there along with the dialogue and action. Overall, though, I'm still excited about my story, and am enjoying writing it.

[aileth]

Ooh, it's so fun to see what everyone is doing. I'm surprised there are so many anti-coffee people here.

Aileth, if you need short term accountability stuff, might I suggest writtenkitten.co? (Yes, there is no M at the end. It's just a .co)? The only problem with that one is I will occasionally lapse into writing jibberish, just for want of a new kitten. The bright side is, if you accidentally close out of the window, it saves what you wrote for a short period.

Which leads me to the quandary that is keeping me from deciding what I shall do for November. I've found that, for me to complete a nano that I don't look at in the end and go "this is a complete load of dirigible", I need to have a well laid out plot (at least in my heads) before I start off--often I have a few pages of an utterly breathless "and then...and then...." telling to work off. If I try to pants it entirely, or, worse, don't know the ending, then it just ends up being...awful. Like, not even salvageable. Since I don't have a full plot for a novel, I should pay attention to my senses and not try to pants a novel. Plantsing it (pants + plan) is more successful for me, historically.

No much of a pantser (unless I'm playing the story game--then anything goes) But I don't do a detailed outline, or anything like that. The kittens are adorable, and I like the option to put in your own favourite search as well.

Back during those two attempts, I was ignoring everything about my personality and my writing habits. Writing has always been an intensely introverted process for me, and balancing the social aspect of NaNo with the writing side was really difficult. Word wars were too distracting and disruptive for me to write anything that was decent, but I did them anyway because that's what everyone else was doing. (Or so it seemed to me.) I also felt bad because I didn't enjoy sharing unpolished excerpts when everyone else was sharing them, but I've always been a perfectionist and I should've expected that. So this time around, I am going to pay a lot more attention to what has helped me succeed in the past as a writer and less attention to whether or not I'm doing NaNo like "everyone else" is. I'm gonna let myself be a scribbling, tea-hoarding hermit and I'm gonna (hopefully) have fun with it.

Nano hermits, unite! If the rebels unite, so should the hermits. Well, ummm...

I pretty well have to hibernate and ignore the boards, lest I get distracted. So easy to get distracted I mostly read them in October and December.

[stargazer]

I've done terribly so far, and I blame the weather (and distractions and lack of discipline )

It just shouldn't be 70F/21C in Minnesota in November, and the crisp clear blue sky calls me to be outside before the snow flies. So today I packed up the trusty laptop, stopped by a local Subway, and enjoyed a picnic lunch at a local park while writing a few thousand words. So nice...

[Meltintalle]

That sounds like a really nice writing picnic, gazer!

I keep on finding myself rushing through scenes and I have to remember that details should be in there along with the dialogue and action. Overall, though, I'm still excited about my story, and am enjoying writing it.

This about sums up my writing this NaNo so far... I've been pressed for time most days so I sit down and write as fast as I can, which means that stuff comes out, but it's almost more like a skeleton than fully fleshed scenes. I have good intentions of going back when I have a bit more leisure to rearrange and improve, because if I can see what needs to be done, I probably ought to do it and get a few more words into the bargain.

[Lady Arwen]

So I think I'm officially not Nanoing, but I'm down for warring, so give me a holler if any of you want to.

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Sorry to hear that your characters keep clamming up on you, Summer! I hope the ice has broken by now. If not, you can always sit them in a chair and shine a bright white light in their face to get them to 'fess.

Nano hermits, unite! If the rebels unite, so should the hermits. Well, ummm...

That reminds me of those Introverts Unite! memes. (I really need one of those t-shirts....)

Your impromptu writing picnic sounds like a lovely way to spend a beautiful afternoon, gazer! I love eating lunch at the park, but I've never thought to take my laptop along and write. I'll have to try that sometime.

I'll probably be going back and filling out a few scenes myself, Mel. There's always that persistent feeling of "I really could've written that scene better" with NaNoWriMo, but march on we must.

It's a good thing I got close to 5k written early on, because my writing time has really dwindled the past few days. I've been keeping crazy hours and on top of that I wasn't feeling well and was contemplating a doctor visit, but thankfully I feel better now. Understandably, NaNo has taken a backseat. I'm not terribly concerned about this because a) I'm a Rebel and I don't really mind not hitting 50k, and b) I tend to write in bursts anyway. I've still managed to write a little bit each day, and I'm close to 7k now.

One thing that is giving me pause, however, is how wordsy my Snow White and Rose Red retelling is becoming. Just the backstory portion (I'm fleshing out the story of the brothers) took up close to 5k. I'm just beginning to introduce the sisters now. I wasn't planning on including chapters in this story originally, but now I'm having to do that because it's getting so much longer than I had anticipated. I should have expected this because I'm not very good at saying a lot with just a few words, especially when I am writing with speed in mind, but I am starting to wonder if this story won't carry me all the way to 50k on its own. That's quite a bit different than my initial plan of writing a collection of fairy tales and it's too soon to tell at this point, but it's a possibility.

All in all, I'm enjoying the story so far and it will probably be quite readable in its finished form if I continue the way that I've been going, but of course I'll feel compelled to edit anyway come December.

[Lady Arwen]

I wasn't planning on including chapters in this story originally, but now I'm having to do that because it's getting so much longer than I had anticipated.

Have you ever read The Road? It's an interesting book, post-apocalyptic-y story if you haven't heard of it, but there are no chapter breaks in the book. It's a little odd when you're wired for the "I'll just read until the end of this chapter then go to bed" thing, because you keep forgetting like a doofus that there are no chapters, but the story benefits from it IMO. So chapters might not be necessary...unless you really want them, that is. Then they're necessary.

* leaves cookies and lemonade for the hard writing writers *

[aileth]

It's coming. I'm farther behind than I'd like to be, but it's still coming along. Maybe it won't have to be thrown in the ash heap after all. But really, does she have to have four people tell her she's wrong before she gets it? Aarrgh!

*gulps down cookies and lemonade before heading off for work*
Thanks wren.

[SummerSnow]

Lady Arwen, I haven't done any word wars yet. Perhaps that's why I'm slightly behind of where I'd like to be. Would sometime next week work for you?
Mmm, cookies! *eats cookies and sips lemonade before quickly heading back to writing*

Mel, if you can go back and resist the urge to delete any words during NaNo, I imagine that would definitely be helpful (and you'd get more words!). How is NaNo going for you now?

Rose, you'll have to let us know if turns out it could carry a whole 50k.

[Lady Arwen]

I could squeeze something in. I'm available before noon most days and after 6 all days (PST).

[SummerSnow]

I'm not usually available before noon, but I'll have to see about after six, which is a bit later for me. Sorry, I'll have to think about that and make sure I'll be free then. I suppose a delayed word war, where one person does it at a different time as the other, isn't as motivating.

[stargazer]

Wow, November is half over already? I better get writing...I'm nowhere near 25k words.

[ValiantArcher]

*pokes head in and waves pom-poms* Halfway there, folks! How's it going? You all keeping pace? Any of you happy with any of parts of your stories?

gazer, hope the writing goes well! How many words do you have? And are you pleased with what you've written so far?

[stargazer]

Thanks, Valia! My story is approaching 80k but it's an ongoing project and less than 10% of it is new this month. Still, I'm enjoying what I've written and having fun doing it.

How is your story progressing? And how are our other NaNos doing?

[Meltintalle]

How is NaNo going for you now?

At the moment it's going okay! Last week was kind of a drag, but then I introduced a couple new characters and they're a lot of fun and moving the story closer to the one I see in my head. (As opposed to the one I'm afraid I'm currently putting on paper.) So that's an encouragement to keep going and not quit; you just never know who's going to show up around the corner (or at the next plot point).

[aileth]

It's a fight to keep going some days, but at least I've caught up (sort of). I'm very much afraid that I might run out of story before I get to 50k. We'll see. Go back and flesh it out if necessary--that's the plan.

It feels like my characters are all "dry old sticks" as one of them put it. Maybe they'll look better with some time and distance. Sure hope so.

Excelsior! (Ever upwards, that is, not fine wood shavings)