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Post by redseafish on Nov 20, 2023 12:40:35 GMT
I'm interested to hear what people are doing (if anything) for NaNoWriMo.
I'm not really doing it as such, but am using it to inspire me to push ahead. I'm a pantser, so this time I'm doing a murder mystery with a speculative element. I have an outline for once of at least the major suspects and the perpetrator. There's also a speculative element, but I'm finding it hard to weave in at the moment (so it'll be one of the many things I'll have to get back to). Struggling a bit with how to murder and, as usual, leaving descriptions until later, so it's mostly dialogue, but at least I've got the germ of something moving at last! I'm setting it in Egypt again as I have a vague plan in the back of my head to have separate stories for all the residents in El Andalous!
Done 24k words so far - would have been more but have had a few tummy issues recently. Happy with having done that much, though, as it means I'll definitely keep on at it.
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NaNoWriMo
Nov 20, 2023 21:10:26 GMT
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Post by waxesnostalgic on Nov 20, 2023 21:10:26 GMT
I’m participating this year! I’m doing time travel (again!)Trying to finish the novel I wrote 25,000 words on over the summer, then go back and expand it so it’s more than 55,000 words. Have to add in some subplots and scene-setting that I tend to skip in my rough drafts. I’m on par so far, so I guess I’m satisfied with my work.
This is the first novel I’ve written with a full, detailed outline from the start, and I also wrote a query first as well. This spring and summer I took a deep dive into studying story structure and am really liking the results. Story Engineering by Larry Brooks was a lightbulb moment for me, and Ellen Brock’s video series on YouTube was incredibly helpful.
I was having stomach issues this summer too—hope yours improve. Something about your stomach hurting messes with your creativity, I feel. Makes you feel unsettled, I guess?
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Post by kitcampbell on Nov 21, 2023 17:16:00 GMT
I'm working on my revision for Nano--so re-reading and tweaking a chapter is such-and-such amount of words, and doing a paper edit of a chapter is another, and then directly correlating retyped words (since on the Nano site 50K words is the only goal you can associate with the Nano event). I'm on, uh, 33.7K right now, and I've gotten through three and a half chapters, so it's really helping me keep my momentum up on the revision (though this current chapter is a mess, sigh).
Red - I did a mystery a few years ago, and I found it really helped to plan the murder out completely. Who did it, how, when, what they did with the body/murder weapon afterwards, etc. I also took all my potential suspects (and the murderer) and made an hourly timeline of where and what everyone was doing, hour by hour, to see where I could build in some red herrings. I'm not much of a plotter either but I found it really helped to have a clear idea of the movements of everybody before I got started. And because it was all background information, it didn't effect my freedom in the actual writing.
ETA - waxes, I also loved Story Engineering! I found it so so helpful and it really helped me fix my pacing issues.
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Post by AZAli*avenger on Nov 21, 2023 22:51:04 GMT
I don't do nano, simply because I have no faith that I'll get anywhere near 50k words.
But I did start a new project last month. Things I'm doing differently on it: -Pantsing without an outline. Literally writing the scene that pops in my head. As a plotter, it's a little scary but liberating too. -Writing it in first person. -Using what I'm terming Scrivener technique, putting every chapter in a separate file.
Also trying to get some revisions done on my older project.
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NaNoWriMo
Nov 22, 2023 17:42:40 GMT
via mobile
Post by Meredith on Nov 22, 2023 17:42:40 GMT
I’m rewriting City of Disguise (the first thing I posted to this group) and I think it’s going a lot better than the previous version. I’ve got a more detailed outline in my head this time and I’m following it for the most part. Hoping to have it ready for Winter Marathon.
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chris
Full Member
Posts: 109
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Post by chris on Jan 3, 2024 12:25:49 GMT
I’m participating this year! I’m doing time travel (again!)Trying to finish the novel I wrote 25,000 words on over the summer, then go back and expand it so it’s more than 55,000 words. Have to add in some subplots and scene-setting that I tend to skip in my rough drafts. I’m on par so far, so I guess I’m satisfied with my work. This is the first novel I’ve written with a full, detailed outline from the start, and I also wrote a query first as well. This spring and summer I took a deep dive into studying story structure and am really liking the results. Story Engineering by Larry Brooks was a lightbulb moment for me, and Ellen Brock’s video series on YouTube was incredibly helpful. I was having stomach issues this summer too—hope yours improve. Something about your stomach hurting messes with your creativity, I feel. Makes you feel unsettled, I guess?
I've been doing some reading about writing and also watching some videos on youtube to improve my craft. The latest book I read was Story Genius by Lisa Cron which had some interesting theories about the science of story. I'll add Story Engineering to my TBR pile.
Every time I read a book on writing, the urge is strong to scrap my latest WIP and start over 'doing it right this time.'
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NaNoWriMo
Jan 3, 2024 16:04:37 GMT
via mobile
Post by waxesnostalgic on Jan 3, 2024 16:04:37 GMT
I’m participating this year! I’m doing time travel (again!)Trying to finish the novel I wrote 25,000 words on over the summer, then go back and expand it so it’s more than 55,000 words. Have to add in some subplots and scene-setting that I tend to skip in my rough drafts. I’m on par so far, so I guess I’m satisfied with my work. This is the first novel I’ve written with a full, detailed outline from the start, and I also wrote a query first as well. This spring and summer I took a deep dive into studying story structure and am really liking the results. Story Engineering by Larry Brooks was a lightbulb moment for me, and Ellen Brock’s video series on YouTube was incredibly helpful. I was having stomach issues this summer too—hope yours improve. Something about your stomach hurting messes with your creativity, I feel. Makes you feel unsettled, I guess? I've been doing some reading about writing and also watching some videos on youtube to improve my craft. The latest book I read was Story Genius by Lisa Cron which had some interesting theories about the science of story. I'll add Story Engineering to my TBR pile.
Every time I read a book on writing, the urge is strong to scrap my latest WIP and start over 'doing it right this time.' I’ve heard good things about Story Genius, but I’ll push it up higher in my “to read” list.
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Post by redseafish on Jan 5, 2024 19:34:44 GMT
I've been doing some reading about writing and also watching some videos on youtube to improve my craft. The latest book I read was Story Genius by Lisa Cron which had some interesting theories about the science of story. I'll add Story Engineering to my TBR pile.
Every time I read a book on writing, the urge is strong to scrap my latest WIP and start over 'doing it right this time.'
I'm the same! I looked up Story Engineering, then saw someone reviewing Maas's Fire in the Story, then someone else mentioning Stephen King's On Writing (which I still hadn't read).
I ended up buying all three. I've read Stephen King's book now and have just started Maas's book. I got excited by one of the reviewers saying that the most useful section of that book was microtension and adding it to every sentence. I've started Maas's book now and am also thinking already that I should revamp Phantom Parts (which I'm querying) accordingly. And that was distracting in the middle of NaNoWriMo. I do want to get this first draft/outline done first though of the cozy mystery type thing that I was working on for NaNoWriMo. Not too much longer to go, but it's dragging...
There's always that question of when to stop editing...
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chris
Full Member
Posts: 109
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Post by chris on Jan 7, 2024 11:36:56 GMT
I read and enjoyed Stephen King's On Writing years ago. I remember more of the inspirational and the-writer's-life/memoir bits than any practical tips, but it's definitely a book I'd recommend to writers. Based on your reply, I looked up Fire in Fiction by Maas and added it to my growing amazon wishlist. I previously read Maas's Writing The Breakout Novel and still reference the many pages of notes I took from it. It focused on avoiding what he calls the 'midlist' of published authors, which he claims kills a career, by writing a 'breakout' novel instead. It can be argued his narrow target audience for this one are published authors looking to breakout, rather than someone like me who is unpublished and doesn't think 'midlist' is a fate worse than death. He gives the standard good advice on premise, stakes, plot, characters, theme, etc.
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