NaNoWriMo soon

[miriam_e]

Any masochists around here who will be doing NaNoWriMo this year?
I notice signups start in a few days, though of course the starter's gun doesn't go off till 1st November.

For those who haven't a clue what I'm talking about:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/cjaycontent/index.php?id=2
http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/xoopsfaq/index.php?cat_id=1

Comments

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:)
I kinda told myself I wouldn't be doing it again this year. I finished last year (yay!) but I drove myself nuts and didn't write a terribly good novel -- it was more like a collection of short stories.

But lately I've started thinking that if I'd stopped trying to stand up the first few times I fell down I'd still be crawling now. Practice makes perfect (or maybe in the case of my novel-writing, less awful).

Have you got your piece online anywhere?

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I'm going to correct my piece at some point and place it online. (Actually the slightly edited file is already online as a single file. If you want the address I'm happy to give it.) When I've fixed it more I'll link to it from my stories page.

Thanks for the compliment. No problem with not finishing it, I really don't think it's worth reading as it is. I think my piece has some serious problems. I intend to drop a few chapters and make significant changes to a number of others. Even the main rationale for the story may get changed, and so the name too. On the other hand I've been considering breaking it up into a series of short stories, as that's how it reads anyway. Not a lot of editing has been done yet though... [sigh]

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It is at
http://miriam-english.org/stories/insurance_v02.html
Any suggestions or observations about the story will be very gratefully received. I completely understand not getting time to read such things though. At least now you have the address for some time when you have the flu or are stuck in a waiting room or a train station. :) If, at some time in the future you try the address again and it isn't there, try with a different version number (v03, v04, etc).

Lots of work to do on it. However I've been looking through it again and I'm surprised at how much of what I wrote I still like. That certainly gives me encouragement.

Thanks. :) I love those characters too. I wanted two very sweet people. At the time I was a bit sick of angsty characters.

I've been thinking my next NaNoWriMo might have some pretty screwed up characters... been thinking of some ideas for a story, and it's not a nice one. :)

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

If you need a beta reader let me know. I'm currently beta reading for a lady who has written a large, complex book with many lesbian characters. It may take me quite a while to finish because I'm trying to do a bunch of other things at the same time. (A simple life?? What's that? :)

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go for it again! Now that I have a reputation to uphold, I need to get back into the saddle. Who knows, maybe lightning will strike twice in the same place. (haha)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yeah!!! I'm looking forward to anything you produce. I loved last year's "The Virgin Shield".

Did you finish your non-NaNoWriMo "Revenge Inc"? I apologise for not reading other people's LJs over the last months. I seem to be doing lots and allow myself no time for such pleasures.

I may throw good sense out the window and subject myself to NaNoWriMo again this year. Maybe this time I'll write something worth reading. :)

I'm a little encouraged though by the FAQ which says, in response the the question "Can anyone participate in NaNoWriMo?":
"No. People who take their writing (and themselves) very seriously should probably go elsewhere. Everyone else, though, is warmly welcomed."

Also further down, the second answer to "If I'm just writing 50,000 words of crap, why bother? Why not just write a real novel later, when I have more time?"
"2) Aiming low is the best way to succeed. With entry-level novel writing, shooting for the moon is the surest way to get nowhere. With high expectations, everything you write will sound cheesy and awkward. Once you start evaluating your story in terms of word count, you take that pressure off yourself. And you'll start surprising yourself with a great bit of dialogue here and a ingenious plot twist there. Characters will start doing things you never expected, taking the story places you'd never imagined. There will be much execrable prose, yes. But amidst the crap, there will be beauty. A lot of it."

So I guess I probably will do it again this year. :)
I must admit that although there was much crap in my last year's effort, there was also much that I'm really happy about and that I'll be able to re-use in future works.

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

Did you finish your non-NaNoWriMo "Revenge Inc"? Funny you should ask. I've just recently dusted it off and am attacking it this month with the lofty goal of getting most of it done before November.

Those quotes off the NaNo site are so true! Yes, low goals will set your inner muse free to pour out all sorts of stuff onto the page. This month I will be doing all-out BS and trying to make it as wacky as possible.

As for your story "Insurance" I really liked it! Any story that makes me laugh and sniffle at the same time is great in my humble opinion. Sometimes my mind dredges up scenes from it and I have a nice little think about your amazing world and the wonderful character who live in it. I'm looking forward to this year of cheering and commiserating and general insanity. Lots of coffee too--and yummy chokkies from the import store.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Are you going to post Revenge Inc somewhere separate as a single file, or even as a set of chapters? If you don't have a site maybe I can help there.

Yay! More Revenge Inc.! I was really enjoying that story.

Thanks for the uplift for my story. Not sure how well deserved it is though. I made a major stuff-up about half way thru. I gotta go back and fix that. Errr... and another near the beginning... and... oh gee...

Heheheh I'm shaking in my boots at the prospect of subjecting myself to NaNoWriMo again. [gulp]

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

When I finish (haha when!!) Revenge Inc. I'd like to post it somewhere. This blog setup is not very good for posting stories, I find. I do have an account at Fictionpress.com. While there are some really good bits of writing in there, the overall first-draft quality of the writing and lack of finished stories has not endeared me to the site very much. I use it mostly for killing time when I want to play around on the internet without actually doing anything productive. Haha.

I'm still quite a newbie with all this new fangled-dangled com-pyuu-tar stuff so any advice you can give would be most welcome! But there's no hurry because both November is looming and I have (as of this moment) nothing of publishable quality. We'll talk in December! o(^^)o

[belegdel.livejournal.com]

I am.

I've missed the last couple of years, so trying in earnest this year.

Not that I've settled on a story yet. Too many ideas.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Heheheheh Too many ideas.
That's what I like to hear.