I managed to get close to 5000 words on day one. I would've had a lot more, but I spent ten hours or so at a friend's house for her birthday. Still, at the rate, this should be easy considering I have 3-day weekends every weekend.
I was just reminded of this last night, so I'm going to give it a shot (even if I'm a few days late already). Within minutes, I had a premise which I'm already fleshing out.
My world is a fantasy land where a gnomish, underground people have just begun marketing their incredible, Victorian steampunk-ish technology. My main character is Auster, a common spellshaper (essentially the town's residential wizard) who has found his magic (which is very slow to use and relatively impractical) obsolete. Suddenly, the ground dwellers emerge and attack Auster's hometown. He and a few other survivors are forced to flee the town, which is becoming the enemy's headquarters. The small band teams up with a few other luddites in order to form a resistance where all odds are stacked against them.
For a premise that took about 20 minutes to do (my initial idea was Wizard's girlfriend is kidnapped), I'm pretty happy with it. Feel free to tear it apart/gimme some advice. Feel free to add me: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/595080
I cracked 10,000 words yesterday, which puts me way ahead on word count. I hope everyone else is sticking with it! Here's part of a great blog post from storyfix.com. It's about having a second half of a novel in mind, which is what I've posted about here a few times. This writer puts things way better than I ever could:
On Trusting the Process
I was up late last night working on a post for you about why planning the second half of your novel seems more difficult than planning the first half, which several readers have recently reported. CouldnÂ’t make the second half of that post work, which is ironic, and what leads me to this morningÂ’s content.
Story planning is often a matter of blind faith. If you create an ending for your story, and if itÂ’s in context to that solid first half, then start writing it. Even if it makes you squirm a little. DonÂ’t start until you have an ending in sight, the best you can come up with.
HereÂ’s what experience has shown me on that count. When you get to the Mid-Point of the manuscript, one of two things will happen, both good. You may discover that what you thought was soft is actually solid (always good when that happens, especially at my age). Or, you may come up with a better ending. The best news, though, is that itÂ’s almost always a value-add based on what youÂ’ve already done, versus what pantsers face, which is the need to go back and rewrite the first half, which never stood a chance.
Trust the process. ThereÂ’s magic in it. ItÂ’s your subconscious engaging with the story at the planning stage, then coupling with your creative intellect at the implementation stage. YouÂ’ll be shocked at how well this works. Have faith.
On NaNoWriMo Sanity
The very best piece of advice for NaNoWriMo participants: write with an ending in mind. If you donÂ’t, your manuscript will simply be a pile of paper with no future. Pure mush. This is too hard without the possibility of a future. WeÂ’re on Day Four, chances are youÂ’ve discovered that by now.
Do this right. Better to create 10K words that are viable than 50K words of sludge. And it will be sludge, especially in the context of the NaNoWriMo process, unless you know where the story is going. From the get-go. You need an ending, and you need it now. You also need a first plot point. You need a Mid-Point context shift.
You need to write scenes that are in context to those destination milestones. ItÂ’s the key to everything.
If you don’t have ‘em, stop now and put your planning hat on.
On Hamburgers and Stupidity
When I was a teenager who didnÂ’t drink, we had this really stupid game. A quantitative challenge, like NaNoWriMo. The idea was to see who among us could eat the most gut bombs (the small, cheap hamburgers sold by fast food restaurants). I ate ten. I won. Then I threw up.
It had no point. NaNoWriMo is like that if you donÂ’t write with a purpose, with context. The higher purpose, other than to just spit out 50,000 words, is to learn this process or create the basis for something with a future. DonÂ’t waste your time pursuing a hollow goal. Make this month count. Or all youÂ’ll be doing is regurgitating words.
I don't have the time for NaNoWriMo this year, but I do have a technique for creating a fuller, more complete structure to any first draft: Once you have a basic concept: Setting, characters, theme, and so forth, determine the number of "Acts" you want/need. I usually prefer a three act structure, but that is just a personal preference. Determine the end of each act starting with final act. Work backwards to your starting point. This also helps free you from an entirely linear story structure. Just one approach. It isn't always appropriate, but it can be helpful. Keep going everyone!
Is it too late to join? I made an account and everything, but it seems like I may be incredibly behind if I start now.
You might be. But, you can still play catchup. I'm relatively behind right now, but plan to take this afternoon to give myself many, many hours of jumpstarting. Hopefully I'll hit 10000 words today or tomorrow, and go even further.
It is much easier for me to figure out the story now that I've written down a few pages. I've finally got everything laid out about as much as I'll need, save for an ending. I've got a general idea of how I want to resolve it all but the exact execution is going to take some pondering.
Ok, I remembered I wanted to participate this year but I forgot it was in November so I'm starting off half a month late. I'm 300 words in, not bad for an idea I came up with 2 hours ago and it's an open enough story for me to easily beef up my word count with some random BS if I need to.
I'm at 21,465 words. I stormed ahead in the first week, getting about 5,000 words ahead at one point. For the past week I've not been keeping up, due to traveling and work and generally being busy. As of Wednesday I'll be at sea for 7 days in a row, so I know I'll be able to catch up.
However, my main problem now is that I'm way past half way through my story, as I have it planned, and I know I've not got another 25,000 worth to go. This happened last year too, but I was only about 2,000 words short. This year I'll be 15,000 words short. I know there are lots of places I can go back and fill in more character elements and scene descriptions, but that might add only 5,000 words at most. Also, in the summer I wrote 20,000 words of the backstory-storyline that will be interspersed through the main story. If I'd have saved that section for NaNoWriMo I'd have enough to write, no problem.
Thankfully, the goal for me is to finish the story I'm writing, not win the NaNoWriMo goal (I know I can do that) so either way I'm going to win (although winner both would be the most satisfying).
Just barely cracked 20,000 words last night as I had a huge writing weekend totaling over 13,000 words in three days. So, not fully caught up or on track, but I write pretty fast, and the coming weeks will have more free time than the last two.
I've been so busy with another project that I've not written any NaNoWriMo words since Monday. I've probably written the right number of words to keep up with my aim of 50,000 words by the end of the month — it's just that they've not been words in my novel. I think I'm not going to hit the target this year. It's a good job I have no plans for December, so I should be able to get it finished and edited then, along with my other written but not finally edited novel.
..I completely forgot about Nanowrimo this year and it's only 6 days til the 30th. Then again, an aspiring novelist like myself doesn't need to restrict myself to November every year. Maybe I'll start in December and post up my progress somewhere.
So the novel I wrote this year for NaNoWriMo is now available on my website in its entirety. It can be found here. I'd appreciate any feedback you might have.
Two days ago I passed 50,000 words on my novel. Tonight I finished it, and after deleting the notes and un-need passages, it stands at 49,990 words. And I don't even try to write a 50,000 word novel, I just write what I think is needed for the story. That I hit within 10 words of this arbitrary goal is quite amusing (to me).
Comments
My world is a fantasy land where a gnomish, underground people have just begun marketing their incredible, Victorian steampunk-ish technology. My main character is Auster, a common spellshaper (essentially the town's residential wizard) who has found his magic (which is very slow to use and relatively impractical) obsolete. Suddenly, the ground dwellers emerge and attack Auster's hometown. He and a few other survivors are forced to flee the town, which is becoming the enemy's headquarters. The small band teams up with a few other luddites in order to form a resistance where all odds are stacked against them.
For a premise that took about 20 minutes to do (my initial idea was Wizard's girlfriend is kidnapped), I'm pretty happy with it. Feel free to tear it apart/gimme some advice.
Feel free to add me: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/595080
Once you have a basic concept: Setting, characters, theme, and so forth, determine the number of "Acts" you want/need. I usually prefer a three act structure, but that is just a personal preference. Determine the end of each act starting with final act. Work backwards to your starting point. This also helps free you from an entirely linear story structure.
Just one approach. It isn't always appropriate, but it can be helpful.
Keep going everyone!
However, my main problem now is that I'm way past half way through my story, as I have it planned, and I know I've not got another 25,000 worth to go. This happened last year too, but I was only about 2,000 words short. This year I'll be 15,000 words short. I know there are lots of places I can go back and fill in more character elements and scene descriptions, but that might add only 5,000 words at most. Also, in the summer I wrote 20,000 words of the backstory-storyline that will be interspersed through the main story. If I'd have saved that section for NaNoWriMo I'd have enough to write, no problem.
Thankfully, the goal for me is to finish the story I'm writing, not win the NaNoWriMo goal (I know I can do that) so either way I'm going to win (although winner both would be the most satisfying).
I burst out in laughter after one and a half words.