Nanowrimo 2012

[aliceanne]

My brain suddenly shifted gears this weekend and now instead of writing a linear narrative I have divided the story into chapters. Now I skip around and fill in the chapters as I think of dialogue and incidents. Who knew I could do this? On the other hand I am finding the process of editing and typing quite time consuming and tedious. I don't know how people do this for a living - I was exhausted Sunday night.

Go Angelskates! I can only dream of having 25K words down. I wish I were a better typist.

[MacMadame]

I'm past 25,000 words - halfway!

Me too. And as soon as I hit it, I had a major mental breakdown. But I made myself write yesterday again even though "yesterday's" effort took place after midnight. I find making myself sit down and write has been the best thing this NaNoWriMo has done for me.

On the other hand I am finding the process of editing

Don't edit! Well, not real editing. I am going to go back today and flesh out some stuff and I find that kind of editing is fine. But real editing totally bogs you down.

[Angelskates]

I find making myself sit down and write has been the best thing this NaNoWriMo has done for me.

Me too.

Don't edit! Well, not real editing. I am going to go back today and flesh out some stuff and I find that kind of editing is fine. But real editing totally bogs you down.

I agree, I've barely deleted a word, and I have turned off the spelling/grammar check on Word as well!

[MacMadame]

I have turned off the spelling/grammar check on Word as well!

Okay, that might be going too far.

[Angelskates]

Okay, that might be going too far.

I'd rather spend my time writing than changing words and correcting spelling or typos, and since my story has some foreign words, I'd rather Word not try and guess what they are!

[CynicElle]

I was lagging a little bit last week, but I had a long weekend and forced myself to sit down for several writing sessions, and I broke 25K late yesterday afternoon. Phew. Halfway there!

[misskarne]

*puffpuff* Just hit 20k!

...I was 15k at the start of the day. I've GOT to stop doing this.

[MacMadame]

I'm almost up to 30k. I think I need about 150,000 at the end though. My plan is to get to 75k by the end and then paste in a bunch of stuff from my blog and start editing come Dec.

[aliceanne]

I set my alarm for 4:00am this morning. My feet didn't actually hit the floor until 4:30am, but once I plugged in my coffee pot and got my laptop set up next to my bed I was good to go. Even though I'm a night person I think this will work better for me. I work a compressed schedule, and even though it gives me an extra day off every other week, it makes for a long day.

I took everyone's advice and stopped editing. I feel like I'm leaving an awful lot of run-on sentences and tense disagreement to fix later, but I got a lot done. I'll brag when I hit the 25K mark.

I also took the advice of someone earlier in this thread and I am writing it as a serial adventure. That way I don't have to wrap up all the plot threads by Nov. 30. If I decide to do this next year I can just pick up where I left off.

[Bunny Hop]

My brain suddenly shifted gears this weekend and now instead of writing a linear narrative I have divided the story into chapters. Now I skip around and fill in the chapters as I think of dialogue and incidents. Who knew I could do this?

I always write by jumping back and forth as I think of things, or writing the bits I feel inspired to write, rather than writing in sequence. The weird thing is that in every other area of life I'm very much someone who plans everything out.

Glad to hear everyone is going so well. I haven't even got around to opening my novel from last year to edit/finish it (which was my alternative-to-NaNo plan). Instead I've been finishing off work in the evenings. Maybe next year.

[misskarne]

I often jump around, but this year I've actually done better than I thought writing linearly. I've only skipped one part. Silly MC1 falling for a butthead and making it difficult to write about the beginning of their relationship! Luckily MC1 came to his senses!

[misskarne]

23185. I'm getting closer and closer. Par for the 15th (today, well it is 1am) is 25000, so hopefully I can nail par when I wake up.

[MacMadame]

I'm over 31k. But I'm running out of stuff to write about. I want to do 50k of original words before I start editing new material. I know I have to go back and fill out many sections but that requires editing which I'm trying not to do either.

I think I may spend the weekend organizing things and then take it from there.

[misskarne]

I'm over 31k. But I'm running out of stuff to write about. I want to do 50k of original words before I start editing new material. I know I have to go back and fill out many sections but that requires editing which I'm trying not to do either.

Ah, you do realise this means 19k of blather?


In the meantime, I've hit 25k and I'm back on par!

[MacMadame]

Ah, you do realise this means 19k of blather?

Nah, it was a temporary block. If I'd planned it out ahead of time, I'd have an outline but I'm going by the seat of my pants so this is bound to happen.

I think you're head of par though. You only need to hit 25k by tomorrow! (or is it already tomorrow where you are? it's tomorrow here too but only for an hour so plenty of time to write )

[misskarne]

I think you're head of par though. You only need to hit 25k by tomorrow! (or is it already tomorrow where you are? it's tomorrow here too but only for an hour so plenty of time to write )

It's the 15th now - Australia is one of the early timezones, so I get to days before you So I'm just ahead of par (by about 200 words). Hoping to be a little further ahead by the end of the evening.

[CynicElle]

Just cleared 32K. I'm kind of at a point where I don't know really know what's going to happen between now and the end and I'm conjuring stuff out of thin air, but that's half the fun. Hoping some of it will still be usable when I go back to revise.

[MacMadame]

I'm over 47k. So I figure I'll make goal tomorrow. Once I write about two different relationships, I'm not sure there is anything else to write about in Parts I and II and it will be time to edit my blog entries into a Part III. Is this cheating if I do it Nov since I'll have made the 50k all in Nov? It feels like cheating.

I am thinking over Thanksgiving I'll buy Scrivener and assemble the whole thing into a timeline and flesh out the parts that I was kind of short on and start weaving things together. That will still be working on the new material so it won't be cheating.

[misskarne]

Oh, good work Mac!

I've just cracked 30,000. I'm behind again and struggling again and again, it's one of the MC's first romance. Clearly my brain is too stuck on getting my MCs together to bother with their previous relationships!

[CynicElle]

Once I write about two different relationships, I'm not sure there is anything else to write about in Parts I and II and it will be time to edit my blog entries into a Part III. Is this cheating if I do it Nov since I'll have made the 50k all in Nov? It feels like cheating.

As far as I can tell from reading the forums on the NaNo site, once you've reached the 50K original word requirement, you've won, so I don't see how that's cheating.

And also, (((Scrivener))). I bought it shortly after starting my 2011 novel and it made the process so much easier.

My goal for this weekend was to clear 35K, and I ended up having a lot of inspiration this weekend (I know how the story is going to end now!) and breaking 40K, so I'm very happy. I actually think I might not die of embarrassment when I go back to start revising this one.