Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[fqllve]

Yeah, it has a lot of notes on the characters' internal reactions, whether or not is was raining, and so on.  There's even a description of someone's shirt cuff in there.  Dialogue.  It's a very fleshed-out skeleton of everything that happens, so that the direction and motivation of each scene are completely clear.

That's not bad then. If it was just scene by scene I was thinking "you're going for way more than 50k huh?"

My notes can get similarly unwieldy. I like to get down to the mechanics of the story. Why is it important this happened, what are the thematic implications, how does this relate to other events.

Then half of it gets cut.

[Euld]

I did this once.

Ended with a 50k word unreadable oh-god-what "novel" in which the descriptions of, well, everything were bloated as hell, a complete lack of pride, and an awful mindraping headache.

Although it's probably too late to suggest anything... I'd say you did a fine job.  Writing out a novella in a month will only get you a rough draft, you will have to put time into editing later.  If immediately editing is too painful, put said novel aside for a while (I personally say a month at the most, I've heard six months by others, but good grief I can't wait that long) and review it later after your emotional attachments have worn off.  The goal is to activate that part of the brain that says "this sucks! it would be a lot better if this was this and that was that," which is when you realize the first draft has a lot of potential.

[Willfor]

The writer's natural tendency is to eat their (written) child moments after its birth is complete. Unfortunately, that child must be raised (editted) and not eaten. The solution is what Euld suggested.

[fqllve]

Man this is fun as hell. I didn't think I could really do the novel I've been working on justice without more research, so I decided to go with a fanfiction* at the last minute. I haven't had this much fun writing since I was a kid. Which isn't to say that I don't enjoy it normally, but I'm never really able to turn my brain off and just go with it when I work on my own stuff. I don't even care that I'll only be at 45k by the end of the month at this rate. I'm enjoying myself too much.


*read: fan adaptation**
**read: blatant plagiarism

[Eugenitor]

No, Euld, you don't understand.

What I wrote was so horribly ill-conceived that it was unsalvageable, as a first draft or any draft. It wasn't even legendarily bad, or so bad it's good, or even so bad it's kinda funny. No. It was just bad, the kind of bad you get from people with assignments who don't want to do them anymore. Unless I find myself writing for someone I hate, I'm not ever writing like that again.

[fqllve]

I for one salute you. Admitting to yourself that something you've worked so hard to write is complete garbage takes a lot of courage. It's way easier to just say "It just needs a good edit." No, no it doesn't. It needs a good burning.

That's the paradox of Nanowrimo though. Writing is practice and the more you practice the better you get. But fiction in the long is so much harder to write than a short story that you're pretty much guaranteed to write something awful. So a lot of people are going to end up with trash, be disappointed in themselves, and never bother with the editing process. It's like trying to write a symphony because you can play a mean trombone, then burning the score without ever bothering to see if there's any part of it at all that you like. A lot of people aren't going to get anything out of Nano other than a 50k unfinished novel that they hate.

I have high expectations. I'm hoping to end up with a 40k finished novella that I'm embarrassed by.

[Vector]

I have 25,000 words of outline that I wrote over the past couple days.  Fuck me.

[Solifuge]

I believe NaNoWriMo has taken off down the road, and I'm way behind where I need to be to finish.

Time to Reappropriate some of that creative energy.

[fqllve]

I have 25,000 words of outline that I wrote over the past couple days.  Fuck me.

Lmao. Wow, I'm just edging over 10k in my story. Are finished with it yet?

[Vector]

I have 25,000 words of outline that I wrote over the past couple days.  Fuck me.

Lmao. Wow, I'm just edging over 10k in my story. Are finished with it yet?

Nope.  Getting close, though... I think I only have 10 more chapters to outline...

;_^;

[fqllve]

Nope.  Getting close, though... I think I only have 10 more chapters to outline...

;_^;

Haha, sounds like you've fallen into the outline trap. You could just keep writing that until you get to 50k and be like "yes, it totally counts. ...bitches." But that's not very satisfying. Or you could just start writing now. 25k of outline should be more than enough to get you to 50k of story and once you get there you might find that you don't really need such an in-depth outline for the rest.

Then again, I doubt you'll have trouble hitting 100k by the end of the month if you're writing like that. Especially working from outline.

[Talanic]

Keep it up, guys!  I fell out pretty quick; my fragment there was all I wound up doing for NaNoWriMo, as I decided that I'm going to try to work on other projects.

[Vector]

Haha, sounds like you've fallen into the outline trap. You could just keep writing that until you get to 50k and be like "yes, it totally counts. ...bitches." But that's not very satisfying. Or you could just start writing now. 25k of outline should be more than enough to get you to 50k of story and once you get there you might find that you don't really need such an in-depth outline for the rest.

I've already written 5k of the rest of it.

It's not "the outline trap" because it's an assignment for a novel-writing course in college, so... I do actually have to finish, and he said "detailed outline."

[Willfor]

All you need to do is write an extra word for every word of outline you've already written. :awesome:

[Vector]

I... I'd probably be done if I were writing in complete sentences all the time >_>