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Write a novel in November! | NaNoWriMo 2017
- Thread starter Cyan
- Start date
might i recommend listening to some of the My Hero Academia sound track while writing?
it has some really great songs to inspire super heroism
Oh man, I've been meaning to do this for years now, but I always quit after the first couple of days.
Maybe this is the year where I'm finally going to do it?
Probably not.
Well, it might be. I'm starting to feel the motivation again...
No, it definitely is! This is it!
I'm going to write a fucking novel in November 2017 and nothing can stop me!
Maybe this is the year where I'm finally going to do it?
Probably not.
Well, it might be. I'm starting to feel the motivation again...
No, it definitely is! This is it!
I'm going to write a fucking novel in November 2017 and nothing can stop me!
I say the same thing every year, but I do feel like this time around it might finally happen. I'm cautiously optimistic.
I'm in. Last year's success was addicting. I think my workload will be a little lighter this year so I'll have a little more free time. I've been slowly adding to what I wrote last year but it'll be good to get an influx of content into the work. Maybe I'll actually be able to do some planning beforehand.
Last year it so happened that I had 2 weeks off during the event which helped out a ton. I won't be having that this year I think, which is gonna be a lot tougher. Doesn't help that I work in sites outside and I'm usually dead tired by the end of the day.
So I guess we'll find out this November?
I was able to do most of the month with my usual work schedule. My after work time got super compressed, however. By the time I finished working out, showered, and ate I typically had 1.5-2 hours to sit down and write. Didn't leave much time for games, housework, etc. Towards the end I started utilizing my breaks/downtime at work also to ensure I could finish and offset some traveling I had to do.
It's doable! We've had people finish under some pretty crazy circumstances, including memorably one person whose baby was born during the month and still managed to complete it, though I think they were going a little nuts at the end there.
Working regular hours and still getting this done is absolutely a thing you can do. I think that's part of the point as well, to show us we can carve off the time we need to do this if we push.
Candeldandel
Member
I'm in... I've been trying to write more every day, and I'm working on an outline for NaNo this month, so maybe that'll help me finish? God I really want to finishhhhh hnnnnggggg /dies
weemadarthur
Member
LSauchelli
Member
I have been watching a couple of youtube channels to get ready:
"Just Write" is a channel where Films and TV shoes are explored as stories to see what we can learn from each of them. Videos are usually 10 minutes-ish long, so it can be consumed in short bursts. https://www.youtube.com/user/mythicalsage
I'm also watching stuff from an editor, Ellen Brock, who has several useful videos https://www.youtube.com/user/KeytopServices
Any other videos or podcasts that are interesting to you?
"Just Write" is a channel where Films and TV shoes are explored as stories to see what we can learn from each of them. Videos are usually 10 minutes-ish long, so it can be consumed in short bursts. https://www.youtube.com/user/mythicalsage
I'm also watching stuff from an editor, Ellen Brock, who has several useful videos https://www.youtube.com/user/KeytopServices
Any other videos or podcasts that are interesting to you?
Plasticine
Member
I'm in again. Haven't decided what I'm writing. Werewolf bikers or an insane vigilante? Decisions, decisions, decisions...
TheChuggernaut
Banned
I kind of want to try this because I do actually have something i want to write, but these seems like a bad idea while I'm still in college.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
I won in my final year of college when I had a 40-page thesis to research and write.
It's totally doable!
TheChuggernaut
Banned
Fuck it, I'm in
NaNo is being weirdly intrusive with their emails this year. I remember generally getting a reminder or two that it was coming up and to get ready. So far I've gotten multiple reminders, several emails about declaring my novel or whatever, one about thirty ideas for novels, and now one where they want me to preorder a tshirt because that will help me win?
Get it together dudes. This is just annoying.
Get it together dudes. This is just annoying.
I've noticed the same. I've received a good 8 since the last couple days of September, granted one was for a discount code for Canadian Thanksgiving. It's making me want to unsub, but then I'd never remember when Camp WriMo is back, or when the editing phases open up at the start of the new year, and sometimes there are genuinely good resources within the emails.
Glad you're on board, 'cause I did it last year in college, and I'm doing it now even though I really should be dedicating my time to my thesis and my other classes. LOL. I'm not doing the full 50k this time around, at least I don't think, but I won last year and it was the most stressful term of my undergraduate career, woooo~
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
I had a plan for Nano and then a lot of really awful stuff recently happened and it really killed a lot of my will to everything. But I thought about it and decided Id hate myself more if I didn't try. Going to toss out my old notes and just start a new story though. Soooooo hoping that won't bite me in the ass (but it probably will ;_; )
Blargonaut
Banned
Try "villain competes for the same goal as the hero" before/after/rather than "hero must stop villain from acting" or "villain must stop hero from achieving"
mutual goal: hateful cooperation? opportunistic backstabbing? begrudging admission of the effectiveness of each other's ideologies/methods in certain situations? confrontation of their own beliefs in the mirror(s) of that goal's pursuers?
stopping each other: "stop it I'll kill you"*
*hyperbole?
Petit Melon
Member
I'm a ML for my region, and one of our wrimos linked a blog post about writing 10k words a day.
It intrigued me and I bought the book and read through it, making notes on this document, if anyone else wants to read it.
It intrigued me and I bought the book and read through it, making notes on this document, if anyone else wants to read it.
I'm not sure I agree with all of this, but some of this sounds good. I particularly like the "boredom check" of thinking through your outline as though the story is happening and seeing if there are boring bits.
LSauchelli
Member
Thanks for documenting this. It sounds interesting. Does it cover theming in some way?
Wow, that's a lot of words a day!
Blargonaut
Banned
That sucks. Hope pursuing your new thing motivates you! Something novel* is always refreshing
*pun?
Going to give this a try this year. Been a silent observer of Gaf's writing community for a while, and now I'm in a creative writing/publishing program. So no excuses.
Added bonus my college is probably going on strike and I could have a whole bunch of free time this November!
Except for all the ones I've thought of since this thread went up...
Added bonus my college is probably going on strike and I could have a whole bunch of free time this November!
Sibersk Esto
Banned
I follow a "3 P's" approach to writing villains
POWER. Your antagonist must be POWERFUL. Find out what flaws your hero has and have the villain tear at that chink in the armor. Take your heroes strengths and turn them into weaknesses (Batman is really good at punching and intimidating bad guys; Joker does not feel intimidated by Batman and punching him out solves nothing). When it comes to action, your bad guy should be a match for the hero and better in some ways, physically or intellectually. If your villain is beaten/foiled by the same superpowers your hero always had, then there's no growth, and your was just pissing around until the easily solved problem was punched out.
PRESSURE. When it comes to your villain and the story he's in, they should feel relentless. They should constantly be pressuring your hero into making harder and harder choices because it's the choices the heroes make that show us what their character is really like. And your hero should never 'win' until the climax of the story. The villain should constantly have the upper hand, while the hero does everything they can just to keep themselves and their loved ones alive (if your story is more idealized, then have a bunch of characters so that some character that we the audience have become familiar can get killed by the villain like Die Hard. In a more cynical story, feel free to kill off characters important to the hero ala The Dark Knight). THE HERO MUST SUFFER. If your hero started the movie in one situation and ended it in the exact same situation, then your villain was an annoyance and again, you just pissed about for two hours. Your villain must be an asshair away from winning and only didn't because the hero had a SPECIFIC strength that beat out your villain's SPECIFIC weakness.
PERSONALITY. Every book on writing that comes to the section on villains will encourage you to write them in a such a way that they aren't just the bad guys who move the plot from beat to beat, they're the protagonists in their own stories who don't see themselves as evil. Does this mean every good bad guy must be tragic and sympathetic? Nope. I believe it means that the antagonists must be so devoted to achieving their own goals that they go through their own arc in the process of the story. This requires ample, meaningful screentime (don't just put them onscreen to remind us that they exist). And their goal must be understandable (Hans Gruber wants to steal shit) and the actions they take in pursuit of that goal must be logical. They should character traits that are strengths (these are the things that make us begrudgingly respect them), and unique flaws that your hero can exploit. A villain still needs to be a character, which means they have their own unique viewpoints and unique ways of reacting to stimuli (ex. Norman Osborn in Spider-Man is a businessman, therefore the Green Goblin's character approaches things like a businessman would). Your villain must have some degree of subtext in the things they do and say, or else they're completely straightforward and we as the audience have not been taken on any sort of arc or journey. If you want to make your villain unique, consider making both the hero and villain compete for the same goal, but with opposing viewpoints. This makes the stakes personal.
Petit Melon
Member
Yeah, I wouldn't recommend the book itself because a lot of things in it seem situational to the author and the other writing advice is done better in other books.
I'm going to try the "knowledge" portion and see how it works for me during a couple of word wars. I already log my writing sessions in less detail so amping it up is perfect for a maniac like me
It didn't. Another book I read in prep for prepping for NaNo had this to say about crafting theme:
Take Off Your Pants! said:
For me, the villain is the person who wants the same goal as the hero, with equal passion. When I imagine their arc, I reverse the roles and put my hero as their antagonist and see how they react when someone is standing in their way. I hope that made sense haha
In the bujo NaNo community a lot of members are posting spreads where they reward themselves for hitting certain wordcounts and it's making me want to do one too even though it seems excessive haha
Vincent Alexander
Member
Ok, sign me up, please. I travel two of four weeks in November, which actually might help me write.
Some of it seems better suited to professional writers (which the piece itself acknowledges), since setting aside 4-7 hours of solid writing is kind of tough for most of us. But some of the concepts should still apply. I particularly like the idea of writing out a short roadmap of what you're writing per session, which is something I've sort of mentally done in the past, but obviously writing it out is going to be more effective. Should help out in the instances where I have characters finish a conversation and then have no idea what the hell to do next.
On a similar note, I think I'm going to do some actual physical outlining this year as well, since I'm already settled on my basic plot with a few weeks to go. Might as well actually try planning stuff out in advance for once.
Blargonaut
Banned
If people show me their loglines I'll show you mine
To get myself really prepped I'm going all out.
I'm setting this story within my fantasy world of Feywryn. Since I've been making a lot of pixel art for it, I decided to make this banner.
I'm going to begin to write down all of the characters and chapters and make art to go with them. To get that investment level up. Make me more willing and able to continue and to give me visuals so I can picture what I write.
I'm setting this story within my fantasy world of Feywryn. Since I've been making a lot of pixel art for it, I decided to make this banner.
I'm going to begin to write down all of the characters and chapters and make art to go with them. To get that investment level up. Make me more willing and able to continue and to give me visuals so I can picture what I write.
Oyashrio-Sama
Member
So how does this sound?
I'm thinking of calling my novel "Disenfranchised"
I'm thinking of calling my novel "Disenfranchised"
Id like to do it again this year, but I still have yet to finish last years story NaNo story.
I think I should finish that one first (and rewrite it), and focus on painting. Then again, maybe writing another story will help me overcome writers block and write my way out of the corner Im stuck in with the other story? 🤔
I think I should finish that one first (and rewrite it), and focus on painting. Then again, maybe writing another story will help me overcome writers block and write my way out of the corner Im stuck in with the other story? 🤔
weemadarthur
Member
If you're in that big of a corner, write something new. And try a different writing organization method than last year's.
Luschient
Member
Not sure this is the right thread for this but something I've been batting around in my head for a bit.
You know how bands cover other band's songs, has there been any examples of writers "covering" another writer's book? And not fanfiction per se, but taking the outline/gist of the story and putting your own style to it.
There's a couple of existing books I've been debating doing this to.
You know how bands cover other band's songs, has there been any examples of writers "covering" another writer's book? And not fanfiction per se, but taking the outline/gist of the story and putting your own style to it.
There's a couple of existing books I've been debating doing this to.
Random Human
They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
The only thing I can think of was that brief period where genre retellings like Pride and Prejudice With Zombies was a trend. Theres also lots of fairy tale retellings.
I think youd probably run into legal troubles if you did this with a recent book, unless you had permission.
I mean arguably wouldn't Gregory Maguire stuff like wicked be that?
or Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.
or are you talking more straight forward, keep the original plots and just change it to your style... which could be possible, but likely also should only be applied to public domain works, or with expressed written permission from the original author.
Sibersk Esto
Banned
Alright, I've got my affairs in order. Sign me up, I'm making an honest go of it this year.
Thanks! Good idea and I think youve just help me decide which story to choose.
I was initially going to write United States of Pangea: A cyberpunk story about the era after cyberpunk (filling a void between Altered Carbon and Diamond Age)
where cybernetic prosthetics are obsolete due to advanced tissue scaffolding and genetic engineering.
But instead Ill write a historical drama based on a non-fiction event. I wanted to tell a story about two children surviving a crisis.
Write the first act as a script for a play.
Second act as a college term paper.
Third act as a middle school social studies report.
Epilogue as an old story told in first person... all tied together with a narrative similar to The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen.
Second act as a college term paper.
Third act as a middle school social studies report.
Epilogue as an old story told in first person... all tied together with a narrative similar to The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen.
I really didnt want to do the research and just write to my hearts content (which is why I wanted scifi over hostory). But I think reseach is enevitable so fuck it.