NaNoWriMo 2008

[Phoenixsong]

Aaagh I've written all of three sentences today. D: I shouldn't have procrastinated on my homework that is making me procrastinate on NaNo. Stupid Illustrator.

 

[Cryssie]

and my NaNoBar doesn't work.

Give it your user ID number, not your user name. :)

 

[Butterfree]

Just a tip for everyone: writing the good scenes first is not a good idea; you'll exhaust all your motivation to write the story and never want to actually write the parts in between. If you want to finish NaNo, that's the last thing you should do.

 

[Cryssie]

Just a tip for everyone: writing the good scenes first is not a good idea; you'll exhaust all your motivation to write the story and never want to actually write the parts in between. If you want to finish NaNo, that's the last thing you should do.

I don't know, it might work for some people. I'd try it myself if I felt able to skip ahead and fill in the gaps later. At least then I'd know exactly what I was working from and towards.

 

[Shiny Grimer]

Yo.

My story is boring now.

I wouldn't want to read it just because nothing is happening.
Usually, my stories are cringe-inducing, but not boring.

Ai, this si a first. Also, I'm way behind.

It's up to my cranberry juice and I to rev up that word count.

 

[Phoenixsong]

I still maintain that the best strategy is writing whatever comes to you whenever it comes, be it exciting or boring. Yeah, you might burn out if you write all the fun stuff first, but there's no sense in denying yourself the pleasure of getting it down if that's when it hits you. It's just more productive to write out ideas as they come instead of saying "finish the distasteful stuff first" or "do it in order, do it in order", as you're a lot less likely to burn out that way, IMO. (And probably less likely to forget the brilliantly successful idea that just came to you, especially if you aren't taking the best idea notes.) The prologue of my story is pretty boring (it isn't supposed to be, but that's what revisions are for), but it's currently the longest part simply because that's what I've been inspired to write; I still have some of the more exciting parts written as well, though.

Feeling a little better after remembering that I was close to a day ahead as of yesterday anyway, so technically I don't have to write as much to stay caught up as I thought I did.

 

[Leviathan]

Ragh, yesterday I managed to catch back up with adding a good 3000 words or so, but now I've let myself slip again and the count is at an even 7000 (seriously, that's the exact number as of me writing this). :/

At least I've finally gotten to the first major plot movement; now it'll be a little easier for me to write with a few more environments and characters at my disposal.

 

[Blaziking the God General]

X_X My word count remains at 3000.

Quick! To the Typing Cave!

 

[shiny jiggly]

Whoo!
I'm in this thing. This may be my first year (and apparently I'm a little behind because I only have 1000 something words) but I still have a pretty good feeling about this. I'm hoping to get at least halfway there. I already have a pretty good idea of what I'm gonna do. It's the story of this character I made up in 3rd grade called Mimi So-and-so (the last name is going to be changed because this one is lame) and her friend Amanda Marshmellow. I might stick it on my website when it's done (obviously after revising it).

 

[Negrek]

I'm sure that writing either the exciting parts first or just slogging it through can be an effective strategy. I've tried both for writing fanfics, and while I've never actually finished one using the former method, I'd like to think that's because I didn't start trying it until recently. However, given how diverse writers are in other aspects of the craft, I don't see why one method is always or even usually going to be better than the other. Certainly, I've met people who are all about the outlining and planning and so on and couldn't hope to finish anything without it. I, on the other hand, enjoy letting the plot go where it carries me, because I would grow bored if I felt that everything were set in stone and the only thing to look forward to would be the grind of getting it down on paper.

For NaNo I'm going with the slog method, just because it's worked for my longest things so far and because I don't know enough about what's going to happen to have enough good/exciting scenes to write it any other way. There are definitely some things I look forward to writing more than others, and these are still far in the future, but it's partially the desire to make it there that keeps me going. Though I certainly may change tack later in the game if things just don't work out.

 

[Phoenixsong]

...I can't write anymore. First homework, then the election... oh, yesterday, why did you have to be so distracting? This is the first day that I've actually been behind. D:

Well, I wasn't really suggesting just jumping around randomly so much as, well, you should probably write it in order but there's no reason not to write it down if that's when it comes to you.

 

[Negrek]

Well, I wasn't really suggesting just jumping around randomly so much as, well, you should probably write it in order but there's no reason not to write it down if that's when it comes to you.

Ah, well, I wholeheartedly support a random approach, myself. XD

 

[Amaguq]

Just a tip for everyone: writing the good scenes first is not a good idea; you'll exhaust all your motivation to write the story and never want to actually write the parts in between. If you want to finish NaNo, that's the last thing you should do.

God, I hate how freakin' right you are. That story of mine is going nowhere. So I started over and now I am writing a Pokémon fanfic. I will reach 50,000 words!

And Cryssie, your motivational signature is da-bomb today! Hehehehe, Light. *drool*

 

[Tailsy]

My novel is total jack shit. xD Ugh ugh ugh it's full of rambling and total crappy sentences but it's so much /fun/ I can't stop writing total shit.

QUICK CHOOSE A RANDOM EXTRACT FROM YOUR NOVEL AND POST IT. Don't even think about not doing it if you're going to post.

Maybe it was because it was so shit the powers above felt sorry for it...? It was a viable option. Although god only knows nobody in this stupid place would have noticed if said magical anomalies were sitting on their front doorsteps with hot chocolate complaining about the weather. Pixies actually did this a lot, if only because they were sneaky bastards and would steal fucking anything from your cupboard if you didn't have seventeen pairs of eyes.

Not... like he had seventeen pairs of eyes or anything hey wait a minute it was minus seven seconds, where the fuck was scheduled large unidentifiable monster-thing set up to freak blond pixie Kingston the fuck out and somehow get him to involuntarily display any kind of magical power he may or may not possess?!

Fucking chance games!

Alejandro was going to need to tape up his ears for the next two weeks. Crap crap crap.

“Why doesn't anything interesting ever happen?”

Right, pixie boy was going to fucking die.

 

[Amaguq]

QUICK CHOOSE A RANDOM EXTRACT FROM YOUR NOVEL AND POST IT. Don't even think about not doing it if you're going to post.

This novel is going quite well. In just two hours, I wrote over a thousand words. That is much faster than my other story.

STORY EXCERPT:

She turned to get her favorite breakfast, Cocoa Jumpluffs. Zerrah pulled a bowl from the cupboard to her left, a spoon from the drawer to her right, and the milk bottle from the refrigerator behind her. Soon she was sitting across from her father, scooping the cereal into her mouth with gusto. She glanced up to see him studying her. She swallowed the mouthful of chocolaty goodness she had. “Er…what?”

He couldn’t help but smile at his erratic daughter. “Zerrah Anita Newel, you are a fifteen years old, and have grown from a young girl to a beautiful young woman. All your life, you have lived on this island of ours, as the mayor’s daughter. I think it is time you set out on whatever journey your life may take you, with your very own Pokémon.”

The spoon she had been holding clattered to the floor. Her mouth hanging open, she made no move to retrieve it. “A-are you serious?” When her father nodded with she looked suddenly doubtful. “Will you be okay all alone? What will you eat?”

He chuckled at her concern, “Zerrah, before you started taking care of yourself, I took care of us both. I just got a bit lazy when you slowly started taking control of all responsibilities around the house.” When she still didn’t look convinced he grew serious, “Ms. Newel, you are going on a Pokémon journey, and that’s that.”

 

[Involuntary Twitch]

I made good progress today. =D A little over the minimum today, but I was about 200 under yesterday do I'm probably still behind. :/ Oh well.

...OH! So I was writing that she walked down a hill, lost in thought, and bumped into someone... originally it was going to be this guy's father, but then I realized, "ohmygod, it could be the boy she likes :D :D" and it totally was. So uhhh

Excerpt IN!

“I dunno, Susan… maybe boys go for shy types,” I mused.

“Shy? Girl, you are just about the least shy person in the school. At least, you will be when I’m through with you.” She laughed a titillating laugh.

“I guess you’re not in any of my classes, right? But if you were, you’d know that I’m one of the doesn’t-speak-unless-spoken-to types,” I told her. “I read somewhere that boys prefer a woman who doesn’t talk back.”

“Ohh, I see where you’re going,” she said. “You put on this act in school that you’re oh-so-meek, an innocent little lamb… but you’re just toying with ‘em, aren’t you? You’re really a lion, inviting ‘em into your den. Grr.” She made exaggerated clawing motions in the air.

“I don’t think I’m a lamb or a lion,” I said. “Really, it’s not an act. I’m more of… a cat, I think. Sort of in-between.”

“Pff. You cat people.” Susan flipped a hand. Oh yeah, Susan didn’t like cats because she had a little lap dog, a Pomeranian or Pekingese or Pom-pom or some such silly little thing. She calls it sweet. It’s the sort of thing I, as a cat person, would call prey. Not like I had a cat or anything. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I had to leave it cramped in my tiny apartment all day… a city is no place to keep a cat as far as I’m concerned. But someday, I’d move out to the suburbs beneath Mount Tam… and my house would have a big yard and I’d have not one, not two, but three cats. And I’d be married to Claude. But that’s another story.

Susan continued, “But even so… cats have all sorts of little tricks up their sleeves. You can’t catch ‘em if they don’t want to be caught. And they have claws. Sophie, don’t ever forget your claws.”

I hate this excerpt (and this scene in general) but oh well. |D

 

[Phoenixsong]

Complete and utter shit gogogoGO

“Well, Kratos? Tell me! You killed the jackass, didn’t you? Tell me how you killed him, tell me everything!” The Mightyena’s eyes were shining with a manic light. “Did you tear him limb from limb, did you eat his throat out, did you rip off his face? What was it like, hm, laying into the cowardly knife-flailing Pokéman motherfucker that murdered your brothers? What did—”

“Shut up, Dahlia,” Kratos snapped, rolling his eyes. “Just shut up. I didn’t kill him.”

Dahlia looked crestfallen and rather upset. “What do you mean, ‘you didn’t kill him’? He… that Machoke… he killed Shinon and Darknut! And he tried to kill me, and you, and your two friends… and me! And it’s his fault that I fell off of Stripey’s roof—” Kratos snorted. “Shut up! It is his fault. And after all that, you mean to tell me that you let him get away?!”

Kratos was staring out of the window now, his eyes slightly out of focus. “I never said he got away,” he muttered. “I only said that I didn’t kill him.”

“Well, then,” Dahlia pressed, “if you didn’t kill him then who did? Go on, tell me!”

“Gravity did.” And the sullen glare that accompanied this curt statement told Dahlia exactly how her old friend felt about this.

“Ah,” she said sagely, shaking her head. “That’s too bad. Gravity’s a bitch. I should know.”

Dahlia. Oh, Dahlia. You vicious freak, you.

 

[Jetx]

Mine is surprisingly uneventful so far. I mean, they raided an abandoned shrine and somebody got killed in an explosion, but...

 

[Tailsy]

Mine is surprisingly uneventful so far. I mean, they raided an abandoned shrine and somebody got killed in an explosion, but...

WHAT DID I JUST SAY

>:(

 

[Butterfree]

I've been writing wayyyy too slowly and spent too much of my time writing a plot outline for the rest of Morphic (it's going to be 14 chapters, apparently), but eh. EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW OF THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER NINE OF MORPHIC!

The geneticist who had lost his daughter at the beginning of the book was the murderer, and at the end he shot himself.

Gabriel sniffed as he closed the book. He remembered his father describing what it was about and how he felt for that character when he had only just started reading, and once Gabriel had started, he’d quickly also concluded that the geneticist was the most sympathetic character in the whole book. And then… Gabriel felt tears welling up in his eyes again and blinked them resentfully away. Why did he have to be such a woobie over this? A fucking book. Pathetic.

He looked dully at Felicia, sleeping on the other end of the couch, and reached over to pet her. He wanted to vent aloud, but didn’t really trust his voice for the moment, so he kept his mouth shut.

The book that Gabriel is reading is in fact a particular Icelandic mystery novel, or its equivalent in the Morphicverse. Or rather, the events of the version he is reading unfold in the same order as the movie of that book, which I hold works a lot better than the way it is in the actual book.