[Darkwatch]

Thirty odd days from now the many an aspiring writer will develop a compulsive crtl+S habit after each sentence. This is of course useless on the forums, but none the less it shall be.
Once again it shall be National Novel Writing Month. At this point I assume most of you know what this is. For those who do not I refer you to the NaNoWriMo info pages Here and Here.

I know it is not yet November but my last two years have taught me that at least one good month of preparation is always a good idea. I encourage you all to start building your setting, making your notes and brain storming to be ready.

Who will comprise team Malazan this year? What will you be writing? Swashbuckling high adventure harlequin? Morose surrealism? Experimental moral post-modernism?
This thread is to keep each other motivated and look for help if needed. I'm hoping there will be a good many of you. 50'000 words seems like a lot but it really isn't. I also failed the first time I tried, but since then I have succeeded and hope to make it a good three in a row. Don't be discouraged by the past think of the November to come and how you will shred your keyboards.

The First group is those sticking to the rules, a new story of fiction.
The Second group is those who stick only to the word count (writing non-fiction, continuing other works).
The Third group is the moral support, those whose lives prevent them from getting directly involved.

The Orthodoxy
-Darkwatch
-Grief
-Silencer
-ShanRawr
-Trull's Son
-Defiance
-Satan
-Rictus

The Unorthodox
-Sinisdar Toste

The Cheerleaders
Dolmen+

Good Luck to us All.

This post has been edited by Darkwatch: 29 October 2013 - 11:10 PM

[Grief]

In for orthodoxy. Morose surrealism for me I think. My manuscript will probably end up both confusing and depressing so let's call it that.

Quite fired up at the moment, it's been a while since I've written much of anything.

Hopefully this year will be the year I succeed. Though that's what I say every year and then still end up falling short of the goal. I'm like the Liverpool of Nanowrimo.

[Darkwatch]

Grief, on 01 October 2013 - 10:42 PM, said:

In for orthodoxy. Morose surrealism for me I think. My manuscript will probably end up both confusing and depressing so let's call it that.

Quite fired up at the moment, it's been a while since I've written much of anything.

Hopefully this year will be the year I succeed. Though that's what I say every year and then still end up falling short of the goal. I'm like the Liverpool of Nanowrimo.

Good to have you back on board. You will make it this year. Only need to write 1667 words a day.
As for Morose surrealism I'm imagining some desperate characters weeping impotently while their tears fall sideways and feed some kind of giant machine while a sun of unknown colour makes tender love to a mountain as the trees sing depressing songs explaining the meaning of happiness.

On my end the working title is "The Last Fortress". Again it is sci-fi (I should really do something else) but with no attempts at horror this time.
I'm debating if I should try for 3500 words per day to total 100'000 words by the end. It seems very possible considering last year I pulled 2500 on average but then again it feels insane. Considering that I travel often, by car, I lose the time to write and it was close sometimes last year.

[Silencer]

In for Orthodoxy.

DW - clearly you need some kind of dictation software for your phone or something! Make that unproductive time productive again!

Hopefully I do not get woefully sidetracked this year. I know I can make the 50k easily enough if I can actually put metaphorical pen to paper, but I get the sinking feeling that uni assignments and exams are happening sometime around November... :S

[Darkwatch]

Silencer, on 02 October 2013 - 12:11 AM, said:

In for Orthodoxy.

DW - clearly you need some kind of dictation software for your phone or something! Make that unproductive time productive again!

Hopefully I do not get woefully sidetracked this year. I know I can make the 50k easily enough if I can actually put metaphorical pen to paper, but I get the sinking feeling that uni assignments and exams are happening sometime around November... :S

Dictation software would be fun if it wasn't so expensive. That and the chances are it would just turn into a rant.

You should be fine, you managed it the first time, just use the same strategy? Besides, who needs school?

[Dolmen 2.0]

Cheering you guys on, I researched this last time it went down, I'd loved to give it a shot but I've got little time this November with exams and side jobs going on. Really impressed by your drive DW, 100 000 in a month would be incredible.

@Silencer: Write about a High school girl writer facing the challenge of writing while writing exams in the oncoming radioactive apocalypse as it had been written in the write prophecy of writeousness.

INSTANT BESTSELLER!

...first japan, then the world!

[Silencer]

Dolmen+, on 03 October 2013 - 05:43 AM, said:

Cheering you guys on, I researched this last time it went down, I'd loved to give it a shot but I've got little time this November with exams and side jobs going on. Really impressed by your drive DW, 100 000 in a month would be incredible.

@Silencer: Write about a High school girl writer facing the challenge of writing while writing exams in the oncoming radioactive apocalypse as it had been written in the write prophecy of writeousness.

INSTANT BESTSELLER!

...first japan, then the world!

Well, Most Writers are Writers, so I'd have a couple of Tropes just based off the concept!

@Dolmen - you mean, when you refer to the 'strategy', "write fucktons in a short space of time at the start of the month so that you don't have to do very much to make the grade for the rest of the challenge"? XD Yeah, that works best when you have a story more-or-less spinning around in your head waiting to be typed out, not so well when there are only a few concepts you'd sorta-kinda like to look at! We'll see, though. I may yet surprise myself.

[ShanRawr]

I'm in for Orthodoxy.

[Sinisdar Toste]

in for unorthodox. i've spent the last half year approaching and planning the last quarter of the book i started last november (which quickly showed me it needed far more than 50k words). should be able to finish it within november if i stick with the pace.

This post has been edited by Sinisdar Toste: 08 October 2013 - 04:34 AM

[Darkwatch]

So they updated the website this year and it's looking nice so far.

This year I decided to try mind mapping for brain storming. It looks pretty but that's it. I have abandoned it to return to simply writing down ideas and expounding on them as it comes.
So far it's been productive but mostly environmental, seeing as the environment is very extreme and not what one would call intuitive. I need to start working on characters and factions and then on a general plot outline/timeline.
My ML has also posted the activity calendar for November.
The "Night of Writing Dangerously" will be November 17th. This event is held in San Francisco but every region has their own. The point is to have one night when everyone writes like mad.
Seeing as it is a Sunday this is unfortunate for people with jobs or school. So our region is doing it the 16th. As such I am appointing myself the unofficial ML (in this case Malazan Liaison, not "Municipal") and inviting you all to join me Saturday the 16th at 8pm EST online. I will most likely be with my RL region companions but seeing as this is all done on computers I will be happy to have any and all of you with me that night (you can of course start earlier, I'll simply be on location and on Hangout at 8pm).

Edit:

I also intend to do weekly write-ins for the forum participants in the Trickster (as a virtual pub). I'm thinking Wednesdays might be best. My Thursday to Sunday are usually booked, but I'm open to Monday and Tuesday as well. What about you guys?
Or we could organize it every week as they come which would be more flexible.

This post has been edited by Darkwatch: 09 October 2013 - 01:45 AM

[Trull's son]

I'm thinking of trying this. From what I can tell, signing up just gives access to the forums, but are there any other benefits? I mean, I can just shoot out some words on any old text document and keep track of the word count from there.

I've never tried to write fiction seriously. Might be fun.

[Macros]

You get email updates, helpful.tips and the like. Its useful for some to use the progress monitor and see what others are struggling with, some people like to hit the word document and run alone ymmv.

[Grief]

I tend to try and avoid the forum honestly, it's more distracting than helpful most of the time.

Having something to prompt you every day and make you feel a bit obligated is the biggest thing it does and you can get that from here, or friends/local writers groups anyhow.

[Trull's son]

I'll probably take a look at the forums, but it will be mostly a solo run with a text document for me. I'll give this a try then, from scratch. Are we allowed prep work before hand? Or is that cheating?

[Sinisdar Toste]

prep work is allowed, but the actual word count has to come from nov. 1-30th only

[Darkwatch]

So we are half-way through October and I have no characters no actual plot thought out yet. This needs to be remedied.

[Darkwatch]

So I have a protoform of a character now and an idea for the actual plot!
Huzzah!

[Amadaun]

I've never done NaNoWriMo.

I kinda really want to.

[Dolmen 2.0]

Darkwatch, on 18 October 2013 - 12:16 AM, said:

So I have a protoform of a character now and an idea for the actual plot!
Huzzah!

So you gonna tackle Setting too or are you gonna let that create itself as you throw plot at your character?

I've read some of your stuff before so interested where you plan to place this one.

[Darkwatch]

Amadaun, on 18 October 2013 - 01:45 PM, said:

I've never done NaNoWriMo.

I kinda really want to.

Then do so. There's still time to sign up and get ready. You'll get support from here and if you want to in RL in your region.

Dolmen+, on 18 October 2013 - 02:02 PM, said:

Darkwatch, on 18 October 2013 - 12:16 AM, said:

So I have a protoform of a character now and an idea for the actual plot!
Huzzah!

So you gonna tackle Setting too or are you gonna let that create itself as you throw plot at your character?

I've read some of your stuff before so interested where you plan to place this one.

Setting wise the environment is done. This year it happens in a black hole (the amount of time dilation and tidal sheer will be monstrous). The factions need a bit of fleshing out but that will happen with the writing mostly.