[Silencer]

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

I've never done NaNoWriMo.

I kinda really want to.

DO EET!

I know how good you are at volume AND quality, Ama. You would totally be into NaNo.

[Cas]

This is also my first time actually attempting Nano, though I've had an account for a couple of years. Is there a lot of support for it on these forums?

[Defiance]

I've wanted to do NaNoWriMo for 3 or 4 years now. I always have the intention of doing it, then November rolls around and I conveniently forget to start writing.

But fuck it. This year, I'm making the commitment. Posting my intent to participate here so that I'm somewhat accountable if I don't. Not that reputation means all that much, but y'all can shower me with down votes if I don't try my best to hit 50,000 words. I'll be sure to report on my progress from time to time.

No idea what I'm going to write about. Something in a high fantasy setting. I've had lots of ideas in the past, but I can never get anything off the ground. As a result, I think I'm going to wipe the slate clean. I won't bring any characters, races, cities, and so on that I've already made into this. I'll probably do a little drafting in the next week, but for the most part I think I'll be going in blind. The beginning will probably be a jumbled mess, but that's what rewrites are for.

Good luck everyone,

[Satan]

I'm in. Hade a story banging around in my head for a couple of years and - in my head - has developed quite nicely I think. Haven't got a shot in hell of doing 50,000 words, but it's worth the attempt if only to get a start on my writing.

Best o luck to you other WriMos!

[Darkwatch]

Cas, on 22 October 2013 - 07:15 PM, said:

This is also my first time actually attempting Nano, though I've had an account for a couple of years. Is there a lot of support for it on these forums?

In terms of support we tend to try and encourage each other to continue and to push ahead. If you need help with plot points or characters I'd be willing to help if I can and I'm sure other will as well.

Defiance, on 23 October 2013 - 05:12 AM, said:

I've wanted to do NaNoWriMo for 3 or 4 years now. I always have the intention of doing it, then November rolls around and I conveniently forget to start writing.

But fuck it. This year, I'm making the commitment. Posting my intent to participate here so that I'm somewhat accountable if I don't. Not that reputation means all that much, but y'all can shower me with down votes if I don't try my best to hit 50,000 words. I'll be sure to report on my progress from time to time.

No idea what I'm going to write about. Something in a high fantasy setting. I've had lots of ideas in the past, but I can never get anything off the ground. As a result, I think I'm going to wipe the slate clean. I won't bring any characters, races, cities, and so on that I've already made into this. I'll probably do a little drafting in the next week, but for the most part I think I'll be going in blind. The beginning will probably be a jumbled mess, but that's what rewrites are for.

Good luck everyone,

Now that is the right attitude! No Plot No Problem^TM! I've found that having a basic outline is useful but nothing to complete since you're going to be writing like mad and going to deviate a lot.

We do often post our word counts, but please no down-voting. Only up-voting for success, much more positive.

Satan, on 24 October 2013 - 05:18 AM, said:

I'm in. Hade a story banging around in my head for a couple of years and - in my head - has developed quite nicely I think. Haven't got a shot in hell of doing 50,000 words, but it's worth the attempt if only to get a start on my writing.

Best o luck to you other WriMos!

You can pull off 50K Satan. Let your beard and tie guide you.

I failed my first year but haven't since and I now know that my strategy was all wrong. That and I became compulsive about writing all the time. Which incidentally is a great conversation starter.

[Rictus]

I will surely fall short of that goal but what the hell -- nothing ventured, nothing gained, as it so aptly says in the FAQ. This should be interesting.
The Lady's pull to you all!

[Satan]

The way things are looking at work right now and foreseeable future I'll be ecstatic if I reach 5000 words. If this thing was in march I'd be more optimistic; November has always been a terrible month for extra curricular activities.

[Darkwatch]

Satan, on 29 October 2013 - 07:36 PM, said:

The way things are looking at work right now and foreseeable future I'll be ecstatic if I reach 5000 words. If this thing was in march I'd be more optimistic; November has always been a terrible month for extra curricular activities.

I agree. For those in school in the Northern Hemisphere it's always a pain. You've just come off mid-terms and the crunch for the end of semester projects starts.
As for work it depends on your job though I know a lot of end year reports need doing in November.

As it stands I still wish you luck Satan (I keep writing Brynj then having to correct...)

[Satan]

Darkwatch, on 29 October 2013 - 11:10 PM, said:

Satan, on 29 October 2013 - 07:36 PM, said:

The way things are looking at work right now and foreseeable future I'll be ecstatic if I reach 5000 words. If this thing was in march I'd be more optimistic; November has always been a terrible month for extra curricular activities.

I agree. For those in school in the Northern Hemisphere it's always a pain. You've just come off mid-terms and the crunch for the end of semester projects starts.
As for work it depends on your job though I know a lot of end year reports need doing in November.

As it stands I still wish you luck Satan (I keep writing Brynj then having to correct...)

I'm administrating exams throughout November, so the month is only slightly less stressful for me than it was when I was taking them.

And you correct because you can't remember my full name?

[Darkwatch]

I remember your full old-name. Just hasn't sunk in yet that you're Satan.

Also Nano has begun in New Zealand and Oz. DO we have any updates from our landlord? (Silencer)

[Grief]

FFFFFFF, I've been too busy to plan anything.

[Darkwatch]

Grief, on 31 October 2013 - 10:00 PM, said:

FFFFFFF, I've been too busy to plan anything.

It happens.

Remember one of the NaNoWriMo slogans:

No Plot? No Problem.

What is your concept? I'd be willing to help you come up with some last minute stuff on here if you want or via the chat or hangout.

[Grief]

Thanks for the offer, but I won't really be able to get started on it till tomorrow anyhow, since I'm busy again tonight.

I'll hopefully have time to have a decent start at it tomorrow and Saturday, and see how I'm doing then.

Concept wise I've got a few ideas knocking around but nothing with much of a structured plot, just vague ideas about theme, narrative elements, a few scenes here and there, etc.

One is a vaguely surrealist book about memory loss/falsification/uncertainty and the issues that causes. Or I may focus less on the memory side of it and more on a sort of vague notion of personal identity, don't know. I've never come up with a plot that I find satisfying here though...

Another is more plot driven, fantasy/something-punk sort of thing, with the driving idea being that the certain forms of the "magic" sort of rely on messing with probability/possibility and making a particular outcome the one that actually happens. Then there are certain plot elements/characters which are possibilities powerful enough to influence the world and are trying to influence it in a manner that will make them actualities (and in some cases, actualities that have always been the case). It's also got a sort of pseudo-detective side which I'm not so sure about.

Thirdly is something to do with magic that is attainable in some manner (nanobot/special magic stuff injection or something maybe), but production is controlled presently by one corporation/government, and there are various factions vying for control of it, making their own illictly etc. Tied into this the earlier forms (and maybe some of the illicit ones) of it were powerful but unstable, so early users are being hunted down. Might try and tie this one in to the previous idea, the worlds are possibility meshable but I'm not sure they're close enough, in particular the former relies on various sorts of magic, which kind of reduces the idea of monopoly on it in this one.

For core ideas I'm fine, I just have very little in the way of specific plot. The second one is probably the most fleshed out, it's been kicking around longest, and I've even tried to write that one before but scrapped it, so I've a good idea of characters and some idea of the overarching plot. But I'd rather write the first one, which have least idea about, just now.

[Darkwatch]

Grief, on 31 October 2013 - 11:41 PM, said:

Thanks for the offer, but I won't really be able to get started on it till tomorrow anyhow, since I'm busy again tonight.

I'll hopefully have time to have a decent start at it tomorrow and Saturday, and see how I'm doing then.

Well if you ever want an extra brain for brainstorming.

Quote

Concept wise I've got a few ideas knocking around but nothing with much of a structured plot, just vague ideas about theme, narrative elements, a few scenes here and there, etc.

One is a vaguely surrealist book about memory loss/falsification/uncertainty and the issues that causes. Or I may focus less on the memory side of it and more on a sort of vague notion of personal identity, don't know. I've never come up with a plot that I find satisfying here though...

Hum... Do you feel like taking this in a more psychiatric/neurological direction? I've got a few articles I could send you about the fact that memories even in "normal" people are basically worthless. You could do it in some either parallel world or near future where information overload has begun to really destroy everyone's memories (conflicting sources and memory origins) but no one noticed until your protagonist does. So begins the journey to clear his/her mind and those of everyone around them and possibly the futility?

Quote

Another is more plot driven, fantasy/something-punk sort of thing, with the driving idea being that the certain forms of the "magic" sort of rely on messing with probability/possibility and making a particular outcome the one that actually happens. Then there are certain plot elements/characters which are possibilities powerful enough to influence the world and are trying to influence it in a manner that will make them actualities (and in some cases, actualities that have always been the case). It's also got a sort of pseudo-detective side which I'm not so sure about.

Well you could go all the way into the detective thing and go noir. It might be ridiculous but it would be entertaining and it doesn't need to be the whole novel (this means more editing in the future but hey word count! I had a singing goat hallucination in last year's.)
This would be an interesting exploration of philosophy applied to magic (ala Prince of Nothing) which would be awesome. You could have Platonists, Euclideans, Atomists, Kantians, etc... (see Dungeons & Discourse and Advanced Dungeons and Discourse and the wiki community to make this playable D&Dis Wiki)
Mix in a detective trying to discover the ultimate Truth due to some event and those who are also hunting down the Truth.

Quote

For core ideas I'm fine, I just have very little in the way of specific plot. The second one is probably the most fleshed out, it's been kicking around longest, and I've even tried to write that one before but scrapped it, so I've a good idea of characters and some idea of the overarching plot. But I'd rather write the first one, which have least idea about, just now.

Well if you want to do the first, put in the extra time tomorrow and work out some basic characters and basic plot and then write at least 1000 words and you should be fine.

[Grief]

Response is very appreciated

Darkwatch, on 01 November 2013 - 12:21 AM, said:

Hum... Do you feel like taking this in a more psychiatric/neurological direction? I've got a few articles I could send you about the fact that memories even in "normal" people are basically worthless. You could do it in some either parallel world or near future where information overload has begun to really destroy everyone's memories (conflicting sources and memory origins) but no one noticed until your protagonist does. So begins the journey to clear his/her mind and those of everyone around them and possibly the futility?

Yeah, it was going to be more psychological, essentially someone struggling to define themselves in a situation where they feel their memories are unreliable, and do not trust in the idea of a persistent identity (having had a rapid/drastic shift after some event or something...)

It was probably going to be set loosely in the real world, and more about a personal struggle than trying to solve some external problem for everyone.

Articles would definitely be appreciated, though I'm generally aware of how unreliable memory is thought to be at the moment.

Darkwatch, on 01 November 2013 - 12:21 AM, said:

Well you could go all the way into the detective thing and go noir. It might be ridiculous but it would be entertaining and it doesn't need to be the whole novel (this means more editing in the future but hey word count! I had a singing goat hallucination in last year's.)
This would be an interesting exploration of philosophy applied to magic (ala Prince of Nothing) which would be awesome. You could have Platonists, Euclideans, Atomists, Kantians, etc... (see Dungeons & Discourse and Advanced Dungeons and Discourse and the wiki community to make this playable D&Dis Wiki)
Mix in a detective trying to discover the ultimate Truth due to some event and those who are also hunting down the Truth.



Well if you want to do the first, put in the extra time tomorrow and work out some basic characters and basic plot and then write at least 1000 words and you should be fine.

Cool resources

Dunno if the detective character is a major enough part to go fully noir. Not even sure he really fits the world properly, the place isn't really meant to be full of law enforcement, though there are other ways of getting him in there.

Magic system is tricky, I don't think I'd want to go into it too much to keep it mysterious since I tend to like that in fantasy, just fleshed out enough that there are no magic ex machinas cropping up. Truth/proper reality seems it will definitely be a theme, but I don't think they'll be able to actually attain it, it's more about stopping from actively making itself having always been real at the current point in time, with each time this succeeds making it less probable that the thing can ever make itself real, with the problematic part that there are certain things that go with it that they want to have been real, and need the possibility of it being real to have existed for various reasons.

Goat hallucination sounds pretty great, hope that didn't get edited out.

Anyhow, think you're right about just getting a plan down and getting going tomorrow, just keeping writing seems to be the way to do it.

[Defiance]

Started up at midnight and wrote for an hour. I made a lot less progress than I'd hoped (~700 words, all of which I have to scrap), but that's okay. I'm hitting myself in the head over my decision to go in with a blank slate and now I'm scrambling to create an outline. It wasn't a wasted experience, though. I now have a handful of characters envisioned and some pretty neat ideas that I'm going to work into the plot and setting. I'll spend tomorrow morning busting ass creating a little bit of framework, then hopefully pump out at least 2,000 words in the afternoon.


The real bitch is going to be keeping myself from browsing or booting up a game. More than anything, I think this month is going to be a test of self-control. I know I can hit 50,000 words (there were days when I'd do upward of 5,000 a day when RPing), I just need to stay focused.

[Silencer]

Hah. Writing. Who has time for writing when you're doing twelve plus hours a day at work with two hours if travel time and exams and final assignments to do by Tuesday? I mean seriously.

I might - MIGHT - get started next weekend. Maybe. Assuming I'm still alive by then. And not in a totally burned out creative rut. Fuck.

[QuickTidal]

I'm doing it this year, finally. I have balked in previous years...but I've been rather productive on short fiction this year and it's reinvigorated me and made me laughably think I've got a 50K+ word novel in me.

Time will tell.

Signed up and put down about 1900 words today. A solid start. I've got a loose plan for a beginning, middle, and end, but I'm winging everything else.

I'll also freely support the rest of your folks that are going to scribble away this month.

[Trull's son]

Hoping to get a couple thousand words done throughout the weekend -- in between writing research papers, of course. All I have is a rough outline, but paired with extreme amounts of coffee and alcohol I'm sure I'll throw something together.

[Rictus]

What a miserable start that was. I felt so clueless and incompetent at first, even though I had a clear idea for the prologue. In any case, I think I got the hang of it and am at a touch below 3000 which may sound great but I doubt I'll be able to keep this up. I feel like I've poured all I had into it and now I'm at a loss as to where the plot should go from here. There will be much rumination tonight methinks.
On the other hand, Trull here might just have the right idea: lotsa alcohol. Perhaps even a tavern scene for a little lore-telling . . .

This post has been edited by Rictus: 01 November 2013 - 08:23 PM