/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2193857]

I surpassed 50,000 words in 11 days.

I'm nowhere near the end of the novel. Maybe 1/4.

Howzabouts you?

[Anonymous No.2193864]

almost done, i think.

[Anonymous No.2193869]

still at 0 words

my scrap book of ideas is bulging tho, I just can't seem to decide on the ending nor if I should cut some characters. The biggest issue tho is what plot elements from my scrap book to include. I don't want to over burden the story with ideas and waste em all in the same story. And my side characters seem all to be more interesting than the two protagonists god damn it.

[Anonymous No.2193870]

i'm not writing a novel because i'm shit at reading, spelling, and writing.

i'm a total failure. i only visited /lit/ to check out the recommend reading list because i need to learn logic, philosophy and argumentation so i'm not as retarded.

[Anonymous No.2193873]

>>2193869
I think you're thinking about it all wrong. NaNoWriMo isn't about finishing a publishable novel, it's a writing exercise, to try to kickstart your way past writer's block, to work out plot wrinkles, to extemporate.

At best, what you're left with is a first draft. Then you can worry about which plot elements to keep and where to focus on characters and all. Heck, go ahead and include all of your ideas in the draft. It might help you see which ideas work best, or you enjoy more.

>>2193870
Again, it's not about something that's readable,or even good. Just let your creative juices flow.

[Anonymous No.2193875]

>>2193870
I'm sure it's not as bad as you describe it. Good luck with the reading

[Anonymous No.2193876]

>>2193873
you are right and it has gotten me over my writers block. I'm scribbling on the synopsis when riding the subway now even. Aiming for a complete short story (dunno the lenght but probably a lot shorter than 50k words)

[Anonymous No.2193883]

I've done NaNo twice now, both times beating the end of the month to 50k. The first time, I realized I had to throw EVERYTHING I'd written out the window. Last time I didn't bother with worrying what I produced. Now I'm just letting the creative juices flow. I'm at 31k, and I'm doing fine.

[Anonymous No.2193913]

>>2193857
>>2193876
What's it about?

[Anonymous No.2193916]

>>2193913
It's about 50,000 words long! Oh ho ho ho ho . . .

[Anonymous No.2193924]

>>2193913
Working title:The nutritional value of pastries consumed in dreams

synopsis:A boy wakes up in a dream house encountering a group of kids impersonating various fairy tale personas, apparently trying to pull off a heist against the House. What value does friendship, wealth or morals have in a dream?

genre: dunno, ya lit fantasy/magical realism?

[Anonymous No.2193953]

hmm I just assumed Nanowrimo mail was spam and worthless but this had some good advice. Poastan

>Arrive without coming in, and leave without leave—leave before you leave, if you get my drift. End >My advice is about doorways, windowsills, and entrances and exits generally, but also bathrooms, boxes of tissues, sinks full of dishes, ice trays that need refilling, and so forth.

You'll find this kind of thing bunched up around your characters—just as a matter of absolute necessity, for instance, the better-left-unmentioned doors and windows have every room your characters inhabit completely surrounded, unless you've set your tale in a sarcophagus or generational spaceship or some other kind of sealed container—much as you discover such material lying at the edges of attention in your own everyday lives. The comings and goings, loosening and tightening of faucets, shittings and pissings and nose-blowings of everyday circumstances. Keep them at the periphery, in the subliminal range, unless you really want to try to make something of them, and then you'd better make it good. I'm trying to tell you to ignore transitions. Skip to the good stuff.

The sex and death, the monkey shines and money shots, the spit-takes, the epiphanies and pratfalls. The epiphanic pratfalls. What you'd remember when you forgot all the rest—forget the rest on your reader's behalf.

[Anonymous No.2193955]

>>2193953

>Write like you'd read—and notice how much you customarily skip as you read. Raymond Chandler said that when he was at a loss for a plot development he'd have a man walk through a doorway with a gun in his hand. Good advice I've heeded a hundred times or more, but it wasn't the doorway, it was the gun that might solve your problem.

>Arrive without coming in, and leave without leave—leave before you leave, if you get my drift. End the scene with the glance at the door, if even the glance. And there's probably no writer who ever paused in his commitment to realism to consider how often a nose blown or a bladder emptied didn't quite rate mention.

>Realism goes just so far. It's sort of like Chandler's gunman: unless you're blowing blood out of your nose, don't even reach for a tissue. A tissue full of nothing but snot is a dog-bites-man story. And so, having said his piece, the weary veteran wished the fresh novices good luck, and went out the door, shifting slightly to the left so as not to collide with the guy on his way in with a gun in his hand.

-Jonathan Lethem

[Anonymous No.2193961]

This is my first time with NaNo. I just hit 32,000, but I cheated by injecting a totally insane, nigh-unwritable premise I've been screwing around with for over three years now. Doesn't exactly give me a lot of advantages, but it feels good to be above par on this scale, when this particular project has been nothing but stagnant for so long.

Not bad for a program I figured was designed to con hipsters into thinking they can write books.

[Anonymous No.2193963]

hey, I'm kinda new to this Nanowrimo. How do I get people to critique my writing? There doesn't seem to be a way to post your text on the site.

[Anonymous No.2193977]

It seems to me that it depends. If you are going for a slice of life sequence or just placing the modesty of trivial life contrast to the heaviness of the plot. Or it sets something up. I don't know, hehe. Maybe just write it in if it's really relevant to the point you're making.

[μεταπληβείος !it./2lqT6k No.2194022]

>>2193963
Take a look to the fora.

[Anonymous No.2194045]

I'm close to 41k now, but I started writing this novel at NaNoWriMo 2008
pic related

[Anonymous No.2194517]

>>2193963
You can post an excerpt on the site, but your best bet is the forums.