NaNoWriMo 2012

[RJK1981]

November is almost over, only 4 days left, including today! Good luck, should be at 45,000 at the end of today. I started at just a little under that, so I will definitely make it to that goal and roll right on past it. Hopefully can finish this tomorrow or Thursday. Would be cool to finish it today, but don't expect to.

Will likely not get to the end of the story and will not worry about doing that right away so that I can write a short story for Cemetery Dance magazine submission. I already got a basic idea of what I will be doing and have a location for it. I have a good place to have it located based on where I was at when I was in Iraq, and even where I ended up serving my year could be used as both locations are prime locations for a spooky story!

[TerryE]

Way to go RJK. I haven't had nearly the time required to make it, but I've gotten into better habits with my writing. I definitely won't make the goal, but I'm happy with the start I got, and (like you) am only taking a break to finish a story for CD. That one is about 1/3 of the way in already and fully plotted (unlike anything I've done), so hopefully it can be done in a couple weeks.

My novel has several characters I really like, I've learned more about the setting, which has been germinating for years, and a couple sequences that I'm really proud of.

I hope you and Lucian keep rolling and hit the magic number.

[Lucian Poll]

Thanks, Terry, I hit the big five-oh-oh-oh-oh around an hour after you posted, so I am very pleased. I didn't get to sleep until stupid o'clock because my brain was buzzing so much!

Hitting 50K also saw the completion of my novel's middle act. I've probably got around another 30K to go before typing "The End", but I'm determined to get it done before Christmas. I've got one story hump to get over, where I'll be drawing from the research I've undertaken, and then we're into the big hold-on-to-your-hats finale.

I'm glad to hear that NaNoWriMo has been worthwhile and both you and RJK have my best wishes with your respective CD submissions. The story I was going to submit is 2000 words too long so I might also take a short break to write something else. I had an idea yesterday that fits in well with a "behind closed doors" theme I've got going at the moment, so I might see where that takes me.

[RJK1981]

Well, I will definitely hit my 50,000 word count today for sure. Only need a few hundred more words, then it is time to start on my Cemeery Dance short story.

There will be a lof editing needed with this NaNo story, and that will include a lot of trashing of stuff. I rewrote one scene in particular a few times. Not going back and changing the scene though, literally rewriting it without deleting a single word. I just oved the versions I intend to trash to a new chapter so I could keep it seperate from the rest of the story. My male and female characters kept moving in a different direction than I want them going at that early stage of their brand new relationship, lol. One thing that never changed though is that the male main character always rushes to answer the door after being woken up by pounding on his front door and always forgetting to put any clothes on (He sleeps naked, lol), and the person at the door is the female main character, who is his best friend and girlfriend as of the night before.

I still haven't completely decided on who is the bad guy. Either the male main character is both the good guy and the bad guy, or the bad guy is another character who is the female main character's 'uncle' (or even a remote possibility it is both of them), who may not actually be related to her. I am also not sure yet how the bad guy can be stopped. Sounds pretty complicated, doesn't it? It sure does to me, lol, and it is a lot of fun just thinking about the possibilities. I may end up writing two or three versions to see how it plays out with different options for the bad guy. That will all happen later since I want to start writing a short story for possible publication.

[TerryE]

Congrats, guys. I'm hoping to hit the 1/4 mark by tomorrow. Then, like RJ, I hope to finish a short story for CD. After that I want to come back to this story, to finish it. I have way too many unfinished items.

RJ, how can you be over 170 pages into a book and not know the bad guy? Is it because of the fluid nature of dreams?

[RJK1981]

RJ, how can you be over 170 pages into a book and not know the bad guy? Is it because of the fluid nature of dreams?

Yeah, kind of. Once I get back to writing more of this story I will be introducing a pivotal plot twist regarding his dreams and whether they are actually dreams or not.

I added some excerpts for anyone who wants to check them out. They have not beeing edited, so I wouldn't be surprised if I needed to edit them all, lol

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/particip...s/dark-dreamer

[TerryE]

Well, I hit the 12,500 goal that I set for myself a couple days ago. Tonight was 2 short chapters, that I'm pretty happy with. I didn't get the purple number, but that's okay for this year. I lasted all month (if not every day), and I feel I'm about halfway through the story, which should end up novella length anyway. My habits are getting a little better, even if I'm still not much faster than 500 words per hour. I have to be happy with the slower daily output, because I just cannot stay up until midnight every night of the week. Whew.

I'm glad you guys did so well, and hope you see them through, and they bring you much happiness. Oh, and success, too!

[Lucian Poll]

Hi RJK, congratulations on winning! I had a look at your excerpts. I liked the final excerpt re: the drawing of the smiling face. Nice and creepy!

Congratulations to you too, Terry, for seeing out the month and having a good chunk of story to show for it. I couldn't have done the 50K without the lengthy spell off work, and having no dependents also helped, so hats off to you!

I look forward to hearing what you guys do with your stories. Hopefully we'll all be vying for the attention of assorted agents and publishers next year!

It seems publishers have warmed to the eBook a little more of late, finally realising they can put out a larger number of titles each year than they could with print, and a damned sight quicker too. It should also mean that they can take more of a chance with an author, which can only be good for up-and-comers.

For example not only has CD cast their net for eBooks to publish but I see Random House has recently opened up an eBook imprint called Hydra for sci-fi/horror/fantasy novels and novellas:

http://atrandom.com/eoriginals

(Of course, this could also be Random House fighting back against agents who have turned themselves into eBook publishers!)

See you in the bestseller charts, guys!

[RJK1981]

Hi RJK, congratulations on winning! I had a look at your excerpts. I liked the final excerpt re: the drawing of the smiling face. Nice and creepy!

Thanks, glad you like it. That part is probably my favorite part from that whole scene and is basically the end of it and would likely be the end of a chapter. If I were to have the book published in a serial format I would likely want that to end that part of the serial and leave readers off on that for however long it is between the serial pieces. That whole scene was fun to write and is fun to imagine. How could someone write the words and draw the things he drew with closed eyes and no memory of actually doing it. Then if you think of it, that would be horrible to have happen to you. Knowing you are having these nightmares but never remembering them, and then not remembering anything between putting your pen/pencil to the paper and a knock on the door? I don't know how I would react to that!

The question is, where did that face come from? It doesn't match the writing or the detailed drawing that came before it.

I can even give you what the answer to that question is right now: I don't know, lol! I have a couple ideas, but I still have to decide/discover the answer to that question. Might end up writing more than one version to see how I like my options of who the bad guy (or guys) will end up being.

I may end up going back to my NaNo story and working on that sooner than planned. I still have not successfully begun my short story for CD. I know at least part of the setting and can describe a vital building, but I can't decide how to start it and don't know very much about will happen. I was going to write this one in first person but I may have to get location and character sketches done and then shelve the story for now. Hopefully more will come to me here soon. If not, oh well.

[TerryE]

Hey RJ, if you don't know the beginning, start in the middle and fill in the rest with backstory.

Also, guys, if you ever want any help with proofreading or critque, I'd be glad to help.

I know that part of the point of NaNo is to turn off the inner editor, but that was hard for me. It always is. It doesn't help that the laptop has a sticky keyboard and spelling errors (which drive me nuts) keep popping up. I avoided doing a complete reread and fix every time I sat down, which was a big step for me, but I still would go back if I needed to set something up, or wanted to make things fit better. At least I don't feel like the whole story will need to be fixed. There was one person on the Maryland page who said she would have to put all of the scenes in order when she was done. I don't get that at all.

[Sock Monkey]

A late congratulations to everyone who kicked butt this year. It looks like everyone made a whole lot more progress than I did! I knew it would be a challenge taking this on in November, but I wished I'd been able to get more done. Unfortunately work took over most of my time. Well, there's always next year!

[TerryE]

I know what it's like, Sock Monkey. I'm on call 24 hours a day for 2 weeks of the month, and have a small child that I love to spend time with. Staying up until midnight (my only quiet time) really took a toll by week 2. And it also didn't help that they have it during football season, too.

[RJK1981]

I know what it's like, Sock Monkey. I'm on call 24 hours a day for 2 weeks of the month, and have a small child that I love to spend time with. Staying up until midnight (my only quiet time) really took a toll by week 2. And it also didn't help that they have it during football season, too.

Yeah, I was not going to stop watching football, that is for sure, lol. Luckily I am a night owl, so staying up past midnight is a regular deal for me, which is when I did a majority of my writing on most of the days.

[Lucian Poll]

Thanks, Sock Monkey. I hope to see you next year.

Work certainly has a habit of wrecking creativity. The moment I returned to work my word count took a nosedive. But I'm back in the saddle again. I've written, polished and submitted my CD story, so it's about time for me to return to my NaNo novel. It's now highly unlikely I'll get the first draft finished by Christmas, which is a pain, but let's see how many words I can get down between now and then. The central premise is getting some good feedback from a broad mix of people, so I'd be a fool not to see this one through. So, with knuckles duly cracked, let's begin...

Actually, perhaps I'd better read the last couple of chapters again!

[Lucian Poll]

If you can forgive a little bit of self-congratulation, I am delighted to say that I have (finally) finished the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel! It currently weighs in at around 102,750 words, or around 360-370 paperback pages in old money, so there's a decent bit of story in there.

I'll follow the King method and leave the thing to settle for six weeks, and then pick it up at Easter for Round 2. I hope to have something together for test readings at the end of May/start of June. (And thanks for the kind offers from the CD Goodreads group. You helped me get over the line. )

In the meantime I'd better crack on with some artwork, and maybe start plotting this year's NaNo effort.

[Randy D. Rubin]

Well done Lucian. Now you may have that celebratory pint or two and toast to your accomplishment. Congratulations.

[Lucian Poll]

Thanks, Randy. Slurping as I type this!

[TerryE]

Way to go, Loosh! If you need a test/proof reader, just let me know.

[Lucian Poll]

Thanks, Terry. It's a massive relief to get the thing out of my head, even in its current "Dear God, did I really write that?" state!

I'll definitely put feelers out for test readers once I've put it through a second draft, likely end-May/start-June. I've also got it lined up for a professional edit. I'll put a call out via the Cemetery Dance group on Goodreads as I got a really good response when I sought opinion there a few weeks ago. Hope to see you there!

In the meantime I've about a million books on my TBR pile to catch up on, and this year's NaNo plot to ferment. Good times!

[Randy D. Rubin]

Lucian Poll, I just used your name as a character in my seventh novella. You are an Inspector Detective with Scotland Yard. I told you I would, sooner or later, and you said it was all right so...