/NaNo18/ - NaNoWriMo General

[Anonymous No.12038617]

How's it coming, friends? Pic related?

https://nanowrimo.org/forums/writing-groups-and-clubs/threads/445906

[Anonymous No.12039144]

Fell behind a day this weekend, but was able to catch up easily today. Currently at 8.5k as I've decided doing +1.7k every day is easier to math than +1.667k for my lizard brain. Now that I'm clear of the opening chapter writings been a breeze so far, as now I can just jab the whole thing full of bants and wacky antics without having to worry about that initial setup. It's pretty damn fun so far.

[Anonymous No.12039156]

>>12038617
Felt like shit today, was super busy this weekend because people won't leave me alone and keep asking for me to come to their silly events. Birthday Saturday and dinner party on Sunday. Terrible. Did good tonight though after some rough grinding. Still above the goal. 8565/8333

[Anonymous No.12039181]

Took 3 Adderall, at 18,342 so far, but I cheated and already had probably 2,000 words on the 1st. Took the week off work. Can't wait to write more tomorrow!

[Anonymous No.12039528]

>>12038617
at 6k-ish words, got a lot to catch up on. Sometimes an entire section will flow easily, other times it's difficult to think of where to take it next.

[Anonymous No.12039881]

>>12038617
Started well but cowed down just because the necessary imbetweeny bits that connect my big plot events are less fun to write.

[Anonymous No.12039903]

REMINDER:
SHOW, DON'T TELL

IF IT'S IMPORTANT, SHOW IT HAPPENING

IF IT'S LESS IMPORTANT, TELL IT

IF IT'S NOT IMPORTANT, DON'T INCLUDE IT

[Anonymous No.12040345]

>bragging about word count
anyone can write a poo poo story

[Anonymous No.12041681]

>>12039903
telling is a great way to up my word count tho

[Anonymous No.12042297]

>get to over 10k yesterday
>wake up kinda sick today with fatigue and a sore throat

and I wanted to be done with the first act climax by the end of today

[Anonymous No.12042340]

Faint rays of light peered through the membranous window of the sleeping girl's bedroom, she mumbled a complaint and turned her back to the light, of which the warmth she desired not, or at least not so soon. But whether it had been decided by some deity, or merely by chance, her day had been meant to start now, as while turning she felt a wetness against her thigh, which made her eyes shoot open. The girl sat, her black locks falling over her budding breasts, and she lifted the brown bearskin that covered her delicate body.
''Again.“ She thought, as she looked upon the crimson red that tainted her woolen drapes.
She had experienced menarche some months ago, but yet still failed to predict when her bleedings would occur.

That's what I have so far, fuck good prose.

>tfw can't write good prose

[Anonymous No.12042400]

>>12041681
Nigga what? Show uses much more words.

[Anonymous No.12042407]

>>12042340
>black locks falling over her budding breasts
Try writing with two hands on the keyboard, George.

[Anonymous No.12042590]

>>12042407
kek

[Anonymous No.12042595]

what's the prize for this shit?

[Anonymous No.12042600]

>>12042407

It's actually relevant to the story!

[Anonymous No.12042608]

>>12042407
>not realizing the story is a metanarrative about an autist masturbating
wait till you get to the typos

[Anonymous No.12042731]

>>12042595
In years past you could get discount codes and shit. Some years some vanity press or another will give away like 4-5 bound copies of your work to you.

[Anonymous No.12042862]

>>12041681
kys idiot

[Anonymous No.12042903]

>>12038617
I've been working on research and notes since the 23rd, haven't started writing yet

[Anonymous No.12043490]

Day 6
>I've hit a wall
>I was at 7k words, but now I'm at 6.5k since I'm spending all my time editing
>can't figure out how to move forward

[Anonymous No.12043669]

>>12043490
>editing during nanowrimo

Make a new document, and j u s t w r i t e

If you spent that time you spent editing, you could have just written to 10k.

W
R
I
T
E

[Anonymous No.12044827]

>>12043490
do not edit, it's common for a first draft to not be cohesive and for things to switch around because you keep changing your mind or forgetting details

if you think of things you want to change, write them down but don't open the old documents to apply them, wait until you're finished with the general story and then start from the beginning and reference the things you noted throughout writing while you rewrite stuff

[Anonymous No.12044850]

12,600 words in. I aim for 2000 a day; it helped me finish way early for my first try last year.

You can do it, bros.

[Anonymous No.12044871]

Writing fantasy is a struggle, any tips?

Specifically, I'm at my best when writing short (have a few short stories and novellas published) and my novels are usually very direct and to the point, first drafts being 40k, final drafts ending up around 70k. I keep a conversational tone and value minimalism in regards to plot.
Writing fantasy, I'm realizing how slim my vocabulary is. I know plenty of words, but I'm not used to using them. I'm also struggling to keep word choice fresh and finding it far more difficult than I expected.
One last thing is overall chapter and progressional word counts. My standard chapter is about 1k-2k. I've been trying to increase it for this story, knowing that fantasy needs more description to keep the reader grounded in the world, but I've instead been opting to write in a way that there are scene breaks every 2-3 pages, without a large gap of time or place between them so they still flow well together if you're reading them at once. Also more difficult than I imagined.

Any advice is welcome.
Also, what sort of struggles are you facing with your current project?

[Anonymous No.12045149]

>>12044871
Genre fiction and plot minimalism don't really go together well.
The thing I'm struggling with most right now is figuring out the order of events. I have a general idea of the entire layout, and when I start writing I can move fast enough, but when I finish one section it takes me half a day to sort out the next in my head before I can start writing.

[Anonymous No.12045169]

>>12042400
>>12042862
No, no. You misunderstood me. I'm including pictures on every other page

[Anonymous No.12045473]

>>12044871
>Also, what sort of struggles are you facing with your current project?

how to make the scene where the protagonist wakes up face to face with a flaccid werewolf dong believable, and keep it believable that the protagonist wants to continue pursuing that werewolf as a love interest.

[Anonymous No.12045507]

>>12044871
I don't think I could give you any advice at all. I'm not too keen on fantasy, and I'm attempting to write it at the moment as well. I'm certain you could make shorter chapters work well enough, I am doing the thing.

At the moment I am struggling with the same thing I always do: follow through. I'm at the tail end of a scene wherein the main character is attempting to flee an uncertain situation, and I had counted on bringing him back into it, but now, at the end, I'm faced with the possibility that he could conceivably get out. Were he to do so I would be entirely in the reeds, which should be exciting, but I'm not so confident I could keep a handle on the story.

[Anonymous No.12045514]

>>12045473
oh ok good luck pal

[Anonymous No.12045520]

>was writing 2000 words a day
>have to take a day off because my carpal tunnel is acting up
REEEEE

[Anonymous No.12045642]

>>12044871
>word choice
Just don't get all thesaurusy. A sword is a sword and calling it a deadly blade isn't a good alternative

I'm not really good at chapters. I figure if i ever get my novel to a shoppable level, the agent and later editor will give me advice.

[Anonymous No.12046028]

>>12045149
This is something I struggled with at one time as well. Now, when I finish writing and the tone/flow of the current scene is still fresh in my head, I make bullet-points what I imagine happening next.

truth be told, I greentext, but bullet points would work just the same

The most recent example I have is:
>Celia in tent
>describe flame in corner
>night approaching
>visited by higher up regarding the letter
>he understands but she can tell he's not fully convinced
>she resolves to sneak out

Tomorrow I'll come back and write the scene around that, or ignore it if it sounds dumb, but most of the time it's just what I need

[Anonymous No.12046134]

>>12039144
1.7k every day

fuck man how do you do it

>>12042340
comma splce in the first sentence

HEY!!! STOP THAT

[Anonymous No.12046140]

>>12044850
how od you do 2k a day man? I can barely keep up 1k and that exhausts me

[Anonymous No.12046701]

>>12038617
I have a character that's really idealistic and genuinely cares about people, but at the same time infantilizes them and thinks that to keep them safe they can't make their own decisions. Can I make this character likable? Because I've kind of hit a wall.

[Anonymous No.12046929]

>>12046701
show why he thinks so

[Anonymous No.12046945]

>>12046701
Yes, look to shonen protagonists for examples. Make sure to have their "ideal" seem completely realistic and something that the reader understands as being an ideal as well, whether it truly is or not. If it's not, only reveal that later in the story, as the character's negative traits also start to reveal themselves.

[Anonymous No.12047076]

>>12046140
Just write. Not him but it's pretty easy to write out 2k+ if I'm in the zone. I always do at least 1k even if it's a four hour grind. Usually by the end I get inspired by something I wrote while grinding and it makes the next couples days easier.

[Anonymous No.12047145]

>>12044871
Are you a fan of the fantasy genre? Do you have a list of favourite fantasy books? It might be helpful for you to assess how you’re being influenced, if at all.

[Anonymous No.12047196]

>>12046701
Likeable is irrelevant, as long they interesting.

Someone well-meaning but controlling offers a lot conflict, between the positive and negative traits, which is pretty good. If like-ability is your main goal, they need to eventually show some growth.

[Anonymous No.12047273]

>>12047145
Oddly enough, fantasy is the bulk of what I consume. I read the Wheel of Time as I was growing up, and it's what inspired me to become an author. I've read many, many fantasy series by this point in my life, and I'm a published author like I used to dream about, but I've always struggled with story length, and thus struggled with fantasy, which is what I read and would love to write.

It's an odd situation that I can't seem to rectify.
I've even gone so far as to type out one of Robert Jordan's books, hoping I'd be able to better copy the pacing and storytelling if I put myself through the repetition of writing them out and understanding them, and it honestly helped, but not much.

[Anonymous No.12047440]

>>12044871
>I'm also struggling to keep word choice fresh and finding it far more difficult than I expected.
Look deeper into your characters for specifics. Some princess is going to use different words than a peasant or a doctor, think of different things and see different connections. Moods affect the word-use too, so if you have some ancient setting, using some arcane shit no one outside of people who jerk of to dictionaries ever heard can have an extra effect.

>Also, what sort of struggles are you facing with your current project?
>#1
Emotionally detached protagonist, so connecting them to the reader is tricky beyond obvious stuff like humour and curiosity. It makes creating tense moments tricky too. Don't want to rely on flashbacks to present how the character was before for cheap feels but right now it feels like I am relying too much on the reader to read between the lines.

>#2
Lack of pay offs. Planned as a series and the first book happens during a short time frame (one week), so by the end, the actual plot progression is minimal and almost all conflicts remain unresolved. And due the protagonist being so detached, stuff like reaching one key step towards their goal or getting betrayed doesn't have too much emotional impact.

>#3
Introduction of world building. Last revision I toned it down a lot and work on a very tight "need to know" basis, but since the stuff is dropped bit by bit, I worry about creating a wrong image at the start, or in the middle.

[Anonymous No.12047468]

>>12047273
Okay so your problems are a mix of writing style (e.g. vocab and prose that can utilise it?), pacing of your chapters and scene breaks, and the plot? It’s interesting that you did the Hunter S. Thompson thing. I don’t think it’s a bad idea so you can try doing it again but in smaller portions.
So is Robert Jordan and the WoT books your primary “influence” in your fantasy writing? I haven’t read any of his stuff, and, out of modern fantasy authors, I’ve read Sanderson and a little bit of GRRM. Maybe Jordan wrote with a really descriptive and flowery prose but I don’t think the others did. I also read some of Rothfuss’s writing and I didn’t really see it either. I bet you know more than me though. If you haven’t, maybe try doing the Thompson rewrites with older fantasy like The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Gormenghast, and Parzival. Epic poems like the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, or Jerusalem Delivered can potentially help you be versatile with your prose. Because it’s probably the style of your writing that’s holding you back rather than your vocab.
Hope it helps anon, good luck.

[Anonymous No.12047500]

>7 days in to november
>tfw have only written the title so far

[Anonymous No.12047505]

>>12047500
What's the title?

[Anonymous No.12047532]

>>12047505
Untitled Document

[Anonymous No.12047626]

>>12038617
>>12039144
>>12039156
>>12039181
>>12039528
>>12039881
>>12042297
>>12042340
>>12043490
>>12044850
>>12044871
>>12046701
>>12047500
I truly cannot tell if you’re all participating or this is one big joke.
Nanowrimo seems like something /lit/ would utterly despise.

[Anonymous No.12047647]

>>12047505
My Little Pony: Revenge of Rainbow Dash

[Anonymous No.12047673]

>>12047626
>he thinks I'm from /lit/
What a fool you are.

[Anonymous No.12047707]

>>12047500
if you write at a rate of around 2500 a day for the rest of the month you would reach 50k required for NaNoWriMo with about 7k extra

[Anonymous No.12047715]

>>12046134
Probably the most concise way to put it is really you just gotta do the thing. It's something I've learned not just for writing but for any skill. Your first anything will probably suck and that's OK, so long as you think about why it sucks when you're done and how to improve, which you can't do if you never do it in the first place. I just type, and while sometimes I stop to fix some things or get stuck on how I want to write something I just stay conscious of the fact it's a draft and just put something down so I can move forward.

[Anonymous No.12047968]

>>12047626
We hate nano-ers. Nano itself is actually a good exercise. That's why we stay here and in our containment thread on the board.

[Anonymous No.12048343]

>>12044871
This is something I'm struggling with as well. I noticed that most times my descriptions are pretty short which causes the story to move at breakneck speed. In my first 3k words I have seven scenes with 5 different PoVs.
What I try to do is paint a better picture of the scene in editing. Initial writing is more concerned with the general mood getting important information across, the next day I go over that passage and think what the character experiences with each sense.

>Also, what sort of struggles are you facing with your current project?
Getting rid of shitty fan fiction ideas. It's nothing new for me to watch bad shows or just hear of them and mentally edit them over the next week or two when bored. But with this I just took the general idea and keep coming up with new stories for the setting.
I've taught up a family drama of clan tasked with keeping a not-quite-dead god contained, a gentlemanly thief wrecking the entire main plot on his personal quest for redemption, two lovers fighting against fate tearing them apart over a thousand years and a god damn musical because I also discovered a band I really like.

And for my actual project I've written three god damn sentences in that time.

>>12047626
Don't usually use /lit/ and I imagine there's others who also only come here to talk about their writing. Especially in the fantasy crowd, we used to have nano threads on /tg/ but those died as on-board content became rarer.

[Anonymous No.12048397]

>>12048343
>In my first 3k words I have seven scenes with 5 different PoVs

Jesus anon. I thought I had problems. Don't you actually know what e.g. the locations are supposed to look like? Why don't you tell the reader?

[Anonymous No.12048503]

>struggle to my word count goal for the day even though I'm still sick
>can't get to sleep and will probably fall behind tomorrow

fug :DDD

[Anonymous No.12048789]

>>12046140
I also do 2k a day. How I do it is my setting two timers, one for fifteen minutes and one for two hours. I start both of them at the same time and, for the first fifteen minutes, I just write about whatever (my day, what's been on my mind, etc.) [Note, this doesn't count towards your word count for the day, rather I find that my mind wanders less after doing this]. After that timer goes off, switch to your nano doc and write for the reminder of the time with out taking a break. Usually I'll get 2k in these two hours, but if you don't, take a break for a few minutes, go on a walk or watch a video or something then repeat this whole process again.

[Anonymous No.12048790]

>>12048789
Also, a good outline helps

[Anonymous No.12048825]

>>12048790
This definitely. I update my outlines over a couple of days before I reach that point and it really helps to avoid getting blocked.

[Anonymous No.12048909]

>>12047626
I'm using it as motivation but actually browsing nano's own forums has given me cancer
I just want to finish a book for once

[Anonymous No.12049071]

>>12047468
Jordan's prose is excessively flowery, and he is definitely the largest influence. The series is 10+ books and they were the only thing I read/reread as I was growing up and waiting for the new books to come out. I read Sanderson's older books and quite enjoyed them, though despite giving his Stormlight series two tries, I couldn't get past the first quarter. IMO Sanderson (who finished the WoT coincidentally, after Jordan's death) has a very "modern" style of writing, and I feel as though that's also how I write. Things are direct, the plot straight-forward but with twists to keep it from feeling cliche, and the vocabulary is tweaked to be easy to read without pauses.

I think you're right about, and I'm struggling trying to mimic the olde high fantasy third-person omniscient style, as I'm not quite familiar with it. I think I'll go and read some of those older works and see if the style starts to transfer over. P.S. I don't know who Thompson is, but I'm not exactly eager to go through that experience again, so I think I'll just stick with reading.
Thanks for the good advice, anon.

[Anonymous No.12049096]

>>12048343
>In my first 3k words I have seven scenes with 5 different PoVs
I know this feel. When I "finished" my first "fantasy novel", it was 25k words long and contained about 3 books worth of shit in it. Since then, my primary worry when writing is that it will be too short. My primary effort has been spent attempting to lengthen scenes so they properly show what I want them to. I started hiding my word count, because I'd get discouraged when I'd be thinking of ending a scene and see it was only 300 words. Even now, my first drafts are usually less than 50k and it's not until the third rewrite that they approach around 90k. When I rewrite, I'm not actually adding content, I'm removing heaps of it, taking out characters and removing parts of the plot to streamline things. But in the process I'm also describing things the way they're meant to be described, which pumps up the word count. Don't give up anon, keep writing fanfiction tier ideas and keep writing 50 word scenes and you'll naturally begin to shift towards more complex ideas and they'll take more words to explain.

[Anonymous No.12049100]

>>12046140
Well, the 2k a day is based on how I function, so to speak. I tend to plan ahead for my own laziness and ineptitude. I consider every word more than 1667 in a day as one less word I'll have to write later when I'm feeling a lot less energized for it. Striking while the iron is hot, if you will. Also, don't look at your word count for long stretches of time. That will ruin your flow and consistently sow doubt.

[Anonymous No.12049103]

>>12048825
Works exactly the same for me. I always stay far enough ahead of where I am that I don't have to pull chapters out of my ass, but not so far ahead that I get out of the right headspace.

[Anonymous No.12049108]

>>12047968
This. There's a metric ton of edgelords that use NaNoWriMo as a feather in their cap, not for its benefits to their craft. I've been having a severely dry spell for some time, so I'm thankful to participate in the challenge again.

[Anonymous No.12049293]

Does anyone use voice dictation for writing? My typing speed is really slow, and I'm thinking i can greatly increase my WPH if I just record to audio and then use a speech to text program to convert it

Is this genius or retardation

[Anonymous No.12049381]

>>12049293
Some people do this. I tried and couldn't stand the sound of my own voice for more than a minute. Tried wearing noise cancelling headphones and it helped, but still annoyed me. Personally, I buckled down and taught myself touch typing after years of writing books with two fingers. I learned dvorak because it's rhythmic and ergonomic, and it forced me to learn, whereas with qwerty, I kept slipping back into my two-finger style.

[Anonymous No.12049722]

>>12048397
I'll have to do that in editing, getting a grip on plot and characters takes priority.
And too be fair, a god chunk of that text is from the perspective of a hate ghost without any senses except one for magic, but of challenge to paint a picture from that perspective.

[Anonymous No.12049734]

I am partaking and my current issue is I keep having word count residue stacking up on me. i do this after I come home from my 9-5
My plot and story telling are not complex.
I keep going in and out of prose comfort.
But my biggest gripe now after reading other posts is that you all feel like you know what your ending is and i keep going with "as I go" attitude, I mean we're like 1/5th done so far as of today.

[Anonymous No.12049987]

>>12049734
I have no idea where I'm going and I never do. My story currently reads like a disjointed and bedraggled group of scenes, just as much verbatim telling myself the story as they are a story trying to be told to others. I don't even know what the overarching plot is going to be, though I have a vague idea what the ending is, or at least how it'll feel.
But I know how I write and I know once I'm done, I'll go through and join the scenes together, or separate them, or scrap them, and maybe write some new ones, until it's a cohesive thing with one tone and a purpose behind the plot. Just keep going until you reach an ending. Focus on making sense of what you're writing later.

[Anonymous No.12050045]

>>12048397
>Don't you actually know what e.g. the locations are supposed to look like?
I sure as fuck don't. My visual imagination is garbage.

[Anonymous No.12050957]

>>12047626
Half the /lit/ group don't write, a quarter are writing YA novels, there's an unironic communist larping as Zizek, a guy who's using nano as an excuse to write futa porn, and a madman handwriting the whole thing (because his typewriter is broken.)
All we need is someone screaming about the bible and it'd be a perfect microcosm of /lit/

[Anonymous No.12050964]

>>12050045
If you work on describing it your visual imagination and your settings will get better

[Anonymous No.12051013]

>>12050045
Anon, I think it's possible that you will write bad descriptions, but I also don't think you need to visualise perfectly to write a good location. You aren't drawing a picture, you're supplying a few telling details/objects which give the feel of the place.

I don't know fantasy, but if you're in e.g. a castle, look at some pictures of castles, what are the details that stand out? Which picture do you prefer? Give us some details from that castle. Plus, spend time on people entering or leaving a place.

[Anonymous No.12051461]

I think I might take it easy tonight and only do a couple hundred words. My weekend is totally free and I don't want to burn out before I sprint.

[Anonymous No.12051681]

>>12051461
1k or bust

[Anonymous No.12052772]

at least I broke 13k words today

[Anonymous No.12052940]

>>12052772

NOICE.

[Anonymous No.12053007]

I cant believe 15 days have passed already.
You guys are all up to speed, right?

[Anonymous No.12053053]

>>12053007
Currently 2,000 words behind because I accidentally had sex. Worth it.

[Anonymous No.12053056]

>>12053053
>accidentally

You can fool the word counter some of the time, anon...
It knows!

[Anonymous No.12053068]

I’ll start Saturday. I’ve had to study for the lawyer ethics exam. I’ll be so happy when it’s over.

[Anonymous No.12053194]

I`m only at 2.6k

not gonna make it.

[Anonymous No.12053287]

>>12053194
I haven't even started, anon

[Anonymous No.12053330]

>>12053007
>3k words behind as of today
>tomorrow I'll be 4.7k behind
One of these days I'll catch up

[Anonymous No.12053672]

>>12053287
Why are you here

[Anonymous No.12053823]

>>12053672
Living vicariously

[Anonymous No.12054189]

I've realized something that bothers me immensely. I could leave this task a whole day or a whole afternoon and my pace would be that of a snail.
BUT RIGHT BEFORE I GO TO BED
I AM JUST DROPPING A RAW 1,500
why am i like this, is anyone else like this ?
i feel impractical

[Anonymous No.12054223]

>>12042340
The problem with /lit/ fags is that they try too hard. And most of you have never read a book on fiction writing, let alone taken courses or been involved in a workshop. You guys just read what you look and try to imitate it, measuring everything by its quality of prose instead of quality of voice or of narrative, or the story in general. What ends up on the page is an over-descriptive mess that has no interest in truth. I recommend Raymond Carver to help get over this kind of hump.

I'll never understand why you people love prose style so much, as if its the only important thing. Learn to structure a story before you guys even worry about prose style.

P.S., anon, I didn't mean this directly yo your post, just to /lit/ fags in general. As to your own excerpt, try to be a little lighter on your diction. It's boggy and seemingly insignificant. It seems as if your jazzing around rather than concerning yourself with what's important to the story, what details to leave in/out. This is okay when you're freeforming it, but if you're actually wanting to write a novel, start with the plot or theme, work with notes and an outline, then begin the actual writing process.

[Anonymous No.12054415]

I got busy and fell behind, but I did the words today. At 9k.

My biggest problem is that I keep getting anxious about plot. I am writing a fantasy that is mostly just a bildungsroman where the characters travel around different lands experiencing strange cultures and discovering things about themselves and the world.

I mostly don't really feel excited about having a complicated or gratifying plot but it keeps making me anxious that I should have an epic good vs. evil struggle or something. When I really just want it to be like... "this guy was a famous explorer/traveller and this was his journey." And the conflict and problems are all based on the ups and downs of travelling - money, relationships, getting stuck, eating something weird and getting sick, etc. meanwhile I can just do some fun worldbuilding and put my characters in cool places and sticky situations

[Anonymous No.12054421]

>>12054189
I wish I was like this. Once I get a bit sleepy, my brain shuts down all creative processes, so while I have about four hours free each night, I can only properly use about two of them for writing and I'm usually too busy making and eating dinner. So I need to wake up early, or make enough notes throughout the day that I can quickly get out a draft before sleepiness settles in.

[Anonymous No.12054439]

>>12053007
about 300 words behind today but I needed the sleep and was done with last chapter.

[Anonymous No.12054442]

>>12054415
Try focusing on writing it for you, not for others. It doesn't need to have an epic plot stringing it along, but make sure there is one overarching conflict, whether specific to one character or in regards to the overall plot. Having something looming in the distance is crucial. For example: if a character has a secret they're hiding from the party, or if their entire journey is searching for X location, or something similar. Then the reader will have something to hold onto and look forward to if it slows down and they get bored, otherwise they will just drop it.

[Anonymous No.12054962]

>>12042340
It sounds like overly descriptive garbage desu. Try again but with simpler sentences this time.

[Anonymous No.12054984]

It's almost 2pm and I've already done 2k words bros. But I'm still way behind. I should be at 15k today but I'm at 8k

[Anonymous No.12055069]

2k a day guy here. Only did 1667 yesterday and I'm aiming for that again today, shit's been hectic. I'm going to try and pick up the slack tomorrow and the day after before I head back to work. It's going to be a busy week, so I really have to kick it up while I can.

Daily reminder that you can do it, nerds.

[Anonymous No.12055126]

Today was the first time I finally caught up with the word limit, having done over 6k in the last 2 days. Shit's a struggle.

[Anonymous No.12055175]

>NaNoHoMo
Why did they have to give it such a faggy acronym?

[Anonymous No.12055225]

>>12055175
they know their audience

[Anonymous No.12055789]

3700 WORDS DONE

[Anonymous No.12056137]

Oh god, skipped one day now I feel so far behind. Thank god it's the weekend tomorrow

[Anonymous No.12056660]

>>12054223

Not that guy, but.
Who doesnt start their work with a basic premise?
Isnt that where the story comes from?
Surely no one does that.

[Anonymous No.12056725]

>do work of 3 days in 1 day
>nothing the next 3 days
Am I the only piece of shit who starts slacking when they progress too well?

[Anonymous No.12056795]

>>12056725
>>12056725

I was planning to do this today, actually. Stopped because I was afraid of coasting on my laurels.

Pantsing has been good to me, but I dont want to jinx it with my hubris.

[Anonymous No.12056921]

How bad is it /lit/?

I know I’m getting close to bush, ‘cause the grey pathway I’m on is starting to meld into the forest’s darker green. Roots start springing out of the asphalt. The right side is almost entirely caked in moss. When I reach the entrance, it opens up like a cave, forcing the concrete to retreat and continue up left to the nearby houses. After that are countless other suburban streets.

There’s the crunch of countless leaves underneath my feet as I walk in, which spread and pave the entire forest floor like a carpet.
---------
After the first ten minutes of bush, the track is manageable. The real problem is its length. About half-way in, I feel a nibbling on my legs. Blood trickles down from openings in my legs, which’ve been torn by stray brambles, and aren’t well protected by my crappy shorts, plus my hands are messed. Each finger has shrivelled into a brittle, deader version of itself thanks to the heat.

The core of my chest starts to groan. Not drinking anything since yesterday wasn’t smart. The pain hits harder and rushes up to the top of my head, and I fumble and fall on a tree for support. My world starts to spin. Walking through the track makes me dizzier; it feels endless.

My stomach grows into an unbearable weight, and pulls me down to my knees. My mouth is dry too. It’s not pretty, but I can cope with it now. Water used to come easier back when Mum was working more and could pay the bills for it, but since then we rarely have the stuff free-flowing. It’s taught me to be conservative, and I’m pretty much used to it now.

[Anonymous No.12056962]

>>12056921
>I know I’m getting close to bush,
im sorry all i can envision is a man going down on a morbidly obese women, 'surely im near the bush, what labyrinthine folds are these'

[Anonymous No.12056984]

>>12056921
Too many filler words and too passive.

[Anonymous No.12057063]

>>12056962
>'surely im near the bush, what labyrinthine folds are these'

kek'd.

Also, watch out for repetition. I 'm reading legs, bush and forest at least twice in their separate paragraphs.

If you can, reading your work out loud can help you see redundant words or phrases better.

[Anonymous No.12057067]

>>12056921
>>12057063

I forgor to link these two together.
Welp, better take my own advice!

[Anonymous No.12057076]

Should I read The Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire? Never read anything from him so idk if I should get it.

[Anonymous No.12057083]

>>12057076
Baudelaire is classic you should definitely read them

[Anonymous No.12057090]

>>12057076
https://fleursdumal.org/poem/113

[Anonymous No.12057226]

>I'm so glad I spent that month writing a book nobody will ever read!

[Anonymous No.12057263]

>>12057226
People do regret things they DIDN'T do much, much, much more often.

[Anonymous No.12057283]

>>12057226

Fun fact: Ligotti used to post here on /x/ back in the day. He'd constantly redirect people towards his blog. You'd never know he was a channer. I'm glad he kept up writing creepypasta.

[Anonymous No.12057476]

>>12057226
>prove to self you can write book
>take that momentum to edit the book and expand upon in November/December
>shop book around and maybe get published
>even if it doesn't work out you at least can say you wrote a book, which in and of itself requires a modicum of stick-to-it-ness.

[Anonymous No.12057509]

Law school guy here. Gonna start after my test tomorrow. Wish me luck. I have a project that’s already about 10k words. Does it count if that’s the project I continue? Or do I subtract 10k from my end result at the end of the month?

[Anonymous No.12057861]

>>12044871
>Also, what sort of struggles are you facing with your current project?
I'm realizing how godawful of a writer I am.

[Anonymous No.12058252]

>>12057226

There are full time, multi-book deal authors right now who started out with nanowrimo.

[Anonymous No.12058298]

>>12057861
Writing necessary filler scenes that aren't boring. Resiting the temptation to declare myself Tolstoy/DFW and just chat about stuff I'm interested in which matches the themes.

[Anonymous No.12058502]

Anyone else behind? Work has been a bitch, I get up at 7am, and with commute, only get back at 7pm. Just enough time to shower, have dinner, and sleep. I'm too tired to write so I still have 7,066 works while I need 17,000 to get back up to speed. Gonna try to write as much as I can in these two days that I have.

[Anonymous No.12058679]

>>12058502
Weekend is great and if you write and pause and write and pause you can get shit done. 5k per day is a tall ask though

[Anonymous No.12059355]

>>12058298
Why would a filler scene be necessary?

[Anonymous No.12059422]

>>12050957
>and a madman handwriting the whole thing (because his typewriter is broken.)
BASED

[Anonymous No.12059513]

The start of November struck right in the middle of exams and a period where work was placing intense demands on me, so on 1 November I was just too exhausted to write.

So I gave up before I even started.

What's my prize?

[Anonymous No.12059542]

>>12059355
People who are bad at using subplots often feel like their novel is "moving too fast" or feel that going straight from A to B is too fast, so they think they need "filler."

What you want is multiple plots all moving with intensity that you can switch between, so that no one plot moves too fast.

[Anonymous No.12059555]

>1696 words so far
Think I might not reach the goal, lads

[Anonymous No.12059565]

>>12059555
Just focus on writing every day pal

[Anonymous No.12059585]

>Take two hours in the morning and only get 50 words in
>Finally just throw something in Deus Ex style
>it pulls the whole scene together and goes over my planned word count by 40%
I was worried for awhile about trying to sprint today.

[Anonymous No.12059777]

>>12050957
me and my gay werewolf romance action novel feel left out.

[Anonymous No.12060146]

Does anyone else get the problem of their story on occasion slowly turning to porn? I loved reading the Elementary Particles by Houellebecq, and I honestly want to incorporate erotica into this strip club scene, but I don't want it to become distasteful. How can I do this?

[Anonymous No.12060178]

I have some ideas but I don't know how to start. What is your process? I don't especially plan on writing a novel but any kind of story would be a start.

[Anonymous No.12060302]

>>12038617
This is sorta unrelated,but i found some of my old writting that i don't even remember writting,can i share it?
I know it's somewhat unrelated but eh,can't find another thread for it and this is sorta related

[Anonymous No.12060421]

>>12060146
They say that good sex writing isn't about the sex, it's communicating something else as the priority. I imagine a stripclub scene can do that

[Anonymous No.12060499]

Here goes nothing,sorry about the formatting

The night was the color of tar.Even the worst of the insomniacs had shut off their TVs and lights.There were four of us,sitting around the deserted Donation.
The benches were filthy,but they were dry.The lamps gave of a dim light.In the distance dogs barked and the occasional cars went to their respective destinations.
They were all smoking,wasn't my thing.We were thinking of splitting for tonight.
The fagolots from District C hit us up while we were hitting the Turkish cubes that tasted of Red Bull
Jister threw an 8ball,hit one of the guys in the eye,Eddo was using his pool stick like a bo staff,Jacked was throwing cigar ash all around,the Bum was deploying his sword-cane and moonshine meth bottle and i was throwing pickado sticks all around
The window was shattered by the weight of Kenoski,just an unlucky bystander like always,we jumped out of the neat hole and split.
Here we were,with some more bruises and scars.
It was a good night.We were thinking of calling it quits when Eddo chimed in after coughing up his stolen menthol blueberry Mutant Marine cigars.
"You know,those Pink TV guys could use a call."
We did it often.Prank calls,always a timeless thing.We used the Giant's phone,an old Tibetan bootleg phone.
We connected,and we all heard it loud and clear
A loud and robotic voice said it "RATS RECOGNIZED-PROCEDURE D INTIATED-TIGERS INBOUND"
Then we saw it.A white van with pink stripes,with welded on metal plates covered in bullet holes
Stepped out,dressed in yellow armed with black Heckler and Cougher and Koch LABR 69's
It was too late,most didn't make it.
The gunfire enveloped us all like a symphony and they danced to the rhytm,the 10mm bullets FMJs making them dance to the rhytm,like forced manequins and the metal clanged around us and the wooden splinters lodged into us.
I was running through the tracks,while they flashed through me
Their souls had left their bodies and attached themselves to me and i saw it
Eddo got shot in the forehead but he kept the cigar in his mouth
Giant smashed a corporate mercenaries face in through his black kevlar that was painted in a strange tigerstripe pattern,but they managed to show a frag into his mouth and pull the pin
Jacked had been pinned to the wall by endless bullets,hung like the Prophets of the Gray Church
Jister got shot in the heart and fell face down into a pile of cigar butts,rain water,discared junk food packets and homeless semen.
I collapsed somewhere down the tracks
When i woke up,i was laying in a pool of white blood and the bullets had been swimming in them
The sun was out

[Anonymous No.12060544]

I fell behind a few days ago but wrote 8k in the past 3 days, I'm at 17k. I'm still writing today, I have lots of ideas.

>slowly falling in love with my own character
It must be because I write so little in my native language and almost always communicate in english, it's hell desu

[Anonymous No.12060662]

>>12060499
go away

[Anonymous No.12061005]

I actually caught up with the word count, im in the positive, yeehaw.

The wpm really jumps up when you know what you're talking about.

[Anonymous No.12061524]

>>12060178
I start with a one sentence summary. Then I expand it into a one paragraph summary. Then I expand that into a one page summary.

Then, I write.

[Anonymous No.12061799]

>>12053068
>lawyer ethics
so an exam about fucking nothing. Nice.

[Anonymous No.12061815]

>Be me
>24K words in
>Just got to the emotional climax of the first act
>Having problems giving different voices to the characters
>Being unable to make physical descrpitions feel natural
>Having a lot of details in my head but can't express them accurately

[Anonymous No.12061994]

>>12061815
>Having problems giving different voices to the characters
>Being unable to make physical descrpitions feel natural
Wouldn't worry about that in the first draft. It takes quite a lot fine-tuning to get right.

>Having a lot of details in my head but can't express them accurately
Just write the shitty version down, ideally with too many details, then do it right at revision.

Basically, you're doing fine, faggot.

[Anonymous No.12062091]

after not writing all day I've come to the EXECUTIVE decision to introduce the B plot antagonist this chapter

[Anonymous No.12063020]

Gotta say my "drink a gin & tonic or two and write for hours" plan isn't working out too well.

[Anonymous No.12063053]

>>12063020
I drank two glasses of wine and nearly made it to my word count goal today, maybe you haven't drank ENOUGH?

[Anonymous No.12063109]

>>12063053
Well, can hardly hurt trying!

The right amount just varies too much for me. Sometimes a glass of wine does the magic, sometimes three glasses of vodka or rum. And just going slightly over whatever was right at that moment, tends to kill all drive.

[Anonymous No.12063500]

>>12063053
>>12063109
Fuck me, you was right, anon. It actually worked. 2.4k words. Now I can sleep in peace.

[Anonymous No.12063906]

>>12050957
>madman handwriting the whole thing
Was forced to do this as a kid when my parents dragged me for camping to Italy with no access to electronics or books whatsoever.
Not having any distractions around somewhat helps, but the lack of access to your notes or older parts of the story makes more than up for that.

Seriously, fuck family vacations.

[Anonymous No.12064107]

>>12061994
t-thank you, senpai

[Anonymous No.12064389]

>>12054442
Thanks for this anon. It helped. I've also been reading some books on writing lately, which has also been helpful. =)

[FM !!BhuDntq3ZHf No.12064431]

>light work and school schedule this week
>first snow of the season supposed to start Tuesday
>kitchen is stocked with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, ingredients for soup
>got my comfy knit sweater and two iPods full of my favorite music
>new pack of pencils ready to write

Feels good, man.

[FM !!BhuDntq3ZHf No.12064443]

>>12059422
>>12063906
my hand and wrist hurt intensely

[Anonymous No.12064585]

>>12064431
Jealous. I have to go to my mother-in-law's this weekend and this week at work is going to be so slow and draining because we have training.

[Anonymous No.12064717]

>>12054223
What's a good resource for learning structure?

[Anonymous No.12064727]

>>12064717
the internet

for serious though bud l i t e r a l l y just search for some stuff. there's thousands of pages out there.

[Anonymous No.12064740]

>>12064727
Okay, I'll plug in a couple searches and see what I can find. Structure and completion are two things I struggle a lot with in writing.

[Anonymous No.12064780]

>>12064717
There are tons of books by professional and talented writers on the creative writing. John Garner's The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist are both helpful, and The Way of the Writer by Charles Johnson is great too. You could also enroll in a creative writing course. I don't care that skeptics call it a fallacy, there's nothing more important than being in cahoots with other writers or academics to help you hone your skill as a writer. Your compulsion to write is absolutely useless if you won't learn from others; the skilled carpenter didn't build his chair by saying, "Fuck it."

Sorry for the cynicism in my last post, it just breaks my heart to see all these would-be ambitious young writers on this retarded board be under the illusion that they're good because they don't have anyone in their lives to tell them how much room for improvement there is.

[Anonymous No.12064788]

>>12064717
Reading books that you like and trying to figure out why you like them and then trying to imitate the techniques and patterns.

I can't discourage reading books about writing enough. In my experience, they scare people away because they make you think about each piece of storytelling individually and purposefully and that's not something you should do until you're experienced with writing and know what you are capable of and where you need to improve. Unless you're already experienced with writing and are looking to improve certain aspects, I'd recommend continuing to read the types of books you are writing and analyzing them yourself.

most people who write books about writing are not published authors, because they never had the determination or skill to go about it, so they're not usually the type of person you'd want advice from anyway

[Anonymous No.12064791]

I feel like I'm really forcing this scene in a weird direction but can't figure out the direction I should take. I know the goal of the scene but I can't seem to think of how to get there that doesn't seem cheesy. I'm running into the problem where the girl in the scene woke up in the right side of the bed, but I don't want to make it just that she's smiling at everyone and everyone sees her as beautiful BECAUSE she's happy but I feel like I need people to react in a "non-problematic" way to her.

[Anonymous No.12064807]

>>12064791
Don't force things. It's better to change a scene so it doesn't feel as odd or contrived or like you're forcing yourself, and lose some pieces of whatever plot you may have planned, than to write uninspired pages that will likely come across as just that.

[Anonymous No.12064973]

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO WRITE BELIEVABLE CONFLICT

[Anonymous No.12064998]

>>12064431
> Pencil
Handwriting wasn't enough, huh? Had to handwrite like a savage too.

[Anonymous No.12065058]

>>12064807
I think I'm more worried that the girl wouldn't be the type to accept that kind of attention similar to how a lot of feminists even now talk about how they don't like being told to smile or being called pretty when they are. She's not militant by any stretch but still doesn't like that. My problem is that the voice and narrative make it seem like she's just suddenly accepting the attention in a positive way.

[Anonymous No.12065202]

>>12064973
you left your characters with too many easy ways out of the conflict, didn't you

[Anonymous No.12065319]

>>12064780
>Sorry for the cynicism in my last post
No problem, dude. That was probably one of the more tame responses one can receive on this board.
> under the illusion that they're good because they don't have anyone in their lives to tell them how much room for improvement there is.
I think I write well, I just lack a close knit group of fellow writers I can confide in for constructive criticism. Most of my creative friends are into different things; my gf is my harshest critic, she knows how to cut me when I need it, but writing isn't her specialty. I basically need someone to tell me where my shit is lacking; a workshop might be just the place.
>>12064788
>Reading books that you like and trying to figure out why you like them and then trying to imitate the techniques and patterns
I suppose I feel like a plagiarist if I just mime the techniques and patterns of my dead idols, however, this is what most of said idols did to propel their works into what they eventually become. I think I just have to fuckin relax.
>I can't discourage reading books about writing enough
I've read a few, took what I needed from them, now I do as you suggested and just read books I like; analyzing the pieces that make up the whole, etc.. I just need a little more self confidence, and apply what I've learned to the craft.

[Anonymous No.12065465]

>>12065202
Which is almost always the case in real situations.

[Anonymous No.12065525]

>>12065058
>don't like being told to smile
Being told to do anything is off-putting. And then when it happens based on a meme like gender expectations, obviously people wouldn't like that.

>being called pretty when they are
Compliments, especially facile ones get tired pretty fast.

>worried that the girl wouldn't be the type to accept that kind of attention
>the voice and narrative make it seem like she's just suddenly accepting the attention in a positive way
So basically you don't know the character enough? I don't quite get the problem, is it written from her perspective; then why not just focus on how everyone seemed to smile more, not giving her cheesy compliments?