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Write a novel in November! | NaNoWriMo 2017

Grudy

Member
Last time I had rough outline of about 15-16 points as a general path for the story to take, but I honestly finished 50k words just as I reached the second point lol.
 

ferunnico

Neo Member
Oh man, I've been meaning to do this for years now, but I always quit after the first couple of days.
Maybe this is the year where I'm finally going to do it?
Probably not.
Well, it might be. I'm starting to feel the motivation again...
No, it definitely is! This is it!
I'm going to write a fucking novel in November 2017 and nothing can stop me!
I say the same thing every year, but I do feel like this time around it might finally happen. I'm cautiously optimistic.
 

Jabronium

Member
I'm in. Last year's success was addicting. I think my workload will be a little lighter this year so I'll have a little more free time. I've been slowly adding to what I wrote last year but it'll be good to get an influx of content into the work. Maybe I'll actually be able to do some planning beforehand.
 

Dineren

Banned
I hate my writing, but I think I'll give it a shot this year. Hopefully it will be so time consuming that I'll at least save some money on the games I would have bought.
 

Carlisle

Member
I won 2 years ago but barely made it out the gate last year. Been looking forward to this since then. Time to redeem myself. Let's go!
 

Grudy

Member
Do y'all take time off work to do this or is it doable even while working a 9-5?

Last year it so happened that I had 2 weeks off during the event which helped out a ton. I won't be having that this year I think, which is gonna be a lot tougher. Doesn't help that I work in sites outside and I'm usually dead tired by the end of the day.

So I guess we'll find out this November? :p
 

Jabronium

Member
Do y'all take time off work to do this or is it doable even while working a 9-5?

I was able to do most of the month with my usual work schedule. My after work time got super compressed, however. By the time I finished working out, showered, and ate I typically had 1.5-2 hours to sit down and write. Didn't leave much time for games, housework, etc. Towards the end I started utilizing my breaks/downtime at work also to ensure I could finish and offset some traveling I had to do.
 

Wvrs

Member
I'll try and do this. I used to love creative writing and took a long break from it during university, I'm very keen to pick it back up now I'm a graduate.
 

Cyan

Banned
Do y'all take time off work to do this or is it doable even while working a 9-5?

It's doable! We've had people finish under some pretty crazy circumstances, including memorably one person whose baby was born during the month and still managed to complete it, though I think they were going a little nuts at the end there.

Working regular hours and still getting this done is absolutely a thing you can do. I think that's part of the point as well, to show us we can carve off the time we need to do this if we push.
 

midramble

Pizza, Bourbon, and Thanos
Is the NaNoGAF discord still alive? I remember seeing some messages on my phone before I replaced it.

Or is there another method we are using for community motivation these days?
 
I'm in... I've been trying to write more every day, and I'm working on an outline for NaNo this month, so maybe that'll help me finish? God I really want to finishhhhh hnnnnggggg /dies
 
I have been watching a couple of youtube channels to get ready:

"Just Write" is a channel where Films and TV shoes are explored as stories to see what we can learn from each of them. Videos are usually 10 minutes-ish long, so it can be consumed in short bursts. https://www.youtube.com/user/mythicalsage

I'm also watching stuff from an editor, Ellen Brock, who has several useful videos https://www.youtube.com/user/KeytopServices

Any other videos or podcasts that are interesting to you?
 

Cyan

Banned
NaNo is being weirdly intrusive with their emails this year. I remember generally getting a reminder or two that it was coming up and to get ready. So far I've gotten multiple reminders, several emails about declaring my novel or whatever, one about thirty ideas for novels, and now one where they want me to preorder a tshirt because that will help me win?

Get it together dudes. This is just annoying.
 

Sch1sm

Member
NaNo is being weirdly intrusive with their emails this year. I remember generally getting a reminder or two that it was coming up and to get ready. So far I've gotten multiple reminders, several emails about declaring my novel or whatever, one about thirty ideas for novels, and now one where they want me to preorder a tshirt because that will help me win?

Get it together dudes. This is just annoying.

I've noticed the same. I've received a good 8 since the last couple days of September, granted one was for a discount code for Canadian Thanksgiving. It's making me want to unsub, but then I'd never remember when Camp WriMo is back, or when the editing phases open up at the start of the new year, and sometimes there are genuinely good resources within the emails.

I kind of want to try this because I do actually have something i want to write, but these seems like a bad idea while I'm still in college.

Fuck it, I'm in

Glad you're on board, 'cause I did it last year in college, and I'm doing it now even though I really should be dedicating my time to my thesis and my other classes. LOL. I'm not doing the full 50k this time around, at least I don't think, but I won last year and it was the most stressful term of my undergraduate career, woooo~
 

FlowersisBritish

fleurs n'est pas britannique
I had a plan for Nano and then a lot of really awful stuff recently happened and it really killed a lot of my will to everything. But I thought about it and decided Id hate myself more if I didn't try. Going to toss out my old notes and just start a new story though. Soooooo hoping that won't bite me in the ass (but it probably will ;_; )
 
Ok so some tips/advice for me, what are the best ways to go about creating/writing a villain? Think last time did it... just made them zombies... no real need to flesh (pun!) em out

Try "villain competes for the same goal as the hero" before/after/rather than "hero must stop villain from acting" or "villain must stop hero from achieving"

mutual goal: hateful cooperation? opportunistic backstabbing? begrudging admission of the effectiveness of each other's ideologies/methods in certain situations? confrontation of their own beliefs in the mirror(s) of that goal's pursuers?

stopping each other: "stop it I'll kill you"*





*hyperbole?
 

Cyan

Banned
I'm a ML for my region, and one of our wrimos linked a blog post about writing 10k words a day.

It intrigued me and I bought the book and read through it, making notes on this document, if anyone else wants to read it.

I'm not sure I agree with all of this, but some of this sounds good. I particularly like the "boredom check" of thinking through your outline as though the story is happening and seeing if there are boring bits.
 
I had a plan for Nano and then a lot of really awful stuff recently happened and it really killed a lot of my will to everything. But I thought about it and decided Id hate myself more if I didn't try. Going to toss out my old notes and just start a new story though. Soooooo hoping that won't bite me in the ass (but it probably will ;_; )

That sucks. Hope pursuing your new thing motivates you! Something novel* is always refreshing





*pun?
 

cj2121

Member
Going to give this a try this year. Been a silent observer of Gaf's writing community for a while, and now I'm in a creative writing/publishing program. So no excuses.
Except for all the ones I've thought of since this thread went up...

Added bonus my college is probably going on strike and I could have a whole bunch of free time this November!
 
Ok so some tips/advice for me, what are the best ways to go about creating/writing a villain? Think last time did it... just made them zombies... no real need to flesh (pun!) em out

I follow a "3 P's" approach to writing villains

POWER. Your antagonist must be POWERFUL. Find out what flaws your hero has and have the villain tear at that chink in the armor. Take your heroes strengths and turn them into weaknesses (Batman is really good at punching and intimidating bad guys; Joker does not feel intimidated by Batman and punching him out solves nothing). When it comes to action, your bad guy should be a match for the hero and better in some ways, physically or intellectually. If your villain is beaten/foiled by the same superpowers your hero always had, then there's no growth, and your was just pissing around until the easily solved problem was punched out.

PRESSURE. When it comes to your villain and the story he's in, they should feel relentless. They should constantly be pressuring your hero into making harder and harder choices because it's the choices the heroes make that show us what their character is really like. And your hero should never 'win' until the climax of the story. The villain should constantly have the upper hand, while the hero does everything they can just to keep themselves and their loved ones alive (if your story is more idealized, then have a bunch of characters so that some character that we the audience have become familiar can get killed by the villain like Die Hard. In a more cynical story, feel free to kill off characters important to the hero ala The Dark Knight). THE HERO MUST SUFFER. If your hero started the movie in one situation and ended it in the exact same situation, then your villain was an annoyance and again, you just pissed about for two hours. Your villain must be an asshair away from winning and only didn't because the hero had a SPECIFIC strength that beat out your villain's SPECIFIC weakness.

PERSONALITY. Every book on writing that comes to the section on villains will encourage you to write them in a such a way that they aren't just the bad guys who move the plot from beat to beat, they're the protagonists in their own stories who don't see themselves as evil. Does this mean every good bad guy must be tragic and sympathetic? Nope. I believe it means that the antagonists must be so devoted to achieving their own goals that they go through their own arc in the process of the story. This requires ample, meaningful screentime (don't just put them onscreen to remind us that they exist). And their goal must be understandable (Hans Gruber wants to steal shit) and the actions they take in pursuit of that goal must be logical. They should character traits that are strengths (these are the things that make us begrudgingly respect them), and unique flaws that your hero can exploit. A villain still needs to be a character, which means they have their own unique viewpoints and unique ways of reacting to stimuli (ex. Norman Osborn in Spider-Man is a businessman, therefore the Green Goblin's character approaches things like a businessman would). Your villain must have some degree of subtext in the things they do and say, or else they're completely straightforward and we as the audience have not been taken on any sort of arc or journey. If you want to make your villain unique, consider making both the hero and villain compete for the same goal, but with opposing viewpoints. This makes the stakes personal.
 

mu cephei

Member
I had a plan for Nano and then a lot of really awful stuff recently happened and it really killed a lot of my will to everything. But I thought about it and decided Id hate myself more if I didn't try. Going to toss out my old notes and just start a new story though. Soooooo hoping that won't bite me in the ass (but it probably will ;_; )

:(

You still have over a fortnight to plan though! Ample time...
 
I'm not sure I agree with all of this, but some of this sounds good. I particularly like the "boredom check" of thinking through your outline as though the story is happening and seeing if there are boring bits.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend the book itself because a lot of things in it seem situational to the author and the other writing advice is done better in other books.

I'm going to try the "knowledge" portion and see how it works for me during a couple of word wars. I already log my writing sessions in less detail so amping it up is perfect for a maniac like me :D

Thanks for documenting this. It sounds interesting. Does it cover theming in some way?

It didn't. Another book I read in prep for prepping for NaNo had this to say about crafting theme:

Take Off Your Pants! said:
Think of your theme [as simple, one-line statements that neatly conceptualize the point of the story]. Theme, for the purposes of your outline isn't layered in meaning or a profound truth. It's just a way of boiling down the point of your book into one sentence. It's worth putting thought into that one-line concept now because it will be the yardstick you use to measure the worth of [all your ideas].

Examples given for theme as an unifying concept:
The Cat In The Hat - Fun can easily get out of hand
Charlotte's Web - Love transcends death
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - We all must begin to grow into the people we are meant to be
A Song of Ice and Fire - Even good people will do terrible things in pursuit of power (mentioned being an exceptional theme for unifying a series)
The Wheel of Time - Good should triumph over evil (mentioned being a horrible theme to tie together a series)

Themes serve as one of your most useful guide posts. It is your handy-dandy measuring tape, allowing you to quickly assess ideas for their utility. Remember that theme doesn't have to be a "big idea." It's just the overarching concept that unifies your story.

Ok so some tips/advice for me, what are the best ways to go about creating/writing a villain? Think last time did it... just made them zombies... no real need to flesh (pun!) em out

For me, the villain is the person who wants the same goal as the hero, with equal passion. When I imagine their arc, I reverse the roles and put my hero as their antagonist and see how they react when someone is standing in their way. I hope that made sense haha


In the bujo NaNo community a lot of members are posting spreads where they reward themselves for hitting certain wordcounts and it's making me want to do one too even though it seems excessive haha
 

RedBoot

Member
I'm not sure I agree with all of this, but some of this sounds good. I particularly like the "boredom check" of thinking through your outline as though the story is happening and seeing if there are boring bits.

Some of it seems better suited to professional writers (which the piece itself acknowledges), since setting aside 4-7 hours of solid writing is kind of tough for most of us. But some of the concepts should still apply. I particularly like the idea of writing out a short roadmap of what you're writing per session, which is something I've sort of mentally done in the past, but obviously writing it out is going to be more effective. Should help out in the instances where I have characters finish a conversation and then have no idea what the hell to do next.

On a similar note, I think I'm going to do some actual physical outlining this year as well, since I'm already settled on my basic plot with a few weeks to go. Might as well actually try planning stuff out in advance for once. :p
 

Kalentan

Member
To get myself really prepped I'm going all out.

I'm setting this story within my fantasy world of Feywryn. Since I've been making a lot of pixel art for it, I decided to make this banner.

xM6c.png


An Empire divided. No war has broken out but the restless of those who desire progress versus the old guard who desire familiarity have begun to clash. Megumi Isai, is the daughter one of the Thirteen Shoguns that rule the provinces under the Empress. Pulled by her friends who desire change versus her mother, the Shogun who desires things to stay as they were. She has to determine which path she will follow.

I'm going to begin to write down all of the characters and chapters and make art to go with them. To get that investment level up. Make me more willing and able to continue and to give me visuals so I can picture what I write.
 
So how does this sound?

In the aftermath of a devastating alien invasion that resulted in the death of many of the worlds most renown Metahumans. A 31 year old bus driver finds himself out of a job and a home. Through happenstance, he discovers he has the ability to steal others powers via the transfusion of blood. Together with a group of other displaced Metas, he decides not to use his powers for good or evil... But for their own survival as the world begins to fall into a deep economic recession.

I'm thinking of calling my novel "Disenfranchised"
 

Epcott

Member
I’d like to do it again this year, but I still have yet to finish last years story NaNo story.

I think I should finish that one first (and rewrite it), and focus on painting. Then again, maybe writing another story will help me overcome writers block and write my way out of the corner I’m stuck in with the other story? 🤔
 
I’d like to do it again this year, but I still have yet to finish last years story NaNo story.

I think I should finish that one first (and rewrite it), and focus on painting. Then again, maybe writing another story will help me overcome writers block and write my way out of the corner I’m stuck in with the other story? 🤔

If you're in that big of a corner, write something new. And try a different writing organization method than last year's.
 

Luschient

Member
Not sure this is the right thread for this but something I've been batting around in my head for a bit.

You know how bands cover other band's songs, has there been any examples of writers "covering" another writer's book? And not fanfiction per se, but taking the outline/gist of the story and putting your own style to it.

There's a couple of existing books I've been debating doing this to.
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
Not sure this is the right thread for this but something I've been batting around in my head for a bit.

You know how bands cover other band's songs, has there been any examples of writers "covering" another writer's book? And not fanfiction per se, but taking the outline/gist of the story and putting your own style to it.

There's a couple of existing books I've been debating doing this to.
The only thing I can think of was that brief period where genre retellings like Pride and Prejudice With Zombies was a trend. There’s also lots of fairy tale retellings.

I think you’d probably run into legal troubles if you did this with a recent book, unless you had permission.
 

zulux21

Member
Not sure this is the right thread for this but something I've been batting around in my head for a bit.

You know how bands cover other band's songs, has there been any examples of writers "covering" another writer's book? And not fanfiction per se, but taking the outline/gist of the story and putting your own style to it.

There's a couple of existing books I've been debating doing this to.

I mean arguably wouldn't Gregory Maguire stuff like wicked be that?
or Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.

or are you talking more straight forward, keep the original plots and just change it to your style... which could be possible, but likely also should only be applied to public domain works, or with expressed written permission from the original author.
 

Epcott

Member
If you're in that big of a corner, write something new. And try a different writing organization method than last year's.

Thanks! Good idea and I think you’ve just help me decide which story to choose.

I was initially going to write “United States of Pangea”: A cyberpunk story about the era after cyberpunk (filling a void between Altered Carbon and Diamond Age)
where cybernetic prosthetics are obsolete due to advanced tissue scaffolding and genetic engineering.

But instead I’ll write a historical drama based on a non-fiction event. I wanted to tell a story about two children surviving a crisis.
Write the first act as a script for a play.
Second act as a college term paper.
Third act as a middle school social studies report.
Epilogue as an old story told in first person... all tied together with a narrative similar to The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen.

I really didn’t want to do the research and just write to my hearts content (which is why I wanted scifi over hostory). But I think reseach is enevitable so fuck it.
 
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