NaNoWriMo 2017

[Parallax Panda]

@Marquise*
Navigating around real life can be a real problem, but I think that's part of the challenge. I'll be easier for some and more difficult for others of course, life's not fair after all.

That being said. I've barely made a dent in the 50.000 word goal as of today (the 9th) myself. Partly because of real life but also because I've a hard time writing without first making an outline (so for the last 3 days I've paused my writing to make one).
I'm currenlty 13.016 words behind schedule (which is quite a lot), and I know I'll lose a few more days so I've come to the understanding that I'll probably have to write about ~3000 words on average each day I'm able to write to make it. That's a pretty tough, but far from impossible (especially now that I have that outline finished). And even if I finish in December I'd be (almost) just as happy. Finishing is finishing!

I guess what I want to say is... if you feel it's too late to start but actually want to do it. Do it! It's not to late to start. You'll have nothing to lose by trying, really.

@esterk
500 words is 500 words! I don't even have 2000 words myself so I'd say we're pretty even in that regard. But I believe that finishing in time is still in the realms of possibility (for both of us). I don't know about you but most of the time when I can't write, or write way to little, it's because I spend most of the time thinking about what to write instead of writing. When you're confused over your own story or characters, writing is hard. So maybe try to think ahead of your writing while you're not writing (while you're cooking/eating food, on the bus, walking outside, waiting for someone somewhere etc). I bet there are small pockets of time that you can utilize on a daily basis if you made the effort to!

Also, if you have a profile on https://nanowrimo.org/ I'd love to add you as a writing buddy!

@Alhandra

OH, snap! I totally missed your post - apologies! Welcome to the writing party! How's the novel coming along?

 

[TeiRaven]

You can by all means count your outlines toward your words! As long as you wrote them in November, I say they're fair game. Plenty of people count the notes they leave in while they write. (Heck, I've been counting the notes I've left in while I write XD)

I write best at night, so man, these two closing shifts I've had have put a serious dent in my writing time. But the thing I'm having the most issue with is that my comma key seems to be on strike. It's driving me nuts.

 

[BreadInc]

Oh, gods, NaNoWriMo. I've joined it for the first time this year- but I'm out of practice and I'm very far behind due to my various illnesses. I'm writing a small collection of short stories with prompts picked out by my Instagram followers. I haven't even finished one prompt aaaah

 

[Parallax Panda]

@TeiRaven

I guess I've been kinda hard on myself, not counting my notes or the outline towards my word count.
Speaking of... I probably should update my NaNoWriMo profiles word count too. I never really got back to doing that after my little break. Makes me kind of a sucky writing buddy. Apologies!

@BreadInc
Being sick isn't something you can plan for unfortunately. Do you have a NaNoWriMo profile?

 

[BreadInc]

@TeiRaven

I guess I've been kinda hard on myself, not counting my notes or the outline towards my word count.
Speaking of... I probably should update my NaNoWriMo profiles word count too. I never really got back to doing that after my little break. Makes me kind of a sucky writing buddy. Apologies!

@BreadInc
Being sick isn't something you can plan for unfortunately. Do you have a NaNoWriMo profile?

Unfortunately, no, it's not something I can help- but it's still rubbish. I do, my profile's under the same username I have here.

 

[Parallax Panda]

@BreadInc
Still, you're writing which is what's important. Still writing although being sick is really something!

And... I've added you as a writing buddy (I think) !

 

[BreadInc]

@BreadInc
Still, you're writing which is what's important. Still writing although being sick is really something!

And... I've added you as a writing buddy (I think) !

Yep! Writing buddies!
I feel like I should be writing more because I'm housebound more often than not hahaha.
2,352 words!

 

[Marsigne]

Well, I have a lot to catch up. Have written like half of my goal for about 2 weeks since I was not that motivated due to a variety of reasons, but now I'm starting to go faster. Got to write around 7k daily. Made 6k and 8 writing sessions today. I'll find a way to fill the rest because having additional sessions will just be a pain, lol.

 

[Parallax Panda]

@Marsigne I'll have to say congratulations for winning NaNoWriMo this year! Great job!
Speaking of, what is that NaNoWriMo thingy you have in your signature? Where did you get it?

 

[Marquise*]

If I continue like that; NaNoWriMo for me would be answering everyone. XD

 

[Marsigne]

@Parallax Panda It's on this page. There is a variety of styles you can choose from and even customize them.

 

[Parallax Panda]

@Marsigne Thanks. I'll try to remember that for NaNoWriMo2018.

 

[Marsigne]

@Parallax Panda Maybe we could make the next NaNo thread at the beginning of October for preparation? I plan to go on the planner route next year, so discussing how we're going to attack the big monster would make us have more chances of defeating it.

 

[bgillisp]

Can I count all the words of dialogue I wrote for my game? If so I think I got 5000 or so!

 

[Marquise*]

@Marsigne This is neat ^^ Long time no read but nice I finally got a secret from you (I always got intrigued.)

 

[Parallax Panda]

@Marsigne
Sure, let's start next years thread a month early, it's a good idea.
I'm planing to take a bloody revenge on the perfectionist monster next year, and time to make a good battle plan would most likely help a lot.

@bgillisp
Why not? You wrote something. The challenge is more about trying to get things done anyway (I think).


Anyway, I might as well go cash in on the 20% participation coupon for Scrivener (which I've been meaning to buy). What software did/do you guys use?

 

[Marsigne]

I use QuollWriter. It's free and similar enough to Scrivener for me, so it works. Also, I wrote 8,130 words. Was supposed to be 10k but my laptop froze 3 times so I lost 3 sessions of writing. Thankfully no work lost due to auto-backup. Even with it being a lot, it's still not enough to reach 100k. I need at least 17,153 words per day to reach it, although I still think it might be possible. We'll see how it goes, though.

 

[Parallax Panda]

@Marsigne But that is still a lot! I don't know how long you sit down and write for, but if it was for 5 hours then you'd have to write ~27 words every minute, which is almost one word every other second.

Maybe you sit down for way more than 5 hours though, I don't know. But otherwise your fingers must be dancing across that keyboard nonstop! Which is really impressive! Don't you ever stop and have to think about what to write, what words to use or what to name a certain character or place?

 

[TeiRaven]

I use good old Microsoft Word, and I just hit my 50k--to my absolute surprise, I actually did manage to write on Black Friday. And it wasn't even junk, most of it XD I keep all my notes in MS OneNote, though--and I swear by OneNote, it's a great tool for people (like me) who like to be able to click and drag their notebook pages around and sort them all kinds of ways. The only complaint I have is that it doesn't have an Alphabetize button, for some godforsaken reason. Why would a note-taking program lack that particular feature? XD

Originally, I wanted to showcase this world as a game. But I realized it would be a massive thing that would take half a century without a team, so tried writing it instead. I had planned to make it into a trilogy--one book led by each of my three main characters. But games have side quests, you see--and that's difficult to get into a book. Then I happened to look up the average length of a Nancy Drew book.....between 50 and 70k words. I could write my side quests in the style of my beloved Nancy Drew books, bite-sized mystery stories where you know most of the cast when you go into it XD So that might be my next NaNo project, even if I haven't finished Karel's book by then. I'd totally join in on that planning thread--I'd have to actually know where I was going and have all the evidence laid out to do something like that. I'm bad at that. Sign me up XD

Anybody else considering the Camp NaNoWriMos throughout the year? They fall conveniently outside of November (April and July, if memory is willing to serve?) and you can set your own goals--and they don't have to be word count goals, either, you can set time goals and things that make it a little easier to log things like writing game dialogue.

Well done, everyone! Next time will be even better~ Perfectionist monster, beware!

(okay but who's going to make NaNoWriMo: The RPG)

 

[Marquise*]

I think I might finally have some time left for tonight and tomorrow on this. But sadly a real life of concerns kinda just drained me up for this month. (And I do not like being like this!)