Rants and raves

Well, it's the end of week one, and I'm feeling... kind of okay, really.

Having gone part-time on 1st of November to really give my writing a proper shot (not just for November, but I thought I'd use NaNo to give me a push at the beginning), I've been dutifully pounding out an average of 2k words a day. I had two or three great days at the start where I felt I was writing some good stuff, which gave me a bit of a false sense of security and made it harder for the next couple of days when it didn't flow so well. But I've remembered the NaNo way and kept going, and it's moving forward.

I had really hoped to meet up with people this year, but I don't know if it's going to happen. I failed to take into account that I have a job, a parter, two cats and a World of Warcraft raiding schedule. (If that last bit means nothing to you, read "planned social events two nights a week and on a Sunday afternoon". Actually, that sounds a lot more like I have a life - can the rest of you please read it like that too. ;-) ).

However, I have added a lot of you to my buddy list so I can see your word counts. I find this hugely motivating, especially this year when Kaiberie isn't racking up 10k words a day as she did the year before last and making me feel inferior. ;-) Okay, I'm a mean person, and I do really hope you get flying again soon and do all three books as you want, but allow me a little glow in this first week! And I'm happy if anyone wants to put me on their list to gloat that they're beating my score - I promise not to make it too challenging.

Good luck for week two, fellow NaNos!

Somewhat amazed at exactly how well this first week has gone. I should probably be suspicious that such an easy flow of words merely indicates an outpouring of absolute drivel =)

I ended up really surprised at where the story decided to go and who my two main characters are quickly turning into. I've fallen in love with them both, which is always a good sign. Normally I write an awful lot of description, but such is not the case here (wait for the edit though!). For once I'm actually getting the bones in place before the fatty tissue!

I have also learned a very valuable lesson - Don't use numbers! Over the years I have fallen foul of time sequences again and again. No more, say I. There are some wonderful phrases such as 'Some time later', 'Time passed' and 'Over time' which cover a multitude of time sins and save me getting hung up on exactly how many days, weeks, months and years have passed. This is fiction, time is elastic! Not to mention Beta readers and subsequent edits can deal with time... when I have it!

Funnily enough, I've also found myself slipping into my old ways. I've gone back to writing late at night. I always used to do it that way. but life and family got in the way of that. Scribbling away 'til 4 in the morning when you have kids to get to school, and everything else a family involves, was never going to work. I no longer have that situation (they're all grown, if not quite flown) and there is comfort in slipping into my comfortable old writing hours.

I did wonder actually, anybody else write in the wee small hours? I also wondered if any of us want to hook up on msn for morale boosts, general whining and a few giggles? If you do want to add me, send me a message and I'll give you my id thingy (you can see how technically minded I am!). Safer than sticking such things on the forum and ending up with spam and strange people contacting you =)

So, how's everyone else doing? Come on, sahre your stories, good or bad and maybe we'll see that we're all actually doing the same thing =)

I started off quite well and quite regular. On Friday things went a little loopy as I had to procure two guinea pigs for my daughter. Much time was spent setting up accomodation for the little squeakers and cooing over them. Yesterday did a total of 31 words! So today I did a catchup of around 4000 words. Did two 40 minute sessions and was quite pleased with the results. THere is some real drivel and filler in there. Of course come January all that will be sorted out in NaNoEdMo. :)

Good luck to all the rest!

I've been thrilled with my progress so far. Had a couple days where I wrote almost nothing, and ended up terribly behind - then managed to get caught up over the last few days! I may even be able to get ahead a bit, give myself a cushion for the next time I'm having a hard time getting the words out.

I noticed I'm doing this novel completely different to others I've worked on. Usually I write third person, with only the bare minimum of description (and sometimes not even that, heh). This project I've tackled with first person - and it's turning out to be a dream for word count. Whenever I get stuck, I can have the MC ponder her situation, think about what she can do about it, and ultimately decide on something that will get me to the next plot point. She's also managed to show me things about the other characters in the story I didn't know and explains their actions better than I could have imagined. But it's also meant that I'm 13k words in, and have barely made a dent in my outline. Something tells me I'll be doing some serious cutting when editing season comes around!

Here endeth the rambling. Okay, maybe not.

sheer panic is setting in. i've only written ~7k. everyone else is well ahead of me. i try to placate myself by saying that this is my first year, but there's something niggling me & hectoring me. i should have more written by now. how much description is too much description? ack! anyway, i'll just try to stay lighthearted about it. :)

hope everyone else is managing to stay calm!

I know exactly how you feel. Various RL stuff (an important interview, mostly) has gotten me way behind schedule. I'll have to jump to warp in the next week to get back on track!

I managed to get off to a good start in week one, mainly because my husband took an extra day off work and child-wrangled, so I had more time to write. I'm loving the story and my lead characters, which helps to keep me going.
I was hoping to get the same amount done this weekend, but just haven't been able to spend as much time at the computer (mainly child-wrangling issues.) Today I had about an hour in the afternoon and felt like I just didn't get very far because I know NOTHING about being a detective and there's lots of stuff I need to know in order to progress. Grrr. How did I end up writing a crime-fiction type thing? I don't even like crime fiction. I'm trying to kid myself that it's a mainstream novel in which a crime occurs, rather than crime-fiction but my lack of insider knowledge is beginning to show anyway.

So tomorrow I either need to make friends with a cop, and quickly. Or suddenly set the whole thing in the future, or in space, so I can make up the rules as I go. Ooooh, that's tempting! I think the unofficial motto of Nanowrimo is something along the lines of

when all else fails - bring on the elves.

Or at least it should be. That really would be stretching my plot to the max, but it feels like that's where I am tonight.

I've been ill and I'm behind.

But I cheer myself up by looking back on previous years. Last year, I didn't start until the 2nd, fell behind on the 3rd, and didn't catch up until the 9th... and I didn't even have an excuse, last year.

The plan is to write 4,000 words today, at which point I'll be officially Back On Track. But hey, if I don't quite get that far, I'll have made a good dint in it.

Rachel

P.S. Dear God, am I the only one who's struggling to avoid counting words (and picking long-ish phrases) as I write forum posts now.... this is getting to me.........

http://www.rachelcotterill.com

No, you're not the only one struggling and counting.
I write on average 1,500 words of emails to you guys, once a week for everyone (mailing list dodad), and then I've got maybe 2k more in replies to emails fielding stuff. Doesn't help that one of my freinds is sitting snickering and saying I may have something more to do but he won't tell me what...
Anyway - don't panic guys ;)
It's NOT so bad when you think about it - I'm struggling, partially because I hate to admit it, and this may sound awful coming from your ML, but in some ways, my heart just isn't in it. it's my birthday this week, though, and my heart isn't in THAT either.
Because I'm bipolar, it's not uncommon for me to get depressed, but it IS uncommon for me to struggle this much, so I dunno what's up. This morning has been better - 2000 words so far, but I ignored my email, I ignored my uni work - I ignored everything!
Tomorrow no such luck - I'll get to write in the evening while watching my other half teach some freinds how to play a cardgame (Babylon 5) but I'm also desperately trying to work out how to sneak my Uni papers, legitimately, into my nanowrimo wordcount, just in case. I don't think they'll need the padding, but right now, I'm worried too.

Here's to a better week for everyone!

Kai

http://kaiberie.com - personal blog
http://workbacktonow.com - writing blog

i don't have that kind of alibi, though. i go to work, go/come home & write in between having tea, making dinner for the next day, taking my dog out for his last walk & having a shower. it's not exactly a demanding schedule, so i really need to pull my finger out.

thanks for all your hard work, kai. remember to be kind to yourself, too. :)

k@

well I'm at 10k, and not unduly worried - mainly because it's 10k more than the last 4 months, and I'm loving getting back into it again.

Keep going all! I'll be sorry when it's december to be honest, I'm finding Nano a real motivating factor right now.

Thanks again

I'm afraid Sunday I only ended up writing 500 odd words when I got home from the write in/meet thingy even though I was geared up to write loads :( The problem?

My little girl decided to pain the house with 'imaginary' paint unfortunatly the imaginary paint was water - a lot of water - we cuaght her after she'd already decided to do the bathroom and her bedroom - including her bed which was SOAKED!

I had also stupidly left the poetry book and illustrations I had done for her in the bedroom which were ruined :( (I'm also doing PiBoIdMo Picture book idea month). They were ruined and this sort of hit my self confidence as well cuasing alot of cleaning up to do.

So yesturday I wrote nothing :( Not one word I did no illustrations or anything either and I am now starting to panic. I still not technically behind but am behind where I wanted to be especially as my family are coming to stay including mums birthday and I have a craft fair on Sunday so I really wanted to be way ahead as I'm not sure how productive I can be while they are around.

I also had a bit of a pain flare up and had to up my pain killers and they make me really sleepy which is making thinking processes a bit wooly.

So yeah basically MEW MEW MEW PANIC!!!!!!

I am the Scientific Artist or Artistic Scientist - You choose because I can't!

I've come to a bit of a halt over the last few days but the ideas are coming back on stream even as we speak. Just under 15K but intend to be plenty more by this evening.

Lets keep going people. For the honour of Cheltenham and Gloucester.

:)

sorry to hear that, sounds like a lot of clear up!

*waves pompoms for you*

@Scotstimberwolf - keep kicking ass on it, don't stop now dude! I want some light reading/editing for dec ;)

No danger of stopping. Much too involved with my characters. The halt was enforced by family...they damn well get in the way. I sympathise with anyone who has one :)

Allocating time to just me and my Laptop. no-one is allowed to talk to me. Big sign on the door.

'KEEP OUT CREATIVE PERSON AT WORK. DISTURBANCES MAY RESULT IN COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF FOOT STAMPING, TOY THROWING AND GENERAL MAYHEM. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED'

See you later Squig. Dont forget the earplugs

:)

I have good and bad...

The good is that things are flowing and overall (but especially the last few days) I have been really prolific - much more than I was last year, or indeed, EVER! And I don't think I am writing complete drivel. (I hope...)

The one thing that really worries me is that I am still missing a major plot point/reason for one of my MMCs to even be in the story - I know it is big, based on a kind of good vs evil type scenario, that it's the main reason he is around my FMC, and that hopefully my FMC has an integral part in dealing with it (I don't want her just to be a damsel in distress) but I really have no clue what it is. At all!

I'm hoping that I will work that out on Friday 13th if I haven't figured it out before then...

What is Edmo? I'm a complete beginner.

nice to see some other parents in this area doing this - I find if I can't write at teh set times that i am child free I panic, how will I ever do this?

when they get you up so early and need so much it is impossiblke to contemplate staying up at night to write.

Not managed 4000 words in a day so well done you!.

good luck

Lara

Thanks I was cleaning and drying there for a while :/

I am the Scientific Artist or Artistic Scientist - You choose because I can't!

Fallen a bit behind due to taking on two huge projects at the same time. The second project (a x-stitch dragon) has to take priority as it takes so long to complete and has to be ready for December 3rd (major birthday of a friend). The only good thing is that I've got such bad neck and back ache from bending over the stitching that I've had to stop for the rest of today..... which means I can get carpal tunnel from frantic writing instead =)

I love my two main characters still, but I've yet to be convinced the words I am writing are anything other than drivel. I suspect I will completely rewrite this thing at the earliest opportunity because it simply doesn't feel right. The trouble is, that's also making it hard for me to keep writing, because I know it's sort of pointless... C'est la vie!

Take heart from Natalie Goldberg (Wild Mind; Living the Writer's Life) who states that the rules of writing are;
1. Keep your hand moving.
2. Lose control.
3. Be specific.
4. Don't think.
5. Don't worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar.
6. You are free to write the worst junk in the universe.
7. Go for the jugular.

I reckon Nanowrimo embraces all of these principles. Get it written rather than getting it right. The edit will be so much easier once there's some words down on the page! It's hard not to worry about the quality - I mean seriously, it takes guts to really write drivel - and I suspect a lot of us are self-editing as we go. I know I do. But look on the bright side, it can't possibly be the worst junk in the universe (didn't Kerry Catona have a novel out at some point?) and if it is drivel then the only way is up. As opposed to believing it to be a work of genius and then getting crushed when everyone else says it's [insert expletive of choice] dreadful. Anyway, good luck with the stitching, remember to de-hunch yourself occasionally and good luck with the rest of the write. Your characters need you.

does anyone else find it difficult to invest in a character until you find the right name for him/her?

Yeah - I've always struggled with that. The main book I'm writing this year, which is my sci fi one, - each chapter/act is named after a character.

Are you having trouble naming them?

Kai

http://kaiberie.com - personal blog
http://workbacktonow.com - writing blog

yes, i guess. initially, i was happy with them, but now some of them seem...unlikely & uncomfortable. there are a couple of characters in there who definitely would have had a hard time at school, if you know what i mean. you can see my word count, so you know something's amiss. i keep going back & editing what i've already written. i know that's the wrong way to go about it. :( big frown.

Lordy, I've written so much previously where the characters were named AAA and BBB and so on until I could find the right name. It wasn't so much that I couldn't invest in them, it's just that I couldn't name them until I knew I had found the right name. I'd find it hard to change a name partway through. It's a tricky one. There's quite a few online baby-name websites that can be useful for finding unusual names, especially from other cultures. If it's a 'real' name, then the meaning has to sit right with me. If it's more of a scifi/fantasy name I've sometimes played around with a scrabble set, shuffling the tiles around. My mother-in-law proved pretty good at that, I've got her to thank for several of the names in a longer-term project I've been working on. Sometimes just switching the first couple of letters for something else can alter a name beyond recognition too, or adding a consonant if the name begins with a vowel.
I love the fact that Ian Rankin auctions off the right to have a character named after you in one of his books - that's one way around it!

I refuse to give out names until I'm happy that I've found the right one, so I have plenty of characters called [old_man] and similar strings that I can search/replace later.

That said, I have in the past completely renamed everyone between drafts.......

http://www.rachelcotterill.com

OK this is getting silly.
The real job is getting in the way of the writing. Must sort this out.......
I know i'll quit the real job to write full time :)

But seriously..not enough hours in the day at the moment. I WILL get to 50,000 words plus by the end date and i will make my novel good!!!!!

Continuing good luck to Cheltenham and Gloucester group. Lets keep going people.

On the subject of character names. I tend to get their names before i start writing. The name gives me an image which helps me see their character, which helps me write their back story and personality.

So lets keep going guys.
Have fun. I know i am :)

Yay yay yay! I have reached 30 k today
Skip jump shout :)

I am the Scientific Artist or Artistic Scientist - You choose because I can't!

I just passed 25k :) A couple of days late - but I've been ill off and on since Nov 2nd, so this is just going to be a tough year, apparently. Still, it's all downhill from here, right ;)

http://www.rachelcotterill.com