Posts Tagged NaNoWriMo

Editor Cat Image by Dylan via Flickr

This week at the office has resembled a slightly more chaotic version of Bedlam. Uncooperative computers, demanding clients, phones ringing off the hook, and third-party people failing to get things we needed to us until the absolute last minute.  I’ve spent every moment I’ve had at the office rushing about, only to generally collapse as soon as I got home.

So I’ve not had the energy to write or blog very much this week, and the universes of characters living inside my brain have been protesting mightily. FEED US, they say. WRITE!

But, but, but, I say….there’s not enough TIME. And I’m so very tired.

And then my friend @pikestaff over on Twitter started talking about Script Frenzy.

I’ve never written a script for anything. I’ve always been much more given to a narrative style that I wouldn’t think adapted itself very well to scripts, cinema, comic books, or otherwise.  But @pikestaff’s enthusiasm is contagious, and as I’ve successfully completed NaNoWriMo three years out of the last four, after some hedging I decided I might as well give it a try.

The challenge, of course, is to write a 100 page script in 30 days. Now, I have no idea how one goes about formatting a script, what scriptwriting entails, anything of that sort. So this is definitely a step outside my comfort zone. Fortunately, the Script Frenzy site has a lovely tutorial on formatting as well as some suggestions of software to use to make it a little easier.

I’ve decided to give Scripped a try for my primary app. It’s rather like the Google Docs of scriptwriting, and I do love Google Docs because it gives me access to what I’m writing wherever I might be, without having to bother with synchronizing versions across the three computers I primarily work on. Plus, you don’t have to download anything.

I’ve also downloaded the portable version of Celtx, an opensource and freeware scriptwriting app that works very similar to Scripped, both of which make the unfamiliar formatting much, much easier to adapt to.

As for the story, well, I’d been working on plotting and outlining a space-western in novel form for a while, and decided it would probably adapt well to a more visual and action-oriented approach. So far, it’s come pretty easily. I got 4 pages done yesterday on the first day, and am well into my 8th page today.

I’m both excited and a wee bit worried and frightened to be venturing into a format and medium that is almost entirely foreign to me, but it should prove to be an interesting challenge.

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So, this year’s NaNo is likely to be a NoGo for me. My story, as stories are sometimes wont to do, turned out to not work very well.

Part of my problem, I think, is that I forgot that age-old rule for all writers: Write What You Know.  Except, perhaps, in this case, it should be amended to “Write What You Believe.”

I read a lot of speculative fiction. Generally, it’s my favorite broad genre, and within that genre I read pretty much every end of the spectrum, from the most realistic of hard sci-fi to the most fantastical fantasy, though my usual preference is something somewhere in the middle of those.

And here I was finding myself writing a hard sci-fi novel. Immediately I hit roadblocks with having to research things. I’m an English major, not a scientist, and my general approach to science tends to be one of awe. I appreciate science and scientists, and I believe in their work. However,  other than a grasp of the scientific process and the means used to ensure objectivity, I can’t claim to really understand science, particularly medical science (which is what my novel dealt with) very well. I’m a little better off when it comes to technology and gadgets and mechanical things, due to a gamer geek’s love  of computers, but still, this was a difficult genre for me to attempt from the onset.

However, given the time to research the material that I needed to research, this limitation could have been overcome in the editing process if not for the one unforgivable problem plaguing my novel.

I had no emotional attachment to it. The world was not one that I could find myself moving comfortably into and staying there a while, perhaps because it was too close a representation of the real one.  The characters didn’t seem to be living and breathing as they should be, especially by that point in the novel.  I didn’t care, really, what happened to them, one way or the other, and I knew that if I couldn’t care about or identify with these characters, my readers wouldn’t care either.

So I set it aside.  But I have continued to use NaNo as a tool for what I’ve always used it for: A refresher course in Discipline.  I picked up new project instead.  I’m writing 1000 words a day, at least (usually more), and plan to continue doing so.  1000 words is, I’ve found, an easily manageable daily goal, and it builds up faster than you’d think.

I won’t win NaNoWriMo this year, but I have been successful in reawakening Good Writing Habits, which was the whole point of the exercise to begin with.

This is probably my last regular post for the next month, as I expect that with NaNoWriMo, my blogging schedule will be rather disrupted. I’ll be furiously typing away at those 50K words, and while my ordinary blogging may be disrupted, you’ll still be able to follow my progress and even read my work as it grows here, though keep in mind that NaNo Novels are more first drafts than actual novels.  Novels come after months of editing.

For folks who want to see how I’m doing, I’ve got a nifty progress meter up there → somewhere near the top corner of my blog.

For folks who missed it, you can click >>here<< for my NaNo site information.  I’m still looking for willing charitable donors to sponsor me in my endeavors – just a dollar or two, nothing extraordinary, but it does add up when enough folks do it!

Folks that want to read along as I write can find the work-in-progress in this Mini-Blog – I welcome your comments as I go!

Plan of Action: (This is what has served me well in the past, to ensure I get my 50,000 words in time.)

• 1700 words per day, 2000 if possible, and even more during the first few days to get a buffer in, in case I get behind later.
• Do not stop and edit. Do not delete. Do not second-guess.  Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
  • November is for writing. December is for Editing. It might be crap. It probably is. But I don’t have time to fix it right now.  (I have *real* trouble keeping to this rule, but it is necessary for my sanity and to finish the competition!)
• Enforce “Electronic Black-outs” until word count goal for each day is achieved. No twitter, no phone, no chat, no TV, no Warcraft.

Here I go, wish me luck, and I’ll see you all on the other side! (I hope! If the plotbunnies don’t eat me!)

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As mentioned before, I will be participating in this year’s National Novel Writing Month, as I have for several years.  It’s always an event full of fun and craziness and caffeine jitters.  If nothing else, NaNoWriMo has taught me just how many words I can cram into one day, and that it is indeed possible to write a 50,000 word manuscript in 30.  It teaches discipline, something I tend to be sorely in need of.

Once NaNo starts, I’ll put a nice little counter up in the corner of my blog somewhere over there →  where you’ll be able to watch my wordcount (hopefully) tick upwards day-by-day.  I haven’t decided yet if I will post my novel as I write it, but if I do, it’ll be here.

For other WriMos, my NaNo profile is IntellectualBlather, and feel free to list me as a Writing Buddy and let me know, and I’ll list you back! I love having writing buddies to keep me spurred along and provide some friendly competition.  If anyone would like to challenge me to a word-war, I’ll be happy to take you up on that offer!

Just as I did last year, I’ll be asking folks who wish to do so to sponsor me in my quest for those 50,000 words.  The money donated by my sponsors will go to the Office of Letters and Light, the non-profit organization that sponsors NaNo, the Youth Writing Program, and various other writing education programs across the country.  My sponsorship goal this year is $100.

I always like to encourage any people who like to write, whether for fun or profit, to give NaNoWriMo a try at least once. 50,000 words in 30 days isn’t as much as it sounds, once you break it down, and it’s definitely an accomplishment to feel warm and toasty about.

"Plot Bunny Stew" by nodigio via Flickr

This year’s novel is contemporary hard sci-fi. The idea came from reading an article regarding a study showing that crime and mental illness was lower in places where lithium occurred naturally in higher levels in the water supply, and the idea that some governments are considering adding lithium to the water supply based on that research.

I, naturally, am taking it to the next level: Government sponsored medication of people without their knowledge and consent, through the drinking water supply, using artificial pharmaceutics.  Right now, the working title is “Medicine.”

I’ll be posting each day’s wordcount to the final completed paragraph each day as I go.

I’ve gotten my first 5212 words done, so I’m officially ahead of the mark by a whole day (the day three goal is 5001 words). Funny thing is, I still couldn’t tell you what my novel is going to turn out to be about…that’s part of how I write. Stephen King’s described it as digging a fossil out of the dirt, uncovering it gradually and carefully, and that’s the best description I’ve come up with for my own writing style. I don’t think too hard, on that first draft, about planning or outlines, I just go wherever my characters decide to take me.

It’s the second and third drafts where all of that other stuff happens. After all, as any NaNoWriMo’er will tell you…Editing is for December.

For those of you who don’t know, November is National Novel Writing Month. I’ve been a participant in NaNoWriMo for the last couple of years, and it’s always a blast. (If, of course, your definition of a blast means not sleeping, drinking energy drinks round the clock, and agonizing over character development.)

Really, it’s fun! And it’s a good opportunity to get some wonderful advice from writers, actually get off your ass (or rather, in front of that computer, or picking up that notepad and pencil, and not playing video games, or watching TV, or sitting about in a vegetative state on your couch), and write that novel you keep talking about wanting to write.

My word-count meter is to the right of this page, and will be updated daily beginning November 1, when they begin accepting word-counts for verification. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to get 50,000 words out by the end of the month, on whatever subject you choose and in whatever genre you choose. There’s plenty of help if you get stuck, too. First drafts are fine. You can edit in December.

Since I don’t have the money to donate myself, I’ve joined up in the “Write-a-Thon,” meaning you all can sponsor me in my endeavors. The button to take you to the donation page is right under my word-count meter. All of the donations go to the NaNoWriMo and the Young Writer’s Program. I’ll never ask for money often in this blog, but this is a cause close to my heart.

I’ll be using writingblather (my blog devoted to writing) to post updates and occasional “teaser” bits from my work, though it will be hosted on DeviantArt for the extra copyright protection it affords.

You can begin signing up for this year’s NaNoWriMo now!