Topic ID: 11721
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Duskglimmer
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 Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:59 pm Post subject: What we learned... |
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NaNoWriMo is over as of yesterday and I'm curious... what did y'all learn while trying to hammer out 50,000 words?
I learned:
1 - The first thousand are the hardest of the day
2 - The 20Ks were the pits and the 30Ks were loverly.
3 - Writing is infinately easier when you're alone in the house.
4 - Knowing that your brother is going to ask you what your wordcount is the moment that he walks in the door is a wonderful incentive.
5 - I only work for about an hour at a time and then my mind needs a ten minute break.
6 - Starting to write at 8 o'clock at night is a very baaaaaaaaad idea for me.
7 - Writing with your brother mussing up your hair and you're little sister reading over your shoulder is also a very baaaaaaaaaad idea.
8 - cookies are yummy, but highly distracting. |
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Sam
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 5:36 am Post subject: |
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- Make friends with one of the 125k'ers. They make you feel horrible and hopeless and pathetic...and then you write five thousand words to make up for it.
- Plan out your first thousand words to get you through to where it begins to flow.
- Word wars= love.
- Have another story to obsess about whilst you write- you tend to go faster if you don't care about your story at all (but sometimes get terribly caught up in it...). |
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Snoink
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 6:02 am Post subject: |
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That encouraging people can be fun!  |
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Jennafina
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 6:44 am Post subject: |
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| Snoink wrote: |
| That encouraging people can be fun! |
I wonder if you wrote 50,000 words of encouragement. |
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Suzanne
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| Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 7:07 am Post subject: |
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-I care about this novel like it was my baby. Even though I hate it and want to kill it/edit it! I'm attached to it, because its so long.
-I can write 1,000 words in 15 minutes if I try hard enough. So I can write 5k in an hour and 15 minutes.
-I write better (better=I get it out. NOT =it actually is good writing) if Its forced.
-I should be band from the chat if I haven't written enough/satisfied my need to write even though I hate the scene I'm n.
-back up your files like crazy
-Nanoism accidents are fun.
-Grammar/spelling check takes a lot longer when you haven't done it at all... |
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luna_the_shiekah
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| Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:32 am Post subject: |
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- I actually CAN write that much in a month.
-I can write 7K in one day.
-Writing under pressure actually forces me to finish a real novel.
-I'm sad that it's over.
-I CAN write a novel.
Yup that's what I learned. Also that I skipping plots holes and skipping time isn't a bad thing to do to stave off a frustrating part for later editing. |
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Cassandra
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| Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:54 am Post subject: |
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--First person is yummy. It gives you the opportunity to ramble.
--Writing buddies are a huge incentive to keep writing. Yay for competition!
--If you try hard enough, you CAN make time to write every day (though I haven't continued to do this since I won... )
--It's good to get friends from the real world to bug you about it. I had this one friend who asked me every day what my word count was, and I felt bad when it hadn't gone up much.
--I'm doing this again next year!! |
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Firestarter
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| Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:59 am Post subject: |
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-- That I can write if I force myself to.
-- Late-nights/Eearly-mornings are the best time to smash out two-thousand words in an hour, or something.
-- A reward system (After 1k, I will watch an episode of Stargate) makes me want to get the writing done. |
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-KayJuran-
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| Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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-- Like Dusky said, it feels a lot easier to carry on after you've already written a thousand words.
-- Telling EVERYONE is a good move, and really helps my word count, 'cause I hate the thought of telling them I've done nothing.
-- Third week is when it really gets fun, 'cause I've got into a routine, but I'm past the 'second week slump'.
-- Once I start to see the finish line, I can write 4k or more in a day, just 'cause I'm so desperate to finish. [That was my last day.]
-- I work best when doing small chunks spread through the day. E.g. 200 words after breakfast, 500 before lunch, and generally a lot more after dark.
-- Rewards are good, but only if they're ones that you can resist if you haven't done the work that you wanted to do first. So for me, liquorice > chocolate. |
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Poor Imp
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| Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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- Writing some thousand words or more is easy in an hour
- Hours are hard to come by, quiet or not, at a computer
- Plot anamolies don't matter in NaNo and make for longer, odder scenes
- Fencing is diametrically oppositional to half-crazy NaNo writing--can't be done in the near vicinity of each other
- Inner editors are vaguely apprehensive of certain sword-wielding characters courtesy of Crysi
- A character's thoughts can easily give a good thousand words
- Write at least one indecisive character, as they double all word counts involved with them
...With all of that, I still didn't finish. !_! I believe I dropped off after about 12,000, and never got back to adding more than a couple hundred. |
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Elelel
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| Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:45 am Post subject: |
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- don't give in to the depression attack at 35k
- you don't need an outline to write a lot of words
- never hold off a good plot development for later in the story. You need ideas for now. Holding off ideas makes you start holding every idea and it just doesn't work.
- writer's block is optional.
- if you get stuck, change the circumstances so you're not stuck anymore.
- sleep is good. |
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yoha_ahoy
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| Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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-- Don't procrastinate to the point where you have to write half your novel in week four.
-- After 35k everything goesreallyreallyfast!! and it's fun. ^_^
-- I love putting interesting plot twists in the last 5k of my novel, unplanned from before.
-- M&M's hit a really nice soft point about sitting on the top inch of my laptop keyboard for about fifteen minutes.
-- M&M's also sweat and leave a greasy sticky substance on my lappy.
-- Unfortunately, late at night, after everyone is asleep are my peak hours of writing hence...
-- Mornings and school sucks.
-- Always have a crazy character who can ramble on about nothing in particular when ever your plot line is failing or you've hit another rough patch of writer's block in week two.
-- And last... I LOVE NANO!!! However insane it makes me. |
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Suzanne
Ya bet yer boots?
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| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 4:56 am Post subject: |
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I learned that:
I did not write a novel over November, oh no. I wrote a plot hole!
The whole thing is a plot hole... |
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