NaNoWriMo

[EmpressOfTheGoldFlames]

Hello

Is anyone doing NaNoWriMo this year?
I'm going to start it at least & hopefully finish it. I've got characters swirling around in my head at the moment & some glimpse of a possible plot...

I'm all better now, managing to keep ahead with word count but not writing as much as I was, story has gone a little flat and need something to get back into the swing of things.

I started off with a loose outline and chapters marked out, I even started story with good intentions it has title, then Chapter 1 written underneath. Then I forgot about chapters so I forgot to do a chapter 2, my chapter one is 28000 words Will have to sort that out when editing!

How's everyone finding the mid-November doldrums? I've had it for about 2 days now. I'm still typing but meh.

The initial excitement has worn off, and I'm not yet up against the deadline at the end. The story has reached a point I was looking forwards to writing and have been working on in my head for weeks but every line of dialogue between the characters is dull and I have to drag my fingers across the keys. I can't get over the fact that I don't like the name I picked for him either.

But then I remember that there's 'find and replace' options in Word.

And at the end of NaNo I end up with at least 50k of a first draft, and in there will be 5-10k of good writing, maybe 5k of stuff to be reworked, 10k of backstory that while not usable as such give me depth to the characters.The rest is a bit rubbish maybe but was the medium in which the novel could grow.

Or so I've told my self at this mid-point before

I've hit the 10k mark. Tomorrow I have more hours when ds1 is at preschool than usual so I have a target of 15k by the weekend.

I suppose you just have to keep pressing on through the middle bit. I'm a bit worried my middle will be saggy when I get to it though so I guess I'll just have to work extra hard to make it exciting and hopefully that'll keep me going.

My chapters are about 5k each but they're very provisional, I'll arrange them much more carefully at a later editing stage.

Still on track, wordwise. And by dint of doing a fair amount of what I call 'research', aka listening to appropriate music and watching film clips on YouTube, I'm starting to get more into the spirit of it.

As you say, Elfycat, there's 50k of first draft, and in that there's a core of good writing ready to be worked up into a novel.

We'll see how it goes - at least I'm feeling more confident that I've developed some novel revision skills since last year.

I'm definitely in the mid-November doldrums! It's all the 'inbetween' bits are boring to write when you just want to zoom ahead to the action. I am left with a lot of filling in the bits in between anyway but I need something there to link the parts together.

A lot of my dialogue between characters will end up as back story, it does help to build the characters but would be very boring for anyone else to read. And then I'll probably add in lots of new dialogue.

GrendelsMum, how did you learn your novel revision skills? Do you have any tips?
I know I can get to the end of a first draft, I've done it before, but what I have never managed to do is to revise a book thoroughly enough to make it significantly better than it was before.
I have the 'Self-Editing For Fiction Writers' book.

(I'm kind of hugely excited about doing that - I feel like I can't wait to get to the end of the first draft so I can revise it, even though I'm sure it will be a horrible process when it happens.)

Well, I've now worked on revising 2 novels pretty thoroughly, so I think experience is starting to build.

Other things were:

a) honest feedback from my DH and re-reading it with an open mind myself
b) reading books in the genre and related genres while taking notes about structure, pace, characterisation, etc. I actually made spreadsheets for certain novel genres about what was happening when!
c) creative writing classes - the most helpful thing, but can only tackle certain aspects within the confines of a 2 hour weekly class
d) the 'Self-Editing for Fiction Writers' book, as recommended here

But I'm aware I'm still a long way off!

Thank you

I haven't quite got as far as spreadsheets but I do make detailed notes on books in the genre, and learn a lot from that. DH can't do feedback but luckily I have built up a good pile of people who can, including one friend who teaches creative writing and whose judgement I respect very much.

How are the mid-month doldrums people getting on? Has it perked up yet?

Urgh. I'm 30000 words in and have hit an impasse. I'm not sure I want my story to got the way I planned it. And either way, I'm not sure I have enough to say! I'll get to 50000 with my plan, but that's not publishable, is it? Do I add stuff (it doesn't contain much description at the mo- I wanted to get the structure right) or do I need to think of more content?

Loops I'd suggest persevering with your current plan as one of the effects of mid-month doldrums is to make you doubt all aspects of your novel. If you can try not to over-think the first draft. Some novels are edited, others are reworked with the finished piece being almost unrecognisable from the initial writing but in all cases the key thing was that writing happened.

At the moment my story is mostly dialogue with just enough description to get them to the next conversation. I've also just realised where my action starts, and it's 28k in so on the first edit that's 28k of back-story that will be removed from the actual novel (This is editing and for AFTER November) though I'll be pinching elements from it.

50k is considered a short novel, really they need to be at about 80k but adding description will do most of it. Or try fleshing out a walk-on-character to become a secondary character because you need someone to do x,y&z and it might as well be them. Give your MC an allergy or a chip on their shoulder about trees in gardens over 12 feet high (for example). Content-wise you might discover something that you want going on in the background or a secondary plot, but you might not need to think about that now and rather to mull on it when doing some boring job (I need to re-seal the shower).

Thanks elfy

I don't think mine can sustain another character - there are so many already! I have another (possibly bigger?) problem that I'm struggling with today.

My novel is dystopian, and each chapter starts with an excerpt from a newspaper, setting the general scene. I'm running out of ideas for this. Well, not ideas so much, but variance (if that makes sense?) they are all coming out a bit 'shocking thing government plans to do, the opposition say this' outragy. I need something different. Any thoughts? Letters to editor have been suggested, what do you think?

Oh wow Loops.
Well that sounds like there is huge potential for irony or a change in tone. A fashion piece? Obituaries? TV, theatre or concert reviews? Recipes? Foreign news? From our science/archaeology correspondent? Depends on the nature of your dystopia I guess....

Oooh thanks tunip, given me lots to think about!

Oh, that sounds such fun, LoopsInHoops and Tunip. I'd love to read those ideas!

I've just crashed through the 30,000 word barrier and my characters are discussing growing peanuts and how to escape from prison.

Im at just over 36 000 but had started before the month did, so am cheating a little. I'm writing about the few weeks we spent driving around Namibia with the kids over the Summer.

I haven't done anything in a week as have been very busy then sick. But today I will write again!

I'm going to give up for the night and head off to my research. I've done 15k anyway, which is fine for my personal target as I started a week late and I'm aiming for 25, not 50.

I think when I try to research by pulling out books to check bits as I go along, I tend to get bogged down in who was where when and stuff like that which really doesn't matter, whereas when I just relax and read and let the detail flow in it gives me a chance to mull it over in my mind and get inspired by it.

Is anyone else writing something which needs a lot of research?

Not much research here, anything I'm not sure of I'm making up (joys of dystopian!)

When are you finding time to write? I'm doing it after the kids are in bed, but that only gives me a couple of hours per day. I'd love to do this full time! Really enjoying it.

I have a couple of hours on weekday mornings when older dcs are at school and ds2 is at preschool.

Apart from that I sometimes grab the odd moment during the day when ds2 is watching tv playing quietly, and an hour or two after kids' bedtime but that's not very peaceful as they're bloody awful at staying in bed.

I've just had two days of getting no writing done as I was tired out from work and wasn't eager enough to write. I've just done 1500 words now though and feel like I'm headed in the right direction again so hopefully this week I can get on with it.

I'm getting writing done in evenings, I try to get studying done while kids are at school. I work a couple of evenings a week though so if I'm up to date with studying I reward myself with writing time before picking kids up. I don't have anything to research with this story I deliberately went with the idea which had less research as last year I went with one that ended up needing loads of research and I got a bit frustrated with finding myself on the internet, yet again, instead of writing.

finally caught up and then blew by being away for the weekend at a wedding abroad. Fantasties of writing while travelling didn't quite go as planned, though did manage 1600 words on Friday while driving up to wedding (DH was driving, not me ).

was cool being back in the UK though as my novel is set in a location inspired by my parents' house, and it was all misty and creepy when we drove past.

So now on 25,000, a bit behind but since reports and bulk of marking/planning are finished I reckon I should be able to catch up this week.

I've just come to an awful realisation. I'm not going to get this book finished.
I've keep above the par line on the graph throughout, sometimes (like now) by the skin of my teeth. But that's the problem. It's the graph that's keeping me going. When November ends, does the graph too?

*kept (a bit drunk)

But if you haven't finished the draft by the end of Nov, surely you'll be close enough to the end that it'll seem manageable and you'll want to do it just so you can get to the end? I can't imagine getting, say, three chapters from the end and then giving up.
And you can make your own graph for the first fortnight in December or however long it's going to take you.