NaNoWriMo 2012

[Lucian Poll]

I'm a little confused. Are we not posting everything on the site as we go? The only place I see to enter anything is "Novel Excerpt." I guess I was under the impression that it was a place to enter the whole thing as it's written, but is that not the case?

I think for the time being it's an honour system, in that you update your word count at the top of the page and the website will take your word for it. Towards the end of the month, around the 25th I believe, you'll need to provide a manuscript to prove your word count. There was a group NaNo mail that went out towards the end of October that mentioned it briefly. If you didn't receive it let me know and I'll copy and paste it here.

Nice to see the word count creep up, Xiabei. Keep it up!

[RJK1981]

Best thing ever! Thanks for the pick-me-up!

You're welcome. I read it and loved it. Decided I had to share it

[RJK1981]

I'm a little confused. Are we not posting everything on the site as we go? The only place I see to enter anything is "Novel Excerpt." I guess I was under the impression that it was a place to enter the whole thing as it's written, but is that not the case?

You type it up in a text program (Word, notepad, or something like Scrivener which I find much better than stuff like Word. And Like Lucian said, you just update the word count in the box at the top of the page

[Xiabei]

Ok, thanks; just wanted to make sure I understood what I was doing.

[TerryE]

Busy weekend for me, the words aren't adding up, but the ideas are. Got another 2 pages done just now, and I know were the next section/chapter will start, that will help for tomorrow. I'm still not sure where it's going to go, but I've got a couple little mysteries seeded that could become important.

Welcome Sock Monkey, add us as writing buddies.

[Lucian Poll]

Nice to hear the creative juices are flowing, Terry. I'm keeping up with the word count (just), but I'm now two chapters behind my plan so will probably finish the story after Nov 30. That said, I'm pretty chuffed with how the story is shaping up, but chapter 1 needs some serious work. I'll have to wait until I have a psycho day to get into the mood!

Keep it up, guys. I hope you're doing well.

[TerryE]

Boy, it's hard to keep that editor turned off, especially since I keep switching tenses. A rookie mistake, and it's making me nuts. But I've been good about adding (fix tense) every couple pages and leaving most of it alone. Time is at a premium, so the words aren't adding up like they should, but at least I'm still at it.

[RJK1981]

I know the feeling Terry, I have been doing good for the most on turning off my brains edit switch, but it is hard and I have found myself editting a few times. Most of thoe edits are adding words though, so that isn't such a bad thing

[TerryE]

And now here's the snag without having plotted beforehand. I started with a meeting between 2 young characters, and something isn't quite right. Now I'm coming up with several explanations, and they all have their good and bad points. I'll have to trust the kids to tell me the right things. That decision could be a couple chapters away, so I'm not going to sweat it just now.

[RJK1981]

If nothing else write out all the ideas you have, get your word count up and decide later when you come to the editting phase.

I still haven't encountered an important character yet, though that will likely happen soon. I do have the main female character telling the male main character that should talk to this unmet 3rd party. Pretty sure the guy's name will be Pete, which will make him Uncle Pete, and that he believes in aliens and that they have visited the planet, though the female, Sarah, only mentioned that so the male, Jason, won't be so scared to talk to a stranger about some stuff going on. He would have been afraid of getting sent to the nuthouse otherwise, though he is being unreasonable about that since his issues aren't harming himself or anyone else (or are they? ). I still need to decide if the Jason, who is ultimately the main character will just be good or if he'll be good and bad, possibly at the same, so to speak. Complicated, I know, but oh well, lol.

[TerryE]

I don't think I can write all the ideas within the story. It's going to be a huge plot point. The girl is from a backwoods family. It's hard to imagine a whole clan living "off the grid" in this day and age, especially within miles of the nearest town. I got the idea that maybe they are living in different time periods, but can interact with each other. And then there's the possiblility that they are ghosts. Or maybe some kind of magic sustains them without interacting with the rest of the people in town. No matter which way I go, I've created a mystery, and I have to solve it, well before the end.

[C.W. LaSart]

Or they could live underground! MOLE PEOPLE FOR THE WIN!

[Lucian Poll]

Mole people! Classic! Or how about a family of shape-shifters, Terry? Get a little paranoia going in the townspeople? You can then have the creatures living in both the woods and in the town, if that appeals.

Wow, this writing thing is getting tricky now, and not helped at all by a rubbish week at work. I thought a hellilsh day would help fuel my bad-guy chapters but nope. Never mind. I've got a long break coming up so will hopefully knuckle down for some quality writing time. And watch Skyfall, obviously. In the meantime I'll scrape through the daily word quota.

And I found a goof in my NaNo excerpt. My MC is going to need superhuman ears to hear the 'sickening wet slap' as a blood-soaked and very dead colleague is thrown onto a polished concrete floor when all of the fire alarms are going off around her. If that's any indication of what's to come when I tackle the second draft then I may need to invest in some terraforming equipment to plug some of my plot holes.

[TerryE]

Sorry, mole people is out for this one. I've already established at least one house. Besides, that so "Descent". But maybe for something else. Hmm...

Lucian, the shape-shifters are in another tale. I'm not working on that one, because I want it to be all out comedy along the lines of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. And I need a lot more time to craft that.

In the first appearance I was thinking of them as normal enough, but then I realized nobody in town knows them, there are no power lines and no cars can get down the road. And of course my main character is falling in first love. It'll come to me. I'm counting on my muse.

[RJK1981]

Well, you could always do what my main character did to try and remember something. Grab a pen or pencil and a notebook, close your eyes and start writing. Just hope you don't write what he found when we looked at it together with the female main character, lol