NaNoWriMo - what's it all about?

[Twine88]

I know roughly the idea behind it, but I wondered if anyone had actually taken part and had any thoughts to share?

My novel is already in excess of the 50k but, is still all over the place and needs much editing.

Any thoughts appreciated, even if you considered it and decided no.

Whoop! I made 15k.

I'm just about managing to keep up - I've done tomorrow's as well as today's, as dh was feeling rubbish today and went to bed early so I reckoned why not. Hey, the washing up will keep, eh...

I spent a lot of time reading The Cook's Oracle of 1830 to sort out some dishes my characters could plausibly eat in the middle of the day. I reckoned some soup and mutton chops sounded reasonable. I have rebelled and made one of my major minor characters (if that makes sense) a bit less awful. Everyone has redeeming characteristics, she was rapidly heading towards farcical territory.

Jos and Bigly I'm so glad I'm not the only one with a bloody awful main character :)

I do feel she needs some redeemable qualities, but it just doesn't feel natural, but I guess that is kind of the point of the novel. It is essentially about a girl who uses whatever she can to get ahead in life. Everything she does is self serving. She is utterly batshit and I'm growing very fond of her.

I've just hit 20k! Is anyone else trying to reward themselves for milestones?

Anna You're a better woman than me! I'd have ended up distracted and finding recipes I fancied cooking :)

I am being generally crap today and not done any useful uni work or any nano writing! Need to get on it this evening.

On the subject of unlikable characters I have been listening to War and Peace as my commuting audiobook. I'm almost half way through and have fallen absolutely in love with it. However, all the characters are genuinely unlikable people (I can only think of one I would actually enjoy spending any time with and I think she might wear thin quite quickly), yet I have become entranced by them all.

Unlikable characters can be fascinating because their motivations or responses can seem so different to your own, yet if there is a logic behind them they give you a new view of the world. Often we realise that their motivations are perhaps closer to our own than we would like to think. It is this new view of ourselves and the world around us that makes reading truely rewarding.

And that is my short ode to reading for the day...

Bigly I blame mumsnet. It's like a black hole when it comes to procrastinating.

That's a really good point about War and Peace actually! And a very good choice of audio book for commuting.

I've been rubbish today. My friend read my first chapter and then I realised I had accidentally changed narrative perspective by chapter three so my writing time has been rewriting from first person into third person. I also did a bit of planning. No extra words. In fact I lost some
I might try to catch up later.

I had a better day, on about 8K now.

I didn’t manage any yesterday, and have done a whole 5 words today. My enthusiasm is waning a little.

Don't be down Charming. We believe in you!

I managed about 1k in the end yesterday, but it was a serious slog. Hoping to do a bit better today.

Fiona, you can be my Slow Writing Buddy.
I had a two-hour wait in a distant, soggy carpark yesterday, so I did scrawl several pages by hand as the rain trickled down the windscreen. Not sure any of it will be legible enough to type into the computer.

Going to aim for 3k today.

Keep going, MrsFiona. Keep on showing up through the hard bits.

Come on Fiona! We know you can do it

Is there anything in particular putting you off writing?

Thanks for all the encouragement :)

I’m feeling a bit more inspired today, but stuck at work. Someone mentioned upthread writing theirs in google docs so they can do it on their phone, and I’m going to set that up this evening. I considered bringing my laptop, but sitting in the break room writing a novel would make me look so pretentious!

Plodding away here . . .I'm trying to think of my book in three sections in the hope it makes it feel more manageable. I've also started using Beemgee to plan it and keep track of characters, locations, etc.
It's so tempting to hide from writing by planning, planning, planning. Hoping to hit 13,000 words today. Good luck everyone!

I've not heard of beemgee before, but it looks interesting. I have a flow chart and a random note/character list document at the moment. I might have play with beemgee and see if it converts over. Of course that is another distraction from uni work or actual writing :)

Arrghhh! Nope, I give up already. It is too complicated for my poor little brain to cope with.

Bigly someone on my regional group on NaNoWriMo suggested Beemgee. From reviews, it seems to have a problem with crashing sometimes so if you do use it then screenshot your writing as you go. It only takes an extra few minutes and means you can save the screenshots as jpgs or pdfs.
I quite like it so far but I have a habit of forgetting the names of my minor characters so I like that I can just pop on and check. I've got post-its and flipcharts in my office but that's no use if I'm writing at home so an online option works for me.
I've managed 460 words so far today. I need to pick up my pace.

I just have a Google doc with a list of characters. I can access it anywhere and it seems far less complicated. I've been thinking of turning it into a spreadsheet just for the lolz and ease of sorting.

I’m back on track, and I’ve realised that I don’t have a story issue, I have a DP issue. He was away this weekend, and I got loads done, now he’s here and he keeps wanting to talk to me and spend time together and stuff.

I’ve decided to ignore him, and have made it to 19,000!

My MC seems to have turned a bit sex crazed today. I’ve just checked my period app, and I’m ovulating, I wonder if that’s affecting my writing?

I’m going to have to come back and reread this bit at a different time of month to check it’s ok!

Bigly I have a mug that says 'I love spreadsheets' but for some reason I struggle using them for characters, plotting, etc.I'm not sure why.
MrsFiona 19,000 is brilliant! You'll just have to lock your DP in a cupboard for the rest of the month. I'm sure he'll understand.
I'm just over 13,000 and a bit concerned that the difference in tone between the two sections is going to jar. It feels a bit like two different books which in one way is deliberate (because they're in different locations with different protagonists) but otoh I wonder if it's such a leap that readers will be confused. Meh! I guess I'll think about that once I've finished the first draft.

I flipping love a good spreadsheet Jos but am settled on flow chart for plotting. It is truly a thing of beauty with swimlanes for each character so I can plot exactly what they are up to and make sure it all aligns. I think though I could make the list of characters work in a spreadsheet as I tend to go for very minimal details and let the character develop in the story. It is just useful to note down their full names and where they are from and stuff or I forget, which can be a bit embarrassing.

Your sexed up character made me laugh charming. If your character is female you should absolutely just explain their behaviour by saying they are ovulating. It would be educational for your male readers I once read a YA fantasy book with a female assassin in who had epically bad periods. In general the book was so-so, but I sort of loved it just for putting in the female menstrual cycle and not just acting like it never happened.

I got to 18k today and hoping to break 20k tomorrow.

Jos I think very different tone is good. I hate it when the characters seem too similar and you have to keep checking the start of the chapter to remember who’s talking.

Bigly I’m not sure I can fit in the ovulating explanation, but I needed a minor Illness for a few chapters time. Definitely going to have it be period pain!

Had a nice day, thought I was still on track but the website informs me I'm not going to finish until 1 December. I got my alleged hero and heroine to actually talk to each other though, was beginning to wonder if they could be arsed to spend time together, so much for grand romance

Also spent interesting time learning about he history of the East Lincolnshire railway line