This is my first year participating in NaNoWriMo, and I have a couple friends who are giving it a shot this year as well. When they sprinted from the starting line on the 1st, I admit that I felt intimidated that they were way better than I would be. They've both written about 14k words so far, while I'm still trucking at around 3.5k.
But I found out yesterday that both of their novels are basically just their lives with some extra goodies thrown in, which must be making it way easier to reach quotas and keep things moving. I, on the other hand, didn't even start until the 4th and am working on an original piece requiring some research here and there (plus I'm a compulsive editor, which doesn't help).
So to get to my question, how many of you who have written 15k words or more are writing original fiction (characters, backgrounds, and plots aren't gussied-up versions of real-life things), and how many are mostly pulling from real life? This isn't a way to bash one form of writing or glorify another, but I was just curious about a potential correlation between why some people are lagging a little behind and some are racing to the finish line.
----------
38,549 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 21 29
Personally, I'm making it up as I go along, but I do have some characters in other little stories I work on here and there that have mini scenarios that have happened to me (or someone else) that I thought was funny or would go well with the situation. I base my all character's personalities off different parts of my own and a lot of other people's personalities thrown in and mixed together. If something happens in real life that I think would sound hilarious in a story (and could be explained in without giving a huge amount of background info) sometimes I will incorporate it. Most times I type up the idea, let it sit for months and toss it out. BUT I have it there for reference if I want it later. I can always edit it to make something similar happen, but nothing like what happened to the real life situation, or I can keep it as is.
Ultimately it depends on the story, situation, scenario, and characters. Characters especially, because if the character's personality rebels against what you want to happen in a scene, then the scene doesn't stay true to the character's personality and therefore doesn't fit in the story. You can't make your characters do what they don't want to do, unless it's a path the story takes ^____^
Anywho, 'nuff ramblin from me. That's the way I work and see things. Hope this helps :D
----------Remember remember the Month of November:
The endless bad writing of plots.
If we write together
Despite the bad weather
The slow pokes will be like "Say what?!"
37,852 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 21 37
My novel has little to do with my real life. The only reality is in a few social issues involved, but those have been thus far scarce.
----------32,419 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 14 59
Obviously I'm not at 15K yet, but of the people I know who are, none of them is writing fictionalized reality.
----------What comes after NaNo? National Novel Publishing Year! http://www.nanopubye.org
11,113 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 08 20
Personally, I don't think it matters. I've written both original fiction and fictionalized reality. With fictionalized reality though, I find it to be cathartic and it sometimes help me get through or understand a rough period in my life. And I sometimes find that even when doing that, the characters, despite being based on real people, tend to take a turn somewhere down a road the real ones would never do - which gives them a life of their own.
Either way, good writing is good writing. If you're proud of it, it doesn't matter.
----------http://mizadventurez.blogspot.com
100,241 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 14 13
My work is fiction, but it's set in a real place I know pretty well, which makes it easy. Well, easier. In some respects.
Don't research, though. Just write DO RESEARCH ABOUT X HERE in your manuscript and blow right on by. You'll never get this done if you're spending time doing research -- you can go back and patch that stuff later. :)
36,683 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2009 - 23 50
They may turn out to be annoying self-congratulatory books, but they can still be novels. Heck, they don't even need a conflict or a climax by some standards.
----------Every act of creation is a self portrait.