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NaNoWriMo

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  • I think the easiest, most enjoyable way to do NaNoWriMo is to make something really cheesy or campy. You don't have to worry about quality as much, so It lets you have fun with it and keep moving when the story gets lame.
  • There was definitely going to be scenes revolving around the deep fryer,
  • I'm definitely cheezing it up, gonna do a comedy/horror Zombie thirller in Wildwood NJ :-p It's going to be bad, but maybe after I'm done I can actually rewrite it into something somewhat good.
    Oh! Then our B movie will be an adaptation! Huzzah!
  • There was definitely going to be scenes revolving around the deep fryer,
    Person a: "HOLY CRAP! That zombie be groaning "Deep-fried braaaaaaaainssss"!"
    Everyone: "Scott?!"
  • Sweet. Are you going to be posting your novel anywhere as you go, Cremlian? I may have to stalk your progress. If not, then I'd at least love to read the whole thing when it's done.
  • Oh your not going to want to read whatever I come up with ^_^
  • Oh your not going to want to read whatever I come up with ^_^
    It's a NaNoWriMo novella with zombies. We are obligated to read it.
  • Oh your not going to want to read whatever I come up with ^_^
    It's a NaNoWriMo novella with zombies. We are obligated to read it.
    True 'nuff. If you didn't want people to read it, you shouldn't have told us your awesome premise. ;)
  • Oh your not going to want to read whatever I come up with ^_^
    It's a NaNoWriMo novella with zombies. We are obligated to read it.
    True 'nuff. If you didn't want people to read it, you shouldn't have told us your awesome premise. ;)
    Besides, half the fun of NaNo is reading/hearing excerpts of cheesy stories at the TGIO party. Because no matter how cheesy you think your story is, you can almost always rest assured that someone, somewhere, is planning something cheesier.
  • Besides, half the fun of NaNo is reading/hearing excerpts of cheesy stories at the TGIO party. Because no matter how cheesy you think your story is, you can almost always rest assured that someone, somewhere, is planning something cheesier.
    yea, that's not the problem, the problem is I am a terrible writer :-p
  • yea, that's not the problem, the problem is I am a terrible writer :-p
    Sorry, that position has already been taken. Besides, you wish to write about zombies, if you ask me it is very hard to fuck that up with bad writing. Zombies!
  • Besides, half the fun of NaNo is reading/hearing excerpts of cheesy stories at the TGIO party. Because no matter how cheesy you think your story is, you can almost always rest assured that someone, somewhere, is planning something cheesier.
    yea, that's not the problem, the problem is I am a terrible writer :-p
    If you keep at it all through November, I think you'll surprise yourself. Tons of people I've known who do NaNo think that they're terrible writers, and then churn out surprisingly good stuff for large parts of their novel. ;)
  • Hey, wanna be my buddy? I'm here. I'm writing a story that I've had in my head for a long time.
  • edited October 2008
    Hee, I had a fun idea. Just for the hell of it, I'm planning on slipping in altered versions of geek podcasters as various side characters throughout my novel. So far, I have versions of Rym, Scott, Dave, Joel, Paul, Clarissa, Gerald, and Daryl listed as possibilities. ;)
    Post edited by Eryn on
  • Besides, half the fun of NaNo is reading/hearing excerpts of cheesy stories at the TGIO party. Because no matter how cheesy you think your story is, you can almost always rest assured that someone, somewhere, is planning something cheesier.
    yea, that's not the problem, the problem is I am a terrible writer :-p
    I don't care how cheesy it is. If you put me in your zombie story, I'll read it from page 1 to page x.
    define "x" = end_of_document
  • ......
    edited October 2008
    If you put me in your zombie story, I'll read it from page 1 to page x.
    Darnit, now I wish I still had my Urban Dead zombie description at hand. :\
    Saving the Universe Before Lunch: Case Files of the White Rabbit Corporation
    As if the part before the colon wasn't crazy sounding enough.
    Post edited by ... on
  • Oh man, I totally want to do this! Woo woo! I think I'll use the idea for my webcomic I've been churning around, seeing as I have the world and the character profiles pretty much set, but no plot outline to speak of. This will force me to produce something, which I can always rework later into comic form.
  • edited October 2008
    New NaNo concept: An actual "'anonymous' protestors" situation. A huge hidden culture that can gather at any time unexpectedly. It'll be ham handed and lame with me writing it, but it should be fun.

    Ooh, I thought of another on the pooper (too much information, I know). Get this: The Great Escape, but with an oppressive retirement home.

    So many ideas, so little time to choose between them.
    Post edited by Walker on
  • edited October 2008
    Ooh, I thought of another on the pooper (too much information, I know). Get this: The Great Escape, but with an oppressive retirement home.
    You mean like "Shady Pines" from Golden Girls?

    Here's my starter for my NaNoWriMo story. It's based off a dream I had while sick with a fever. Mine was so Gekiga! With Yakuza, and snipers, and a big "last stand". Fever dreams are awesome!

    ------------
    I've been sick these past few days, but I thought what I'd do was pretend I was one of those-
    I thought what I'd do was post last nights dream since it's been the most coherent of the last new few nights. It's funny how months can pass in the span of 8 hours. What I'm writing here is basically the same as my dream, but obviously I'm filling in the gaps to make it more readable as a story.

    Chapter 1:

    It was the year 2010, and a new era was beginning. Corruption had spread through CSU: Northridge, and soon the Associated Students, an organization created to manage the campuses commercial ventures and represent the students, was disbanded. What replaced it was the COS (Career Oriented Students), which was merely a front for the local yakuza element. The puppet president of this new org was Soujiro Higurashi, a Graduate student aiming for his law degree. At first I thought this change was strange, but I didn't suspect it to be criminal.

    Then they came knocking on my door.

    During my freshman and sophomore years, I had established an on-campus computer repair shop in an unused classroom near the University Student Union, the central square of the campus. We had a reputation for great service and had managed to be profitable pay the school for the room , pay our techs, and buy nice equipment. But unlike the rest of the commercial ventures on campus, we were technically only a for-profit club, and had no dealings with the AS. I guess it only makes sense that, not long after the new COS regime was put into place, one of their representatives came looking for me.
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • Here's my starter for my NaNoWriMo story.
    I'd read that.

    And you're right, fever dreams can produce awesome ideas, even though being sick is no fun.
  • How do you guys actually do it when you write a novel? Do you do an outline? Just start on page 1 and go straight through? The only way I can imagine doing it would be to start with very basic outline, like just the major events of the story. Then go through again and add the minor events, and so on. Like starting with a skeleton, then gradually putting on the meat and skin.
  • Here's my starter for my NaNoWriMo story. It's based off a dream I had while sick with a fever. Mine was so Gekiga! With Yakuza, and snipers, and a big "last stand". Fever dreams are awesome!
    You're not allowed to write a single word beforehand, no?

    @Funfetus, that's a method I've heard being used. Then again, the majority just has a few major plot points and then just starts writing and let the characters do as they please, creating the minor plot points and smaller details as the story goes along.
  • I do an outline (and usually a treatment) for any story or screenplay I write. Also I write down stuff about the characters: Goals, Faults, stuff to deepen their interactions with each other.

    Hey, how about tonight I post one of the character worksheets I use? I should post some of my creative writing notes I have in digital format too.
  • How do you guys actually do it when you write a novel?
    I've tried just sitting down and writing with no preparation whatsoever, and it's been an epic fail every time. So I'm trying something different this year. I'm using yWriter to compile notes on my characters and scenes, and FreeMind to map out world details and basic structure. I'm a lot more confident that things will go smoothly this year (she said with her fingers crossed).
    Hey, how about tonight I post one of the character worksheets I use? I should post some of my creative writing notes I have in digital format too.
    That would be cool.
  • edited October 2008
    You're not allowed to write a single word beforehand, no?
    Seems like what Sonic put there was more of a concept blurb than actual writing for the story. So long as he doesn't actually use any of that in his real first chapter, he should be in the clear.
    Post edited by Eryn on
  • Ooh, I thought of another on the pooper (too much information, I know). Get this: The Great Escape, but with an oppressive retirement home.
    You mean like "Shady Pines" from Golden Girls?

    Here's my starter for my NaNoWriMo story. It's based off a dream I had while sick with a fever. Mine was so Gekiga! With Yakuza, and snipers, and a big "last stand". Fever dreams are awesome!
    I've never seen golden girls, actually. I'm thinking that it'll be a home full of old people that don't really need to be there, but their families wanted to get rid of them.

    Also, fever dreams are one of the few upsides of being sick. I love remembering all the weird crap my mind comes up with when I'm not looking.
  • Ooh, I thought of another on the pooper (too much information, I know). Get this: The Great Escape, but with an oppressive retirement home.
    You mean like "Shady Pines" from Golden Girls?

    Here's my starter for my NaNoWriMo story. It's based off a dream I had while sick with a fever. Mine was so Gekiga! With Yakuza, and snipers, and a big "last stand". Fever dreams are awesome!
    I've never seen golden girls, actually. I'm thinking that it'll be a home full of old people that don't really need to be there, but their families wanted to get rid of them.
    That's pretty much Shady Pines. The nurses there are evil.
  • Actually, you CAN write before NaNoWriMo starts, but anything you do before the start date doesn't contribute to your word count. That's what it says on the site.

    Where are those worksheets, Emi? I wanna seeeeee.
  • Actually, you CAN write before NaNoWriMo starts, but anything you do before the start date doesn't contribute to your word count. That's what it says on the site.
    Thanks for checking that for me. But you know as well as I that they cannot confirm whether or not part of the stuff you upload for counting was written before the start of November or not. Isn't there also a request on the site to "Please don't start writing parts of your story beforehand."?
  • edited October 2008
    It's true that they can't confirm whether you included anything written before the 1st in your novel or not. The whole thing is based on the honour system. Sure, some people may cheat to get a big head start (or even try to "win" with the text of an entirely pre-written piece), but the trick here is that the people who cheat don't get as much/any of the self-satisfaction of having beaten the intimidating challenge that was set before them. How pathetic is it that all a person would want to get out of an event like this is a little clump of pixels saying "I won" before anyone else, without even caring about what those pixels are supposed to mean? Hence, I don't really concern myself much with people who cheat at NaNo. :/
    Post edited by Eryn on
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