National Novel Writing Month

[Deranged Nasat]

One of the things I'm currently wrestling with regarding my own writing (my hoped-for novel still very much in the planning stages) is how to incorporate important information about my setting without slipping into infodumps or awkward dialogue. Ideally, I'd want to build up this world in the backdrop, but moving the information from my (extensive!) notes into the actual writing, and ensuring the right details are established well enough for certain essential points of the plot to have impact, is going to be tough. I've got the novel and its background - plot, characters, themes, setting - like a model of a finished building in my mind, but actually bringing it into being is going to be tough.

[propita]

I have no stories to tell, but I'm really good at editing. I'm editing a friend's novel, she has LOTS of stories in her head but can't detach to edit. She's trying to get it published, first in a series of Dark/Young Adult fiction. The story's actually pretty good (Hubby liked it) and she's been willing to accept "suggestions" beyond the grammar/typo/punctuation stuff. Like "delete this scene, it ruins the tension you've built so well over the last 6 pages." She did and the story tightened up nicely there.

[Robert Maxwell]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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One of the things I'm currently wrestling with regarding my own writing (my hoped-for novel still very much in the planning stages) is how to incorporate important information about my setting without slipping into infodumps or awkward dialogue. Ideally, I'd want to build up this world in the backdrop, but moving the information from my (extensive!) notes into the actual writing, and ensuring the right details are established well enough for certain essential points of the plot to have impact, is going to be tough. I've got the novel and its background - plot, characters, themes, setting - like a model of a finished building in my mind, but actually bringing it into being is going to be tough.

You should give me a yell sometime. It's probably too complex to do here in forum posts, but we could chat about it. I am a ruthless plotter. I love world-building, but I think I've gotten very good at figuring out what details flesh out your world while adding to the story, and which ones just devolve your narrative into authorial masturbation.

Oh, and I am up to 15,233 words now!

[Deranged Nasat]

Ghostavo Fring wrote:

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You should give me a yell sometime. It's probably too complex to do here in forum posts, but we could chat about it. I am a ruthless plotter. I love world-building, but I think I've gotten very good at figuring out what details flesh out your world while adding to the story, and which ones just devolve your narrative into authorial masturbation.

Thanks for the offer. I might well take you up on it at some point.

[Danny99]

I'm continuing to work on my current sci-fi novel; at this rate, it'll be ready for National Novel Writing Month 2015!

[Saito S]

Guh, I've found it hard to get in writing time these last several days. I'm only at 13k+, which puts me off-pace by about 5000. There has been a lot going on, but I've found it hard to stay motivated. Not to stay motivated to write at all; I like this story, and I've been writing here and there. But hard to stay motivated to write Nano-style, specifically, i.e. the rush-mode, daily quota stuff, and I've found that my mind drifts between this and other projects I want to work on as well. So I dunno... I'm not quitting yet, and I do think this story is going somewhere, but I'm behind and that's clearly not changing anytime soon, so we'll see.

[Robert Maxwell]

Don't feel too bad. I didn't write anything on Saturday or Sunday, which puts me about a day behind (I was a day ahead before.) I plan to catch up this week.

Don't worry about being behind, either. Just try to do some writing each day. Progress is progress, even if it's slow.

[Saito S]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Don't feel too bad. I didn't write anything on Saturday or Sunday, which puts me about a day behind (I was a day ahead before.) I plan to catch up this week.

Don't worry about being behind, either. Just try to do some writing each day. Progress is progress, even if it's slow.

Yeah, that's how I've been trying to proceed. I got a little antsy about it last night, feeling like I should've written more over the weekend, but then I tried to just relax and not worry about it, and let the writing come when it would.

Then I wrote a total of 3509 for today, so that seemed to work. Still behind, but finally making some good progress again! Might attend the write-in over in Berkeley tomorrow night, see if I can get some solid writing time in there.

Good luck on your catching up as well!

[Robert Maxwell]

Saito S wrote:

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Yeah, that's how I've been trying to proceed. I got a little antsy about it last night, feeling like I should've written more over the weekend, but then I tried to just relax and not worry about it, and let the writing come when it would.

Then I wrote a total of 3509 for today, so that seemed to work. Still behind, but finally making some good progress again! Might attend the write-in over in Berkeley tomorrow night, see if I can get some solid writing time in there.

Good luck on your catching up as well!

I got pretty close yesterday, but then some other things happened and I just wasn't in the right mood to write what I needed to write, so I put it aside. Hoping it will go better today. I'm starting to get to the "good stuff" and I need to give it the right attention!

[Deranged Nasat]

I decided to begin writing the first draft of my novel, on the reasoning that I had nothing to lose by just diving in and working it out as I go. I've done enough planning to know the basics of what I'm aiming for, and I don't want to lock myself into too rigid a plan in case the story starts developing in other directions and I lose my creative flow by trying to tug it back onto the original frame. I'm pleased to say I've gotten past my initial block and written the prologue chapter (about 2,000 words) as well as the opening paragraphs of the first regular chapter. I wasn't sure how to begin - I knew the scenes I wanted to write and the purpose of each, but couldn't decide how to open. Now, though, I'm off and running, though it will take long, long past the end of November for this to be finished. Still, a good night's work.

[Robert Maxwell]

Nice work! I didn't get caught up yesterday because the computer I normally use for this was down (long story), but I'm hoping to get caught up tonight, or at least by the weekend.

[Robert Maxwell]

Anyone else still keeping up with this? I am up to 31,704 as of tonight. I keep falling behind because of real life, and then I catch up again.

Story-wise, I am about halfway through this.

[Saito S]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Anyone else still keeping up with this? I am up to 31,704 as of tonight. I keep falling behind because of real life, and then I catch up again.

Story-wise, I am about halfway through this.

I am! Somehow. Seriously, I have no idea how it is that I'm ONLY 3000 words behind still, with everything that's been going on. It's not been easy to find time to write, but I am still hanging in apparently!

I don't know exactly how far into the story I am, but I'm certain I'm nowhere near halfway through it yet.

[propita]

My friend, the trying-to-get-published one? She attended a writer's "convention" in LA, where there were panels on various subjects for the writers, and a "speed dating" type of thing with some agents. I don't have a lot of info, but evidently these occur a few times a year. She said it was very worthwhile for the panels, the access to agents (she got a card from the one agent she had hoped for), and just talking with other writers.

Evidently, editors are much-needed. The people/writers she met were very interested in who she had as editor and how much she paid. So, this can be profitable for me as I'm not working outside the house anyway. Next year, I'm going to look into doing editing online. Why not make some money doing what I'm good at? Editing, that is. Whew! Left that a bit open, didn't I? lol

[Gul Re'jal]

As the Chinese say: add oil, everyone!

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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I decided to begin writing the first draft of my novel, on the reasoning that I had nothing to lose by just diving in and working it out as I go. I've done enough planning to know the basics of what I'm aiming for, and I don't want to lock myself into too rigid a plan in case the story starts developing in other directions and I lose my creative flow by trying to tug it back onto the original frame. I'm pleased to say I've gotten past my initial block and written the prologue chapter (about 2,000 words) as well as the opening paragraphs of the first regular chapter. I wasn't sure how to begin - I knew the scenes I wanted to write and the purpose of each, but couldn't decide how to open. Now, though, I'm off and running, though it will take long, long past the end of November for this to be finished. Still, a good night's work.

I always find starting the most difficult part of writing. After that's been done, the story starts to roll on on its own.

Good luck, DN! Or "Add oil!"