Posts Tagged NaNoWriMo

I have once again won NaNoWriMo, this time validating at 54882 words. It’s a bit of a partial victory, however, as I had started out the month intending to have at least 80,000 words written by November 30.  I made it to NaNo’s goal, but I didn’t make it to my own.  Also, the blogging my novel thing didn’t work out so well (sorry, to those folks that were following it!) – I was just trying to stuff too many things into what is always a busy month for me. It was particularly busy this year because (on account of being BROKE) I am trying to craft the majority of my Christmas gifts,  which of course have to be done by Christmas, as well as my mom’s birthday gift, which had to be done by Thanksgiving.

So yeah, my blog did what it usually does during the Busy NaNoing Month of November and went into almost complete hibernation.  I should probably just plan on that happening in the future.

So, I usually go through a sort of review of the writing tools I used during NaNo every year. Here goes:

Scrivener (Windows)

By now, you know I LOVE THIS PROGRAM. I am, perhaps, the least organized human being in the history of humanity. Scrivener does a lot to help me with that without (and this is the important part) providing me with more procrastination tools.  This is the program that I thank for helping me take my writing from a hobby to a profession, because I have gotten over my inability to Get The Damn Thing Done.  I am finishing more work than I ever have, I’m no longer scattering unfinished manuscripts to the binary equivalent of the four winds, no, they are Getting Done, and Scrivener has given me that. It’s worth the $40, but I got it for half that thanks to my NaNo win last year.  I’d happily have paid $100. It’s already paid for itself just by helping me with my copywriting/editing freelance work.  This will be a permanent fixture in my writing toolbox.

Seventh Sanctum

This website has long been a staple for me for name generation for characters in video games and RPGs as well as my writing.  It’s wonderful for when you are writing in a world that requires somewhat unusual names.  While, typically, the names for my main characters come to me just as the characters themselves do, fully formed in my mind, I often use name generators for side or incidental characters, place names, and other sorts of things.  This year, I found particular use for the Currency Generator, as I was writing a techno-fantasy bridging several kingdoms, all with their separate currencies.

Serendipity Place Name Generator

On a similar note, while Seventh Sanctum usually provides almost any sort of name generator I could possibly need, this year I found myself using the Place Name Generator at Serendipity on several occasions, as it provided place names of almost exactly the sort of feel that I needed for my story.

Dropbox

I often wonder what I did back before I discovered Dropbox. Thanks to this service, I have no need to worry that my work will be lost should something untoward happen to my thumb drive, but it also ensured that my files were synchronized between my thumb drive and my at-home computer, so that I could come home, pull up Scrivener, and any work that I had done during the day was already there, waiting for me to expand on it.  It’s both an easy backup and an assistant to my tendency to write-on-the-go.

Music to Soothe the Savage Writer

Sometimes, if I’m going to get anything done, I have to shut all the other parts of my brain up. Often, the easiest way for me to do that is music or ambient sound. The two things I used most often for this during NaNo this year were Spotify and Soma FM.  I learned a long time ago that the best music for helping me concentrate tended to be some form of electronica or trance music.  I put together a writing playlist on Spotify with a lot of Daft Punk at home, while at work (where I do not install programs to my work computer) I listened to Soma FM’s streaming radio stations, particularly Drone Zone, Groove Salad, and Space Station Soma.

Now, to get back to work so I can finish this novel. This one’s going to be the one to make it to publication, and it’s my baby, and I love it.

Woo, things are progressing well, finally. I’m on schedule and even a good bit ahead on my story, the character introductions are done and the first subplots and both artificial and real  villains have appeared, and everyone is well on their way up the plot-hill.

Today’s scene is longish, contains lots of dialogue and likely will end up being split into two or significantly cut in editing, but editing is for December or January. November is all about Getting The Thing Done. I am a bit worried about the character of Tryst – I want to play around with gender and sexuality stereotypes (as well as subverting typical fantasy/fairy tale tropes) in this novel without turning my characters into caricatures, and the character in the most danger of that is Tryst.   I am relying on my friends in the trans community to give me a slap on the wrist if necessary with this character.

Also, though I know many of you are busy with your own NaNo novels, I’ll remind you that Feedback Gives Authors A Happy. Comments and thoughts are appreciated.

So here you are:

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NaNoWriMo got a bit sidelined last week as I got a stomach bug or ate something bad or something happened to ensure I spent most of Wednesday at home in bed with the healing mews giving me little fuzzy-pawed get-better massages after some time spent crouching in front of the porcelain.  I got behind, and then because of work getting busy, I stayed behind (though I did manage to keep from getting too much more behind than I was from my day off sick).

This weekend I played catchup, and am now back on target. But that’s why I haven’t posted more excerpts than I have – I’ve basically been in a frenzy of get work done asap, play catchup on nano, get work done asap, etc. and haven’t had time to do much else.  Also, this weekend, I baked these Brown Sugar Bacon Biscuits from Joy, and they were absolutely magnificent. So there’s that.

And so now I’ve got a WHOLE LOT written that I haven’t posted here yet, and it would get a bit ridiculous to put all of it in one post, so I’m going to give a scene at a time to make it a bit easier to read and more web-friendly.  So here’s the next one:

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Okay, here’s how this is going to work. Each day, as I reach my daily wordcount target (somewhere around 1667 words each day) I will come here and deliver copypasta of all of the completed scenes I have written since my last post.  They will be completely raw and unedited and here for your perusal.

This year, I am writing a satirical fantasy story. The world is, on the surface, a world typical of most fantasy stories, but is much more like our own beneath the surface. All of the fantasy races are there: Dwarves, elves, halflings, humans, orcs, goblins, trolls, etc., but this is a world mostly at peace, consisting of small parliamentary democracies and the usual worldly political tensions therein. Fairy tales and magic are long since past and largely believed to be nothing more than myth, the remaining artifacts from that era nothing more than trinkets and collectables.  Into this world, a quixotic hero decides to go on an epic quest.

I’m still extremely nervous about posting a barely proofread bit of work, but I do think it will help first-time WriMos realize that you don’t have to have it perfect in the first draft. Here goes!

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This may be a completely insane idea, but I am seriously considering posting each days’ work here throughout NaNo. It would be first draft quality, as I always make it a rule to not edit during NaNo as there isn’t enough time to do so. Basically, I would just be copying and pasting the scenes I had finished straight from Scrivener to here each day, in the raw.

I don’t like posting unedited work for public consumption, but there may be something good in doing so. It would help encourage the newbies, perhaps, if they can see just how imperfect a first draft usually is.  It would allow me to get early input on my project and the direction it’s going. It would help to hold me accountable, make sure I meet my goals for that day so I can post it here.

I usually fall off heavily on my blogging during NaNo, too, so this would make sure that the blog doesn’t sit abandoned during the whole month.

So what do ya’ll think?  Would you have any interest in seeing the earliest draft I produce, watching the story take shape each day?  Is it a silly idea? Am I barmy?