Young Writers Society

I'm doing all of this planning for NaNo, and I'm already getting slightly sick of my novel. And I haven't even started!!

I decided that that "Build a world in 30 days" thing is way too in-depth. It's more like someone who wants to write just like Tolkien in the milieu style. I don't like the milieu style. It's writing out the world first, and making characters to explore this in-depth world. I don't like Tolkien. If you notice, even in the movies, the characters are remarkably FLAT. Very two-dimensional.

What'm I gonna do? I'm already getting fed up with all of this junk that I have. I didn't really plan on using the whole world, and now I think that I should just go down to one country. Maybe compact some of the landforms a little more instead of having them spread out all over creation. Literally!

I need some help. I don't want to completely stop planning, but I've gotten to where I don't really even want to look at my notebook anymore.

You have to plan enough so that you know the basics, but not too much so that once you get to the outlined scene all your vigor is gone.

It's a tough line! I've either had no interest in my plot, or have been too impatient to write. I think once you get into it you'll be so excited you can't stop!!!

Maybe take a break from plotting, but still think about your story? What exactly are you bored with?

I too feel I've been doing a bit too much planning. I defintely am not as excited as I originally was when I signed up for NaNo at the beginning of the month, but you know. That could just be that white-hot fear kicking in.

This is what I do:

I don't plan.

...until a couple of days before Nanowrimo.

I let myself do little things, like think up character names (sometimes; not always), think up titles and basic plotlines, but all the elaborate stuff? I plan for that on the last few days of October. Or during November.

A lot of times, I end up writing up ALL of my planning notes on Halloween. They still don't solve all my plotholes, but I figure out the more elaborate plot things as November proceeds.

For me, this keeps the story fresh and interesting.

I'd suggest doing one of the following things:

- Scrap the story you have right now. Or rather, keep it for writing after November. Write something totally different and totally new for Nanowrimo.

or

- Leave the notebook alone. Leave the planning alone. Then, try to distract yourself as much as possible between now and Nanowrimo. Not a lot of time, I know, so you've got lots of distracting to catch up on. Watch movies, television shows; read books, plays, short stories; go on the Nanowrimo threads; and above all, write lots. Don't think about that story.

Then open your notebook on November 1st.

At the very least, limit your planning majorly. For now.

smaur wrote:- Leave the notebook alone. Leave the planning alone. Then, try to distract yourself as much as possible between now and Nanowrimo. Not a lot of time, I know, so you've got lots of distracting to catch up on. Watch movies, television shows; read books, plays, short stories; go on the Nanowrimo threads; and above all, write lots. Don't think about that story.

^ That's what I'm doing. I planned too much, so now I'm not touching my outlines or anything. AT ALL. O.o

When I first started planning, it was so exciting! And now...not so much. I should have waited until this coming week to do all that. But there's something to remember for next year!

I'm being good with being distracted.

*has been on the forum and needs to eat lunch* I don't think I'll get bored of my plot...Or, I hope I won't! The beginning will be hard whether I'm bored or not, How do you start? I've always hated beginnings.

Claudette wrote:How do you start? I've always hated beginnings.

I need a good beginning to be motivated to keep going. At least, a beginning that makes me interested. Granted, this sometimes takes a bit of planning and mulling on Nov. 1st, but it's worth it.

But remember that it doesn't matter that much. It can be a crappy beginning, if you can't really think of anything else — that's what we have Nanoedmo for! Just keep going.

yeah... I'm using this to teach myself to never (NEVER!) go back and edit. I need to learn how to write a first draft....

Smaur's right: if you don't have a good beginning, it could end up bothering you. In my novel (my non-NaNo one) I totally rewrote the beginning because I hated it so much. It took me the entire summer. Not good.

In this book I've got, Crafting Scenes, by Raymond Obsfeld, it says:
"You could start with, 'I was born in a small town in Pennsylvania, in a red brick hospital on a snowy January...' Of course, by the time you finish this sentence, there's a good chance you'll be sitting by yourself. Unless you're a witness being interrogated by a cop, it's not always a good idea to begin at the beginning. Sometimes it's better to begin in the middle. Naturally, there's a Latin term for it so we college teachers can sound smarter: in media res (beginning in the middle). All that means is first grab my interest and make me care before you give me all the intricate details."

Great advice, smaur. I'll totally use it!

Watch movies, television shows; read books, plays, short stories; go on the Nanowrimo threads; and above all, write lots. Don't think about that story.

Apparently not do any homework though... you'll kill yourself, smaurums. XD

Yeah. Don't worry about it. Nanowrimo ISN'T about creating the best damn book in all existence. By the time you're done, you'll be lucky to have it coherent. Don't create high standards for yourself though -- it's really not worth it.

I just went on and on about my world. Too much went into it and I'm really dissatisfied. I do have a plot, though.

Ancient god creates ancient race (AR for short) and elves. AR are quite peaceful. Elves are reclusive, but not like Tolkien elves.

New gods come along and make their own races. Their races multiply faster. The ancient god starts to lose power because more people on the planet he'd created believed in the new gods. In my world, gods are powered by belief.

Well, new races start to kill the AR. The elves are left alone because this AR is seen as a threat. They were the original race of the ancient god. They had strange and mystical powers. They were magic amplifiers (sun through a magnifying glass). They were caught and used until they died. They store a bit of magic in them each time this is used, and it drains their own energy, so their life span is usually shorter.

The ancient god fades into the soil and a mountain range forms over him. He is so very weak. The new gods create a giant chasm when their races gathered enough of the AR, plummetting the AR into the earth. The rest of them in the world are extinguished.

Generations pass and people start to rediscover the old ways. Think the neo-pagan movement. The ancient god starts to regain a little power, so the AR starts to become reborn randomly. Elves, humans, ogres.. anyone can be one of these AR. It's more like a genetic deformality in modern terms, but they are reincarnations.

The main villain's society kills these AR people as they're born. Well, his sister ends up being born one of them, so he tries to take her away. He's caught, she's killed, and he's ostracized. Everyone makes like he's dead and ignores him totally and completely.

He goes off on a quest to find and kill all of the AR he sees, to get back into good favor with his society. Eventually, it twists into him blaming the AR for what happened. He ends up killing innocents to kill the AR. He hates them for what happened, and becomes truly evil.

The main good guys are triplets! One of them, the boy and the oldest, happen to be one of these AR people. Something happens and he's sent out of his town. Along the way he hears of this man, and a myth that maybe the ancient god can be revived and save his children! So he sets off to find a way to do this.

His sisters go off to find him. There we go!

smaur >> great advice. I'm gonna take a few days break from my plot/research right now 'cos it's irritating me. Tuesday will be the day for planning and getting a beginning sorted. Right now I'm going to play video games and waste time!

I've just been drawing character designs and coming up with better ones than I'd had before.

That, and I've stopped sharing my plot with anti-fantasy-genre people.

I was almost about to say you planned WAY too much for NaNo... and then I looked at my own plot, which is at least twice as long as yours.

*head/desk*

Just relax. Don't worry about it. NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality. You may end up writing about random plot ninjas in the middle of your story, and that's okay. As long as you get to 50,000 words.

That's why I'm not banning anyone or anything from my story. Actually, I've found that incorporating some of the dares really helps me stay not-so-serious about the story. I mean, I have a rabid sailor who was press-ganged into the navy. I have a character who waits until asked five questions before answering them, in chronological order. I'm going to have two characters argue about which wine is better throughout the whole novel. And yes... I am going to have an entire scene dedicated to the picking of flowers. And I will somehow make it relevant to the plot. Maybe.

Just have fun with it. Throw something crazy into the middle, but not until after NaNo starts. Then you won't have time to plan your reaction, and it'll give you a completely new twist to work with.

Good luck!