| AnikaArrington | White Flag |
    15,811 / 50,000 Joined: Jan 29, 2009
Location: Queen Creek, AZ Posts:
12
Posted on:
Nov 7, 2009 - 16 21 |
Between undeveloped characters, a plot that was just way too weird, a head cold, and my son I am still at 1859. So I think I am calling this one a surrender, and I will do some serious prewriting and try again next year. In the meantime, I think I will go back to rewriting an existing rough draft. I wish you all the best of luck and hope to see you next year. Here's to 30 days of literary abandon! I look forward to trying again next year. |
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68,336 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 16 58
There is still plenty of time to come up with something to keep going in the story. If you say where/why you are stuck, someone here may have a way to help succeed.
We also have the cool East Valley NaNo pamphlet for getting the novel going - with the 100 ways to save your novel section. If you toss out a number between 1 to 100 I can tell you what it is. Maybe just a tiny bit on inspiration can help out.
Sorry to hear about all of the obstacles over there, but maybe there is a sliver of hope to look back upon before the flag becomes full staff. :)
----------"Bucket of criminy!"
-Tad Ghostal
37,927 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 20 35
WHAT??
You can't give up after one week! Just start writing something. Anything. Write "All my characters are bored. Really bored. So bored that if a board was to walk into the room and say "I'm bored" they wouldn't even blink because they were too busy being bored. So, these characters, right? They're bored.
That's when the dinosaurs showed up." Shoot, that's 1667 words of solid gold right there describing how your boring old characters died, and then you can introduce these new fabulous characters. Or something.
Bail on your plot and write SOMETHING. You can't wait a whole year. We could all be dead by then. I mean, it's not likely, but jeez, do you want to risk it?
...Hopefully this came across as "motivating and supportive" and not "dickish."
----------"If you wish to be a writer, write." - Epictetus
Read my novel here: http://holyrollers-immortals.blogspot.com/
16,294 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 21 36
I am totally starting over. =[
-----------Amber is ML: East Valley
18,673 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 22 06
I started over yesterday. =) I just used my first novel as a book my MC was reading so I could keep the words.
----------2006 - The Sandcastle (died at 20k) - Fail!
2007 - Snapshots From the Ashes (54K) - Win!
2008 - Untitled Ghost Story (50K) - Win!
2009 - (Stopped for good at 18673. Next year will be better.)
50,063 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 02 33
You have no idea how true this is. I have a friend in another web community. Last year several other friends and I talked her into doing nano. She was slow, but persistent. She wrote a beautiful love story between two people living, for very different reasons, with a group of homeless hippies in a patch of woods in a large city park in the pacific northwest. She was very shy about sharing her novel, and shared it only with the others from the same site who were also doing nano last year. She was ecstatic about finishing.
During the last year, she got cancer, and passed away. It was all very sudden, and very quick. She left behind some grown, and some young children, and a grieving web community...and a novel.
Write something. You never know if you will be here next year to try again.
----------Tanella's Flight is now out! Available at www.am-jenner.com
37,922 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 13 36
As many of you know, I'm the Queen of starting over on a new book (on my 2nd year, now). As far as I'm concerned, if you wrote the words during November, they can be counted (I've got 3,823 from my first book that I add onto my current book's word count). So count every word you've got, and continue on!
As for quitting, I totally agree - it's only the first week! Don't give up now! We're all rooting for you! If you need any help, just let us know, and we're there. Just don't give up so early in the game!
Skye
----------EV co-ML
Nano 06: The Clan of Havenmore Lane (win!)
Nano 07: Kissing Aliens (win!)
Nano 08: Substitute Superhero (win!)
Nano 09: Party Magic
30,780 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 15 55
...Hopefully this came across as "motivating and supportive" and not "dickish."
I think "dickish" qualities make for great characters. ;)
There's still so much time to catch up! I'm not all that super experienced with novel-writing, BUT what has worked for me is to consider my first drafts as my time to eventually find the story and to find the characters. As I blunder my way through it I discover ideas for an eventual "real" story. I never expect the second draft to look a whole like the first draft--whose only point for me is to find a story somewhere. This takes the pressure off on those days when I feel like I probably have the most uninteresting story any writer ever wrote.
Hope you reconsider!
15,811 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 21 04
Wow! THank you so much for the amazing outpouring of support. I read that last great pep talk and I have a new direction. All that "pre-writing" is going to become chapters of endless descriptions and character background. I may not have a novel per say when I am done, but I hope I will have 50,000 words worth of building blocks.
----------Again, thank you for taking on the job of personal cheering section. Evalwrimos are the best!
Anika
68,336 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 08 55
...Evalwrimos are the best!
Hooray! I am VERY glad to hear you are going to keep going with writing this November.
And yeah, East Valley is the best group for support and interestingness in general. :)
Congratulations!
----------"Bucket of criminy!"
-Tad Ghostal
15,811 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 21 28
Ok I only got an hour of writing in today but I managed to double my total! So excited! And I actually like some of what I came up with. I guess I just had to get out of my way. Next year, reread the section about killing your inner editor, BEFORE November. See you Wednesday. . . maybe.
----------Anika
30,780 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 14 15
Glad to hear that Anika. Good luck!
34,355 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 16 32
I'm on the fence on this one. Are you really just trying to get words because you can type the same word 50k times and be done with it? If you're trying to tell a story, then whether you begin now or at the end of the month, you will still have more story to tell in December. While hitting the 50k words is cool, and you can say you won, you really end up with a first draft that might not be finished that is gonna need rewriting.
Tonight, I'm gonna spend part of it updating my outline. Yeah, outlines suck. And after I have finished updating it, I'm gonna start hitting the words again. I'm about 22k in for November, but I'm 28k in overall. I started a few days early because that's when the story hit me. It's still germinating and growing, so the outline needs work.
If your intention is to write a novel and tell a great story, don't let nano dictate to you the time to write it. I think the number one thing you can take away from nano is the discipline to sit your ass down and write a set number of words each day.
Don't give up. Just finish late.
Here's an article that might cheer you up:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870374000457451346310601210...
0 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 23 46
I had already started over once after what seemed like a false start, and then I got laid off on Tuesday.
At first I thought it would give me a couple days to sit back and write, but the search for a job have taken precedence over approaching my story from a different angle.
I'm probably not going to wait until next year to get this one started, but I may go back to rewriting the story I came up with 3-4 years ago that's still languishing in a notebook (or a forgotten folder).
Summer