NaNoWriMo: November 2018

[Valka D'Ur]

It's that time of year again, when those of us who think it's fun to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days sit down... and write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (or at least try).

I don't know how many others here might be interested in trying this; I hope at least one other person will, so I don't end up talking to myself in this thread. As with the Camp NaNoWriMo threads, I'll be keeping a daily total and may post comments (rants, raves, and musings) about how it's all going. If you're participating, feel free to post about your own story, or ask questions.

The website is here: https://nanowrimo.org/

If you already have an account, just log in and fill in the relevant information for your novel (the basics are the title, type of novel, and genre; everything else is optional). The competition begins November 1, so no cheating by starting early!

I plan to keep on with the story I started back in April for Camp NaNoWriMo and continued in the July Camp event. I made my word count targets and more in both those events, so I'm trying for a hat trick in November.

For anyone who might want to try this and is feeling a bit intimidated at the thought of 50,000 words in 30 days... it breaks down to 1667 words/day.

And if you try it and don't make it... at least you'll have tried. I've had years when my word count could be expressed in a round number: 0 (RL got in the way or the idea I had didn't work; a couple of times it was the computer that decided to give me so much grief that I just chucked the whole thing).

Don't worry about perfect prose or if your story doesn't measure up to someone else's. That's not what NaNoWriMo is about. The only person you're competing with is yourself. Nobody ever needs to see your story unless you choose to share it.

 

[Luckymoose]

Good luck to everyone who participates. I am doing it this year again, but I doubt I'll hit 50k.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Good luck to everyone who participates. I am doing it this year again, but I doubt I'll hit 50k.

Thank you, Luckymoose. You've made it on other occasions, so I'm sure you'll do fine.

I got as far as registering, or as the website calls it, "announcing" my novel.

Just remember... the hardest parts of this come at two stages: Beginning and sometime between the 2nd and 3rd week (at least for a lot of people, when it looks like forever to that 50,000-word mark and the last week or so). Last year I finished a few days early and kept on going until the last day.

The problem is that I've got a story running around in my head that's got nothing to do with the story I'd planned for November. This other story hasn't been properly outlined, and I don't want to have to worry about word counts for it anyway.

Oh, well. It's Day 1 and I'll get something down by midnight tonight. Fortunately I'm one time zone over so the actual deadline for each day's word count is 1 am here.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Sooo... Day 1 and I am spectacularly behind. The minimum word count necessary each day is 1667. I only managed 1149.

That's not good enough.

Note to self: This isn't some 400-word romp that's doable in 20 minutes.

Oh, and Dear Whoever Designed the NaNoWriMo website this time: It's crap. Really, I should not have to search all over the place to figure out how to edit word count/day.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Day 2 total: 2494 words.

I'm 840 words behind where I should be. Thank goodness for the weekend, when I don't have anything on TV to distract me.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Day 3 total: 3541 words.

This is disgusting. I am making basically no progress at all on the Park Rangers story; at the moment I know where it has to go, but I've got writer's block as far as how to get there.

On the other hand, now that it's November, the progress I am making is with the Kingmaker: Rise to the Throne fanfic. That story is being thought up faster than I can type. I just need to remember to start earlier in the day. This is not Camp NaNoWriMo where I can dash off the daily minimum plus an extra hundred words in 20 minutes or so.

 

[stormerne]

This is my first year with NaNoWriMo. I didn't know of its existence till a new months ago. Only heard via friends on Mastodon. And I didn't decide to register on the NaNoWriMo website until October 28th. I had no preparation at all, which makes me an outright "Pantser" as they seem to call it.

At first I was going to be a NaNoRebel and just go for a novelette of say 11,000 words, at least so I thought. But no. Here I am, at the end of day 4, having written 7656 words fairly steadily at around 400 or so words an hour. My story and character pacing seem obviously 'novel-size' rather than anything smaller, so I guess I'm easily on track so far for being just a regular old school Wrimo.

Choosing a novel genre was interesting. It didn't fit into their standard options of adventure, children's fiction, erotic, fanfiction, fantasy, historical, horror/supernatural, LGBT+, literary, mainstream, mystery, personal, religious/spiritual, romance, satire/humor, science fiction, suspense/thriller, women's fiction, or young adult. So I selected "Other" (apparently a new addition) and was able to write "Magical Realism" in the new box that appeared (and that's a standard genre, dammit!).

But I have a challenge. I'd already committed to two on-line courses as well on FutureLearn. Doing NaNoWriMo at the same time is either a sign of insanity or a future cause of it. One course has only another week to run, thankfully, but the other will run throughout November. So I'm being really disciplined and finishing my NaNoWriMo quota each day, plus a bit to get to a nice break point, and only then doing the coursework.

Question: Does this writing buddy thing work at all? ("Work" meaning "effective" rather than whether or not it's operational.)

 

[Valka D'Ur]

This is my first year with NaNoWriMo. I didn't know of its existence till a new months ago. Only heard via friends on Mastodon. And I didn't decide to register on the NaNoWriMo website until October 28th. I had no preparation at all, which makes me an outright "Pantser" as they seem to call it.

At first I was going to be a NaNoRebel and just go for a novelette of say 11,000 words, at least so I thought. But no. Here I am, at the end of day 4, having written 7656 words fairly steadily at around 400 or so words an hour. My story and character pacing seem obviously 'novel-size' rather than anything smaller, so I guess I'm easily on track so far for being just a regular old school Wrimo.

Choosing a novel genre was interesting. It didn't fit into their standard options of adventure, children's fiction, erotic, fanfiction, fantasy, historical, horror/supernatural, LGBT+, literary, mainstream, mystery, personal, religious/spiritual, romance, satire/humor, science fiction, suspense/thriller, women's fiction, or young adult. So I selected "Other" (apparently a new addition) and was able to write "Magical Realism" in the new box that appeared (and that's a standard genre, dammit!).

But I have a challenge. I'd already committed to two on-line courses as well on FutureLearn. Doing NaNoWriMo at the same time is either a sign of insanity or a future cause of it. One course has only another week to run, thankfully, but the other will run throughout November. So I'm being really disciplined and finishing my NaNoWriMo quota each day, plus a bit to get to a nice break point, and only then doing the coursework.

Question: Does this writing buddy thing work at all? ("Work" meaning "effective" rather than whether or not it's operational.)

Welcome!

You're making more progress than I am at this point, so good for you.

I can't really say about the "writing buddy" thing on the NaNo website, as I've never done that. @Zkribbler and I have a conversation going in the "Watcha Writin'?" thread here in A&E that's mostly about his writing, partly about mine, and there's a bit of other stuff as well from other people.

So I have no idea how effective it might be. The person who got me into NaNoWriMo many years ago lives in Kentucky and he's lucky enough to live in a community where there are enough participants to actually have RL meet-ups. They go to a coffee shop with their laptops and bounce ideas and encouragement off each other. I'm pretty isolated where I am, so I just never got into much of the social aspect of this. I post here and if anyone wants to talk about their stories or ask about mine, I'm happy to listen, offer ideas, and so on.

The thing about NaNoWriMo is that the person you're really competing with is yourself. Since you've been able to keep up your word count and do the courses you committed to, I'd say you're doing very well.

There are two Camp NaNoWriMo months that go on as well, in April and July (I have threads for those here). The Camp events allow you to choose your own word count goal, but the November event is a firm 50,000 words (minimum; I made it well over that last year).

 

[stormerne]

Thanks Valka for the welcome! Gosh, I haven't posted in CFC at all for... hmm... well it seems like a long time anyway.

Living in Denver there are very many Wrimo events, write-ins and the like, that I could attend. But I know I won't, at least not for my own benefit. They would take a significant time out of my day just traveling, and I have to say I rather like my home comforts! But I'm happy to post here, if you think that would be a good place at CFC that's NNWM centered rather than general, and especially if you'd find it of use or small encouragement. As for other monthly events, prompts etc., I'll probably join the many that crop up in the Mastodon community.

 

[Zkribbler]

Welcome stormerne.

Valka is a good source for everything, especially science fiction. I'm not participating because I'm on the verge of finishing writing a novel. I had hope that I'd finish it up last month, but that didn't happen.

I probably won't be participating in Nanowrimo again because I have at least a half dozen stubs of novels & I'd rather concentrate on finishing them.

I will be around to offer encouragement and made requested suggestions.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Sorry for the delay in updating. I've been honestly discouraged this year since I'm so far behind where I should be. I just get so sidetracked by other stuff, and am out of practice with sitting down and doing a couple of thousand words/day. This time I know the story I want to tell, but it just goes a lot faster in my head than it does on the keyboard.

Anyway, current word count on Day 10 is 9427.


On a more cheerful note, this is my 20,000th post on CFC, and I couldn't think of a more appropriate place to put it.

 

[Zkribbler]

.

Anyway, current word count on Day 10 is 9427.

Remember you changed stories after Day 3, so really you're only on Day 7.

On a more cheerful note, this is my 20,000th post on CFC, and I couldn't think of a more appropriate place to put it.

 

[Mouthwash]

So, you've had a breakthrough? Where are you now in wordcount?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

"Breakthrough" is relative. It's going to take a miracle to finish as I'm still at less than 15,000 words with only 10 days to go (validation starts today, if anyone reading this thread does have at least 50,000 words and wants to declare an early finish). That would put me right on track for Camp NaNoWriMo, but it's disastrous in terms of the November event. By "breakthrough" I mean in terms of the story itself - I'm getting a much better handle on the characters, and have actually figured out how to start it (I've been jumping around quite a bit and have been working on the ending for the past few days).

I think that seeing where the story has to end is helping me figure out how it should start, as the main characters undergo a number of significant physical and emotional trials in the course of less than 24 hours. The game glossed over a lot of that - necessary as it's aimed at a general audience - but I plan to take some parts of it several steps farther.

Of course there are still distractions... right now I'm mentally planning a wedding for a couple of the characters and that is waaay in the post-game future... by at least a couple of years. @MaryKB might be pleased to know that it involves Duke William...

 

[Zkribbler]

"Breakthrough" is relative.

I know this all too well, being stuck for days, weeks, or even months. Then an insight breaks the logjam, and you're moving again! It is a glorious feeling. Congratulations!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It's day 24 and I'm at 19,940 words. It's going to be a very tough slog this week, but if I can just keep from getting distracted, I can do this. I just have to pull off about 5000 words/day.

Must resist watching so much TV. Just record the damn soap opera, because it's become my habit to watch my soap and then flip over to the Space Channel and watch Star Trek.

Must also resist sneaking over to fanfiction.net and AO3 to read other people's stories. They'll keep until December 1.


At least the evil Queen is finally dead. Next up is the coronation and a mini-family reunion as the new King's sister arrives and has no idea what's happened that day (it's a bit of a shock to find that the old King was murdered, her brothers were accused of the crime, her father was murdered, and then one of her brothers turns out to be the rightful heir to the throne). I've been going round and round with this part of the story for weeks, trying out different scenarios to get everything explained. And it doesn't help that the more I work with this, the more the sister's husband keeps turning into an even bigger jerk. It's actually to the point where I'm trying to think of a legal way to annul their marriage - not easy since they have a kid on the way, and this takes place during a century when divorce wasn't something that was done just because the husband turned out to be a jerk.

And now I have to figure out the names of a couple of dozen new characters. Thank goodness for name generator sites.

 

[Zkribbler]

.. I'm trying to think of a legal way to annul their marriage

I suggest bigamy.

And now I have to figure out the names of a couple of dozen new characters. Thank goodness for name generator sites.

My editor once took me to task for having too many named characters. She argued this makes it difficult to distinguish the major characters from the minor characters.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I suggest bigamy.

Neither of them are stepping out on the other; it's just that the husband becomes more and more of a jerk, every time I work on those scenes. The problem is that he and the in-laws didn't really get along well from the get-go (this is one of those arranged marriage things and the groom didn't meet the bride's family until the day before the wedding, when it was far too late to cancel everything; when they did finally meet it was not a warm and fuzzy moment).

Besides, this game takes place from the year 1009 to 1039 AD. Bigamy is not an option.

Another besides: The husband is the conservative sort. He just wants his wife to be subservient, obedient, dress modestly (the standards of Ravensmoor are stricter than the standards of Griffinvale), etc., and she's determined that when she comes home for a visit, she's going to behave like a lady of Griffinvale, thankyouverymuch. It's not that Griffinvale is a wild, immodest place, but they just have some different ways of doing some things.

I'm using this story to explore a number of themes: adoption/fostering, nature vs. nurture, how some of the biggest parts of culture shock can arise over some of the most unexpected things, family dynamics when trying to come to terms with finding out you're adopted and trying to reconcile your past life with the new life you're expected to step into (in other words, some of the traditional "happily ever after" endings in fairy tales/fantasy stories actually turn out to be pretty awkward if you really think about what the characters have just been through and what they're probably going to go through if you extend the story in a more logical way), and there are others as well.

I'm bringing the arts into this; the characters in this game all need a hobby when they're not dashing around all over the place getting into trouble. I'm exploring just why a Duke's family lives above a fishmarket on the waterfront, instead of in a fancy mansion or palace of their own, and I've found myself thinking about the environment and economy of the kingdom. It appears to be situated in a vast lake (distance from the nearest ocean to be determined in some future story; I did decide that one of the characters would really like to see the ocean some day as he's read about it and is curious).


So if I can think up this stuff, there's no reason why the game developers can't come up with a sequel. Of course their idea of what might happen next would likely be very different from my ideas. They've got an obvious hook, though, since they didn't outright kill off all the villains and they did bring magic into things at the end so maybe the villain that's dead really isn't...

My editor once took me to task for having too many named characters. She argued this makes it difficult to distinguish the major characters from the minor characters.

Oh, I don't think there would be too much difficulty distinguishing some of these new characters. I don't intend to do much with them, but there is a pivotal scene in the game where one of the main characters discovers a 30-year-old document attesting to the true parentage and legitimacy of another main character, and it's signed by "The Seven Dukes of Griffinvale."

It occurred to me that over a 30-year period, some of the original signatories on that document would have died, and who knows what their heirs might know about all this? The heir to the throne had to be hidden from the villain, so the fewer who knew his real identity, the more likely he'd live to adulthood and be able to take his place as King when the time came.

So I need a scene where this gets hashed out among the Dukes, as to whether or not they're willing to support the rule of this heir that some of them have either never heard of, or that they're reticent about supporting as the heir because they've always known him as just the son of one of their fellow dukes (sometimes a cover story can work a little too well).

This means I need names for the Seven Dukes and their heirs. One of them is already a major character, so that part's easy. Another of them is killed during the game and it becomes obvious who his real heir is. So that leaves five more to go. As I said, thank goodness for name generator sites.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Time for an update: On Day 26, I have 26,234 words. That's where I should have been 11 days ago.

With 4 days to go, I'm not sure I can make it to 50,000, but I'm damn sure going to try.

 

[Zkribbler]

C'ya in four days. Bon chance.