How far along are you guys?

OwlChic — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:01:29 +0000

I'm currently at 37k... How long do you expect your novel to be? Mine will probably go over 50k

Re: How far along are you guys?

Mikita5510 — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:44:43 +0000

im at 27k im hoping to get at least 50k i hope lol

Re: How far along are you guys?

Fiona W — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 23:51:05 +0000

You can see how many words I've written, but I'm not very far along at all in terms of getting all the story down. I'm writing it in all mixed-up order, so it's hard to be sure, but I doubt I'll have written more than a third of my book when I hit 50K. I'm big on compressing my prose after I write it, though, so it will shrink dramatically before I can call it a first draft. ("dramatically"? Now I'm all self-conscious about using adverbs.)

Re: How far along are you guys?

Bumble Bee — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:14:17 +0000

I'm over halfway, but I'm expecting the first draft to wind up well over 50K, since I'm currently around 47K, and haven't quite hit the climax. I'm not sure exactly how long it will wind up being, though.

Re: How far along are you guys?

skinnybee — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:08:43 +0000

I've just broken 23k and am disappointed in myself because I wanted to be on at least 27k by the end of today. Or... yesterday. :\ I have been awake a long time.

Re: How far along are you guys?

unicornsong — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:05:04 +0000

I'm at 71K and I just reached the halfway point of the story. My narrator moved very slowly through the first 12 years of her life. I'm just praying I'll finish by the end of the month.

Re: How far along are you guys?

rparker — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:27:36 +0000

I'm at 40K, but a lot of that will get edited out. I'm rushing through the end of my novel at this point in an attempt to get a complete story arc (if not a complete story) before the end of the month. My finished novel will probably be about 120K.

Re: How far along are you guys?

Yomandude — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:48:16 +0000

I'm estimating 55K, but I can't be sure. Rest assured that I'll be done with the initial fifty thou by November 30th, and probably done with the whole book by the 3rd or 4th of December.

Re: How far along are you guys?

Fiona W — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:32:00 +0000

Am I the only one here who (1) is writing a novel they very much intend to finish, but (2) has no friggin' idea when that will be? I mean it, y'all. It could be March (at the earliest) or it could be 2017. It's not that It's going to end up being, in its final draft, all that long of a novel. But more and more I think I am going to have to write a long, complicated, emotionally taxing monster, before I have any idea what to cut.

Re: How far along are you guys?

bibliosylph — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:06:25 +0000

In a way, I've been writing the same thing for six years. It's a new story, but the characters live with me all the time, grow and mature and evolve. So I dunno. Maybe this is the year, but it's starting to look like not. And Charlie and Aaron's world is just opening up for them (I mean, literally, Fiona W, you know?) so that may be an even longer ongoing thing. [As to adverbs. I'm against the idea they can never be used (also the notion that people [truly] understand them.) My 7th grade Language Arts teacher cautioned against the "to be" verbs, all 23 of em.She'd mark up our papers with red pen wherever she saw them. Not sure when I [finally] realized the point; not to never use them, but to use them with real consideration. My son's English book calls them linking verbs, used with predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives. They [can be] strong enough with nominatives, but made weaker when linked to predicate adjectives, yet that doesn't render them always awful. In the same way, a good writer sprinkles adverbs into prose with care, when it sounds natural.]

Re: How far along are you guys?

ceramiccoconut — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:20:26 +0000

Well, I'm kind of a rebel, because I'm continuing a novel I'd already started a few years ago. However, I'm not including any of the pre-written stuff in this word count. So while in actuality I'm almost at the 50k mark, I'm only at about 25k for NaNo. By the end, I expect it to be roughly 70k.

Re: How far along are you guys?

Fiona W — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:32:36 +0000

If you have time, could you give examples of "to be" verbs used strongly with predicate nominatives, vs. more weakly with predicate adjectives? I can visualize what you mean, but it's awfully abstract. And what about with gerunds? Are they OK when used with gerunds?

Re: How far along are you guys?

bibliosylph — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:49:15 +0000

Well, I should clarify to say that by strongly I mean more—concretely useful? No, that's not quite it. More able to stand on its own? Well. Since I don't remember my precise train of thought, let's just continue. Take the sentence: The main resources of South Asia are soil, water, and climate. I mean, there you go, weak linking verb which makes a complete statement. I suppose you could put it another way in a story, but it stands on its own, otherwise. But then if you say, "Asia is mountainous," I think you haven't said nearly as much. It's an introduction to more, which is perfectly swell, but hardly stands up on its own. Saying, perhaps, "she was ready." For what, then? And now I have gotten completely off track so I'll stop. (One thing I know how to do is follow a metaphor down to its logical doom.) A gerund could fix it by making it more completely descriptive, but on the other hand, people get them mixed up, don't they? I mean, they are confused, as opposed to they are confusing. ;-) But then it's a nominative, isn't it? Someone pedantic is bound to come along and blather on about the imperfectness of all this, but my original point would be lost if they did, wouldn't it? ;-) Having thought over more of the original question, I think each half of my story could be around 80k. Sigh.

Re: How far along are you guys?

Fiona W — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 01:37:26 +0000

Thanks! It occurred to me after I posted that a gerund is part of a verb. So if you say "she is singing," you're using the verb "to sing," not the verb "to be." French has a ton of constructions like that indicating time process—verbs that amount to insane situations like "she had been singing for some time before she sang once," all expressed wiith parts of verbs. I think the French are obsessed with time. Anyway, I can see the point about something like "she is a doctor" being a more meaningful statement than "she is knowledgeable about medicine."

Re: How far along are you guys?

bibliosylph — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:08:42 +0000

Yeah, in English, it's best to use the "to be" verbs with discrimination. In French, the more, the better! Vive l'exces!

Re: How far along are you guys?

robini — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:54:29 +0000

So I've been avoiding this thread, but we're near the end of the month. My 19k are only the ones that have found a place in the current structure of my novel. Mostly, I'm writing in scenes and episodes as they arise to tell me about my characters. I sometimes have an idea where they will fit and sometimes I don't. I have a bunch of stuff and sometimes I am not even sure what it is telling me. I honestly find this 50k thing a bit unnatural (ie. writing a linear story.) It may seem odd--my story does follow a traditional chronology and I do THINK I know what happens at the climax, but I don't necessarily know how we are going to get there or what will happen afterwards. I'm not particularly concerned with word count or "winning". I'm concerned with writing a meaty enough first draft that I have something to work with, to pare down and build up again. I'm concerned with storyline which the characters push along themselves, and this means I have to know them. I just don't think I CAN know them by forcing them. I write these stupid scenes and then I listen to NPR or read some article in Harper's and something turns up and I start to understand what the scene or the idiotic conversation was about. It's not a fast process, but it feels like I am learning about these people I'm writing about. I will have more time to get lost in their story in mid-December to mid-January. I'm looking forward to submerging myself then, now that I've spent this month, wandering around, trying to move beyond acquaintanceship with my characters, but who knows what will happen then?

Re: How far along are you guys?

Fiona W — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:41:45 +0000

I have not been writing a linear story since Day 1. The word I've been using for what I am writing is "strands"—or sometimes "ribbons." I think that the overall structure of my novel will be chronological for the frame device—which is not just at the beginning and end, but reappears frequently in the course of the novel. And it will be very loosely chronological, with lots of digressions, for what's inside the frame (inside my protagonist's head). But that overall structure is not the way I am writing it, have been writing it, day-to-day throughout NaNo. I am writing it in these "strands" that will have to be rearranged—and in some cases, woven together—to create that structure. I rarely work on any one strand for more than a day. They range in size from 300 to 3000 words, more or less. I wrote the most exciting strand so far, the climax of the book, around words 45K to 47K of my NaNo Draft. But there's lots more I need to write that comes prior to that climax. The whole rough draft, when it's complete, will probably be more like 120K, just to pick a number out of my hat. I'm a very moody person, in the sense that I have distinct cognitive frames of mind that are imbued with strong emotion. There's no way I could write even a non-linear book such as mine in order from prologue to epilogue. I have to be in the right mood, to write any given "strand." From what I've read of how some of my favorite writers work, they don't write their books in order, either. Robin, if you've written more words that the 19.5K showing on your bar right now—and they are words about the characters and words about the scenes & episodes of your novel—they belong in your NaNo Draft. They are completely legit and they belong. Just inset a line or three to demarcate them from the 19.5K, and from each other, and put them all together in a file—even if only temporarily. Unless, of course, you really don't give a rat's ass about hitting 50K by November 30th...which is a legitimate position to take, I suppose.... =rueful smile=

Re: How far along are you guys?

robini — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:23:19 +0000

I do kind of think that 50K does not mean "winning" if the draft is not entirely written, but maybe you are right, Fi, in that it is a step that I've gotten to and that all those parts will eventually be a part of the draft, or lead to parts of the draft. May a little external validation (hahaha) will do me some good and fuel me through the next part. Though I'm pretty happy with how it's going! Hmmn... I'll give it a try and see if I'm close to 50K! Thanks!

Re: How far along are you guys?

quietly-making-noise — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:36:11 +0000

Iiii just wanted to bounce up and down somewhere with glee, because I was 10k behind three days ago, and I've managed to hammer out enough over the weekend that I'm now only just 1.6k behind. :D Re chronological writing, I find myself in the camp which does work from start to finish, but I'm not averse to abandoning scenes half-way through if it's starting to drag. I'll go back and tidy up and flesh them out at a later date, but being pushed to see where the story goes (if it even sticks to its plot) is one of the reasons I love NaNo. I've never actually finished a long story to date. -_-;

Re: How far along are you guys?

Fiona W — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:59:43 +0000

As you're a participant in NaNoWriMo, you've already signed onto the notion of creating a loose & baggy rough draft, because that's what NaNo is all about. =smile= Don't think of it as a first draft, for sure! It's a rough draft that you will work to groom into a first draft. Another way of conceiving of any work of writing, that I've used for my poetry and nonfiction writing for decades, goes like this: you have a down draft, an up draft, and a dental draft. The down draft is for getting it all down—as in, down out of your head. The up draft is for fixing it up—making it into a good, well-structured piece of writing. Finally, the dental draft is for going over it with dental picks to probe thoroughly for those tiny errors we all make—also known as copy-editing followed by proofreading.

Re: How far along are you guys?

bibliosylph — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:37:45 +0000

This is my seventh year and I've never been told the draft had to be finished in order to win. I'm certain it doesn't. Add up the words and count them in. Everything you've written, even if you excise some later, is an important part of this whole process.

Re: How far along are you guys?

bibliosylph — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:40:28 +0000

I completely agree and had been holding myself back until I realized I was trying too hard to follow the tracks in o.ly one direction. This was my year for finally breaking free from that. You probably helped, Fiona.

Re: How far along are you guys?

robini — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:48:11 +0000

No... I know it doewsn't have to be complete to win. I just have a tendency to hold myself to different rules. It really is not the best thing for me.

Re: How far along are you guys?

Hopeful lily — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:08:20 +0000

Agreed. I can edit anything except a blank page. I credit NaNo for encouraging me to get a lot of words written each November, but that's just the beginning on each of these novels.

Re: How far along are you guys?

Fiona W — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:13:29 +0000

We're all human beings, so we're all social creatures. Look at the behavior of our nearest relatives—gorillas and chimpanzees and bonobo chimps—if you doubt a writer's need for external validation. We may not have to groom each other physically, but socially...

Re: How far along are you guys?

Fiona W — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:19:17 +0000

Yay! Go QMN!! =tossing bright blue, red, green & purple pom-poms in the air=

Re: How far along are you guys?

robini — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:43:21 +0000

good for you, quietly making noise! it is a proud feeling to get through that much in just three days, isn't it?

Re: How far along are you guys?

MutableTiger — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:22:44 +0000

Just edged over 75K and I'm 6 chapters to being done (glad about that done part, too!) What's sad is that I know that I need to go back and add more to some "character/plot driver" chapters....so I'm guessing it'll end up around 100-110K. So much fun this year!

Re: How far along are you guys?

Mikita5510 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:50:34 +0000

ok im close to 50 k and OMG i hit writers block.. who has a bulldozer for me this is not freaking funny.. 2 days til NANO is done and I have writers block......

Re: How far along are you guys?

cdigdawg — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:09:13 +0000

Mikita, I had the same experience: 0-45K was easy, the last 5 was a slog. This is the first novel tha I've written where I didnt have a final scene in mind when I started and that almost killed me in the end. I freaked out for awhile then I relaxed, listened to Bon Iver's Holocene repeatedly, and found that I was able to get moving again. One word at a time my friend, and you'll make it. And if all else fails: NINJA! You can edit the ninja out on December 1, it just has to get you to 50K. And maybe you'll find that you like the Ninja. His name is Bob. His father was a ninja. He has a scar on his chin; he tells all of the ladies that he got it in a sword fight but actually he fell when he was six and landed on a rock.

Re: How far along are you guys?

bibliosylph — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:00:24 +0000

I've been feeling the same way, Mikita, which is why I didn't even touch it or much think about it yesterday. But the words I write to reach 50k will be part of the story I wish to tell, and even if I whittle them away afterwards, they need to belong to the same block of wood, as this is one of the few aspects of it all I take seriously. In other words, with no offense meant to others, no ninjas. I hesitate to suggest it, but maybe there's some earlier writing you did that you'd like to expand on, and it might spur you on to write more of your ending or next section as well.

Re: How far along are you guys?

Lonaneomaflame — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:16:16 +0000

I hit 50K on the morning of thanksgiving, at that point I decided to split my book in half at the origional "half way" point. So now I've got about three chapters left in book one which I'm sure will balloon into some really long chapters. I"m looking forward to editing and hopeing that it goes really well. I'm thinking I'll end up with at least another 10K for the finished product.

Re: How far along are you guys?

The Pelican Maze — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:16:43 +0000

The draft is done, but I consider it to be "version 0.1". There's a lot to be done before I can be happy with it, if I can ever be happy with it.