NaNoWriMo 2012!

[Totenkindly]

Lolol! Yeah, Writing it is what always sucks.

 

[Mad Hatter]

So I'm still way behind schedule (ETA at my current writing speed: July 2013 ...), but I finally got something done this weekend. I cling to the hope that it gets easier as I continue writing since my Ne will have more to work with once I've covered the starting point for my novel. At the same time, I don't want to write too quickly because I want the stores of ideas and structure I've written down already to last me as long as possible.

Things that are kind of reassuring is that the average word count actually isn't that terribly much in actual writing time (and I'm a fast typer, thankfully). Plus, being the guy I am, deadline pressure usually makes me work better.

As a general question, how do you guys actually write your novels?
I found that writing it down on real paper first and then typing it off helps me tremendously. I can't really write a novel on a laptop.

 

[Totenkindly]

I write fine on laptop, but it's better if I kill my Internet connection first.

I can't stand to write longhand, it takes me forever to write anything.

 

[Anew Leaf]

I felt that this was relevant. *world ends*

Edit: Here is the link to the page since there are like many images and I am lazy.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things

 

[Red Herring]

I'm planning a great leap forward this weekend - Chinese style!


Meanwhile, this deserves to be part of the official NaNoWriMo soundtrack:

 

[Red Herring]

The Great Leap Forward turned out to be more of a tiny hop, but at least I am now at 10830 words.

If only I could concentrate better!

 

[Red Herring]

Woop woop!

24512 words!!!

Today is the big push through. If I can keep that momentum for one week everything will be well.

Here's the "jetpack" method mentioned in No Plot? No Problem! that seems to work for me (taylored to NP needs!)

- Find uninterrupted blocks of two hours, a weekend would be ideal.
- Have a good breakfast,
- Then do three blocks of 30 minutes of concentrated work with ten minute breaks
- Do something else
- Have a lunch break
- Start the second block (3 x 30 minutes plus breaks)
- Do somnething else
- Have dinner
- Do the third 3 x 30 block

I locked myself in the university library's reading room with a laptop and no internet (except cellphone for urgent research) and actually did 50 min, 10 min break, 50 min, lunch, 50 min, break. The third block is about to start in a few minutes. At about 1000 words per hour during concentrated freeflowing work you should end up with 6000 words per day at six well distributed hours of work with lots of breaks. That's one way to catch up like lightning.

Until today I would not have thought that 1000 words per hour are feasable, but once you're in the flow it works like a Swiss clock.

I wrote two chapters today and they are the once I like best so far. For the first time in weeks I feel enthusiastic and am really motivated to pull this thing through!

 

[Totenkindly]

WOO HOO! KEEP GOING! DOing great!!!!

I expect you to cheer me on too in Jan/Feb when I get my own book underway again.

As far as writing, yes, the big issue is PLOT matters for me. Once I get a scene in my head, writing it isn't really that hard sometimes. It's mostly that I think I need to have a rational general plot figured out ahead of time. My problem with the book I was considering for this past month was that after they leave home, there's a big gray mess on the map (all clouded) and then a big red X where they are going. Lol... I can't write my way through that, I have to actually sit around and decide some major stops along the way.

EDIT: I've seen the Typewriter song performed before, it's great. And not as easy as he made it look, especially with the off-beat syncopation in the last eight bars or so. It's also got a lot of fun stuff for the violins.

 

[Red Herring]

WOO HOO! KEEP GOING! DOing great!!!!

Thanks

I expect you to cheer me on too in Jan/Feb when I get my own book underway again.

You bet
You'll have a cheerleader in me. I even own a pair of pompoms.

As far as writing, yes, the big issue is PLOT matters for me. Once I get a scene in my head, writing it isn't really that hard sometimes. It's mostly that I think I need to have a rational general plot figured out ahead of time. My problem with the book I was considering for this past month was that after they leave home, there's a big gray mess on the map (all clouded) and then a big red X where they are going. Lol... I can't write my way through that, I have to actually sit around and decide some major stops along the way.

Yeah I have just reached that scary nebulous zone of the dotted line between two parts (a.k.a. "<insert climactic heist scene">). However, I have found that if you lock yourself away without any distraction and a fixed time shedule and tell the inner censor to shut the f up, miracles do happen.

I alway thought it was a cliché that plots and characters have a life of their own and do things you didn't intend them to do, but my main character and a gangster who used to intimidate him just spent an evening drinking and talking (mainly drinking) and ended up becoming blood brothers (literally, they used a kitchen knife). Nobody was more surprised than I. They just did it.

 

[Totenkindly]

Pom-Poms? really???

How cute! You should put them in your profile pic.

I alway thought it was a cliché that plots and characters have a life of their own and do things you didn't intend them to do, but my main character and a gangster who used to intimidate him just spent an evening drinking and talking (mainly drinking) and ended up becoming blood brothers (literally, they used a kitchen knife). Nobody was more surprised than I. They just did it.

Oh, it's not a cliche. In fact, writing to me is an analogy for God creating people (if such a thing actually happened), except that said deity can work in flesh and blood and tangibles like we work with ideas.

Basically, at some point, the characters start telling me what they're doing, even if I had a nice little story figured out for them. This was my experience on the rough draft I actually finished. I was kind of shocked by what the characters did, even to the point of one making a large unexpected sacrifice for the others.

In a way, writing for me is mind-blowing, it's like being a therapist and watching one of your patients get well or make decisions that change their lives forever and you know you might have contributed a little but it's more of an honor to watch them take their lives in their own hands and make a difference for themselves. A more relevant/common example, I suppose, would be having and raising kids.

But there's a period of critical mass where you have to get a certain amount of junk down on paper, and suddenly patterns start to form and the way becomes much clearer.

I don't know if other types perceive it that way, but as an INTP type, that's how I perceive it -- it aligns with my view of the world as well, where I'm scanning and looking for patterns that will then reveal the rest of the truth in a consistent way. I'm doing that with my characters, scanning all the possibilities, and once enough of a structure is visible, it's more like I'm "uncovering" the rest rather than making it up wholesale. I'm just the scribe.

 

[Red Herring]

Oh, the pom poms must be somewhere in the attic of my mum's place of she didn't throw them away. I bought them as a souvenir when I lived in the US as an exchange student because I considered them an exotic icon of American culture (and I also bought a football for the same reason - never really used either of the two souvenirs). They are sort of golden because black and gold were the colors of my highschool.

Anyway, it's past midnight, day 27 has just started and the wordcount is now 29099. That is still not enough, but if I write 5226 on each of the remaining four days (which I managed to do on Sunday) everything should work out fine. Now let's just hope that work doesn't get in the way on the last few meters before the finish line!

Unfortunately, slacking off and then catching up last minute under extreme pressure is very much my style

 

[Red Herring]

The real heist has not even started yet, by the way.

The main characters are sitting in a van on a parking lot next to a highway gas station in the middle of nowhere, drinking watered-down coffee and watching the rain pouring down as they discuss what they'll do with their share of the money while they wait for the boss to arrive. The real action is about to begin in the next chapter.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Current state:

Don't try this at home kids ...

 

[Red Herring]

Don't try this at home kids ...

 

[Mad Hatter]

I think little yellow circles express best what I am feeling right now ...













...



Thanks so much to [MENTION=10251]Red Herring[/MENTION], without whom this whole insane undertaking would not have been possible ...

 

[Red Herring]

 

[Red Herring]

OMG, Ps

 

[Anew Leaf]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice job you two!!!

So very very P. :3

 

[EJCC]

So very very P. :3

Yep!

(Congrats )

 

[Mad Hatter]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice job you two!!!

So very very P. :3

Thanks!

As regards to the literary output of the last couple of days, all I can say about it is a quote from a movie that partially inspired the book: "Possible. But not recommended."