Page 1 of 4

NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 01 Nov 2016, 17:51
by Kellemora
The National Novel Writing Month began today, so if I make even fewer comments than before, this is why.
Busy pounding away at the keyboard! I'll still stop in everyday as usual to see what's new.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 01 Nov 2016, 18:48
by Icey
Good luck with it Gary! I thought maybe it wasn't being done any more, with you not mentioning it again until now.

Is it for all writing styles- both fiction and non-fiction?

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 01 Nov 2016, 21:08
by yogi
Thanks for the heads up Gary. I was starting to miss you. :cry:

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 02 Nov 2016, 18:57
by Kellemora
Oh, I'm still checking in each day Yogi.

You can write anything you want Icey.
The idea is to keep butt in chair and get the words pounded out.
You can't edit what is not yet written, which is main point of NaNoWriMo.
Basically it is a challenge to get to work and quit procrastinating.

I've won 3 years in row now, and plan on doing so again.
One of my NaNo novels, after extensive editing of course, was published in print and e-book formats.
Last years winner is still in editing, and will not be published until after this years winner is, to prevent spoilers.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 03 Nov 2016, 00:37
by Icey
Fantastic effort then! Three years in a row's GOOD, but if you won again ...... fingers crossed for you!

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 03 Nov 2016, 18:56
by Kellemora
This is the first year I broke the daily minimum to win on day one, so I'm happy with that!
I usually got a slow start and played catch-up until I crossed the escalating daily minimum bar.
We have to type 1,667 words per day to finish in time.
I managed 1,809 on day one, and 2,038 on day two, which brought me up to 3,847 at close of day last night.
So far today, I've already added roughly 600 words to the 513 I was ahead, so only have a little over 500 more to go for today, but the day is young yet, so I hope to get much further ahead by close of day tonight.

Love the Mosaics the archaeologists found on another post.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 03 Nov 2016, 19:12
by Icey
I have high hopes of you managing everything Gary. In fact, I'm positive you will! : )

Yes, aren't those mosaics fabulous, and so clear considering their age.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 04 Nov 2016, 20:14
by Kellemora
Oh My, I just reread the last line of my previous post.
If an Editor saw that, he would beat me with a baseball bat.

Especially if he realized the archaeologists looked someplace other than on another post on these forums to find those mosaics, hi hi...

Can I claim I was tired?

I have every intent on winning again this year! I hope good intentions can carry me through, hi hi...

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 05 Nov 2016, 00:05
by Icey
LOL - I read through any mis-interpretation, because I knew what you meant. : )

As for winning again - go for it, and good luck!

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 05 Nov 2016, 17:02
by Kellemora
Thank you Icey - we are still running ahead of schedule despite having to make some unexpected trips.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 05 Nov 2016, 21:53
by Icey
It actually sounds quite exciting, especially for people who love to write. I must've asked you before, but is there some prize at the end of it?

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 06 Nov 2016, 16:34
by Kellemora
The only prize is a badge on your icon that says Winner, hi hi...

Yesterday was Double-Up day. I managed to get a little more than double my starting average.
Hit 3968 words, which was a real push for me, considering I'm trying to do better than just another rough draft.

NaNoWriMo is Challenge, not a Contest. It's goal is for authors to keep their butt in chair and write.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 06 Nov 2016, 17:27
by Icey
Good practice then. : )

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 07 Nov 2016, 17:26
by Kellemora
Yes it is Icey.
Last year I wrote the middle and end of a story.
This year I'm writing the beginning, so hopefully after months of editing, it will finally be close to being published.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 08 Nov 2016, 01:21
by Icey
That's fantastic Gary!

It amazes me that you can write back-to-front, as it were. I'm fine if I have the general story/plot in my head, and can just go from start to finish, but sometimes, a wonderful start and finish forms ... but then I might struggle with the middle. Suppose it depends on how I'm feeling at the time, and actually, I'm getting rusty because I haven't put my mind to writing for a bit! Like anything, you have to keep at it to keep the ideas flowing, but I can remember the days when I might dream of a good story, or wake up with something in my head and I'd have to get up and write it down. I haven't had that for a while, but I think it's because I've been so busy with other things.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 08 Nov 2016, 18:46
by Kellemora
It depends what I'm writing Icey.

I do spend a lot of time developing an outline, although that doesn't mean I follow it very close once I start writing. Ideas for scenes come into my headbone and I run with it. Then go back and fix the outline, hi hi...

When I'm writing a mystery, I always write the main plot line of the first rough draft from the end to the beginning. Then I go back to the end and start adding in the red herring plot lines through to near the beginning.

I have a million story ideas, but no time to do any of them. So I pick the one I like the best and do a short write up to see if it flows the way I like.

I used to enjoy writing short-stories, but then my job got me in tune with much longer novels, and now it seems, if I try to write a short-story, it ends up with my bringing in more and more until it becomes epic length and I have to start chopping it back down.

Unfortunately, I write entirely different than most folks, and always have to go back and rewrite in a totally different way.
A simple example is, like most for the first draft, I'm just telling the story to myself, totally in monologue.
Then I have to go back and turn it into a story with dialogue. Then go back again and add more dialogue.
In other words, change it from telling to showing instead of telling. This is a lot of work for me, hi hi...
Everything I write, I can see hundreds of ways of improving it. Which is why I don't like long novels. I never get finished.

When I look down the threads at the titles. Most of them jog my memory enough I could write a story using that title.
Also, when I was working for Hachette, we had the 50/60 monthly contest. 50 topics would flash on the screen, and we had exactly 1 minute to write a paragraph about that topic. If we could hit the enter key before the timer ran out, we got an extra point or two. The screen would disappear and a new topic would appear on the screen every one minute six seconds.
I actually enjoyed doing those little brain teaser sessions.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 08 Nov 2016, 21:14
by Icey
I see nothing wrong with having a different way of producing a story Gary, whether it's just one sentence, one paragraph or the whole thing. Each person writes in a way which accomplishes the task, and I don't think there's any set way.

The one thing which you do, and which I've never done, is to make a rough or first draft. I write as it comes into my head, and I maybe check each paragraph as its done, so it's a sort of edit-as-you-go thing. I may want to change a word or description for a better one that springs to mind, but if that's the case, I just delete the unwanted stuff as I'm going along and enter the words or phrases which I think sound better.

It's important that we read over what we've put. We're our own first critic, and if it doesn't sound like an interesting/exciting story or book - then it probably isn't.

I only write in the first person if it's necessary. "I" sounds very autobiographical, or the sort of thing you'd write in memoirs, or diary form. Unless you're the subject or main protagonist of a story, there's no need to put it like that, and mixing the two doesn't sound very good unless, again, you're writing non-fiction which might require your own observations or facts.

I could write quite a bit about this, but won't go on. American authors write differently to British ones anyway. You all seem to spend time on details which we'd omit - such as who might've lived/worked with other people, where they're from and so on. We make that sort of info apparent as the reader goes through the book - IF it's of consequence.

You've heard me say this before, but American author Dan Brown's one of my favourites. However, his thick 2-inch books'd be only half that if he cut out the waffle. It's one thing to give a description of a place, but quite another to name roads and buildings off them when they're not really part and parcel of the story. He'll wander off with historical facts, which, undoubtedly interesting, make the reader almost forget what's happening with the characters and the plot! This's a criticism from quite a few British fans, but it's a shame, because apart from those pages or chapters, everything trots along at a good pace, and you don't want to put the books down!

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 09 Nov 2016, 18:31
by Kellemora
I think each of us has a way which works best for us.
In my case, it depends on how long a story is, in the way I will write it.
Many stories I can see the whole story in my head and just write it without an outline.
But then I still have to go back and make an outline for it to make sure I have all of my ducks in a row.

I would do best writing straight history books with no dialogue, because that is just the way I write a story.
Then I have to go back and convert a good portion of the story to dialogue between characters.
I still have to go through another time to remove all the Tell and replace it with Show, usually by using Dialogue.

As Anton says, don't tell me the glass is broken, show me the glints of light reflecting from the shards.

In my current story, I described (tell not show), two large stone columns from floor to ceiling, one in each corner of a theater's front. It's things like this I have to change. Haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do it yet, but do so is a must.
Just give little glimpses here and there and let the reader figure out it is a tall stone column.
The setting sun illuminated a stone near the ceiling as John contemplated his next comment.
Instead of saying the table is triangular in shape, I could simply make a comment like.
John rested his hands on two of the three corners as he spoke.
Not very good examples, but you catch the drift of what I have to come up with.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 09 Nov 2016, 22:37
by Icey
I know you'll get out of the tight spots Gary. Actually, if you were to be writing about a triangular table, unless there's a specific reason for it to need a longer description, I can't help but think that something like: "I rested my hands on the triangular table" - would be ample and acceptable as it is. Sometimes we can be over-descriptive, and sometimes not enough. As you rightly say, it depends on what you're writing about.

Re: NaNoWriMo Started Today!

Posted: 10 Nov 2016, 18:51
by Kellemora
I what little I did write above, the purpose of a triangular table is not immediately obvious.
But all the powers that be, at all levels in my story, are in threes for a reason.
The three elusive and secret Sedonalts, who the populace believes came from the stars, form a Tritabune.
In the beginning, the only people who ever meet with them to discuss matters are Three selected from the Consul.
These three are known as Consul Principates. They alone, through an elaborate affair with great decorum meet with the Sedonalts, of which three form the Tritabune they meet with. Already said that didn't I, hi hi...
The main purpose of the Sedonalts meeting with the Consul leaders, is to form a merger to save the Tarkabian race from extinction. The Sedonalts are the brains, and the Tarkabians provide the Engineers, Scientists, and medical professionals to form a group they named Moscix.
The Tarkabians who volunteered to become a part of the genetic engineering to save their race chose to be called Tarkans, in memory of their ancestor race, who will die out as the intense cold and glaciers move south.
The Tarkans were under Moscix control, but eventually desired to be recognized as a nation.
The Tarkabians had the Consul as their leaders. The highly advanced Tarkans formed the Council of Twelve, identical to the Consul, with three selecteted Principates, who meet with the Tritabune at a separate time than the Consul.
Moscix itself took the best traits of the evolving Tarkans and made themselves even greater.
Moscix is divided into three groups for their different duties.
The technology provided by the Sedonalts became to great for the Tarkans to properly transfer the information to Moscix scientists. So Moscix, in need of direct communication with the Tritabune, elected three of their own as Savantiers to meet with the Sedonalts.

And the above is merely the small details about the governmental components of my story.
Most of the stories first section revolves around the advancement made to save their race.
Later, other nations who survived the ice age come into the story.
A war looms between a species of flying dinosaur with the ability to converse.
At first they attack one of the new nations, then later attack another nation, which is in a new Moscix controlled territory after a natural disaster wipes out almost everyone again.

My story is complex but only has four plot lines, all told separately to avoid confusion.
What I wrote last year for NaNoWriMo will become the ending for this story.
When I reread last years story several times, I was not happy with the beginning, too many unanswered questions, which caused way too many snippets of backstory, which I hate with a passion.

But I'm getting there, at a little over 2,000 words per day. And my outline is looking great, finally.