NaNoWriMo - Challenge yourself!

[Hilene]

So, who else is going to take part? I've been getting into writing lately because of Jaiku, and want to see how well I can do with a bit more pressure on me. I'm deciding to work on a new project, something I started thinking about recently, instead of the book I was already slowly working on. Both are on similar themes, but I intend to take different angles with them. Hopefully stretch out a bit and help me become more accepting of my own work.

 

[Mightyblue]

I might dabble a bit unofficially just to try to get back on the horse. I've got at least one novel draft that's about halfway done that I should get back to and a whoooooole bunch of ideas/outlines I rather rapidly churn out.

 

[Mommi]

Yeah, I got a novel at about 2/3 1st draft that I stopped working on when I got a new job. This is a good occasion to reignite my writing habits. I'm in.

I'm stratched real thin and won't be able to commit to reading for others I think, though I'd like to.

 

[Hilene]

Bleh, I super have not been able to do as much as I wanted to since the start. Last few days I've just been fried by the time I get home, and by the time I feel well enough to do something it's too late.

Eh, even if I don't meet the target, I want to participate. I've at least still been churning over thoughts even if I haven't been able to actually write.

 

[Büge]

I wanna participate, but I don't have a novel outline to write from. I suppose I could start there... Any recommendations for techniques?

 

[Mommi]

I usually dash it out super quick, and then start writing into the breaks between each outline item wherever I feel it most. I do not go beginning to end.

 

[Mightyblue]

Outlines are supposed to be big points/characters/etc, not actually super fleshed out. Depending on how organized of a writer you are, an outline could just be the first step in your pre-write setup.

 

[FelixSH]

I started writing something short, aat the beginning of the month. Which exploded, and now I'm at 12 pages without having reached the middle of the story.

It wasn't my plan to participate, and I don't write every day. But it's nice, that it happened this month.

 

[Syless]

I decided to try this year, and this is the first time I've ever made it past the first few pages. I've been surpassing par every day, and I think it may now be the longest thing I've ever written? 16000 words and 37 pages. I'd offer to trade reads, but for... reasons... this doesn't feel like the best place to share it.

 

[FelixSH]

I decided to try this year, and this is the first time I've ever made it past the first few pages. I've been surpassing par every day, and I think it may now be the longest thing I've ever written? 16000 words and 37 pages. I'd offer to trade reads, but for... reasons... this doesn't feel like the best place to share it.

That's quite impressive, congrats! 2000 words per day is really a lot. I have only a bit below 7000 words in total, by now. Which is still a lot, everything else I wrote was 2-4 pages long.

I'm glad I have a small audience for the stuff I write, but it's also very much something not for this forum.

 

[Mommi]

Why, is it sexy? I definitely have posted some erotica on TT and I didn't catch shit for it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that would read something like that.

 

[Syless]

It is sexy, but it's a bit... well, the kinks are a bit extreme at parts, in ways that are likely to make people uncomfortable, and I'd hate to subject anyone to that.

 

[FelixSH]

I mainly write to express my fetishes, which might not necessarily even seem sexy, except in the way I write about it? Maybe? I'm not even sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the stuff I write about would irritate people. It's just hard to say, with stuff like that.

 

[Vidfamne]

"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us, sexually"

 

[Mommi]

I posted some kinky shit, but I get not wanting to risk vulnerability and feelings of shame or embarrassment. I do feel like you might miss a chance for beautiful connection, you might really enjoy each other's writing for instance.

 

[Syless]

If anyone's genuinely interested they can message me on here and I'll drop synopsis/CWs/etc. I'm just not comfortable posting it publicly.

 

[Syless]

I know doubleposting is crass, but it's been two weeks and I feel this merits a new post: I did it! 50k words complete! The novel is a bit of a mess, really only the first two thirds of it should be a single novel and that's what I might rework if I decide to keep at this project, but the rest was fun to write anyway.

 

[Mightyblue]

Congrats!

 

[Hilene]

Yeah, I ended up a mess over the whole thing. Never managed to make much progress, but also it did let me frame some ideas I really wanted to work on, and game me some better understandings of myself as a writer. I'm sad that I did so poorly, but also happy that I at least tried. I... need to be better about giving myself the space and energy, but also about knowing my limits and working within them.

 

[FelixSH]

I guess my passion burnt itself out, or something. Stopped at 11k words. I'm still going to finish the story, but probably not during November. A shame, I really should get into the habit of writing daily. Maybe a new goal for December.

Anyway, I wanted to offer myself as a reader for your work. I know that it can be sometimes a bit frustrating to create something, and then have no one to share it with. If that's the case, I would gladly read your NaNoWriMo work.

Again, this is just an offer. I also can't promise to be fast, but I DO promise to give you positive feedback. English isn't my native language, so I will probably not be able to tell you how to improve your writing style. But I can tell you things that I liked, for whatever reason. The feedback will be honest, too, even if it might sound like I'm reaching. I will not, promise. I can find something that I like in every piece of work.

It's also fine, if no one is taking me up on this offer. Just wanted to put it out there.

 

[Vidfamne]

Yeah, I ended up a mess over the whole thing. Never managed to make much progress, but also it did let me frame some ideas I really wanted to work on, and game me some better understandings of myself as a writer. I'm sad that I did so poorly, but also happy that I at least tried. I... need to be better about giving myself the space and energy, but also about knowing my limits and working within them.

You probably did fine. The 50k is an arbitrary figure chosen highly to ensure, hopefully, that participants build a habit instead of binging to 10k or whatever over a few days and going back to quotidian complacency afterwards (habit, of course, means that writing becomes part of "quotidian complacency", you get my point I'm sure)

Reaching it means nothing about "doing well" or "poorly" in terms of writing quality; I can't imagine writing 50k words in a month and having the result be any good artistically. If you wrote every day, it doesn't matter to "success" if it was 150 words on average or 1500.

edit: I know that Kafka managed to write The Judgment in a single mirage of a night from dusk to dawn -- but that was 4,000 words. And he never did anything like that again in his life.

 

[Hilene]

Yeah, the problem is that I didn't even manage that. But I do know that a lot of that failing was attributable to what you're talking about. I put too much focus on bursts, not enough on sustainable writing. I don't have good habits, and I need to develop those.

I'm also thinking of changing up my style of writing. I get really hung up on linearity, even though I know it does this to me. I need to be able to break away from that, and one thing I'm thinking about doing to work on that goal is to start writing the long-form stuff I want to work on more like a sequence of short stories. If I'm thinking in a series of fragmented scenes, maybe I should write as a series of fragmented scenes, and worry about linking them together later. I'll probably feel more "successful" if I can look at major scenes that I've finished. Especially since I still manage to write sequences that I feel super good about.