Well, everything started well enough. The first 4 to 5,000 words flew by pretty quickly and I actually liked what I was writing. Then suddenly everything seemed to go downhill and the next few thousand words all seem like crap. I'm trying to just push on in hopes of getting back to something that doesn't suck. I guess there is always December to fix up the crappy parts. :-(
Maybe I should start killing off the main character every day. :-)
bbobb
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11,921 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 17 57
Hang in there bbobb!
----------Reni
24,302 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 22 07
If it's any consolation, my first 5,000 words are crap. Complete crap. I have six months of story time to write about, and nothing happens in them. But I'm afraid once stuff does start happening I'll write too quickly about it. Hence, filler crap at the beginning.
*hates herself*
Good luck!
-------------------------------------
NaNo 2006 winner!
13,500 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 22 21
At least you all HAVE 5k words. I'm at the 1,600-word mark. That's one day's work IN FIVE DAYS. At this pace I'll be done sometime in March.
That's why God made Thanksgiving weekend.
------------------------------
SriptFrenzy 2008: ... hell if I know, but it failed miserably
NaNo 2007: "The Hunt" (17k, loser with dignity)
NaNo 2006: ... not worth mentioning
NaNo 2005: ... even less worth mentioning
50,035 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 09 28
I'm in the same boat, bbob. My first 5,000 words flew. And now at 7,000s I've discovered I can't fake it anymore! AARRGGH!
But I'm pushing through in small bursts. Maybe 400 words at a time. Then I go walk around and decide if I want to come back or not. It's frustrating. I hope there is a point where I break through this wall and get on with it!
According to the lovely chart my husband put on the fridge calendar, I need to write 3,000 words today to catch up to where I should be. BLEH.
31,724 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 09 57
I think a lot of us feel your pain. I had 7500 words by sunday night. some of it pretty good. Last night I got up to about 7900 and was completely hating the last 200-300 words. It was shit. I just shut it off and went to bed. I have decided that I am leaving that scene unfinished and writing something else today. I will finish that scene whenever...
16,101 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 15 12
Well, I've followed my plan of holding my nose and pushing on regardless of how bad the stench and it seems to be working. I'm not exactly ecstatic about the latest stuff, but it's certainly an improvement and things seem to be heading where I want them to go. Plus I broke 10,000 words. :-)
And I didn't even need to kill Sean once.
bbobb
31,724 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 16 46
Not sure if it is a good suggestion for normal novel writing but the only thing that helps me keep up when I get stuck in crap is to leave it and move to another scene. It worked today. I left that part behind, started a new section introducing another sub-main character and did 1400+ words while at work. If I can keep it up at home I should be able to break 11K by tonight. I just have to follow my brain. I have ADD, "Ooh shiny ", so leave the dull shit til later and find the shiny exciting stuff to keep the word counts up. Working so far.
16,101 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2007 - 07 35
I have ADD too. I already skipped one part to come back to later. Not because it was boring, but because I still haven't decided if the naughty bits should be PG-13, R, NC-17, or XXX. Maybe if I skip all the naughty bits, I can decide based on how many words I still need.
52,215 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2007 - 07 58
I agree with the frustration and the scene-jumping suggestion voiced above. I've noticed that I'm particularly bad at dialogue, which is almost kind of the point in the scene I'm currently writing (one of the main characters is embarrassingly bad at small talk, and it's proving contagious among the other characters at the moment). It's just a scene that I wish would end right now though--I have bigger and better things to write! Or so I tell myself, until I get there, because then I am complaining to myself about that scene too.
But oh well. First drafts are going to kind of suck no matter what. What's important is pressing on, of course! Good luck to everyone.
50,231 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2007 - 14 20
My general feeling is that if something is boring to write, it's probably boring to read too.
Whenever I find myself thinking "Oh no, this is boring, I don't want to write this part" I try and figure out what would make it interesting to write (adding character development/dialog/plot) and then do that instead.
I think what you end up if you do this is not only a more enjoyable writing experience, but also a better novel (hopefully) at the end of this November...
Of course if you just can't think of anything interesting to write at all, that's a different problem altogether. I'm not much of a purist, so I usually just steal scenes I liked from other books or movies or something that was fun in real life...
Best of all is when you can think of something like, "I've always wished that someone in a book/movie would do _____ " and then write about blank.
Who knows, you could be fulfilling that wish for someone else...
Best of luck everyone!
12,324 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 18 12
I just wanted to post in here saying I'm having a hell of a time writing during the week and I don't think I'm writing enough on the weekends :(. The next few weeks are going to be a struggle, especially since during two of the next three weekends I'm booked. Here's to hoping for Thanksgiving break being the opportune time for me to get a ton of writing done.
Also, I'm heading to a cafe of some sor t tomorrow to write just because I'm having a hard time writing here. I've been writing a lot better when I'm outside of my house.
50,959 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2007 - 05 58
I'm having the same trouble writing during the week. Last year I got a TON done at work but this year we have just too many patients! :P Damn them for having eye problems! *shakes fist in air* But it looks like you're writing in your notebook a lot more words than you anticipated (I think last Sat you were hoping for 11,000 and got 12,000+) so maybe that is the way to go... :)
----------Nano '07 Milk and Mayhem
Nano '06 Them