NaNoWriMo 2011: Are you up to the challenge?

[lovetheangelshadow]

@Purple Drake@ Nope not yet. Of couse I know this story...okay I am adapting it from a script I wrote once but this time I get to put in all the things I didn't get to in my script. This time I can really show Ross' eccentric nature.

 

[Avenger Angel]

So I meant to be a rebel and continue my current fic. Instead my brain went 'no, you don't need more help to get that done on time, it's going well and you've got time! Do this fic instead!' So now I'm doing a fanfic for the show Numb3rs and just have to stop from convincing myself that it's still early enough in the month to change if I want.

Anyone else having problems with actually following through on their plans? XD

Mostly just getting the time to do it. Today, I'm stuck working for eight hours, which includes driving two and a half hours to and from work, and two and a half hours of class as well, so that's thirteen hours already stripped out of my day. I'd have to write during work or class, neither of which seem like a good idea. Especially considering my boss sits in a cubicle right next to mine, and I really have no idea what she would do if she caught me working on this thing during company time. It mostly means having to make up time on certain days. That can get pretty brutal if too much distracts you and you fall too far behind, and it's what nailed me during the first time I tried NaNoWriMo.

As far as getting started, I have a few good ideas. I think the hardest part of doing this whole challenge is knowing it's unlikely anyone is going to read it unless you ask them to, and that you're really doing it for yourself as a creativity, pressure, and time management exercise. Hopefully we could get a few review exchange agreements going, though.

Good luck to the rest of you guys. May you all overcome the unholy poison of writer's block.

 

[Phoopes]

Anyone else having problems with actually following through on their plans? XD

Yes, I was going to do something in my fic in Chapter 4, then decided to do it in Chapter 2, and now I'm thinking about having it in Chapter 3. Indecisiveness will probably be my greatest downfall...

 

[Avenger Angel]

Sure got quiet in here quickly. Maybe people are thinking the same thing I'm thinking...

I tried NaNo before, and I failed it. Attempt #2, and I'm already having trouble and I'm getting reminded of why and how I flunked it before. Before, it seemed like a good idea to give it another try, and now I honestly don't think so.

Problem is, deep inside, I know this isn't the way I make a good story. In fact, half of me was asking why on earth I was getting involved with this whole thing again, but it's been a while and I didn't remember what caused the disaster in the first place, but now I can easily say I do. The time pressure just feels like I'm forcing myself to vomit up literary garbage rather than actually take the time to slowly and carefully think things over creatively and meretriciously in a way that my creative self is comfortable with. Rather than getting passionate about the story, the setting, the characters, the ideas, and letting it all flow like delicate, creative quicksilver when the time and place is right and when I'm most comfortable, I'm forcing and shoving the poor thing through rocky roads and extreme turbulence, and doing whatever it takes just to cram words down like I'm coughing up a literary hairball just for quantity's sake. Right now, the storyline, the plot, the setting, nothing really matters beyond meeting the daily requirement. I look back and see I've added paragraphs of useless filler garbage just so I was one or two hundred words closer to the daily expectation, but not doing that means not making the amount in time. Hate to say it, but if I really did pull this off, I still think I'd end up shaking my head in disbelief that I tortured and eviscerated the hell out of a good plot idea and painfully forced it out when it wasn't ready and needed more incubation. To me, that just feels like the 50K-worded waste of a good idea prematurely force-born and many lost November hours that I'll never get back.

I've started rereading things, and it's totally clear, this is definitely not my best work and I neither enjoy writing or reading it. Heck, it's writing torture, really. This is just an attempt to cram down 1,667 words on average per day for a whole month just to prove that haste really does make waste and to learn firsthand why quality is more important than quantity. Problem is, the way I see it, successfully completing a NaNo challenge doesn't prove you're a good author. Hate to say it... but it really doesn't prove anything. I wouldn't even bother to get this checked out by an editor, and I sure wouldn't bother to try and get it published either when I know I've got more important ideas that would vastly benefit from three or four months of comfortable writing as opposed to only one. Creativity is a fragile but beautiful thing, but to abuse it like this just seems like a sin and like I'm betraying the thing that gave me my writing talent to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, I like the intention of getting people spurred up to go out and write something. I just think there's a far better, far saner way to do it.

 

[SwiftSoul]

I'm writing one as well. It's a story in which people get some kind of power from some animals as the animals are dying, and they grow into a team of sorts to take down an eco-terrorist cell named Gaia

 

[Dragonfree]

Sure got quiet in here quickly. Maybe people are thinking the same thing I'm thinking...

I tried NaNo before, and I failed it. Attempt #2, and I'm already having trouble and I'm getting reminded of why and how I flunked it before. Before, it seemed like a good idea to give it another try, and now I honestly don't think so.

Problem is, deep inside, I know this isn't the way I make a good story. In fact, half of me was asking why on earth I was getting involved with this whole thing again, but it's been a while and I didn't remember what caused the disaster in the first place, but now I can easily say I do. The time pressure just feels like I'm forcing myself to vomit up literary garbage rather than actually take the time to slowly and carefully think things over creatively and meretriciously in a way that my creative self is comfortable with. Rather than getting passionate about the story, the setting, the characters, the ideas, and letting it all flow like delicate, creative quicksilver when the time and place is right and when I'm most comfortable, I'm forcing and shoving the poor thing through rocky roads and extreme turbulence, and doing whatever it takes just to cram words down like I'm coughing up a literary hairball just for quantity's sake. Right now, the storyline, the plot, the setting, nothing really matters beyond meeting the daily requirement. I look back and see I've added paragraphs of useless filler garbage just so I was one or two hundred words closer to the daily expectation, but not doing that means not making the amount in time. Hate to say it, but if I really did pull this off, I still think I'd end up shaking my head in disbelief that I tortured and eviscerated the hell out of a good plot idea and painfully forced it out when it wasn't ready and needed more incubation. To me, that just feels like the 50K-worded waste of a good idea prematurely force-born and many lost November hours that I'll never get back.

I've started rereading things, and it's totally clear, this is definitely not my best work and I neither enjoy writing or reading it. Heck, it's writing torture, really. This is just an attempt to cram down 1,667 words on average per day for a whole month just to prove that haste really does make waste and to learn firsthand why quality is more important than quantity. Problem is, the way I see it, successfully completing a NaNo challenge doesn't prove you're a good author. Hate to say it... but it really doesn't prove anything. I wouldn't even bother to get this checked out by an editor, and I sure wouldn't bother to try and get it published either when I know I've got more important ideas that would vastly benefit from three or four months of comfortable writing as opposed to only one. Creativity is a fragile but beautiful thing, but to abuse it like this just seems like a sin and like I'm betraying the thing that gave me my writing talent to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, I like the intention of getting people spurred up to go out and write something. I just think there's a far better, far saner way to do it.

You might want to try getting passionate about the story/setting/characters/ideas before you start. Plan out everything that's going to happen beforehand; "useless filler garbage" only happens if you don't actually know what those 1-200 words should be about. If inspiration hits you can modify the plan, of course, but that's inspiration hitting, so presumably that makes things better, not worse.

Personally, I've written two stories for NaNoWriMo and one of them is one of my favorite things I've written. The writing was pretty terrible, of course, but that's not the point; writing can be edited. The important thing was it gave me the ability to actually write these stories I'd been wanting to write for ages but would have taken years to put out otherwise. They wouldn't have been one bit better in the end if they hadn't been written for NaNo; they'd just have been much, much slower. With the latter one (the one I actually won with; the other was only material for 30,000 words) I actually spent the last week or two putting out 2-3000 words each day, not because I was straining myself to write so-and-so many words per day (though it was handy because I was also behind on the word count at the time), but simply because that was organically how much writing I'd comfortably fit into one evening by that point.

Then there's elyvorg's Foregone Conclusion, which was written for NaNoWriMo but, like my NaNo fics, was based on a plot (backstory from her main fic) that she already knew. It ended up 75,000 words, all written that November, and the end result (after editing for writing awkwardness, of course) is amazing and everyone should go read it now. She found it easy to write 75,000 words of it in a month, because it was a story she loved about characters she loved.

Finishing NaNoWriMo doesn't prove you're a good author, no. But it is a personal accomplishment of writing discipline and simply a recognition that you got a hell of a lot of work done in the space of a month.

So, in short, maybe you were going about this the wrong way, or maybe NaNoWriMo just doesn't rhyme with how you work as a writer in general, but either way, it is perfectly possible to actually enjoy writing for NaNoWriMo, and even to produce something legitimately good. Though you talk about your personal experience, I detect a hint of "What are you guys doing? You're just spewing out garbage! Nothing good could ever come of this! You're abusing your creativity!" between the lines your post, which I find rather annoying.

 

[Ysavvryl]

It may be quiet because a lot of us are writing as well as continuing our everyday schedules. Anyhow, it helps to turn your inner critic off; editing can come in second draft, but it doesn't need to be around in the first draft. Plus, sometimes keeping up with a certain pace can help get past a problematic area.

Rocks and rocky roads don't shine until polished, after all.

 

[Avenger Angel]

You might want to try getting passionate about the story/setting/characters/ideas before you start. Plan out everything that's going to happen beforehand; "useless filler garbage" only happens if you don't actually know what those 1-200 words should be about. If inspiration hits you can modify the plan, of course, but that's inspiration hitting, so presumably that makes things better, not worse.

I think that's where the problem lied. NaNoWriMo came up and I had a few working ideas, but I thought the means to tie them together into something interesting could be improvised smoothly once I got the kick to start writing. Didn't happen. I actually scrapped my first idea, and as a result, I've been struggling with my backup. I just haven't been able to "get into it" and that's not good.

So, in short, maybe you were going about this the wrong way, or maybe NaNoWriMo just doesn't rhyme with how you work as a writer in general, but either way, it is perfectly possible to actually enjoy writing for NaNoWriMo, and even to produce something legitimately good. Though you talk about your personal experience, I detect a hint of "What are you guys doing? You're just spewing out garbage! Nothing good could ever come of this! You're abusing your creativity!" between the lines your post, which I find rather annoying.

That's all speaking from a personal standpoint, but worded in a way that others might relate to, but not necessarily. Didn't mean to insult your own personal beliefs if that's the kind of message you interpreted from reading it. I haven't read any of your stories, so it would be simply inane to believe they're not of quality before they've even been looked at.

As for your two NaNoWriMo stories, I haven't read either of them, and it would be just plain stupid to judge them even before they've been read. For you, it works, and it's good that it does. For me, it's a mess, but I still get the inkling that it's just the approach I'm not doing right. I haven't really been passionate about any of my ideas for a while, but when NaNoWriMo rolls along, I go in thinking once I start getting it down on paper, I'll love where it's going and will want to write in some more. Doesn't happen.

For some, the speed writing may work for them and can be the push they need. For others like myself, it's a slippery slope. I'm a guy that likes to see it done right the first time, not leave a mess and a trail behind me to clean up later. It's the same reason why I hate being in debt as well.

It may be quiet because a lot of us are writing as well as continuing our everyday schedules. Anyhow, it helps to turn your inner critic off; editing can come in second draft, but it doesn't need to be around in the first draft. Plus, sometimes keeping up with a certain pace can help get past a problematic area.

Rocks and rocky roads don't shine until polished, after all.

I have the habit of wanting to minimize having to clean up something I left behind, especially when early details of the story and the exposition are crucial to making the determination of what happens later. I'm a guy that doesn't like saying "yeah, I'll worry about that later." It NEVER leaves my mind like a sanity-consuming parasite until it's taken care of.

I have considered starting over with a clean slate, though. Three days behind may be a little rough, but there's still time to catch up and give it one last try, and hope the third time is a charm. Maybe I'm just missing the right mindset by just a scratch.

 

[AquaRegisteel]

I haven't written anything yet. Nothing!! And I'm 4 days down already...

Hmm, what to do...

 

[Glover]

Hmm. Rather conviently, I started an idea at the start of the month.

The upside, I'm already 5k into it. That's one-tenth of the way, and it's still very much a skeleton story. (IE, 5,000 words of a story that needs to be polished up, linked together, flwahed out, and paced down.)

The downside, is that general plot wise, I'm halfway through. Also, it's formatted for Serebii (HTML tags) and I have a sneaking suspicion that that's jacking with my word-count and that NaNo would require a re-write. Not hard, but a nuisance. I could go play with another plot line that's supposed to be a part of World Turns, but that too will have to be formatted for Serebii. Who knows. Also, I'm five days past the deadline...

Regardless of what I do, good luck guys! And maybe I'll jump in next year.

 

[Wyrm]

Ant problems and school have prevented me from even having a chance. But next year, I might be up for the challenge. XP

 

[catzeye]

I haven't written anything yet. Nothing!! And I'm 4 days down already...

Hmm, what to do...

Same here. I'm caught up with getting ready for college so my hands are tied. Luckily I have an idea that I can write. Although it probably won't end up 50K.

 

[purple_drake]

My headspace got appropriated by yet another fandom (ABC's new Once Upon A Time, for those wondering). The fact that I wrote one scene worth 3400 words in one day is generally a good indication the motivation's going to stick with me, and as of now I'm behind but not too behind, but at this rate I'm going to have double the word count just because my mind keeps switching back and forth and writing random things not to do with NaNo at all. XD

 

[Ysavvryl]

@purple_drake: Sounds like you have a plot bunny invasion there. Good luck wrangling with it.


Hmm, yeah, school does cut into writing time. NaNo is also a bit of a time management puzzle to many people. I've seen a calender somewhere that has all the word count goals for every day to finish on time, if you want to take it little chunks at a time. And use weekends to catch up.

As for me, er, I hit 50K earlier today. But I'm not done yet, because I have to get my characters through a coliseum challenge and then get them all the way across the continent back to where they started in order to slay the dragon that's been the cause of my whole plot. I just have to decide if I want to send them back by sailing ship or airship.

 

[Dramatic Melody]

Hmm, yeah, school does cut into writing time. NaNo is also a bit of a time management puzzle to many people. I've seen a calender somewhere that has all the word count goals for every day to finish on time, if you want to take it little chunks at a time. And use weekends to catch up.

As for me, er, I hit 50K earlier today. But I'm not done yet, because I have to get my characters through a coliseum challenge and then get them all the way across the continent back to where they started in order to slay the dragon that's been the cause of my whole plot. I just have to decide if I want to send them back by sailing ship or airship.

Hell yeah it's a time management puzzle. I myself have a lot of other things I have [and want] to write this month. In fact, I'm actually dedicating this day for them, seeing as it's a Sunday and my mind's been making me feel guilty about neglecting all the other pieces I had started in October so yeah. XD

And congrats on reaching 50K! And here I thought I was doing semi-well for having a five-day total of 22K, but damn it, I'm still overwhelmed by the likes of Ysavvryl who can manage to churn out that many words in five days! And from the looks of it, you still have a lot of plot left in you, so good luck with finishing your novel!

How's everyone else doing?

 

[GastlyMan]

I might do it, but it'd be a bit late to start now, and I'm busy - I have to get my grades up. :/

That being said, it might help to turn off my obsessive-compulsive inner critic which causes me to write chapters over and over again because they just aren't perfect enough.

I suppose I can at least try it, even if it is a bit late XD If anything I can just cram the bulk of it into Thanksgiving break haha.

To people who have done it before: How did you find the time? My time management skills are atrocious. Also, were you pleased with your end product? I have a hard time writing if I feel like there are still a lot of mistakes which I won't have time to edit :/

Oh yeah, and roughly how many pages is 50,000 words? I need to see if I can write that much in a month :s

 

[Bay]

I'm getting close to 5,000 words now. The story is going a bit slow for me as my inner critic keep telling me, "This line is no good, rewrite it!" and also I don't want to rush some of the political stuff going on. D:

Over the time management question, I'm able to set aside a couple hours of writing before work and a couple hours after work. On my work off days that's when I try to play catch up. Despite the time, I'm still a pretty slow writer. XD;

 

[storymasterb]

I've got the first chapter of my fic up, and that came to about 9100 and something words. The thing is that in chapter terms, Dawn of Dusk is relatively short, I'm planning it to come to seven chapters (there's a bit of a seven motif in the fic itself), so to compensate I'm basically expanding the chapters to try and make things add up. On average, I need to be hitting about, say, 7150-ish words per chapter from my rapid working out in head sums to reach the 50,000 word goal, so... yeah. I'm fairly sure about what's happening, when and how in DoD, since I've had the base concepts stored up for a while, so in general it's just writing them.

-is actually doing better than expected at reaching the target-

 

[lovetheangelshadow]

Anyone else epiclly failing at this...mostly because homework and job are killing ya?

 

[Avenger Angel]

Anyone else epiclly failing at this...mostly because homework and job are killing ya?

Battlefield 3 came along and knifed all hope and aspiration I had for doing a NaNoWriMo in the back and stole its dog tags.

I had ideas and brainstormed some themes to use, but again, November isn't really the best month for me, and I just couldn't get psyched for writing a story. And yeah, I had been waiting for Battlefield 3 for many, many months, and the wait was totally worth it. If NaNoWriMo happened in July or August when I really wasn't doing anything much and was more inspired to write, it would have probably been a different story. Now, I've got a part time job to handle, school at night, and loads of other things to take care of... among enjoying plenty of Battlefield 3 rounds with friends.

After trying NaNoWriMo twice and failing both times without even coming close, I've realized it just isn't for me, and I doubt I'll try it again. But good luck to the rest of you guys.