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I'm in for my second nano. I did my first in 2010 and despite the fact that the last 5,000 words were the ravings of a madman I did finish. Last time was action-horror, I'm going to try pulp sci fi this time. Space adventures! e: that reverse word count looks good. I have ADHD and it will help me make the best of my early excitement before the novelty wears off and the grind sets in Tarnop fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Nov 1, 2023 |
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Nov 1, 2023 01:45
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Waffle! posted:How do I stop world building and start writing? So many ideas at once! I find things go better if I leave gaps to fill in as I write. I guess you could call it Just In Time world building: a lot of stuff is undefined until it matters to a character. No matter how much you do there will be contradictions and inconsistencies to iron out after this month is over, so embrace it and allow yourself to discover and be surprised as you go. Good luck!
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Nov 1, 2023 10:28
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Forgot to check in yesterday. I got 3964 words done which feels pretty good. It's a real mess of actual story, setting and character notes, and clumsy exposition. So just like last time really, with the same philosophy: delete nothing. When I came back to do a first edit pass on my last nano book I ended up using some of the half-finished ideas that I'd left in little notes for myself, so I try to leave everything in
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Nov 2, 2023 12:14
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I'm using some very vague random tables from a solo RPG for when I get stuck. The results are open enough that they're not useful in a vacuum. They force me to place them in the context of my story and setting to be useful, and will sometimes prompt me to make connections between things that I wouldn't have considered. I wouldn't want something to suggest specific plot beats without me having to meet them half way e: the RPG is Ironsworn, available for free. I'm using the Action + Theme and Focus + Descriptor tables Tarnop fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Nov 3, 2023 |
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Nov 3, 2023 16:32
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Day 3: 1,144 This is pretty much how I handle this too. I don't delete anything and I'm always moving forwards and leaving notes for myself
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Nov 4, 2023 07:41
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Quote posted:I have written many weak scenes. If I had to point to any one thing that has sapped my motivation for writing over the years, its repeatedly finding myself stuck in a bad, seemingly endless scene. It's completely deflating. Especially if you've spent significant time on them. There's a tabletop RPG called Microscope which has a rule for playing scenes. Before a scene begins, the person calling for it states the question that the scene will answer. Once anyone feels that the question has been answered, they can call for the scene to end. Seems like advice that's cut from the same cloth e: 4124 words so far, I've been sick and it's killed my progress
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Nov 4, 2023 21:23
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Gnossiennes posted:i'm unemployed right now  My first one was 2010, and I had a job then. I wrote through my lunch break every work day and then 2 hours after dinner. If I'd also had family responsibilities I doubt I'd have finished, I ended up having to write nearly 20,000 words over the final weekend
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Nov 6, 2023 16:13
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9,527 I don't think I like my story very much. I'm having a hard time writing because I don't really care about what happens, but it feels too late to change course
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Nov 9, 2023 09:46
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Thank you for the suggestions. I've thought about why I'm not really feeling it and I think it's because my protagonist is looking for someone that she has a connection to that I've left intentionally vague. I hoped to leave myself some space to define this relationship later but it's actually resulted in me finding one of her main motivations kind of hollow. I'm going to try writing some flashback chapters from the pov of this other character to flesh things out a bit Tarnop fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Nov 9, 2023 |
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Nov 9, 2023 14:29
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Flashback chapters of a different character on their own probably won't solve the issue if it's unclear what the motivations driving the main character are. That did occur to me so I'm going to get to a scene with the two of them together with the minimum of preamble. Which I guess is none! e: I'm not driving completely blind motivation-wise. My main character is so far driven primarily by her need for her family to be safe. She's made a clean break from some bad people, who she was with because of either veiled or explicit threats against her family (this feels like the kind of detail that it's ok to define when the specifics matter). The person she's looking for is the only person she believes she can trust now that her former associates are hunting her down, I just don't currently have much of an idea as to why so I'm just going to feel it out by writing them together before this all kicked off Thanks again for the encouragement Tarnop fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Nov 10, 2023 |
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Nov 10, 2023 02:51
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I don't know if it's against the rules but last time I did nano I didn't delete anything outside of typos and I'm not deleting anything this time either. If I think of a better way of doing a scene then I write it again but I leave the original in. Deciding which one is best is for when I have my editor hat on and come to review it with the benefit of hindsight. I don't think I would have made my word count last time without this only forwards approach. Even scenes I would eventually end up deleting convey something about a character or the world, they're just not doing it efficiently
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Nov 13, 2023 01:02
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12680 words. I've rediscovered some motivation and written over 3000 words today. I'm going to have to maintain that pace until the end of the month but it only took 4 hours so that seems achievable. More than it did yesterday at least
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Nov 18, 2023 18:24
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Bobby Deluxe posted:I have written well over 1,000 words today. Unfortunately all of them were forum posts and not part of the novel. Just copy paste them into your book. Hiro Protagonist logged onto the something awful forums. "<copy paste here>", he typed.
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Nov 20, 2023 19:04
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I haven't updated for a while, and it's been hard going mental health wise. I'm thinking of adopting something like Bobby's plan: I'll aim for 30k this month and then go for the remaining 20k next month. Day 23 (yesterday): 21,124
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Nov 24, 2023 13:36
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Took another mental health day yesterday, not fully processing how close I am to the finish line. If I can get I'm obviously somewhat biased here but I vote yes. The point of nano for me is to get you to write a book. Who cares if it takes two months instead of one for a first draft, it still provided motivation to do something we wouldn't have otherwise
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Nov 30, 2023 16:14
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