Fluffypoodel
Inkling
a little over 3k tonight. Really feeling it but We'll see if I can keep up the pace. Really glad for Nano to get me back in the swing of things after the rough first half of the year.
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NaNoWriMo 2017!
- Thread starter Chessie2
- Start date
About 2k, but I had hopes for more. I'm trying out the Pomodoro technique, mainly to force myself to take breaks. Am sitting down tonight to map out what I'm going tackle for each writing session. I'll not get anything written for three days weekend after next (son's 40th birthday bash up in Washington), so I'm trying to over-accomplish for this next week.
Just realized I had not responded to Chessie's OP.
Daily Goal: write something; edit something
WIP: A Child of Great Promise. Talysse believes she is half-elf, half-human. Then she discovers that she is neither. An Altearth tale, of course!
Inspiration: Not really sure. I was thinking about identity. Closest thing would be The Return of Martin Guerre. It's a history book by the great social historian Natalie Zemon Davis.
Just realized I had not responded to Chessie's OP.
Daily Goal: write something; edit something
WIP: A Child of Great Promise. Talysse believes she is half-elf, half-human. Then she discovers that she is neither. An Altearth tale, of course!
Inspiration: Not really sure. I was thinking about identity. Closest thing would be The Return of Martin Guerre. It's a history book by the great social historian Natalie Zemon Davis.
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FifthView
Vala
1243 today. I'm averaging 1231, and at this rate I'd hit 50K December 11.
Stopped midway in the second scene. Must needs sleep.
Here's hoping I can raise the word count enough on the weekend to make up the difference.
Stopped midway in the second scene. Must needs sleep.
Here's hoping I can raise the word count enough on the weekend to make up the difference.
Garren Jacobsen
Auror
1685 today, yay.
- Thread starter
- #25
739 for me today. This week has been really busy. I started a new job and today my day went from 6am to 9pm. Tomorrow I work and Saturday I have a book fair. I'm getting real flustered because only a week ago I was doing 2-3k days. It also sucks that by evening everyone wants to be in the computer room or I'm too exhauted to think (pantser). I'll quit moaning and wake up at 6am again tomorrow.
C'est la vie. I'll have to play catch up this weekend too.
C'est la vie. I'll have to play catch up this weekend too.
- Thread starter
- #26
1786. Good grief that took me forever. Love scenes are always the hardest. How's everyone else doing?
Today is a good day. A couple thousand and it's still early afternoon. Time to take a break, get something to eat, then back at it.
To be open, I'm re-writing opening chapters. The words are mostly new, but I have a clear idea not only of what to say but how to say it. That always makes the writing go more quickly. Plenty of bogs ahead; I can see them from here.
To be open, I'm re-writing opening chapters. The words are mostly new, but I have a clear idea not only of what to say but how to say it. That always makes the writing go more quickly. Plenty of bogs ahead; I can see them from here.
Day 3: 1354 words.
Not even remotely close to the 2,500 I'm aiming for, but I still felt productive in that I finished the new 11th chapter of the story and started on the 12th. I think I'll be able to copy a lot from the previous version of this chapter and just edit it into shape, and I believe it will be the same with the next and last chapter. With a bit of luck I can start fobbing my story off on beta readers within the next 24 hours.
Not even remotely close to the 2,500 I'm aiming for, but I still felt productive in that I finished the new 11th chapter of the story and started on the 12th. I think I'll be able to copy a lot from the previous version of this chapter and just edit it into shape, and I believe it will be the same with the next and last chapter. With a bit of luck I can start fobbing my story off on beta readers within the next 24 hours.
Non-Nano but still Nano project: I want to write a generational tale about a fictional dynasty, written in the form of a collection of poetic biographies. The poetic styles change over the course of the tale to match real-world historical styles.
Day 3... or Day 1 for me: Wrote 400 words. Not much, but I'm happy enough with it. I'm trying to write the first biography poem in the style of the old norse sagas. I've never tried this before, so it is a bit of a learning curve. It is proving to be surprisingly hard not to burst into rhyme. The sagas were more focused on alliteration, so I will do the same.
Excerpt:
"Northern sails,
brought their homes to Southern shores.
On deck they carried,
mailed men with darkened eyes.
A full five hundred,
and perhaps a dozen more.
Their weapons wrought in hoary days,
by dwarven craft with steel of the Aegettir.
Boots clashed down,
on a coast of sand.
Softened soil,
untouched by boreal metal.
This land was ripened and mild,
lushy green and decked with rolling hills
Far away from the stony lands of naught,
and godless winters the northen men knew."
Day 3... or Day 1 for me: Wrote 400 words. Not much, but I'm happy enough with it. I'm trying to write the first biography poem in the style of the old norse sagas. I've never tried this before, so it is a bit of a learning curve. It is proving to be surprisingly hard not to burst into rhyme. The sagas were more focused on alliteration, so I will do the same.
Excerpt:
"Northern sails,
brought their homes to Southern shores.
On deck they carried,
mailed men with darkened eyes.
A full five hundred,
and perhaps a dozen more.
Their weapons wrought in hoary days,
by dwarven craft with steel of the Aegettir.
Boots clashed down,
on a coast of sand.
Softened soil,
untouched by boreal metal.
This land was ripened and mild,
lushy green and decked with rolling hills
Far away from the stony lands of naught,
and godless winters the northen men knew."
Best day this week so far: 1458 words. Getting there!
Nimue
Auror
Oh, apparently I neglected to post here...
Daily goal: *in a guttural whisper* Something. Anything. My absolute minimum, no-you-must-write-more is 500 words. I'm just so, so rusty.
WIP: Raven's Daughter...very much a working title...is about a changeling greenwitch and the cursed son of a thane, and how they unravel ancient magic and make bad decisions trying to save each other. Too worded out for a better synopsis.
Inspiration: Celtic myths and fairytales. All sorts of history bits. The kindest, most wholesome romance my tiny brain can come up with. A lot of melodramatic self-indulgent nonsense. Essentially, everything I love in a story.
Daily goal: *in a guttural whisper* Something. Anything. My absolute minimum, no-you-must-write-more is 500 words. I'm just so, so rusty.
WIP: Raven's Daughter...very much a working title...is about a changeling greenwitch and the cursed son of a thane, and how they unravel ancient magic and make bad decisions trying to save each other. Too worded out for a better synopsis.
Inspiration: Celtic myths and fairytales. All sorts of history bits. The kindest, most wholesome romance my tiny brain can come up with. A lot of melodramatic self-indulgent nonsense. Essentially, everything I love in a story.
Fluffypoodel
Inkling
Did another 3k day, and this one was actually new writing instead of just edits with rewrites. Feels good. Glad to see everyone else making progress. Keep up the great work!
FifthView
Vala
Day 3: 807.
I feel bad about the word count but better about the quality. The first day went great, but the second day I felt as if I was simply writing what I knew had to happen. Wasn't so into it, came out a bit telly and even on-the-nose in places. But today I'm back. I recorded my total simply because it's a few minutes to midnight, but I'm going to keep writing tonight. Those words will go with tomorrow's total.
I feel bad about the word count but better about the quality. The first day went great, but the second day I felt as if I was simply writing what I knew had to happen. Wasn't so into it, came out a bit telly and even on-the-nose in places. But today I'm back. I recorded my total simply because it's a few minutes to midnight, but I'm going to keep writing tonight. Those words will go with tomorrow's total.
Myth WeaverMy muse is feeling feeble these days. Despite not much else going on - a change from the last couple of hectic months - forcing myself to write is a chore.
Still, thus far, I am sitting at 2100 words total. Right now, I'm at the midpoint of Chapter Three - Lewis has just reached the monastery guarding the Nexus entrance on the dead world. (I need to come up with some names.)
Tomorrow, I finish that chapter up, and then return to earth, where Diane finds herself staring down the barrel of Walter's gun. (Walter is an unwelcome and unpleasant associate of Max, a POV character, truck driver, and former employee of Station 91.13 the Curse.)
Still, thus far, I am sitting at 2100 words total. Right now, I'm at the midpoint of Chapter Three - Lewis has just reached the monastery guarding the Nexus entrance on the dead world. (I need to come up with some names.)
Tomorrow, I finish that chapter up, and then return to earth, where Diane finds herself staring down the barrel of Walter's gun. (Walter is an unwelcome and unpleasant associate of Max, a POV character, truck driver, and former employee of Station 91.13 the Curse.)
I finished the second draft of my story today. I added about 3,000 words to the story, but most of those came from light editing of the previous draft. I've probably written less than 500 new words today. Happy to be done with this for now though, and looking forward to starting on a new story later this afternoon.
Garren Jacobsen
Auror
Got another 1684 yesterday. Despite maybe falling asleep because I was writing at midnight after watching my Utes beat UCLA.
Hey, folks, I saw something from one of my region-mates at Nano that I thought might be of use. I'm deep in editing myself; this is more for those who are writing from scratch and especially those who find it unbearable not to edit as they go. Here's the routine.
First, she writes. Without editing, but it's okay because she's made a promise. When the writing is done, she records the word count, at which point, the Nano day is done.
Next, she prints the day's work. This is where she delivers on the promise. She goes over the words and marks them up as much as time and inclination allow. If it's something she simply cannot bear to leave as-is, she'll go back and make the edit. The rest she'll leave for post-Nano. But she does not adjust the word count, not even if she adds ever so many new words.
She says the promise is pretty fragile the first few days, but as the month progresses she makes fewer and fewer in-process edits and learns to trust the promise.
Hope that is of some use to someone.
First, she writes. Without editing, but it's okay because she's made a promise. When the writing is done, she records the word count, at which point, the Nano day is done.
Next, she prints the day's work. This is where she delivers on the promise. She goes over the words and marks them up as much as time and inclination allow. If it's something she simply cannot bear to leave as-is, she'll go back and make the edit. The rest she'll leave for post-Nano. But she does not adjust the word count, not even if she adds ever so many new words.
She says the promise is pretty fragile the first few days, but as the month progresses she makes fewer and fewer in-process edits and learns to trust the promise.
Hope that is of some use to someone.
Fluffypoodel
Inkling
did close to 5k today. Probably won't be hitting that kind of goal much this month as I'm approaching the end of my original attempt at rewriting. I'm hoping to keep things around the 3k mark but we'll see what happens
FifthView
Vala
skip.knox, my own process has been similar and not-similar to that.
The slower pace is because I have been editing a little as I go.* I know that's supposed to be a no-no during Nano, but I don't care. It's not just about word count for me—although, it is about word count, nonetheless! In order to know where I'm going, I have to have something reasonably "right" in spirit if not beautiful prose, so I've edited a little until I could feel I was on the right track. But I've not lost myself in that editing process; I've left a lot untouched and steamed ahead as long as I've felt I was on track. Then, after I've updated my word count for the day, I've made additional small edits before shutting down for the night.
I'm not really sure if I'll make 50K, but I'm still going to try. I could spurt out many K today, but I'm pretty sure a massive portion of it would need to be thrown out or entirely rewritten come December 1st. So...I'm trying for a middle ground. I figure if I can keep myself glued to my chair and pumping out words every day for a whole month, I'll be able to do that after the month also.
*Edit: Partly because. The other reasons have to do with visualizing specifics/details of the environment I've not given much thought to before this project and finding the occasional name to use for a character. The former far more often than the latter, however.
The slower pace is because I have been editing a little as I go.* I know that's supposed to be a no-no during Nano, but I don't care. It's not just about word count for me—although, it is about word count, nonetheless! In order to know where I'm going, I have to have something reasonably "right" in spirit if not beautiful prose, so I've edited a little until I could feel I was on the right track. But I've not lost myself in that editing process; I've left a lot untouched and steamed ahead as long as I've felt I was on track. Then, after I've updated my word count for the day, I've made additional small edits before shutting down for the night.
I'm not really sure if I'll make 50K, but I'm still going to try. I could spurt out many K today, but I'm pretty sure a massive portion of it would need to be thrown out or entirely rewritten come December 1st. So...I'm trying for a middle ground. I figure if I can keep myself glued to my chair and pumping out words every day for a whole month, I'll be able to do that after the month also.
*Edit: Partly because. The other reasons have to do with visualizing specifics/details of the environment I've not given much thought to before this project and finding the occasional name to use for a character. The former far more often than the latter, however.
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- Thread starter
- #40
That's an interesting way of her doing things, Skip. Thank you for sharing. I especially like her thoroughness by printing.
I HAVE to edit as I go along. I do several passes as I'm writing new words because I don't rewrite and I need the manuscript to be editing & proofread ready by the time I'm done. Everything--plot wise--needs to be as is. So editing as I go along is what helps me to add things, change things, fix typos, etc. Then I put the manuscript in my Grammarly and Hemmingway editing software, and finalize the process with proofreads and line editing (in reverse order lol). This is often why many times when I have big word count days they are followed by smaller word count days. Like, for example, yesterday I spent my writing time editing chapter 12. Still not entirely done with it...which is where the new word counts come in. But I don't count my editing words in NaNo. That's cheating to me. I only count fresh words.
I HAVE to edit as I go along. I do several passes as I'm writing new words because I don't rewrite and I need the manuscript to be editing & proofread ready by the time I'm done. Everything--plot wise--needs to be as is. So editing as I go along is what helps me to add things, change things, fix typos, etc. Then I put the manuscript in my Grammarly and Hemmingway editing software, and finalize the process with proofreads and line editing (in reverse order lol). This is often why many times when I have big word count days they are followed by smaller word count days. Like, for example, yesterday I spent my writing time editing chapter 12. Still not entirely done with it...which is where the new word counts come in. But I don't count my editing words in NaNo. That's cheating to me. I only count fresh words.
