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[monk12]

Hold on. You guys actually work out the things you're writing on before you start writing?

It beats the hell outta wasting time during the deadline guessing what should go somewhere to bloat wordcount.

I've actually not heard of a serious fiction writer who didn't have some kind of pre-write organization.

Last year I didn't, and while I didn't win I did end up with stuff that I liked. Then again, I've never been accused of being a serious fiction writer.

My ratio of time spent plotting/worldbuilding/characterbuilding to writing is something like 725:1.

Similarly, my ratio of time spent editing/proofreading/nitpicking/mentally falling apart at the seams because that sentence is WRONG and I don't know how to make it RIGHT to writing is something like 3,720:1.

If you figure out where those ratios are from without google, good on ya.

Of course, half the point of NaNo is to try and override that "perfect the first time" instinct and just vomit content for a month. If you like it in general, you can go back and edit things to sound less like garbage. If you edit as you go, progress is painfully slow, especially if you have to rewrite down the road.

Not even google helped me.

Which of these do you recommend?

A very young supergenius in an otherwise entirely mundane world, trying to make real life more like a comic book. Mad science trying to create heroes/villains, eventually tries clumsy manipulation of sociopolitics. His unwitting older cousin is the protagonist and 3rd person POV focus.

OR

A travelling jester, serving at many courts, tries to spread his idealistic pacifism.

Supergenius! The other one sounds interesting too, if you can pull it off, but the former sounds like it is both easier and further developed.


Oh my one week till NaNo aw shiiiiii

[lue]

So, last night I decided to a stream of consciousness exercise because I was that desperate for ideas, and I accidentally a semi-coherent story:

Spoiler: "Thus The" (click to show/hide)

Into looking at such matters, the glass on the table vibrated with the energies
of the particle beam that which was being used by the Doctor. Of course the
glass was very disturbed at being interrupted in his investigation of the murder
of one Ms. Helenswitch from the countrysides of Scotland.

Thus suddenly the cup woke up from its nightmare, having realized it watched too
much telvision. Thus the forums of bay12 would perhaps enjoy a thread sharing
such things as this text. The cup upon realizing the previous thought made no
sense woke up. Thus the mug woke from a confusing dream, whence he gained a
deeper understanding of who he truly wished to be in life. A material
reassignment surgery was in order then.

The surreality of the mug's life was a realistic one; it had never found itself
ordering a ham sandwich with two peanuts and a computer mouse. Rather instead it
frequently found itself to be the dream of a table.

Thus the table woke up from its dream, having noticed the shape with which the
story was appearing; this was not at all how the stream of consciousness
practice was supposed to turn out. Green felt and all that jazz and rock and
roll and pop and metal and heavy.

Thus the vinyl record woke from its dream, which had devolved into its usual
nonsense. The LP couldn't help but feel if we was perhaps a dream conconted by
the mind of a homonym.

Thus the series of videos on Youtube depicting a playthrough of a game by a
human woke up as it was requested once more by a hungry viewer of such
content. As it raced down the tracks, the LP noted a seeming familiarity of the
walls of the down which he ran.

Thus the minor background enemy from that FairlyOdd Parents movie about entering
the Internet woke up. He, having displayed his typical inability to be
effective. As he raced down the tubes to catch the protagonist, he realized that
perhaps he was but a twinkle in the eyes of most.

Thus woke up the concept of the twinkle. It had recently been put on leave due
to inclement weather blocking starlight, and the general dullness of objects in
the area of such weather. The weather having now cleared up, the twinkle resumed
being an integral part of most stars in the sky, taking pride in its work.

Thus the scientific concept of work woke up. Not the humanistic notion, mind,
but the actual physical property of the universe. Having seen a startling lack
of precipitation in a particular area for the last few minutes, it quickly set
itself in motion to reintroduce some inclement weather. The snow soon began to
fell, blocking starlight once more.

Thus the hopeful promise of a backwards crawl through the stack of dreams thus
far to conclude the story woke up and promptly let itself out the room.

Thus the room woke up, once again experiencing the nightmare of being left
devoid of all sentient life. The room took relief in the fact that it was in
fact the bedroom of the house, and thus were people currently there.

Thus the man woke up, and seeing the sun shine bright outside, went about his
day.

Thus the day woke up, and having had quite enough of its interminable work
hours, destroyed the sun as a way of finally getting a goddamn vacation.

Thus the Earth woke up, shaking of the nightmare of total annihilation by an
exploding sun. The Earth resumed its work of turning, doubling its efforts for a
few minutes in the hope nobody would notice the delay.

Thus the definition of words of the English language woke up, terrified of the
terrible casualty the word "annihilation" was used with.

Thus the definition of grammar of the English language woke up, shaking off the
all-too-reall nightmare of misused prepositions.

Thus the spectre of proper spelling woke up in a fright, having witnessed the
horrors of the stylistic spelling error in the previous paragraph. Having
realized only a madman would perpetrate such a thing, and seeing as madman were
a minority of people, was able to go back asleep.

Thus Guardian of American Spelling awoke with terrible visions of the British
spelling in the previous paragraph.

Thus there was no way to properly end this story, so thus the concept of logical
progression woke.

Thus the glass realized it had not yet properly awoken, and thus the glass woke
up.

The "Green felt" sentence was one last stab at true stream of consciousness, but it failed immediately after.

Writing this poem-ish thing taught me something about what kind of story I should write. I may prefer to think of stories involving overarching plots and themes and organizations, but I care too much about my conspiratorial organizations to just use them without considering how the story I would write factors in to everything. So I don't want to end up spending weeks trying to work out not only a full plot involving such organizations (because I need to know ahead of time what effects that plot will have on it), but then also working out the future of the organization after the fact.

It seems I'd be better suited towards a Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett-y type novel. That is to say, very light and humorous, without sacrificing the story.

[Flying Dice]

I... I've fallen to the dark side. I've been plotting and worldbuilding for a few days, and I started writing in earnest tonight. Not an original work, no, something far more fell.

I'm writing a Naruto fanfiction spoofing the canon, most of the common predilections in fanon, working in an M. Night Shyamalan-worthy crossover, and reconstructing the whole damned thing to actually be a (hopefully) interesting mix of political drama, gag comedy, Lovecraftian horror, and continually self-subverting fighting that teeters from grimdark wankery to nearly-as-stupid-as-canon shonen antics. God, the meta is stronk in this one. I mean, I bloody hate the actual work. I hate the fanbase. I hate about 98% of the stories. That's the problem, though, isn't it? There's that untapped potential created by a good idea that's been buried in the ground like a suplexed train mixed with the chance to poke fun at a bunch of wankers (both literal and British), and it calls to me like some sort of addictive, toxic metaphor.

If anyone wants a taste of the horror, I'll post or PM snippets. I finally bother writing something again and this is what I do? I think I must secretly hate myself. XD

[USEC_OFFICER]

If anyone wants a taste of the horror, I'll post or PM snippets. I finally bother writing something again and this is what I do? I think I must secretly hate myself. XD

Please do. That sounds amazing.

[SilverDragon]

I'll be participating if I can, and also posting to watch.

[lue]

If you look at my novel, you'll see what I think my story is basically going to be. I think I found a good middle with this idea: I have enough ideas of things that I want to see happen where I can weave them together and see how the stories continues, but not some much figured out that I really care about the ramifications the story has on its participants .

[Darkmere]

So i was stuck on a few things and ran across a resource list my ML posted on the nanowrimo site. Have a look at
The Snowflake Method of planning.
It got me out of a slump, because although it was similar to what I did, I never really went far enough with it before.

@Lue: Sounds very Hitchhiker's guide. I approve.

[Caz]

4 days until NaNo... uh oh...

How are you guys preparing?

[Digital Hellhound]

4 days until NaNo... uh oh...

How are you guys preparing?

I think it might be about time to start planning.

[Sirus]

What is this "planning" you speak of?

[Darkmere]

4 days until NaNo... uh oh...

How are you guys preparing?

10 single-spaced pages of character/plot/setting data so when November comes all I have to do is write on the notes I've done ahead of time. Most of my hard work is already done.

[lue]

4 days until NaNo... uh oh...

How are you guys preparing?

By not thinking about it now that I have a story idea to jump from . Trying to keep a sustained interest in NaNo for the entire month is already going to be interesting, no sense making it worse by starting early.

(Besides, I'm more eager to write than plan, so there's another reason to wait.)

[Kashyyk]

I'm writing a plot and a load of basic character bios for everyone important. There is a lot of colour coding.

[sjm9876]

Attempting to suppress the urge to start writing already.

[sjm9876]

Attempting to suppress the urge to start writing already.

Are you me?

It's a definite possibility.