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[Digital Hellhound]

I'm not technically doing NaNo, but I've racked up a respectable wordcount in these few days, so I'd like to answer the genre question. Military scifi! Focusing on the evolution of the all-female 122nd 'Furies of [world yet to be named]' regiment from green, inexperienced unit to a determined veteran force.

[Doomblade187]

Slow plot and writing pace, but I'm working on it! I started a few days late, so while I'm down, I still hold out hope. Maybe when THE PLOT ACTUALLY GETS GOING DANGIT STOP WRITING INTRO ALREADY BUT I LOVE WORLDBUILDING AND ITS SO EASY TO WRITE GAH.

This was a mini-rant. I'm actually fairly happy with my progress. That, and busy embedding dwarf fortress and yu-gi-oh references into my story.

[Sappho]

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

Mine is something like horror. I don't want to give too much away about it because I'm posting it all online every day and spoilers. There's definitely quite a bit more to it than just a ghost story, but that will unfold with time. For once, there is no sci-fi or fantasy in it. Hooray for trying new things!

[Malt_Hitman]

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

Well, I guess I'm trying to do sci-fi but swinging more toward a cleaner cyberpunk.

Sequence break in the writing because I was focused more with how my story should develop and characterization then actually typing it up but I jumped on an idea I had yesterday.  Currently at 9,800-ish words and I should hit closer to 10k before I go to sleep.

Spoiler: Self-depreciating humor, improv theater, and flailing against procrastination/writer's block/TV Tropes (click to show/hide)

“Doctor, do you enjoy theater?”

Oh great.  Out of all of the people that one could encounter in this life Ihd was stuck sitting next to…a closeted thespian.  Ihd didn’t want to respond.  He didn’t want to provide any encouragement but, given his status as the project lead, he had to show a bare minimum of support to those struggling under him.  “If it makes you happy,” he said dryly.

Then Acer stood up and slowly made his way up the front of the room.  Ihd watched him closely.  It was at least more interesting than anything he could think up at the moment. He stopped at the back of the room staring at the back wall.  Suddenly he turned making an exaggerated gesture, putting one hand out into the air and the other to his forehead.  Ihd had only one thought running through his mind at the moment, please no.

Boldly he stated, “My writer has abandoned me!”  The entire room went silent and turned to look at the sudden outburst.  Acer stood like a statue before the room until all eyes were on him.  “My writer has abandoned me for I have no lines!”  Everyone in the room continued to stare.

“I am but a humble character on this stage and my writer has abandoned me!  I have no lines to speak so I must write my own!  Alas, how can this be!  I was the favored character!  What cruel twist of fate could have fallen my beloved writer that they would have abandoned me in such a manner?”

A response erupted from the back of the room.  “Maybe your writer ran out of booze!”

Quickly seizing on the remark Acer grabbed an empty glass from a nearby table and held it up, upside down.  “Alas, my alcohol has been depleted!  Such a tragedy!  Such a travesty!  How can this be?!”  A few chuckles and snickers could be heard throughout the room.  “Nay!  I shall not stand for such a thing!”  Acer looked around comically.  “Wait, why am I standing then?”  Again, more laughter.  “Will I take this lying down?  Apparently not!”  He looked over to the nearest chair.  “But I don’t really feel like sitting.  Oh, if only my writer had not abandoned me!  I would know what to do!”

“Get more booze!”  The same voice from before echoed.

“Yes!  Wait, no!  If I have no writer to write then where shall I get it from?  Does anyone have any alcohol for me?  Anyone at all?”  Acer looked around comically to his left and right.  “I am alone!   Nay, this cannot be!  I am alone on this stage of alcohol-less tragedy!  Is there not a soul for me to share the stage with?  Am I doomed to be up here, alone, for all eternity?  Locked in an eternal soliloquy only to be mocked and jeered by the crowd?”  His arms stretched out in a manner as if they should encompass the room.

Suddenly snapping back, Acer placed his hand to his chin and made an exaggerated pose of deep thought.  ”Wait, no, I don’t think that’s right.  I need someone else on stage to not talk to in order to have a soliloquy.  Alas!”  He threw both hands into the air.  “I would know these things had my writer not abandoned me!  Please, dear friends, join me on this stage and help me find my writer!  I must search high and low!”  Acer placed one hand on his hip and the other to his forehead in a saluting motion as people cracked up throughout the mess hall.  He jumped around to face the back wall.  “I see nothing yet!”  Jumping around to the front again.  “And here I see…”  He went stiff and all of the laughter and merriment seemed to drain from his face in an instant.

Ihd slowly turned to see what had caught the Junior Engineer’s attention, as did most others in the room, and were stunned to see Haru standing in the doorway with the limp body of a security officer being held up by her hair.  Everyone froze.  This was bad.  Very bad.

[Sirus]

Sci-fi. AI and such. Some romance, assuming I ever get that far.

[Arx]

What do you know, also science fiction. Mostly about a guy becoming increasingly disillusioned with the total inhumanity of his environment.

[Darkmere]

Well after a grueling session, wading through a completely bogged down scene, and a huge pile o' dialog I finally managed to drag my word count up to a near-respectable total. 8500, and with the next scenes up I'll definitely get a head start for the day after tomorrow. As soon as I pass out. But 10k words and the book's first action scene, ahoy!

When I get my lead back I'll come back to everyone's excerpts and post another one of mine.

I will say I think there's a lot more participants and motivation than last year, so that's pretty awesome.

[TD1]

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.

Ah, yes, mine would be the same. I find it hard to avoid such things as are already over cliched. I try to think of a race, for example, and only Tolkien ones spring to mind. Well, not only those-I do have some imagination- but they clutter the mind and make original thinking hard.

[Sappho]

To quote the interview with Neil Gaiman, the video clip of which I posted a few days ago:

"If you want to be the next Tolkien, don't read big Tolkienesque fantasy. Tolkien didn't read big Tolkienesque fantasy, he read books on Finnish philology!"

In other words, if you want to be original, you have to draw your inspiration from somewhere outside the genre you're writing in. Otherwise you're basically doomed to write more of the same, and I have to say, I do get a little tired of all the Tolkien clones out there. I definitely support people who want to do something new. : )

Today has been the longest, hardest day I've had in a good long while. I'm just sitting down to write now, at 7 pm, and my head is full of bumble bees. I know I'm quite a ways ahead already, and I don't really need to write too much today to stay on target, but I like being ahead. It would be nice to not use up that lead so early in the month, especially knowing that on Saturday, I probably won't get to write at all. (Up at 4:30, traveling to another city, all-day boring pointless teaching convention where my boss will be breathing down my neck pushing me to try to get new subscribers, long trip home in the evening...)

So here I go, wondering how I'm going to work the word "chouse" into this segment, or whether it would be better to just abandon the word of the day thing for today, since I have other ideas already...

[TD1]

To chouse me, fate threw in my path....[something]

[Caz]

That, and busy embedding dwarf fortress and yu-gi-oh references into my story.

I actually used the phrase "It was inevitable." by one of the characters in my novel. Too meta? Nope.

[Arx]

To chouse me, fate threw in my path....[something]

'Chouse' becomes 'chice' in my head, because of plurals and mice even though it's a verb. 'Chice' is Cape coloured slang for 'hit on'.

To hit on me, fate threw in my path...

[Sappho]

It's not that I couldn't find a use for the word, it's that my first-person narrator is a child. A child who writes with long, but grammatically simple, sentences and thinks in an extremely literal way. A flowery word like that would just... never enter her vocabulary.

And it means "trick," basically. To chouse someone into doing something means to trick them into doing it. It's a word that's been out of use for over 100 years. It's an interesting word for a dictionary word of the day, but not particularly useful for a story about a child in a modern setting. So I think I'll just try to incorporate the meaning of the word, rather than the word itself, like I did with malapropism. Just have someone tricking someone into something.

Or I can just ignore it and write what I want. : )

EDIT: Or I can give up, go to bed, and write double tomorrow, since I'm working from home. I am soooooooo tired I could fall asleep right. now.

[Fniff]

Because I've been feeling kind of depressed recently and missed a day and today sort of, I am either going to need to write quadruple tomorrow when I might be able or write double today when I'm feeling like shit.
This isn't going to be fun either way.

[Sappho]

Took a few hours, but managed a little over 1300 words in the end. My lead is slipping slightly, but I'm still doing well. Hopefully tomorrow I can do much better, in case I don't manage to write on Saturday.