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NaNoWriMo 2010
- Thread starter Blaziking the God General
- Start date
Dave Strider
the best coolkid
Minnow
If you're gonna dig, dig to the heavens!
I'm seriously considering trying it for the first time this year, mostly because I've had a story idea I really like that I've outlined for a half dozen pages and I can see myself writing that. But I not too sure if I'll do it seriously or not. I have to think about it.
Also, like, half of November is devoted to family stuff (my birthday, my dads birthday, thanksgiving, visiting relatives) so I dunno.
And the aforementioned idea, while my heart really is in it, is still based on Pokemon, and I'm worried I'll peter out in disillusionment that it's not worth it. But then I say it doesn't really matter; it'd be really good to get in so much writing practice anyway. I dunno.
Also, like, half of November is devoted to family stuff (my birthday, my dads birthday, thanksgiving, visiting relatives) so I dunno.
And the aforementioned idea, while my heart really is in it, is still based on Pokemon, and I'm worried I'll peter out in disillusionment that it's not worth it. But then I say it doesn't really matter; it'd be really good to get in so much writing practice anyway. I dunno.
Harlequin
Active member
Elliekat, your third idea is the best of them all, but if I were writing it I'd definitely include some sort of conspiracy between a "ruling elite" composed of both scientists and magicians, and the big reveal is that ... magic is science and science is magic! They're both the same, and both of their civilisations are just massive social experiments started by this ruling elite many years ago.
But that's just me.
But that's just me.
Blaziking the God General
Replicaaa!
I've expanded on one of my plot ideas that I originally wasn't going to use, and now I think I can make it very interesting. It takes place in a made up world because I have a hard time writing about places in the world I haven't been to, so making up made up worlds for stories is a lot easier for me.
The plot is about time getting screwed up in this one world. People and places from different time periods appear and disappear. The story would focus on 5-6 characters from different time frames trying to figure out what is going on. It's a lot better than the idea that it expanded off of.
The plot is about time getting screwed up in this one world. People and places from different time periods appear and disappear. The story would focus on 5-6 characters from different time frames trying to figure out what is going on. It's a lot better than the idea that it expanded off of.
Phoenixsong
beep beep coming through
- Pronoun
- she/they/any
That's pretty cool! Actually I intend to do something similar (though with lots of different genres because I just need the practice/experience in general, hurp), but I have a sinking feeling that attempting a series of shorter stories for NaNo won't end well for me. I guess I'll be working on that later. You could pull it off, though, I bet!
nothing to see here
...probably not posting here too much anymore.
- Pronoun
- he/him
Not sure if I'm going to try this one again this year or not.
Last year's attempt didn't turn out all that well. In terms of word-count it wasn't too bad, since I got more than halfway there before giving up... but out of all the stuff I wrote, there were only a few parts of it that I actually liked (the "Burger King kicks ass" chapter, everything involving Wario and/or King Dedede, Lexaeus easily knocking out Cloud with his bare fist at the end after holding back throughout their entire fight, and a few of the things that happened in the in-between-battles parts.)
Plus I'm trying to finish Okédoké! by the end of November, which probably won't leave a whole lot of time for me to write anything unless I get a lot of the game's final chapter done before October's over. Which I probably won't, since I'm pretty bad about the whole procrastination thing...
Last year's attempt didn't turn out all that well. In terms of word-count it wasn't too bad, since I got more than halfway there before giving up... but out of all the stuff I wrote, there were only a few parts of it that I actually liked (the "Burger King kicks ass" chapter, everything involving Wario and/or King Dedede, Lexaeus easily knocking out Cloud with his bare fist at the end after holding back throughout their entire fight, and a few of the things that happened in the in-between-battles parts.)
Plus I'm trying to finish Okédoké! by the end of November, which probably won't leave a whole lot of time for me to write anything unless I get a lot of the game's final chapter done before October's over. Which I probably won't, since I'm pretty bad about the whole procrastination thing...
Vladimir Putin's LJ
your blood flows through my veins
To all those who participated or are planning to participate: did you guys develop your characters before starting the story? I have a rough guideline for my story and I know how the characters are in my head but I don't have a clue as to how I can develop them properly. I don't want them to be two-dimensional because the story is pretty focused on their personalities so if they don't have one well that makes it a bit complicated doesn't it
Harlequin
Active member
I've already written this novel once before with some of the same characters, so. :B In fact this project is the one I wrote for NaNo 07! Just, like, better. With 100% more gay! :D I basically have some core traits for them: Lord Black is ruthless and slightly cold, Damien is rather sensitive and comes to value the idea of freedom, Katheryn is a firebrand etc: basic bits of a personality and then they can develop around that.
I find it helps to think about a character's childhood, too, because that shapes them in a profound way.
I find it helps to think about a character's childhood, too, because that shapes them in a profound way.
Phoenixsong
beep beep coming through
- Pronoun
- she/they/any
Last year my story was an AU fanfic that just took a bunch of existing characters and shoved them unceremoniously into 1935, so they pretty much all had personalities, etc. anyway without me having to do much. :U All I had to do was make them say "dame" and know what a soda jerk is and then point their Chicago typewriters at each other for a while. (God that era had the best slang ever.)
...but I did have original characters the year before! As with what I'm (probably) doing this year, though, the idea was one I'd been planning for months prior to NaNo; I just hadn't actually started writing any of the story yet, and when I needed an idea for NaNo come September/October I said "what the hell, I've already got all this stuff anyway and will probably never write it otherwise". There was still some character/personality-related tweaking to do, sure, and there were some characters that were only introduced during November or that underwent drastic changes, but... yeah. Most of the core work was already done quite some time in advance, and I had at least a vague idea of where the characters were headed.
Generally speaking I'd just say follow Harle's advice and start with core traits you can build around, but then again your story sounds like it's more heavily character-driven than I think his is (forgive me for making an assumption there), and definitely more character-driven than anything I write, so in your case it's probably a good idea to do at least some work. Definitely think about their backstories, yeah. You can also try looking for hypothetical scenarios, even if they seem irrelevant to your story/characters, and inserting your characters into them to see how they react--observing them in a situation you'd never otherwise consider can actually tell you a lot about them. My mom found a whole book of scenarios for just that purpose, but you can probably just make some up or find something similar on the internet.
Just try to avoid planning too much. Characters seem to be the biggest part of your story, so you should make sure you have a strong foundation and a good idea of where you're taking them before you start, but when it comes to NaNo you absolutely cannot risk the story being too set in stone in advance--it will quickly become stale. Decide on the most important things and on a few other things, but leave some stuff up in the air so it has room to surprise you and to grow on its own.
...or you could do the whole thing by the seat of your pants, but I guess you're a little nervous about that idea (and I would be, too, especially concerning characters rather than plot).
...but I did have original characters the year before! As with what I'm (probably) doing this year, though, the idea was one I'd been planning for months prior to NaNo; I just hadn't actually started writing any of the story yet, and when I needed an idea for NaNo come September/October I said "what the hell, I've already got all this stuff anyway and will probably never write it otherwise". There was still some character/personality-related tweaking to do, sure, and there were some characters that were only introduced during November or that underwent drastic changes, but... yeah. Most of the core work was already done quite some time in advance, and I had at least a vague idea of where the characters were headed.
Generally speaking I'd just say follow Harle's advice and start with core traits you can build around, but then again your story sounds like it's more heavily character-driven than I think his is (forgive me for making an assumption there), and definitely more character-driven than anything I write, so in your case it's probably a good idea to do at least some work. Definitely think about their backstories, yeah. You can also try looking for hypothetical scenarios, even if they seem irrelevant to your story/characters, and inserting your characters into them to see how they react--observing them in a situation you'd never otherwise consider can actually tell you a lot about them. My mom found a whole book of scenarios for just that purpose, but you can probably just make some up or find something similar on the internet.
Just try to avoid planning too much. Characters seem to be the biggest part of your story, so you should make sure you have a strong foundation and a good idea of where you're taking them before you start, but when it comes to NaNo you absolutely cannot risk the story being too set in stone in advance--it will quickly become stale. Decide on the most important things and on a few other things, but leave some stuff up in the air so it has room to surprise you and to grow on its own.
...or you could do the whole thing by the seat of your pants, but I guess you're a little nervous about that idea (and I would be, too, especially concerning characters rather than plot).
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Flora
local hellion
- Pronoun
- they/he/it/neos
With my story, the characters are blatant expies of my friends and I, so I don't really "develop" them so much as "observe their real-life counterpats' actions and words so that I can properly depict them and give them powers that suit them for the most part." (except for Ant Man, but he's basically a gigantic humanoid ant, sooooo...)
Vladimir Putin's LJ
your blood flows through my veins
Teh Ebil Snorlax
izombie, uzombie, weallzombie
I just want to run the rough plot of my NaNoWriMo novel by you guys, to see what ye think.
A farmer called Tizoc is working his fields one day when he falls through the ground into a cave. Inside the cave, he finds the imprisoned angel Arakiel, who transfers himself into Tizoc's right hand and reveals that Tizoc is the prophesied Azure Knight who is destined to destroy the Fallen, 200 angels who fell in love with mortal women and descended to be with them. The Fallen, led by their leader Samyaza, are preparing to invade the Kingdom of Nemah, where God resides, and Tizoc has to utilize Arakiel's powers in order to destroy the Fallen Warmaster, Azazel, the Fallen Sorcerer, Armaros, and the Fallen Paladin, Samyaza, crippling the Fallen and ending their plans for conquest.
However, Tizoc quickly learns that the Fallen aren't the only ones interested in invading Nemah and soon he and Arakiel hold the balance in a conflict that will decide the fate of the world.
The setting is Mesoamerican and contains loads of Biblical references, including the title of each of the 23 chapters. At the same time, I'm going to question Biblical morality a lot and in the end, it's left pretty ambiguous as to who the real villain of the piece is.
A farmer called Tizoc is working his fields one day when he falls through the ground into a cave. Inside the cave, he finds the imprisoned angel Arakiel, who transfers himself into Tizoc's right hand and reveals that Tizoc is the prophesied Azure Knight who is destined to destroy the Fallen, 200 angels who fell in love with mortal women and descended to be with them. The Fallen, led by their leader Samyaza, are preparing to invade the Kingdom of Nemah, where God resides, and Tizoc has to utilize Arakiel's powers in order to destroy the Fallen Warmaster, Azazel, the Fallen Sorcerer, Armaros, and the Fallen Paladin, Samyaza, crippling the Fallen and ending their plans for conquest.
However, Tizoc quickly learns that the Fallen aren't the only ones interested in invading Nemah and soon he and Arakiel hold the balance in a conflict that will decide the fate of the world.
The setting is Mesoamerican and contains loads of Biblical references, including the title of each of the 23 chapters. At the same time, I'm going to question Biblical morality a lot and in the end, it's left pretty ambiguous as to who the real villain of the piece is.
