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[inEQUALITY]

* Sirus looks at some of these insane WPD counts

* Sirus looks at his own <1000 word novel

* Sirus curses his inability to use a computer while working

I can imagine NaNo is a bit harder for those with jobs, but don't get discouraged! I only manage six hours of writing because I have nothing, at the moment. I'm lucky enough to be able to do that, if only for a while. Chasing dreams and such.

But honestly, even if you're as slow as I am some days, if you can find three hours you would normally just watch TV or something and use it to write: you can hit 2000 a day, easy. If you're much faster than me, then the minimum 1667 is doable in 1.5 to 2 hours. Just gotta sit your butt in a chair and type even when your mind protests the anguish of - ugh! - work you're not getting paid by the hour for.

Don't give up hope! You can do this.

*

In other news, I received a flood of plot ideas last night right as I was about to get to sleep. My mind literally pieced things together all on its own, with no input from me. It was absolutely wondrous! I just had to write everything down or risk losing the ideas. So I ended up filling three pages of my pocket-sized "idea" notebook.

Thanks to that, I think I finally have some idea of where I'm going with two of the major plot threads, though the third major one is still rather loose at the moment... and that's the one I know I need to push into motion today for Chapter Two. I guess we'll see how that goes!

You know (little motivational rant incoming), a lot of published authors will say that if you just write with discipline, every day, and don't worry about ideas or motivation, then both will come in time. That you'll end up with more of both that way than if you wait on them to find you. Ever since I resolved to write daily from before NaNo, I've really been starting to see that they're not only right, but consistently so. And last night really drove that point home.

Discipline, discipline, discipline is 95% of the craft. Talent is only 5%. So anyone struggling or wavering: just start/keep writing!

[Kadzar]

Hooray for writing! Looks like you have a good start. Personally, I find it a bit difficult to read in the present tense, but that's just personal preference and doesn't mean it's wrong at all. I do have one tip for you, since you're using a lot of placeholders: choose a placeholder word for each of these things and stick with it. That way, later on when you figure out what they're really called, you can just search and replace all instances of that word. Much easier than going through manually and replacing each one. You can choose words that are sure not to come up in your story, such as "Robot," "Platypus," "Facebook," or anything that you know will never be a part of your setting. It also makes it easier to keep track of which character is which, and takes away the pressure to think of names now. As long as you have *something* to call them, you can keep track of who's who and work on their characters, and then easily change the name once you think of something suitable. If it makes it easier, pick a word which is related to their character. "Archington" instead of (archer dude), for example.

Keep up the good work!

Yeah, I suppose the present tense is a little weird, and it originally started out in past tense, but very early on I slipped into present tense, and I noticed the words flow more easily for me that way,  so I kept on with it and changed the first few lines to match. And I can just as easily search for brackets in the document, but you're right that it will probably get hard to keep track of things if I don't come up with some sort of name for everything.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Kadzar, wonderful start!    I know having problems with names as I have plenty of trouble with them.  In order to get going I just decided to make some up based on puns.  I have character named Ahh and Ihd which I can have my MC work into puns if I can get that creative.  Also, everything Sappho said while I was typing is awesome too.

Thanks, Malt!

[Sappho]

Today's update is done! I've managed over 2000 words again, and I think I could keep writing. Maybe I will... But I'm having dinner now. Link in the sig, if anyone wants to read it. I think it's getting more interesting at last!

Edit: Oohhhhh, I got my 10k word badge already! Yay! : D

[Darkmere]

(I made a ton of progress!)

Damn, I'm jealous. Did anyone else have a garbage writing day yesterday? My local group all fell on our faces with like 150-word daily counts and crap like that. Feels kinda early for that, tbh.

I did eventually make my count, but I've lost most of my early lead. Time to grind out another lead, I guess.

[Caz]

You know (little motivational rant incoming), a lot of published authors will say that if you just write with discipline, every day, and don't worry about ideas or motivation, then both will come in time. That you'll end up with more of both that way than if you wait on them to find you. Ever since I resolved to write daily from before NaNo, I've really been starting to see that they're not only right, but consistently so. And last night really drove that point home.

It's 'The Gap'. Most people will need to write about 3-5 million words before their stuff starts becoming 'respectable'. Those first couple million are like pulling teeth though, because if you have any self-awareness you'll realise how crap they are and be discouraged.

Own the crap writing, though. If you write enough of it, you'll eventually improve, so just see it as a necessary evil and not as a personal failing.

On that note, got another 2k for today.

[Sappho]

I'm finding it's actually easier to write without a plan, since I'm not locked into anything and I can just make up whatever I want. Less pressure, less stress.

It also helps that I do actually write for a living now. It is absolutely true what people say, that the more regularly you write, regardless of whether it's what you *want* to write, and regardless of whether you're *inspired* or not, the easier it becomes to just sit down and write. I'm so used to my boss saying things like "we need an article on horse racing, a grammar page on even though vs. even if, and a Thanksgiving-themed puzzle page by Friday -- oh, and edit these 8 articles as well, making sure there are zero grammatical errors and all the language is below B1 CEFL level English," that when it's time to write something, I just sit down and do it. Most of the time there's a time limit and no option to slack off. Natural writing ability has surprisingly little to do with how successful a writer you will be. It's a 100% learnable skill, and the only reason so few people fully realize that is because most people aren't being forced or paid to write on a daily basis. It takes time for it to get easy.

Last year, I struggled all the way through November. I did manage to make it in the end, but only just barely, and there were a lot of tears involved. This year, I haven't had any trouble at all. I write all day at work, I come home from work, and I get to write something that actually interests me for a couple of hours. Just another item on the to-do list. Check it off, move on to making dinner. I'm actually amazed at how easy it is. I was worried it would be harder, since I write so much at work, I figured I wouldn't want to write any more when I got home. Turns out... not so. It's easier than it's ever been.

tl;dr: Make yourself write every day, all year, and writing will become easier than talking.

[inEQUALITY]

3,619 words today. That brings my day five total up to 16,026. I'm slowly catching up to my intended goal of double the normal NaNo target word count. Hopefully it won't be much longer before I'm beyond that. It'll be nice to find myself finishing 100k a day early, though that's just a stretch goal at this point.

I finally fleshed out that third, bare-bones plot line that was bugging me. Now it's much, much juicier and has already been tied into the rest, though loosely. So at least I know where I'm going with everything. Hopefully the words start flowing a little easier now.

[TD1]

What genre is everyone doing? I'd assume fantasy/sci-fi would be the more common, but is anyone doing anything else?

[Darkmere]

Mine is more noir with a cyberpunk backdrop. So technically it's sci-fi, I guess.

[Fniff]

*sigh* Didn't get much done today. Had a bit of doubt. Still, tomorrow should be better.

[inEQUALITY]

What genre is everyone doing? I'd assume fantasy/sci-fi would be the more common, but is anyone doing anything else?

I'm not really doing anything else. The only genre outside science fiction and fantasy I'd feel comfortable writing would be romance. Maybe a thriller or contemporary drama, though I'd just as soon write either of those in a science fiction setting.

Mine's Epic Fantasy, I suppose I'd call it. Lots of inspiration from history and a bit from contemporary fantasy. Trying to stay as free of Tolkien-isms as possible, but I have no doubt some will creep in.

[Caz]

What genre is everyone doing?

Fantasy. Pirates, ale, fireballs, nobles pushing down the common man, phantasmagorical rifts in space and time, monsters, battles, treachery, sieges, etc.

[WillowLuman]

Help me unslump :<

Character is biking around town at night to visit friends, who later go missing. One might already be missing to quicken the plot. I've entirely forgot my character notes for them. Quick suggestions? And most pressingly, locations? Just left one friend working a late shift at a gas station store.

[Darkmere]

He finds something odd in the road and stops to check it out. Stuff some foreshadowing in there via what he finds.

[Malt_Hitman]

Help me unslump :<

Character is biking around town at night to visit friends, who later go missing. One might already be missing to quicken the plot. I've entirely forgot my character notes for them. Quick suggestions? And most pressingly, locations? Just left one friend working a late shift at a gas station store.

If you're still looking for any inspiration you can try the stuff below:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Locations:
Grocery Store/Supermarket/General Store.
Parking lot of a large store like a discount store or department store.
Lover's lane.
Tavern/Bar.
That crazy guy's van who lives down by the river.

What happens:
He get pulled over by the cops.
Runs into a friend out for the same reason as he is.
Is going to a store to get booze/whatever.