I'll start this one off -- I have no idea what I'm writing for NaNo this year, and I know I'm not the only one. I don't know what genre I'm writing, what style, anything -- I imagine I'll figure it out before November, but it sure is intimidating, being able to count the days and having no ideas forthcoming.
Who else is in the same boat? This is the forum for encouragement, rallying cries, brainstorming, and ideas for those of us who aren't quite as prepared as some of the others. We've got to stick together, folks!
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Lora, Municipal Liaison for London Ontario
26,221 / 50,000
Okt 21, 2007 - 07 49
It depresses me that I'm the only one who's posted on this one, but that's okay. *cries, alone, in the corner of no ideas*
I have a character who insists they always know what time it is even though their watch has no hands on it, though. But other than that ... still nothing. I've ordered an awesome notebook to write ideas in; it's now gained almost mythical status, as I'm convinced that once it arrives it will magically help me gain ideas. One can only hope ...
20,872 / 50,000
Okt 21, 2007 - 20 58
A brand new and fresh notebook always helps to get the creative juices flowing! And congrats on the character - I always have trouble finding quirky characters! I have no character and quite a bit of a plot - and it certainly doesn't help that I change the plot (and the genre) every couple of days!
I wish you good luck with the emergence from the corner of no ideas!
12,674 / 50,000
Okt 21, 2007 - 21 08
I like the character you've got so far! What I'm wondering is if they actually know what time it is, or if they just think they do. Intriguing. :)
I'm not even thinking about any ideas until November 1st. Then I'll just start writing. I think I screwed myself last year by creating an elaborate fantasy world in which an intricate plot unraveled. I had to stop and think about how each sentence fit in with both the world and the plot.
So this year, I plan on 1) Having it take place in the real world. I know a bit more about the real world, so it takes less effort to think about; and 2) Have no plot.
Should be fun.
10,000 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 10 30
Hmm... day two and no words written. I have a title, but that's about it.
Maybe I could mak it a fifty K title? LOL
Barons of Lesser Infamy: Lessons in Futility
I have pretty much no clue what that's about, but it sounded damn cool when I came up with it.
I think I'll join the Order of the Pants (i.e. the group flying by the seat of their pants, writing wise). It's worked for me in the past so far as writing the 50K goes, but not so much for the actual completing of a novel. I don't think I've written anything that goes past the 'middle' in about four years. *is frustrated*
Writer's block? If only. I find that as my story progresses, so many options for direction turn up that I freeze with indecision. I decide they should go to the beach: do they get there and have an adventure involving stepping on somthing half buried under the sand or do they get a flat tire and spend five hours hanging out by the side of the road because there's no cell reception and good ol' Bobby decided to take a short cut leaving them stranded on a road that no one ever uses, waiting for a car to come by.
And who finally comes by? A creepy old guy in a station wagon? A bus full of circus acrobats on their way to a convention?
SIGH!
Good luck Lora; the watch guy sounds interesting.
26,221 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 20 20
Hey Anja -- I've always wondered which is worse: no ideas or too many. Either one is paralysing.
You realize you could totally cheat and write a book that's like ... a choose-your-own adventure, except not, because instead of choosing, it splits off into one of those multiple universes things, and then you come back and show what would have happened if a DIFFERENT decision was made, and in the end you bring them together. Bwahaha.
Yeah I have no idea. ^^;
26,221 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2007 - 00 40
... And I just deleted everything I wrote after day 1, because it was blocking me and I wasn't going to be able to move past it with that sitting there, staring at me.
DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO GUYS.
10,000 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2007 - 18 31
Dares...
Yup, that's all. Lots and lots (hours really, and that IS a sad commentary on my life right now) of time spent reading the Dares Thread. So many dumb ones; crappy, badly explained or impossible to decypher ones; repeats, so many repeats. But then there are some that really make your brain go "DAMN, this one rocks like a store full of rocking things!" So far my character lost his pants, then he got lost in some bus system mix up. I anticipate him going on quite a journey from there to get home. I don't know why, but he seems to be on some sort of time line right now and every time I go to write it's this sense of urgency under everything to get to... somewhere. I'm not sure if he even knows.
His room mate is patient and tolerant and sucks with maps s he helps the word count along by aiding in the pants' searches and getting them on the wrong bus.
I think I'll work in a pet rock.
That'll eat up a few pages, no doubt.
Yeah, Rocko the rock.
*off to write*
*hurries back long enough to wish you well on your own writing adventure*
Hope it's going more smoothly now.