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[H.Protagonist]

Hey

I'm 40k into last year's. If I want to ever finish the story I'm probably going to end up at around 80-90k, though! I wanna try to put at least 40k more into last year's and maybe do 10k into something new. So it's an unconventional NaNo year, but should be fun

Oh wow, you're in Adelaide now? Awesome! I've missed out on some things, apparently! I actually cut down on GAF so I could devote more time to writing. Most of it has just been practice, but I think it helped... we'll see

If you put in your region on the NaNo website, you can see if there's a meetup group in your area. You should check it out! I was surprised how many people in Zürich are doing it, especially considering it's a German-speaking area.

Wow. That's going to be a hefty novel. Not a bad fit for NaNoWriMo pt. 2. Since I only have about 15k left of mine it's going to be a bit weird, but hoping for the same push I got last year (yay).

As for Adelaide, not there quite yet, but I fly out Halloween, so it's right as it starts. Hoping to utilize all that plane time to burn through some of the chapters. I'll look into a meet-up group in that area too. Be a good way to make new friends (I hope).

And you haven't missed too much. Just everything.

 

[Mike M]

Since we're all doing plot lines...

Mine is the confessional of the world's first super-villain, a former member of the world's first super hero team. Within context, everyone's super powers are fairly "meh" but the fact they have them at all makes them reality show super stars.

 

[sqwarlock]

I really want to do this since November looks like it'll be my 5th month unemployed, but it's been about two years since I've written any substantial fiction. (Mostly due to lack of motivation due to anxiety and depression, but you didn't really need to know that.)

I've got a lot of ideas, or at least prompts, scattered among paper and digital notepads alike, so I might drag a few of those out of hiding, develop an elevator pitch, and see what GAF thinks is the best.

On a side note, I've never written anything near a novel in size, so how important are things like those character planners? I'm more of an off-the-cuff writer, and would much rather throw loose details in a first draft and then flesh them out during revisions instead of taking the time plotting and planning out every little detail in an outline.

EDIT: Here's my profile on the NaNo site.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Yay plot lines!

Once I finish the previous book, then I'll move on to "A Mantle of Swords" (placeholder name).

Basically, a lesser noble is one of many tasked with bringing back an artifact that might heal the critically injured King. It's a fool's errand (as most or all of these items are just embellished rumors), but one he can't refuse: a royally decreed death sentence, if you will.

Assigned a bunch of disgraced templars (also expendable) he has to embark on a fetch quest he knows is pointless and somehow make it back.

Bit of political intrigue, some lovely stark wilderness filled with deadly creatures, and a lot of sarcastic commentary by the doomed party.




Mike M> What kind of "meh" powers are we talkin' about?

 

[Mike M]

Mike M> What kind of "meh" powers are we talkin' about?

Ever see Looper, where TK powers are kind of a useless parlor trick? Kinda like that. There's the super strength guy, the speedster, the gadget/technology member, the super vision, the mind reader, etc. but all their powers have significant drawbacks and limited utility. Their super heroics are larger than life thanks to selective editing of the footage, that sort of thing.

 

[The Atticus]

Since we're all doing plot lines...

Mine is the confessional of the world's first super-villain, a former member of the world's first super hero team. Within context, everyone's super powers are fairly "meh" but the fact they have them at all makes them reality show super stars.

Ever see Looper, where TK powers are kind of a useless parlor trick? Kinda like that. There's the super strength guy, the speedster, the gadget/technology member, the super vision, the mind reader, etc. but all their powers have significant drawbacks and limited utility. Their super heroics are larger than life thanks to selective editing of the footage, that sort of thing.

I absolutely love this idea so much that I'm sick that I didn't think of it first.

 

[Loxley]

Does anyone have any advice for writing queries to literary agents? I'm about to send out queries to around five separate agents with the goal of publishing my senior thesis project (fantasy graphic novel educating kids about type 1 diabetes). I've never done it before and thought I'd ask if anyone had experience writing them before.

 

[toddhunter]

Once I finish the previous book, then I'll move on to "A Mantle of Swords" (placeholder name).

Is there a bit of videogame related parody or is it more serious in tone? Either way sounds like something I would enjoy.

Best part is everything shuts at 7pm in Adelaide so you should have plenty of time to finish it.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Ever see Looper, where TK powers are kind of a useless parlor trick? Kinda like that. There's the super strength guy, the speedster, the gadget/technology member, the super vision, the mind reader, etc. but all their powers have significant drawbacks and limited utility. Their super heroics are larger than life thanks to selective editing of the footage, that sort of thing.

I haven't, but I like the gist. When you said "meh" powers I was envisioning stuff more akin to 'the ability to create bubbles in milk!' or 'the power to bake the perfect soufflé each and every time!'. Curious to see what you do with it. Will you be posting excerpts when you start?

Is there a bit of videogame related parody or is it more serious in tone? Either way sounds like something I would enjoy.

Best part is everything shuts at 7pm in Adelaide so you should have plenty of time to finish it.

Definitely more serious in nature but with dark comedy here and there. I like a bit of action and blood punctuated by sarcasm.

... So Adelaide is a dead zone, huh? ;_;

 

[Mike M]

I haven't, but I like the gist. When you said "meh" powers I was envisioning stuff more akin to 'the ability to create bubbles in milk!' or 'the power to bake the perfect soufflé each and every time!'. Curious to see what you do with it. Will you be posting excerpts when you start?

Yeah, not quite that "meh." Heh.

Haven't decided if I'll be posting excerpts just yet... My usual technique is to vomit words onto the page and revise later anyway, so I think I'll be able to shut my internal editor up w/out too much trouble, but I usually don't let people see that first rough cut.

'Cause that shit is *really* rough before I start taking revision passes.

 

[toddhunter]

I haven't, but I like the gist. When you said "meh" powers I was envisioning stuff more akin to 'the ability to create bubbles in milk!' or 'the power to bake the perfect soufflé each and every time!'. Curious to see what you do with it. Will you be posting excerpts when you start?

That is what I was picturing too. Like Meg in the family guy episode where she gets the ability to grow her fingernails.

Definitely more serious in nature but with dark comedy here and there. I like a bit of action and blood punctuated by sarcasm.

Sounds good to me.

... So Adelaide is a dead zone, huh? ;_;

It isn't called the city of churches ironically

 

[Valhelm]

The story I'm working on is a high fantasy concept without any magic. This story is told from the perspective of a young prince of a fierce nomadic tribe. There are major influences from classical European history and myth, and one major point of the series is that it's set in a world that is not yet known.

The primary characters are very uneducated, and even their rulers know little of the world beyond their empire. On a ritual to become a man, the protagonist will leave the confines of his rough and martial empire, and visit places his countrymen had never dreamed of.

I haven't yet worked out the plot, and I may go for a multiple perspective approach. I'm not very familiar with A Song of Ice and Fire, but I think those books have more than one narrator?

 

[Mike M]

A Song of Ice and Fire is omniscient third person narration, but each chapter focuses in and follows a specific individual.

 

[Valhelm]

A Song of Ice and Fire is omniscient third person narration, but each chapter focuses in and follows a specific individual.

Does every chapter alternate? How early on are other perspective characters introduced?

 

[Mike M]

Does every chapter alternate? How early on are other perspective characters introduced?

Every chapter alternates, usually between characters introduced previously in other characters' chapters (I thiiiiiiiink there's a few characters where their first chapter is their introduction).

The characters followed change every book too, so characters that were supporting characters in one book may be focus characters in the next and vice versa (each book tends to follow the same set of characters through out)

 

[Dresden]

My goal is to write a really bad YA novel. It'll have a love pentagon.

 

[Valhelm]

My goal is to write a really bad YA novel. It'll have a love pentagon.

You need to include the phrase "he explored my body" and use a lot of bad analogies.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Ever see Looper, where TK powers are kind of a useless parlor trick? Kinda like that. There's the super strength guy, the speedster, the gadget/technology member, the super vision, the mind reader, etc. but all their powers have significant drawbacks and limited utility. Their super heroics are larger than life thanks to selective editing of the footage, that sort of thing.

Yeah, for mine, in the first group there's only one guy that actually has superpowers, and it's fairly pedestrian (very situationally useful.) The second group will have a couple more superpowered people but it'll be deliberately scaled down.

 

[MetalGuardian]

Ever see Looper, where TK powers are kind of a useless parlor trick? Kinda like that. There's the super strength guy, the speedster, the gadget/technology member, the super vision, the mind reader, etc. but all their powers have significant drawbacks and limited utility. Their super heroics are larger than life thanks to selective editing of the footage, that sort of thing.

This is badass and I love it. I'm curious though as to how the power of super strength, for example, will be limited. Will it be a context specific power that the guy can't control so he doesn't get to choose when his powers are activated? Is he just marginally stronger than the average weight trainer?

I hope you post some excerpts!

EDIT: Andrex, I just read your synopsis too. Awesome.

Hooray for superhero stuff!

 

[Verdre]

My goal is to write a really bad YA novel. It'll have a love pentagon.

Make it a 50 Shades of Gray fanfic and you're guaranteed a publishing deal and a movie.

 

[Cyan]

My goal is to write a really bad YA novel. It'll have a love pentagon.

Is it dystopian?

 

[deli2000]

Can I just get an opinion on a couple of ideas that i've been considering.

Top Men

The Department is the goverment arm that retrieves, records and stores packages that are valuable, dangerous, or else considered to be goverment property. Hundreds of packages come in every day, and The Department is separated into Green, Amber and Red sections, in terms of priority. Devin is a Greensec worker, a cog in a machine, but when a red taped box lands on his table, it opens a rabbit hole that just keeps unravelling, and his life is changed forever.

Cop Shoot Cop

Miami, 2056. In this economy, you've got to get paid somehow. Anna Blake and her notorious crew make money of the guillibleness of the rich and powerful, and the desperation of the ruthless crime gangs who control the scraps of what's left of a city under the grips of the inxeplicably wealthy "Solar Barons". They've made millions raiding highly guarded complexes, scamming buisnessmen and bringing entire economies to the ground, everyone wants them dead.

Omar Richards makes his money as an officer in a police system on the verge of collapse, determined to bring his sense of justice to the forefront no matter how extreme, and the Blake Gang is top priority. What follows is a tale of entraptment, greed, bright lights and uberviolence.

 

[Mike M]

This is badass and I love it. I'm curious though as to how the power of super strength, for example, will be limited. Will it be a context specific power that the guy can't control so he doesn't get to choose when his powers are activated? Is he just marginally stronger than the average weight trainer?

I hope you post some excerpts!

Spoilers, I guess...

Spoiler

He has to shoot up with a suped-up myostatin inhibitor on a regular basis to maintain the super strength (a side effect unique to him, so it's not as though anyone can juice up and be a super hero). I'd peg him at maybe a bit below Spider-Man level strength, he can flip a small car over but not lift it above his head, for instance. The super speed person has an inordinate amount of white muscle fiber, so she can move and react faster than anyone, but has little endurance and can't keep it up. The TK person can levitate herself a few inches off the ground, but it puts her in the hospital. Plus her powers are the result of a brain tumor. Iron Man pastiche is clunky and impractical, and all the gadgets are good for a single use before he needs to have it reloaded. Stuff like that, I tried to keep it as grounded as possible while still being super-powered.

 

[Delio]

Guess I will explain Seasonals.

Basically it's a YA superhero story were four boys find out they are the new guardians of earth. Only problem is they are activated ahead of time because the former Gaia of earth has rebelled and is trying to revive her warriors. Thus these four have to battle her and her minions and prevent their revival.

It's going to be really episodic and very Sailor moon meets Avatar The last airbender.

 

[Jackben]

Can I just get an opinion on a couple of ideas that i've been considering.

Top Men


Cop Shoot Cop

Top Men sounds really awesome. Cop Shoot Cop seems well thought out too, gives me neo noir vibes.

 

[Gazoinks]

Who's going to dare to take the ultimate NaNo challenge?

 

[Weiss]

I'm signing up. I've got too many ideas floating around in my head and I've been too scared to approach them.

 

[Princess Viola]

Man most of these ideas you people are posting...

make me realize that my story idea sucks

 

[Ashes]

Man most of these ideas you people are posting...

make me realize that my story idea sucks

So change it?

 

[Wurst]

Man most of these ideas you people are posting...

make me realize that my story idea sucks

There are no bad story ideas.
A drama teacher once taught us we could make an entertaining play by only using the telephone book as a script.

Same goes with novels. You could write the best novel in existance when your story is only "Man goes to shop to get some cigs". It all comes down to your craftsmanship and your ability as a writer.

 

[Princess Viola]

There are no bad story ideas.
A drama teacher once taught us we could make an entertaining play by only using the telephone book as a script.

Same goes with novels. You could write the best novel in existance when your story is only "Man goes to shop to get some cigs". It all comes down to your craftsmanship and your ability as a writer.

Yeah, I guess.

I mean, I will admit I've always been self-critical of myself.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

I think I have a good outline of what I'm going to write. It's still in my head atm, but I'm getting it down on paper tonight as soon as I'm free. I hope November isn't too busy for me, but I'm in college so it probably will be. Still, I should be able to spare an hour or 2 of my time every day to do this.

 

[nicoga3000]

The past years I've wanted to do this, something huge has come up and prevented me from finishing...Getting engaged, getting married, family problems...It's insane how shit always goes down in November.

That being said, the past few months I've been turning some ideas over in my head. I may join this year and give myself a reason to put them on paper.

E: I'm curious - has anyone ever finished, edited, and then self-published your NaNo piece? That'd be my end goal here if I finally did finish.

 

[Ourobolus]

Man, I haven't done this since...2004, and that was during college. I only managed about 18,000 words with all of my schoolwork, maybe I can do it this time.

As much as I'd love to do something in the comedy realm, I'm almost thinking about a psuedo-autobiography about my descent and working-on-it recovery into alcoholism. At the very least it would be therapeutic.

EDIT: It'd be some sort of historical fiction? I guess? I'd take some liberties with it to make it more interesting, so it wouldn't be strictly non-fiction.

 

[CyclopsRock]

I still don't have any ideas at alllll. I haven't thought about it, as I was doing some travel writing for a competition until a few days ago. gonna spend a few nights this week in a coffee shop drilling down some ideas and start plotting. Last year I did a lot of work preparing my plot, and I don't think I'll have time to do all that again this year, but I'd love a basic Act 1, 2 and 3 arc plotted out.


It's going to be a murder mystery, that's all I know. Fuck, even that could change.

 

[Hop]

As much as I'd love to do something in the comedy realm, I'm almost thinking about a psuedo-autobiography about my descent and working-on-it recovery into alcoholism. At the very least it would be therapeutic.

EDIT: It'd be some sort of historical fiction? I guess? I'd take some liberties with it to make it more interesting, so it wouldn't be strictly non-fiction.

My approach is sci-fi, personally. Anything partially or fully fantastical would let you work via metaphor and analogy, which you might prefer if you're working on something sort of autobiographical. But if you're thinking of being direct about your subject matter, then you could honestly keep it modern without much issue.

All I'm suggesting is, keep it fictional. Don't write yourself on the page, write someone you relate to. It'll make it easier to put them through the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune that protagonists must suffer.

 

[Ourobolus]

My approach is sci-fi, personally. Anything partially or fully fantastical would let you work via metaphor and analogy, which you might prefer if you're working on something sort of autobiographical. But if you're thinking of being direct about your subject matter, then you could honestly keep it modern without much issue.

All I'm suggesting is, keep it fictional. Don't write yourself on the page, write someone you relate to. It'll make it easier to put them through the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune that protagonists must suffer.

Yeah, that's the plan. I'm just trying to determine the best (or at least most relatable) metaphor for this. I think first-person would be best for this subject, now it's just a matter of putting that "I" into someone else.

Actually, now that I think about it, sci-fi might be a decent route to go. I can always translate my military experience into something more in the future.

 

[matthewwhatever]

Nuts & bolts question: has anyone written anything using Google Docs? I'm thinking that, in order to be able to access/do my writing everywhere, I'll just save it to Google Drive, but I wasn't sure how Google's word processor compares to Word or Scrivener.

 

[LuffyZoro]

Nuts & bolts question: has anyone written anything using Google Docs? I'm thinking that, in order to be able to access/do my writing everywhere, I'll just save it to Google Drive, but I wasn't sure how Google's word processor compares to Word or Scrivener.

It lags a lot with big files, and is pretty basic. I'd just save a word doc or whatever to Dropbox.

 

[Cade]

Oof, is this really 4 days away? I'm excited, but damn if next-gen isn't an overpowering force in my mind.

Has anyone else been writing short excerpts from possible novel concepts they might want to try? I've done 3 or so now just to see if I like the general character/world/elements of them and they're pretty fun. Hoping to get one or two more in before November so I can finalize my choice with certainty.

 

[bengraven]

Ugh, 4 days.

Wait, maybe it's a "yay"?

Nuts & bolts question: has anyone written anything using Google Docs? I'm thinking that, in order to be able to access/do my writing everywhere, I'll just save it to Google Drive, but I wasn't sure how Google's word processor compares to Word or Scrivener.

I've been using Google Docs for everything from NaNo to resumes to GAF writing challenges since it first started and I've been happy.

I tried OMWriter and enjoyed it but it lacks some of the features I would prefer and Scrivener was a bit too feature heavy.

 

[Valhelm]

Is using multiple first-person perspectives frowned upon?

I want to have multiple perspectives, but I can't really think of any way to portray one story in a third-person perspective.

 

[Cade]

Is using multiple first-person perspectives frowned upon?

I want to have multiple perspectives, but I can't really think of any way to portray one story in a third-person perspective.

I think it's fine if you make it clear per section who is who, either by dividing it into chapters or just by labeling each section accordingly.

 

[Valhelm]

I think it's fine if you make it clear per section who is who, either by dividing it into chapters or just by labeling each section accordingly.

Do any popular novels do this? I can't think of an example of multiple first-person narrators, except for epistolary books.

 

[Mike M]

Do any popular novels do this? I can't think of an example of multiple first-person narrators, except for epistolary books.

Off the top if my head, Soon I Will Be Invincible switched back and forth each chapter between two first-person perspectives every chapter.

 

[Cyan]

Man most of these ideas you people are posting...

make me realize that my story idea sucks

What's your story idea?

 

[Mike M]

What's your story idea?

A naked mole rat makes good in the big city.

 

[matthewwhatever]

It lags a lot with big files, and is pretty basic. I'd just save a word doc or whatever to Dropbox.

I've been using Google Docs for everything from NaNo to resumes to GAF writing challenges since it first started and I've been happy.

I tried OMWriter and enjoyed it but it lacks some of the features I would prefer and Scrivener was a bit too feature heavy.

Thanks for the replies -- I think maybe I'll search around the Chrome store and see what it has to offer for writing. My laptop is a Chromebook, so having something that's compatible with that will (hopefully) make me a lot more productive.

 

[Alur]

I'm gonna give it another go this year and try to go three for three.

I've written mostly fantasy for Nano - particularly the first year I did it (2011), where I literally spent the last couple days attempting to churn out words in long sessions to finish. The second year I ended up splitting out into the story from the 2011 year somewhere past halfway as I recall (ran myself into a wall on my original 2012 idea), and fleshed it out a bit more but I've still never attempted anything further with either story.

This year I've concocted a vague plot of a more modern variety, beginning with a bit of survival by my characters. Hopefully it can see me through!

 

[Mike M]

I have three mystery novels I'd like to write, but so far I haven't gotten past the concept of the fact that they're mysteries.

I don't read mysteries. I have no idea how to craft one.