When I first joined NaNo in 2006, I was concerned that I would not be able to write 50K. So I started a thread here in the regional forum called "Nagging Gale". I asked the other members of the region to nag me if they did not see my word count go up EVERY day. In 2007 and 2008, "Nagging Gale" was part of our regional dynamic.
I wasn't sure if I was going to have Nagging Gale this year. Not that I don't need it, of course; I certainly do. Just ... didn't know.
Anyway, Ziggi got a jump-start on Nagging Gale and sent me a PM asking where the thread was. So, here it is.
This thread is not just for nagging Gale. You can also use it to nag Ziggi ... Laural ... Peter ... Tristan ... Cayte ... FWG ... Welestra ... and everyone else in the region. New members, along with old members -- this is an equal opoortunity nagging thread!
I think that Ziggi called it the "random chat" thread, which is also a good purpose.
So .... how is everyone doing? With 13 hours to go, ARE YOU READY?
And, do you realize that November 1 has 25 hours, because of the change in Daylight Savings Time? How cool is that?!?
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Gale . . . www.ThornesQuest.com . . . or . . . www.stringingwords.com
11,071 / 50,000
Okt 31, 2009 - 07 50
I got a mention, like, EVERY paragraph! awesome!
:D:D:D:D I'm so glad this thing is here <3 [waffle heart]
Nov 1st is awesome for the DLST thingy. 25 hours ... I could write 50K ... if my brain doesn't explode. only trying for 15-20 the first day, though.
I'm SO excited. I has an outline :O
and for anyone who knows me, you know that's a feat. 'cause the last three years I've jumped into this with a vague idea and some characters.
GOOOOOOOOOOOD LUCK everyone!
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I'm from Hamilton, land of hysterical fiction filled with flying monkeys, dancing bananas, and sexy, cozy, violence
11,071 / 50,000
Okt 31, 2009 - 14 50
Oh :(
I am ever so lonely in the Chat
http://chatnano.net/tempchats/hamilton.html
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I'm from Hamilton, land of hysterical fiction filled with flying monkeys, dancing bananas, and sexy, cozy, violence
7,096 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 23 29
Well holloween was a rousing success in my efforts to put myself down most of sunday. In a moment of weakness I almost didn't write anything, but then I told myself to write something. Came up with a strong outline and some very strong insights into the world and series of events. only 680 words but it should make 2667 words when i wake up to monday easy.
I already beat my record for like 2 of my 3 participating years, Yeah!
----------Touche Life, a Job and a visit from the parents. I may not make it to 50k... But i got one week to set the bar Higher then ever for next year!
37,077 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 04 43
That's good, Gaudreaup! All Words Are Good!
----------Gale . . . www.ThornesQuest.com . . . or . . . www.stringingwords.com
40,029 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 11 14
Yesterday my dad was nagging ME to take a break from HIS computer.
I want my computer back, but it's at the repair shop :(
11,071 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 15 52
I do not feel the crazy flowing
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I'm from Hamilton, land of hysterical fiction filled with flying monkeys, dancing bananas, and sexy, cozy, violence
37,077 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 16 22
:<
Oh, noes! What can we do to help you? Have you started included everybody's novel titles? Have you included "hysterical fiction" and "sexy cosy violence"?
----------Gale . . . www.ThornesQuest.com . . . or . . . www.stringingwords.com
11,071 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 16 26
:<
Oh, noes! What can we do to help you? Have you started included everybody's novel titles? Have you included "hysterical fiction" and "sexy cosy violence"?
I dunno :(
I have not, no. If it were just about the word count, I would ... but I just ... opening the document and sitting and typing and not ... appealing to me. Right now ... :(
I think on of the reasons is I don't know my characters in the sci-fi ... I only know 3 out of the 9.
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I'm from Hamilton, land of hysterical fiction filled with flying monkeys, dancing bananas, and sexy, cozy, violence
Ziggle Blindy McDeaferson Wall D.W. Abba Abba Jo Lichken Treagol Walking-Talking-Map Princess Skull Winter!
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I'm from Hamilton, land of hysterical fiction filled with flying monkeys, dancing bananas, and sexy, cozy, violence
7,096 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 17 00
that could be the problem, focusing too much on what you don't know. The saying is write what you know, not what you don't know. How can you write what you don't know! You know?
know know know, know, know know know... no? non? a non?
----------Touche Life, a Job and a visit from the parents. I may not make it to 50k... But i got one week to set the bar Higher then ever for next year!
11,071 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 17 22
Write what I know?
:(
yeah
But, I need the characters :P
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I'm from Hamilton, land of hysterical fiction filled with flying monkeys, dancing bananas, and sexy, cozy, violence
37,077 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 17 26
But, I need the characters :P
So, how about taking the time to do the character questionnaire that Chris posted in "Helpful Resources"?
----------Gale . . . www.ThornesQuest.com . . . or . . . www.stringingwords.com
7,096 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 21 12
I must profess, knowing the characters did kind of get into my inner perfectionist way. However, i did come up with three words in my ramblings of ideas on what has become two main characters look like, and fighting styles. Prepare for it...
Metal Abe Lincoln
Eh, eeh, come on... give him a longer beard and braid the bottom half. thats totally bad-ass.
Taking a short break, got 1061 words to go before i can sleep comfortably tonight at 3334. Gonna rustle up some change and walk to the corner store for doritos... orange triangles are awesome for thought inspiration...
----------Touche Life, a Job and a visit from the parents. I may not make it to 50k... But i got one week to set the bar Higher then ever for next year!
7,096 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 00 02
Blast, derailed by room mate with the clever allure of conversation leading to semi-enteraining tv. However I am now at 2670 words and some of them are actually of novel prose form. Have to start earlier tomorrow... fresher brain...
----------Touche Life, a Job and a visit from the parents. I may not make it to 50k... But i got one week to set the bar Higher then ever for next year!
17,073 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 07 25
Very unrad times right now. Basically everything i wrote last night burned up in a tragic computer failure before I could save. I'll see if I can recap what I wrote, but I'm still looking at a 3k word day
7,096 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 22 06
So i was trying to find something to this effect at the write-in, I remembered commenting to myself that It was probably in one of my dungeon master guides. I was correct... 3.5 edition page 137,
Town Size Population Limit Expected Gold Limit
thorp 20-80 40g
hamlet 81-400 100g
village 401-900 200g
small town 901-2000 800g
large town 2001-5000 3000g
small city 5001-12000 15 000g
large city 12001-25000 40 000g
metropolis 25000+ 100 000g
I am choosing to ignore why it became such a fixation that i classify the relative population size of his destination appropriately and the amount of procrastination that set in when i got back from the write in...
that's not important, whats important is that i found a list i could take as reliable and brought new justification to the hundreds of dollars I have spent on wizards of the coasts many editions...
----------Touche Life, a Job and a visit from the parents. I may not make it to 50k... But i got one week to set the bar Higher then ever for next year!
11,071 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 21 14
DUDE!!!
I just realized why I put in so many random commas!
See, I used to think I use commas pretty accurately.
But, then when I read over my stuff, I'm like 'WTF?! why is there a comma? i don't even REMEMBER putting a comma there!'
And then I posted in FWG's thread about padding and such.
And, i put a comma
And, reading back on it I realize why I put it there.
I put commas in when my mind pauses to think of what I'm going to say next/how i'm going to say it, ect ...
This has shed a lot of light on my writing patterns.
:>
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I'm from Hamilton, land of hysterical fiction filled with flying monkeys, dancing bananas, and sexy, cozy, violence
37,077 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 14 50
I said at the write-in today that this was make-or-break day for this novel. I'm not loving the main character, and the words have just NOT been flowing.
Well, I wrote 1,136 words in 2 hours at Williams, thanks to the good energy-company of girlwithapearl, Elizabeth, Chris, CK, Trish, xdoo and Ziggi.
But I realized that the novel is still on probabation. If I can't at least make quota today (I have not made quota for 3 days, and so I have lost that nice cushion I had built up at the beginning), then this novel is going on the shelf.
Do you hear me, novel? This is really it!
----------Gale . . . www.ThornesQuest.com . . . or . . . www.stringingwords.com
44,291 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 15 15
So, at the risk of being offensive here, I'm going to nag and *pretend* I know what I'm talking about...
You said you're not really liking your character. I know what you mean about that; I had a few last year that I really didn't like, and I didn't like who I became when I wrote them. Sometimes, they were too evil... Sometimes, they were too nice...
Sometimes, they were just too flat... And sometimes, I felt too sorry for them to be objective enough to let the story unfold...
All I knew was when I tried to write them, it wasn't working and I was stuck, stuck, stuck and I was not enjoying what I was doing and was ready to give up.
Fast-forward to the famous "torture your chacater" pep talk. THAT was my saving grace!
Now, don't get me wrong. I didn't *want* to torture my nice characters...who'd want to do that to a friend? And I didn't want to torture my evil characters...who'd want to be polluted by them? And I didn't want to torture my hurting characters...hadn't they already been through enough? And besides, if I tortured them, wouldn't people think I was just plain MEAN???
But when I think about it, here's the thing: good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people, and sh*t happens to all people, no matter good or bad. If the world were a fair place, maybe it wouldn't be so, but if the world were a fair place, wouldn't it be too predictable and too...well, politically correct....to be interesting?
So, go out on a limb. Torture your character a little...or a lot...
Maybe, in his/her pain, you'll find you like him/her a little more. Maybe in his/her pain, some kind of light bulb will go off and he/she will have some kind of wonderful epiphany that motivates them to be something more. Maybe they're beyond redemption, but torturing them will motivate another character in your novel to be the best that they can be and you'll have a whole new directon to go in.
In real life, I'm not into torture...any kind of torture...but in NaNo land, well, it's not real, y'know what I mean? It doesn't define me or my beliefs... It's just a story with a life of its own.
'Nuf said.
37,077 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2009 - 02 49
Total stall since Wednesday night, when I wrote 1800 words between 6:45 p.m. and 9:30.
I ... just ... don't ... like ... this ... story.
(which, apparently, makes me talk like James T. Kirk)
----------Gale . . . www.ThornesQuest.com . . . or . . . www.stringingwords.com
39,229 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2009 - 09 18
I kind of hate my story right now too--but isn't that the curse of the second week? I thought I had arrived at a subplot I liked yesterday afternoon, but now I hate it too. Ha ha.
Today I'm trying to write my way through it without boring myself to tears by doing a few flashbacks, a dream sequence or two, some descriptions of slap-up meals, making fun of Hipsters, describing some of the rooms in a beautiful house etc. I'm not suggesting you write about these things, they are just things I like to write about when I'm bored.
One of the flashbacks seemed to lead me into something I can use now to move the plot forward in a way that I hope is not too excruciatingly boring to write...we'll see.
Bonne courage, Gale!
35,483 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2009 - 09 27
Gale, what about introducing an apparently unrelated B story? Could give you the chance to change focus, introduce a new character...might clean your writing pipes a little bit.