The 2011 TPM NaNoWriMo Support Group - Final Week Underway! [Archive]

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Gavin Luper

14th October 2011, 07:47 PM

National Novel Writing Month - or NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) - is fast approaching!

Who's doing it this year?

I'm using it to move forward on LTL - third year running! It's scary that this may be the last time I need to use it for LTL purposes though. :S

Anyone else joining? Thinking of joining?

mattbcl

14th October 2011, 09:08 PM

I'm doing it. I'm more of a traditionalist for NaNo, though, I only start new stories instead of advancing on ones already in progress, and always original fiction. I'm working up a concept I started playing with during high school. I made it a short story for a creative writing class, but admittedly it wasn't very good at the time. I can make it far better now, with significant alterations. Looking forward to it!

classy_cat18

14th October 2011, 09:19 PM

I'm using it for AC/CC. Hopefully I'll actually accomplish something.

Gavin Luper

14th October 2011, 09:34 PM

This is awesome - at least three of us are doing it! It will be good to have a few people to kind of confer with/bitch about how much our pieces are pissing us off, etc.

16 days ... can't wait!

Wolfsong

14th October 2011, 10:28 PM

Gavin Luper

14th October 2011, 10:29 PM

I'm doing it again this year. Gonna start on my werewolf csi maimi fanfic idea. once i gett he kinks out of this werewolf au i'm hoping to work on an original ficiton story but i need to get the canon for that sorted otu first and horatio caine gets to become a werewolf to help that process...

Woot. We should have a TPM NaNoWriMo team or summat.

Also, good to see you back here, Amy, after the accidental banning! ^_^

Wolfsong

14th October 2011, 10:36 PM

Thanks and its good to be back. I like that idea.

mattbcl

14th October 2011, 11:00 PM

Agreed on the NaNo team. What would we be called? The NaNites?

mr_pikachu

14th October 2011, 11:04 PM

You should call yourself the London Silly NaNies.

(Family Guy reference here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Games_(Family_Guy)).)

As for participating, it will surprise me if I'm able to do so, but we'll see how my schedule looks come November. If my statistics classes stop soaking up my time (not likely), then perhaps I can jump into the fray.

Gavin Luper

15th October 2011, 12:01 AM

Brian, that would be epic!

I'm just glad uni finishes on November 2nd.

XD @ Silly NaNies. I see what you did there.

Okay, team name brainstorming time ...

The (Ba)NaNas?

Crystal Tears

15th October 2011, 08:38 PM

I go for it every year, but have only ever succeeded once. I usually write a new story for it, but I don't know what its going to be about (Mass Effect, HALO, and StarCraft are all big contenders). Original fiction, maybe, but right now the only original thing I'm working on is Under the Dusk.

I... have no witty ideas for NaNoWriMo names. Sorry D:

Becky

16th October 2011, 10:09 PM

Can I use nano for my dissertation? I actually have the front end done, so while I won't be working as much on the writing, what I will be doing is submitting a revised IRB (have one approved and currently used to gather data this term for the pre-study). Or maybe to complete another journal article.

DarkestLight

16th October 2011, 10:26 PM

o.O Never even thought about using it for AC/CC. Count me in :D

Asilynne

17th October 2011, 03:20 AM

Gavin Luper

17th October 2011, 04:00 AM

I'm actually going for it this year, it always snuck up on me in past years and I either had no free time or too much stress to actually do it. I think I may rely on the TPM Nano Support Group to stay motivated. Good thing is I have a kernel of an idea already, and as I write it can sprout into whatever kind of plant it will end up being :) I'm really going to give it my best shot so lets hope! Anyone got any tips?

I like being the TPM Nano Support Group, at least until we get a cleverer name, but I seriously can't think of a good one, and I refuse to be a Silly NaNie.

What would you guys say to a thread in the writer's lounge where we can post our daily word counts, discuss things on breaks, generally bitch and moan and SPAM to vent our pent-up writeriness? I think I would enjoy doing that with a bunch of fellow WriMos.

As for tips ... I will be drinking lots of black coffee and smoking like a chimney. Few other ways of remaining alert and awake during my enormous NaNoWriMo writing binges have proven effective.

Asilynne

17th October 2011, 04:50 AM

I could be a huge Star Trek Nerd and say we should call ourselves the NaNo-prose (in Star Trek Voyager the Borg have nanoprobes lol) :D Brandy has gained nerdiness +50!

mattbcl

17th October 2011, 06:40 AM

Gavin Luper

17th October 2011, 08:41 AM

I endorse the idea of a place where we can hang out, bitch and moan about NaNo, and bounce off the walls. Part of me is a little jealous that people get a place for spamming over in the Post Count Capsule - we're definitely going to need one, too. I figure that if we end up getting blocks, venting about it will at least get us typing, and will eventually turn us in the right direction.

I also endorse Asi's submission for the group name.

I actually think Smiley Town should be the equivalent of the Post Count Capsule; that's what we intended when we rebooted it this time. We should make it that way. Spam and random posts should be fine, in order to boost discussion. Flaming, less so.

Cool, we'll set up the TPM Nano Support Group come the end of the month, then.

Meantime: Are we going to still have an awesome team name?

mr_pikachu

17th October 2011, 05:59 PM

I actually think Smiley Town should be the equivalent of the Post Count Capsule; that's what we intended when we rebooted it this time. We should make it that way. Spam and random posts should be fine, in order to boost discussion. Flaming, less so.

Well, spamming, to a degree... I'm going to be a little annoyed if I see 20 posts in 20 minutes by the same person saying little more than "Hi!" As long as it's not abused, though, I have no issue with being considerably more flexible with Smiley Town than the rest of the forum.

Really, we've already been far more flexible, as stated in the thread itself. Certainly, though, people could be even looser there if they so chose.

Asilynne

22nd October 2011, 07:48 AM

The NaNo is sneaking up on us! Everyone ready? I'm excited for my first one even if it is a bit daunting!

DarkestLight

22nd October 2011, 02:40 PM

classy_cat18

22nd October 2011, 02:47 PM

o.O I need to be clarified on the word count for NanoWriMo. 50K words right? I have two ideas that I can churn out for it. BUt the Ac/cc side of me needs some love, specially since I got a new party member.

Yeah, 50K or more. And you can do either. I was stuck between AC/CC and a side story for Scattered Lights, but I promised Gabi that AC/CC would be top priority until I catch up on my Battle Range stories.

Gavin Luper

22nd October 2011, 09:56 PM

Woot, I'm so pumped for this! I deliver my thesis proposal presentation on the 2nd November, and then after that it's BAM into NaNoWriMo.

Do you guys want a new TPM NaNo Support Group thread for us to bitch and moan and update in each day, or should I just change the title on this one?

Asilynne

22nd October 2011, 10:00 PM

I'm cool with whatever :)

Gavin Luper

22nd October 2011, 10:02 PM

hahaha awesome!

so we have both of us happy either way now ^_^

other peoples?

mattbcl

22nd October 2011, 10:44 PM

Gavin Luper

23rd October 2011, 02:24 AM

Actually this thread works just as well, it's already been defined as the place to talk about what we're gearing up for anyway.

I feel like I ought to devote it to AAO, since it hasn't been getting much love from my muse lately - on the other hand, I'm still bent on going the traditional route.

Cool, let's use this one then.

It can be easier, I think, using it to complete an existing work - less time spent planning plots and characters, depending on your story.

Is AAO quite heavy with character and plot points that would need you to constantly revert to past chapters? Or can you just charge on ahead with it quite quickly?

Asilynne

23rd October 2011, 07:54 AM

Gavin Luper

23rd October 2011, 08:54 AM

I'm going to be using it for writing something completely new that I just have a rough basic idea for, since its my first one and I was told not to pick something that I already have ideas for ^-^() I'm a bit nervous though because starting a story is always my hardest thing to do, I could have an entire world's history, characters and story timeline planned out but actually getting it to start and flow are what I find difficult...anyone have any tips?

I wish I did - that is exactly my problem, too!

The beginning is always the hardest.

I guess I would say envisage exactly what kind of tone and scene you want your story to open with, because this opening will set the tone for the story in the eyes of your reader. And my tendency is always to try to establish every little aspect of the universe in detail first, and then get narrower, but I think that's a mistake a lot of the time: maybe get into the character and story immediately and let everything flesh itself out over time.

Having said this, I've not done that before; that advice just came to me as I typed. But it seems kind of plausible, right?

mattbcl

23rd October 2011, 10:12 AM

Cool, let's use this one then.

It can be easier, I think, using it to complete an existing work - less time spent planning plots and characters, depending on your story.

Is AAO quite heavy with character and plot points that would need you to constantly revert to past chapters? Or can you just charge on ahead with it quite quickly?

Since it's a rewrite, my thing is that the original wasn't loaded down with character / plot points, at least in its first ten chapters (where it's at right now, 29 segments in, is the old story's equivalent of Chapter 4... watch me collapse now). There were a few important things to capture, but it was almost a standard trainer fic with a few different twists and turns thrown in. Now I want it to evolve beyond that. It was a character-driven story before, but a couple of my critics were correct in that even the main characters were fairly shallow in the original. I've been taking great pains to see to it that the characters develop over the massive amount of time in which the story takes place (several years pass from beginning to end).

But since I've have this specific vision in my head for a long time how the story played out, I'm not overly concerned with having to go back and look at what I've already written. I know how it's supposed to go. I could charge ahead quickly - but I suppose what I'm getting snagged up on is battles. Might seem like a silly thing, but I want the battles to be accurate, and phenomenal. It's Pokémon, for crying out loud, battle is where it's at!

While typing this all out, I think I may have already come up with the solution I think you'd offer. And I think you would say "skip writing the battles for now, you can come back to them later, and just write what's important to you about the story. You don't have to write everything in order. It all comes together on its own eventually."

Hmm... not sure who to thank for the advice. But thanks for asking the question, at the very least! :D

Crystal Tears

23rd October 2011, 07:10 PM

Gavin Luper

24th October 2011, 03:35 AM

You guys plan things? I literally just sit down and write whatever comes to mind. Whether its an original piece of fanfiction, planning seems to bog me down.

The last time I completed NaNoWriMo, I just winged it. I hated the finished piece but I ended with like 50 012 words. XD

I plan things these days. I used to just write and see where it took me, but that makes it an extremely painful process when you try to actually wrap up some very significant mysteries and plot points that were signposted way back when in the story. So I always have some kind of basic plan these days, if not a list of important events/scenes for each chapter, which is what I've moved toward lately.

Last time you did NaNoWriMo, was it starting from scratch?

DarkestLight

24th October 2011, 02:32 PM

Last I attempted it, yeah it was from scratch, and it was that one story I started to post here, but then started rewriting massively as I posted. Kinda wanna work on that one as well...but that's for a later date.

The scratch starts are fun, I end up writing battles out first, and then middle sections. Sooner or later, a beginning falls into place and then I mix and match, edit, rewrite scenes and modify existing scraps so I have a semi-written story. Then I write whatever is missing :o Its weird yeah, but it makes for fun timeline gap filers.

Samchu

26th October 2011, 05:50 AM

Painfully late at jumping on this (conversational) bandwagon but here I am anyway, ready to fail at another NaNo attempt. Any month but November and I'd be fine, no birthday to organise, no really important assignments to hand in...but we'll see. Maybe this year I'll get a little further. At the very least it'll get another original idea out of the starting block, even if it collapses and dies before the very first hurdle.

Out of curiosity, is anyone considering posting their NaNo attempts up here? I know the idea is to pump out a high word count and then go back to improve the quality and that people might not want to put their raw work out there but is anyone thinking that they might consider doing this?

Asilynne

26th October 2011, 06:34 AM

I probably will since its my first one, get some advice before I refine it ;D

Gavin Luper

26th October 2011, 10:05 AM

Painfully late at jumping on this (conversational) bandwagon but here I am anyway, ready to fail at another NaNo attempt.

Hahaha - that's the spirit, Sam! ^_^ Think positive! You can do it! Etc. etc.

Any month but November and I'd be fine, no birthday to organise, no really important assignments to hand in...but we'll see. Maybe this year I'll get a little further. At the very least it'll get another original idea out of the starting block, even if it collapses and dies before the very first hurdle.

Out of curiosity, is anyone considering posting their NaNo attempts up here? I know the idea is to pump out a high word count and then go back to improve the quality and that people might not want to put their raw work out there but is anyone thinking that they might consider doing this?

I'll be posting mine here, but it's LTL so I'm not sure if that helps. But at least you know one other person is putting their NaNo stuff on TPM. Mine will end up being edited, though.

Wolfsong

26th October 2011, 10:29 AM

Gavin Luper

26th October 2011, 10:37 AM

I probably won't be posting here but eventually i will at my fanfiction.net account- Wolfsong98 .I'm currently posting last year's nano story. A freaky friday version of csi maimi... I need to update it soon but i also need to fix the next chapter before sending a couple more off at my beta.... since i probably wont' be updating it too much this novemeber

Last year i almost didn't win. the sunday before the end my main desktop got a nasty virus and had to be formatted everything on it was lost. luckily i had saved it on a jump drive.

Holy crap, that would be completely devastating if you hadn't had a back-up. I don't even know what I would do if that happened to me.

Does anyone else have a Nano account? Can we like, make teams on that site and stuff? Not that I want to take away any activity from here, but just curious.

Wolfsong

26th October 2011, 10:42 AM

As it was i had lost a day's wordcount but luckyl i had my notes from a rp chat session with a friend for a difficult section so it didn't take long to get it back...

Anyways i do have a nano account like my fanfiction.net account its Wolfsong98

Gavin Luper

26th October 2011, 10:55 AM

Gnarly - once I remember what the hell my account is I shall find you!

(Not in a creepy way or anything, XD)

classy_cat18

26th October 2011, 11:19 AM

I got one too. Aaaaand I pretty much forgot it already.

I'll also be working on a double update for my two fics, so I'll post those chapters up too.

Samchu

26th October 2011, 11:32 AM

Well I'll be putting mine up in all it's glorious raw, unedited shitty-ness. Hopefully as a "last thing I do before bed" kinda thing, although I might just piss everybody off by uploading obscure chronological sections as opposed to actual chapters. I dunno, maybe it'll be an experiment.

My hope is to actually go back and edit it and get it published (one of these days) but it's been so long since I actually contributed to Fan Fic or any kind of creative medium that it seems like a good excuse to start putting some stuff here, unpolished as it will be.

Gavin Luper

26th October 2011, 11:34 AM

I got one too. Aaaaand I pretty much forgot it already.

I'll also be working on a double update for my two fics, so I'll post those chapters up too.

I think it must be because we only use it once a year so we don't really recall our usernames and so on.

Well I'll be putting mine up in all it's glorious raw, unedited shitty-ness. Hopefully as a "last thing I do before bed" kinda thing, although I might just piss everybody off by uploading obscure chronological sections as opposed to actual chapters. I dunno, maybe it'll be an experiment.

My hope is to actually go back and edit it and get it published (one of these days) but it's been so long since I actually contributed to Fan Fic or any kind of creative medium that it seems like a good excuse to start putting some stuff here, unpolished as it will be.

It would be good to have you back on the forums, I was thinking it had been quite a while since I'd seen you and Shayna around. How are you guys?

Samchu

26th October 2011, 11:40 AM

classy_cat18

26th October 2011, 12:11 PM

I think it must be because we only use it once a year so we don't really recall our usernames and so on.

This is my first year and I signed up two weeks ago, so this is a case of my bad memory.

Wolfsong

26th October 2011, 10:24 PM

That's why i try to keep things similar across boards and what not so i can remember it. Most of the time wolfsong tends to be taken so that's why i put the 98 on the end though occasionally that will be taken aws well but not as often

Charles Legend

27th October 2011, 08:58 PM

Well I'm not that sure about it...=/ uh and well I think part of the reason why my stories never really turn out well is that for the most part they were posted in raw/beta form
so that would be a stupid Idea on my part to do since some people jump to the wrong conclutions about what I'm trying to write about...:prod:

oh and my Nano account is Charles Legend :rolleyes:

~Charles Legend

Gavin Luper

27th October 2011, 09:14 PM

Shayna is busy in the real world. I think she's said her goodbyes to TPM. I don't know much more than that. We haven't really kept in touch since we broke up last November.

Atm I'm good. I think I may have struck a balance between my new intensive master's degree and my new girlfriend that leaves room for writing so unless something drastic comes up I SHOULD be contributing here again, even if it's somewhat sporadically. The 2010-2011 academic was hell, lots of stress and drama and two lovely undergrad dissertations to fight through so I didn't get a lot of writing done and I wasn't able to contribute here almost as much as I wanted to. BUT! That's all in the past, for the moment at least I'm back. Quiver in fear ficcers, the mediocre god of unfinished originals has returned!

Sorry, Sam - I didn't realise you guys had broken up, so that was dumb to ask. Sad to see her leave TPM altogether. Glad to hear about your new gf and your Master's, though. What are you doing your Master's in?

This is my first year and I signed up two weeks ago, so this is a case of my bad memory.

XD

I love it

That's why i try to keep things similar across boards and what not so i can remember it. Most of the time wolfsong tends to be taken so that's why i put the 98 on the end though occasionally that will be taken aws well but not as often

Out of interest, where does the name Wolfsong come from, if it's so popular that it gets taken so often?

Well I'm not that sure about it...=/ uh and well I think part of the reason why my stories never really turn out well is that for the most part they were posted in raw/beta form
so that would be a stupid Idea on my part to do since some people jump to the wrong conclutions about what I'm trying to write about...:prod:

oh and my Nano account is Charles Legend :rolleyes:

~Charles Legend

Okay, once my paper is submitted on Monday I'll find us all on NaNo and create a team or something. Leave your NaNo account name here if you haven't already, peeps.

classy_cat18

27th October 2011, 09:32 PM

Turns out that mine really is classy_cat18. Hmm, thought I used an alternative.

Crystal Tears

27th October 2011, 09:41 PM

I keep typing in '[color=' but then I realize I haven't actually picked a new colour for myself yet. Hrmm..

I have a NaNo account as well, I just have no idea what the hell it was. I'll have to look it up again... Fuck it I'll just sign up again...

There.

I'm AntiRapeFace. ;D And I still have no idea what I'm going to write about...

As for your question Gavin, yeah, last time I did NaNo, it was from scratch. I never really have stories to continue that I deem worthy to pump out 50 000 words for! XD

I think that's one thing that annoys me so much about NaNoWriMo is the attempt at not-editing things. You just have to keep pushing forward, and trudge. Lots of trudging. I hate trudging. Especially dragging a whole bunch of typos, grammatical errors and just plain crap behind me.

I should start adding you people, I just... can't be bothered at the moment. 8D

Pichu Luver

27th October 2011, 11:51 PM

Thanks to CT for reminding me about this here crazy endeavour. Consider me joined to the cause of 50K. I tried it er.... two years ago and got about 5000 words. Since I have the time this year, I just gotta get the will... and not let a certain video game steal me away mid month. XD

As for the fic itself, I have an idea for one set in the Stargate universe and the enigmatic Furlings. They need something more then mock-Ewoks. Also, in the spirit of Stargate I'll say Nanites for a name. :heh:

Ma name is River Tam. I can feel the wrath of Firefly fans everywhere. :lol:

Wolfsong

28th October 2011, 12:18 AM

Out of interest, where does the name Wolfsong come from, if it's so popular that it gets taken so often?

Well, it happens to be a name of a book (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wolfsong-traci-briery/1000393517) but i also like it and part of why i chose it is a wolf's howl is its song therefore wolfsong. But htat is me though i did love that book when i found it. But truthfully i'm not sure i jsut know i had to choose wolfsong98 for my gmail account as well. It probably has diffent meanigns to diffferent people *shrugs*

Asilynne

31st October 2011, 08:17 AM

At the last minute I've decided to change what my story is about lol It shall be the story that my wedding theme is based on :)

Which right now isn't a story but a rough idea hehe :)

Gavin Luper

31st October 2011, 08:41 AM

Turns out that mine really is classy_cat18. Hmm, thought I used an alternative.

:keke: Nice work Shonta, haha! :)

I keep typing in '[color=' but then I realize I haven't actually picked a new colour for myself yet. Hrmm..

I have a NaNo account as well, I just have no idea what the hell it was. I'll have to look it up again... Fuck it I'll just sign up again...

There.

I'm AntiRapeFace. ;D And I still have no idea what I'm going to write about...

As for your question Gavin, yeah, last time I did NaNo, it was from scratch. I never really have stories to continue that I deem worthy to pump out 50 000 words for! XD

I think that's one thing that annoys me so much about NaNoWriMo is the attempt at not-editing things. You just have to keep pushing forward, and trudge. Lots of trudging. I hate trudging. Especially dragging a whole bunch of typos, grammatical errors and just plain crap behind me.

I should start adding you people, I just... can't be bothered at the moment. 8D

The trudging bothers me, too ... but I just push on through, as you say, until I hit 50k. Then the hell of editing begins. Or, in the case of my effort last year, you scrap almost all of it because you change your mind. That hurt a lot. O_O

Thanks to CT for reminding me about this here crazy endeavour. Consider me joined to the cause of 50K. I tried it er.... two years ago and got about 5000 words. Since I have the time this year, I just gotta get the will... and not let a certain video game steal me away mid month. XD

As for the fic itself, I have an idea for one set in the Stargate universe and the enigmatic Furlings. They need something more then mock-Ewoks. Also, in the spirit of Stargate I'll say Nanites for a name. :heh:

Ma name is River Tam. I can feel the wrath of Firefly fans everywhere. :lol:

What's the significance of Nanites? I think mattbcl also suggested that.

Also, is the game Uncharted 3? Because that's what's probably going to steal me away in approx 4 days.

Well, it happens to be a name of a book (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wolfsong-traci-briery/1000393517) but i also like it and part of why i chose it is a wolf's howl is its song therefore wolfsong. But htat is me though i did love that book when i found it. But truthfully i'm not sure i jsut know i had to choose wolfsong98 for my gmail account as well. It probably has diffent meanigns to diffferent people *shrugs*

Cool. :)

PEEPS, NANOWRIMO STARTS IN JUST A FEW HOURS HERE!

Wolfsong

31st October 2011, 11:48 AM

Gavin Luper

31st October 2011, 11:50 AM

Okay, one of the last lines from last night's miami episode made me laugh and clap my hands becuase of the story i have planned for nano plus it just gave me the location that i need for where it started.

Here is the lines in that little part:

Ryan: "Guys, bad news. We just got a call out. Homicide on Collins Ave. Witnesses report the murderer was..." *pause* "a werewolf."
*team laughs*
Calleigh: "I hate halloween."

*Grins* Maybe i can tweak the timeline somewhat ad work that in...

haha awesome, that's an omen right there that you're onto something!

Okay, it's officially 1/11/11 right here, but I'm gonna either start nanowrimoing tomorrow arvo after work, or wednesday arvo after my thesis proposal presentation is done (probably the more sensible move, and it will only be 2/11/11 by then).

Wolfsong

31st October 2011, 12:04 PM

Good luck. I still have twelve more hours to go before Nano starts here. But i have tomorrow off so maybe i can get a good start.

The only reason i have to rework the timeline in my miami story is becuase i want rick stetler to be in it and still a sergeant and in my stories the timebomb episode never happened.... even though he was a lieutenant in the last season he was on. In my story he will get his promotion but my story just works better that way. So au i guess. Here's hoping that i can get all the tweaks and what not worked out for next year. I've got one of my original characters hanging around and the other is going to make an appeareance in my miami fanfic...

Crystal Tears

31st October 2011, 03:05 PM

The trudging bothers me, too ... but I just push on through, as you say, until I hit 50k. Then the hell of editing begins. Or, in the case of my effort last year, you scrap almost all of it because you change your mind. That hurt a lot. O_O!

I've done that! But it wasn't just scraping most of it, it was ALL of it. In one fell swoop I purged my computer of the horrendous story that was *finished*. I hated it, oh my lord... I hope that doesn't happen this time around...

Either way, I got my idea! >D Now I just need to stay in love with it! As for the trudging... I've found a way to skip merrily along! Write in a font you can't really read anyways, and the mistakes will just blend into the rest of the words. Hahaha! Ignorance!

Oh my god... Uncharted 3.... I'm going to fail this task with that game alone, never mind my other addictions like HALO: Reach, and StarCraft 2... Oh no. >_<

Rio's (Pichu Luver) weakness is Assassin's Creed: Revelations and we both split the cost for Skyrim.

Oh damn we fail.

EDIT: Oh I figured it out! I added Wolfsong and Rio, but Classy it can't find your account. D: What is this madness?

classy_cat18

31st October 2011, 03:53 PM

HA! See, this Nintendo fangirl is in the clear! All she has to worry about is Skyward Sword; the rest of the games can wait until December.

...Aw damn, my bro's getting Sonic Generations for 360 tomorrow.

Oh I figured it out! I added Wolfsong and Rio, but Classy it can't find your account. D: What is this madness?

You put in classy_cat18, right? Small caps.

Samchu

31st October 2011, 03:55 PM

Sorry, Sam - I didn't realise you guys had broken up, so that was dumb to ask. Sad to see her leave TPM altogether. Glad to hear about your new gf and your Master's, though. What are you doing your Master's in?

It's ok, it wasn't something we really wanted to advertise. I'm doing my Masters in Historical Research focusing on Classical Civilisations. It's a bit of a mix of good and bad but it's only a year and reward is another degree the possibility of PhD funding so it's worth it.

Just over 3 hours until the official start of NaNo here in the UK. Which means I need to get my shit together, lol. Looking at an all-nighter tonight anyway to get some Greek revision in (a REALLY bad idea but it's what will probably happen) so fingers crossed I might actually have hit my word target by the time my morning class starts. Good luck everyone!

Crystal Tears

31st October 2011, 04:09 PM

Yeah, I did, I even copy_paste'd what you just wrote down. Nothing. Just add me, I suppose. We'll just find a way around this entire problem. xD

Seven hours, and I can begin... of course, when I say begin I really mean I will get up (having gone to bed around eleven), go to work (hopefully, I'm sick, couldn't go in today), make some money, come home, relax and begin to type. 1667 words. Not that many, just like an RPG post I suppose.

DarkestLight

31st October 2011, 04:16 PM

Generations, Skyrim and Arkham are all on reserve or stored away. No video games. Just work and an epic tale of souls and swords ... and pokemon are in there for some reason or other.:D

classy_cat18

31st October 2011, 04:25 PM

How do I add someone as a writing buddy? Or whatever you were trying to do?

mattbcl

31st October 2011, 06:37 PM

My NaNo this year is going to be very much flying by the seat of my pants. It's a type of writing I haven't done in some time. We'll see what comes out. Since I had the day off today, I slept in way late, so I'll probably be awake at midnight this evening and ready to get this party started.

But for now, my girlfriend and I are going out to shopping centers to see about snatching up Halloween candy on sale. :D

EDIT: On the main website, my username is Mattbcl. Big surprise, right?

Crystal Tears

31st October 2011, 08:22 PM

Lol classy, I try to click on your name now that you've added me and it takes me back to the front page. XD =.= You have me blocked or somethin'??

So, Uncharted 3 I can pick up tomorrow... >_> DAMNNNNN....

Pichu Luver

31st October 2011, 09:46 PM

The trudging bothers me, too ... but I just push on through, as you say, until I hit 50k. Then the hell of editing begins. Or, in the case of my effort last year, you scrap almost all of it because you change your mind. That hurt a lot. O_O

What's the significance of Nanites? I think mattbcl also suggested that.

Also, is the game Uncharted 3? Because that's what's probably going to steal me away in approx 4 days.

As I mentioned to Sie, turn off the spellcheck/grammer check and that may help trudge forward. Then blatent mistakes won't be screaming at you to fix them. ^^'

As for Nanites, they're little robotic...things, usually inside humans, that can be programed to various purposes. They're kinda the unobtanium of Stargate XD. I don't think mttbcl meant those tho, lol.

As CT said, AC steals my soul every November, so I must reeeeeeeeesiiiiiiiist.

Wolfsong

31st October 2011, 10:23 PM

Lol classy, I try to click on your name now that you've added me and it takes me back to the front page. XD

I'm having the same problem.

classy_cat18

31st October 2011, 10:58 PM

I dunno. I'm trying to correct the problem but I don't know what to do.

mattbcl

1st November 2011, 04:46 AM

What's the significance of Nanites? I think mattbcl also suggested that.

Nanites are microscopic machines that can be programmed to a variety of purposes. In Star Trek lore, they're actually fairly sinister, because the Borg put them towards the purpose of forcibly assimilating hapless sentients into their monolithic cyber-enhanced fold.

...Kinda like what's happening to you over in RPG. :P

Asilynne

1st November 2011, 05:37 AM

Nanites are microscopic machines that can be programmed to a variety of purposes. In Star Trek lore, they're actually fairly sinister, because the Borg put them towards the purpose of forcibly assimilating hapless sentients into their monolithic cyber-enhanced fold.

...Kinda like what's happening to you over in RPG. :P

And you too my friend :) Resistance is futile!

Also, anyone here a history buff? Or like to formulate good what if concepts in history? I need a small bit of insight from someone before I start writing ^-^()

Also, my NaNo username is Wolfineyes :)

Gavin Luper

1st November 2011, 10:57 AM

It's ok, it wasn't something we really wanted to advertise. I'm doing my Masters in Historical Research focusing on Classical Civilisations. It's a bit of a mix of good and bad but it's only a year and reward is another degree the possibility of PhD funding so it's worth it.

Oh wow, Classical Civilisations sounds amazing. Jealous. When I visited the ruins of the Roman Forum in 2006 I wanted nothing more than to study Ancient History or be an Archaeologist or something in that vein. Three weeks into a History degree and I realised I hated studying it seriously/intellectually, but it remains a total fascination and hobby to read about that stuff.

I've done that! But it wasn't just scraping most of it, it was ALL of it. In one fell swoop I purged my computer of the horrendous story that was *finished*. I hated it, oh my lord... I hope that doesn't happen this time around...

Oh my god... Uncharted 3.... I'm going to fail this task with that game alone, never mind my other addictions like HALO: Reach, and StarCraft 2... Oh no. >_<

Ouch. I feel part of your pain, at least. It sucks when you write something and then go "it's crap, ALL CRAP!"

Uncharted 3 is out on Thursday here. WHAT DO I DO?! Although that series usually inspires the crap out of me, so I will probably justify playing it in that fashion. Hoping Uncharted 3 will totally give me ideas for LTL. Massively. Yes. (But seriously.)

How do I add someone as a writing buddy? Or whatever you were trying to do?

This.

I haven't worked out that NaNo site yet.

My name there is Gavin Luper. Surprise! Can someone add me there so I can see how it all works?

This seems to be the summary so far:

TPM NaNites(except not this name because what it refers to is kind of scary)

TPM Screen Name = NaNoWriMo.org Screen Name

Gavin Luper = Gavin Luper
Mattbcl = Mattbcl
classy_cat18 = classy_cat18
Wolfsong = wolfsong98
Crystal Tears = AntiRapeFace
DarkestLight
Asilynne = Wolfineyes
Samchu = Black_Fire
Pichu Luver = River Tam

Possibly competing?:

Mr_pikachu
Becky
Charles Legend = Charles Legend

As I mentioned to Sie, turn off the spellcheck/grammer check and that may help trudge forward. Then blatent mistakes won't be screaming at you to fix them. ^^'

As CT said, AC steals my soul every November, so I must reeeeeeeeesiiiiiiiist.

I do that with spell check every time I write anyway lol. It could explain a lot, actually. >.<

As for AC, I've never played it - good, evidently? Uncharted 3 ... 2 days away ... so excited.

Nanites are microscopic machines that can be programmed to a variety of purposes. In Star Trek lore, they're actually fairly sinister, because the Borg put them towards the purpose of forcibly assimilating hapless sentients into their monolithic cyber-enhanced fold.

...Kinda like what's happening to you over in RPG. :P

XD

You summed that situation up quite well!

Nanites sound horrible, I vote we do not call ourselves that. :eek:

So, as I mentioned earlier, I've got a thesis proposal presentation tomorrow at 1.15pm. So, I'm focusing on practising that tonight and starting my NaNoWriMo project tomorrow arvo as planned.

Also, now that the Post Count Capsule is dead *sniff*, I will be pouring all my procrastinatory energy into this thread. Only thing is, can't double-post here. So everyone needs to post loads so we can all reply loads.

Wooooot NANOWRIMO 2011!

Samchu

1st November 2011, 11:01 AM

If any one wants to add me on the NaNo site I signed up as Black_Fire.

How's everyone finding day one? I appear to have accumlated writer's block and am I trying to chip through it.

Gavin Luper

1st November 2011, 11:10 AM

Thanks, Sam - updated my list. DarkestLight, what's your NaNo screenname?

How far have you gotten so far Sam? Are we talking three paragraphs or blank page?

Personally, I'm focusing on this proposal, but even then, I'm pretty sure it's the dullest 10-minute speech I have ever heard in my life. :(

Samchu

1st November 2011, 11:26 AM

400 words. It more an issue with the ease of writing. I used to be able to churn out 1,000 words without blinking but lately once I hit 200 everything seems to grind to a halt and I really need to push to get things working again. I'm hoping this month might grease the wheels enough to get things moving as they used to.

Wolfsong

1st November 2011, 11:30 AM

I'm debating on giving a partial introduction with one of my future original characters. i'm about to start but i know i'm going to use that last lines from sunday's episode to start the story out since it suits it so well. but it's going to be set in the later part of 2006 instead of now. although if i include the intro that wil be in 2004. Everything before 2006 will be cannon after not so much...

Gavin Luper

1st November 2011, 11:40 AM

Sam: All I can say is YOU CAN DO IT. Just write something, even if it's utter crap. Get the words out and don't worry about whether it's working or not. Just try to push through. Try to hit a daily target for today and see how you go.

Amy: So it's kind of like ... a plot hole would happen either way?

Wolfsong

1st November 2011, 11:45 AM

See John Tannenbaum is my werewolf that's going to be crossing over. He's fascinated by his 'friend's' wife who is a short petite native american woman and he plans to turn her and make it so she will hav eto stay wit him but something happens and she gets away and he starts looking for women that resemble her and gets a little rough until he becomes somewhat of a serial killer and ends up in miami. i don't know if i need to add up to where she gets away or not. *shrugs*

Gavin Luper

1st November 2011, 11:47 AM

Wolfsong

1st November 2011, 11:54 AM

Last years story is a kinda freaky friday miami style that's already 100k an d not finished yet *headdesk*

i haven't seen law and order svu in a couple of seasons... but yeah i can always rework that part (lost the whole little part i was working on the orifinal except what i sent to the beta). if i get my words for today, i'll work on that part and see abotu adding it in if i can otherwise i'll try not to worry too much though i do have an idea of the location now for my first murder in my miami part to take place (http://hotpads.com/real-estate/5875-Collins-Avenue-Miami-Beach-FL-33140--1se8gwjsq9z9y#lat=25.838026&lon=-80.120928&zoom=20&previewId=1se8gwjsq9z9y&previewType=listing&detailsOpen=true&listingTypes=sale,newHome,foreclosure,auction&pricingFrequency=once&loan=30,0.0525,0&resultsPerQuad=24).

Crystal Tears

1st November 2011, 01:22 PM

Home from work, and Gaavvvinnnnn guess what I have???

*holds up Collector's Edition of Uncharted 3* DAMN RIGHT BABY~ 8DDDDDD I am now wearing Drake's ring and if I had a belt I would sooo be wearing his belt buckle!

But I may not play until I write something, which notably I totally haven't.

Anyways, to add somebody:

click on NaNo's search option.

Type in said person's username.

Click on them.

Look near the top of their profile thing and it'll say 'Add as Buddy'

Press that.

BAM. You have friends. Congrats, your totally not a loner. ♥

Anyways, I cannot add Classy, Gavin or Samchu. So if you guys could add me (Classy's already done this), that'd be great. ♥

EDIT: NaNoWriMo going well so far. 1884 words. ^^ I did over my goal, time to go play! Good luck guys! (I caught myself going back and fixing some mistakes as I made them though...)

mattbcl

1st November 2011, 02:24 PM

I didn't start at midnight last night because I was developing a headache and thought sleep would be the best option to cure it (along with a couple ibuprofen). But I had two alarms set this morning - one for 5 am, one for 6:15 am. I ended up waking at 4:30, and decided, "What the hey, this is as good a time as any." Plunked myself down and began to write.

By the second alarm, I was at 1382 words, and decided that was good enough for the morning. Home early from work today, so I may try and cram more in this evening.

Gavin Luper

1st November 2011, 02:28 PM

Home from work, and Gaavvvinnnnn guess what I have???

*holds up Collector's Edition of Uncharted 3* DAMN RIGHT BABY~ 8DDDDDD I am now wearing Drake's ring and if I had a belt I would sooo be wearing his belt buckle!

NOOOO

I HAVE TO WAIT 2 MORE DAYS FOR THAT

:(

Thanks for the instructions, will log on to NaNoWriMo tomorrow arvo.

3:30AM and starting to lose my voice from rehearsing this boring-as-hell speech. I think it's bed time.

Well done Sie and Matt so far for two pretty decent first-day efforts! See you guys tomorrow, post-thesis proposal.

Wish me luck!

DarkestLight

1st November 2011, 03:06 PM

Uhh do I have to join Nanowrimo.org? I was just kinda pushing this out for AC/CC on me own. If I do I will, just was kinda hustling at my own pace. I just stared since I got a new job (woot!) and yeah so ...I got 10 words? LOL by the end of the day I'll have more.

Pichu Luver

1st November 2011, 05:50 PM

As for AC, I've never played it - good, evidently? Uncharted 3 ... 2 days away ... so excited.

AC is awesome-sauce. I was a History major so the combo of historical references, stabby Mc-stab, and open-world control makes my day. Me + FPS = rather bad. Me + knife = decent. Ask CT, watching me try and play Uncharted made her laugh rather a lot. XD

Speaking of which Uncharted 3 made the news here, about how they made it and all. Lol, must be a slow night.

Back to the Nano... I got 1779 words for ma fic, off to RPG to finish that post. :dance:

Wolfsong

1st November 2011, 07:41 PM

I decided to put the flashback in and i managed to reach 2672 words

ChobiChibi

1st November 2011, 07:57 PM

Back to the Nano... I got 1779 words for ma fic, off to RPG to finish that post. :dance:

EEEP!!! *excited face* YAY! *tackleglomp*

Sorry, Fanfic NaNoWriMo, just a little excited for the mention of RPG posting ^^;;;

I'll scurry back to RPG, where we are doing well, but I have yet to contribute due to computer killing itself >_> But never fear, Beck is back and ready to partay.

Bye Fanfic! *scurries*

Asilynne

1st November 2011, 09:39 PM

I needed one small key to start writing mine so I didn't start yesterday, but I talked to some people and figured it out, writing commences tonight!

classy_cat18

2nd November 2011, 12:02 AM

Day one's done for me. Only 1155 words. That's what I get for waiting until the last two hours of the day to work on it.

Gavin Luper

2nd November 2011, 09:58 AM

Had a full on day - the presentation went well, though. Forgot I have work and a birthday function tomorrow. Will probably end up starting NaNo on the 4th now (I tend to do it in big chunks most of the time).

Good work to you guys, at least you've all got a good start while I sit on my giant zero. Keep goin!

DarkestLight

2nd November 2011, 02:38 PM

o.O No worries Gavin. I'm on Zero as well. My laptop decided that it needs the internet to run Word :/ So..I'm stuck on pause until I find a free copy of Word lying around my house. :/ And no, I'm not doing Note/Wordpad-formatting issues are annoying when I post them onto here...

Crystal Tears

2nd November 2011, 03:53 PM

Use Openoffice, its almost exactly like word. That's the only suggestion I got for you DL. You can dl it from the fanfiction.net main page I think. I used to have it when I didn't have word on my compy.

As for my word count, hasn't changed. But I just got home, so that's about to change. >D

EDIT: It has changed! My word count now stands at 3922. :3

Charles Legend

2nd November 2011, 04:29 PM

Sighs it's no use I just can't seem to get over what Chris told me about not being a good writer, that the fact that there was a lot of confusion around my last story...

The fact of the mater was that it was still in the beta/raw stage, second of all Brian was under the imposition that I told Chris to go to hell which is simply not true I was in fact referencing the seven deadly sins and and the country song Long Black train, further more I was toying with the Idea of having Chris be on the train headed to a cave called the Ghost World. I did not say it was a cave at the time do to wanting to revile it later on in the story...:rolleyes:

The Lost World in my storyline is in fact the same place as the Distortion World and existed long before the universe Arceus created, it's also the place were Arceus overthrew the Giants who used to rule it it just like how Zeus overthrew the titans. ;)

In fact the Multiverse I had in mind was that the supreme God ruled roughly 26 universes, one of which is are own and he sent his son in various forms to threes universes.:prod:

For example in are universe the Grand Architect's son is Jesus Christ in another he is the grate lion named Aslan who The author, C. S. Lewis, described as an alternative version of Christ that is, as the form in which Christ might have appeared in a fantasy world. Now then I may be a little bold in saying this but I see Arceus as the same as Aslan in that in my story line Arceus is the form in which Christ might have appeared in the world of Pokémon.:peek:

Also when I said parallel world all I meant was a a region known for it's lakes and hills in my case it's the state of Michigan also like Chris basing his story in the Lake District which is a popular holiday destination, I was planing on having my story based off Mackinac Island which also happens to be a popular holiday destination.:prod:

Also when I said the ASB and it's Safari Zone I was talking about the the same types of Biomes/habitats.:prod:

Further more I keep bring up Charles death because frankly I came up with the Idea of Charles brother wanting to kill him out of jealously, Look Dark Sage created an opportunity for uses to create charters, so I seize the chance to create a condensed version of a back story.:rolleyes:

Now then my plan was to go back and write what really took place. what I was going for with my timeline is just like how in the timeline of Legend of Zelda allows fore more stories to be added on at a later date, I also left room to expand.:prod:

Also I disliked Chris killing off Charles for the simple reason that Chris beat me to the punch, and do to that it's been a nightmare trying to write it the way I want it with out him or the mods breathing down my neck like some all power fire breathing dragon. :prod:

Also Please take note I'm not ranting or trying to pick a fight here but rather I'm trying to explain myself and clarify most of the misunderstandings. ;)

And with that being said I most likly just dug my own grave. :rolleyes:

~Charles Legend

Asilynne

2nd November 2011, 07:58 PM

I have a word count of 0 too :< too much going on, but hopefully that will change :)

mattbcl

2nd November 2011, 09:35 PM

I wrote for RPG today before writing for NaNo. Now I keep getting distracted. I say that somehow this is RPG's fault.

Asilynne

2nd November 2011, 10:14 PM

Nanites.....lol jk ;D

mattbcl

2nd November 2011, 10:58 PM

2888 and stopping here for a few hours to catch some shuteye. I think I do better when I'm just waking up out of some screwed up dream sequence anyway. Here's to another 5 am writing spree!

shazza

2nd November 2011, 11:06 PM

I'm intrigued.

Wolfsong

2nd November 2011, 11:17 PM

I'm calling it a night with mine on 3,365 words. I'll try to get more done in the morning but its been a long day at work and thankfully i'm off tomorrow.

classy_cat18

3rd November 2011, 12:03 AM

1,247 words for me. I would've had more if it wasn't for this stupid headache. That brings my total to 2,402. *yawns*

Samchu

3rd November 2011, 06:09 AM

Coming in to today with 3,412 words under my belt. Unfortunately I'm probably gonna fall behind today as I don't know how I'll fit it around all the birthday and non-birthday related errands I have to run today.

ChobiChibi

3rd November 2011, 07:59 AM

I wrote for RPG today before writing for NaNo. Now I keep getting distracted. I say that somehow this is RPG's fault.

But writing for RPG is a good thing, because you are contributing to Team NaNo :D

We're still doing well and I still haven't posted. Falling behind is not good, will pick up the slack this evening.

Gavin Luper

3rd November 2011, 10:05 AM

Asilynne

3rd November 2011, 10:12 AM

I'm also at 0 but hopefully will change tonight as I am off after my class :)

Gavin Luper

3rd November 2011, 10:34 AM

Club Zero, let's agree that over the next 24 hours we will leave that club!

DarkestLight

3rd November 2011, 11:35 AM

Left it.

But I don't have a word count on Wordpad (Dun get me started...). I figure I hit 1500. Hopefully tonight I'll have a 2 hour block of quiet to write.

Pichu Luver

3rd November 2011, 03:34 PM

I just finished 5261 words today, and did 3594 yesterday. Course now the easy(er) intro stuff is done, and on to the actual real story arc. Bugger-di-bee. :rolleyes2:

Edit: I mean those numbers as my total btw, not per day ^^'.

Crystal Tears

3rd November 2011, 04:08 PM

I've decided to lessen the difficulty, my entire story will be one long intro-arc. XD Boo-yah.

No, not really. I think I'm done my intro, so onto... other... far less violent and not so interesting stuff. Bleh.

Time to write! Because later I'm off to Paranormal Activity 3 and then Unchartedness... Oh yes, today is going to be a good day. :D

EDIT: 6108. ^_^

Gavin Luper

3rd November 2011, 09:01 PM

Good work, DL - I'm about to join you in leaving.

I've decided to lessen the difficulty, my entire story will be one long intro-arc. XD Boo-yah.

No, not really. I think I'm done my intro, so onto... other... far less violent and not so interesting stuff. Bleh.

Time to write! Because later I'm off to Paranormal Activity 3 and then Unchartedness... Oh yes, today is going to be a good day. :D

EDIT: 6108. ^_^

Every drop of energy I have is going into not picking up Uncharted 3 (bought it yesterday) and instead sitting in front of my laptop and WRITING, DAMMIT.

I'm like a junkie. :(

Wolfsong

3rd November 2011, 11:47 PM

*sighs* I made it to 5076 words today. Had a little trouble getting started but once i did it started to cooeprate. If i can just get to the good part...

Gavin Luper

3rd November 2011, 11:54 PM

*sighs* I made it to 5076 words today. Had a little trouble getting started but once i did it started to cooeprate. If i can just get to the good part...

Nice work, Amy.

Okay, I'm finally sat down and starting!

classy_cat18

4th November 2011, 12:04 AM

1,553 words today. Total is 3,955. Still too slow. *headdesks*

Crystal Tears

4th November 2011, 12:31 AM

._. 7303. Cuz I was bored and wanted to write something.

Guys can do it! 8D Dun get discouraged!

Gavin, hows Uncharted coming along? I didn't play all today.... I have to make it up tomorrow.

Off to sleep.

Gavin Luper

4th November 2011, 05:37 AM

1,553 words today. Total is 3,955. Still too slow. *headdesks*

That's not bad at all, Shonta, and your daily output was pretty much on target, at least. Keep going - you can totally do this.

._. 7303. Cuz I was bored and wanted to write something.

Guys can do it! 8D Dun get discouraged!

Gavin, hows Uncharted coming along? I didn't play all today.... I have to make it up tomorrow.

Off to sleep.

Well done, that's awesome, Sie!

So I sat myself down all afternoon and finally started, playing major catch-up! End of my first writing day, Day 4, and I'm now on ... 6,023 words! I'm stoked. Still slightly behind target but I will make up for it over the weekend. It's going very smoothly so far, fingers crossed it will continue in this vein.

My reward for my hard work today? Some tortellini, a cigarette, and I FINALLY get to start playing Uncharted 3! Thoroughly deserved, IMHO. I'll let you know how it goes!

mattbcl

4th November 2011, 06:52 AM

I'm at 4626 so far. So I guess my target for today is 2000 words? Problem is I have D&D tonight, so my ability to write may be somewhat limited.

Pichu Luver

4th November 2011, 03:37 PM

So I sat myself down all afternoon and finally started, playing major catch-up! End of my first writing day, Day 4, and I'm now on ... 6,023 words!

*boggles at you* Well done dude!

I got to my target total today, 7081. I get sooo easily distracted though; going off to read something else or watch a video... Curse you distracto-web! *shake fist*

Shhh yes I know it's me XP

Keep going everyone! Get those words down! *ra-ra chant*

Crystal Tears

4th November 2011, 04:07 PM

9450 words after my little writing splurge for today. Fun times. I might write a little later and push it up to 10 000.

Hows everyone enjoying their characters? I've discovered I quite like mine.

Two main characters, and from what I can see in my mind the third character to be introduced it going to be a lot of fun. I was waiting for a chance to write a manipulative woman (my favourite sort of character to write) and now I have my chance. ^_^

Keep it up everyone. :3

Yay Gavin, start playing so I can have someone to talk to about the amazingness that is that game.

DarkestLight

4th November 2011, 04:50 PM

Once I get home, I'm cranking out a storm of words. Soon as the couch comes ...:/

Gavin Luper

4th November 2011, 10:20 PM

Once I get home, I'm cranking out a storm of words. Soon as the couch comes ...:/

As in you're getting a new couch delivered?

9450 words after my little writing splurge for today. Fun times. I might write a little later and push it up to 10 000.

Hows everyone enjoying their characters? I've discovered I quite like mine.

Two main characters, and from what I can see in my mind the third character to be introduced it going to be a lot of fun. I was waiting for a chance to write a manipulative woman (my favourite sort of character to write) and now I have my chance. ^_^

Keep it up everyone. :3

Yay Gavin, start playing so I can have someone to talk to about the amazingness that is that game.

Far out, you're charging ahead! Keep the momentum going Sie, you're doing really well.

Ooh, manipulative women are eeeevil but make fantastic characters. Let us know how she pans out for you.

As you guys know I'm writing LTL but there's already been a fair whack of character development, following a traumatic event some alcohol has been introduced and that's done interesting things for several characters. I'm having a lot of fun with it so far, actually.

I played Uncharted 3 last night until about 1am! OMG how awesome is it? Don't spoil anything for me ... I'm up to chapter 8. How far have you gone? The graphics and film-like qualities in terms of character, plot, dialogue continue to impress me in every instalment of this series. Loving the gameplay, too.

*boggles at you* Well done dude!

I got to my target total today, 7081. I get sooo easily distracted though; going off to read something else or watch a video... Curse you distracto-web! *shake fist*

Shhh yes I know it's me XP

Keep going everyone! Get those words down! *ra-ra chant*

Thanks - wow - you're charging ahead too. Lol distracto-web hehe.

Today I think me and the bf are chillin out with my sister and watching some Buffy, so it will either be tonight or tomorrow when I plunge in for another writing binge. It's actually really exciting.

Go team go! *continues ra-ra chant* *assumes this is a cheerleader-esque chant, not a prayer to the Egyptian sun god*

Crystal Tears

4th November 2011, 11:05 PM

10628 words. Fuck. Yes. I am quite happy with that number.

Alcohol adventures! You know I've never written something like that? Alcohol never works into my stories, oddly enough. Maybe because my characters never get into a situation where alcohol is available at all... I might need to rectify this at some point.

I actually quite enjoy this manipulative woman, everything about her is just so much fun to write. The entire scene with her in it is what pushed me over 10 000, I didn't even realize how much I had written until I stopped when the character exited.

OMG I know the game just sucks you in and suddenly it's 1 or 2 AM! Craziness, as for where I am... Honestly I just beat it because I couldn't put it down. The entire game is so much like some epic movie that it's insane how time flies when you're playing.

I'm going to play it on hard difficulty now, I'm missing Drake already! D:

mattbcl

4th November 2011, 11:10 PM

Wolfsong

4th November 2011, 11:30 PM

I didn't get much accomplished today. I'm still plugging along since i have abotu an half an hour before the day technially ends. Before work i jsut couldn't get started and now it's cooperating slowly...

In the last half hour i've written 346 words bringing me up to 5422 but i'm still a working. once i can get horatio bitten things will get better but that's at least one possibly two more vics away.

Although as much as i watned to use Detective Tripp i had a detective appear that horatio can't stand and, frankly, neither can i but he might be what i need to have our redheaded lieutenet get bitten *sighs*

Okay, with just one scene with Detective Fallon, i'm finding myself wanting to call INternal Affairs on the guy. I can only imagine horaito's reaction when he sees him at crime scene too. But unforuntaly i'm not getting that far tonight. i can barely keep my eyes open so i'll have to really buckle down if i don't make the word count tomorrow i'll do the best i can each day until tueday when i have a day off.

I did manage to get a few more words in to make a total of 442 for today and a total of 5518.

Gavin Luper

4th November 2011, 11:32 PM

As predicted, D&D put the kibosh on any productivity towards my writing for NaNo. But I read some of it to them this evening and they all loved it, which is encouraging. And I have a title I want to keep.

What is D&D? And that's awesome that you have a place where you can read out your work and get some good feedback irl.

10628 words. Fuck. Yes. I am quite happy with that number.

Alcohol adventures! You know I've never written something like that? Alcohol never works into my stories, oddly enough. Maybe because my characters never get into a situation where alcohol is available at all... I might need to rectify this at some point.

I actually quite enjoy this manipulative woman, everything about her is just so much fun to write. The entire scene with her in it is what pushed me over 10 000, I didn't even realize how much I had written until I stopped when the character exited.

OMG I know the game just sucks you in and suddenly it's 1 or 2 AM! Craziness, as for where I am... Honestly I just beat it because I couldn't put it down. The entire game is so much like some epic movie that it's insane how time flies when you're playing.

I'm going to play it on hard difficulty now, I'm missing Drake already! D:

Okay, first:

- Congrats on hitting 10k so early. Looks like that evil wench has a great effect on your productivity - maybe keep her in the story? ^_^ Is she a permanent fixture?

- Alcohol is interesting. It's never really configured in a major way in LTL before, but the main characters are all 15/16/17 so it's natural for that to come up now. It's interesting, I hadn't done it before, but it allowed certain plot points to happen in more authentic ways than if everyone involved had been sober. I'd recommend at least experimenting with it. I've seen it done in TV shows obviously where it can advance the plot in ways that would have been otherwise impossible or clunky or very time consuming, and the same thing applies here, IMHO.

- Just spat up 200 words more, but it's time to clean the house and then Buffy marathon ... I feel a writing binge coming on tonight, though.

- Uncharted 3 - OMG. That's fast. Don't spoil anything for me. I'm loving it so far ... I think we've just arrived in the Citadel so ... exciting times ahead. But yeah, that's what I love, it's like an epic action/adventure/mystery film that you get to play all the fun parts. Can't wait to play some more. Hmmm. Writing binge tonight, or Uncharted 3 binge? This question might actually end up defining my entire month.

I didn't get much accomplished today. I'm still plugging along since i have abotu an half an hour before the day technially ends. Before work i jsut couldn't get started and now it's cooperating slowly...

In the last half hour i've written 346 words bringing me up to 5422 but i'm still a working. once i can get horatio bitten things will get better but that's at least one possibly two more vics away.

Although as much as i watned to use Detective Tripp i had a detective appear that horatio can't stand and, frankly, neither can i but he might be what i need to have our redheaded lieutenet get bitten *sighs*

EDIT: Just saw your post, Amy. Good work on the word count, keep at it!

Crystal Tears

4th November 2011, 11:50 PM

^_^ Thanks! Apparently I really wanted to write something.

She's permanent(ish?), she's the main character's sister, so she'll be around. I'm not sure if she'll be as main as her counterpart but she'll probably be behind the scenes, being all cunning and the like.

See I tried once and I just couldn't make it work, I couldn't figure out how differently they would act, or even if they would drink in that situation. Instead I kinda skipped the night and summed up that yes they had drank and some funnies had ensued, but past that no detail was given about the events. If it comes up in this ficcy (called Crystalline), then I'll try again and see how it goes.

Writing marathon ♥ Always fun.

Do what I do? Write at least 1667 words and then go play Uncharted. That's my reward for writing enough: the chance to play the game. The first day I got the game I was like "NO I HAVE TO WRITE" but it worked out, obviously. I find after I play it for a while I feel like writing. So I'll stop, refuel (nom nomz) and then sit down and maybe write a bit more. That way you get your writing and your Uncharted binges. :3

classy_cat18

5th November 2011, 12:07 AM

1648 words. Total is 5603. Getting there. Unfortunately tomorrow (or later today) is the Alabama vs. LSU game, and the day after that I got an afternoon program at church. A musical with guest choirs and soloists. It's going to be a looooong day.

Also, is anyone besides me going to be gooshing over Skyward Sword when it comes out? I don't own a PS3 so I can't play Uncharted 3.

mattbcl

5th November 2011, 06:28 AM

What is D&D? And that's awesome that you have a place where you can read out your work and get some good feedback irl.

D&D is Dungeons and Dragons, the tabletop roleplaying game that gave rise to so many others. It's sort of difficult to describe because the only limits in it are up to the DM (Dungeon Master), and your own imagination. The DM establishes the world you're in, the goals you have, and the obstacles you have to conquer - you make the character the way you want it, right down to the last detail, and then you assume that role throughout the adventure.

I joined up with this particular group a year ago and I've had a blast with them ever since. In fact, characters I have in my story are based on them, which is partly why they enjoyed hearing about the tale so much... and reciprocity is the reward here, since positive feedback usually gets me to write all the more.

Except last night - I didn't get anything in! As predicted. And I'm sort of doubting I'll get anything in today, either. I'm really hoping to have some time to myself Sunday. That day's also looking a little full, though... I have band practice, and even before that, somewhere along the line I need to write church-appropriate lyrics for "We Will Rock You". My free time dwindles horribly in November.

Asilynne

5th November 2011, 12:13 PM

I wrote a good deal more at work last night, got two of the chars introduced anyway, and some hints at the world. Don't know how many words til I type it up though (going old school baby). I do know my first writing but, the intro, was only 282 :<

DarkestLight

5th November 2011, 12:59 PM

I don't know how many I have, but my question ....has been answered. New question: Are you all posting your stories here when they are done, or are they online and being edited as you continue? I might have 3k words, but I'm not stopping til I have 15000 words-since I fell off in the beginning of the week (3k a day no shenanigans)... hell of a goal, but when you have fast fingers and 14 hours to kill, it can happen.

Crystal Tears

5th November 2011, 01:11 PM

I honestly think my sister is going to shoot me. XD

14050 Fun times. Might try for 15000 tonight.

A church friendly-version of 'We Will Rock You'... huh...

Sorry Classy but i won't be gushing over Skyward Sword because I'm not really that big into nintendo-anything. If Rio happens to get it and I try it, then I might comment on it but besides that... its PS3 and 360 all the way for me.

There's no way I am posting my story here when it's finished. It'll be edited and fixed and oh my god I will no doubt hate it when November ends. Maybe after many, many, many readings and fixings I'll consider putting it up on TPM but the chances are slim.

Wolfsong

5th November 2011, 01:26 PM

I'm probably not going to post this one for a while and even then when its finished i'll probably end up posting it on fanfiction.net since that's where i post most of my stuff. I've skipped a few updates but i've been posting last year's If They Only Knew (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6887814/1/If_They_Only_Knew) on fanfiction.net. A little warnign as it took a turn towards slash which wasn't what i had planned. That one is a little over 100 k but isn't finshed yet and i've got several chapters to go before i need to get back to work on it. *sighs*

At the rate i'm going i'll probably have to catch up royally on tuesday but i'm going to keep chugging away. It's going slowly

DarkestLight

5th November 2011, 02:20 PM

o.O Direct me to a word counting program. Haaaaate Wordpad :/ Used to have it. Now it dun.

EDIT: Found word counter. 12K. Hot damn and that was CH 2 lol.

Pichu Luver

5th November 2011, 03:48 PM

Also, is anyone besides me going to be gooshing over Skyward Sword when it comes out?

I might eventually try it, but I'm afraid I'm not bouncing up and down for that one. Besides AC, I'm also looking forward to Skyrim, though I've never tried any of the Elder Scrolls before this. We'll see how that goes (once I pry it out of CT's hands anyway). It might end up the same fate as Dragon Age. I enjoyed it until I had another game to REALLY grab my attention. ^^'

Are you all posting your stories here when they are done, or are they online and being edited as you continue?

I might post it online when it's done (or 50K done anyway), though I don't think anyone here is a big Stargate fan. I might do what Wolfsong said and put it on Fanfiction.net. After much editing of course XD.

I honestly think my sister is going to shoot me. XD

Noooooo..... Really. :ninja: My word count total now stands at 8950. I'm going to try and get to 10000 tonight, but I need a break and Middle-Earth army style killing right now. *stabby stab*

Oh and DL, why don't you Google a word counter and just copy-paste what you have into one?

Gavin Luper

5th November 2011, 03:58 PM

O_O

Wrote 11,000+ tonight, bringing my total to 17,549. :partyhat:

It's now 5am ... I wrote all through the night ... and I feel ridiculously as though I've made a big achievement. ^_^ It does feel quite nice.

I'm so enthralled in my own story now; I kind of can't wait to wake up tomorrow and keep going.

I'd reply to the posts above but my eyes are falling out of my head, so ... sleepy time now.

Good work everyone so far. Cheers!

Crystal Tears

5th November 2011, 04:04 PM

O_O

Wrote 11,000+ tonight, bringing my total to 17,549. :partyhat:

It's not a competition but...

GOD DAMN YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL. YOU SHOULD'VE PLAYED UNCHARTED!

Seriously though, good job. ^_^

DarkestLight

5th November 2011, 04:40 PM

Nice! Yo this might not be hard at all at this pace. Hoping by the end of the day I'll be at 20 now.

EDIT: Stopping. 16005. That is awesome, and its only the end of Ch 2. At this rate, I'll be done by Sunday

Pichu Luver

5th November 2011, 10:02 PM

O_O

Wrote 11,000+ tonight, bringing my total to 17,549. :partyhat:

Stopping. 16005. That is awesome, and its only the end of Ch 2. At this rate, I'll be done by Sunday

:dance: Well done guys, and daaaaaaaaaaamn you people can focus and write a LOT in one sitting. Oo'''

I'm happy, I reached my goal for today of 10000 by getting 10137. :round:

Wolfsong

5th November 2011, 11:52 PM

Thank goodness for falling back with the time. I'm updating for today with only 276 words for a total of 5794. I'm going to work for another hour and try working on it some mroe before i go in tomorrow but given that i work 1-10 not sure how much i will. If all else fails i'll try playing catch up tuesday. but still a few words here and a few words there do add up *sighs*

And i managed to reach 6,182 before i stopped. I'll work on it more when i get up in toh morning and hopefully i can get caught up soon.

classy_cat18

6th November 2011, 12:03 AM

1,252 words. Total is 6,855.

mattbcl

6th November 2011, 06:07 AM

Nothing accomplished Saturday. And I think my desire to be creative took a serious hit, too - this is thanks to D&D. Our DM has decided he's basically had enough of running this particular campaign, so he's sort of been rushing the ending for it, and the final battle was last night... but because there was so bloody much to be done, a single round of combat (in game time one round = about 6 or 7 seconds) needed almost two hours of attention before the next. One teammate was killed off the bat and it greatly upset her. Details made game time interminably long simply from one player's turn to the next, leaving all of us distinctly bored and uncomfortable. My interest waned and by 3 am (our games usually only last until midnight or 1 am on Saturday/Sunday) I was beginning to nod off at the table - I only barely managed to avoid collapsing atop a pile of dice. I went into my room and laid down, figuring if nothing else, someone could wake me when my turn came around and I could doze just a little bit. Combat pretty much ended without me, though - my character was betrayed by another (one operated by the DM) and thrown into a rift I rather doubt he'll be able to escape. This effectively kills my character off. I wasn't pleased to hear about it when I woke up - that's right, nobody even woke me to tell me it was happening at the time, to try to save the character.

This is all the long way around to saying I'm feeling lousy and ripped off, and in absolutely no mood to be creative. I may be sulking for the next few days. We'll see what transpires and I'll keep you updated.

Asilynne

6th November 2011, 07:55 AM

Ok, I need some advice, I'm finding myself doing more research than writing and thats not at all how I planned for my story to go. I feel like I'm taking it too seriously and trying to tie it too much in with what really might happen if events went a certain way in history, like I'm writing a historical fiction, when I actually just wanted to write an alternate history and not treat it like it had to have historical accuracies in it >.< I'm a perfectionist when I do something, how can I break down that wall and just let myself write without taking it too hard if its not perfect??

classy_cat18

6th November 2011, 08:23 AM

Promise yourself that you'll take the time to edit it after NaNoWriMo. Then write with reckless abandon.

Man, I hope the other workers at AC/CC don't mind me giving them such long stories. Last one was about fifteen pages. Granted, about a third of that took about two months to write...

I didn't do so well last night. *sniffles* ALABAMA, YOU BUNCH OF IDIOTIC CLODS!

Gavin Luper

6th November 2011, 09:02 AM

23,383

exhaustion. sleep.

yay

DarkestLight

6th November 2011, 11:19 AM

Morning everyone! You know its awesome when you wake up to an open laptop and write down your dream because your dream was the Third chapter in this now superb thrilling story :D I'm going back and filling out my story now because I simply do not want it to end here. There's far too much to cram into one sitting. NaNo will prolly be the first 4 chapters.

EDIT: 25801. NaNo will be crunched by the end of this week.

Crystal Tears

6th November 2011, 02:50 PM

Wow guys, nice numbers. o_o If I wrote that much in one go I'd either die at the end or write myself out, which I don't want to happen. D:

on a somewhat more mortal writing curve, I'm at 17253. Last night I pushed myself to 15090 and went to bed. Today I'm feeling tired, sick and bleh but past actually doing something with my life all I have to do is write. Might go out later, but for now I'm stuck at home until I feel like doing... something a tad more productive in my life.

As for advice Asi, you could just stop researching and start writing and see where it goes. You can always edit and fix things after, so don't worry to much about it. Just think to yourself you can fix all the historical inaccuracies later and power along.

I'm finding myself writing in new documents all the time, never actually looking at the main one that has the total word count. That helps me not notice the many, mannnnnnyyyy mistakes. I think I've discovered all the ways you can misspell 'Claire.'

DarkestLight

6th November 2011, 03:54 PM

Advice: CT hits it on the head. NaNo-as I've come to learn, is not merely about writing a story that can be published from the getgo. Its really about formulating an idea and seeing just how far you can develop it it within a month-with a goal of 50K words (or more). Stuff those books aside, and just bust out the story as you see it in your head. You have all the time of December to pump out the mistakes and inaccuracies.

CT-Its weird. I NEVER write like this unless I really have a passion for the story. I truly go to bed, wake up and have to write cause I just dreamt up the next section-plot-characters, new chars, old ones -how to modify it for Pokemon in this case, yeah, its crazy. I'm prolly gonna write alot tonight and push for 40 tomorrow.

Pichu Luver

6th November 2011, 07:55 PM

Only got to 11075 today. Didn't write much this morning, then went out and was very sleepy when I got back. Just happy I got more or less 1000 words. Keep going everyone, and you people with crazy word counts, well done on yea. ^^

*toddles off*

Asilynne

6th November 2011, 09:13 PM

Thanks guys :) I'll try that tonight, I'll just keep writing and I won't go to wikipedia at all....thanks for the intervention XD

Wolfsong

6th November 2011, 11:40 PM

SIghs, I'm stil trudging along slowly. I'm up to 6642 words today. Still a little is better than none. I got one more day of working and hten i have a day off. i just have to make it through work tomorrow.

classy_cat18

7th November 2011, 01:33 AM

I couldn't concentrate on writing so I was only able to write 84 words. So my total is 6939.

Asilynne

7th November 2011, 12:03 PM

I did better last night than the night before, I pretty much mentally smacked myself whenever I got worried about its perfection or thought about looking something up, and when I stopped writing it was at a point where I knew exactly what to write next so I would look forward to starting it up again!!!! :)

DarkestLight

7th November 2011, 03:58 PM

33274. Reached a point where if I continue now, I'll get no sleep. I start new job tomorrow, so I need that. Also need a AC/CC battle...I got enough non exp battles in this already, I need one to boost me levels dangnabbit.

Pichu Luver

7th November 2011, 04:46 PM

I thankfully made up for yesterday by getting to 13571 words today. I'm going to try and get to 30K by the 15th, so I have a few days to write very little if I need it XD.

classy_cat18

7th November 2011, 05:00 PM

Ugh, I can't concentrate at all today. This is worse than writer's block.

Becky

7th November 2011, 07:47 PM

Sooooo. I just realized that I'm supposed to create an account on the nano site. I'll go do it now--- username will be Academic Becky as long as I can get that one!

Wolfsong

7th November 2011, 11:51 PM

Ugh, I can't concentrate at all today. This is worse than writer's block.

I know that feeling. That's been my problem the last few days... Today i managed to make it to 6913 words. *Sighs*

Edit: and thanks to Cynder for the recolor. Here is the wolf horatio:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/WolsongsWilderness/wolfsonghoratio.png

DarkestLight

8th November 2011, 08:37 AM

o.O So wait...you DO have to make a name on that site. Grrararar. I dun want this story to see the light of day yet

Side note. Broke 35K. Had an inspirational idea. Not gonna finish this story in 50k words. Gonna instead, go through it and beef it up-because as it stands now, it moves WAY too fast-and theres alot of scenes that don't make sense in the way its presented lineally.

Ima finish this important plot point-and then go through each part and re-read it so I can fill in the gaps and have it make sense. Once thats done, I'll continue. 15K left, hopefully I can do this by the end of the week :D Go NaNo

Pichu Luver

8th November 2011, 07:31 PM

Gah I hate this part of the story. Lot's of politics that I have to get through in order to start getting into the interesting stuff. It'll definately need a lot of editing to make more sense here, but I'm more or less getting the ideas down and will fix it to make it more character-like later.

One thing for politics, lots of useless talking. :lol: I got to 16598 today.

Wolfsong: That's a cool pic, Cynder certainly got his eye colour down. ^^

DL: You are a crazy fiend, and you do know you don't have to upload your story right? You just put in how many words you have gotten that day.There's a spot for a synopsis and an excerpt under novel info, but that's optional.

mattbcl

8th November 2011, 08:12 PM

I don't think I have it in me to continue working on the current project. It's just too disjointed and I don't feel I have a clear direction for it.

So I'm moving on to another one, which certainly does have a clear direction and crisp characters already prepared. Scroll me back down to 0, and go.

Becky

8th November 2011, 09:25 PM

I'm trying to figure out the best way to track my progress, since academic writing isn't as much about word count as much as it is about research, analyzing data, interpreting results, researching more.

My first three chapters of the dissertation are done and I can't do much more with them now except the occasional edit here and there- I'm down to minor revisions and working on the introduction now (it's very difficult to write a dissertation with the intro first!). I'm looking at a defense date of sometime this month.

I could track working on articles, like what sections I get done at what point.

Wolfsong

8th November 2011, 11:42 PM

I didn't get as much accomplished today as i had planned. But, on hte plus side, i did get more today done than i have on the last couple of days. Today, i managed to get to a total of 8135 words done. And, horaito is about to get attacked at the scene of the second murder victim. FInally managed to figure out what woudl delay the rest of the team getting there. A wreck on the bridge leaving patrol and our ever so annoying detective fallon on scene so things may pick up now hopefully

DarkestLight

9th November 2011, 08:37 AM

K.
1) Made a name on Nanowrimo.com. HikariMeoru
2) 40K on the dot. :/ Annnnd now I think Im in trouble. I need to find the time to write and revise this whole chapter and hope its 10,000 words worth of revision, otherwise Ima have to move on, and I really don't wanna.
EDIT: 3) Nano says 39321. :/ Didn't copy in a paragraph or two cause I cut them out for revision purposes. So that's my new count. Still. gotta make 10k words appear outta nowhere.,..

Crystal Tears

9th November 2011, 07:12 PM

*appears after my short silence*

Righty, I'm at 25051 words. Quite happy with that number, introducing summons is going to be odd. I'm trying to make them a bit more hellish, like they don't see humanity really worth that much.

I've actually got this little other word document that lists the major plot points for the main and the subplot, because at some point I'm going to get horribly lost.

Anyways, it hasn't quite plunged into being a total FF fiction yet. No chocobos or mogs, but the summons, for the lack of any creative drive to name them, share the same names. i think I've decided on Bahamut, Alexander, Ifrit, Shiva, Ixion, Leviathan and Diablos. I dunno if I'll put more in, any suggestions? o:

Added you DL on nano. Curious, when you're done expanding this part to 50k, is the next part going to be another 50k to try and reach 100 000? Or is it, whatever, you just wanna write?

Pichu Luver

9th November 2011, 07:29 PM

Got to 18530 today which is not as much as I hoped, but I couldn't concentrate much. Must get 30K by 15th!

mattbcl

9th November 2011, 08:38 PM

CT - If you're going to base them on FF summons, and you want them to be hellish-like, might I suggest Cerberus? (I felt jipped in Final Fantasy 8 when he didn't have an attack, but his casting of Double and Triple on the party was extremely useful.)

Wolfsong

9th November 2011, 11:53 PM

*Sighs* 8282 today.

classy_cat18

10th November 2011, 12:03 AM

78 words today. Total is 7017.

Gavin Luper

10th November 2011, 04:24 AM

have been flat out with work, social commitments, etc over the last few days, so replying to most posts here has now gone out the window. it looks like most of us are progressing great, and even those of you who seem to be frustrated are actually not that far behind and can easily come back, so keep at it peeps.

my updates:

Day 8: 25,344
Day 9: 29,279

Looking forward to a big night tonight and a big day tomorrow to smash through some more words, woop!

WE CAN DO THIS, TEAM

edit: is it just me or have there been no pep talks yet? :(

mattbcl

10th November 2011, 05:11 AM

Looks like you just gave us one, there, Gavin.

Charles Legend

10th November 2011, 07:27 AM

Uh yeah after several days with out writing I finally got chapter one is done at 1127 words I know Im way behind however I'm calling it a night if only to get my mom off my back about going to bed... :rolleyes: so yeah I'm calling a night despite it being past 8 in the morning yeah I have the Ability Insomnia...

oh and besides writing I also drew a picture of to what I have in mind for the third chapter, which takes place in a library called the Archived Ruins which is lossly based off the Idea of the Library of Alexandria. ;)

~Charles Legend

DarkestLight

10th November 2011, 08:24 AM

Yeah I think that right now, before the two week mark, we;re all doing fantastic. Possibly this weekend, I'll finish this up, 'cause I have no time after work to type at all x_x New Job training is insane.

CT: Yeah, its probably going to be another 75K in words and I might try to push it out before November is out as well. Maybe. I might not get it done because ALOT of battles have to take place, like...20 x_x Kinda want exp for those, lol. So it might only get a partial spurt before I get stalled. I switched gears and decided on writing book 2 once this weekend hits, can't expand anymore, lol.

But thanks for adding meh :D Couldn't figure out how to do it yesterday.

Pichu Luver

10th November 2011, 08:02 PM

... I hate politics, but I'm allllllllmost through it. 20087 today. When all else fails go for conspiracy. :rolleyes2:

Gavin Luper

10th November 2011, 09:19 PM

day 10: made it to 37,884

have only slept like 3 hours but i got up to drive the bf to work and now can't get back to sleep. more nano-ing it is!

keep up the good work everyone, you're all doing well, and it's not too late to start and catch up: i didn't start until 10th Nov in 2009 from memory, and I still managed to make it to 50k. so, don't give up, just get your head down, even if every word that comes out seems to be a steaming pile of crap, just push through and eventually you will start to like your story again. do it. i challenge you.

also, the first pep talk is finally up here (http://blog.lettersandlight.org/post/12604815813), and might help inspire those wrimos who are feeling a bit like they have the week two blahs.

WE CAN DO THIS

DarkestLight

10th November 2011, 09:41 PM

I'm slowing down. I started Book 2, since Book one is-as Gav put it-a steaming pile of crap. I dont wanna re-read it anymore, its ridiculousness is what makes is fun. So book two is all about about history and my brain cant churn it out cause..lol I don't know anything about what I'm writing.

41,7..something..is where I'm at. After work tomorrow, I'm gonna push it out,so I can stop and play Skyriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim! Hopefully I can fudge 8K words around magic and Pokemon...

Wolfsong

10th November 2011, 10:09 PM

Finally get to where hroatio gets attacked alhtough its still a little while before things get intereting again but at least this should help me get a bit mroe words in. Right now i'm at 8786 and i'm still working along slowly but surely....

Edit: and stopping for the night at 9,008

Weasel Overlord

11th November 2011, 06:05 AM

*pops up* HALLO! How delayed am I?! I noticed that someone I didn't know added me on nano and after some poking around I realised IT'S YOU, DL! Remind me to shoot you for having such a ridiculous word count, y/y?

It's pretty awesome that so many people are doing it this year :D I don't feel so alone~!

SO ALLOW ME TO BE A THREAD HIJACKER. I just hit 10,217 todaaaaay and I'm proud of myself. Despite the fact that it's mostly a pile of tripe, but there you go. Hoping to get more done tonight, when I get back from the jobcentre (the joys!!).

mattbcl

11th November 2011, 06:49 AM

On my new attempt, up to 2754. Gotta keep up. Any spare time I have this weekend is gonna be devoted to this.

DarkestLight

11th November 2011, 08:46 AM

*pops up* HALLO! How delayed am I?! I noticed that someone I didn't know added me on nano and after some poking around I realised IT'S YOU, DL! Remind me to shoot you for having such a ridiculous word count, y/y?

AH THAT WAS YOU! I thought it was River, then I realized it wasn't and I was like "Oh jeez who did I add accidentally?" But now I'M SO GONNA BUG YOU!!!!! And yes my Word Count is insane but work is slowing me down. But yes you are not alone :D Stabbing is welcome, just not in the liver, I need that this weekend.

Crystal Tears

11th November 2011, 01:01 PM

Yesterday I didn't write at all. Came home from work, went out with the best friend and deciding playing Resident Evil was much more important then writing. I got home around midnight and since I haven't been sleeping well, and I caught a cold, I decided 'fuck it' and went to bed. That's alright, I got a bit of a lead so I can afford one day of no-writing. Today I'll try and make up for it.

Cerberus for a summon? o: Maybe, he never crossed my mind. He could work for a hellish summon, I was also thinking Anima? Only because there's a grand total of two female summons at the moment. xD

Oh I have to pick up Skyrim today... Eventually, at some point... Lol.

mattbcl

11th November 2011, 03:15 PM

CT - Anima = yes.

DarkestLight

11th November 2011, 09:54 PM

Whoo....so close.
46267..But take away 250 words for arbitrary place holders throughout the story so I just cracked 46k. Woot so close. SKYRIM here I come!!

mattbcl

11th November 2011, 10:27 PM

5276. Working my way up.

Wolfsong

11th November 2011, 11:44 PM

As its almsot midnight i've got 9557 words. gonna work about anohter hour hopefully...

Asilynne

12th November 2011, 08:13 AM

Went to a NaNowrimo group meeting with a bunch of people last night at B&N and I have got to say, what a great experience! I met some cool people too and everyone was so helpful encouraging and supportive of everyone, even people they didn't know. It was magical <3 It definitely inspired me to not worry too much about making it perfect, and I was able to write with reckless abandon both at the meetup and at work. I totally recommend everyone attending one if they can!

mistysakura

12th November 2011, 02:04 PM

*wanders in* I'm not doing NaNoWriMo, but props to everyone who is! It looks like you're all going really well. Shonta, hope whatever's distracting you gets resolved soon. You can do it!

DarkestLight

12th November 2011, 05:51 PM

52424-and no sign of slowing down. I'm gonna try to push out the first half of the second book, and then after next week, I'll start posting it in sections-cause that's alot to read, lol.

Becky

12th November 2011, 08:57 PM

Y'all are amazing!

I reached my dissertation goal of the weekend- revisited some of Bandura's newer articles and older ones to help the introduction. Diss writing is a back and forth process and, since I'm trying to make a proposal for a theoretical framework, every word needs to be very deliberate. Tough road!

Wolfsong

12th November 2011, 11:42 PM

today i finally managed to hit 10k with a total of 10,365

Crystal Tears

13th November 2011, 12:04 AM

34187. I totally skipped over a part that giving me problems and went to more fun, action-y parts. Last two characters of the party are about to be introduced, then I can get back to finding the crystals and saving the world.

Yaaayyyy~

I'm very, very tired. XD So, congrats to DL, you beat 50k. Keep going!

And Wolfsong, good job on breaking 10k. ^^

Asilynne

13th November 2011, 08:42 AM

Grats everyone for your milestones!

I'm going to type mine up so far on my next night off so I will have you updated then :)

Gavin Luper

13th November 2011, 11:15 AM

Everyone is doing brilliantly, it's fantastic! Even those of you who were struggling are making really good headway now. YOU CAN DO IT. Keep it up.

Has anyone else been reading the pep talks? They're pretty helpful.

Congrats, DL, on smashing the 50k!

I just did it myself, but I increased my goal word count a couple of days ago to 80,000, since I want to be motivated toward reaching something, and I still have a bit more to go before LTL is finished completely. These are really exciting times for me.

Day 13: 51,926/80,000 woooo i can do this!

Pichu Luver

13th November 2011, 03:33 PM

Great job everyone. ^^ I finally hit the part I was looking forward to after the political shenanigans and got to 26533 today. I nearly hit 25K yesterday, but sleep was calling XD. I hope to get up to 28K tonight, but I need a break right now. Looks like I'll hit 30K by the 15th, but I want to get a bit beyond that to give myself a few days for little to no writing. I have a feeling I'll need it.

mattbcl

13th November 2011, 10:32 PM

9387 on my 4th day of writing this one. Trying my best. Sometimes the juice wants to flow and sometimes it doesn't... hoping that it'll flow less like a stream and more like a river this week.

Wolfsong

13th November 2011, 11:37 PM

Gavin Luper

14th November 2011, 10:10 AM

*Sighs* I didn't get anything done today. it was jsut one of those days from the day i got up. I do work 2-10 tomorrow but i'm going to try and write a lot before i go in and some while at work and more when ig et home at least i am off tuesday... Still at 10365

It's okay, you're not the only one. I've done 120 words today. I had an enormous day yesterday and worked today, then had to do real life shit ie. food shopping, haircut, getting some new piercings (yay). In all, too exhausted from Saturday's binge. I tend to do that: a huge day or two, then a couple of much quieter days, then a big spike again. Works fine by me. I just have to learn when to go with the flow rather than try to force it.

In either case, good to know I'm not the only one today who didn't do anything much. Tomorrow!

Weasel Overlord

14th November 2011, 03:10 PM

No, definitely not the only ones who didn't do much today! I managed about 530, then gave it up as a bad job.

I'm happy though, cos that knocked me about 15,157 so YAYERS. I'm still around 3 days behind, but my daily average is going up (I'm on 1082 now, which I'm super proud of), and I reckon if I keep writing over the 1667 official average I'll catch up. Eventually.

Either way, I'm fairly sure I won't finish in time, but I'm gonna keep buggering on anyway!

[I am writing Supernatural fanfiction, if anyone was wondering :D Crowley-centric, set after season 6, ignoring season 7 completely]

EDIT: I really like this part of this week's pep talk;

5. Break your routine. The way NOT to break your routine is to NOT show up at your desk at the regular hour, but rather by surprising yourself with an extra hour and a different desk. If you never write at lunchtime, one day write at lunchtime. Craziness! If you never write in the airport, write in the airport! Wow! What a rush! (You have to feel a little sorry for writers, really.)

I am trying to break my routines by writing in a coffee shop with other nanoers as a write-in. it is FUN, you guys, if slightly distracting at times. I also try to break my routines by routinely procrastinating instead of writing. I find it works wonders!

Crystal Tears

14th November 2011, 07:02 PM

I completely ignore the peptalks and advice they give. I get all I need from this topic, so to hell with those random PMs and things.

36349. I'm happy with this, I didn't think I'd be writing today, but if I can get back on track I'll be happy. Everyone's introduced now, now I just get to push the plot along and maybe save the world at some point. Gotta admit, I lost a day to Skyrim and Uncharted 3, and I thought I was going to lose today to but my friend and I couldn't agree on a game to play. So...

Writing it was. Woo~

Wolfsong

14th November 2011, 11:47 PM

Not as much as i would have liked, but i got 816 done today for a total of 11,181. But tomorrows a new day and i don't have to work and if i make myself not watch hawaii five o until i get some progress made maybe that will help.

Pichu Luver

15th November 2011, 12:01 AM

Got to 31532 today, almost done another boring bit about escape-ing (does anyone else read escape the way Dory says it in Finding Nemo? ^^'), then on to.... something. Something epic I have not decided yet, but this fic needs more epic-ness. It may involve a sword fight, just... 'cause. Or as close as I can get to one in Stargate XD.

I agree those pep-talks help. I found the one about remembering the image that made you want to write a story around it helpful. ^^ Reminded me to get onto epic.

Just one more time, because I must. *does AC happy dance*

Asilynne

15th November 2011, 02:34 AM

I totally didn't write at all today or last night :( I had a rough day yesterday though, so I'll definitely try harder next!

mattbcl

15th November 2011, 02:49 AM

11209. It's still slow going but I do feel I'm getting somewhere.

Gavin Luper

15th November 2011, 07:01 AM

Got to 31532 today, almost done another boring bit about escape-ing (does anyone else read escape the way Dory says it in Finding Nemo? ^^'),

YES. I do that. ESCAPAY!

:)

Just got home from the gym, watched the magnificent Stevie Nicks perform on X-Factor (only reason I watched it, trust me, although Johnny Ruffo is hot) and now ... shower, dinner, and WRITING TIME.

Weasel Overlord

15th November 2011, 10:53 AM

Proud of myself: I hit my 2000 words goal today, which brought me up to 17400 in total :D (and yes, I added an extra word to get that lovely round total hahah shh I'm numerically OCD)

My finish estimate is at the 13th of December, and it keeps on going down! Maybe if I keep at about 2000 a day, I might be able to finish on time. Le gasp.

Wolfsong

15th November 2011, 11:41 PM

Stopping for the night at 13,264 words for a total of 2083 written words. I made my goal of 13k today and actually surpassed it. *grins* here's hoping tomorrow will be as productive as i'll be at htemovies from 5p to well after midnight come thursday into friday...

Asilynne

16th November 2011, 08:33 AM

I'm starting to type up what I have written so far, typed up the first 4 pages of handwritten NaNoness, and its not looking good >.> only 1,361 typed so far, with a total of 12 more pages to type up. I'd estimate I've got about ~4,500 words written altogether so I'm very sadly behind. How can I catch up or is it already too late?

Gavin Luper

16th November 2011, 09:24 AM

I would say it's never too late to catch up because I've had some huge writing sprees before and churned out 10k+ in a day, but that's typing. It would be so tedious typing something already handwritten ... so I'd suggest maybe type from now on to save you a whole lot of time?

Wolfsong

16th November 2011, 11:50 AM

Up to 13,680 before i have to go to work.

Crystal Tears

16th November 2011, 06:57 PM

38785. I just wrote the ending, note: I haven't actually reached it but it was stuck in my head.

Anyways, I'm toddling off for a bit. I'm going to burn my soul with Skyrim or steal some treasure in Uncharted~

Wolfsong

16th November 2011, 11:48 PM

Since it's almsot midnight here i'm calling it a night at 14292 words. I'll probably right a little bit more in the mornign but i'll be gone from around 2pm till about 2 or 3 am so we'll see how much i can actually get done in the morning.

Gavin Luper

17th November 2011, 01:20 AM

Sie: Wow, what was that experience like, writing the end before you've reached it?

Amy: Well done, you're chipping away at it constantly, keep going!

Writing a lot today ... haven't done a word count yet but I'll do one at the end of the day.

Weasel Overlord

17th November 2011, 12:53 PM

Well, today has been oddly productive! I'm now up to 22009 :D I AM QUITE HAPPY ABOUT THIS although now my hands hurt a bit, lolol.

I do that quite a lot, Sie. Especially if a bit's not cooperating, I'll just jump ahead to a different POV chapter. I find it tends to help. Gives you a bit of distance on the troublesome bit.

Wolfsong

17th November 2011, 01:56 PM

Since i'm going to have to leave in a little bit and wont' be back till after midnight i'll post my count for today. 14,896

mattbcl

18th November 2011, 10:37 PM

20692, and at this point I'm finding myself hoping I'll be able to keep this up. I'm pacing myself at 2500 words/day, so I should make it by the end of the month, but I just need to keep the motivation and the juice flowing.

Crystal Tears

18th November 2011, 11:00 PM

41236. I just wrote an entire scene I won't use in the story but the words were flowing, so why the hell not? XD

As for writing the ending, it was odd. Only because I can see images and flashes of the story in my head that lead up to ending. Writing wasn't hard in the idea that the words weren't flowing, but the ending is actually quite depressing in a sense so it was hard to write because it reminded me of things that have happened irl.

Yeah Weas, I've done that three times now I think. Jumping from some blarg spot, to a much more enjoyable one. Skipping the troublesome spots ftw :3

Wolfsong

18th November 2011, 11:52 PM

didn't get much done today overslept then work. 15090 words. Watch it, the story will go slow until nano is over and then it'll be i can't stop typing *headesk*

Edit- 11-19-11: Before leaving for work today i managed to get to 16,207 words. and at 16245 after work...

Gavin Luper

20th November 2011, 12:51 PM

Good work all you troopers out there, you're all smashing it and there's still a good 10 days to go, which means the end goal is still totally in your grasp even if you're still around 15-20k. Go for it peeps!

I'm now at 67,825/80,000, which blows my mind slightly, but I know I'm going to need more words to finish this. It's getting so close now, it's scary. I know, I'm sure of it now, LTL will be finished by the end of this month. That freaks me out, but also excites me. I CAN DO THIS.

Asilynne

20th November 2011, 07:13 PM

Good job guys keep at it!

Been a bit down lately and under the weather so I haven't written in a whole week ._. I'm not giving up on the story but I don't know how I can make it to 50,000 in time >.<

Wolfsong

20th November 2011, 11:57 PM

Today, i made it to 17,026 words

Weasel Overlord

21st November 2011, 05:57 AM

I managed to hit 26,000 (and 1) yesterday! Zomg I'm over halfway. Still not sure whether I'll be able to finish, but I'm gonna give it a damn good try! I reckon if I carry on at 2000 words a day, I might eventually catch myself up XD

Gavin Luper

21st November 2011, 05:59 AM

Pichu Luver

21st November 2011, 08:23 PM

mattbcl

21st November 2011, 09:15 PM

I haven't updated my word count in a while but I do have more to my credit. I spent all day today stressing out about having not written yesterday, and feeling like I would need to make up for it all tonight. But when I got home, I realized I really didn't want to write at all. I ultimately decided not to... and that decision has made my night much more enjoyable.

Something I've learned about this particular contest is sometimes I need to sit down and NOT write for certain periods of time. I can catch up later, or maybe I won't quite make it, but I feel that if I'm not having fun while I'm doing the writing, then there's very little point. I know the aim of the challenge is to improve stamina and do word-vomiting but I NEED to have fun while doing it.

DarkestLight

21st November 2011, 09:23 PM

Hey people, I am back. Technically I should have wrote something yesterday, but I've been feeling like crap for a couple days. Today was the first day I got some decent writing done and made it to 35055. I'm sticking to roughly the amount I need every day. Besides the urg-ness, I was AC-distracted, which did not help when I should have gone back to typing, lol.

As I get closer to 50K I've realized there's no way I can actually finish the 'story' as it is in 50 000 words. I haven't even got to the 'core' of the plot yet. oo'''' I don't mind, but this is taking a lot longer then I thought, anyone else found this?

Everything I have is important in getting to that 'core' too. I mean obviously it has to be edited, but introducing the enemy and the coming fight is taking a while. I can't just dump them into conflict with no point, that's just... erg. Lol. I've skimmed details too (moments where I was hating it and just thought f-it I'll fix it later XD) that would need expanding afterwards, so it's going to be even longer. Oo''' Never realized it would be like this. *puts on newb cap* :partyhat:

Exactly. Sorry all, work has me up to my neck in trainings and I've barely had time to write. I offset my goal to 75K, but realistically, I don't think I'll have the time to get that far. I am proud to say that I think I broke 55K last night after I sat down and forced an outline out for a greater scene-and all the editing I've done thus far has probably elevated my story to something much more than I was ever expecting.

I was fearing it was moving to fast, but now that I sliced it up into books-it flows just right-skips just enough to keep people in the flow of time and will put my character in a good place for me to take a break, write short additions..basically grow his character over the next year :O.

Yeah it says 56882, but there's 10K more in that outline for sure...so I'm sure that I'll get close. Might make it...but too tired to write right now.

Wolfsong

21st November 2011, 11:34 PM

Today, 17,771
And today, 11-22-11, i managed to get to 18,817 words.

Pichu Luver

23rd November 2011, 05:36 PM

Got to 38551 today, made it to 36827 yesterday. Found new music that helps (go audiomachine).

Samchu

23rd November 2011, 07:52 PM

It's been a long while since I checked in here but here I am with my sad 7,656. However, that's 7,656 words more than I had last month so I'm actually feeling pretty chipper. 10,000 before the end of the month would make me happy but my workload just increased so unless some miracle occurs that puts me ahead of my workload, I might struggle to reach that. But who knows, that total was acquired around two birthdays (mine and my gf's) and an assessed piece of university work (which I can only attribute to pulling the hairs from my arm one by one); as well as the normal torturous workload associated with a one-year master's degree and a part-time data entry job. So the worst of the obstacles have been passed.

That said, does anyone else feel really really creative as a result of this? Just in general. I've found myself easily bashing out 1,000 word minimum rpg posts since November started and coming up with creative ideas for various academic necessities has been a lot easier. Not to mention that I find myself wanting to write again, something that got viciously battered out of me over the last three years.

Wolfsong

23rd November 2011, 11:06 PM

Didn't get anythign done today jsut had a late mornign and hten had to go to work and hten was going nonstop until time to come home and sighs* maybe i'llg et mroe done tomorrow. still at 18,817

Pichu Luver

24th November 2011, 05:03 PM

That said, does anyone else feel really really creative as a result of this? Just in general.

Yeah, for the most part I've found it easy to just keep writing. The rule of NOT editing has given a me a lot of freedom. 'Ah f-it I'll fix it later' seems to be my new motto, lol. I do have bits in the fic I'm pretty unhappy with, but with no editing I HAVE to move on.

Didn't get anythign done today jsut had a late mornign and hten had to go to work and hten was going nonstop until time to come home and sighs* maybe i'llg et mroe done tomorrow. still at 18,817

Are you alright Wolfsong? Your spelling there was very... interesting.

Final note, I got to 40260 today. Sword fight ftw.

Wolfsong

24th November 2011, 05:32 PM

lol, yeah, i was tired as can be yesterday. when i get tired, i can't spell to save my life and my typing isn't much better as you can see. I was going nonstop from the time i got to work until the time i got home. The only time i had a chance to sit down really yesterday was my lunch break. Thankfully i dont' have to go in until 1 tomorrow that means i get to miss the majority of Black Friday craziness

mattbcl

24th November 2011, 08:46 PM

I think I have to throw in the towel this time around... it's a little disappointing, but on the other hand, I've been writing, which is more than I was able to say for most of the month of October. As Sam rightly pointed out, NaNo does seem to be inspiring creativity, and this is a good thing, even if I don't hit the 50K mark.

And I feel a bit relieved, actually. I was feeling more and more pressure with each passing day, even though my daily goal was static. Up to a certain point with each of my attempts, I just didn't have much left to offer - my creative juices just seemed to dry up for each one. I live in farm country so maybe I ought to treat my writing like crop rotation... don't just keep flogging a single crop over and over, because eventually the soil will become infertile for that product. Instead, shift from one project to another at regular intervals. Sounds like a New Year's resolution I'll be making for 2012.

Anyway, I'm going to shift my attention back to projects in the making - Against All Odds, Darkness/Light, and a couple other pieces I've had in reserve for a while. I also promised a beta-read for a piece a friend is writing and I'm horribly overdue on delivering. So I'm still going to be quite busy in the writing community.

Wolfsong

24th November 2011, 11:54 PM

I Didn't quite reach the goal i wanted to make it to tonight (25,000), but i did manage to reach 20,115 words so i'm still chugging along. There are a few more days left in this month and we'll see how things go. Good luck to everyone

classy_cat18

25th November 2011, 12:50 PM

(Officially) dropping out. I haven't written anything in over two weeks. So I might as well just write at my own pace and not have the pressure of NaNo on my back.

Wolfsong

25th November 2011, 11:55 PM

I made it to 20,877 today. This story while coming along isn't going nearly as well as last year's but i'm not giving up. I'll see how close i actually can come

Asilynne

26th November 2011, 07:52 AM

I know how you feel Classy, I haven't written anything in awhile either :( but! I'm not officially dropping out just yet. I'm going to see how I do on my days off which are the 28+29, I have always been good at last minute writings back in school lets see if I can pull it off again hehe ;D

Wolfsong

26th November 2011, 11:36 PM

I made it to 22,581 words today. Still havn't made it halfway yet btu closing in. at theis rate if i can get 25 k this month i'll be happy.

Weasel Overlord

27th November 2011, 05:04 AM

Well, I made it to 39,000 last night :D I was hoping to get to 40,000 but I was bloody knackered so I just went to bed instead. I'm gonna try and get some words down before I head off to the write-in this afternoon, and then try for my usual 2000 words goal, lol.

I totally agree about it inspiring creativity. I've actually got a really sappy lj post in the works for when nano's over, because it's really helped me in a fuckton of ways - mostly by cementing that I definitely DO want to write for a living, still, and that it's possible that I might be able to manage it. Still coming round to that weird thought, haha. But it's inspired me to write to a few newspapers (tomorrow) to see if I can get some work experience. Gonna do some research into what I can do outside journalism too, though, cos I don't really wanna focus on that too much.

ALSO I've been going to bi-weekly write-ins in one of our nearby cities, and I've met some awesome people there. We're gonna carry on meeting after nano, so that's pretty epic :D

But, more important news: I MIGHT ACTUALLY WIN NANO. SWEET FUCKING JESUS CHRIST ON A POGO STICK.

Gavin Luper

27th November 2011, 10:28 AM

Well done to everyone so far. For those TPM NaNo-ers who have bowed out or hit their limit or just realised that this is simply not going to happen this month, I recommend Brendon Sanderson's recent Pep Talk on the Nanowrimo site. Here it is if you're interested - it's all about taking away other things from NaNo besides just the wordcount:

From:

NaNoWriMo Announcement

Sent at:

November 23, 2011 15:17

Subject:

Week Four Pep Talk from Brandon Sanderson

In the year 2002, Thanksgiving in the U.S. fell relatively late in the month of November. So it was that on November 30th, I found myself at my mother’s house, home from college for the weekend. I lay on the log bed in the guest room, my stomach full of turkey leftovers, furiously pounding at the last novel I would finish before landing a book deal the following year.

I’d done NaNoWriMo the previous year, and had found the experience to be wonderful. This year, my friends and I were holding a competition to see which of us could finish first, and it came down to the last day. I won. And I didn’t.

You see, while I’ve had a lot of fun with NaNoWriMo over the years, I think it’s time to come clean. Though I’ve participated seven times so far, and I’ve never actually won. Oh, I’ve completed the fifty thousand words. I commonly write 50k words in a given month these days, as writing is my profession. However, what I’ve never done is start a brand new project on the first of November, then keep writing straight through on it.

I have a good excuse. Each November, I’ve always already been in the middle of a book and it never felt right to stop and start something new. You could say that what I’ve done is still in the spirit of the competition, and I’ve always found NaNoWriMo to be more about the experience itself—and the people in the community—than “winning.” Still, truth be told, I don’t honestly feel that I’ve ever finished the competition in the way it was intended. Does that bother me? Not a bit.

This is a pep talk, you see. It’s my job to encourage you to keep going, to push toward that finish line. I want to do that by reinforcing a single truth: This competition (or whatever you want to call it) is a tool, and you should use it in the way that helps you the most.

Every writer uses different tools to write books, and none of those tools are right for every writer—or even for every project a given writer tries. Part of making that transition from apprentice writer to journeyman is learning how to apply the right tools in the right way. For example, outlines are a tool. Some writers hate them, others love them. Character dossiers, three-act format and other plotting formulas, even a given word processing program—these are all tools. Sometimes they’ll work, sometimes they won’t. Nobody can tell you if any specific one will help you on a given project. Only through practice and experience can you get a sense of what works for you as a writer.

As a writing tool, NaNoWriMo has its own specific limitations and advantages. My goal here is to list a few of the ways it can help, and by so doing, I hope to make you look at all of this in a new light. The only failure here is giving up, and perhaps using NaNo in a different way than you have in the past can help you get more out of the process.

NaNo Lesson One: Learning to Finish

The first and most important thing I believe that someone can learn from NaNoWriMo is to finish. On the path to becoming a professional writer, I’ve noticed that there are many drop-out points. These are points where I’ve noticed that a large number of aspiring writers tend to give up. The biggest one is finishing that first novel.

Many people claim they want to write one, but a mere fraction of those people will actually make it to the end. Some new writers spend years planning and preparing, but never get to the actual writing of the book. Others are “eternal rewriters” who habitually get three chapters into a book, then go back and revise over and over. Others get mired in the death zone: that most difficult part of a book between the one-third and two-third marks.

If you’ve never finished a book before, your goal in NaNoWriMo should be to hit that finish line. Don’t revise. Don’t stop and plan. Keep going, no matter what. The NaNo website talks a great deal about this goal, and I suspect other pep talks will cover the point in depth. So rather than belaboring the point, I’ll just reference my own personal experience.

The biggest jump in quality I made as a writer came in finishing my first book and starting my second. Writing an ending, then being able to look back and see the entire book, taught me more about the process than years of education, years of reading, and years of starting ever had. Finishing one book is more valuable than a dozen creative writing courses and a thousand books started. I’ve seen this time and time again in other writers I know.

Finish. That’s the first way to use this tool.

NaNo Lesson Two: Consistency vs. Burst Writing

Not all writers are what I’d call “consistent” writers. I write every day. I plug away at a novel, piece by piece, word by word. Slowly but surely, I creep toward the ending.

A good friend of mine (and an excellent writer) is very much a “burst” writer. She lets a story stew in her head, spends six months feeling that the story is terrible and that she shouldn’t write it, and then suddenly has a burst of insight, gets excited, and writes furiously for three or four months. At the end of it, she has a brilliant novel—and the process starts again.

Consistent writing and burst writing are both writing tools. The nice thing about NaNoWriMo is that it can help you practice either one. By its nature—write a book in a month—it’s a burst writing experience. However, I want to highlight its ability to teach you good writing habits as well. One way to use NaNo is to test different writing practices, trying to find those that will be sustainable over a long period.

Try writing on your lunch hour. Try getting up a few hours early each day. Try turning off the television or World of Warcraft and spending that time on your novel. Experiment. The goal is to show yourself that you can make room for writing in your life. Then, when the month is through, try to keep those habits up. When using NaNo as this type of tool, I’d suggest that finishing isn’t nearly as important as building habits. (Blasphemy, perhaps.)

It’s been shown time and time again that if human beings can keep up a certain pattern for a short time (usually a few weeks), they’ll make a habit of it and keep going. If you have trouble finding space for writing in your life, but really want to be a consistent writer, I suggest using NaNo as an excuse to create a repeatable writing habit in your life. Perhaps you’re already behind; perhaps you know you aren’t going to “win” this year. However, if you make this your goal and write every day—no matter how little—you may find this month a huge benefit even if you only write 10k words. After all, 10k words every month for a year is a novel.

Lesson Three: Thinking Like a Storyteller

If you truly immerse yourself in NaNo, you’re going to be eating, breathing, and drinking your story all month. One thing that non-writers don’t understand is that for most of us, we have a kind of “writing reservoir” inside of us. Consider it a creative well that can be tapped only so far in a given day. Once it runs dry, it’s often hard to create anything, even if we have the time to do so.

One of the lessons I learned as a storyteller was how to refill the creative well while doing other activities. You can do it while driving, exercising, eating . . . anything that doesn’t take your full attention. During these times, many writers I know run through plots in their heads, feel out character personalities, think about conflicts. They make connections, overcoming blocks.

Personally, I’ve found this practice to be essential in promoting healthy writing habits. As a full-time writer, it can actually be harder to refill my creative well, as I’m working on my writing all of the time. One of the ways NaNo could help a writer is by training them to use off moments to delve, mentally, into their stories. Instead of turning on the television as you wash dishes, turn on some music and think through character interactions. Plan out what you’re going to write the next day.

Even if you don’t have much time to write every day, you can supercharge that time by planning out for hours what you’ll do. Teach yourself to think like a writer. It’s a habit you’ll find very useful.

Lesson Four: Overcoming Writer’s Block

Writer’s block is a pernicious thing. It’s a slayer of writers, a destroyer of creativity. Like cancer, there seem to be as many varieties of writer’s block as there are days in the year.

NaNo and writer’s block basically cannot exist together. If you get blocked for a few days, that can mean the end of your NaNo attempt. It is vital, therefore, that you find tools to help you past writer’s block.

This one is tough because of how different every writer is. However, the one thing I’ve seen work best in overcoming writer’s block is to just keep going. Writer’s block should really be rendered “creativity block.” Nobody is forcing a writer to stop typing. The thing stopping us is more nebulous—some void of creativity caused by dissatisfaction with the writing, an uncertainty about where to go next, a lack of faith in the project. A writer might feel there is a flaw in their story, and doesn’t want to keep going and risk magnifying the problem, or they might have an image in their head of how the book should be going, and get frustrated that it’s not turning out right.

Soldiering on anyway can often solve each of these problems. I have a lot of personal experience with this. I often have to write something poorly before I can write it well. I go through a scene once, knowing that I’m doing it wrong—but searching for the answers, exploring the story, as I actually write. I don’t break momentum that way, and I find that once I’m done, nine times out of ten I’ve figured out how to fix the problem. I can toss aside that poorly written scene and try again, this time doing it right.

If that doesn’t work for you, here are a few other suggestions. Change the viewpoint character for the problem scene. Change the setting of the problem scene. Add a new character, and have them really make things messy in the conflict. Kill a character. Have a bomb go off. (Or have the ship sink, ninjas attack, etc. A big disaster. The goal is often not to keep the scene, but to explore how your characters would react so you can explore them more in depth.) Do a first-person character monologue for a character you haven’t fleshed out enough.

If you find yourself doing the scene over and over, however, stop and just move forward. You may not be able to fix the problem until you’ve worked out the next ten chapters. Don’t worry so much about magnifying the problem; worry about getting stopped and losing momentum. If this is an issue for you, try writing in longhand to keep yourself from revising too much. Or even try dictating a scene into a tape recorder, then typing it out—and doing a light revision—later on as you listen.

I never won NaNoWriMo, but NaNoWriMo certainly helped me become a better writer. That was because, in coming to understand myself as a writer, I began to learn how to use writing tools. NaNoWriMo trained me in habits I still rely upon today. Beyond that, the excellent community—working with friends, all trying to reach that marathon finish line—helped me build a local writing community that still supports me.

If we went back to that Thanksgiving weekend in 2002, you’d find me typing the very last words of an extremely long book. That book, The Way of Kings, finally came out last year—and it debuted at #7 on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list.

It took me almost nine years—including a complete start-over from the beginning—to get the book to its final stage. It was worth it every step of the way. May you find even more success in your writing endeavors.

Best,

Brandon Sanderson

As for me, I've had an amazing month this month, and it's not over yet. I'm currently sitting on 92,089/100,000 (I doubled my goal to keep me motivated). While that is absolutely staggering, I know that a lot of what I've written is awfully prosaic, but what makes me happy is that it's passable, and that, more importantly, I've FINALLY got this stuff written down on paper. Ideas that I had in 2002 have finally manifested in all their glory, and it's still coming. I've begun writing the finale sequence of chapters of LTL, and it's not quite over yet. I have three more days and I am going to use them to finish this fic off once and for all. And then I'm going to have a giant meltdown, but I'll deal with that when it comes. So excited and pumped to finish this thing off!!!!!!!

Asilynne

27th November 2011, 11:34 AM

Wow congrats Gavin, that is o.o! mindblowing lol And thanks for that pep talk :D That does help, I'm always too hard on myself when it comes to creative things ^-^() so that does help a lot :)

Weasel Overlord

27th November 2011, 02:37 PM

I really loved Sanderson's pep talk this week, it was absolutely fantastic. :D I especially resonated with the "learn to finish" part of it, ahah. This amount of words is completely new to me, lol.

Gav, that word count is epic~! You should be so proud of yourself for getting all that done. I totally feel you about it all just being passable too, ahah, I'm looking on the editing stage with massive amounts of trepidation but also excitement.

BUT FIRST I NEED TO FINISH THE DAMN THING, SINCE 50K WILL NOT BE ENOUGH. BAH AT YOU, LONG STORY. BAH AT YOU.

Wolfsong

27th November 2011, 10:58 PM

I got to 23013 today, slowly but surely making progress.

Weasel Overlord

28th November 2011, 03:30 AM

Well, I stopped at 41,010 yesterday because of brain tiredness. The write-in wasn't as productive as it could have been, cos I arrived late then we got distracted talking about Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, heh.

But I've got no boyfriendly people here all week, so I don't have any other obligations like human interaction to distract me; it should be okay to manage those last 3000 or so a day... I HOPE.

Gavin Luper

29th November 2011, 12:50 PM

End of Day 29: 95,357/100,000

So, so close ... tomorrow is going to be a big, big, big day.

I'm currently writing the third-last chapter of LTL ... it's scary and exciting and challenging and I can't wait until I'm done at last. It's finally happening!

Weasel Overlord

29th November 2011, 03:01 PM

Hit 47,000 tonight! :D 3000 left for tomorrow, a walk in the park! Only with less walking in the park, because I can't write at the same time...

Ends are fun, Gav! I'm currently working up to the endgame, but getting everything in place is boring, lol. I wanna write the bloody final scene already, I know what's going to happen, haha. But then again, there's gonna have to be more after all that jazz anyway, so even when I get to 50,000 I'm not gonna be finished. Blaaah.

Asilynne

29th November 2011, 03:17 PM

I'm not going to finish in time, that's clear at this point XD But I am glad for the fact that I STARTED and that is something that is hard for me in itself. All together I have written more than I have for one story since High School, and I have yet to finish an actual story which isn't a stand alone short, so I will be determined to finish this one! I have a timeline as well, I want it to be done before I get married so I can give it to friends and family :)

DarkestLight

29th November 2011, 08:25 PM

o.O. Well then Gav...I'll sit down and read it all when you finish. I absolutely hate cliffhangers, LOL.

I made 60K today...and I think my brain is done trying to construct anymore further. I finished two major points, so that's awesome beyond compare.

Wolfsong

29th November 2011, 08:48 PM

I know i'm not going to reach the finish this month, and it will be hte first year that i haven't finished despite the almost losing it all last year... but i made a goal for myself to reach at least halfway. I met that goal tonight with 25,109 words. I'll try to write a little more tomorrow but i'm not feelign all that great tongiht...

Gavin Luper

30th November 2011, 08:12 AM

Good work DL on finishing (or passing the 50k at least), and goooo Kirsten for your walk in the park tomorrow (or today now) haha.

Amy, congrats on hitting the goal you set yourself, that's great.

I'm refusing to count until I'm done now, but I know I've passed 100k for sure. However, I'm still half way through the second-last chapter, so I'm going to be writing through the night to get this done at last.

For me, this isn't just about finishing NaNoWriMo, it's also the end of literally a decade of writing Lisa the Legend (posted the prologue here on December 1st, 2001 O_O) so to actually finish writing it on the same day ten years later will feel really cool. I've even bought a bottle of champagne for when I finish, so I can have my melodramatic JK Rowling moment. :D

ON THROUGH THE NIGHT, as Def Leppard would say.

Pichu Luver

30th November 2011, 03:30 PM

Congrats to those who finished, or are about to. I'm afraid I can't make it this year. I've been very sick the last couple days, and right now I'm sitting at 44005. I'll try to make 45000, but it depends on how not-shitty I feel. Ah well, I almost made it and I'm pretty happy with how far I got. Never wrote so much in my life, so it's cool. ^^ Well done everyone for even making an attempt at this madness! ^^ :dance:

Edit: 45155, I'm happy. ^^'

Crystal Tears

30th November 2011, 05:26 PM

50,050.

I. Win. 8D

Special thanks to Kirst (Weasel Overlord) who totally motivated me with Uncharted 3 multiplayer. I WANNA GO KICK SOME ASS NOW.

Btw: good songs to motivate you to write: The End Run from the Mass Effect 2, and One Final Effort from the HALO 3 soundtracks.

Good luck to those still writing! ^^

GAV what's your PSN name thinger? I will add and you can play with us! *runs off*

DarkestLight

30th November 2011, 09:36 PM

Pichu Luvr: :O NO way! You can make 5000 more words. Give your lead character your cold XD. But yes, I also commend everyone for attempting this and to all those that finish, good on ya.

Congrats to Kirsten and CT :F. LOL At Uncharted madness. I have a friends that has not touched his AC: Revelations til he finshed NaNo. Now I have no contact with him for the next 14 days.

Two notes.
1) Gav, that has to be a terribly amazing moment when you push on and finish this. I'm sure it'll go under the editing blade (I know mine is going to before I post it.) before you reveal it to everyone, but I'm glad to hear your project is nearing its end cycles. I can only ask, is there another epic starting to pen out in your brain?

2) I kept on writing today after work, and I'm so glad I did. Hit 66053 words...and its awesome. I haven't written this much in ages.....literally ages.. It works out well because I actually finished the Second "Book" in the series, so I DID finish something.

For everyone that wants to see it, I'll post it up here in the coming week, after I've edited it (so it might grow in length) in AC/CC in segments...cause Shonta strictly forbade me to post it up all at once. :(

So now, I'm gonna enjoy the world of Skyrim XD Later!

Asilynne

30th November 2011, 10:05 PM

I'll post a sneak preview of mine when I get home from work but I won't post all I have because I'm not done yet and when the whole thing sees the light of day I want it to be good lol

Congrats all of you who finished :)

Gavin Luper

1st December 2011, 11:30 AM

Just finished Lisa the Legend. Big, big moment.

50,050.

I. Win. 8D

Special thanks to Kirst (Weasel Overlord) who totally motivated me with Uncharted 3 multiplayer. I WANNA GO KICK SOME ASS NOW.

Btw: good songs to motivate you to write: The End Run from the Mass Effect 2, and One Final Effort from the HALO 3 soundtracks.

Good luck to those still writing! ^^

GAV what's your PSN name thinger? I will add and you can play with us! *runs off*

I don't know it, I asked the bf cause it's his Playstation 3 and he is currently refusing to tell me because I have this habit of breaking most electronic things in the house. Also he reckons our internet connection is so shit that there is too much lag and it doesn't work cause he tried it with some other mates. But Multiplayer Uncharted 3 sounds really quite ridiculously fun! Give me time, I shall try to obtain the information required and join you guys. Man, Uncharted is just ace.

Congrats to those who finished, or are about to. I'm afraid I can't make it this year. I've been very sick the last couple days, and right now I'm sitting at 44005. I'll try to make 45000, but it depends on how not-shitty I feel. Ah well, I almost made it and I'm pretty happy with how far I got. Never wrote so much in my life, so it's cool. ^^ Well done everyone for even making an attempt at this madness! ^^ :dance:

Edit: 45155, I'm happy. ^^'

Congrats, that's still a massive effort for a single month.

Two notes.
1) Gav, that has to be a terribly amazing moment when you push on and finish this. I'm sure it'll go under the editing blade (I know mine is going to before I post it.) before you reveal it to everyone, but I'm glad to hear your project is nearing its end cycles. I can only ask, is there another epic starting to pen out in your brain?

2) I kept on writing today after work, and I'm so glad I did. Hit 66053 words...and its awesome. I haven't written this much in ages.....literally ages.. It works out well because I actually finished the Second "Book" in the series, so I DID finish something.

1) It was a terribly amazing moment, happened about half an hour ago. I'm now drinking champagne and feeling slightly numb. There are indeed other projects in my brain, and I'm very excited, because they are finally ones that I can take really seriously and work to get published. I'm vacillating between doing a literary, semi-autobiographical first novel first, or a popular fiction young adult/action/adventure/thriller kind of thing.

2) Wow, congrats! And that must be a good feeling to actually finish something off. Good on ya mate!

MOAR CHAMPAGNE!