The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: Pooperman on August 24, 2015, 09:46:08 AM
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...or whatever you're writing! I know there are quite a few Mustachian writers out there, so lets do this!
Some background:
I wrote a first draft about 5 years ago while in college. It was freeform and pretty cool concept wise. However, it lacked any sort of cohesion, so I let it sit buried in that-place-where-unfinished-books-go. Recently, I've felt a bit inspired and want to finish it. I realize that it's got no cohesion and could use a rewrite and an outline. So, I've gone ahead and started rewriting it. I've got the outline for part 1 done and have started on it. I estimate the first part will be somewhere between a novella and a small novel, depending on how in depth I go with it.
I'm not sure what the best way to keep track or to share in general for those interested in reading our collective works of awesome. So, I challenge you to finish that piece of writing you always wanted to!
Here's my starting point:
Draft 1.5
1k words (5 pages)
Part 1 outlined
0/20 sections completed (Part 1)
Here's a link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IRcNmlVRfL3PfDdDV1Z5DwG13fWxGC6Xbz_OuAbahzs/edit) to the story, though maybe we can find a better way of sharing. Genre is probably fantasy/horror, not exactly sure.
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Pooperman, Looks like you have some writing skills. Go ahead and write the book!
I'll use this to motivate myself to kindele-ize my Indian recipe book which I put out for free on the Internet in 1990 (I'm dating myself).
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Pooperman, Looks like you have some writing skills. Go ahead and write the book!
I'll use this to motivate myself to kindele-ize my Indian recipe book which I put out for free on the Internet in 1990 (I'm dating myself).
Many thanks! Good luck with the recipe book :).
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Have you participated in NaNoWriMo? I will be doing it this year if you'd like a buddy! I'm using Sept/Oct for research/outlining and then doing the actual writing during NaNoWriMo.
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Have you participated in NaNoWriMo? I will be doing it this year if you'd like a buddy! I'm using Sept/Oct for research/outlining and then doing the actual writing during NaNoWriMo.
I may participate, depending on work. I'm not a quick writer, I think too much!
Can I play if it's a blog? I've let mine go for a long time. It's not financial, more free form thoughts that just make me happy.
Good luck with the novel! How can we help you stay on track?
Sure! Any writing gauntlet should be tossed here :).
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A bit of an update as I finished the first scene.
Stats:
Draft 1.5
Words: 1.6k (8 pages)
Part 1: 1/20 scenes completed (2 sections)
I've decided to change from section to scene because I need to somehow give a stat of the sections within the chapter as they are real breaking points/time skips. Additionally, that is how I noted them in the outline. At this pace, the book will be done in a year.
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Good luck with the novel! How can we help you stay on track?
I'll post periodic updates (like the above) with my progress. The goal of this gauntlet is to finish, since I'm terrible at finishing things. Maybe a google sheet with some weekly tracking?
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Way to go Pooperman! It will be done in no time. I hope this is the motivation I need. I finished my ebook in July and have been wanting to write another or start a novel. I have a few ideas just need to pick one and go😀
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Way to go Pooperman! It will be done in no time. I hope this is the motivation I need. I finished my ebook in July and have been wanting to write another or start a novel. I have a few ideas just need to pick one and go😀
Congrats on the e-book! Join in :).
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Way to go Pooperman! It will be done in no time. I hope this is the motivation I need. I finished my ebook in July and have been wanting to write another or start a novel. I have a few ideas just need to pick one and go😀
I have the same problem when writing! I have several ideas which makes it so tough to start. Haha! congrats on the ebook.
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Way to go Pooperman! It will be done in no time. I hope this is the motivation I need. I finished my ebook in July and have been wanting to write another or start a novel. I have a few ideas just need to pick one and go😀
I have the same problem when writing! I have several ideas which makes it so tough to start. Haha! congrats on the ebook.
Can't finish all the ideas if you first don't finish one idea!
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Thanks for linking this to me, Pooperman.
I'll play, too! I have a fantasy novel that brings me joy so even though I doubt it's financially viable, I'm going to finish it. It's outlined as a quartet, so lord help me. Here's where I'm at:
Book 1
First Draft
Words: 42,721
Sections: 7/14
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Welcome Meowkins! Not sure if my book will have 4 or 6 parts (depends on how many characters I end up doing), so I totally feel you on the quartet thing. How long has it taken you to get to this point?
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Welcome Meowkins! Not sure if my book will have 4 or 6 parts (depends on how many characters I end up doing), so I totally feel you on the quartet thing. How long has it taken you to get to this point?
It took me about a month and a half to get to this point. I started in NaNoWriMo and royally screwed up my hands, so don't think I'll try that again. However, I will say that this first draft is VERY rough and I am definitely going to have to rewrite large portions.
A friend has wisely advised that I consider switching it from an epic fantasy to an urban fantasy, since that's far more marketable, but I just can't seem to make it fit. Also, if I'm being honest, I'm cringing at the idea of rewriting from scratch. Though I am still struggling with creating a convincing villain that is still slay-able given the abilities of my heroes =/
So, even almost 50,000 words in and halfway through the first book, I still don't have it all figured out. It's going to be a steep climb to coherence.
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Villains can win or be shown the error of their ways.mit doesn't have to be black and white.
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Go pooperman, go!
For all teh ones who are afraid of long novels:
2 years ago I started a NaNo novel that will take - a gues after the first 100K - about 600K words, so it will take me another decade just to write the draft. It's more or less for training, so thats not bad, but still... do not be afeared.
This year I might do another one, I finally got the right start after 3 years thinking about it. Stories always take long in my subconciousness ;)
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keep it up, don't quit.
one thing I would advise is to block out time, at least two hours at a time to write. don't set a goal to write so many pages at a time because you never know when writers block will hit or if you'll just be focused on other things but eventually you'll start writing because you committed that time to do that and nothing else.
I know, I've written two books.
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Thanks for the link Pooperman! It was good enough for me to read it all (I didn't read the synopses because I didn't want to ruin the surprise). Keep up the hard work!
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I saw your message on the page, Meowkins (assuming that was you). I've removed the link for now while we find a better way to share anonymously.
Thanks to the rest of you for the encouragement :)!
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Was a bit busy this week and only ended up with about 150 more words than last time.
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I saw your message on the page, Meowkins (assuming that was you). I've removed the link for now while we find a better way to share anonymously.
Thanks to the rest of you for the encouragement :)!
HAH! I see through your CLEVER RUSE to reveal my true identity. Nice try!
Yeah that was me.
Now that I know your real identity and you know mine send me your link in a PM so I can read it this weekend and also PM you back a very funny story?
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Been thinking of writing an e-book during the nano week - might putz around before that and see if it flows. But I really need to take time out for my photography first - maybe I'll do a little of both. So - a definite maybe:)
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Reread my fantasy novel. It is hilariously bad. I will have to hack away and chop at it.
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Had to look and see if "finishing the novel" was for reading, or writing! ;)
I've got several manuscripts partially completed. NaNoWriMo is coming around soon. I might need to disappear for a few weeks to finish one.
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Had to look and see if "finishing the novel" was for reading, or writing! ;)
I've got several manuscripts partially completed. NaNoWriMo is coming around soon. I might need to disappear for a few weeks to finish one.
Welcome! There's the 50 books challenge for reading (though I will fall short because I read fantasy... 1k+ pages per book is crazy). Do you know of a way to share what we're writing as a group in such a way that maintains anonymity? Tried Google Docs, but that's only anonymous if you're not logged in or don't click the "chat" at the bottom if you are :/.
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Could use a throwaway e-mail to make a Google or Dropbox account, I guess.
I've self-published one book, but I've just been too preoccupied to finish any more. Kinda depressing.
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I put the link back in the initial post. I added a nickname (https://accounts.google.com/EditUserInfo) to my account, so hopefully this will maintain anonymity (it's worth a try).
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Do you know of a way to share what we're writing as a group in such a way that maintains anonymity? Tried Google Docs, but that's only anonymous if you're not logged in or don't click the "chat" at the bottom if you are :/.
You might try asking jordanread. He's got a google doc set up for the cycling challenge and it looks pretty anonymous. Or maybe I'm just not as good at ferreting out identities. :)
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You might try an etherpad. You can use it with any name you want and you can only access if you know the link.
If you click e.g. here
http://piratepad.net/front-page/
and then on the image you get a pad and can copy+paste text. Just save the link ;)
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Draft 1.5
Words: 2.4k (11 pages)
Part 1: 1/20 scenes completed (3 sections)
Wrote a bunch last night (500 words feels like a bunch anyways). Should be able to finish the second scene (and 4th section) tonight. I'm fairly happy with it, but some things bother me about the way I write. I need more characters!
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You surely can find tips on character writing on your own, but there is one I think is most important and especially helpful with "small" chars. Also I love how some famous writer has said it.
Every character should want something, even if it is only a cup of tea.
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You surely can find tips on character writing on your own, but there is one I think is most important and especially helpful with "small" chars. Also I love how some famous writer has said it.
Every character should want something, even if it is only a cup of tea.
Thanks. I've realized this before (and think of it as I design the scenes). It's more aimed at myself than anything since I tend to focus to the exclusion of all else. I realize not everyone sees the world as I do, so I have to make... concessions. Sometimes, I need to remind myself to do so :).
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I've never written a novel or book. But reading about all the writers here on the MMM forum has me toying with the idea of writing a book. I was initially thinking non-fiction. However, I recently signed up for a creative writing class. We had our first class last week, and the instructor gave us a couple simple assignments. I am excited about the possibilities coming up, even if clueless how to successfully develop them. I really think I could write a fiction novel! Taking an open-minded, learn-as-I-go approach here.
I had to look up NaNoWriMo - how cool! I wonder if it would be too much self imposed pressure? Might be good - I seem to work better with a gun to my head sometimes.
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I've never written a novel or book. But reading about all the writers here on the MMM forum has me toying with the idea of writing a book. I was initially thinking non-fiction. However, I recently signed up for a creative writing class. We had our first class last week, and the instructor gave us a couple simple assignments. I am excited about the possibilities coming up, even if clueless how to successfully develop them. I really think I could write a fiction novel! Taking an open-minded, learn-as-I-go approach here.
I had to look up NaNoWriMo - how cool! I wonder if it would be too much self imposed pressure? Might be good - I seem to work better with a gun to my head sometimes.
NaNoWriMo is how I got back into writing. I work better under a (even thinly veiled artificial) deadline.
Some books I'd recommend if you're just getting started:
Stalking the Story by Jay Douglas (http://www.amazon.com/Stalking-Story-Ph-D-Jay-Douglas/dp/B0091XLWKO)
No Plot: No Problem by Chris Baty (http://www.amazon.com/No-Plot-Problem-Low-Stress-High-Velocity/dp/0811845052)
Also, I write even more under *extreme* pressure, I use Write Or Die (http://www.writeordie.com/) to kill writer's block dead. Funny program, but it works for some people.
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Great suggestions; thank you! My local library system had the Chris Baty one available as an eBook - so I downloaded it to my Kindle. I'm also going to think about NaNoWriMo. If not this year, maybe next.
I'm actually kind of excited for my 2nd Creative Writing class tonight! I had a few trepidations after last week. The instructor seems a little opinionated, and some of the participants caused me to be a bit taken aback. Then I thought, "variety is the spice of life", right? And the little exercises we did actually are sparking some creative fire in me. Feels good to be inspired and have a new creative outlet.
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Starting writing is quite simple, really!
Just put down a time of day where you are at home every (or most) days. Set this time for writing 200 or even only 100 words.
Do it.
Whatever you write more to your story, do it.
After the 200 words you can stand up. You can delete them if you dont like them. Just sit down those 15 minutes (and everyone can cut 15 minutes in their day) and write.
The rest will develop.
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Today I read about ancient calendar systems and for funsies am letting you all know that my characters are going to go along with an 18-month year as designed by the Mayans. NEAT ISN'T IT? I wonder if any readers (if there ever are) will ever care about this particularly cool detail.
I've also created a massive excel sheet with the years, seasons, & months and am charting the parallel story lines so I can keep up with all this crazy shit.
Finally, I've figured out WHAT the villain will be and it makes it all the more exciting because I also now know how my heroine will KILL IT. Muahaha!`
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Fancy! There's also how you make weeks, how you group years, etc. 73 5-day weeks broken into 18 months of 4 weeks (20 days) with a celebratory week long festival around the solstice. You can group years by 5s, 10s, 20s, etc.
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So I've done a bit of thinking today abou the direction of the book. I think I will take it to a different place as compared to the original version. Structurally nothing changes, but the wold will be different. I'll end up writing the notes in the document when I get a chance. It's such a thrill to ideate.
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I knocked out 800 words on the book yesterday. I couldn't today, I'm working on budget and I spent the afternoon fixing my van's brakes.
But I've decided to write. Like, seriously try to finish a book series.
The sooner I can quit my job, the better.
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I knocked out 800 words on the book yesterday. I couldn't today, I'm working on budget and I spent the afternoon fixing my van's brakes.
But I've decided to write. Like, seriously try to finish a book series.
The sooner I can quit my job, the better.
Nice! Keep it going; sounds like you are on a roll! :-)
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I knocked out 800 words on the book yesterday. I couldn't today, I'm working on budget and I spent the afternoon fixing my van's brakes.
But I've decided to write. Like, seriously try to finish a book series.
The sooner I can quit my job, the better.
I meant to reply earlier. You're doing great! 800 words in an day is a pretty good pace :).
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I often travel abroad for work, in places where internet is scarce or expensive. Out of boredom, I started writing a book series by hand. I'm about half way into transferred my notes to the computer, and have 900 words of one book and 1900 of the next. There are fragments of four books in total, a paranormal romance that mixes Nordic mythology with wolf shifters.
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I got started with one of my ideas for a romance novel. Rough outline is done and 7 pages written. The plan is to write on my lunch break when i would be mindlessly surfing the internet.
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I got started with one of my ideas for a romance novel. Rough outline is done and 7 pages written. The plan is to write on my lunch break when i would be mindlessly surfing the internet.
Yay! Welcome to the team :). Good luck! I've fallen off the rails a bit recently, but I'll make an effort to get back on track. Hopefully more of you in this thread will help with that!
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October began my research phase/ outline phase to prep for NaNoWriMo. Woohoo!
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^ Yay! I think I should make an effort for NaNoWriMo to finish the draft. Now that crazy stuff is over, I should have a lot more time to work on it!
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At that topic of planning for Nano...
what do you think of when you hear "library?" Whatever comes to your mind?
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At that topic of planning for Nano...
what do you think of when you hear "library?" Whatever comes to your mind?
I see a picture of every library I've been to. I also think of the linguistic origins of the word "library". Finally, librarians have nice uniforms according to every porn video ever.
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At that topic of planning for Nano...
what do you think of when you hear "library?" Whatever comes to your mind?
I see a picture of every library I've been to. I also think of the linguistic origins of the word "library". Finally, librarians have nice uniforms according to every porn video ever.
Interesting. I think of books. Tall metal shelves filled with books. Mostly hardback books w/ plastic covers on them. And that area in the back with the computers. There's always people with headphones back there.
My library is pretty small, so the in-stock selection is pretty underwhelming. I don't usually browse. I reserve the books online and they get transferred to my branch. It makes my trips pretty quick. But on the occasion I've needed to talk with someone, the librarians have always been super helpful. And more than eager to help.
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Added a bit for NaNoWriMo, since I'll use that as a push to finish. Been thinking and rethinking of the general flow of things, and am letting my mind work behind the scenes for how I want the book to go. Been a bit under the weather lately and have been super busy with the wedding stuff before that. Hopefully I can get back to writing this week.
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I'm excited that you added the NaNo piece! I'm about 2/3 of the way through outlining- I really hope to be done by 11/1 so that I can go all out writing. Hope you feel better soon!
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I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. I've never actually written a novel, but my husband and I have been spitballing a plot idea for a little while, so I figured, why not?
DH just found out there are badges... He loves getting achievements, so that actually might be super helpful for us. :)
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I am alternating outlining and writing scenes as they come to me. I've got about 10,000 words so far, maybe 2-3 chapter's worth.
I've been watching a lot of videos and reading articles on what drives storylines, and I'm getting closer to what I actually want to write about. Each tweak I make gets me a little more excited. I don't write every day, but I average 2000 words per session when I do.
Plus I'm still blogging 500+ words every day.
I am really excited about this. It's going to be awesome.
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Well, I just signed up for NaNoWriMo so into the abyss I go. I'm working on what I like to think of as a semi-dark chick lit novel, have roughly 17,000 words written but it needs some major revising (apparently my love of backstory isn't shared by others, alas). Since writing is what I want to do after FIRE might as well jump in with both feet, right?
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Signed up for NaNoWriMo, same username as here. Never used that site before, so will have to see how it goes. Added a synopsis and stuff to that page, not sure how I share that here?
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I've also signed up with NanoWriMo. I've been working with some ideas and I'm not quite sure of the genre yet but I'm in it! Since I also want to write once I leave my job in a year, I thought I would use this NanoWriMo as an opportunity to dip into that ocean and to make friends with my local writers community again.
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Signed up for NaNoWriMo, same username as here. Never used that site before, so will have to see how it goes. Added a synopsis and stuff to that page, not sure how I share that here?
Go to "My NaNoWriMo" and click "Author Info" and share that link here.
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/funkystickman
I've got about 17,000 words, the outline is pretty much done, and I'm straight-up rolling. Going to freight train NaNo this year, I can feel it. Probably will end up being an actual published novel, too. I'm pretty excited.
And yeah, I will get 50K words just during November, no problem.
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Signed up for NaNoWriMo, same username as here. Never used that site before, so will have to see how it goes. Added a synopsis and stuff to that page, not sure how I share that here?
Go to "My NaNoWriMo" and click "Author Info" and share that link here.
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/funkystickman
I've got about 17,000 words, the outline is pretty much done, and I'm straight-up rolling. Going to freight train NaNo this year, I can feel it. Probably will end up being an actual published novel, too. I'm pretty excited.
And yeah, I will get 50K words just during November, no problem.
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/gaja
Thanks!
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Bumping because I need the buddies and November first is coming up quick!
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/mandalayva (http://nanowrimo.org/participants/mandalayva)
I'm challenging myself further by starting a new novel. I have a much stronger idea of where this one is going while the one I posted about originally is in limbo.
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Bumping because I need the buddies and November first is coming up quick!
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/mandalayva (http://nanowrimo.org/participants/mandalayva)
I'm challenging myself further by starting a new novel. I have a much stronger idea of where this one is going while the one I posted about originally is in limbo.
Same with me.
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/pooperman (http://nanowrimo.org/participants/pooperman)
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Alright, I've planned out the basic plot and done a bunch of background stuff to hopefully help me keep things consistent. What I put down as the basics should be enough to get me through the 50k words of NaNoWriMo just fine, depending on how detailed the descriptions and explanations are.
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Day 1 of NaNoWriMo, got 1300 word done. A bit under pace, but I didn't have as much time as I'd hoped.
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I started NaNoWriMo on a whim and just realised there might be a thread! I'm on about 1500 words, completely new story, fantasy setting following a dual story line about water supply/drought in a kingdom and pregnancy of the princess. Because projects are like babies. I am totally counting any plot organising I do in my word count.
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I had unexpected visitors this weekend plus the usual Halloween insanity so no chance to write yesterday. :( We'll see how today goes.
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1,100 words yesterday. Not bad for the first day!
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I'm now on 1900 words.. at the end of Day 2. I'm sending emails to myself as things occur to me during the day, notes on my phone, scribbles on paper. The paper won't be transcribed until the end of the week, or possibly fortnight, because I don't want to break the flow. I'm counting an A5 page as 100 words.
Here's my link: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/snottygobble (http://nanowrimo.org/participants/snottygobble)
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2600 words yesterday, I wrote about 2000 words of blog posts today, and will probably crank another 2K tonight on the novel while wife and girls are at dance class.
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Just busted out 2572 words. Possibly more later.
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I entered and partially rewrote all my old notes yesterday. Will probably need all the head starts I can get if I want to reach the goal. Today I've been thinking about illnesses and handicaps, will try to get some writing done tonight.
One of my largest problems will be the number of side characters. They are very clear in my head, but probably a total chaos for the reader. One of the heroines has 12 brothers. I think I'll write their backgrounds out for myself, and do the editing in the end. The good thing is that I can use some of them for several books.
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4487 words as of today. Not too far off the pace but I still hope to catch up over the weekend. How about you?
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4487 words as of today. Not too far off the pace but I still hope to catch up over the weekend. How about you?
I'm a bit behind that at 2667 as of now. I'll be able to write more on the way home so I expect somewhere in the 3500 range by the end of the day. That all depends on how much time I get to write. Company over for the next couple of days. Writing on the way to and from work is pretty good. I get about 500 words done each way. I've hit my first sticking point. I know where I'm going, just not how much detail to show on the way. I'm going to opt for more rather than less I think. Once I get to the next major plot point, at least I've got a chance to write a lot since action is fun to do :).
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Have something happen every 3 pages.
*throwing in more or less random advise from random writer read at a random point in my life*
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Have something happen every 3 pages.
*throwing in more or less random advise from random writer read at a random point in my life*
Throw a wrench, a monkey, or even a wrench-wielding monkey just to screw with your characters. Readers will be entertained. Some other advise I learned early on: don't repeat. Don't use the same descriptive word repetitively unless its an artistic choice to do so.
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I have been flat out at work, I haven't made progress. Did some outlining of the setting. I realised don't know what tech they have available, so I'm going to run with stuff and, as per instructions, worry about editing later
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We're at 4550, but I think we'll get to 5500 by the end of the day. A bit behind. Turns out, we should have done waaaay more research ahead of time. I just checked out a book and will be reading it tonight.
DH and I signed up together, neither of us having written a book, and completely uncertain of how we'd write a book together. So far it's looking like he's doing all the writing and I'm doing all the research. I think I got the short end of this stick...
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I keep getting distracted. I started with one scene. That turned into four story lines. They suddenly I had 13 characters who each needed their own stories told. And then there are tons of unrelated stuff. Well, I'll just keep on writing, and then I'll look for the good stuff inbetween the rubbish later.
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I keep getting distracted. I started with one scene. That turned into four story lines. They suddenly I had 13 characters who each needed their own stories told. And then there are tons of unrelated stuff. Well, I'll just keep on writing, and then I'll look for the good stuff inbetween the rubbish later.
You have over 8000 words, bravo!
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One week in, how's everyone doing? I'm aiming to have 6k words by the end of the day. The procrastination is terrible!
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We went to a Write-In and tried to double our best word count day. Our goal was 4000 words, but we only got to 3462. But that did get us to 10,500 words. Which was exciting, a new badge and all. I'm hopeful we'll catch up tomorrow and actually be on track to finish by the end of November.
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12525 at the end of the first week. But the second week hole is already looming big over the horizon. I can survive one or two days more and then the initial part is done and I need to do a lot of text before I can go to act 3 where the fight happens. And that middle part is scenery and explanation and carakter explanation but of course without soudnign like a teacher - quite hard.
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I am well behind everyone else, just over 3000 words. I am impressed with myself though, this is the most I've ever deliberately written about a story before!
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I am well behind everyone else, just over 3000 words. I am impressed with myself though, this is the most I've ever deliberately written about a story before!
Keep going and the number will increase!
If you dont know what to write, just sit down and start. The point of nano is to get over that point of small blockade so that you can unleash your creativity.
It is quite simply, really. Start at the start, put one word after the other and write till the end. Then stop. :D
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I'm getting the words in, and I keep adding to the storylines, but I'm not sure it is such a good idea for me to do this type of writing marathon. It is more stress than fun, at times. So I've decided to relax a bit for a few days on the target numbers, and instead try to enjoy writing. Maybe I can find a cafe in town to spend a few hours in?
I think I prefer writing by hand; writing on the computer feels more like work. So since my last notebook was full, I picked up a new one at IKEA today: http://www.ikea.com/no/no/catalog/products/80248035/ It fits so nicely with my story, I think I'll enjoy withing in it.
@Mandalay: Thank you!
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Rolling right along. Hit 13,824 yesterday, will do some more writing tonight.
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We had a 4,000 word day on Sunday and I snuck in some writing time at work today... so we're at 15,337. I think I'm going to make a goal of 2,000 words a day to buy myself a little wiggle room around thanksgiving.
I think it's a little crazy that I'm upping my word count voluntarily, but it feels pretty do-able right now. We'll see how I feel about it in two weeks... :)
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You guys are doing awesomely! I'm stick in neutral right now (a bit sick). I'll try to write some today to get a bit more than 0 words.
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I am well behind everyone else, just over 3000 words. I am impressed with myself though, this is the most I've ever deliberately written about a story before!
Keep going and the number will increase!
If you dont know what to write, just sit down and start. The point of nano is to get over that point of small blockade so that you can unleash your creativity.
It is quite simply, really. Start at the start, put one word after the other and write till the end. Then stop. :D
Oh actually maybe that is why I am going slowly. I'm jumping around writing small scenes or parts-of-scenes as they come to me (during my writing time) rather than trying to go from start to finish. I have now started at the start, and might make some progress from there. I will have to keep where I'm going open because I don't have an outline to follow :)
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Up to 15k! Yay! Struggling with some dialogue though. It's hard to turn off my internal editor that tells me, "nobody says shit like that".
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We're almost at the halfway point! How's everyone doing? I'm waaaay behind at about 8500 words, but I am liking the direction of the story so far.
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I am beyond 2 days but that always happens around day 10 for me - and lots of others. Its when the first fiire and first ideas burned down and you need to rearrange yourself.
@asauer: Try to put dialoge into a "that just happened" description. You can leave out a lot of chatter this way (of course wont increase your word count ^^)
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I am well behind everyone else, just over 3000 words. I am impressed with myself though, this is the most I've ever deliberately written about a story before!
Keep going and the number will increase!
If you dont know what to write, just sit down and start. The point of nano is to get over that point of small blockade so that you can unleash your creativity.
It is quite simply, really. Start at the start, put one word after the other and write till the end. Then stop. :D
Oh actually maybe that is why I am going slowly. I'm jumping around writing small scenes or parts-of-scenes as they come to me (during my writing time) rather than trying to go from start to finish. I have now started at the start, and might make some progress from there. I will have to keep where I'm going open because I don't have an outline to follow :)
I'm up to 5,700 words. I've started writing from the start, which is helping a bit. My scenes still feel dialogue-heavy and disjointed from each other, so next plan is to fill in with rough "this then this", and then continue with the story again :)
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I woke up this morning with 22,800 words and my goal is to get to 25,000 today. We're going to a wedding tomorrow, so I don't think I'll have time to write anything tomorrow.
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I have been writing a little bit by hand, and those words are not logged. But I'm still almost 10 000 words behind target. The firstcoming week is my big hope; I'm taking the oldest kid to deaf school, and that is usually offline and incredibly boring for the parents. There are some sign language lessons, but those are quite short. So there should be plenty of time to write. Also, I'm using that experience for one of my storylines, so I should get some material to write about too.
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Definitely can't do NaNo (HAND INJURIESSS TOO HARD CORE*) but slowly plodding along in my fantasy novel. The rewrite is at 6,638, 2.5 chapters in, and while it's still rough, so far the direction and story telling is MUCH better.
Also figured out the problem of my villain. Will be putting the whole shit to a story board of friends on 12/5 at my house. It's kind of scary, but awesome.
Hope everyone is having fun with their writing!
*I was dumb and got RSI last time, like a wimp.
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I'm right at 25,000. I'm a few thousand words behind, but making steady progress.
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This is actually my second year doing NaNo. Broke 50k by the skin of my teeth last year. At 29k right now. This novel is going to suck when it's done, but I'm determined to finish.
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Good job so far everyone! I'll be happy to finish November with 20k words (closing in on 10k now). I'm not going to stop until it's done :).
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There it is! I am basically finished with the 50K. Just having a reach the end anxiety, 400 words left, didnt wrote for 5 hours ^^ (btw. here I have 4 hours left)
Also I now have found the name for my leading male char. Luckily I got this on the last day lol. He found his long lost sister and with her came the name, ironic.
Congrats to all who finished that hard task, keep trying next year to those who could not do it.
For all of you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thVKLoXtVWg
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Congrats! I'm very happy with the 11k I did to be honest. It's far more than I've written in a long time , so here's to finishing it!
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Grats Lenn and Pooperman!
I got to 10,875. Chapter 3 is done! Chapter 4 is well under way. I love writing this book. It is my happy place.
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I've failed every year at NaNo, but congrats to those of you who finished or at least attempted it!
I've published four novels, two short stories and an essay, but life has gotten in the way of finishing the next book I owe my publisher. Royalties are a viable source of (second) income, so maybe we should keep encouraging each other? Have you already established a group, etc.? I know I'm much more productive when held accountable.
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I've failed every year at NaNo, but congrats to those of you who finished or at least attempted it!
I've published four novels, two short stories and an essay, but life has gotten in the way of finishing the next book I owe my publisher. Royalties are a viable source of (second) income, so maybe we should keep encouraging each other? Have you already established a group, etc.? I know I'm much more productive when held accountable.
Welcome to the group :D. I have no idea where to establish an "official" group with accountabilities and all of that fun stuff.
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I wrote about 11,000 words. Life got in the way, but not bad for a first NNWM attempt.
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I've failed every year at NaNo, but congrats to those of you who finished or at least attempted it!
I've published four novels, two short stories and an essay, but life has gotten in the way of finishing the next book I owe my publisher. Royalties are a viable source of (second) income, so maybe we should keep encouraging each other? Have you already established a group, etc.? I know I'm much more productive when held accountable.
This was my first NaNoWriMo and I did it for the accountability. I didn't finish my book, but I do want to keep at it. For me, seeing that graph of word count was very motivating. I think I'm going to have to continue with entering my word count into Excel or something to see my graph continue.
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I stopped at 40 000. There were two days left, and I could have made it, but I'm practicing the art of giving less fucks. Nanowrimo got me to a place where I can have fun writing more. I'm generally not very good at doing stuff just because they are fun.
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I stopped at 40 000. There were two days left, and I could have made it, but I'm practicing the art of giving less fucks. Nanowrimo got me to a place where I can have fun writing more. I'm generally not very good at doing stuff just because they are fun.
I only got to 6,500 but the real goal of Nanowrimo was the same for me- learn to do fun stuff just because it's fun. I'm planning on continuing with my story, it's one I'd read so I think I'll enjoy it when I'm done too!
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I JUST found this thread. Loved reading through the push of November. DH and I have been working on a series for a VERY long time now. I wish I'd known about the NaNoWriMo site. DH had so much going on that we likely would have had to skip it this year.
I am the techie of the two of us so just taught myself YWriter to help organize our thoughts. Do any of you use a tool like that. Is this tool adequate or am I missing something better. I liked the price, FREE.
DH writes the rough scenes and we use Join Me meetings to take his rough thoughts to the next level collaboratively. Because we are co-writing I like that we can each sit at our own workstation at home and make changes on the fly while the other watches. I feel we do a decent job at fleshing out the plots and subplots, it remains to be seen if we have the skill to button up everything nicely in the end however.
DH loves to draw out timelines, diagrams, artifacts etc on graph paper and he is going to scan those ASAP (I am going to bug him tonight). Since this series is his own made up world, there are endless world building tasks to be done and at times, that stalls out the creative writing time while we work out a world conundrum.
I am theproofer, editor, subject matter contributor and all around cheer squad.
I imported about 25k words this weekend and sorted through it all, luckily we'd already added lines for section breaks which made it easy to have YWriter automagically break up the scenes within the chapters.
I see some of you write by hand, DH is a mix and I am totally computer oriented, I am a developer trained IT person so hand writing anything feels so slow and tedious.
I am not sure if next November DH and I can do a one month writing cram, but by then I "hope" we've finished what would be the first of the series, or perhaps just one of a series in the timeline he has created.
We have established our reading group. A friend already published his first book (self published) and is in that group. This group of folks are avid bookworms, some don't even read our genre but they are family so have no choice but to read and comment:) Family tend to be encouraging but also blunt when we miss something.
Is this thread going to continue even though it is now past November? or is there another writing thread I can tap into?
Good luck to everyone!
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I'm hoping we'll continue past November, I'm certainly not done writing yet :)
I went through our bookshelf with DH on the weekend and now have 3 reference books I can tear up and scribble in to help with my world building, as it's a bit "alternate history". That is what was showing me down :)
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I hear you on being slowed down by worldbuilding, Anatidaev. On the other hand, at least we get to research absurdly obscure things?
Finally had some friends over to "story board" the novel, but it was mostly me telling them a story and them finding snags, plot holes, and other issues. It was four hours of talking and debating, but I think it came to a good place! I've had to rewrite two chapters, but back to good old chapter 4 and that's still pushing through. Who KNEW that killing a god could be so hard?
I wouldn't mind some accountability. Writing on Sunday mornings doesn't really seem to be cutting it.. I really enjoy writing the book, but I am getting a little impatient with the rate of my progress.
Additionally, started a round-robin style session with two friends. We're doing a romance novel, since they are fun and lucrative, and switching off chapters. I wrote the chapter outline and my friend Rodeo is writing the first chapter now. This appeases me because I've had no problems selling romance in the past, so I feel like I'm doing something "productive" instead of just indulging my love of fantasy writing.
In other, other news, my cat just chewed through my headphones in one bite. :) What. An. Asshole.
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Hmm, I like the idea of multi-authoring some smut for money. Maybe we can get a Mustachian Smut Writers Club together or something for a bit of extra income. DW will
playtest give feedback :D.
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I am down with this, Pooperman. I am serious. I will do it. But I have no chapter outlines left in me for the mo', so I'd leave that to an eager volunteer. Happy to spitball ideas tho!
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Read through MonkeyJenga's journal, they've been throwing around ideas for smut there and there may be more people interested.
Who knew a finance forum would result in smut writing?
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[LINK REMOVED]
Hopefully that link works. Basic idea there. Not sure how long romance books need before you can feed the kindle machine, maybe one of you would know. Fantasy is fun to write but doesn't put food on the table :(.
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Romance Writers there, any links to good how-tos?
I was thinking of trying one for a change. (and poss for future earning a bit, as you guys said, Fantasy is fun, but does not earn)
@pooperman: I would be interested in watching (english isnt my native anyway) and maybe woldbuilding (I am good at that) if that is ok.
I dont like having to create a google acc though, I get spied upon as it is more then is good.
oh, forgot:
I am using Scrivener for organizing etc. and sometimes writing and plain simple LibreOffice for writing/dictating. I prefer typing, but dictating is way less demanding on the hands ;)
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I spy a LennStar. Anyways, anyone who wants to join, can. Some agreement will have to be worked out that is fair to each persons' contribution to the cause. Plus, it'll be fun :D. Like an online mustachian meetup that we can do every week or something.
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Whoever wants to join in the effort, please put your name on the Google sheet. I'll figure out a way to all come together to meet and discuss all the particulars. If you don't want to join and your name is already on the sheet for demonstration purposes (anatidaev and meowkins), let me know and I'll remove you.
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Whoever wants to join in the effort, please put your name on the Google sheet. I'll figure out a way to all come together to meet and discuss all the particulars. If you don't want to join and your name is already on the sheet for demonstration purposes (anatidaev and meowkins), let me know and I'll remove you.
I'm in, but would love to talk particulars. I do believe in having some sort of structured plot (a beginning, an end, even if it's just one story within many), so that it doesn't end up taking crazy turns.
Example:
Stephanie just graduated culinary school. After her professors pull some strings to get her into the fanciest restaurant in New York she things she's all set to succeed in the male-dominated world of cooking. But when things start heating up between her and her boss in the kitchens of Mars Colony, Stephanie is forced to confront the truth: will her new hybrid mollusk-human lover compromise her position in the coming human vs mollusk war? FIND OUT, in our next chapter, which probably includes tentacles!!
You see how things can get out of hand. But I promise no tentacles. Really.
Maybe we can use a Mumble server to chat about this stuff? I don't have one available, but I am very able to give suggestions with no real ability to follow through on a solution.
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Whoever wants to join in the effort, please put your name on the Google sheet. I'll figure out a way to all come together to meet and discuss all the particulars. If you don't want to join and your name is already on the sheet for demonstration purposes (anatidaev and meowkins), let me know and I'll remove you.
I'm in, but would love to talk particulars. I do believe in having some sort of structured plot (a beginning, an end, even if it's just one story within many), so that it doesn't end up taking crazy turns.
Example:
Stephanie just graduated culinary school. After her professors pull some strings to get her into the fanciest restaurant in New York she things she's all set to succeed in the male-dominated world of cooking. But when things start heating up between her and her boss in the kitchens of Mars Colony, Stephanie is forced to confront the truth: will her new hybrid mollusk-human lover compromise her position in the coming human vs mollusk war? FIND OUT, in our next chapter, which probably includes tentacles!!
You see how things can get out of hand. But I promise no tentacles. Really.
Maybe we can use a Mumble server to chat about this stuff? I don't have one available, but I am very able to give suggestions with no real ability to follow through on a solution.
Basically, you get the idea haha. The writing will be on an agreed-upon story that everyone comes up with. I mean, 1/3 of it will probably just be smut proper, but there does have to be a story to string it all together. Like, a good story with plot and consistency and all of that.
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Signups will be closed (softly) for this group writing project on the 20th of December. If you want to join after, it depends on how far along planning/writing is.
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Romance Writers there, any links to good how-tos?
I was thinking of trying one for a change. (and poss for future earning a bit, as you guys said, Fantasy is fun, but does not earn)
Jami Gold's beat sheet is good: http://jamigold.com/2012/11/write-romance-get-your-beat-sheet-here/
Michael Hauge's thing on identity vs essence is awesomely helpful.
Fantasy romance sells if it's shifters. Want to write some sexy werewolves? ;)
Thanks I will have a look at it.
Actually my nano novel has cathumans in it and a halfling - like the japanese nekomimi - will get romantic later on ^^ its the half-sister of the male main who finally gets found. Actually the novel is writen with the tolerance thema but I suck at conflicts. Need to get more nastier in the re-write.
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Lennstar sign me up for reading your novel! that sounds cool :)
I am on chapter 5. It is slooow going. But I'm making it, you guys!
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Lennstar sign me up for reading your novel! that sounds cool :)
I am on chapter 5. It is slooow going. But I'm making it, you guys!
OK, just learn german ;)
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Lennstar sign me up for reading your novel! that sounds cool :)
I am on chapter 5. It is slooow going. But I'm making it, you guys!
OK, just learn german ;)
Mein Deutche ist nicht sehr shoern (sp?). I mean, after 7 years you'd think I'd understand it pretty well, and I do to some degree, but it's been a long time.
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Alas, German never made it on my wishlist of languages to learn. So I will never learn it. Just like the rest of the languages actually on my wishlist. But we all need dreams.
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I never got around to it, but I'm not interested in the romance-writing group, I have too many other projects at the moment. I would like to hear updates on progress if it gets going!
I have pulled lots of reference books off my shelves for my book, but not written anything for a few weeks. Should have some time post-Christmas :)
I also seem to keep making my universe/world more complex. Anyone else do that/find it's a problem? I'm not sure if it's a problem or if it's just a natural part of fleshing out the world.
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I never got around to it, but I'm not interested in the romance-writing group, I have too many other projects at the moment. I would like to hear updates on progress if it gets going!
I have pulled lots of reference books off my shelves for my book, but not written anything for a few weeks. Should have some time post-Christmas :)
I also seem to keep making my universe/world more complex. Anyone else do that/find it's a problem? I'm not sure if it's a problem or if it's just a natural part of fleshing out the world.
I think that is pretty normal. As you write you discover new things, on the world or your characters. Sometimes the chars are so strong you have to wrestle with them even to get them where you want, not to mention to do what you want ^^ And gradually the image of the world in your head turns into details on the paper.
You always had known that the horses there have 6 legs, but since that is normal for your chars, you only write it at page 27 ;)
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Anatidaev, I am running into the same. It's amazing the amount of detail worldbuilding requires u_u The way I've been approaching it is that there may be a lot of details I have to know to make the world work, but that not all of that detail will make it into the book.
I figured out how the world works but not how the training headquarters or curriculum work. So now I've got to go figure out how to make some janky kids into real warriors. Any tips?