The Crossed Sabers Lounge - TheForce.net

Hello! Looks like I'm one of the first here. I'll leave the chips and dip on the counter and go pour myself a diet coke. I really don't know what I'll write just yet. I may not write a fanfic. I hope you won't toss me out because of that.

If you do decide to toss me, you can keep the chips and dip.

~ Divapilot

*digs in to chips and dip, pours coffee*
I don't know what I'm writing yet either. Last year I wrote a SW fanfic that I'm very proud of. I didn't write an outline; I had an idea of where I was starting and where I wanted it to end, and wrote one key scene in the middle before I wrote anything else. It was a fun project, but it would have been nice to be more organized.

This year, I think I want to step out of my comfort zone and try something different- maybe not the NJO/LOTF era, or perhaps even a different fandom. There's an idea in the back of my head for some historical fantasy, but I'm really not sure where it will be going this year.

It's certainly a difficult project, but it's so much fun!

*grabs a bottle of water, some chips, and flops down on a couch*

Feel free to stay diva, you brought the chips and dip after all. ;-) (I really miss our smiley faces over here) It doesn't matter to me if you're writing fanfiction or not. Now if someone else decides to be a bouncer . . . well that's up to them. : )

I hate writing outlines, but I'm thinking of writing one this time around. I mean I am actually doing more research this time, if re-reading Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest counts.

I found a couple titles that I want to use temporarily over in the Adopt-a-Title thread, just because I write better if I have some title to use. It's about Siri Tachi's time working undercover to free the slaves the space pirate Krayn was keeping. Which do you think would work better: "A Silent Virtue" or "Why I Left Me Behind."

I've got some cookies in the kitchen if anyone wants any.

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom s

I'm writing the full story that is covered in the "Side by Side" diaries of Obi-wan and Padme. There is so much more that goes on that they just don't tell. It will be called, "Redemption Road"... at least that's the working title I came up with. I may change it because I'm sure there is a book titled that somewhere [face_doh] (LOL I miss the smilies here too... I'm so used to typing them out). The diary will serve pretty much as my outline or guide. When I get to the parts the diaries cover, I'll just put a note for NaNoing purposes to "Enter Diary Part # here", so I won't be cheating the word count.

BTW, I like the name, but another one just occurred to me (not sure if it's as good though): The Novel Forcewriter's Guild

Yeah, I'm not writing fanfic either. I was going to, but then I decided this original story I've been thinking of for a few weeks would be more amusing. I don't even know what genre it would be in, all I know is it should technically last me 50,000 words. Or so I hope. :|

~Silverfighter

"In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

All things were made by him, and nothing was made without him."

-John 1:1-3

*Munches on nummy cookie.*

There was some talk about public domain; is anyone else in here thinking of writing off an old book? I was going to take a stab at re-imagining some Nathaniel Hawthorne.

I have been thinking about some reimagining of an older book- since there was a musical of it recently, I don't know if it's under copyright again. My muse is poking me and encouraging some original fiction, but I don't know what will happen in the end. Though I'm certainly very excited.
*brings in pizza*

*hides behind giant plate of chocolate chip cookies*

I'm a lurker over at tf.n, so I'm not sure if I should technically be here, but I'm hoping the cookies serve as a distraction from my rather shaky claim to be here, 'K? :)

I'm not writing fanfic for NaNo, but I have done fanfic for WriMos before - half of my SoCNoC (June) was a 25k-or-so Jedi Apprentice fanfic. Personally, my favorite era's JA (of course :)), but I enjoy other time periods, too. This NaNo, though, I have been inspired via celestial vision (actually, more like half-dazed trance after coming out of the shower at three AM after reading a gigantic fanfic until then :)) to write a non-cliched medieval fantasy on a female dwarf. Really.

Lurkers are people, too. :p

Wow, a female dwarf! I hear they have beards, too... never saw one though, so I wouldn't know.

*takes a slice of pizza* Thanks SithGirl

*sets out a wide variety of soda*

*nabs some pizza*

hello all, I'm jaina_clan_solo over at TF.n (unfortunately, I've fallen horribly into lurkerdom there the past year or so), and I've decided to once again participate in this insanity... I'm not completely sure what I'm writing this year, but I think I want to try my hand at original fiction. Though I sort of came up with a vague idea for a plot on my way home from visiting my mom today. I'll have to think on that for a while

Good luck to everyone!

*drops off some delicious chocolate to share*

Hey all!
*Brings in some brownies and some punch*

I'm not doing fanfic, my ideas for fanfic are never that long, I don't know why but they aren't. I'm using an idea that came to me when I was watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos. It's about teenage beings who live in the 4th dimension and we in 3D can only see them as shadows (or ghosts as we would call them).

I'm getting pretty psyched about this now. :-D

Wow. Lots of creative ideas! I may be heading up to Massachusetts this Columbus Day weekend to get some on-site inspiration. (Nathaniel Hawthorne country. )

For those who have done this before, what works for you? a set number of words per day? Crazy writing for hours on end on the weekend? Do you get totally burned out by the end of the month, so you're dragging yourself over the finish line? I'm just wondering how I'll schedule this, seeing as I have kids, a hubby, and a full-time job in addition to this.

I usually just sit at the computer and type. Often, listening to music helps a lot. And the words just flow- I have a daily goal in mind and if I'm over that, all the better!

I keep in mind the set amount of words I need to average each day, and knowing I'll get behind on the days I work, I work like mad on the weekends to catch up and hopefully get ahead so that the next weekend I don't have to work quite so hard. Since Noivember 1 is on Saturday this year, I'm hoping to get ahead at the start.

I challenged myself to do 60,000 instead of 50,000, so it will be 2,000 words/day (easier for me to remember the number that way... 1,667 is such a strange number to keep in mind LOL).

I'm going to challenge my son to participate. Since he's only 10, he can set his own goal. I'll be happy if he just does 6,000 words (200/day).

Hey! I'm writing about a telepathic sniper working for a resistance movement, and going for 100k.

Divapilot, I tend to write best with large chunks of time, and keep in mind the minimum goal I have to meet, as well as the length that my chapters decide to be. You would probably find it easier to take every single bit of downtime you have to get as many words as possible. It is quite possible- if you type fast- to get 300 words done in ten minutes.

As for your family, see if they'll do extra chores or cook meals. Emphasize how important this is to you. Cook bulk meals ahead of time (in October)- large things of lasagna, etc.- and freeze them. Challenge your children to do the Young Writers' Program- they set their own wordcount goal. There's also threads about this sort of thing in Reaching 50k and All-Ages Coffeehouse. Good luck!

"Footsteps in the snow suggest where you have been, point where you were going: but where they suddenly vanish, never dismiss the possibility of flight..." - Diane Duane, A Wizard Alone

Moderator: Nano Soundtracks

Well, I've managed to corrupt my son. LOL He's now signed up for the Youth program, and set his word goal as 3,000. Seeing as it's hard to get him to write more than he has to just to answer a question on his homework, 100 words per day will be a big accomplishment for him.

I will be writing a follow up story to Survivor and Hunting healers and it's a direct sequel to Red's rescue.

The working title is DNA, a CorSec mystery and the inspiration for it and the mentioned stories came from a request on our intranet for more blood donors and reading about different DNA in your blood after having a bone marrow transplant.
And being on the giving site 12 years ago this gave me an opportunity to write more about that.

Survivor tells that story and one of my first ones on the boards "His only chance" and references will appear in DNA.

I started a new topic here, but do not see it, so I'll post the link here as well.

I started a Word War challenge in the appropriate forum: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3023744 for those who wish to join in. :-)

It looks like I killed this thread! :-/

Naw. I've just been busy. Probably everyone else is trying to get as much RL stuff done now.

I really don't think I will make it. I mean, it would be great if I did, but I am not going to spontaneously combust if I don't.

Great ideas, guys. I'm going to make a real effort to gt all my grading done early so that the first quarter grades don't strangle my time. I'llsee if the kids will help with chores -- although they haven't done much for the last 16 years so getting them to help next month isn't promising. I'll try the catch-it-as-I-can method. And it's good to know that handwritten counts, since my son has claimed posession of MY laptop for his very important Facebook and my daughter has the land-line locked up with Sims.

My idea is to create a follow-up to the Scarlett Letter. I always wondered whatever happened to Pearl.

On a side note, I was disappointed when I tried to join up with regional Nano threads. I don't seem to belong there. So, I guess I will be hanging around here. I'll bring more treats. I make a wicked good apple cake. :-)

*brings in brownies and pumpkin bread*

I finally decided on my topic! I'm writing a fantasy story set in Victorian England, with the idea of five families with magical abilities, maintaining their appearance in society while having a completely separate life. The plot bunny just bit, and I started bouncing ideas off of a friend, and the plot grew from there.

Why were you disappointed? I've found that other Nanoers tend to be welcoming, so I'm curious as to the discrepancy.

"Footsteps in the snow suggest where you have been, point where you were going: but where they suddenly vanish, never dismiss the possibility of flight..." - Diane Duane, A Wizard Alone

Moderator: Nano Soundtracks

I'm half a lurker at tf.n (same sn, generally hiding in Beyond), do I count, too? I'll bake brownies!

I'm attempting a scifi that's not SW based -- at least not right now! We'll see what actually ends up happening. I'm guessing I'll hit a wall by 20k and start ranting about lightsabres. Long stuff, I do not write (much or well). So this is going to be fun!

I'm thinking about writing the story I've had kicking around my head for some time. It's a modern day fantasy/horror that takes place after some silly government officials mess around with the occult and turn east of the MIssissippi into a living hell with everything that goes bump in the night.

Oh, and I bring Philly Cheesesteaks, because sometimes you just feel like grease and yummy fat.

Hm... I'm concidering changing what I'm writing.

I have a backstory in mind of two minor OC's I made for a story I'm co-authoring on tf.n I'm not sure if that one would reach the 50k mark though. :-/ Plus, it's a little out of my comfort zone, as one of the characters is gay and the other is bi-sexual. The second point won't keep me from writing it, but the first part is what makes me hesitate to write it for Nanowrimo... don't want to run out of story before the 50k mark, let alone my personal goal of 60k!

As for my NaNoWriMo story. I have almost made the outlines in a spreadsheet. And coming up with more plotbunnies I have decided to start around the time the Millennium Falcon was constructed. It's Corellian and will play a part in the story (a large part, helping some Jedi escape order 66 and get new lives) A little stand-alone piece is now on Tfn titled "Falcons"

Okay, I officially decided to go with my second story, the one about the gay and bisexual OC characters. I changed the novel info in my profile accordingly. The working title is "Peas Outside the Pod".

I've changed my idea too. I decided that I have to do WAY more research to carry off the idea for Pearl. It's kind of silly to write what you know is wrong. Maybe next year I'll work on that one. I'm going to write an ST/SW crossover. Heh heh. Good luck with that one, diva.

***

As to the regional threads: here's the deal. From the looks of it, in the region I actually live in, I am way, way older than everyone else. I mean a good 20 years older. It's almost all college kids and high school kids. I mean, I love the youngsters but I spend my day teaching them. I don't bond well with them as friends. I was hoping there would be someone, anyone, at least in their 30s.

I tried to join an adjoining region because there were more old farts there, but I was politely but firmly told this wasn't my area. Go home.

So, I guess I have this region here where I live, but I just can't see myself hanging out with people who are younger than my own kids.

Funny thing is, I know a lot of you guys are in college or even younger. I just don't feel that age difference so much with you. So I guess this will be my chatty place.

(Shoves apple cake on table and goes to sit in corner, grumpily shaking fists at all those darn kids running across my lawn.)

I wish I'd thought of my overall storyline earlier. Last year my idea started out as SW fanfic but morphed enough by mid-October that it was fully original fic, with just a hint of influence from other universes. Okay, so the main character looked kind of like a very tall (relatively speaking) version of Jaina, and another important character was inspired by Anakin though very little like him. Still original.

This year, I've got less than a week to expand it and change it and strip out the SW stuff, so it's going to have to stay in until the edits. At least the entire story takes place on original planets, with the exception of short connecting scenes, and OCs take on huge roles. So it can be modified into original fic later if I want to.

2004 - Pushed from Grace (81K)
2005 - 1500 words of nothing
2006 - Embers (70K)
2007 - The Last Guardian (100K)
2008 - Plain Sight (50K), The 400 Block (52K), and The Island Dozen (50K)
2009 - ?