NaNoWriMo 2010

[Tailsy]

I HIT 10K

UH-HUH

 

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

wtf the NaNo site thinks it's midnight here already so I failed yesterday by 78 words D: what.
Does anyone else have this problem? The site being one hour early? Cause it's just 11PM :/

 

[Phoenixsong]

I lost my entire NaNo.... I haven't written in two days it pissed me off so much.

D: That really sucks. This is why you have to back up religiously, people! This happens to at least one person here every year!

...Most of them have managed to get at least some of their stuff back, though. How exactly did you lose it? Is there really no way you can think of to recover it?

...Yeah I have very few words because I didn't plan out this story enough D:

damn it I should've went with the ones where I actually knew what I was gonna do.

Then do it! It's not like you can't switch stories if you just really aren't getting anywhere with one. It's no fun if you have to try and force yourself to work with an idea that, well, isn't working.


Haven't had much time to write at the computer today because of an interminable wait at the eye doctor, but I did get some stuff written by hand and can type that up in addition to the summary-fleshing-out I was already going to do. Also my wordcount is already higher than what it says on the widgetthings but I don't feel like updating yet, so. Still going pretty strong!

 

[Clover]

A treatise in four parts.

1) complain complain complain
2) progress more like congress amirite
3) oh god why is everyone so more amazing than me
4) oh god why is me so less amazing than everyone


OKAY

SO

Apparently no one paid the internet/phone bill last month? So I have been without any internet at all since approximately 10:45a on the fourth? So that kind of sucked??

And yet I got a bunch of writing done. SO UH points for me?!

Well. Not a bunch. But! I told myself that if I-- so BACKSTORY what I do is I'm typing the story on a file browser on my ds flashcart, but that can't count words so the closest I get is a filesize, and I've found that ~10kb is a day's worth, so I told myself that if I got +7k words, I'd ask to do one of those word war things, but -5k I wouldn't allow myself #tcod for the weekend.

...

7309. ✌☺✍

OF COURSE, nanosite still laughs at me with "YOU WILL BE FINISHED BY: DECEMBER TWELFTH! HAHA." but considering I didn't start until the ~third~ I am considering this sort of good progress? maybe?? hngh. I'm not sure if it's a record for longest thing I've ever written but if not it's surely close!

AND HEY I'm beating 13/29 of my writing archnemeses buddies!! (INCLUDING SURSKITTY by like 150 words) Gosh that's nearly half what. Come on guys get with the program.

ANYWAY, I'd like to get on this word war thingy cause that's what I said I'd do if I had +7k words. :3 Preferably with whoever's worse rn! Which appears to be team A. COME ON TEAM A WE CAN DO IT

TEAM AWESOME

TEAM AMAZING

TEAM AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!




NEXT PART: oh god everyone's excerpts. HOW ARE YOU SO GOOD AT DESCRIPTIONS kjfawdsjldsf. I /read/ good descriptions in other fic, I'm like OKAY /that is how I am doing things/, and then it doesn't work. Or else it works because I like steal words straight off. (I haven't done that with this, but... :'()

“Mrs. Henderson doesn’t look like she’s enjoying the snow today,” remarked the lass quietly, as if confiding in someone a grand secret. The corners of her mouth were firmly tugged down, though the frown somehow made her prettier yet.

Her friend, with red cheeks burning brightly among the greys and dead blues surrounding them, seemed to take no notice to this remark and simply looked intently down at her prints in the snow as they walked.

My favourite segment so far is:

Tsuna would like to be surprised when someone rises out of the seas on a giant flying shark.

He would like to.

It would be great if he was surprised.


ALSO: It would mean he was an EVEN BETTER fighter than SAME, and Squalo loved SAME like he loved meat. Even better than he loved meat; Squalo only fought meat on Thursdays. what the fuck am I writing

Francine looked mildly annoyed for a moment, but then she gave an exasperated sigh and waved Virgil off. "Whatever," she huffed. "But call Buizel 'he'. And no, devil horns aren't an insult or a rude hand gesture like giving someone the bird. Devil horns means you're metal. And your buizel, Virgil, is very metal."

"There are two other explanations," admitted Katheryn, "but I don't consider them to be important here. You're either too weak or too powerful for my magicounter, and I've calibrated it to be several times higher than a potential zero-order mage could ever hope to be. The most likely explanation is that you, Damien Archer, are a natural shield."

damn you guyyyyys ;; This is like. so totally boss. (I would copy vplj's cause it looks totally boss too but for some reason I can't... read it. I mean like my eyes just slide over those words like a butter-covered ice rink. I'm sure it's awesome though!! russians yeaaah just not my cup of tea?) but so and /my/ description is like. whytf would anyone want to read this. No seriously I have no description like a third of those words are straight-up mister exposition and another third are for the completely unrelated to anything else opening and did I mention that those 7309 words cover approximately thirty-six hours in-universe and comprise. um. about 7/10ths of the. first chapter. which i am thinking does not deserve to be called a chapter anymore. SO THROW PACING IN THE MIX TOO wooooo

The first time I read this, I missed the "for" and thought that the story was about someone who wants to be a chef that goes around trying to find a way to make every Pokémon into something edible. XD

You know what I was halfway finished typing that synopsis when I thought "huh. that would actually be much more interesting." hurp.

You guys are right! Battle scenes are really fun to write.

You crazy? ... Well, apparently you are Crazy. But yeah I've had to do one battle scene and hrgh it was so slowgoing. Kinda mostly because I of course had to look up on BP for every single move for visual description and then hey, while I was on the internet, might as well check this that and the other... so um :|.


BLAH BLAH WANT TO SEE WORDS? of course not. but here they are anyway whateverrrrrrrrr. from various bits of the gigachapter:

"Yes!" she cried, watching the color of the focus sash wrapped below her pokémon's black ears fade until it became a useless headband, having performed its duty of keeping Clefable hanging on after being brought to the brink of defeat. She heard a shout of "No!" from across the room, the cry of a boy who had put the pieces together and watched as his sleeping machamp, once in near-perfect health, was now brought down to nearly nothing as the clefable, carefully struggling to stand but still wearing a fiercely determined smile, used a 'revenge' attack of her own.

At this point, she could just tell Clefable to 'kick it', but she felt that would be in poor taste.

(Oh, the machamp had used revenge before, and here the clefable is using endeavor. so.)

"Y'see, a lot of our kids come from Faraday Primary," Mr Mayberry explained, "one of the primaries that funnels into Haines. Did you attend primary?"

"... No, sir," Anita said, her cheeks turning red. She was afraid someone would ask sooner or later, although this was rather too 'sooner' for her liking. "Mossgreen ain't at all close to any larger cities or towns, an' there weren't ever enough kids near my age t'make it worth it t'start one up. But I can read, sir," she quickly added in her defense, "an' I know almost all my times tables, an' I'm real good at measurin' stuff."

She decided against mentioning facts like how she'd accidentally inhaled parasect's spore attack so often that it no longer really affected her, or how she could hold her breath at the watering hole longer than anyone except the poliwag, or how she could probably come up with five ways to kill a man or heal him using nothing but the weeds growing in his backyard. While she knew they were more useful skills than what she'd mentioned, she was aware that Mr Mayberry was a book-smart city-dwelling gentleman, and thus would likely give priority to what book-learning she had received.

(In the rough planning stages, Anita was nothing more than a incorruptible pure pureness moe purity sue. Somewhere along the way she turned into stubbornly independent Fran Arable. I don't know where that came from exactly but I like it.)

Melanie raised a thin, arched eyebrow, then put her hand to her mouth to hide a soft chuckle. "You... make pokémon food?" she said in a disbelieving tone. "How... /quaint/." Anita didn't know what 'quaint' meant exactly, but from her voice, it sounded like the way Aunt Cassandra had called one of her attempts at drawing an exeggutor 'very /original/' before asking why three oddish were dancing on a wobbuffet's head.

subpoint: this is like the third pokéfic I've started based on kids who didn't want to be trainers, and this is like the third pokéfic I've started where I'm like "jesus this is just origfic with vague references to pokémon there's not enough pokémon /add more pokémon/ D<" but they seem really forced. I dunno how to fix it. hopefully it will be better in further less expositiony chapters. IN WHICH the day is saved thanks to anita feeding pokémon!! just like my favorite cooking mangas.

speaking of chapters I'm probably going to have to cut those down to like six or something considering the length of what I'm calling chapters hurp. speaking of chapters off to finish the first one!! ganbatte, tudo mundo! \o/

 

[Phantom]

Well I lost a huge chunk. I left my laptop on and my mom decided "oh Ashley won't mind if I use her laptop. What's this? Some ten thousand word story? I'll just EXIT WORD WITHOUT SAVING IT!" >:/

So I lost about four days worth of work.

 

[surskitty]

I would say that is firmly your fault. Save often!

 

[Phantom]

I would say that is firmly your fault. Save often!

T_T


I know.

 

[Phoenixsong]

@Midnight: baaaah why did you quote mine it is terribly uninteresting compared to everyone else. Including yours! I like Anita.

@Phantom: Ouch. :/ And your Word doesn't have autobackup turned on or anything, does it?

HEY LOOK MOAR UNINTERESTING, and also VERY AWKWARDLY WRITTEN when is it edit time. Look at all the bracketed words representing terrible word choice (or, well, names I haven't decided on yet) that I can't figure out how to fix right now aaagh. Like half the thing is bracketed off. Fff.

All the people on the ground saw was a streak of green tearing across the sky and then it was gone. The rayquaza moved with such alacrity that no one below could really register what it was. Wind whistled across its fins as each masterful flick of its tail or twist of its coils propelled it even faster through the air, rendering even its vibrant emerald scales nearly invisible against the growing sunset.

Certainly no one at ground level would be able to pick out the dark band that fit snugly around the great serpent's throat, nor would they be able to distinguish the gentleman clinging tightly to its back. The man laughed as he braced himself against the wind, too exhilarated by his success to care that the roar of the [wind] rushing by completely drowned out the sound. He had done it. Twenty years of hunting, of research, of painstaking work and experimentation and innumerable mistakes, twenty all but interminable years... but at long, long last he had finally done it. The fully-functioning collar was testament enough to his [success], even if no one could hear his victorious howls to the setting sun.

The townsfolk below, already oblivious to the significance of the emerald blaze shooting through the heavens, were equally mistified by the sudden blast of orange lightning that followed it only moments later. What the civilians thought of [dragonite] was of precious little concern to the Professor, however. His only [concern] was catching up with [bad guy] before it was too late...

The luxray that [clung] to the dragonite's back alongside him growled. The Professor couldn't hear the pokémon over the deafening rush of the wind, but he knew full well what it meant. His partner was concerned. "Don't worry, [luxray]," he shouted over his shoulder, the gale ripping his words away as soon as he spoke them. "We're not going to lose them this time!--we can't allow it! Faster, [dragonite], faster! We must hurry!" [dragonite] did not need to be able to make out his desperate exhortations to know that the situation was becoming more and more dire by the second--she let out a roar of her own [and then] churned her tiny wings into overdrive and shot forward, gaining on the speeding legendary pokémon inch by agonizing inch.

If [bad guy] was at all concerned about having the Professor and [dragonite] so close on his tail, his manic grin showed otherwise. "Not much longer, my pet," he crowed, stroking the rayquaza's head with one hand and runing a thin finger along the collar's control pad with the other. "You and your beloved jade orb will be reunited with the others soon enough. And /they'll/ even get some lovely collars of their own to match yours." He laughed again and turned around, fixing narrowed eyes on the growing [image] of the approaching Professor. "But just to make sure that nothing delays this happy reunion..." The finger on the collar ever-so-casually pressed one of the buttons that ran around it.

Rayquaza screamed. It came to a screeching halt in mid-flight, coils thrashing and twisting in an unconcerted effort to keep itself aloft and in place. Its wild, golden eyes flashed blood red, and with another horrible scream it spat a jet of brilliant turquoise flames straight at the oncoming dragonite, leaving her no room or time to maneuver out of the way.

"Oh my God!"

(...I love how deliciously irrelevant this looks when pasted in out of context! Not that most of you could probably tell! Actually I do want to turn the inspiration for this bit into a separate one-shot when NaNo is over, though.)

 

[Phantom]

Naw, it's not really Word, I use Open Office. Still sucks. I think I know where I left off though. Besides, I DID write all those words... >:| they still count.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Oh, good well, be sure to turn the automatic backups on in OpenOffice, then! Good luck going forward!

ALSO SINCE I FORGOT TO SAY IT IN THE LAST POST we could definitely use the help, Midnight, although I don't know whether I should add you to Team A because then it would have too many people--I've been trying to balance the distribution. If Team B wouldn't mind taking one of the people who has nothing, though, hint-hint... or if no one else actually cares that the numbers are so far off. That too.

 

[Harlequin]

I should be at like 14k right now but I've not written a thing since like, Thursday. ; ;

 

[surskitty]

Midnight should totally join me and Tailsy on Team A >E

 

[Superbird]

^YES.

Well, I just barely made 17,000 words today, and am about 3/4 way through chapter 8. And good lord, people! I personally save every time I either leave the computer, or whenever I finish a chapter. Is it really that hard to his ctrl+s?

So yeah. And in about fifteen days, my wordcount will drop by approximately 2,000 words. To count out the stuff I wrote before NaNo started.

 

[EvilCrazyMonkey]

Wrote ~650 words yesterday, I was too tired, bleh, self pity party. :/ But in the spirit of my biannual tradition to stay up and watch the clocks change, I'll have some extra time to write. I'm planning to get at least 9.5k before I go to bed, and I'll catch up to 1667/day tomorrow, so I won't be behind for too long. I know if that happens, I won't win NaNo.

Also. NaNoWriMo has made me write a 252-word sentence about Santa-related mysteries. Never imaged I'd be doing that. Interesting.

So yeah. And in about fifteen days, my wordcount will drop by approximately 2,000 words. To count out the stuff I wrote before NaNo started.

Why did you count it to begin with? I mean, I had 7k of the story I'm writing this year before November started, and I'm not counting that.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Midnight should join us and then we should steal Negrek and Cirrus from the other two teams and be Team Modforce. (with some, uh, other people.)

I was actually bored before NaNo began and started writing a thing of "NaNo tips" mostly because I could; I haven't finished it and am not entirely sure I care anymore, but I think this section is worth sharing just in case:

There is a "National Back Up Your Novel Day" just so everyone on nanowrimo.com can belabor you with the importance of backing up your novel. But every day should be "National Back Up Your Novel Day". Yeah, you think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Plenty of people on TCoD alone (myself included) can tell you stories about how they lost/almost lost a significant amount of progress due to technological failure, theft, things being misplaced and more. Backing your novel up multiple times, as well as backing it up in more than one location, is an effective way to prevent this. You'll be glad you did later, trust me.

Start by looking at the program you're using to write your novel. Most modern word processors have an automatic backup function you can turn on that will automatically save a backup file of your work every so often. Other popular programs probably have a similar option somewhere, so take the time to look for it/ask someone where it is. Next, manually save your file to at least one other location that is not the folder you normally keep it in. You can do something as simple as copy it to another folder somewhere on your computer, but the best option is saving it in another location entirely. If you have a flash drive or external hard drive, save a copy there. Email it to yourself (probably as an attachment rather than pasting it into an email, just to preserve formatting). Save copies to Google Docs or something like it (if you aren't writing there already; even then, it doesn't hurt to find some other way to save it). You might even want to look at getting a free account with someplace like Mozy or Ubuntu One, which gives you some online storage space to back things up and should be generally useful for other things outside of NaNo anyway.

Wherever you back it up, do it often. I have a Google Docs folder specifically for my NaNo, and at the end of the day I copy and paste my entire story into a new document in that folder. (This is also useful for really basic version control, btw!) You may not want to save the whole thing every day like I do, but you should back your novel up in some way, shape or form at least twice a week, if not more often than that.

On a side note, I love how we're only six-seven days in and this thread is already almost as long as the last two years' were by December.

 

[surskitty]

It's because I'm actually working on NaNo this year. [sage nod]

Eee, I'm like halfway through two major plot lines. (As those of you I've been harassing for advice know, I'm writing a series of connected ficbits in the same universe with actual continuity and filling in as I get around to it. It seems to work.)

 

[Eloi]

Question: where did you all find those word-counter widgets? I want one, might motivate me more for NaNoWriMo.

 

[Phoenixsong]

They're on the official website under "Fun Stuff".

 

[Eloi]

They're on the official website under "Fun Stuff".

Oi, it seems so obvious now, thank you.

 

[nothing to see here]

10,341 now.

Plus, all of my main characters finally have names and vague hints at personalities! Well, first names anyway... but Steve makes up new middle/last names for himself every time someone asks, and the rest probably don't have middle or last names at all, so first names are really all I need. XD

Not quite done with Chapter 3 yet, but it probably won't be too much longer. Once the last few bits of that chapter are done, it's on to the "inbred redneck vampires and the KKK" chapter.