NanoWriMo 2009

[Douglas Rhodes]

Today was a damn fine day for writing. I managed 5000 more words, bringing me to the half way point.

At the same time my MC hit a milestone in his life. He's at the highest point ever, which means it's time to start tearing it all away from him. From here on out the horror starts.

[jaxx6166]

Doug, we're going to play on the seesaw today. Real life caught up with me. Probably going to slow me down significantly. My word count stands as is. I hope to get at least 2k by the end of the night though. I'm just now starting and allowing myself 2 hours after fooling around all day. I hit a conundrum last night though.

It seems the antagonist as a character is almost non-existant. He made a brief cameo in Chapter 2 as the leader of a village. The bad guy then essentially knighted him and sent him on a quest with cursed armor.

The cursed armor made him go crazy and attack a bunch of civilians who were linked to the City. So then he got captured by their police force.

And then he was brought before the Queen to hear his fate. While he was talking to the queen, fishmen attacked her. She was stabbed, but recovered. Then the Queen thinks the good guy is a good guy, so they sit for tea. And an old man (who may be the main bad guy) slips something in her drink, which poisons her.

Now the hero is out trying to find the magic mushroom (lol) to save her. On his quest to save her he got attacked by magic mushrooms (the hallucination kind)

And then bitten by a zombie.

Anyone else confused yet?

[Douglas Rhodes]

Only thing I can tell you is that obvious antagonists usually suck. If yours is lurking, remaining hidden even from you, imagine how surprised your reader will be when he finally shows his face.

[jaxx6166]

I just kind of feel like right now its almost like when the big reveal comes in a few people will be like "Who the eff is that?" And have to reread back to find the name or something again.

I hate that. I dont even know if the big reveal will be all that important or awesome. Then again.. .. .. I need to re-read my summary and see how big a role he plays. I'm pretty sure he just comes on screen again to be all mwahahaha and then turns it over to the other guy, a pissed off sentient bullshark. I'm wondering if I even need an antagonist in this right now. The hero kind of just gets tugged along and runs into the warped nature, which provides plenty of conflict... Maybe.

Looking over the outline, it looks like things have started to get off track. I need to fix this. But it has to be fixed without deleting words. This will be fun.

I may just bend my outline to go along with what is happening to the hero, who is now on track to become a zombie. Maybe the bad guy happens to have an antidote. Which would mean that he'd have to find the antidote to save the Queen a chapter early. Then he'd have to find another one for himself. Blegh.

[montsnmags]

I just reached 18455, still keeping my head above the rising wave of the daily tally, as at 1.45pm on the 11th day (which is good - normally I'm finishing up late, but this is early...I may even write more today, after a rest... though probably not. ).

Umm, the 'wave' bit is because that's what I've been writing. An unexpected protagonist - a bit player in an earlier chapter; an obese, pale, defeated woman, mate to a potential antagonist; a woman meant merely to hold a small, country town in place and otherwise simply fall behind into obscurity behind travels north - just found herself waking into a dream where she swam in the sun and the clear, clean waves of a beautiful beachside resort town, and met both casual friendliness and simple, unconscious acceptance in the face of her chronic insecurity and poor self-image, despite the white bikini she found herself in, and also a rather knowing and interractive dugong at the silent crest of an unexpected eighth wave.

I don't know what brought this bit-player here. I had no idea it'd go there when I started writing it. But, in this longest chapter I've written by far, she suddenly achieved a significance that may tie in with another even more important member of megafauna later on... perhaps even primary place, at least in terms of gravitational pull.

Cheers,
Marc ("seat of the pants")

[pshrynk]

I got to 31918 today. Had a harsh day at work and had to do such mundane stuff as grocery shopping. Farking real life.

Vivaldi just got captured by the ghost army and the mafioso are back after being abandoned on the island of Cancun.

And the Autopilot had a long talk with Constance and decided to give life a try. For a while.

[tekchic]

Great to see lots of NaNo'ers this year Last year was my first year. I finished with a little over 50K a few days early. But the plot and story arc was terrible!

This year I did plenty of character sketches and outlines before the starting bell. I'm at 19.5K as of last night. Slow and steady.

If anyone wants to buddy up: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/410845

Happy Noveling!

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by tekchic

Great to see lots of NaNo'ers this year Last year was my first year. I finished with a little over 50K a few days early. But the plot and story arc was terrible!

Wow, you must have pre-plagiarised my attempt this year.

This year I did plenty of character sketches and outlines before the starting bell. I'm at 19.5K as of last night. Slow and steady.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll be doing that next time.

If anyone wants to buddy up: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/410845

...and done.

Cheers,
Marc

[Filark]

I added you, too, Tekchic.

Grats on finishing last year!

[Douglas Rhodes]

I added you this morning. It's nice to have a vet chugging along with all of us.

This is my second NaNo; I tanked the first one hardcore.

Today was one of my hardest writing days so far. After yesterday's 5000 words, I just didn't want to write. My goal was 2000 today, and I made it finally, but it took me all day to get to writing.

[jaxx6166]

Originally Posted by Douglas Rhodes

It's nice to have a vet chugging along with all of us.

My first Nano was a big crapfest. I think I logged about 800 words before finally giving up. My friend is going through the same problem right now. Seems she already gave up, but she hasn't even begun.
My second Nano went a little better. I hit the 50k but didn't actually write the ending. I think it stands at around 109k right now with no end in sight (or desire to make one)

Originally Posted by Douglas Rhodes

Today was one of my hardest writing days so far. After yesterday's 5000 words, I just didn't want to write. My goal was 2000 today, and I made it finally, but it took me all day to get to writing.

Dude. I feel for you. I churned out those 6500 and worked until 3am my last serious writing session. I just haven't had the spark since. I'm pretty much exhausted from two days ago with that.

I did just crap out 300 words and found out something interesting about my second supporting character. Sarge knows him from his past.I hadn't envisioned it this way originally, but it just makes more sense and kind of links back to Chapter 1 a little bit. I think it only makes sense that the other guy trapped down below is the guy he was going to rescue in the first place. I think the role of eccentric inventor who created half this tech is now going to shift over to my airship pirate, who will be met in act 2. I have bigger plans for her. This guy's toast come Act 3.

That and the end of the chapter reads much better this way.

The old Chapter 7 ending didn't introduce the character, like it was supposed to. Instead it ended in a cheesy cliffhanger where the hero passes out from his wounds (suffered at the hands of zombie guy) after having flashbacks of his life.

"Everything blinked out of focus as the world went black."

Now it stands thusly:

“You know what I called you. You know who you are.” The man inched closer, candlelight danced across his face. “We’ve got big problems.”

Sarge blinked through blurry eyes, staring at his savior. He saw him, recognized him. “Damn right we do. You’re supposed to be dead.”

[Douglas Rhodes]

This whole thing is a marathon, I started out bursting with speed and now I'm desperately wanting to take a day off, but I daren't.

[jaxx6166]

Smart move. I've taken way too many off, ugh.
I'm just at 23k now.

[tekchic]

That's the one thing that keeps me plugging away at 1800-2000 every day. The fear that if I miss a day, then I have to write twice as much.

Hang in there!

[wyldkit]

I haven't yet let myself write less than 2K in a day, although I've been sorely tempted a few times. I don't let myself have a glass of wine in a night until I've written at least 1,667, which is a pretty good motivator. (Perhaps it's not good that I'm motivated by alcohol...)

I'm pretty close to 40K now, should be there in a few hours, and I think I have maybe another 5K in my outlined plot, and that would be with some serious stretching.

Some serious alternate ending planning is going to have to happen soon.